Tag: roku player

Tech Tweaks

Computer Tech – 1

Did PHP 8 make this site faster and more responsive than it was? In the past, Google’s speed tests have rated it from poor (42) to no better than average (67). The results are still variable, but they now include hits in the excellent range.

Performance graph
Google Speed Test – Mobile
speed test graph
Google Speed Test – Desktop

Computer Tech – 2

Nine years ago (NINE YEARS??) I posted this item about what was then my new netbook.

The last of the Windows 7 netbooks

Now retired from general use, the netbook (now running Windows 10) is my Logitech Media Server. Checking on it last summer, I could hear the fan was running at double speed, so I wasn’t surprised by the heat coming out of the side vent.

laptop computer

The workaround was as low tech as it gets. I flipped the netbook over for passive cooling from the bottom vents. This time of year, at times the fan doesn’t even need to run, but I do need to check occasionally for dust in the vents.

TV Tech – 1

Six years ago (SIX YEARS??) I wrote about getting a cheap Personal Video Recorder.

Doing my HomeWorx

I later replaced the Mediasonic Homeworx with a vastly superior TiVo DVR that continues to work well. The PVR sat in its box for years, until I recently pulled it out for use with my bedroom TV, so I can pause live television. The TV is a 12-year-old 32-inch Samsung I bought for my offspring, who no longer needs it.

Being pleased with the Roku streaming stick on the porch TV, I bought one for the bedroom. So the TV went from having no HDMI devices to having two of them. Then the Roku’s sound went out. Not muted, but silent.

Hmm. I swapped its HDMI port with the PVR. The PVR had no sound. Then the Roku had no sound. I moved the Roku to the third HDMI port, and it likewise went quiet. The sound was fine when using the TV tuner.

Hmm. I went online and found how to enter service mode on the TV. I did a factory reset, and the sound returned on the HDMI ports. But then the Roku flashed a message saying its HDMI port had a problem. It suggested trying another port, which I knew was pointless.

Hmm. Would a firmware update fix the problem? Given the set’s age, I doubted Samsung would have one available but, yeah, they do! I put the file on a flash drive, ran the update, and that was the end of the problem. Kudos to Samsung! For the heck of it I checked the porch TV I bought ten years ago (TEN YEARs??), and it came with Samsung’s final firmware release for the model.

TV Tech – 2

Regarding Roku, it has a problem that Amazon’s Fire TV doesn’t. The current models of both products support 5 GHz WiFi, but neither device supports Dynamic Frequency Selection for 5 GHz WiFi. Fire TV is okay when the router tries to negotiate DFS, but Roku chokes on it sometimes. The result is the SSID’s for 5 GHz networks disappear.

The solution is to disable DFS on the router, which should also be checked to see if the Roku has been blocked, after repeated failed attempts to connect. This may or may not be something an average Roku user is willing or able to do on their own. It would be much better if Roku had a firmware update to properly handle DFS negotiation.

Watching a Little Beaver

Whah hah! Leave It To Beaver is back on Netflix Watch Instantly! But it’s in high definition, despite the lack of the HD symbol. Why is this not good? Because on my Sony 32XBR100 TV it puts a small 24-inch image on the big 32-inch screen. Why, Roku, don’t you provide a feature to disable HD on SD outputs?

(By the way, the title of this post is a reference to a character in the Red Ryder comic strip.)

Follow-up: 42-inch Panasonic 1080p plasma, with a free Blu-ray player deal, is on the way from Amazon, with free shipping. Total cost is $470, thanks to Amex points.

Tempting

Logitech Revue now only $200? No! Must… remain… loyal… to… Roku!

Follow-up: I’m typing this on a Logitech Revue with Google TV. As many others have said, it’s an interesting but problematical product. For example, Amazon Instant Video requires getting into the Amazon site with Chrome, instead of having a custom player. At first it thought I had a bad Internet connection and video quality was horrible, but I seem to have fixed that by going to an SD source then back to HD. Neither Amazon Instant Video nor Netflix have surround sound. The Roku player does this fine, extracting the center and surround channels for Dolby Pro Logic from the stereo channels. I’m not hung up on having true 5.1 Dolby Digital for streaming video, Pro Logic is good enough, but knowing it can be done, and very nicely, and not having it work is annoying. Another complaint is that it doesn’t seem to be able to find the Logitech Squeezebox Server that’s in the house. This is ridiculous, being a Logitech product! The Squeezebox Radio and Squeezeplay programs do this, so why no MySqueezebox support for the Revue?

Further follow-up: I’m still not sure if Squeezebox support is built-in, but if it is the server needs to be on the same IP subnet as the Revue, which is silly. There should be an option to enter the address. Much more consistency is needed between the various video players. Having to use Amazon’s web interface is particularly annoying. I’d like the option of using either that or one like the Netflix app has. It should also be easier to edit the home menu. But still, now that I’ve been using it for a few hours, I’m seeing more of what Google was thinking, integrating with cable TV instead of cutting the cable.

There’s a big Android update coming supposedly in a couple of months, and if I keep Logitech Revue I would expect it to fix the lack of surround sound on Amazon and Netflix. At the moment I’m on the fence about keeping the Revue, whereas I never had any doubts about its audio cousin the Squeezebox Radio, or the Roku player. But now that I see it’s working well with the FiOS DVR, and I am, after all, blogging with it right now, I’ll probably hang onto it in the hopes the software improves.