Remotes

[tvid]

@BKM88 wrote:

"...I bought 2 additional remotes that I keep in the cabinet because family members have a habit of losing them around the house so I keep spares until the lost one shows up again. For this test I took out all 3 remotes and the all perform the same, so it is not the remote."

Can confirm that it is "not the remote." Also have an extra remote and behavior is exactly the same, whichever device is used.

- - -

This was quite a useful test, thanks - to purchase a Roku television and test it from the ground up. The most definitive data point yet that particular software update(s) correlate directly with OTA tuning problems.

Yes, I would imagine that Roku TVs are still popular - and that our reporting problems might conceivably influence the company to address the problem.

I do notice quite a few Roku TCL TVs are still available on Amazon (where sales thumbnails still feature "Antenna" icon as an input on the Home screen!).  But notably, there are also quite a few Android/Google TCL TVs, which didn't exist when we purchased ours.

So who knows about the future of dedicated Roku TVs (?), but for now, we need the full functionality of OTA tuning restored, on the TVs we currently own.

Collectively, we have more or less proven that the problem with OTA tuning is with particular Roku OS updates.  The ball is in Roku's court.

[nitsujd2018]

I have had the same experience with my 55" tcl. I gave up and use the off air HD tuner on my Magnavox DVR. The menu system on my DVR only tells you what you're watching, but oh well it works.

[Kwhalen · Accepted solution]

I think I solved the issue with the over-the-air channel changing!

I unplugged the USB drive from the back of the TV that is used to store the recorded pause and rewind info,  and the TV started working as normal. Except I can't pause or record anything. I am not sure why, but I have gone through at least 3 USB drives that become unreadable after a while.  Something in the TV, or OS, corrupts them beyond repair and they can no longer be formatted. I have not tried to plug a different USB back in, since the pause, and rewind feature is very limited anyway.

[Kilonen]

Kwhalen:

Your tip fixed mine too!  Removed USB drive.  Started TV.  Did a system restart for good measure.  Antenna TV works properly: TV responds to remote buttons and the full guide is back! 

i never use the pause and rewind feature  on Antenna TV anyway so I don’t care about no USB drive.

Thanks for figuring it out and thanks for posting your fix! 

[nitsujd2018]

KWHALEN ! 

Unplugging the usb thumb drive worked! The off air menu and channel up and down buttons work again!

Than You!

nitsujd2018

[Scoutman57]

Unplugging the USB fixed the issue. I have not tried reforming the usb but it might be out of space and not deleting as it should.

[tmurphe1]

Unplugging the USB also fixed the issue for me. It also fixed the wacky signal strength meter issue. Hopefully Roku has seen the problem and apparent workaround posted here which should be very helpful in tracking an obvious software issue.

[Kilonen]

Interesting.  My signal strength meter stills seems a bit wacky after removing the USB - but it does seem better now that you mention it.

[Captain_Karnage]

Just to add another data point. I'm getting the same, or at least a closely related issue. I have never used a usb stick for DVR functionality with OTA channels, but I have many times struggled to change OTA channels on my HiSense ROKU TV.

My symptoms do appear a little different, though, too  By the comments, it appears most here experience a completely unresponsive remote. For me, it responds and changes the channel breifely, but then changes back. Sometimes, even after changing the channel 10 tomes or more, it still goes back to the first channel I was on Sometimes, it might end up one or two channels up from the first, but then it gets stuck on that new channel. If I hit down instead of up, then it goes to the last streaming channel and as long as I stay on streaming it works fine. It's only an issue when on the OTA channels. But that means I have to start on the highest number channel and work down from there... which is A LOT of channels.

It's very frustrating. Today, after finding this forum I went back to my TV and tried and... well, it actually worked today (which is unusual). One thing I did do was set up favorites, which I hadn't done before. I doubt that's why, but maybe. So I will post again when I have the problem again and see if any of these suggestions work when I'm actively experiencing the issue.

[Kilonen]

Capt K:  good luck.  Update from my end: Hisense Roku TV & remote been working fine since removing the USB stick.  Your issue symptoms are a bit different.