*Official* Roku 2 Media Streamer Thread - Page 13

Sort of got my Roku 2 XS hooked up, what a pain. connected to my uverse router it will not connect to the internet. Doing a search I found someone with a similar problem that was able to connect via his laptop with network sharing enabled. Bingo it connected. Not that I really want it running through my laptop to connect, but it worked. Anyone here have the same issue? Have not read through the entire thread.

Other issue is black levels, appears there was a lot of discussion of this in the past. Mine look like crap. I connect via my Onkyo 806 receiver to my Sammy 50" plasma and the images on Netflix are very washed out, any suggestions?

Lots of content, looks like fun to play with when I get time.

The issue with black levels, which was fixed in a software update a few months ago, was the opposite of yours--black levels used to be set as if the Roku was going to connect to a PC monitor, so images appeared overly dark.

I waited to buy the Roku 2 XS until this problem was corrected. I have good color range in HD material--not too bright, and plenty of detail in the dark areas. I have a Samsung LCD set.

Do you still have the problem if you connect the Roku directly to your TV?

Did you adjust the "Picture Adjust" settings in the receiver? Even though I had video set to passthrough (706 receiver) I found I had to make some adjustments for certain sources, brightness in particular.

All,

Still waffling around about getting the 2XS. Already have Netflix but am thinking about signing up for Amazon Prime to get their streamed content (plus free 2nd day shipping). Got an email yesterday from Roku saying that they have updated the Amazon UI. Anyone have thoughts on the new UI and/or general info on Amazon streaming?

TIA
Charlie

I too have pass through, in fact I disabled all processing, too much impact on the image.

So far I'm not impressed with the Roku2. Black levels are too high, can't connect via CAT5 - that's two strikes....

Your black level problem is rare. And the Roku 2 XS does connect to a router via CAT5--you must have bought a model that didn't suit your needs.

Oops - posted this on the old thread so reposting it here because it's about Roku 2...
While I wait for 11 AM PST to arrive and hope I can get a Roku support rep on the screen in chat... can any of you tell me if you've had an issue like the one I'm experiencing with my new Roku XD 2? I've had a Roku XR for over one year and use it with FIOS (guaranteed 10/5 but lately the speed test has been showing a 15 Mbps download speed) and a 720P HDMI output to a 61" Samsung DLP. With HD content the picture quality (in terms of resolution) often exceeds DVD quality and gets close to decent Blu-ray resolution. I set up the new XD 2 last night and it is supposed to output at 1080P. Picture quality looks about like an old VHS tape - noticeably soft and fuzzy. My girlfriend, who is not the critical viewer that I am, noticed the image degradation immediately. It's not subtle. I assume they will be obligated to give me a refund but it doesn't make sense. Is the encoding/decoding different with the new device? I have waited for more than 30 seconds to see if the image quality adaptively improved but it did not.

My Ethernet works great on the Roku2, not sure why it's not working for you. Unless you got a lower model without Ethernet, which wouldn't be a strike against the Roku2.

Also, black levels were off when it first came out (black crush), but a couple updates later they are spot-on.

I always had my XR connect via wireless 802.1n and at 720P it's been stable, solid as a rock and excellent picture quality. My upstairs Roku does not have wireless and connects directly to the router via Cat 5 but the picture quality is no better. Both of the older units deliver a stellar picture. The router is in an upstairs bedroom directly above the downstairs theater room and signal strength shows as excellent. It's hard to fathom why they would introduce poorer wireless performance in a newer generation product. I think it's something else but don't know what.

I'll rephrase the question: have any of you gone from a Roku that had 720P output to one with 1080P output and found that picture quality decreased instead of improving?

phaelon56:

Not everything outputs at 1080. What channel were you watching?

Another thing is you are at the mercy of wireless signal. Do you have a notebook with wireless capability to check speed tests from that spot where the Roku sits? Sometimes a reposition of the Roku box can make a big difference. Higher up and less obstructions around it are better.

No, I got the Angry Birds special edition of the XS with Ethernet port and improved remote. I'm using a Uverse router and my large network all works fine except the XS. Now, if I connect it to my laptop and enable connection sharing it works fine, just not directly connected to my network. Weird. I really want this issue resolved but the holidays are intruding-- I'm open to suggestions.

Thinking about one of these. Can anyone comment about playing files from a thumb drive? Also, anyone using plex?

If you are watching Netflix, that is what they call adaptive streaming... it takes 30seconds to a minute to upgrade to the best image. What happens is that you are started at the lowest resolution, and then upgraded to the next best until you reach your signal max. If you fast forward, it will happen again (I don't believe it will if you pause). So, that might be what you are seeing.

Merry Christmas to all, I'm enjoying a crackling fire and listening to jazz Christmas music via the holiday channel on my Roku XS.

PS Netflix has a good fire and music program as well.

And a belated Solstice to you.

I can't comment on playing files from a USB drive, but I use PLex. In fact, probably the No. 1 reason I got my 2 Rokus' is to stream from my Plex server to the bedrooms.

And up until last weeks latest Roku 2 FW update it was great. Then Roku pushed their latest update and it has really fudged things up.

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/...ure-artifacts/

Hopefully some action is/will be taken soon to get things back to normal, but right now I cannot give a thumbs up to the Roku 2 for Plex streaming.

I wish I could, as they have a easy to use interface that even my GF hasn't a problem with.

Unfortunately not if you check the ROKU forums.

I was a vehement advocate to get the original problem with crushed blacks with the ROKU 2 (HDMI RGB sent as full 0 - 255) fixed. It was and now looks great on my main TV.

Unfortunately it seems some HDTVs (some Samsungs and Vizios models are referenced on the ROKU forums) have problems with HDMI RGB limited (15 - 235) and therefore look washed out with the latest firmware. These HDTVs are evidently are outside of the HDMI spec - but they exist and a lot of people use them.

I have no idea why ROKU didn't use YCbCr for the ROKU 2 like pretty much every other consumer playback device

Roku 2 XS will NOT work with my Sony KV-34XBR800 using an HDMI to DVI adapter. I've tried several adapters and cables. I was upgrading from the Roku N1000 which worked fine using the DVI adapter.

I also have a Roku XDS (2100X) which I connected to see if it would work via HDMI to DVI. And it also worked!

Alas, the Roku 2 would not work. My TV manual says it supports HDCP through the DVI input.

All I got was a black screen. No bootup screen. Nothing.

Not buying a new TV just to play Angry Birds.

That's odd...that's how my setup is hdmi to dvi and it works pretty well. It will infrequently loose signal and go to a blank screen like you are getting. What works for me is disconnect cable, power down both tv and roku, connect cable turn tv on the plug Roku2 back in to power, it has never failed to get signal back

Couple of questions. I have been pondering cutting cable for awhile now but the only reason i dont is the wife and kids still watch tv, So my questions are

1. is there good cartoon channels, and do they function like a normal cartoon channel with shows switching every 30 minutes or so like a live stream?

2. is there any cooking channels?

There are channels that show cartoons and cooking, but I haven't found any channels that just stream this stuff. They send segments to you on demand. The cartoons I have found, outside of the Disney channel, are very old public domain material in really foggy condition. The cooking segments are very brief. You would run out of cooking material very quickly.

There used to be a "Food Network Night Time" private channel, but it shut down about a month ago.

Didn't really have much on it anyway, though.

The only thing I watch is Netflix streaming and on occasion stuff that I rent or buy from Amazon. I got nowhere with their support folks on the phone or on instant chat but finally checked the Roku Settings menu and discovered that it defaults to 720P unless you set it differently. When I first changed it to 1080P and tried the same content there was no improvement but then I found a post somewhere mentioning that the new unit does less buffering than the old one and that image quality starts out a bit rough and then improves over 20 to 30 seconds. I actually found that I had to watch for about 2 minutes before it stabilizes at max resolution. With some content (e.g. Sons of Anarchy, Monk or Toy Story 3) there is a subtle but discernible improvement in the resolution of fine detail. With some other content I see no difference between 720P and 1080P. With my older unit if the supply network became congested the unit would, on rare occasions, stop showing the content and go into a re-buffering mode until it caught up. That happened perhaps one or twice in every hundred hours or more of viewing - not very much. The new unit appears to use some sort of adaptive or variable bit rate scheme instead of buffering. Every now and then (far more often than once or twice in a hundred hours of use) I see the image soften to a lower resolution for 30 seconds or so and then get crisp again. I'm still on the fence about whether I think this is much of an improvement from the previous model. I doubt that wireless strength is much of an issue. I always show good to excellent signal strength in this room and sped test on a laptop clocks at 10 to 15 Mbps consistently.

There won't be enough content to make them happy probably. The three limits are Cartoons, Sports, and DIY/HGTV/Food content.

Cartoons, there are plenty on netflix, but they are older or not as plentiful. Some would say by DVD sets with the money you are saving.

Sports, very few for the full on sports fan, for those who are occasional watchers might be satisfied with what is OTA.

Food/DIY Shows; I use the computer as my DVR and record Hometime and Ask this Old House on PBS. The Food Network has shows on their website, and they really aren't about cooking anymore (and those kind of shows can be found on PBS and Livewell which is often a subchannel). Those shows on FoodNetwork are about ENJOYING food. Cooking channel is now about cooking. HGTV/DIY also have shows on their website and we tend to watch there.

So, you might be able to win over the wife, but the kids might be tough. Then again, you might decide that they have had enough TV after an hour or so of watching and you'd be fine cutting the cord. But most parents wouldn't do that.

I have just spent all day, and part of yesterday trying to set up a Roku 3 XS my wife got me for Christmas. Turns out it doesn't play well with my particular router. Once I finally got it hooked up (to the standard def tv in the bedroom) my wife wasn't happy with the fact there was no YouTube channel and the audio on Pandora was horrible. I think I will keep it though, maybe put it in the back room to play around with, and then whenever the day comes that I upgrade my living room HDTV I'll stick it in here.

I too spent the day battling with my Roku. Finally got it set up on the wired connection as I wanted and paid extra for. Unfortunately I had to redo my entire network setup, no small feat. I had specified an address range in my Uverse router and under no circumstances would the Roku ever connect to the internet, find the local network, yes, internet no.

I have many, many items on my network, 20 at last count, and most have static addresses. The only way I could get the Roku to connect was to change the base address from the standard 198.168.x.x to 10.0.x.x. Of course this entails me resetting virtually EVERY other item on my network, major pain. Side benefit was one other net enabled item now works too after all the redo.

Roku and Uverse were of ZERO help as expected.

Now, if something could be done about the crappy black levels, I might be a happy Roku user.

I love my Roku (have two of them), and the youtube channel that used to be on it was great... most of us have hope something will be worked out and a new channel put out at some point (though it has been awhile).

I had no issues with my rokus, either wireless or wired, but it is a common complaint, and it seems with cable modems. I wonder if their DNS servers purposely make it tough... (my own speculation).

What was wrong with the Pandora Channel? I'm assuming you mean the Roku2 and that the Roku3 wasn't just released.
But with Pandora on the Roku2 it should sound identical to Pandora from other devices.

yes it should. It should sound equally as poor as it does on all my gear. I can't tell from the users post if they have a technical problem with the device or with the poor quality audio pandora provides. can't say I am a big fan of pandora because of the later but that doesn't stop everyone else form loving it.

Is this really any surprise? Pandora quality is probably equal to what many people use on their portable music devices.

But ultimately it's about the convenience. And that is why I use Pandora. Plus it's still free. I used to use LastFM since their quality was better, but then they kept saying I needed to pay to use it. So now I use Pandora.