Solving playback issues

[spuck20]

Ultra that used to work with LG smart TV no longer does. Boot-up screen shows with the bouncing logo, then goes to a blank screen and then the TV reports no device signal. Tried different cable, different port, and even moved another Ultra to the same TV and it does the same thing. Both Ultra's work on other TV's in the house. TV is probably from about 2016 or so, so, not ancient.

Searched things and see several such complaints over past several months but haven't found any solution to it. Guessing firmware update on the Roku has messed up the HDMI handshake.

Going to see if forcing the Roku to a lower resolution will work but I'm not hopeful as I would think someone would have already reported that as a solution if it did work. Plus, kind of a downer even if it works to have a 70" tv and have to watch it in 720P.

Any suggestions or experience with this? The Roku on this TV hasn't been used for several months as normally it's my mom that uses Roku and uses a different TV and dad just watches the cable, but mom going to be down post-surgery and this would be the best TV for her to use during that time.

[StreamerUser]

You dont mention the Roku model # or firmware version; however, there have been HDMI handshake issues with recent firmware versions/builds (and historically for that matter).

You might also check to see if the LG TV had a recent firmware update, and/or to verify it has the latest.

If its a 4K HDR LG model, make sure you enable Ultra HDMI Deep Color on the port its connected to.

Regardless, your strategy of manually configuring a lower resolution is probably the best for now: start at 720p, see if it displays, then 1080p, then 4K (if its a 4K model). 

If none of that works, you can try disabling Automatic Recovery from the secret screen:  Home 5x, Down, Left, Up 3x    -  This also has the benefit of showing you what Roku detects as supported by your display device.

[spuck20]

Great info on the secret screen.  Thanks.  That would have helped but luckily it finally came up well enough (bouncing like crazy) that they could navigate to the menu and the display settings.  (Doing this all remotely from out of state) It would intermittently go back to "no signal" on the tv but they could get things to finally come back up by navigating around blind on the remote to different screens until the bouncy picture came back.  

Roku was on auto-detect and was showing it as 1080P HDCP 1.4.  I'm guessing that's the issue as I've read elsewhere that the LG of this age should have been 1.3 to start.  Is the Roku not backwards compatible now to 1.3?  Switched to forced 1080P and as expected, no change.  Tried the 720P and that got them a picture that's watchable but in the lower res  It's too bad because things worked fine when I first set it up back in Jan 2020. 

Roku is an Ultra from Dec 2019.  Should be a 4660RW. Not sure on firmware, but it should be the current since it checks automatically.  

The LG TV is from about 2016, so not a 4K.  TV thinks it's updated or at least it's not finding an update when they tell it to check for one.   

[StreamerUser]

I dont think the HDCP being detected as version 1.4 is an issue - that would be correct regardless (HDCP 1.4 was released in 2009, even 2.2 was fully released by 2013 - 3 years before the release of that 2016 LG).

(e.g. I have an LG TV from 2012 that has HDCP 1.4)

Speaking of which, by 2016 LG had been releasing 4K TVs for several years at that point, so 2016 doesnt exclude 4K at all either.

Not that there couldn't be an issue with the HDCP aspect of the HDMI handshaking process - HDCP handshaking issues abound, especially with Roku devices over many versions/builds of firmware and different SoCs.

Disabling Automatic Recovery should allow manual configuration without it reverting, and it will also provide detailed information about what the Roku detects (e.g. if the TV only supported HDCP 1.3 somehow, which I highly doubt).

[spuck20]

Checking back in to update.  Roku hasn't been much help as they keep just wanting me to do a factory reset which will then of course result in the firmware still being the same as it was before.  If it's a latest firmware issue, that's obviously not a solution but it's taking their support people a bit to understand that.  (we've tried 2 4660's on the TV, testing different ports, different HDMI cables, same results)  Resetting a device doesn't seem like anything other than a waste of time and a lot of frustration trying to get my parents to get it set back up over the phone.  

720P works sort of.  They tell me the brightness level is really inconsistent with it going really bright and then dropping off to dark and then working back to bright.  Sounds like the way a VCR used to do if you messed with a cassette that had copy protection, so, I'm guessing it is a problem in the HDCP handshake. 

The secret codes show that the Roku is detecting 1080p with HDCP 1.4, so, that's what it was trying to run, but resulted with no display most of the time.  Figured out the TV is a lot older than I thought.  Either 2011 or 12.  Guess time flies.  It's a really big one so I had been thinking it was newer than that.  Guessing the parents must have paid a bunch for it at that time, so, it's too bad it's basically unusable with the Roku now.  

Thanks for your input on this.  

[StreamerUser]

1) I'd still check the firmware version of that LG (model unknown) to verify its the latest available for that model.

2) This may seem like a strange suggestion, given the reported issues - but they might consider trying the Ultra 2020 (4800) - it uses a different SoC and a different firmware track, and behaves differently with HDMI/EDID/Handshaking than any previous Ultra (or other model).   They can always return it if it results in the same issues, and then theyd know for sure its their TV (perhaps time to upgrade).

I actually have a 4800 connected to a 2012 LG TV, because the 4800 has a Dolby decoder and will transcode/convert DD+ to DD, along with better wireless, and it works mostly without issue (aside from a DTS bug which wont ever come up for any normal mainstream streaming etc).