Solving playback issues

[Third3]

I could not agree with you more, with the exception that it at least restores the ability to watch TV without having to change channels after EVERY commercial break!  Hopefully, someone, somewhere, sometime, maybe in our lifetime, will take note of all this and I can put my Roku Ultras back into service!

[Third3]

Lianna,

There is a serious problem with Hulu.  Roku may or may not be involved in that, but the problem is there.  If you google the audio sync problem, you will find all kinds of livid discussions of the problem in all kinds of forums on the internet - what you have here is just a smattering on the issue.  But it’s like dealing with Apple - the real players have their heads buried in the sand and don’t want to hear about problems.

If you could get Roku to try to bring Hulu and maybe others to a table to review the problem, there would be an awful lot of us system users who would be ecstatic to see some kind of improvement happen.

I’m gonna bet that, in the end, it will turn out that Hulu is doing something Roku doesn’t know about, and getting together with them could result in Hulu changing something, and Roku changing something, and everyone ends up benefiting.

[canetomm]

Just switched to Hulu live after YT tv raised their price. NEVER had issues with YTTV. This is frustrating. Hoping connecting straight to router with ethernet helps. Anyone have success with this alone?

[RokuNimfa-C]

Hi @canetomm, 

Thanks for reaching out to the Roku Community. 

We'd be more than happy to look into this further. Could you walk us through the step-by-step issue you are seeing with the channel? Does the issue only occur on a specific channel or all channels on your Roku device? Do you receive an error message or code? What troubleshooting steps have you taken so far to try to resolve the issue?

Keep us posted on what you find out. 


Regards, 
Nimfa

[Third3]

Canetomm,  Good luck.  I tried that and it didn’t help.  I ran a long Ethernet cable across the house and used that for a few days.  No improvement.  I tried power line Ethernet.  Didn’t help.  I am using Eero mesh WiFi - put an Eero unit right next to my Roku.  Didn’t help.  I relocated my entire Roku and mesh unit out of bedroom and into main room.  Thought would get better WiFi.  Didn’t help.

FWIW, I also tried YouTube Live TV and it was better than Hulu, but not perfect.  Would have stayed with them except they just don’t have the channel lineup I want.

Changing to Roku Basic (1080p) is the ONLY thing that helped.  No longe have “out of sync” after commercial break.  I feel like I am now looking at the Hulu system, which is pretty doggone bad.  Here is what I am experiencing since I “fixed it”:

Commercials have no audio for first 5 or 10 seconds

TV Show will have no audio for first 5 or 10 seconds.

TV will suddenly shift into high volume and very ugly distortion.  HAve to change channels and let the system re-buffer to make that go away.

Occasionally, the show will go slightly out of sync - just enough to catch your eye, but not enough to prevent watching - just a miserable watching experience.  Changing channels to re-buffer doesn’t help.

My evaluation process leaves me with the following questions: 1). IS it Hulu?  2) Is Hulu doing something that the Roku (and other streaming devices) are not designed to handle?  3) Is it my internet provider?  4) Is it my wireless setup?

Roku really needs to be the one to get with Hulu and find out what they are doing.

Maybe we should all be chiming in with our system setup - help evaluate service providers?  To that end, I offer the following:

I am using MetroNet which is 1GB fiber service into my home.  I am using their Eero mesh WiFi system.  I have the router and 3 remote mesh units in a 1400 sf house on one level.  I have an Eero mesh extender in my garage.  I added 2 of the mesh units just because of the Roku/Hulu problem, and am paying $15 a month for them - and they don’t help.

[mitchstein]

changing to a roku without 4K support is what will fix the issue..

The main out of synch issue (although there are the usually issues as well with ppl with **bleep**ty wifi or bad inet speeds) is when the ads go to a different resolution/framerate/hz then the last commercial, next commercial or the main content. It makes the roku player switch rates and thsat throws it out of synch.

It happens often but not everytime with VLC player on the PC.

It happens OFTEN on certasin Hulu live channels such as CMT, comedy central and any live channel that displays AD in orange foreground in the upper left corner during commercials.. It does not happen on live channels that do not use a third party ad server such as ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, etc etc.

It is the resolution change. Also changing the TV from a 4k TV to a 1080 or 720 removes the problem as the roku never switches to the higher rate of the ads. OR putting your 4k TV into 1080 or lower fixes the problem as well. and turning off AUTO on the roku ultimates and setting the resolution to anything 1080 or lower will eliminate the problem.

The problem happens also occaisionally on firetv, Apple boxes and other streaming players, but not EVERYTIME like it does on ROKU, indicating there could be improvements to Roku to help lower the issue frequency.

Another fix my wife is using is as soon as the main content comes back on and is out of synch she hits rewind, let's it go back a second or two and then hits play, the problem goes away. She said it's annoying but better then watching GUy Fietty (or however yopu spwell his name) lips move and 5 seconds later the hear what he said.. (food network is another channel it consistantly happens on)..

As far as I know, nobody is working to actually fix the problem, everyone is just working to blame the other guy or not saying what they are doing about it if anything at all anymore. Hulu's last message to me was "The problem opriginates on the platforms ad servers, we notified and advised". I've gotten no replies to my inquires from Roku or Apple, Amazon said they are looking at new standards for advertiser submitted videos to eliminate the issue, but would not give a timeframe of when it would be completed.

And that is the issue, Roku can/should improve the base of thier player to not lose synch when switching modes, all of the platforms could and should make all thier videos be the same resolution frame rates etc as the main content, I mean with roku they require closed captioning, EPG services that are accurate and smooth streaming in IIS, HLS or Dash in order to be published they should be a big pickyer with the quality standards they impose on their advertisers as they do with thier content providers..

So it comes down to, corporate policy and how those policies will effect the bottom dollar. If the issue is extremely annoying and too much time has gone by without I fix by the platform, the end users recourse is to eliminate that platform from thier consumption. I fear, nobody (platform wise) cares until they start to see an exodus of users that hurts thier dollars.. they have all grown to huge companies without care for the users or small guys anymore... Just profits..

rant over..

[Third3]

A very good explanation of the problem, mitchstein!  Thank you.  It more properly says what I have been thinking and in terms that are succinct.  All the way down to the opinion on big corporate business.  I really can’t think of anything to add.  Except that I never could find a way to dumb down my Ultras, so I just bought a Basic.  But that’s probably just me.

This issue is a big one anywhere you go on the internet.  It would be cool if we could unite everyone in one discussion.  It suddenly occurs to me that I seem to recall that somewhere on the net there is a place where people can start a petition, as in, to Hulu, demanding that they fix the problem.  Maybe we should do something like that?

[panaxdave]

Apparently I can't set my Samsung TV to only 1080 so roku's going to end up losing out on this deal, at least for me, no matter who's fault it is. I can view all platforms just they my Samsung smart tv.  Not fully sure why I have the Roku now honestly. 

[Third3]

I have Samsung TVs too.  I couldn’t find a way to dumb them down, either.  But if you dumb down the Roku, either by finding a setting or just getting a $25 Roku Basic, the TV has to live with the feed it gets.

[panaxdave]

I've got the Roku sound bar and I have forced it's display settings to 1080p and that didn't fix the issue. Still lags after commercials.