Wed Dec 07, 2016 10:24 am
Can you look into putting back "Enable selecting all resolutions" in Platform Secret Screen > System Operations Menu? (Accessed from the Roku remote control by Home 5x, FF, Play, RW, Play, FF.) It was abruptly removed from the menu with June 2016's firmware update 7.2. We use it to be able to select "4:3 standard" in Settings > Display type when using an HDMI-only Roku through an HDMI-to-Composite converter with an old TV. (Such converters do not adjust display aspect ratio.) Although the current sales market share of old TVs is zero, their **installed base** fell below flat screens only a couple of years ago, and will remain just under half in use nationwide for some years to come. You will know when to drop “Enable selecting all resolutions” when Walmart stops devoting precious shelf space to TV digital/analog converters. The Roku Express+ and Roku 1 do not offer 5 GHz Wi-Fi, a MUST for people, for example, living in an apartment complex hammered with interference from 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi neighbors. And the Roku 1 doesn't work right with some channels (like Netflix). Diehard Roku enthusiasts want the greater speed and other advanced features available only in the higher Roku models, too. Even HDMI-only flatscreen TV owners use 4:3 aspect ratio at times, to un-squeeze the picture of old shows & movies broadcast stretched to fill the widescreen by some channels (such as the GRIT network). The "Enable selecting all resolutions" functionality is still in the hardware, but somebody at Roku decided to arbitrarily remove owners’ access to it, leaving us stranded with distorted, unwatchable pictures on the screen. (While a 4:3 setting made prior to the summer update so far has survived across subsequent firmware updates, if it inadvertently gets changed, or needs to be set in the first place for just-purchased use, it leaves us with bricked Rokus.) This will not pose additional tech support burden to Roku; the HDMI > Composite converter vendors have been assuming that. We aren't asking for Composite connectors on all Roku models, but we cheerfully bought our cheap $25 HDMI-to-Composite converters in good faith, and without complaint, only to be suddenly thrown under the bus! Please reinstate “Enable selecting all resolutions”!
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Roku 3 (4200) purchased for $22.93 on clearance at Office Depot > Bleiden HDMI-to-Composite converter > old 4:3 CRT TV (now in another room, as I have acquired a modern LCD flat screen TV, March 2017)
R.I.P. Roku XD|S (2100), Feb 2011–Apr 2016