Wi-Fi & connectivity

[vybo]

Thumbs down your defense of Roku all day.

[vybo]

In other words, Roku is a **bleep**ey WiFi product. For the cost, it should be 10/100/1000 Ethernet and 1G WiFi. Some of us were willing to pay the upper end for a Roku, we should get results. We also do not like fanboys defending Roku when they claim to not be affiliated with Roku. The WiFi speed plain sucks all. If you want something better, get something other than Roku. Glad to see you admit it is limited. In real world it is usually well under 100. Get something else everybody. Truth teller. There, this discussion is closed.

[vybo]

No, they mean a real router, like an Asus with their full Web UI that you can actually see speeds on. And yes, it is fairly accurate. They did not mean a toy AI in a phone app.

[atc98092]

Who's defending Roku? We are stating a fact. The devices with a wired connection only support 100 BaseT, which is 100 Mbps. With Ethernet overhead, you get about 90-92 Mbps max. For WiFi, Roku is using less expensive chips, which don't have the full bandwidth of the respective protocols they use.

And for the stated purpose of a Roku player, they don't need to be any faster. These are Internet streaming players. There is no content online that streams higher than around 25 Mbps. Why should Roku use more expensive components (which would raise the price of the hardware) that are completely unnecessary. OK, I am defending Roku there. Simply because they are doing everything possible to keep the hardware price as low as possible.

I do wish Roku would build a high end streaming player, something that would compete/beat the Nvidia Shield. But unless they decide the home media streaming market is worth the effort (I believe it is, but I'm not part of any focus group with them), they'll likely stick with their core audience. And that audience doesn't need Gigabit streaming speeds at this time. 

[Dboyle52]

My wired connection To my Roku ultra, 6 foot cat 5E cable my speed is 93 Mbps, When I connect to my Wi-Fi I have a 203 Mbps. My Internet speed is 1G and for comparison purposes my iPhone connects typically between 500 Mbps and 650 Mbps setting about 12 feet from my router

#connectionspeed #speed

[atc98092]

I've been tweaking on my network this weekend, and just tested the Ultra 4800 again. Gigabit network, 600+ Mbps Internet connection.

Using the wired connection, speed reported at 93 Mbps, which is about the maximum possible on a 100 BaseT connection. Switched to WiFi, using a UniFi 5 GHz access point about four feet away from the Roku. Speed tested at 195 Mbps, far below the capability of both the access point and my actual Internet speed. But depending on the actual chipset Roku uses for networking, that may be all it's capable of.

I also have some fixed bitrate test videos that I used over WiFi, wired and direct USB connection.

• Over wired, as expected 90 Mbps was the highest speed that would play smoothly.
• Over WiFi, 160 Mbps was mostly smooth, with an occasional stutter in one part of the video. The 250 Mbps clip would not even finish loading, with RMP just sitting at 99% loaded. Also over WiFi I could play some ripped 4K movies, but sometimes would stop to buffer and never continue playing. 
• Switching to the USB drive, the 250 Mbps clip still won't load. The 180 Mbps played with the same stuttering I saw via WiFi with the 160 Mbps clip. Playing the 160 clip was almost smooth, but again had a bit of stutter in one place. 

Based on these tests, the Ultra 4800, which is their best player, has a video processing limit of around 150 Mbps, regardless of how the media is being streamed (wired, wireless or direct connection). Wireless reduces the max bitstream slightly, with wired being limited by its slower connection speed. 

Considering Roku devices are primarily designed for streaming from Internet providers, its network capabilities are sufficient for that use. But I do believe Roku is missing a significant market in not providing a player that is capable of playing home-based media that users rip from DVD and Blu Ray discs. Even though the current Roku devices will play SD and 1080 HD ripped content, they lack support for the lossless audio codecs most Blu Ray discs use, they don't support image based captions, which virtually all discs use, and they can't keep up with the UHD video bitstreams available from ripped 4K movies. 

[RonQuixote]

Would a 5GB RJ45 to USB adapter solve the problem? Bypassing the 100MB ethernet port and plugging a 5GB ethernet into the USB port on the device? It works great on Smart TV's, but I use HDMI to connect my Ultra Plus to the TV. Not using the USB for anything else currently.

[atc98092]

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@RonQuixote wrote:

Would a 5GB RJ45 to USB adapter solve the problem? Bypassing the 100MB ethernet port and plugging a 5GB ethernet into the USB port on the device? It works great on Smart TV's, but I use HDMI to connect my Ultra Plus to the TV. Not using the USB for anything else currently.

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Only a handful of Roku players support a usb network adapter. I’ve not seen any version of the Ultra (never heard of an Ultra Plus) on the supported list. I have my doubts it would be much faster than the existing connection. When I connect my 4800 to my WiFi, the highest speed I’ve ever seen is 205 Mbps. Certainly faster than Fast Ethernet, nowhere close to Gigabit. The internal chipset doesn’t appear to be fast enough for higher speeds. When you consider the intended use of a (Roku) player, you can understand why they didn’t develop it for higher speeds.