If it's a DNS issue he can nslookup cdn. Netflix.com and see where he's connecting. DNS is almost never to blame since around five years ago networks starting using IP lookups to locate a person rather than depending on local DNS servers. Some stroll say change it it but I don't know a single thread in many years where it actually helped. Old habits are hard to break however.

Ok, here is what I have..

I live in the stinking US of A (where they have way to many things going on and pushing bad media which is why I want to stream everything and not watch over the air programing much less spend $100+ for pay TV.. I spend $50 a month for news and shows I want to watch through dsl). Sorry, I just seen they suspended a 5 year old girl for treating to shoot another girl with a bubble gun and in the same segment, the Texas shooting at another school. Pardon my rant..

I live in North Carolina

Dsl running 10mbps (speedtest.net claims 8.9-9.5)

Modem/router to a switch (50-60 feet away) cat 6e cable

Hardwired from the switch to a Apple TV 3 and the roku, cat 6e connected between

Another cable from that switch to another switch (which happens to be wireless) for the computers in my house

Apc battery backup plugged in to the wall with the switch, Apple TV and roku box only plugged in. (TV, a/v rcvr, etc. connected to separate apc backups (mainly for power conditioning and surge protection.)

No storms have come through that could have hurt it (that I'm aware of since that is my older roku from early last year).

Grainy video only comes from that roku even on the channel selection and settings area, not streaming anything.. It still streams and was working fine other then the video quality. Now that roku is streaming the same way the newer one is.. Both are buffering a ton where the Apple TV and my computers are not..

I ran the speed test on the roku (I didn't like the graphics but it did the job) speed test said 8.5-9.3mbps

I hope this may help narrow down the problem.. It's irritating not knowing what's going on.. But as I said, its weird its only happens to the roku's. lol. It's better to laugh then cry..

Oh, and one more thing.. Netflix, Hulu, amazon, crackle, plex and twit.tv all buffer like crazy, it's not just one service.. If is was just one service, I'd be asking that streaming service..

As others have said, if you've gone through 9 Rokus with the same results, something fishy is going on, especially if they exhibit the same behaviors elsewhere. I find it very difficult to believe you'd run into such a bad run of luck getting 9 bad ones as well.

Have you opened a ticket with CS? If so, PM me the case number and your email address, and let me look over it.

C. Shawn Smith

Can you test Vudu and see what it does. It also has a built in speed test.

Also try this just as a shot in the dark
Home *5
Up *2
Ff
Play
Rw
Play
Ff


You should get a menu. Disable pings. I just want to rule out firewall issues.

No, no.. I havnt went through 9 roku's, I've owned 7 and this is my 8th and I'm going to buy my ninth later today.

4 have been given to other homes, my brother has one, I have one at my beach house and my parents have two. I have owned roku's for about 4 years now.. My first one was like a little brick.. My mom still uses it.. that's one reason I like them.. In the past two years I have went through a few.. My cat jumped on my entertainment center, which cause my dog to jump after the cat, which caused my tv to tilt, which threw my entertainment center off balance just enough to make the cat jump and the TV to fall and made the whole weight of the entertainment center crash ontop of my roku and blueray players that was in the entertainment center which in turn caused me to have to buy new equipment and almost new pets (they didn't get hurt in the crash, but they got their tails beat afterwards). One got hit by lighting (which is why I now have the apc only on the switch, Apple TV and the roku). The other I had for about 8 months and it started with the video problems, which I tested and contacted roku about early last year, which is why I think it's the video chip or processor. Now the newest one started with the buffering issue.. But it's just so odd that it buffers everything.. I talked to a friend alittle bit earlier and I was telling him I am going to buy another one tomorrow.. He said it sounds like the memory may not be holding the buffer.. But if that's the case, why is the one with the messed up video that was streaming fine doing the same thing unless it somehow has degraded since I put it in storage.. I don't know.. I didn't want to contact roku until I just asked and tried to trouble shoot the issue with friends on the forum. I thought it might be something I can do that some one else had the issue and fixed. That's one of the points of this forum, right? To help your fellow roku lovers? Anyway, I'm just going to buy a cheap one tomorrow and see how that does.. I think the cheap one is wireless only and I don't know if its hdmi only or what. Anyway, once I test the new one and if it messes up, I'll take the next step.. If there is something here messing them up, I'm sorry. But I would like to figure it out some how..

I know that may be alittle too much info, but I just wanted to explain how I have had so many roku's.. Believe it or not, I bought 5 that I'm not counting cause they were gifts that I gave people when roku had the Father's Day deal last year with Hulu gift cards. So in all, after later when I buy the new one at bestbuy, I will have bought 14 roku's.. Lol.. I hope I can stop at this one if it works right (until they let one out that is better, like better memory support, faster CPU, Bluetooth keyboard option or new GUI etc.). I love the new style connected right to the TV without the box, but I'd have to get a new special tv, so that will have to wait just alittle longer.

Anyway, thanks for all everyone's help.. Maybe out of all your ideas I can find the main problem and fix it..

One thing though. Could it be possible that the hdmi on the TV could be messing the roku's up some how? To test it hdmi port, I have swapped the Apple TV and roku but it hasn't been swapped for long.. I have an older Samsung tv (3 years old) so it doesn't have the return signal on the hdmi. And I bought a new monster cable hdmi cable for the newest roku (I bought april or may of last year). But I left it in the same port at the time..

Thanks again.. This is why I love the Internet, people helping people..

Oh, FYI..

That home, up, ff,play,rw,play,ff didn't do anything.. Is there a timing I need to do it? Do I need to be in a menu to do it? Thanks..

mkiker2089 wrote:

Can you test Vudu and see what it does. It also has a built in speed test.

Also try this just as a shot in the dark
Home *5
Up *2
Ff
Play
Rw
Play
Ff


You should get a menu. Disable pings. I just want to rule out firewall issues.

Melocco wrote:

Oh, FYI..

That home, up, ff,play,rw,play,ff didn't do anything.. Is there a timing I need to do it? Do I need to be in a menu to do it? Thanks..

I recommend starting at the top menu (the one where you see "Settings", "Channel Store", and the list of channels across the screen). Timing is about half a second between keystrokes. What I do is move my left hand up and down like a slow handshake and on each down-stroke press the next button.

I believe you said the roku messed up at a friends house, so we know it really isn't setup at your house... however, I will throw out here that adding a proper surge protector (even a small UPS is a good idea) will help - we get lots of lightning here in NC and lots of damage happens through the power lines - you can easily mess up a power supply or a component if it stays hooked up in one without a line of defense, and the item will work most of the time, but act wonky...

Also, another just throwing it out there, but lots of people tend to run their own ethernet cable when it is long distance and don't realize that it actually does matter to have the cables in the proper order, not just color to color, spot to spot - there is a pattern that is an approved patter that utilizes the twists in the cable to help prevent RFI from coming into the ethernet cable and degrading the signal - if you bring a radio near an ethernet cable and listen to one that isn't using the proper config, you will hear much noise radiating from them. Color to Color works, but without the RFI shielding that the proper order introduces. Lots of cheaper patch cables tend not to have the right order, either, and when I swap them at work with one that is correctly made to the proper order spec, bam, lots of dropped packet problems just disappear.

Kewl deal... I just bought the new one (crazy blue bottom, but it works) and it works fine..

As far as it working off my network, yes. I took it to a neighbor that is almost a mile away (he's the only one I know that would let me test it with a fast enough connection. He has 5mbps dsl.) By the way, he's got one of the first roku boxes and it still works fine. Really old GUI, but still works.. Both the one with a bad CPU (messed up video display) and the one i was having trouble streaming (buffering all the time) buffered 6 times while playing murder she wrote off netflix where he's played it fine... Not one skip. Not one pause. Nothing.. It's got to be the roku box.. And now since I bought this new one, the new one working fine.. I may just have dumb luck with roku's, I don't know.. That or the ghosts that steal my socks and underware are messing with it some how.. They have electrical properties to mess stuff up. Right?

As far as the cat 5 cabling, my friend works for an IT company running cables through office buildings, churches, homes etc. and he put it in and set it up for me when we was building the house.. All the cat 5e cables are run through conduct in the walls to help prevent interferice and to keep it from getting chewed through or cut.. I don't think it's my cables, but its possible.. I'll call him today and see if he can come check the cables and ends for me.. I just didn't think that cat 5 would do any type of damage other then skipping off lighting strikes from one device to another if something gets hit, but they are going through the apc also.. I just thought that cat 5 was data only..

I also have already called the electrician to come back and check the power on that main outlet.. But I know for a fact that when we built this house that I put the entertainment center on its own breaker and ran its own line cause I remember the electrician cussing me out claiming that it was a waste of money and time that I didn't need to do it.. But I wanted it own it's own so if something messed up, it would be only in that one area.. I live in yadkin county in nc and where we live there is iron or something in the ground and I know we get a lot of lighting, which is why I now have all my components on thier own apc backup (each different sizes for the amount of pull from each) for protection mainly.

Just wondering, could the network cable some how mess up the roku? Now that I think about it, I never changed the cat 5 from the switch at the TV to the roku... Hummm... I'm going to do that now and get Steve to check that cable when he comes... Thanks for the idea..

Have you tried the ones that are behaving badly with a wireless connection?

Crap.. Never mind.. It's wifi only.. I forgot.. Lol... FYI, I also tested the other one (one i was having issues with on wifi with the same results).

Ok, just going to update the people that was tring to help me..

The electrician came and checked the power.. No problems and nothing he seen could cause it power wise..

Steve came over(the it friend) and checked all the cat 5 cables and all the settings and router and all.. Nothing was wrong.. Just on the safe side, I did switch out the switch.

My new roku is working great (other then now it locks up just alittle). I have a quick question though.. I bought the cheap one (blue bottom) and the bottom seems to be getting hot as crap. Is that normal?

The heat sink must be on the bottom. Put feet on it to lift it a 1/4 inch if it's too hot.

...or just turn it upside down.

Seriously, it should have some little feet on it: