Solving playback issues

[Richard_Koch]

I have an external SSD drive that I connect directly to a Roku Ultra 46070X. Yesterday I started having a problem when I tried to play videos on the SSD drive with Roku Media Player where the videos aborts after playing a from a few seconds up to maybe about a minute, prior to aborting the videos play normally. This had not occurred previously. The Roku Ultra software had been on updated 9/29/2023, I suspect the problem is related to the software update. I have tried unplugging and reconnecting the SSD drive, rebooting the Roku Ultra from the screen option and disconnecting and reconnecting the power to the SSD drive, none of those actions solved the problem. If I connect the SSD drive to a PC and play the videos on a PC the videos play normally, and I can play the videos on the Roku Ultra with the SSD drive connected to the PC with Plex server on the PC and the Plex app on the Roku, so the problem is definitely with the Roku, not the SSD drive.

[RokuJohnB]

Hi @Richard_Koch,

Welcome to the Roku Community!

We would be more than happy to look further into this issue but will need more details. Can you please provide us with the following information:

• Roku device model, serial number, device ID, and software OS/version (these can all be found in Settings > System > About)
• Tracker ID when this issue occurs (when you see this issue occur, press the Home button 5 times, followed by the Back button 5 times and provide us with this ID)

Once we have this information, we will be able to pass it along to the appropriate Roku team to investigate further.

Thanks,

John

[Wgom]

I am having the same issue.  video aborts while playing from a crucial ssd on a usb hub connected to my Roku Ultra.

I tried replacing the Roku with a new Roku, but the new Roku only recognizes 1 drive on the USB Hub.

[atc98092]

For video playback issues, you need to provide some additional information. We need to know the container of the media (MKV, MP4, MOV, etc.), and the video and audio codec within the container. It doesn't tell us anything if you say your media is a MKV or MP4 file. The codec information is critical to help troubleshoot.

How do you find that information out? There are several ways to get it. One is to use an app on a computer that can read the file and provide the information. One such program is called MediaInfo. It's free and can be installed on Windows, Mac or Linux computers. A simple command line program is called FFMPEG, but if you're not very computer savvy I don't recommend using any command line program. Also, media players such as VLC can provide the media information, and it too is a free program you can install on your computer. 

Just be aware that Roku has not made any meaningful updates to RMP for over three years. It has some bugs, and until Roku decides to put some effort back into the program you are much better off using a computer based server like Plex or Emby. There's one or two other Roku apps/channels that can play media from the USB drive, but none are free and I have no experience with any of them. I did have experience with Chaneru many years ago, but that developer seems to have lost interest in it, and it doesn't work well at all anymore.