Solving playback issues

[MBnAz]

I have read many posts tried everything I can but still nothing works for me.

Been messing on and off with this for a couple of weeks now.

Roku Ultra powers on, Roku logo comes on for a few seconds then the screen goes black.

I have tried the Roku on two different TV's, Panasonic 1080p plasma and a Samsung 720p led.

I have tried multiple HDMI cables.

Both do the same thing. The Panasonic says the Roku is not sending a signal.

I read one post that says you can go into the settings of the device and download a fix.

How am I supposed to get into the settings when I can not see the screen ?

Any help would be appreciated as I have spent way too much time trying to fix something that was probably caused by update that the device downloaded.

[Chris212]

I am having the same issue.  Black screen or error that there's no signal to Roku. 

[MBnAz]

Been messing with this for two weeks.
Tried all of the suggestions that I could find.
But when you can not see the screen it is hard to do anything.
ROKU screwed the pooch on this with an update.
Not sure why they could not send and update out to the devices to address this issue.

Sent as email to Support to see if I can get an answer since I can find nothing useful in the Community Forums.
Not real happy with ROKU right now and if I can not get this working in the next few days the trash bin is its destination.

[atc98092]

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@MBnAz wrote:

Been messing with this for two weeks.
Tried all of the suggestions that I could find.
But when you can not see the screen it is hard to do anything.
ROKU screwed the pooch on this with an update.
Not sure why they could not send and update out to the devices to address this issue.

Sent as email to Support to see if I can get an answer since I can find nothing useful in the Community Forums.
Not real happy with ROKU right now and if I can not get this working in the next few days the trash bin is its destination.

---

Roku doesn't have a public email address for support, so it's very possible you have emailed a scam site. Please be very cautious if they do respond. Don't provide them any personal information, and if they ask for payment it absolutely is NOT Roku support.

Is this a brand new Roku that won't work, or was it working in the past but suddenly failed? If it's new it is certainly possible you received a bad unit. If it's been working before, it might have failed to properly install an update. If it's new, return it for a replacement. I had a Roku Insignia TV that was bad, but the replacement has worked fine for years now. 

If it was working, and everything else you've tried hasn't worked, the last thing to try is a hard factory reset. You do this by finding the recessed reset button somewhere on the player and hold it in for a minimum of 30 seconds. Ignore anything happening on the screen, keep holding the button until more than 30 seconds has passed. If that clears the problem, you should be back on the initial setup screen you get when it first comes out of the box. Try to set it up again, and if it fails again, or you never get to the setup screen at all, then the box has likely failed. Depending on its age and model, Roku might still be willing to work with you, as they have a pretty good warranty. Just contact @RokuDanny-R or @RokuTannerD via private message with your account and player details. Please don't post your personal email address or anything else like that here in the forum, as it's one way the scammers try to make you think they are the real Roku support. Remember, Roku support will never ask for a payment of any kind. There's no charge for registering a device, there's no limit to how many devices you can have on an account, and they do NOT charge for providing support. 

[MBnAz]

You can email ROKU support through the ROKU website, it is one of three options to contact support.

The problem is the device downloaded and installed the an update when I powered it on last week and turned it into a brick.

There are many posts on the Community Forum about this being an issue.

Looks to me as the device is having an issue putting out 1080p60 video or auto detecting the HDMI Display type.

The supposed fix is to go into the settings and manually do a update to fix the Roku.

Problem is how do you get into the settings to do an update when you can see the screen ?

[atc98092]

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@MBnAz wrote:

You can email ROKU support through the ROKU website, it is one of three options to contact support.

The problem is the device downloaded and installed the an update when I powered it on last week and turned it into a brick.

There are many posts on the Community Forum about this being an issue.

Looks to me as the device is having an issue putting out 1080p60 video or auto detecting the HDMI Display type.

The supposed fix is to go into the settings and manually do a update to fix the Roku.

Problem is how do you get into the settings to do an update when you can see the screen ?

---

There's been so many people getting scammed by someone claiming to be Roku support, I had to make sure where you got the address.

If the Roku is connected to the network, it will do an auto-update automatically within 24 hours or so. So you could wait to see if it will self-resolve the issue. The problem is, since you can't see anything you don't know if it's actually working but not outputting the correct video signal. I hate recommending a hard factory reset unless there's no other option, but that might be something to consider. But if a hard reset doesn't work, then yeah it's likely bricked. If you haven't already, you sould send a PM to either @RokuDanny-R or @RokuTannerD . They seem to really want to help, and can reach out to the support staff to look for your email and get a resolution. 

[dickuch]

Just brought one i have the same problem spent all day trying to fix it ? dont no what to do help please ? or its going in the bin ?

[dickuch]

did you try resetting the Roku device  the hole in the device at back ?

[MReDD05]

Hey Guys,

Not sure if this helps anyone, but after experiencing this issue on several sticks at a friends house I decided to do some lab testing, info, test, and results are below:

Displays

Primeview 55” Ultra-Snello Videowall Display - This is 1080p at the glass but with EDID of 4K and supports daisy chaining, so the setup was two displays high by two displays wide showing an overall image of 4K.

Samsung 55” Curved 4K Smart Tv

Sharp 720p HDMI Capable HDCP Not Supported Display

Network

Cisco Miraki Wireless

Cisco 48 Port PoE Plus Gigabit Switch

TP-Link 3 Station Home Mesh Network System

Monitor

AMD Radeon Capture Software

Advanced IP Scanner

Internal Display Monitor

Fluke Video SpectroAnalyzer

Roku

A total of 25 Roku Sticks were order for this test, we spoke with the distributor to see if they had five of each from the same production runs for a total of five units from five runs. Unfortunately, they were not able to do that, but they did their best.

Tests

Displays

Primeview

When I tested, it worked fine, no issues with display. When I forced a crash after figuring that out (this will be explained below), it came back up after a factory reset no problem.

Samsung

Same as Primeview.

Sharp

This is where it got interesting, it worked natively initially, but after forcing a crash and doing a factory reset, I found the following: during the autodetect portion of the settings you HAVE to wait for the HDCP detection, if you do not, the roku automatically assumes HDCP and the SpectroAnalyzer registered it as “An incomplete video signal detected.” At this point a factory reset does not work. Here’s the catch, it does not work on that display, connect it to an HDCP compliant display, factory reset, complete the setup, disconnect it, plug it into the non HDCP display, and you are good to go.

Network

Cisco Miraki network worked great, but at the point of getting too far away, the IP connection would bounce on and offline which, at the 5th time in a 1 minute period, the network blacklisted it until it had a more stable connection. Upon reconnecting the Roku had no problem Coming back online.

TP-Link Mesh

When I attempted this on the configuration side, I had the Primary unit connected directly to the inbound network connection off the firewall receives it from the modem, I then plugged in and set up wirelessly the second approx 20 ft. Away in the room below, and the third was connected in the bedroom approx 40 ft away with five standard sheet rock walls in between. With this setup everything worked fine, but I found that if I moved the third station further and further away, the connection to the third wireless station would keep bouncing in and out intermittently. The key here (and keep in mind this is a home mesh network) the roku stick maintained its connection to the base. In this way, I could initiate an update, but with the station jumping on and offline, the roku appeared to think it was still connected, would received from the data packet flow and tracking and doing the same with a roku connected to a solid connection by the primary base station, the stick would initiate the update which would essentially be a corrupted file and this would cause a crash regardless of what display it was connected to. A factory reset would fix this issue, but connected to that same node in the same location with the issue of the node dropping on and off the network, after 10 attempts, I had 1 that was successful.

Power

For my own amusement, I used a controlled power converter and overloaded the power to the roku. It shut right down so surges do affect it, best to connect it direct to your display of you have that option as the display is more resistant to surges. I do have to say though, after a couple minutes it would power on and function. ***Please note, I did not emulate a lightning strike, it was more of a slight jump you would see from the inrush of power while turning a generator on. An additional note on power, the Roku being on a different phase as the display had no effect with a voltage variance of 20 volts.

Capture Card

Works if you Strip HDCP, but wouldn’t recommend it and it violates content laws and, I believe, Roku’s user agreement. Hey, was worth a shot.

SpectroAnalyzer

Finally, true to their word, they can output signals according to their specifications, which is not always the case with, ahem, certain manufapplers.

Failure

Unfortunately, short of purposely opening the unit, overloading the power, rewriting or corrupting the software, or opening it and just breaking it, I was unable to emulate a total failed device or fault device so I cannot speak to this.

Overview

Overall, the units work and they work well, they are very durable, and a fairly reasonable price compared to a smart TV. 

The Numbers

We had a fun time with this project after reading this thread and quite a few others so we decided to take on the challenge of the Roku black screen issue. I truly hope the results help you even though they are not complete comprehensive tests, they are a little more in depth than we have seen and address external factors outside of roku that could be affecting the outcome. Now for the numbers:

5 Personnel

341 Total Hours

5000 Ft F/STP Category 6 Cable

82 Shielded RJ-45

82 Category 6 RJ-45 Boots (We figured why not at this point)

32 UTP Category 6 Patch Cables

14 Extension Cords (This one shocked us)

6 120V 15A Electrical Circuits (Spread three on one phase and three on a separate phase)

And the grand finale

34 Delivery Orders From The Same Pizza Parlor

@atc98092 @MBnAz @UserDanny @RokuTannerD 

[MReDD05]

Sorry guys, one of my guys recommended I provide some additional information that is below: 

if you have two sticks and two monitors you can put side-by-side, set it up, use the remote and you can do a hard reset on both of them if the one that is not working is not connected to the network. If it is then wait 24 hours. If it is not connected and new out-of-the-box, you can put them side-by-side use a single remote and use the working one to guide you through the factory reset. It is a very tedious process, we had about a 50% success rate when operating normally, but when we slowed it down to three seconds in between button presses, muted the TV on the working Roku, and turn the volume up on the one that was experiencing issues, you can hear the button presses to confirm that they went through.

additionally, we did not test this but in theory it’s possible, if you do a hard power cycle on your display by physically pulling out the power plug waiting 10 seconds and then plugging it back in it is possible it will re-initiate a sync with the display and rocky as long as it is powered on and connected to the display the entire time. I sincerely apologize that we did not test this as it is a known fix for other devices as the display will reinitiate the EDID link effectively driving the roku to send out a new signal.