Wi-Fi & connectivity

[onebithead]

I have two 5GHz capable Roku devices but am struggling with identifying the exact 5GHz channels they support. From reading other posts (outside this community) it seems that older 5GHz 802.11n Roku players are limited to non DFS channels 36-48,149-161. Do the newer 802.11ac models have the same limitation? Are these specs posted anywhere?

If all the Roku players are limited to eight channels, are there any Roku product managers monitoring the community threads that can address this for future products? I would be highly surprised if the 802.11ac radios used in the current players have this limitation so I'm guessing the channels are limited in software for some reason. In the current state, the 5Ghz capable Roku players are blind to 17 5GHz channels which are commonly used in all higher-educational environments where these players will be deployed.

[atc98092]

So far, all Roku 5GHz capable devices do not support DFS channels. There's been talk about changing it, but so far it's not happening. Since DFS channels are restricted in power levels (half the power) permitted in many regions (including the US and Canada) it's probably simpler for Roku to just not use those channels instead of having to deal with the lower power levels and the lower connectivity issues that would go along with it. 

And there's 12 channels on 5 GHz that Roku devices can use, not eight. 

[atc98092]

I was provided an update from someone that knows Roku devices better than I do. Apparently Roku added DFS channel support starting with OS 12.0 for the devices that use the latest Realtek 13xx chips, That's starting with the Ultra 4800, and includes the latest 4K Streaming Stick and the Express 4K. No idea if any Roku TV supports them, since we don't know what hardware is used in the TVs. 

[onebithead]

Whoops, forgot to count 149-161 🙂 Thank you for correcting me...

For most homes this not an issue so I fully understand Roku taking this path as most customers will only have one AP. I have eight so I'm not a typical customer 🙂 Not a big deal, as I can quickly create a new AP group and remove the UNNI 2E and ISM channels for a few APs.

Thanks again for your help!

[onebithead]

That's really good to know as I do have a 4K device but its wired. I will need to take some OTA captures and see what channels it actually scans..

Thanks again for your help!

[atc98092]

Yeah, I have a few APs in my home as well. Just added a mesh system, so testing that out. I now have an AP within four feet of my Premiere, and it's still only reporting about a 20 Mbps connection. But that's a hardware limitation on that particular Roku, especially since it's 2.4 GHz only. My Ultra 4800 is only a few feet away from a 802.11ac AP, and it reports 230 Mbps, which is more than double the possible speed using Ethernet on it. But I've also tested the Ultra using fixed bit rate videos over the USB connection, and it can't play a 250 Mbps video without buffering. So that's the limit using existing hardware for them. It can still play my UHD movie rips from my DLNA server, which has average bit rates of around 80 Mbps, with peaks exceeded 150. 

[makaiguy · Accepted solution]

In Roku OS version 12.0 DFS channel support was added for those models equipped with Realtek 13xx chips.  Per the Wikipedia Chart at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku#Feature_comparison, those models are:
 •   Streaming Stick 4K/4k+ (3820/3821)
 •   Express 4K/4k+ (3940/3941)
 •   Ultra/Ultra LT (4800/4801)

[urban_crawler]

Is there some trick to getting DFS to work on a 4800x running 12.0?  Like a factory reset?  It still can't connect to any DFS channels for me.

[OwnerofDevices]

@urban_crawleryou need to have a router that supports DFS channels and you need to make sure that DFS is enabled on your router. I bought my router from my ISP Verizon fios which has DFS on by default. Some ISP'S don't offer DFS router's for rent like Xfinity.

[onebithead]

I work for a Wi-Fi vendor so DFS support is not an issue 🙂