Along with the never ending problem of the Channel store not working, and the new problem of 2 dot video quality, both which I tried to correct by using OpenDns numbers, with no success, and the out of the blue, out of memory, so I have to remove channels problem, I now have a new problem that seems to have started today.

The Roku box keeps REBOOTING itself! Okay, I started watching Easy Rider on Crackle, which, by the way, is completely out of sync. I can't get through the movie. It takes forever to begin and after it does, it plays for a few minutes, then the box reboots.

I gave up on Crackle and watched a movie on Netflix and it made it all the way through. Now, I just went back to Crackle to watch a different movie....REBOOT! This has happened about 5 times today. So now I'm here.

Does anybody here know what's going on before I go to tech support so they can tell me to REBOOT?

I thought things would be better after the firmware update, and then the Opendns. It seems far worse now.

This has gotten to be totally ridiculous and I am losing faith in this product pretty fast. At this point it is becoming incredibly unreliable.

If Netflix and other channels are working, then this is most probably a Crackle Channel problem not a roku box problem. It sounds like some of the videos may be badly encoded and that the channel is causing the roku to reboot. Call them up and tell them that. Hopefully, they can get ahold of the Crackle folk to fix it.

The two dot quality issue sounds a lot like insufficient bandwidth. What type of internet do you have? Have you tried a speedtest? In some cases opendns can make the streaming speed worse because it has more jumps to reach your machine than the local dns provided by your isp. Are you or others in your home using your internet for other things while streaming? If so, what type of activity is being used in unison with the roku? Maxing out your upload can affect your download greatly. Gaming, watching videos online, even some music streaming can affect your roku getting enough bandwidth to stream in higher quality especially if you are on a slower dsl such as 3Mbps or lower. If all of those things check out fine you may want to make sure your network is secure and nobody is piggy backing on your internet.

I'm sorry I can't offer much suggestion about your other problems. I haven't personally experienced any of them aside from the common "out of memory" issue which can't be remedied at the moment because it is a hardware problem and an occasional crash and reboot which seems to stem from the boxes low memory and programs not cleaning up properly after themselves. Of course that is just a guess but it seems to happen more after running "heavier" channels behind each other.

jp1 wrote:

The two dot quality issue sounds a lot like insufficient bandwidth. What type of internet do you have? Have you tried a speedtest? In some cases opendns can make the streaming speed worse because it has more jumps to reach your machine than the local dns provided by your isp. Are you or others in your home using your internet for other things while streaming? If so, what type of activity is being used in unison with the roku? Maxing out your upload can affect your download greatly. Gaming, watching videos online, even some music streaming can affect your roku getting enough bandwidth to stream in higher quality especially if you are on a slower dsl such as 3Mbps or lower. If all of those things check out fine you may want to make sure your network is secure and nobody is piggy backing on your internet.

I'm sorry I can't offer much suggestion about your other problems. I haven't personally experienced any of them aside from the common "out of memory" issue which can't be remedied at the moment because it is a hardware problem and an occasional crash and reboot which seems to stem from the boxes low memory and programs not cleaning up properly after themselves. Of course that is just a guess but it seems to happen more after running "heavier" channels behind each other.

Thanks for trying to help the inexperienced here. My internet speed is 6megs and stays fairly constant. We don't use it while Roku is streaming, except for perhaps using the laptop here to surf the net. No online gaming.

I chatted with tech support, and of course they wanted me to REBOOT...something the box has done by itself all day. Seems that Crackle causes it to reboot, because after I let tech go, I tried a different movie and 10 minutes into it, REBOOT!

They said they would send me a replacement, but want me to ship this one back, at my expense first! Is this their normal procedure? It isn't a good one, in my opinion. And for the OpenDns do you think I should go back to my previous dns? I'm kind of thinking about that. Should I pay and return this one for the replacement they are offering?

I was pretty much trying whatever I read here to make the channel store work. Then the reboot and Crackle channel nonsense started.

I'm open to any suggestions and help.

And thanks again.

No problem. Sorry I can't be of more assistance.

I would say it is worth a try to switch back to your ISP dns. Although opendns tries to get the closest route to you it isn't always successful. Still the difference shouldn't be so huge as to stick you with 2 dot quality on a 6 Meg connection. I have 5Mbps and rarely get less than 3 except at the very most congested times of the day.

If you purchased your box through Amazon you could likely get the return shipping covered through them. I would be a little sour about paying it too. I don't know what to suggest you do instead though.

Good luck. Perhaps someone more experienced will have some better advice for you.

I purchased the box from the Roku website. When they told me today that I had to pay shipping to return before they ship me a replacement, I countered with what Amazon would do. Made no difference. They got me. Plus the fact that I will be without the box for 2 weeks, perhaps?

If they wanted the return, they should furnish my return prepaid shipping label...period! I've had this box for 2 months. I've seen people here say that Roku has replaced before, which is why I was wondering if this was how they do things.

Gave up on Crackle for the night. Watched some Netflix...2 dots only...no rebooting.

Nonetheless, I will try my old DNS numbers tomorrow, and if that doesn't work, which I doubt it will, I will ship this thing back and then air my grievance about paying more out of pocket, so they are aware of my feelings about this.

Disregarding the posted specifications, I can tell you from past experience that when I tried to save a few bucks by cutting back my internet speed from my current 16Mbps to the next lowest offering, I believe it was in the area of 6 to 8 Mbps and I noticed a drastic reduction in my Roku's stability and quality. At 16Mbps I consistently get the highest quality streams and rebuffers or reductions in quality are rare to non-existent. At the lower speed, I rarely would get the highest quality stream and would see frequent rebuffers as well. Just mentioning this for your information, I am by no means suggesting the posted minimum system requirements are insufficient I am just telling you what I have experienced.

I'm actually starting to get concerned. I have Cox 15Mbps download service and I've been having problems with Netflix streams on Roku lately only getting 2 or 3 dots sometimes. I've also had rebuffering on other channels like Break and Flixster that I never had before. Yet when I go watch Netflix on my PS3, I have no visible issues. Yes I'm aware they are different streams, PS3 has more oomph and might be doing stuff dynamically behind the scenes as opposed to visible rebuffering progress bars, etc. I'm just saying with no change in my house equipment, Roku performance has dwindled as of late, which means somewhere else, a problem has been introduced.