Solving playback issues

[LtLeary]

My Family is up in arms.  Seems that for whatever reason, the latest 10.0.0 update 419X-YY has rendered the sound during autoplay for Hulu, Disney+ and Netflix (most watched after hours) breaks when automatically playing the next video in a series.  Video is fine, Audio is non-existent.  I haven't heard of the issue from my family regarding Amazon or Peacock but they tend not to be used for binge or sleep noise.

This occurred after the latest updates over the last few days and seems to have affected every Premier, Soundbar and 3810x we have.  To list a few  (I do have 5 or 6 more but I don't feel like climbing the stairs right now)

9101X version 10.0.0 Build 4196-95

4660x version 10.0.0 Build 4196.46

3819X Version 10.0.0 Build 4195.50

I have tried the cache removal procedure, and even tried removing Hulu and Re-Adding with no affect (I didn't try the others as this was mentioned as a specific Hulu fix.)

I wish I could be of more help but this just started over the last week after the updates occurred and I could really use some help getting to the bottom of this.

Note:  Re-Reading this I forgot to mention that playing via Chromecast or via the apps on my blu-ray player this issue does NOT occur (I tried it on my Android phone (galaxyS9+ android 10 as well successfully.  Seems to be limited only to ROKU devices.

[StreamerUser]

A firmware update has been rolling out in the last day or so:  10.0.0-4198

Check for updates:  Settings/System/System update/Check now

..and see if this resolves your audio issue(s)

[mercymanic]

I'm having the same issue with Hulu on my TCL Roku tv's (2 of them) and a Roku Ultra standalone box.

I don't have a soundbar on any of them. I have the latest update as of this afternoon.

I'm having various issues w/ every app I've installed except for Prime.

So: Hulu, VRV, Crunchyroll, Funimation, Viki, and so on. Many of these have been going on for months and months. 

The Hulu issue is only the latest.

I'm REALLY frustrated at this point and Chromecast is doing a sexy little dance @ me from the corner.

[LtLeary]

The Ultra and Stick were able to be upgraded (Soundbar shows no update yet)  but the Stick exhibited even worse performance.

On the Stick, Video Seems to have priority.  Even starting a new show will allow video first and then no video.  You have to back out and go back in to get the show to have audio.  Subsequent (Auto Play) will still show video but no audio.

The Ultra on the other hand showed some progress but I haven't had the opportunity to fully vet it.

[LtLeary]

I wish I new what was going on months ago but for me (and we use these alot) the issues only started a week or so ago.

I am fortunate to be a geek and thus have access in my bag of goodies to many different setups but I DO prefer (until this point) Roku's User Interface (UI) and over the last  5 or 6 years, they have been pretty solid for me.  I even have one in my laptop bag for when I stay at hotels and they are pretty much content neutral.  If I remember last I checked I couldn't stream Amazon Prime to Chromecast but I could on Fire (and the inverse on Fire..no youtube but it has been a while since I compared them)

Plus, with Chromecast you use your tablet or phone as a remote..I really prefer a separate remote so I guess I can drag out some old FireSticks (I know they are around here somewhere!!) update them and give them a spin but then again, they aren't vendor agnostic.

I hope they find a solution to this soon.

[mercymanic]

Yeah. I feel the same about the remotes. I have a spare phone w/o service that I could use as a dedicated remote, but bleah.

When it works like it's supposed to the Roku UI beats all others. That's why I keep buying them.

But the app glitches just keep getting worse and worse without any real acknowledgment from the Roku team so it looks like they won't be fixed at all. I hate paying for streaming services rendered unwatchable by my Roku devices.

I may be forced to take drastic measures soon, but I hate it.

[LtLeary]

Well I did open a ticket with Hulu today (I was going to do the same with Netflix but dang, have you ever worked with them?   I can only stand reboot and power clearing and removing and replacing a few hundred times in a day and Hulu support got my quota today.)

Check your version of Hulu....If you are operating version 6.41.1 you too may be on the buggy firmware.  They advised they are "aware of the problem" and I was able to give them additional data points with so many different types of Rokus all exhibiting the same issue.  They mean well, but once you have done all the same steps 50 times, it gets old!

No dates provided but we shall see if they retract or fix soon.

[mercymanic]

Yep. Hulu 6.41.1 and it says I'm up to date when I check.

Helpdesk sux on every service till you escalate up the ladder several times. Assuming they don't just disconnect the call and try to force you to start over from scratch.

They force me to "Karen" and ask to speak to their supervisor a lot. I do not like to "Karen" which, perversely, makes me "Karen" harder.

Lol! So how many times did Hulu techs make you delete and reinstall the Hulu app from the menu? That seems to be their default "Did you try unplugging it and plugging it back in?" move.

[LtLeary]

About 100 times it felt like but I get it.  Even at my job (where there are many, many folks at differing levels of expertise you must go thru to talk with me) I have asked folks to power clear just so I can examine what occurs during boot sequences.  So to do so while they observe the registration process (if that is what they were doing) is understandable to me.  I do know that they had been asked a thousand times by other engineers before it got escalated to me, but I try to have them do it no more than once.

I too have been know to go all "KEN" on some vendors of ours, but I save that for the special occasions where there answers are so elementary, their attitude so horrendous that it is obvious they are reading from a script (note that part of our contracts are written so that I get to their equivalent tier support when calling in but sometimes they put in newbies to make their coverage quotas!)  I actually like teaching those who want to learn, it is my way of honoring those giants  I stood on the shoulders of when I was young.

But I think they listened and learned and hope they will have a solution soon.  It probably has to do with the changes Roku made to their code to facility video loads that they need to adjust their code to work with.

Now as far as the other guys.....well one step at a time!  🙂

[mercymanic]

It's been a long minute since I worked helpdesk one but I could never forget how frustrating the job was regardless of the product involved. At most places, it now sounds like a script because it is, and they want a good explanation if the worker veers off of it much.

Through the '80s and '90s, I used to start talking with helpdesk workers by establishing that I'm not a tech-idiot. That doesn't work anymore because now the workers are timed and recorded to make sure they don't veer from the script significantly, so they CAN'T escalate the call until every bullet point has been tried first or the caller becomes aggressive. I actually feel really bad for them. But my attitude also varies greatly based on the attitude and personality of who I'm talking with. Only the snottiest get Karen'd.

"changes Roku made to their code to facility video loads that they need to adjust their code to work with." this would actually explain why so MANY different channels are having issues. It would also explain why many are copping a "Roku broke it so they need to fix it, not us" attitude. Giant deadlock. Hulu will likely fix their code first as a streaming giant, but smaller companies struggling to stay alive amid the streaming war buyouts might fold first. 😞

Tense times.