Solving playback issues

[Rampart]

This same issue happened to my Roku Ultra a couple of years ago and it seems the problem is back again after this October update. It took forever to even acknowledge the issue before. Crazy that 2 months later the issue is still not resolved. 

[Phorrest]

I have moved on from Roku.  My new LG TV plays videos from a thumb drive just fine, including playing formats that my Roku 3 could not play (e.g., H.265).  For "off-brand" streaming services like PBS Passport or Kanopy, I'm going to get an Amazon Firestick.  Problem solved.

[atc98092]

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@Phorrest wrote:

I have moved on from Roku.  My new LG TV plays videos from a thumb drive just fine, including playing formats that my Roku 3 could not play (e.g., H.265).  For "off-brand" streaming services like PBS Passport or Kanopy, I'm going to get an Amazon Firestick.  Problem solved.

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H.265 wasn't an approved codec at the time the Roku 3 was released, so I would never have expected a device of that age to play it. The only Roku devices that support H.265 are the 4K devices, which again the Roku 3 did not support. Personally I don't care for the Amazon Fire devices solely because of the Amazon-centric user interface. But that's a personal choice, so you go with what works best for you.

[RokuMaryEF · Accepted solution]

Hi Roku Community users,

Thank you to all who reported the issue regarding the Roku Media Player file format. We appreciate your feedback and want to provide some guidance moving forward.

As a solution, we recommend encoding your files in other supported formats. For more detailed instructions on supported file types, please refer to this helpful Support article: Roku Media Player Support Article.

We appreciate your patience as we continue to address this issue. If you have any further questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out!

Thanks again,
The Roku Community Team

[TCIII]

Continued from past similar  thread with update 14.0.

Latest update 14.1 still did not bring sound back to usb movies  on any of my units.

Roku ultra

[RokuEmmanuel-D]

Thanks for being part of the Roku Community, @TCIII!

We appreciate you flagging this issue to us. We'd like to take a closer look at this. 

Could you tell us what specific audio format is affected by the issue? 

We are looking forward to your prompt response. 

Best,
Emman

[TCIII]

Audio is AC3 same problem that update 14.0 caused. Update 14.1 stated it addressed previous problems that 14.0 caused, but apparently it did not. Thanks for the reply.

[RokuEmmanuel-D]

Thanks for keeping us posted, @TCIII!

We've already passed this along to the team for further review. Rest assured that we'll let you know once we get any information. 

Please stay tuned for more updates!

Best,
Emman

[AvsGunnar]

@TCIII 

On my Ultra 4802 and 4850, my local storage videos (USB) with AC3 play just fine.  On my Ultra 4660, I need to toggle the Volume Mode (using the asterisk button on my remote while video is playing) to [Off] and then back to Leveling or Night mode in order to make the audio available. (again, only with videos using AC3.)

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I think it may have something to do with a changed support for the older Ultra devices.

From Roku Developer pages https://developer.roku.com/docs/specs/media/streaming-specifications.md

• For AC3 and E-AC3, Roku devices will do passthrough to the receiving device. Roku Ultra streaming players (Benjamin [4800X] and Brewster [4850X] models only) support the latest Dolby technologies such as Dolby Atmos and System Sound Mixing (MS12). The Roku Ultra LT (4800X) does not include Dolby support.

  Apps must always provide an AAC stereo audio track (in addition to the optional Dolby track) that players can use in case the receiving device does not support AC3 or E-AC3 decoding.

• Encoding in Dolby Digital Plus instead of Dolby Digital is recommended.

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I don't fully understand this issue as it used to work just fine on my 4660 devices.  I just simply use the Volume Mode toggle workaround when I run into the issue as I don't really plan to demux the affected files. The 4660 has no issues with AAC files.

Not really an audiophile so maybe @atc98092 can explain it better, or if I am misunderstanding the issue or @renojim who understands the developer side/changes.  I don't think this is a bug, I think it is a change in behavior/support for older Ultra devices.

[atc98092]

I do believe it's a bug. For the 48xx models with passthrough, that's exactly what should happen with any AC3 file. But I'm finding a problem even playing some of my test files from my DLNA server, which is not altering the audio but sending the AC3 stream intact, so really no different than playing it from a USB drive. I need to find a larger USB stick to load some test files on, but I did try today to play some AC3 files on my 4850 (connected to an AVR that supports all audio codecs) and encountered problems. 

But I also have to stress that RMP hasn't received any updates for playing videos in more than three years, and at the moment development of the app appears to be non-existent. When I ask about it in the beta group I get no response, so no idea what is going on with RMP.