Roku® OS 9 Release Notes

Today we’re beginning to roll out Roku OS 9, an update to the operating system that powers Roku® streaming players, Roku TV™ models and new Roku TV™ Wireless Speakers. This update includes new features such as Automatic Volume Leveling for select Roku devices, voice enhancements including “free” genre search, and performance improvements aimed at delivering the best possible streaming experience when using supported Roku devices.
Roku OS 9 will begin rolling out to select Roku streaming players starting today and is expected to rollout to all supported streaming players by the end of the year. Roku TV models are expected to receive the update in early 2019. A list of key Roku OS 9 features and updates, as well as supported Roku devices, is included below.
Note: Some updates apply to specific Roku devices. In those instances, additional information on where to view supported devices is included.
Key Roku OS 9 features:

• Automatic Volume Leveling – This feature enables a uniform audio level across various types of content, so it will no longer feel jarring when a commercial comes on or when streaming channels are changed. This feature can be turned on/off within the Volume Mode setting that appears in the options menu after pressing the Star button “*” during video playback. Automatic Volume Leveling is available on select Roku streaming players and Roku TV models. Click here for more information on Automatic Volume Leveling and supported devices.

Note that this feature will be available on Roku TVs running Roku OS 8.2 when they are paired with the new Roku TV Wireless Speakers.

• Voice search and control enhancements, including “free” genre search (US only) – Roku’s voice search feature now supports genre-based searches for free entertainment. Customers can use simple voice commands such as “let’s see free documentaries,” “show me free comedies,” “find free dramas” and more to see a list of search results for free entertainment available on the Roku platform.

In addition, customers can now control media playback using their voice to pause, fast forward and more. When using voice search and control, customers will see a new heads-up-display (HUD), as well as receive audio feedback, to provide confirmation that their voice intent was understood.
Additional information about voice search and controls, as well as supported devices, can be found here.
This feature is already available on Roku TV models running Roku OS 8.2.

• Access and control iHeartRadio, Pandora and TuneIn by voice (US only) – Roku customers can now use voice search and controls for music by simply speaking commands such as “Play some Jazz.” Roku OS 9 enables select Roku streaming players to support music commands so customers can launch live radio stations from across the country, podcasts, custom artist stations and more with iHeartRadio; Playlists, stations and more via Pandora; and live radio stations, play-by-play sports, news, etc. with TuneIn using a Roku voice remote, or in the coming weeks with an update to the free Roku mobile app.

To view the full list of Roku devices that support voice controls, please click here.
Voice control of these music services is already available on Roku TV models running Roku OS 8.2.

• Spotify availability – Customers with select Roku players will soon be able to discover, manage and share over 35M songs for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features including improved sound quality and ad-free listening. Roku customers with Roku OS 9 will be able to launch and navigate the channel using a Roku remote or via Spotify Connect on a laptop, tablet or mobile phone. Spotify will soon be available to add from the Roku channel store here and selecting the “Music” category once available.

Spotify will be available to add on Roku TV models running Roku OS 8.2.
Supported Roku devices receiving Roku OS 9:

• Roku Streaming Players – 4661X, 4660X, 4640X, 4630X, 4620X, 4400X, 4230X, 4210X, 4200X, 3921X, 3920X, 3910X, 3900X, 3810X, 3800X, 3710X, 3700X, 3600X, 3500X, 3420X, 3400X, 3100X, 3050X, 3000X, 2720X, 2710X, 2700X, 2500X, 2450X, 2400X
• Roku TV – All Roku TV models are expected to receive Roku OS 9

* Note: Streaming channel developers, content partners, advertisers and anyone who would like information related to SDK updates and additional improvements within Roku OS 9 can find more info on the Roku Developer Blog or in our SDK documentation.
Happy Streaming!

Is there going to be a way for a manual update, for those of us extremely eager to finally have Spotify back? It's been almost a whole year, which is almost a whole year too long!

drphibes13 wrote:

Is there going to be a way for a manual update, for those of us extremely eager to finally have Spotify back? It's been almost a whole year, which is almost a whole year too long!

It will be a while before we allow manual update while we monitor logs.

Looking forward to getting Spotify back. Hopefully this doesn’t screw stuff up like the last big update.

aphexacid wrote:

Looking forward to getting Spotify back. Hopefully this doesn’t screw stuff up like the last big update.

Huh. I had no issues with the last big update. I wonder what I’m doing wrong.

roku must have updated our 3600x sticks last night around 10:30 ? because all three now will not run xfinity stream at all...somebody please fix??

OK .....  restarted my dumcast/stupinity router several times, and then they required me to actually re-register a AS A CUSTOMER.  After that I was able to re register roku and then xfinity streaming on all three devices and they function correctly .....right now ....

All the notes seems release it already. Desktops can't relate though but it will update soon.

Finally some product development from Spotify. They have ONLY been promising us something since December 22nd of last year. This might just be a case of too little, too late ..... since casting usually works like a charm, and even the cheapest HTR with app support has Spotify and Pandora and iHeart built in.
Still, will be good for easy music at a standalone TV location when you don't feel like casting from something else.
Funny how Spotify's stock has gone basically nowhere since the springtime IPO.

Have read this on a blog today, went home to see if it’s really there and if I could finally run Sptofy.. but no luck:(
Would be really great to have an option to force update the same way Apple allows beta version of iOs for those who is ready to trade stability to new features

RokuShawnS wrote:

drphibes13 wrote:

Is there going to be a way for a manual update, for those of us extremely eager to finally have Spotify back? It's been almost a whole year, which is almost a whole year too long!

It will be a while before we allow manual update while we monitor logs.

Ok. Thanks, Shawn. I really appreciate it. I'm very eager for the return of Spotify!

Some Feedback Related to our Questions:  We're going to continue to use our 4640R ( " R " = Retail | OEM / Roku Model Letter Designation = " X " that shows in our "About" under system settings for our Roku Ultra) ...for the foreseeable future because we do make use of the optical out with our Yamaha home theater, and thus far, have actually been fortunate with Dolby Audio being properly recognized in all of its forms.  We understand that the newer Roku Ultra devices (4660 {Model Year 2017} & 4661 {Model Year 2018} released just a couple of weeks ago) only have 512M/B of storage compared to the 1G/B featured in the 4640 {Model Year 2016} as well.

The above being said, our hope is that in 2019, the features we feel have been left out of the newer generations of the Roku Ultra are in some way added back in; especially the independent SP/DIF TOS Link Audio Output that seems to be able to handle a lot more than people seem to believe based on a lot of people saying Optical Out is limited when our experience is that it is really up to the home theater / receiver to recognize the signals being sent to it properly regardless of the interface being used for connectivity.
[FEEDBACK PORTION CONCLUDED]

[OUR Questions]:

Question 01 of 02:

We saw in the post that the 4640 Roku Ultra is a supported model for the Roku OS 9 release, and that the post is dated 10/23/2018.  We've not yet noticed an upgrade having gone through, and it's been our habit before bed to manually check for updates too.  We're still on Roku OS 8.1, so is there an estimate of the time and date for when we should be seeing the update for Roku OS 9 available?

Question 02 of 02:

We understand applications like the YouTube App are developed by their owners, in the case of the YouTube App, obviously Google LLC is the developer.  We enjoy using the purchases that are eligible to be shared to Google Play through the YouTube App because YouTube is about the only app that allows for making true playlists where the order of play for individual content can be chosen.  We recently discovered some of the content that used to play in the YouTube app in 4k-UHD no longer does, and have tried uninstalling the app, restarting the device, reinstalling the app, and even going through a factory reset where we then simply setup our apps again.  The version information for the YouTube app on our Roku Ultra shows up as follows:

Roku OS Info: Software Version 8.1.0 - Build 4159-29

Roku YouTube App Info: Version 1.0 - Build 70500272 | In App Info: Version # a666027d
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please let us know if this is not the latest version / build of the YouTube App for Roku.  It has only been added through the Roku Channel Store, so we don't see why it wouldn't be, but we are wondering if it is the latest version / build of the YouTube App because of the sudden playback quality issues.

Is the sudden lack of 4k-UHD (3840x2160 Resolution) in the YouTube app for content that previously was able to run in 4k-UHD (3840x2160 Resolution) related to some of the changes Roku is going through at this time, is it something Google LLC needs to resolve, or is it possibly a combination of both?

We've already pointed out the issue to Google as well via the YouTube Feedback for YouTube App on Roku link; however Google's such a massive company, there's really no way to be sure that a bug report such as this will even get to the right department of Google.  We're just figuring it's worth mentioning that we did report the issue to Google as well to eliminate it as a point of discussion.

We're on a 2G/b p/s Fiber ISP, so our internet speed and related household networking equipment isn't the issue, and we've taken all the steps that have been recommended on Roku's forums, and even some third party forums such as Reddit; although we also followed advice from Roku's Official Reddit channel as well.

In short;

Is it possible any of these issues are related to pending updates of the Roku OS?

This is our first post, so just a little, "about us" and "we're new" to Roku Forums Disclosure in the Following with our greetings to the Roku Forum Community as well:

On a more social note, we're new to the Roku forums, and our experience with forums is limited because in our family we tend to stick with a policy of working with forums that have some relevant utility to things we actually use.  In our limited experience, we've come to learn over time that every forum is a bit different with how things should be categorized, where questions should be asked, and general n'etiquette because there's just no "universal" consistency for forums anywhere.  If our post needs to be moved, or if it should be in another category, please PM us, and we'll take care of it on our own, and that will include deleting, removing, editing, shortening, an existing post.  Just PM us, and explain the reasoning because we're going to have a few family members using the Roku forum account we just set up, and it would be helpful for everyone to be able to learn the Roku Forum's brand of n'etiquette with constructive feedback as well as being able to crop from an existing post we've already made should something be more appropriate to have posted in a different category.  We appreciate those that exercise such reasonable consideration.

We look forward to any assistance and updates on these issues.

Happy Holidays.  :)

RokuExpress+ 3910RW
Software Version 9.0.0 build 4052
Composite output will no longer stream any videos, however menus and audio output still work. HDMI connection works as expected, so there seems to be a bug related to HDMI authorization, which shouldn't be needed for Composite.

If there is a better way to report this issue please advise. I cannot seem to find any phone support for this device and the trouble-shooting articles don't mention this issue.

Stumpy, can you please send me your serial number?  (Settings > System > About)

Is there any expected date for the express+ (3710x) to begin receiving the update?