Solving playback issues

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PjEs
Newbie

Re: Roku Media Player no longer finds media

Well I was going through the same scenario again this morning. Roku Media Player would normally connect to Windows Media Player's settings and open up within seconds. But as I mentioned in my last post it was not doing that anymore. So, today I just left Roku Media Player on and walked away to do some other things. I came back about twenty minutes later and it had actually connected. I have it finally playing now. But, it should not be taking fifteen minutes or more to open. Then when if does finally connect to Windows of course it is a bit of a longer wait while it downloads the media. So it could be twenty five minutes or more before you can listen to your music on Roku Media Player finally. I know I have tried it before when it wasn't doing a connection to Windows Media and I have waited five to ten minutes and nothing changed. So I guess the only way it is working now is to wait fifteen or twenty minutes. Which is crazy. Something has changed. Not sure if its actually an issue with Roku or Windows Media player. But yourself and others seemed to have experienced similar issues. So perhaps it is something with the Roku player. I will just have to watch how it goes over the coming days and weeks and see if anything improves or gets worse.

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Dolllovindude
Streaming Star

Re: Roku Media Player no longer finds media

My Windows Media player is connecting, the Roku player just keeps saying no plays le media found when I go to a folded to play something. All my files are MP4 and compatible but the Roku says otherwise. It's very frustrating and even more frustrating that Roku has done nothing to resolve it. 

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renojim
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Roku Media Player no longer finds media

Given that Windows is involved, I'd say it's just as likely to be a Windows issue as a Roku issue.  Do you have any other devices that can connect to its DLNA server?  As far as I know, RMP only looks at the extension to determine if the file is playable, so if the server isn't offering up the list of files properly you'll get the "No compatible media" message (or whatever it says).

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Dolllovindude
Streaming Star

Re: Roku Media Player no longer finds media

It's not every folder, some folders it will show and play the files, then in others it won't, even though it has showed and played videos in that same folder before. 

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NaterDee
Newbie

Re: Roku Media Player no longer finds media

TCL and Roku goin down the drain.   theyll be obsolete in 5 years

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Dolllovindude
Streaming Star

Re: Roku Media Player no longer finds media

It has been nearly a year and still no resolution to this issue. Apparently solving issues isn't really ROKU's focus. 

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atc98092
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Roku Media Player no longer finds media

The problem is not with Roku. Microsoft makes a lousy DLNA server (what many of you have referred to as Windows Media Player), and it's really not useful unless all of your media is exactly what a Roku needs to work. Roku has always had a very limited number of supported files/codecs, and if your media isn't in a supported container with the proper codecs they will not play. And the Windows media server has limited ability to transcode media to work correctly on a Roku. The Roku will only play video media from the MP4, MOV, MKV and TS/M2TS container, and the video codecs within the container must be H.264/AVC, H.262/MPEG2, MP4, and for 4K capable devices H.265/HEVC. For audio codecs, it must be AC3/Dolby Digital, AAC (5.1 converted to stereo PCM), PCM, and a few audio only codecs. DTS core audio will passthrough the Roku from a MKV or TS/M2TS container, but your audio device needs to support DTS to hear anything (most TVs don't).

Serviio is a free DLNA media server that works quite well with Roku devices. It has multiple profiles for Roku devices (they need to be manually assigned to your Roku, as I could never get the auto-assignment to work correctly), can transcode any unsupported files, and only transcodes as needed (i.e. it will only transcode the audio if that's all that's needed).

Disclaimer: while I am recommending Serviio as a functional media server to install on your PC, and I am not paid by Serviio, I am the author of the Roku profiles included with Serviio and I do act as a moderator on their forum. I'm simply a satisfied user that helps out the developer as I can.

There are other media servers that can be installed on a computer and used to play your media on a Roku. Plex is probably the best known, but Emby also makes a decent media server product. Both of these have free versions and their own dedicated app for Roku devices, so you don't have to use Roku Media Player at all. There's also Jellyfin, which is quite similar to Emby.

All DLNA servers require a bit of effort to first set up, but it's not difficult and you end up with a far better server than Windows can dream of providing. Once the setup is done, it rarely needs to be modified again. Serviio requires nothing (after the initial setup) other than assigning the correct profile the first time a Roku device connects to the server.   

Dan

Roku Community Streaming Expert

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