Roku Developer Program

[jamesonf]

We have been having a lot of issues with our channel (CHIVE TV) crashing on many different devices at many different locations. We believe the issues have started on 07/21, and we also believe that the crashes have something to do with the firmware update that was released 06/20. We checked the BrightScript Crash Logs and haven’t found any recent crashes.

We tested the channel using a Roku 3600x, Roku 2, and a Roku 3.  Throughout our tests the video player plays through the content just fine, then randomly we get a garbled up screen with lots of colors (see attached pictures). After some time the screen will go black and remote control input buttons do not respond. Eventually the Roku screensaver will kick in, but we must restart the Roku for it to operate normally. All of the crashed devices are on the newest 7.7.0 firmware build 4116. From our experience, the video crash occurs at different times and on different video segments. We've attached a few different screenshots here.

When I sideloaded the channel I was able to view the console as it crashed. The video component reported an unknown event, but it was still reporting to our Google Analytics. By “unknown” event - it was not a documented event within here: https://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/sdkdoc/roVideoPlayerEvent[/url:7p9gvcmk]

It’s important to note that...

[Tyler_Smith]

I have not seen this issue in our apps using the Scene Graph Video component.
We test on the Roku 2, 3, and premiere models.

[RokuKC]

"jamesonf" wrote:

...
All of the crashed devices are on the newest 7.7.0 firmware build 4116. From our experience, the video crash occurs at different times and on different video segments. We've attached a few different screenshots here
...

Are you still reproducing this issue?

If so, can you provide the model number and/or serial number of some device(s) that are showing the problem?
If you can also (or instead) provide a media stream URL that you think reproduces the issue, that would be most helpful.

[Bacon]

Issue is happening with Giantbomb's beta RSG app too.

https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/bug-re ... ge-8655810

[jamesonf]

We are still crashing our devices.  We got in contact with Roku Partner Success and they said they have had multiple reports with the same issue.  From what it sounded like, it was crashing devices that had a serial number beginning with "5S" or "5F."  They said there was a new update out, so I'm upgrading our devices from 4116 to 4119 in hopes that this will fix it.

[NB_]

"jamesonf" wrote:
We are still crashing our devices.  We got in contact with Roku Partner Success and they said they have had multiple reports with the same issue.  From what it sounded like, it was crashing devices that had a serial number beginning with "5S" or "5F."  They said there was a new update out, so I'm upgrading our devices from 4116 to 4119 in hopes that this will fix it.

Let me dispel some confusion - the source of "5S" or "5F" prefixes was the list of device S/N that you (Chive) provided - then you were asked if there are other kinds. It's not clear yet if there are multiple reports - yours is the only solid lead, another one may be unrelated. I don't think anybody on our side has been able to reproduce the issue, so exact steps to reproduce will be and helpful?

[jamesonf]

Well drats, I had assumed the serial prefix was a lead for the overall issue and not just related to us.

We can't get this to reproduce 100% of the time. This is what I normally do:

1. Launch CHIVETV 1.1 - Build 7


2. Goto Party Mode


3. Select "CHIVETV" (first and only option)


4. Let video play

We've had some customers report that the video crashes about 7 minutes in.  I, on the other hand, don't crash until 90 - 120 minutes in. Most of the time I crash on different video segments too.  We have re-uploaded the videos to our video platform to make sure it wasn't some random video error.

Here are a few things we know:

• Most of our devices are running 3500x, 3600x, or 4200x


• Some of the crashed devices have crashed with the Roku directly plugged into HDMI ports as well as plugged into HDMI splitters


• Crashes have occurred with 1080 and 720


• We've re-uploaded videos to ensure codecs via our video platform was not an issue


• We force 720 quality (even if you're in 1080) with H.264 at 2500 bitrate

A few days ago I enabled some debug output and sideloaded the channel. The results were interesting:

03:41:29 : video position:  358 /  436
03:41:30 : video position:  359 /  436
03:41:31 : video position:  360 /  436
03:41:32 : video position:  361 /  436
03:41:33 : video position:  362 /  436
03:41:34 : video position:  363 /  436
03:41:35 : video position:  364 /  436
03:41:36 : video position:  365 /  436
03:41:37 : video position:  366 /  436
03:41:38 : video position:  367 /  436
03:41:39 : video position:  368 /  436
03:41:40 : video position:  369 /  436
[**] 03:41:40 : other unknown event
[***] 03:41:40 : message: 
[***] 03:41:40 : index:  0
03:41:40 : Stream Started
03:41:40 : Status Message - startup progress
03:41:40 : video buffer progress (video):  99.9
03:41:40 : Status Message - startup progress
03:41:40 : video buffer progress (video):  99.9
03:41:42 : Status Message - startup progress
03:41:42 : video buffer progress (video):  100
03:41:42 : Status Message - start of play
03:41:42 : video position:  371 /  436
03:41:46 : video position:  375 /  436
03:41:48 : video position:  376 /  436
03:42:01 : video position:  390 /  436
03:53:51 : sending GA event
04:08:51 : sending GA event
(the GA event continues on for 3+ hours until I woke up to close the app)

I was outputting every second the video player updated the position. Out of no where we hit this "unknown event" (I spoke about this in the first post), then the video rebuffered, then the Roku timestamps started lagging.  We finally hit "sending GA event" - which occurs every 15 minutes.  What it seems like what happen: video was playing fine, something hiccuped, video component crashed, but event loop was able to still run.

And just to clarify, our CHIVETV channel is still currently running on the 2D API, so we're using the old video component.  We have a dev build for RSG, which I left running last night on firmware 7.7.0 build 4116 and there didn't seem to be any crashes.

[jhoya]

I have the exact same problem, same screen output on crash. Crashes after 10-60 minutes on Streaming Stick (s/n 5S*), not Express or Premiere.

Software: New RSG channel, tested successfully on 3600X stick in June and early July

Hardware: Firmware 7.7.0, Build 4116

Fails on model 3600X s/n
5S4671153046
5S4627160751
and more than 10 others

looks like this:

 

[NB_]

"jhoya" wrote:
I have the exact same problem, same screen output on crash. Crashes after 10-60 minutes on Streaming Stick (s/n 5S*), not Express or Premiere.

Email partnerSuccess@roku.com with details on your channel (name, ID), as this might be of help reproducing. Also helpful might be mentioning who is your video host and details on the video encoding.

Ditto @jamesonf re video encoding - if you can provide details or try tweaking it to see if particular settings avoid it.

[NB_]

@jamesonf, @jhoya -
has the issue you experienced disappeared over the last few days or is it still happening in exactly the same way?