Goddammit. I just ordered a streaming stick+ for $50 from Amazon, so I can watch Disney+. So now do I just install it and buy the ultra in a few weeks, and return the stick?
And ftg, forget it, that ship has sailed. If you want a name brand TV of any reasonable size, it will be smart. And it’s not extra electronics, just extra software anyway. And even once the apps go obsolete (like my 4 year old LG not getting Disney+ on it’s own), the TV is still perfectly usable for everything else.
As long as TVs have HDMI ports, they should still be usable even without the “smart” portion working. I bought a smart TV because it was the cheapest/best option. I just never gave it the wifi password and instead plugged in my Roku to the HDMI port.
It seems like nowadays many of the Blu-Ray/DVD players for sale have “smart” capabilities: they can use apps to access streaming services, just like a smart TV. Do these have enough functionality that they rival a Roku box?
IME they’re no better, and possibly worse, than the smart TV apps. It depends on the age of the equipment too. A brand new Blu-Ray will have better functionality than a 3 year old smart TV.
No. They typically have extremely limited selections for their channels/apps, and are rarely updated. Frankly, I don’t know why Roku hasn’t gotten into the DVD/BR player business - or at least licensed their software. It would make perfect sense.
I can confirm that Roku 2 has Disney+. I didn’t get any email from them about obsolescence, but I’ll check the spam filters.
My 2018 Roku Ultra is running Disney+ right now.
I paid $60 for it(Amazon Renewed) and it seems to be streaming fine.
Update : I just bought a 2019 D-series Vizio smart television. Comparing YouTube TV startup and channel acquisition times with a gen 4 Apple TV HD (2015j shows that the Apple TV HD is four times faster.
Smart TVs don’t seem to have very powerful processors.
Roku’s model numbering scheme is kind of screwed up. There are several different models called Roku 2. It’s better to use the four digit model number if you want to be precise about which device you have.
Okay, 4210X on bottom/4210R on the Amazon order (apparently the same thing, letter just designates where it was bought). Bought June 2015. I guess that’s still on the current updates list so I’ll keep it for awhile.
FWIW, I got a new Roku Streaming Stick+ over the weekend. It’s mostly fine, but has one big problem - it claims that it does Dolby Digital pass-through to HDMI, and allows that configuration in the settings, but it actually only ever sends PCM. It’s definitely the stick - I’ve tried a cable box and blu ray player in the same HDMI port, they both pass through Dolby Digital just fine through the TV and out HDMI ARC to my surround sound system. I even tried exactly the same content - watched the same Netflix movie on all 3 devices, only the Roku wouldn’t send Dolby Digital. It makes the surround sound pretty crappy - no 5.1, just stereo. I’m going to try a Firestick when they go on sale next week, and if works better, back goes the Roku.
Does your TV support HDMI 1.3 and Dolby Digital Plus? I believe that if the source is DD+, the Roku will just pass it through and will output DD+. It doesn’t downconvert to DD like some devices do.
It’s an LG 60UF7300, purchased in Nov. 2015. Just under the 2016 limit where it would have been able to run Disney+ by itself. It supports HDR, so it must be at least HDMI 2.0a, right? I don’t know if it can handle Dolby Digital Plus. I did try a Netflix movie on the TV app itself, which did correctly communicate with the surround sound and played the audio I was expecting (5.1). So is it possible that the TV could decode & output Dolby Digital Plus from it’s own internal Netflix app, but wouldn’t accept it from the Roku for the exact same content?
Do any other Roku devices downconvert, if that is the issue? I just ordered a fire stick 4k, if that doesn’t work I’m willing to keep going down this rabbit hole - I really, really, like my surround sound.
Hmm, here’s the specs for my TV. In the audio section, it says it supports Dolby Digital, but in the USB section it says AC3 and EAC3 - EAC3 is DD+, right?
Yes, EAC3 is the same as DD+. I’m not sure about your TV, the specs are not completely clear. A literal reading would indicate that it only supports DD+ on USB and not over HDMI. That seems somewhat strange but not impossible.
One thing to try is on the Roku, go to Settings->Audio->HDMI. It should say “Auto detect”. If you select that item, at the bottom of the screen it will show you what kind of audio the Roku is detecting that your TV is capable of. Also in the Audio menu, make sure that “Audio Mode” is set to Auto and not Stereo.
After a little more research, I believe that the current Ultra is capable of down-converting from DD+ to DD, but I’m waiting for a response from someone more knowledgable in that area to confirm. Of course it’s twice the price of the Streaming Stick+ so you may not want to go that route in any case.
Bah, looks like I was right the first time. None of the current Roku models do DD down-conversion, but a few older models did.
Thanks for the research markn+. I did set Audio->HDMI to Auto Detect, and it displayed “Dolby Digital” and showed the 5 speakers. And Audio Mode is set to Auto as well.
For a test, I tried MIB II on Netflix. It came out in 2002. From what I could find, the spec for DD+ came out in 2005, so I’d expect MIB II to only be DD. On my STB, and the TV app, when I picked the movie, it showed “HD 5.1” on the title screen. When I played it, the TV indicated that it was receiving a Dolby Digital signal and transmitted a Dolby Digital signal via ARC to the surround sound system, and it sounded as I’d expect, dialog out the center speaker, etc.
When I selected the same movie on the Roku, it only displayed “HD” on the title screen. When I played it, the TV indicated it was receiving PCM audio, and the surround sound system was definitely getting stereo at most - the dialogue was coming out of both front speakers equally, etc.
So there are 2 possibilities - MIB II was resampled at some point to DD+ audio. My cable box Netflix app (FIOS) is downsampling the DD+ to DD. The TV Netflix app does the same thing. But the Roku doesn’t, and the TV can only accept DD audio via HDMI, so the Roku is sending PCM.
Or, MIB II is natively DD audio, the cable box and TV are handling DD audio correctly, but the Roku can’t successfully handshake with the HDMI to send the DD audio.
I’ll test with some other movies as well.
Also, I’m getting an amazon fire stick 4k later this week. If that sends over the DD audio to the surround sound, that’s all I need and I’ll keep that. If that doesn’t, I’ll try the Ultra anyway - it’s supposed to go on sale on Black Friday for $50.
Thanks again.
So FWIW, I tested all these movies on Netflix, and got the same result - TV app and STB app showed the movie as “HD 5.1”, TV indicated it was receiving DD audio, audio was actually 5.1. The Roku only displayed “HD” TV indicated it was receiving PCM, audio was stereo only:
Taxi Driver (1976)
Rocky 2 (1979)
Blow (2001)
I guess it’s possible they’ve all been remastered to Dolby Digital Plus, but it seems unlikely, IMHO.