Solving playback issues

[CJN2]

I just hooked up my Roku Ultra from the black Friday 69.99 sale.  This is the only one out of 4 Roku devices I'm having issues with when it comes to turning it on.  Because its on its own power source, when I press the power button, all that happens is my TV turns on.  I'll hit the OK button on the remote to activate the Roku and every time I've done that, I get an HDCP error and have to unplug the power cord & the HDMI cord and hard restart the Ultra. After doing some research, I've found that you can just hit the home button instead of the power button which will activate the Roku and turn on the TV.  You can also disable the power saver setting and then when you turn on the TV, you'll see the screensaver and just have to hit OK, but this very glitchy to me.  On my 4k+ stick and my 2 Roku Stream Bars, all I have to do is hit the power button to turn everything on and off, even though the stream bars are on their own power source too.  I bought the Ultra so that I could have the enhanced sound options on my main TV, but this is very annoying.  Is there a fix coming for this at some point?  Why can't the power button turn on the Roku Ultra along with the TV like it does with the Stream Bars?

[atc98092]

The power button doesn't turn the Roku "on" because it's never actually off. The Roku is always on if it has power. It simply drops into a low power state when it's not in use. The power button is solely to control your TV. Yes, the Power Saver function is glitchy, so it is recommended to turn it off. The Roku uses very little power anyway, so any power savings would be measured in pennies. 

When you press the Home button on the Roku remote and the TV turns on, this is something called CEC (Consumer Electronic Control) and there's nothing wrong with using that function. In fact I use it all the time. It will turn the TV on and change the TV input to the HDMI port the Roku is using. It also allows the Roku remote to control the TV volume. If you have an AVR in between the Roku and TV, CEC will also turn the AVR on and change its input port as well. If you're watching OTA TV and want to switch to the Roku, just pressing the Roku remote Home button will switch it over automatically. 

[AvsGunnar]

@CJN2 

The Power button and the Volume button/Mute button on the Roku remote are "TV controls".  They have no effect on the Roku device.  The Roku devices really never turn off, they enter a sleep mode.  The Home button is used to "wake up" the Roku devices.

With your Streaming Sticks, likely your USB ports power down when you are turning off your TV using the power button.  Depending on how long it takes for your TV to boot up, you may be seeing the Roku logo on the Streaming Sticks when they are booting up. (if you connected the Streaming Sticks directly to wall power, you would not see the Roku boot up logo.  You would just be at the Home Screen.)

Keep in mind that if you do not press the Home button when you are finished streaming, and simply press the Power button, the device will continue to stream away in the background using data. (until screensaver or bandwidth saver kicks in if enabled in Settings.  Or if the new Power Savings feature/20-min inactivity feature is enabled under the Power Settings in newer Roku models.)

If you look closer at the behavior of your Streambar, you should be seeing the same thing.

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Normal/expected behavior for your Roku devices.

1. Use the Power button to power on/off the TV.

2. Use the Home button to wake up Roku device.  Also remember to use the Home button to return to Home Screen when finished streaming.

3. Enabled Bandwidth Saver in Settings/Network/Bandwidth Saver/[On], to automatically stop streaming after 4hrs if no user input/activity. (ie. fall asleep, forget to return to Home Screen, etc).

4. Disable Power Savings Feature in Settings/System/Power/Power Savings/Automatic Power Savings/20-min inactivity unless you need this enabled for some reason.  Causes some unwanted behaviors on various Roku devices.

5. If you enable HDMI CEC on your TV, and enable Roku's CEC 1-touch Play feature in Settings/System/Control other Devices, then pressing the Home button will simultaneously turn on your TV, switch/activated the appropriate HDMI input, and wake up the Roku device.  Again, need to press the Power button on the Roku remote to turn off TV.  Also remember to press the Home button to stop streaming before turning off TV.

[CJN2]

This is a copy and paste of the same info I referenced in my post for a work around.  Why can't the power button also activate the Roku device?  Seems simple enough so you dont have to do these extra steps just to watch TV?  I dont have to do them on my other Roku devices.  

[4swalton]

Roku Ultra has a blinking red light and is unresponsive.  I have unplugged the HDMI cable and also the power cord. In the past I have had to unplug the power cord to reboot the unit to make it work. Any sugestions or is the unit junk? Won't buy another one. Using a free Chromecast now.

[atc98092]

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@CJN2 wrote:

This is a copy and paste of the same info I referenced in my post for a work around.  Why can't the power button also activate the Roku device?  Seems simple enough so you don't have to do these extra steps just to watch TV?  I don't have to do them on my other Roku devices.  

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As mentioned, the Roku is already "active". Roku added the power and volume buttons to control other devices. The power button isn't needed to turn the Roku on, because it's always on. Simply pressing the Home button (a single step) will turn everything on and you're ready to go. I'm not seeing any extra steps necessary. 

[atc98092]

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@4swalton wrote:

Roku Ultra has a blinking red light and is unresponsive.  I have unplugged the HDMI cable and also the power cord. In the past I have had to unplug the power cord to reboot the unit to make it work. Any suggestions or is the unit junk? Won't buy another one. Using a free Chromecast now.

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The Chromecast has its pros and cons, but I won't make any case for or against it.

As for your Roku, you didn't state what version of Ultra it is. Unfortunately Roku reuses the same name on multiple versions (currently at seven different versions), and we need to know which one you have. The problem might be with the power supply (the cube that plugs into the wall), with the HDMI cable, or yes the unit itself might be defective. Knowing what model number you have would point to it possibly just failing from age. The first version of the Ultra is now over seven years old, and it might simply be failing. 

[Strega2]

As mentioned before, Rokus don’t normally turn off, so I think the problem you are having is that for some reason, your combination of Ultra, cable, and TV leads to an HDCP error in certain situations. I don’t know why that is. (Possibly something deep down in the spec that would need the designers of the Roku and the TV to figure out.)

Normally, when I want to watch the Roku, I just change to HDMI 4 and see “no signal” since I let the Roku go to sleep. (Oh and I have HDMI-CEC turned off everywhere.)  Then I just press Home on the Roku remote and all is well.  I’ve also tried turning the power saver off, and then the Roku is just sitting there waiting when I switch to its input.  This is essentially no different than watching any other source for me – select input, then possibly turn it on (some devices) or wake it up (some devices).  But none of my device combinations happen to produce an HDCP error which makes life easier.

[HDMIGuy]

@CJN2 Not sure what extra steps you are concerned about.  I have three Roku streaming Stick 4k and all I do is hit the home button.  TV turns on and Roku opens to home screen.  One button.