State of Media Player Integration

[Time2Jet]

Following the recommendation of a few fellow members, I extended 2 Roku Ultras over Baluns via a Denon AVR to two rooms.

 

They worked fantastic up until a recent Roku update crippled the HDR 60Hz and caused crazy HDCP issues. This persists and Roku has not fully acknowledged. They just keep telling everyone to “reset” and check your cables and other devices. It’s not cables and it’s not “other” devices. Seems to have stricken more people running these devices through an AVR, but it’s not limited to us. There’s so many theories as to what’s going on, but coincidentally this update was sent as Disney+ was launched... making some think this may have been a DRM issue and Roku just didn’t get it right. I guess the reason doesn’t matter. A fix would be nice. But to fix it, they’d have to acknowledge it. I don’t even think everyone realizes that they’re Roku’s are broken. But if you try to lock in 4KHDR 60Hz, odds are, you can’t. Apps will also launch slower and you’ll get flickering and odd behavior during the launches. If you’re extending or running through an AVR, odds are you’ve noticed issues. If you haven’t, try pushing 4kHDR 60Hz. It worked fine until the recent (November something) update.

 

All that said, what are your options right now on media player selection? I’m used to Roku’s GUI, so I’m partial to it and don’t want to sacrifice direct launching of mini apps. I also want to make sure if I switch I can stream in HDR, Dolby Vision etc. I know all of that gets complicated by individual app, etc. I don’t think anyone has ever posted a “definitive guide to media players that integrate with C4”, but it’d be useful (like a sticky that updates as features are added, drivers break with updates and OS changes, etc.)

 

That’s a lot to ask, so maybe some recommendations and reasons why?

 

But for this update break, the Roku Ultra, although lacking Dolby Vision support, was near perfect. Nice interface and its driver allows for direct mini app launching and the apps generally loaded fast.

 

Opinions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk