Features, settings & updates

[boogernose]

you can pause with the remote.

When you want to turn the TV off do so and leave the Roku

At HOME where it stops streaming.

Leave it at HOME. this leave the Roku in a low power state.

[Strega]

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@Jaw wrote:

unsubscribed

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Bye again.

[JEP]

That works for the Roku stick because it gets its 5V power from the USB and when you turn off the TV it nolonger outputs power to the USB. So it's essentially like unplugging the Roku everytime you turn the TV off when you have the USB power input plugged into your TV's USB output. The Roku Ultra has higher power requirements and requires a wall adapter, so that won't work. Like all other solid state devices, the power button should either completely shut down the Roku or stop playback and put it in a low power sleep mode ready to be reactivated. It is rather stupid that Roku would give you a power button that only turns off the TV but does not pause playback of apps. You should either be able to configure the main power button or it should have two power buttons. One clearly stating it's for the TV and the other one for the Roku, like most DVR and satellite box remotes have had for decades. It's really just a bad oversight on Roku's part and could easily be fixed by a firmware update for current models or a new remote with separate power buttons for later models. 

[keithadams]

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@JEP wrote:

It is rather stupid that Roku would give you a power button that only turns off the TV but does not pause playback of apps. 

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I completely agree. It's just terrible UX design. I ended up buying a remote that can program macros because my mother would always forget to hit "Pause" or "Home" before pressing the "Power" button. The macro works most of the time, but this is still such a bad design on Roku's part.

[AvsGunnar]

@keithadams 

The original design was to allow the Roku device to enter a "sleep" function after pushing the Home button to stop streaming.  The "Power" and "Volume" buttons were added to the remote to allow people to control their TV operations.  Since the Roku devices were really never meant to turn "Off", but rather enter a "Sleep" mode, the remote might make more sense to earlier adopters of the system.

Roku has added a new "Power Saving" feature to the newer Roku devices which will apparently powers down the unit now, but I am not sure it is actually working as intended on all devices.  Seems like some have had to disable this feature in order to get the device to boot back up.  Other than reminding people to remember to press the Home button on the device before powering down the TV or setting the "Bandwidth Saver" in Roku Settings..Network..Bandwidth Saver (4hr timer of inactivity), only other way of powering down the device would be to install a timer at the power outlet or simple circuit protection power strip that you can physically switch to off.  (Or use an alternate programmable remote, as you indicated.)

[keithadams]

I understand that it's better the Roku not power off. What I don't understand is why videos continue to play after hitting the power button. My original post and title probably caused that confusion, but the true heart of the problem is what I wrote in bold.

[AvsGunnar]

@keithadams 

The videos continue to stream after the Power Button is pressed because the Power button is strictly to Power On/Off the TV that the Roku device is connected to.  Similar to the Volume Buttons.  The Volume buttons control the TV volume up/down.  The Power and Volume buttons are marketed as TV controls (they do not control the Roku device, they control the TV only).

The Home button on the Roku Remote is basically the "Stop Streaming Now/Return to Home Screen" function.

If you own a RokuTV, then the Power button on that factory Remote performs the dual function of both stopping streaming and powering down the TV.  But on a Roku remote for a seperate attached Roku device connected to a TV via HDMI cable, the Home button is the only button that will stop streaming (stop videos from playing).

My Roku devices are plugged into power strips and I consistently power them down that way with my other equipment when I am finished with them.  Opinions may differ, but I have seen no official Roku support claiming adverse damage from merely unplugging them. (It is actually a suggested alternate method of rebooting in their support articles).   My devices aren't nearly as old as some on this forum, but haven't experienced a failure yet. 

[keithadams]

I appreciate the reply and additional info about shutting off Rokus via power strips, but I feel like the main intent behind my criticism is being ignored.

1. Do you want your media to keep playing when you turn off the TV?
2. Do you want media to be marked as watched when you're not watching it?
3. Do you prefer pressing 2 buttons buttons instead of 1 to stop watching on Roku?

I have to imagine a large majority would say NO to each question. If I'm correct, then it's a really poor design choice to let playback continue after pressing the power button. Unless it's impossible, I think it should be an option in Settings.

[keithadams]

Here are a few threads asking about the same thing:
Source
Source
Source
Source
Source
Source

[martinmarty]

This is an amazing and surprising discussion. It seemed like a simple question. Why doesn't the light turn off on my Roku when I turn off the power? I haven't even used it enough to realize that the media keeps playing.

I got a Roku Ultra two days ago. As a first-time Roku user, I expected the power button on the Roku remote to turn off the Roku which would implicitly stop playback. I thought it was a nice feature that it would also turn off the TV, but I expected this to happen via HDMI CEC like every other device I have hooked up.

I grok the example of listening to audio and wanting to turn off the TV. This also explains why hitting the power button on the Roku remote did not turn off the Roku or my audio amp. Thanks @Strega.

The evolutionary perspective given by @AvsGunnar makes total sense (thank you). Having not had prior Rokus where they were just dongles, possibly powered by USB from the TV and not actually needing "turned off", I would not initially appreciate why the power button would not turn off the power.

I've had other Android boxes and media boxes that I (intentionally) left turned on all the time just to avoid setup and video configuration hassles, so no big deal, and of course most of us, except for the guy with the power strip, leave our wall warts plugged in all the time and sucking electricity.

Roku could prevent this confusion and arguing if they put one sentence in the Quick Start Guide or in the nearly useless but plentiful built-in help/training videos. They engineered a purple Roku tag with no apparent function sticking out of the remote and the device. Perhaps they could engineer a sticky note on the remote that says the power button is only for the TV, not the Roku, so don't expect it to turn off.

Just as they evolved the remote to include a power button presumably to make customers happy, perhaps they could also evolve the firmware to include an option that the power button should also return the Roku to Home and/or put it in a standby state (or at least turn off the LED to make us feel all warm and fuzzy) and/or send an HDMI CEC command to turn off the rest of the rig.

The reasons for the way it is now seem as sound as the reasons for wanting to change it, so configurable options would be my preference. The audio playback scenario does not apply to me at this time but keeping the option available would be a good thing.

Thanks for all the posts. At least I know my new Roku is not defective.

p.s. I noticed that in the AMZ page for this device, where I bought mine, the picture of the remote actually shows the power button as "TV Power", so they were trying to tell me!