Solving playback issues

[Carl_G]

I see the behavior start happening when I use Netflix, which is the only streaming service I use that "autoplays" videos.  The odd behavior happens with any Netflix content (TV and Movies).  To reproduce the problem, select a video from the main Netflix screen.  Then, let the synopsis screen begin to fade out while the video begins to "autostart".  Change the selection to the "Episodes & More".  Then use the "Back" button to get to the synopsis screen.  Usually, the video will try to continue ("autoplaying"). Immediately use the "Back" button again to get to the "Main" screen or selecting another synopsis screen item other than running the video.  Then repeat this with a different video.  After doing this a few times, the videos will start to act up (skipping, freezing, running an earlier selected video, etc.).  The above steps seem to consistently produce a problem, but not always the same one.  If I exit Netflix and immediately start another app (e.g., Prime), sometimes the new app exhibits problems (as if the video buffer memory was not being released).  If I reboot the Roku (e.g., unplug and plug it in) and restart Netflix, the issues disappear until I repeat the interruptions of the autostarts.   My Roku device is about 10 meters from the router.  If I let the autoplaying video run until the synopsis screen is completely gone for about 30 seconds, then stop the video and use the "Back" button to get back to the synopsis screen, it does not seem to cause as many issues.  It's the interruption that seems to be causing the issues.  If I were debugging the Netflix app, I would begin by checking for memory leaks and thread problems.

[RokuJohnB]

Hi @Carl_G,

Thank you for the additional information!

We will be more than happy to assist you further with this issue that you are having with the Netflix channel. Please try the troubleshooting steps below.

• Remove the channel: Highlight the channel tile on your home screen and press Star to open the Options menu. Select Remove channel and confirm.
• Restart your Roku device: Press home on your Roku remote, select settings, select system, and system restart.
• Re-install the channel: Scroll down to search, put the name of the channel or app, highlight the channel, and select add channel.

Let us know how it works, and we will continue to assist you further.

Best regards,
John

[Carl_G]

I uninstalled the Netflix channel, reset and restarted the Roku device, and reinstalled the Netflix channel (including having to reenter the Netflix and WiFi info).  I then tested Netflix by selecting a "LEGO" video series and while it started to autorun, selected "Episodes & More", then immediately exited "Episodes and More" using the back button, to return to the synopsis screen, where the video "autorun" immediately restarted.  I repeated selecting "Episodes & More" a few more times, exiting with the "back" button each time.  Finally, I exited to the Main screen using the back button (never letting the autostarted video get to point where the synopsis menu goes away).  The user interface started to act up (slow execution, jerky behavior, etc.).  I then selected the menu item to exit Netflix, and for about one second, the LEGO video played before exiting (including sound).  This sure does have the characteristics of one or more video threads not being terminated when I exited the synopsis screen.  If the threads were properly terminated, then the second of video upon leaving Netflix would never occur. 

Note: I purposely interrupted the autorun several times to check the apps ability to handle thread termination and memory reclamation.  From what I have read in user complaints, almost all of their issues could be explained by a thread or video processor programming mistake.  The issues would seem intermittent, and appear to be "fixed" by restarting the Roku, only to reappear later.  This is because people are unaware that the issue is caused by interrupting the autostart.  The easiest solution is to remove autostart completely from the synopsis screen, since trying to keep the user interface threads and video threads from having conflicts needs careful programming.