*Official* Roku 3 Streaming Player Thread - Page 7

How do you suppose the audio gets to my car radio?


I have multiple RF remotes in my house and none of them are compatible with each other. Folks have been reporting that the RF remote that comes with the Roku 3 is quicker then many universal IR remotes that people are used to.


Quit whining, the Roku 3 uses an RF remote that uses WiFi direct to communicate. This isn't rocket science, give folks some credit.

Quite right - WiFi (including WiFi Direct) and Bluetooth are radio frequency (RF) protocols but based on different IEEE 2.4 GHz standards (OK WiFi also supports 5GHz as well as 2.4GHz)

There is some effort to standardize for RF remote controls around another 2.4 GHz protocol RF4CE based on IEEE 802.15.4 http://www.zigbee.org/Specifications/ZigBeeRF4CE/Overview.aspx

Playon has regular hulu and it works fairly well. Not HD by any means but the content is much batter than the pay Hulu. Plus it has lots of channels available that are not on Roku but are on cable /sat. Playon is not too expensive, but is not free.

My Roku3 , using WiFi, direct selected a channel in the 5Ghz range that one of my APs was already using. I had to force it to use an other channel. I got the Roku 3 remote to use channel 165. When it was using the same channel as my AP my throughput from my devices got cut a lot. And the link speed from each device was basically cut i nhalf. So instead of my devices having a 200Mb/s to 300Mb/s link rate, they all were under 150Mb/s. Which meant the throughput would have been half. Once I got the Roku3 remote on a different channel, I went back to the higher throughput. My laptop could then go back to a 300Mb/s linkrate and getting 150Mb/s throughput speeds over wireless when downloading content from online. Almost as good as my wired connections 155Mb/s download speeds.

Now for clarification it sounds like you are you talking about the WiFi direct connection to the remote not the WiFi connection between the Roku 3 and your router.

I don't have a Roku 3 so maybe both use the same channel and frequency - or maybe you are connected wired and so the router question is irrelevant.

I have seen some speculate that using WiFi direct for the RF remote protocol may be more likely than Bluetooth Low Energy (or RF4CE) to cause interference with other devices on the local WiFi network - it sounds like you are confirming this.

WiFi Direct uses WiFi (11g, n or a) with some protocols for forming ad hoc connections between devices without joining a wireless network through a router or access point. The Roku 3 boxes show up as WPA2 protected networks on scans.

Understood - but the question is if the 'ad hoc connections between devices without joining a wireless network through a router or access point' uses channels and causes interference with the main Wireless LAN - it sounds like aaronwt is seeing this.

Being WiFi it has to use WiFi channels, making it possible that it will use a channel that you're using. I wouldn't have guessed that it'd interfere as much as aaronwt describes.

Then that makes the term WiFi Direct a much better term to use than RF.

Yes I am talking about the WiFi Direct connection to the remote. I have my Roku3 connected over a wired connection. I was concerned because instead of picking an open channel it picked the same channel that my AP was using(at the time 5Ghz channel 40). But I understand that if I were also using wireless for the data connection that they would both be using the same channel and that is probably why it is setup that way. Fortunately I was able to force WiFi direct to use a different channel(5Ghz channel 165). Which would not be possible if I were using a wireless connection also for it's data. It means that I always need to use a the wired data connection on my Roku 3. Since it slowed everything down from my wireless devices when the WiFi Direct was using the same channel as my AP.

apologies for posting this here but I felt I would get an answer here quickest. How many simultaneous streams does HBOGO allow per account?
Edited by synistr - 3/27/13 at 10:44am

How do you force Wifi direct to use a different channel?

First off I'm using the wired Ethernet connection on my Roku3. Then I changed my closest Ap to channel 161. I rebooted my Roku 3 and when it finished booting it was using channel 165. I then put my AP on channel 40. And so far the Roku 3 has stayed on channel 165 for theWiFI Direct. I shouldn't have an issue again until the box is rebooted. Then it will probably go back to using channel 40. Then I will just need to use the same procedure to get the WiFi direct on another channel.

The only thing I have besides the Roku which connects at 5 Ghz for WiFi Direct is my iPod Touch which does not tell you the channels the AP's are on.

I am on my laptop. Just see how bad my neighborhood is. My AP is WiFi_Tony with 66 other AP networks.

Now you see why I have to run my iPod Touch on 5 Ghz and any 2.4 Ghz only device I have to run wired including my laptop.
Also although my Roku 3 has 5 Ghz I still connect it wired to a Monoprice switch since it right on my desk.

What is the name of that program you used for that graphic? I've used it before but don't recall the name. Thanks.

inSSIDer.

See the following link for more info and other apps: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-howto/31656-it-takes-a-neighborhood-to-fix-bad-wireless.

SmallNetBuilder is a great place for info on things wireless.

Thanks!

I like "WiFi Analyzer". I use it on my Android phone and tablets. It's come in very handy at work and at home.

Too bad there is nothing for the iPod Touch. Thanks to Apples boneheaded moves there are no real Wifi scanners and the build in scanner tells you nothing and Apple still never updates it. All I can find in the appstore are useless Wifi scanners that are just databases to find a hotspot in McDonalds that probably is not there. I know the only way is to jailbreak but I refuse to ever do that.

So, instead of doing a simple 5 minute jailbreak, you would rather just complain about the situation? That makes no sense to me...

I have my reasons not to jailbreak. It voids your warranty is one. Another is that your device can get infected. If Apple would just update there wifi scanner. Not going to jailbreak over one app.

dang reddice... 66 other ap networks???
i use dd-wrt and a yagi antenna to get wifi to my shop and can find 5 wireless networks, 2 of which are mine

Is there a Roku channel that can access C-Span's Video Archive?

Oh man. Oh man.

I hate to be the turd in the punchbowl, but JEEZ-O-PETE, I'm disappointed with the PQ of my Roku 3. Absolutely crushed.

I was looking to dump my overpriced U-verse, so that is my frame of reference. I guess the bar was set too high. On my 100 inch projection screen, the Roku PQ is soft and dark.

When I discovered that I was in 720 instead of 1080, I sighed with relief. But then... Nope. 1080 still sucks.

Is there anything that I can do about the PQ? Am I missing something obvious? I think I have a 12Mbps-down ISDN connection. Does more bandwidth equate to a better picture? If I chain through one of those new pixel multiplier boxes would it help?

Or is it just a case of "You wanted free content, Copernicus, that's the resolution you get for free." ?

I'm sitting at my desk and it finally dawns on me.

It's not the Roku.

It's the various networks who package their streaming content, isn't it? It's the people at CNN and Fox and CBS who digitize the picture, right?

Are you speaking to the menus and such, or specifically content streamed from any of the apps. I have a Roku 2, and even when using Plex wired to my media server, generally the picture quality isn't the best..........but then again, you are viewing it at about 2x the screen size I am. Even my very large mkv files streamed from my mac mini look I would say just about average.

it's all about available/allocated bandwidth from the content providers, so basically yes is the answer to your question.

Have you tried calibrating the display for the Roku? Each device can be different. I know on my displays I can't use the same settings I use for my BD players with my Rokus. The picture would be a little dark.

Yes, more bandwidth equals better picture, to a point. 12 Mbps is more than enough for most services; I believe that VUDU's HDX video is currently the highest bit rate content at 9 Mbps. But just because your service has a nominal rate of 12 Mbps doesn't mean that you'll get that on your connections to the providers.

What are you watching? The best PQ on Roku comes from services like Netflix, VUDU, Amazon, Hulu Plus and HBO Go. I personally don't use the free stuff; a lot of that which I've sampled isn't of the greatest quality. If you want to see the best that Roku 3 can do, install the VUDU channel, run it and play one of the freebies at HDX quality. (You may have to create an account to do this, though you don't have to to view freebies on the web site). Wreck it Ralph has a few free featurettes and Rise of the Guardians has a great 8 minute extended preview. (You might first select the My VUDU tab, drill down to Info & Settings and run the Network Speed Test; that will tell you if you can sustain the 9 Mbps required for 3 bar HDX).