Solving playback issues

[1DayAfterAnothe]

It's not all HEVC/MKV that display the red color. It has to be HEVC/MKV files with a certain color space.. What is it.. BT709 or something like that? I don't feel like going through the vastness of this forum but I feel like I remember others have issues with Roku Ultra displaying RED outside of Plex... I could be wrong. Maybe i dreamed it.

[tomcat335]

@atc98092 I use Emby. Also, I didn't see this on my old Roku just the new one. This is most likely. a Roku issue since people using the same server setup don't have the problem on other platforms and on Roku it happens using multiple client apps.

@1DayAfterAnothe You didn't dream it. I use Emby.

I've sent test clips to tech support and haven't heard anything back in a long time but I'm assuming they were able to recreate the problem since they didn't ask for more information.

It's getting pretty annoying that Roku won't respond directly and it seems pretty certain this is a Roku bug but the community volunteers are still treating this as a user error and not a bug.

[renojim]

@tomcat335, it's clearly a bug, but Roku has proven over the years that they really couldn't care less if you're having trouble with your own material.  I've been stripping off the color information from MKVs since that "fix" was first posted, so I don't really care if Roku ever fixes the bug.  It no longer affects me.  I've learned after 15 years of dealing with Roku that it's far easier to find a workaround than to get them to fix a bug.

[chroma601]

You're correct, bt 709 is often treated as bt2020. My initial workaround was constantly going into TV menu and changing the colorspace and HDR settings manually. My final workaround was to purchase an Nvidia Shield Pro, which handles the different colorspaces flawlessly, as well as pass through more advanced audio streams.

I keep the Roku to stream my Spectrum TV. And it handles music files on Plex a bit better..

[atc98092]

I just checked my test video folder, and I do have a number of HEVC test videos that are encoded in BT.709. None with HDR, as those are all encoded BT.2020. Playing them from Serviio or via a USB stick on my Ultra 4800 displays no sign of red push or saturation. These test files are in both the MP4 and MKV containers. I again point at the Plex app as the problem, not the Roku itself. 

[tomcat335]

@atc98092 Well since you are so adamant that it's Plex and that everyone else here is wrong then I'm sure you have multiple Rokus to test with, multiple TVs including ones that don't support BT.2020, you tested the clip using Plex and Emby to make sure that it was bad using those players but not the built in player, you checked the flag on the MKV file to make sure it's set and set to the same value as the people having trouble.

Short of that, I'm sure you contacted one of the people reported the issue to see if they could send you a sample video with the issue.

That's what I would expect Roku to do and confirm the issue. I've sent them a clip with the problem. They also had asked me to try the built in player which I did (and just confirmed) and it still had the same issue, so unless their player is also bad it's not a player issue, it's an underlying decoding issue.

Maybe you should stop assuming that none of the many people that have reported the issue know what they're doing, believe them and blame Roku for not publicly acknowledging the issue, officially commenting on this thread and stating a plan of action to fix this long standing bug.

[atc98092]

OK, I will admit that every TV I've tested them on supports BT.2020, so if that's a qualifier for the problem (and if it's something I've overlooked before) then I offer my apologies and will back out of this conversation. From previous conversations I thought I had all the variables covered, but apparently not. 

[tomcat335]

Really? 2 weeks ago I replied to a message from you and said that having a TV that doesn't support BT.2020 is what seems to be issue. 

I think people on this thread (including me) are getting testy because no one seems to believe that it's a Roku problem even though we've given them all the information to pretty much guarantee that it is and they refuse to acknowledge or fix the bug.

Getting volunteers every few days suggesting things that have already been tried upthread doesn't help either.

[atc98092]

OK, I've been really busy the past few weeks. Not making any excuses, but it must have completely slipped my mind. As I said, my information (as my brain was processing it) was faulty, and I'll stay out of these comments unless I can actually add some value to something.

When Roku has an issue with something (like they currently do have with Roku Media Player) I absolutely reach out through the beta test team with any information I can provide. Since I can't seem to duplicate this, I am not a valid person to report it through them. If I could figure out a way to duplicate it with my equipment, I would be glad to rattle their cage. I hope the developers are getting the message about this and looking for the problem.

But to you and others who feel I've disparaged the issue, I offer my sincere apologies. 

[tomcat335]

I wish that there was some way to get feedback. I eventually spoke to someone in the customer advocacy team that was in North America (hopefully higher up the chain) and he acknowledged the problem privately.

They should answer in this thread though and either say it's a known issue and they are able to replicate or ask for help replicating it if the files and info I provided in August weren't enough. 

It shouldn't take a volunteer to rattle cages when the problem has been reported to support through multiple channels.

If you have a TV that doesn't support HDR and isn't 4K then I can work with you to replicate the issue and maybe add yet another channel of reporting the issue to Roku.