Solving playback issues

[Jhartmann7]

The worst support. They only provide canned questions and responses. If it gets too hard, they disconnect. After 15 years its time to move away from Roku. Hello ChromeCast. No more freezing/buffering and a much better picture. 

[Dfresh567]

@Jhartmann7 

Sorry to hear about the negative experience with Roku support. First let me just say I don't work for Roku but just a big Roku fan who's just been active enough here on the forum to be able to get the title of Guru 🙂 Individuals on Roku Community Forum have landed here for probably many reasons but we're not employees.

I only mentioned that because I was wondering if you were having issues getting support from the community forum here or has it been an issue where you've been in touch with Roku directly?

I can only speak for myself but I've been lucky to have positive experiences with customer support the 2 times I had to contact Roku regarding an issue I was having and that's over the 10 year period.

Anytime I've ever had a question big or small I've been able to hop on here, ask the question or explain the issue I'm having and can count on getting a response within a short time period. I really do feel grateful and lucky to have this so it honestly saddens me to hear you've had such difficulties.

If you don't mind me asking what is troubleshooting issue you're having? I'll do my best to try to help anyway I can. Especially if you've been a Roku user for 15 years. That means you jumped on the Roku train during the 1st generation of Roku players. 

I didn't jump on the bandwagon til the Roku 3 back in Dec 2013. Making this my 10th year using Roku as my go to streaming.

I'm sure it's been super frustrating having an issue with a Roku player or product and feel you're not able to get the support or the right support that will fix the issue you're experiencing. With that said I'm here to help and I'm sure there are others on here too.

Best of luck and hope to hear from you.

[Jhartmann7]

Ok here is the situation:

My house has 2 Roku Ultra and one Roku TV all connected to the same router/network (both wired and wireless). ISP is 100mb cable. Most tv usage is YouTubeTV. One of the Ultra experiences buffering/freeze when fast forwarding thru recordings (rather often). I tried wired and wireless, rebooting all devices, adding a memory card, and even deleting and adding the YouTubeTV app. Lastly I installed a ChromeCast to the same tv and network, played one of the buffer recordings and it magically worked fine. In fact, the video resolution was noticeably better. 

Given all this, I thought I’d contact Roku to see if they could remotely troubleshoot, do a flash update, or simply confirm that the hardware was just at its end of life and I just needed to replace it. 

I unfortunately the support assistance I expected was nothing close to what I endured. 

[Strega2]

Keep in mind that YouTube TV (Google) writes and maintains the YouTube TV app on multiple platforms including Roku.  So their app is currently running better on their platform?  I can’t say I’m overly surprised by that observation.

Then again, “adding a memory card” implies an older Roku which could also be a reasonable excuse for their app not performing optimally.  Generally, since everyone has access to the same underlying tech, I would expect a current model of whatever streaming platform to outperform most older models of any platform.

[Jhartmann7]

I don’t disagree with anything that you said. However my point is that Roku should have the technical expertise to investigate, diagnose, and recommend a solution. You and I can speculate until the cows come home. At the end of the day, Roku should do better. Some companies call this Technical Support or perhaps Customer Service.  Roku is not indicating they can provide either. 

[All47verses]

@Jhartmann7--

I am not a Roku employee, just an experienced troubleshooter.

Both of your Roku Ultras are officially listed as still supported, so it's not an end-of-life issue.

Does the problem show up on JUST one of the Ultras? If so, what's the model number (from the Home screen, go to Settings>System>About) and software version (same place)?

And as long as I'm asking, have you already tried turning your primary router off and back on? (If so, don't bother trying it again -- if that was going to work, it would have worked the first time.)

[Jhartmann7]

Model 4670X

Software 13.0.0 build 24056-46

[All47verses]

Is the Ultra that's not having problems the same model and OS revision?

[Jhartmann7]

The working Ultra:

Model 4660X

Software 13.0.0 build 24056-46

[All47verses]

Hmm. I can't identify a model 4669, but everything in the 466X group uses the same processor as the 4670, so that's not the difference.

Is the problem buffering (typically with a circular widget rotating) or stuttering ( video tries to keep playing but sound is broken up)?