Channels & viewing

[Beck38]

Roku 4802x running f/w 12.5.0 build 4178-C2 stalls on playing youtube videos, even on 'live' posts.  This started happening on virtually every clip starting when the roku device got this latest f/w update.  Other, older rokus I have also started exhibiting this wackiness, always around when youtube tries to insert adverts, especially on long duration clips (like long train videos or again, 'live' ones).  Maybe it's because of the way youtube is doing these 'enhanced' (I'm being kind here) advert insertions, but it might also be a glitch in the roku programming. 

The reason why I tend toward something with the roku is that in the overnight hours (I occasionally wake up then) when I try to go back to sleep and use long train clips to do so, I rarely find that I get these 'stalls'.  But it may be the way youtube is inserting these ads.  The recent uptick in ads is pretty infuriating, but these stalls forcing one to either grab the remote and hit the continue button, or back button and then restart the clip and attempt to ff to the point one was at before the stall, is getting pretty old.  

Again, may be a problem with both youtube and Roku.  So it's going to be a pretty hard glitch to track down, I fear.  

[RokuJohnB]

Hi @Beck38,

Thank you for posting here in the Roku Community!
We will be glad to assist you further with this issue that you're experiencing. Could you send us a video of your running problem? What troubleshooting steps have you taken so far?

With detailed information, we will be able to assist you further.

Thanks,

John

[Beck38]

I got the opportunity to play the same YouTube video on three seperate rokus, the newest 2022 ultra as listed in the previous post, and a slightly older 2018 4640x ultra running 12.5.0 build 4178-2P.  The 2022 stalled straight to the main roku top page after ~1hr (started during early evening), the 2018 4640x kept running for well over 24hrs without fail, both were on 'live' streams that should have run without any failure for days on end, through any and all adverts. 

So there is something going on with the roku programming.  To note, for fun I ran an older roku4 4400x with 11.5.0 build 4312-17 that I replaced with that new 2022 model several months back, even before roku announced it was being discontinued, on the same live youtube clip and it was stalled exactly at the same time and at the same spot.  While the 4640x sailed right through without fail.  Very interesting.  That's what really tells me that the programming on both the early 4400x and the newest 2022 model have the same error with both chipsets that the youtube changes with this new hyper ad pushing is somehow glitching the units, and for whatever slight differences the 2018 model has in its f/w is somehow not affected.  Tells me, as a systems engineer with over 50 years experience (35+ years working with digital video) that I'd be looking down that road. 

Doesnt help on why I dont see it at 3am (Pst time); maybe youtube isnt pushing the ads as much that early!

[NoNewsmaxPlus]

I have the same freezing up issue on some ads....but I must stress that it only happens when the program I'm watching first goes to a commercial.  I found if I hit the PAUSE button on my remote and then hit unpause it this usually corrects it.  Hope this helps you.  Good luck.

[makaiguy]

Recognize that YouTube (and others) may often have supplied multiple versions of their app for different Roku models due to varying capabilities and features of the various Rokus.  If you highlight the app's tile in the Roku home page channel grid and click the Roku remote * button, it will show you the app's full version number.

[Beck38]

First, a couple if things: advertisers, I have found, can buy a particular time slot for their advert, and the overnight hours arn't sold hardly at all compared to late morning through afternoon to early evening.  When one streams any clip during that time, you get hit with ads every 5 min or so, multiples back to back, and eventually the roku (depending in the f/w it is running) will hit an ad that causes it to do one of several things: 

First (most common), stall/freeze, in which hitting the remote play button will get the clip to continue.  Interestingly, the ad doesn't play, its skipped.  Second, the player exits to the main top screen where the apps are.  One has to restart youtube, find the clip you were watching, and fast forward to the point you were at.  Again, no ad is seen or streamed, except for the ads that you'll hit in doing the ff.  Rarely, it exits to the top youtube clip listing, and you can go through the same hoops to restart and forward to the point you were at.  But that is fairly rare, the stall/freeze is by far the most common, and pressing the play button will continue the clip approximately at the point at which it froze.  With no advert.  

What continues to be most interesting, at least to me, is that a slightly older ultra model (4649x) running a slightly different f/w than my newest 4802x ultra, running side by side, exhibits almost NONE of this nonsense.  It sails on blithely running very long and 'live' clips, happily running all sorts of adverts, without any problems, literally for days, until eventually it may run into some advert it doesnt like, after again  several days, while the 4802x model chokes repeatedly, again depending on the time of day, every few minutes, requiring manual intervention of one type or another to get moving again.

This is so obvious a mistake in the f/w coding, perhaps aggravated by the increase or changes in the way youtube ad insertions are being done, that simply wasn't caught by the programmers.  Pull one of these older units (4640x) out and run it side by side with the newer sets, watching the code execution, and one could perhaps see the point at which the 4802x code chokes. 

That's what I'd do, but who knows; I'm retired and it makes my head ache.  It's just so aggravating that if I see a good price on a comparable non-roku device on black friday, I'm going to give it a try.  This after over 8 years as a loyal customer.  This kind of code failure should have been caught.

[6E616D65]

@Beck38 

There are differences between your Rokus, but one new difference was added in the latest update. Though both qualified to get the update, only the 4802 got the addition of an IPv6 address. See "IPv6 support" here:

How to connect your Roku streaming device to the internet using Wi-Fi or Ethernet | Official Roku Su...

If your network is dual-stack, you could see if it makes a difference by disabling IPv6 on your network, or only on the 4802. Roku was negligent in not making IPv6 status visible anywhere, or giving users the ability to toggle it off to troubleshoot.

You can disable it in the IPv6 secret screen at {Home x 5}, ff, down, rw, down, ff.

It's worth a try. I haven't tried it yet, even though I've been watching a lot of YT videos lately, and the experience sucks with the ads hanging like that. With YT pushing the ad-free (but not free) version, I'm not so sure this isn't a manufactured problem.

P.S.: I watched a few things on YT and after failing to play the content after a commercial, I disabled IPv6. Then I watched quite a few short things with no problem, only difference being that I only saw one commercial at a time, mostly, and after choosing to skip them after the timeout, another commercial didn't immediately follow which it seemed to do before. But eventually it played a 30 second commercial with no option to skip, then hung and seemed to be buffering. I hit "up" on the d-pad and the program immediately began playing; not a big deal, but no change, really. Not a fix.

[Beck38]

I've noticed a bit of a change in the way the app responds; I actually had one stall that after hitting the play button actually played a short ad!  I was so amazed I forgot to pay any real attention, and it was less than 5 seconds so it was up and gone too quick.  But it happened in the early afternoon, and I was getting pauses every 5 min or so, pathetic. So something is being changed, maybe.  Overnight is still running with no pauses, or very few.

[Beck38]

More changes, and not for the better:  instead of stalling, its started 'jumping' to other clips, and starting playing those instead of continuing on with what one was playing to begin with. Wacky.  I've given up trying to watch just about anything, I've just got a couple units trying to see what's going on.  Still running almost perfectly in the overnight hours, as soon as it's around 8am the forced ads start flooding in, and things grind to a halt.  

[Beck38]

Okay, I've pretty much stopped watching anything on youtube, but there were a couple of clips today I wanted to watch.  A few minutes in, the 'service' halted and before I could pick up the remote, the roku jumped out of youtube and tried to log into youtubetv.  It didnt get very far, only to the screen where you select which account you want.  Of course, they've made the app a few months ago where it automatically starts up on the account one previously were logged in on.  

So got back to another clip I wanted to watch and *BAM* a few minutes in it did it again.  Now, the youtubetv icon is in the upper left of my roku selection screen, I figure that's why the youtube app is selecting it, but who knows.  

Well, that's it.  I'm quitting youtube for the next few days, this has simply gotten out of control.