Why is my Roku rubbish?

[blueST]

Ive had years of trouble free service from Google Chromecasts, but since Netflix stopped supporting Chromecasting on the lower subscription tiers I bought a Roku stick. It ran ok for a few weeks, but has slowly become a stuttering, laggy, buffering, frustrating mess. Are they all like this or is something wrong with mine?

[John D.]

Somethings wrong. Ours is 3yrs old and never done that.

[blueST]

Strange then, its only the base 1080p model, but its become boarder line unusable.

[LunarOne]

I've had two Roku 3 pucks for more than 10 years and they both work fine. These days apps have become so big that they need an SD card inserted or else you have to wait for apps to load if you switch between services. Yes, they're 1080p only but I don't own a 4K TV so it's irrelevant. They also work fine as chromecast receivers or as Apple screen mirroring receivers. I'd suggest that you either have a faulty unit, or that your wifi might not be up to scratch. In the settings menu there is an internet speed test you can run. Have you tried it?

[blueST]

WiFi speed has always been good in the house. Can stream on multiple devices no problem and the Chromecast that was in place before the Roku never had a problem. Its not just buffering either, its getting delayed response to remote inputs when navigating the menus and occasionally briefly locks up completely.

[heisthegaffer]

I have and have had loads of Rokus over the years. In my experience they can be temperamental.

I sent 1 back, the top of the range 4k stick because it kept freezing, I suspect due to heat. The replacement was the lower spec 4k which has been fine dor years.


I also had another whcih suddenly lost the ability to connect to wifi, again, i think heat killed it.

Yours souns screwed so id get it replaced. We have 4 in the house which are all good except for 1 which can be a bit laggy.

[LunarOne]

You haven't told us which Roku stick you have - but it sounds like you have a bad one!

[blueST]

Its just the basic 1080p stick one, current model, i dont know if has a name.

Im going to try a factory reset and then add apps back one by one to see if it performs better with less on it, or if a specific app seems to send it into a death spiral.

[hidetheelephants]

I've got a Roku Express?(I think, the basic puck thing that sits under the TV and has no extras); very much tesco value, the interface isn't exactly slick but it all works reasonably well. It does occasionally st the bed and reset itself but not more than once a month or so. The remote control died a few weeks ago after ~5 years of use, the new replacement has the bonus(for me at any rate) of a youtube hotbutton which the original one didn't.