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Roku 4

Towen7

Towen7

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Moderator
The $130 Roku 4 is expected to ship on October 21 and includes 4K capability, faster/better processor and a lost remote finder function.
There are also improvements on the software side which will work on current gen Roku boxes.


Roku 4 Product Page
:text-link:


Fast Company article; Roku Is Solving the Most Frustrating Thing About Streaming TV Boxes
:text-link:
 
I've been checking news on Roku for a couple months in anticipation and was pretty pleased to see this announced yesterday, despite not being surprised by much of it due to leaks. The only thing this box does not do that I could wish for is support Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master, but it I would have been surprised if it did. The box is a streamer more than a media player and very few people are going to try to stream uncompressed Blu-Ray rips from a media server to a Roku box.

I will likely buy one despite the fact that I do not have a 4K TV yet, because of a couple features. The first is support for local streaming of video with bitrates up to 40 Mbps, which is a huge leap from 15. The second is support for wireless AC, because I am looking to do a router upgrade. I love the lost remote feature. The reset button is very welcome.

In some respects, I am more excited about the Roku OS 7 upgrade, which essentially creates a consolidated program guide from streamed TV shows. I'm anxious to play with it and see how well it works. My one gripe with search is that it does not include local media stored on Plex, but I doubt they fixed that (I would be difficult).
 
I was just looking, USB audio media, doesn't have FLAC. Should I be concerned cause all our music is in FLAC ? No biggie though, my Marantz is wi-fi & bluetooth, and when I was pairing up my phone with the receiver, it paired up with my new Samsung USHD tv, which I didn't know it had bluetooth also.
I'll be watching the Roku 4 but now I have a 4K smart tv & bought a Sony bluray player w/wi-fi & apps for the family room but someday I may want something like SlingTV so I can have ESPN etc.
 
There are a couple codecs missing from the published list that I know Roku supports. FLAC is one. DTS is another. Unless they actually dropped support for formats the Roku 3 already handles (doubtful), the Roku 4 should play FLAC.
 
Okay. I just did some more digging. Roku does not directly support FLAC. I use Plex Media Server to send FLAC music to the Roku. Plex is transcoding FLAC to 48khz PCM.
 
You have me wondering what type of audio I get using the apps on my Samsung, especially the VUDU. That Roku 4 says it only supports up to DD and you say DTS.

Edit: VUDU supports PCM stereo, DD5.1, DTS Plus (inclubes up to 7.1).
 
While I'd like to have the voice-search feature, that isn't worth $130 to me; I don't have a 4K TV, receiver, and I doubt my 12-Mbps dish-based Intranetz could stream 4K anyway.
 
Towen7 said:
Voice search works on the Roku 3 as well.
Click to expand...
"Well, I've got the 2. And a 2007 cellphone. And no dishwasher. And a push-mower. And I walk to work, seven miles. Uphill both ways. And make my own butter.

:happy-smileygiantred:

EDIT: Oh yeah, and my new Nikon is set to Manual. :teasing-neener:
 
I think that this is going to be my next streaming device. I see that the new Fire TV is getting some bad reviews so it may make me switch to the new Roku.
 
I was ready to jump on this but the reviews I have read are very mixed. Fan noise, spotty performance, requires HDCP 2.2, will not support HDCP 2.1. Seems like poor quality control.

I'll wait a bit to see if they do some fixes.
 
:text-bump:
I've had a Roku 4 since late Nov 2015 so I could watch the bowl games on ESPN with SlingTV app. I also bought it to go with my SUHD. But no matter what channel on Sling, every 15-20 minutes, video would degrade, freeze, then get the buffering screen forever. I used the Sling credentials to get WatchESPN so I could watch the bowl games.
Sometime in Jan I contacted tech support through chat & we went through all the steps , uninstalled the Sling app, reboot the Roku 4, reinstall app, etc. Didn't help, so the tech made a tech ticket and sent it in. Alot of people have the same problem.
Well, no one, Sling or Roku has done anything (I've also posted on the Roku forum- they have some engineering guys there) so I emailed Sling tech support with my ticket number etc & got an email to do a list of steps & checks. Well, these are what I have done several times , so I emailed back to inform them that doesn't work (my bandwidth etc is great).
Got an email today from Sling tech support and they hope to have a fix ASAP. I watched the History channel & some live NBA on ESPN & no problems now.
Happy camper now. I never have the lip sync issue some seem to have with the Roku 4 even with UHD stuff on Amazon Prime Video. I think their issues are with their AVR's though.
Now when Netflix gets alot of UHD stuff & HDR gets worked out, I'll upgrade my Netflix account.
 
I am still holding out due to the following concerns:

1. Ongoing complaints about red push
2. Lack of HDR support
3. Heat/Noise
4. Not all streaming services support DD 5.1 over optical and I do not have an HDCP 2.2 compatible receiver yet. For some reason the Roku 4 does not transcode DD+ to DD.
 
My Roku 4 doesn't get too hot & I haven't heard the fan (right now I have in on top of a used roll of painters tape so its elevated, looking for a candle holder or tiny plant-pot holder to set it on). I also have it set to go to sleep after 30 minutes of no use. I wakes up fine the next day when I press any button.
My Marantz SR5009 isn't HDCP 2.2 but has HDMI 2.0 & can pass through 4k60p 4:4:4 video. As some remember I was looking for a HDMI splitter that is HDCP2.2 so I could send 4k video to my Samsung SUHD and a HDMI output to my Marantz for audio but there aren't any. I got with HDfury about their Integral and found out it would work. So I have this setup & it works great:
Roku 4 > input of Integral > bottom output of Integral to Marantz> montor out on Marantz to HDMI input#1 on my SUHD. Have my menu avalible on my Marantz & can have any audio info (that my Marantz can decode ) from my sources. The Integral has two inputs so I could get a 4k bluray player connected as well (going to wait for more options with 4k disc players). The Integral also has 2 outputs so you can have 2 different monitors.
 
jamhead said:
I purchased a roku 3 for 65 bucks and love it.
Click to expand...

I have two Roku 3 boxes and love them. I even have a Roku TV in my bedroom. I love the platform, I just think they raced to market with the Roku 4 and screwed it up.
 
Barney said:
My Roku 4 doesn't get too hot & I haven't heard the fan (right now I have in on top of a used roll of painters tape so its elevated, looking for a candle holder or tiny plant-pot holder to set it on). I also have it set to go to sleep after 30 minutes of no use. I wakes up fine the next day when I press any button.
My Marantz SR5009 isn't HDCP 2.2 but has HDMI 2.0 & can pass through 4k60p 4:4:4 video. As some remember I was looking for a HDMI splitter that is HDCP2.2 so I could send 4k video to my Samsung SUHD and a HDMI output to my Marantz for audio but there aren't any. I got with HDfury about their Integral and found out it would work. So I have this setup & it works great:
Roku 4 > input of Integral > bottom output of Integral to Marantz> montor out on Marantz to HDMI input#1 on my SUHD. Have my menu avalible on my Marantz & can have any audio info (that my Marantz can decode ) from my sources. The Integral has two inputs so I could get a 4k bluray player connected as well (going to wait for more options with 4k disc players). The Integral also has 2 outputs so you can have 2 different monitors.
Click to expand...

Can it be used to feed UHD content to a 1080p set?

I have two problems this thing could solve. Problem 1 is being able to send HDMI 1.4 audio to my receiver while sending HDMI 2.0a to my TV. Problem 2 is being able to down-convert any and all UHD content to 1080p to feed the TV in my kitchen. I could potentially solve both by running the down-converted output to my HDMI 1.4 splitter with one feed going to my receiver and the other to the kitchen, but that could easily introduce lip sync problems. This would be avoidable if the receiver had audio pass-thru on the HDMI output, but it doesn't. The other options would be to forget about the kitchen until I get a new receiver and then use the Integral to down-convert the second zone output from the receiver on the way to the kitchen. One could argue that it would be almost as cheap to just buy an HDCP compliant TV for the kitchen, but nobody makes UHD sets that are small enough (32") to fit the space.

There is another options as well. The new Samsung UHD Blu-Ray player already has an audio-only HDMI 1.4 output and supports most of the major streaming sources I consume. I could run the audio-only output directly to my receiver and run the HDMI 2.0 output to the Integral, which could then feed both my living room UHD set and my kitchen 1080p set. I believe that player has lip sync correction capabilities, so that could work nicely.

Thanks for bringing this device to my attention. It might help me spread out the upgrade costs a little more by making it easier to delay the receiver replacement.
 
I bought the Integral when it was $199 but now its $249. Alot cheaper than a new AVR.
Scott, go to HDfury's website & register on their forum and there is a thread for presale questions & answers and let them know what you want to do. HDfury & Admin (both engineers with HDFury) will help you out. Just keep in mind they are in Hong Kong. HDFury has a thread over at avs but its real busy & he would prefer to "chat" on their forum.
I'm using my phone right now & have no clue how to do links.
 
After I posted, I dug into the HDFury site some more and found the answer. It can definitely down-convert either output from UHD to HD, so I can use it to feed the kitchen TV or to feed audio to my old receiver, but not both at once. I think my best best at getting the best picture and sound quality in the living room while still mirroring it to the kitchen would be to grab that Samsung UHD Blu-Ray and an HDFury Integral. That's $650, but it eliminates any need to upgrade my receiver for awhile. I have $127 in credit at Crutchfield, so that softens the blow a bit as long as I don't mind waiting until the players get back in stock.
 
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