I picked up a ROKU, I am wanting to cut the Cable TV cord.


I first tried the ROKU hooked up to the TV with an HDMI in the Great room/Living room and it worked well. We even watched a couple movies on Amazon Prime. No dropouts or buffering. (ROKU is connected to 60mbps speed internet through a switch with CAT5e.)

Last night I thought I would try it in the HT room and see how it worked and how the picture quality looked there.
Hook up of the ROKU to the switch again by CAT5e. From the output of the ROKU I connected the HDMI cable to an HDMI input on a Marantz SR8002 HT receiver.

I then turned on the equipment and set the Marantz to the correct HDMI input port and the ROKU home page came up just fine. I checked YouTube and it seemed ok. When I tried Amazon Prime it loaded fine. But, when we found a movie we wanted to watch, it started to load, but then an info block came up on the screen of the TV saying there wasn't enough bandwidth to load the movie. I tried again 2 or 3 times, same thing. I knew the problem was not the Ethernet cable. Works fine when using it for Netflix.

So what the heck was the problem? I even tried a different HDMI input port on the Marantz. Why? I don't know but I did....
 For a test I disconnected the ROKU HDMI cable from the Marantz and connected it directly to an HDMI input port on the Samsung LED TV. I then attempted again to watch the same movie on Amazon Prime as I tried earlier. Movie loaded without a glitch. Not a dropout or buffering glitch once throughout the entire movie.
What gives?

Jim

jea48
@jea48 - I wish I could give you a magic bullet, given how much help you have been to me and others over the years here on things electrical. I had some earlier Roku units, one smelled like burning plastic when I powered it up, a couple others worked fine, but my biggest frustration with the product -now dated- was support at the time, which was virtually non-existent. I hope they have improved. The last one I had worked fine and is buried in a box somewhere.
From your description, the bottleneck is the receiver in the middle. Here’s a thread describing the same problem: [url]http://www.avsforum.com/forum/39-networking-media-servers-content-streaming/2180233-roku-4-not-worki...[/url]. One solution, it seemed, was the power up sequence and the handshake among the equipment. You might try that. I would think the Marantz automatically senses the bandwidth of the incoming signal and adjusts accordingly. (I know there were some setting issues on audio output on various components, but I you aren’t having an audio only problem).
It also doesn’t sound like you have an internet signal problem if the movie played fine with the Roku straight into the TV. (in the early days, I had all kinds of bandwidth drop out problems with my former internet provider- the techs at Vudu determined that I was getting these very small drop outs which were enough to destabilize the stream and disrupt it).

I went from a big front projector with fancy audiophile grade components to a smaller den sized system that uses an Amazon Fire box, thru a Marantz pre-pro (and McI multichannel power amp) into a Samsung TV. When I moved, I set it up again in Texas with a newer, larger Samsung TV, and it really was plug and play- no issues. I have cable based internet only service thru Spectrum- not considered the best service by any means, but honestly, haven’t had any issues. No drop outs or buffering. And my cost, compared to a "bundle" with cable TV, Internet and phone (who uses a landline any more any way) went from 185 dollars a month in NY to 47 dollars a month in Texas. (I was using Fios in NY which I liked for the Internet, but the ’set top box" was typical ’80s-era cable box with kludged updates).
At one time i had almost all the streaming boxes here, Apple TV, the Fire, a Roku latest model (3 or 4 years ago- i’m sure they’ve changed) and settled on the Amazon. I have been a Prime customer forever, so the free movies aren’t the latest, but neither are those on Netflix. I pay a la carte to get HBO for another 16 bucks, and have a Netflix subscription mainly for stuff they produce- (though I’m watching Peaky Blinders through Netflix which is cool- Amazon only had two of the seasons).
Like I said, I don’t have a magic solution- I worked thru a variety of different devices over the years, and knock wood, I’ve gotten a trouble free set up for the last several years. You might try the power on sequence described in that thread link and see if it helps.
PS: I did not activate any of the apps in the Samsung TV, i use it strictly as a monitor. 

best,
bill hart
Can't add anything about Roku, but 2 thumbs up for the jwargel recommendation of OBiTALK for phone service. I have been using it for a few months now and the quality/features are better than the old phone service land line. Once you buy the voip adapter for ~$50 (single line), the service is $0/month, unless you want enhanced 911 service for a couple of bucks. After getting it, I asked people how I sounded on their end, and everyone said great. Also, got this Panasonic phone system with only the base unit needing to be connected to the OBiTALK adapter. Extensions just need to be plugged into AC for battery charging. Now I can even text or answer my cell phone on those extensions. No doubt the talking caller ID is pretty cool for incoming calls.

http://shop.panasonic.com/cordless-corded-telephones/cordless-telephones/KX-TGD56M.html?dwvar_KX-TGD...

The convenience of phone extensions throughout the house with modern day technology.

@whart ,

Bill,
 Thanks for the Link. I followed the post on the AVS forum where the guy said everything had to be powered off before connecting the HDMI cable from the ROKU to the HT receiver. I did have the Marantz and Samsung turned off but not the ROKU.

I just tried hooking the ROKU HDMI cable back up to the Marantz again having everything turned off including having the ROKU unplugged from the AC mains power outlet.

I then plugged in the ROKU PS into the AC power outlet. I waited for the blinking light on the front of the ROKU to stop blinking and go to solid.

I them powered up the Samsung TV and Marantz HT receiver. Set the Marantz to the correct HDMI input. And as before, the ROKU home page came up.

I then went to Amazon Prime. The page came up as before. I selected the same movie as I did before, when the low bandwidth banner came up on the screen..... NO Banner this time!! The movie started playing. No glitches or buffering, so far. Picture quality looks the sames as it did with the ROKU connected directly to the Samsung. Sounds good as well. A heck of a lot better than it did coming out of the 2 little down firing speakers on the TV.

Jim
@jea48 - well YAY! 
I'm a genius. :)
Not really. Glad you got it working. 
best,
bill
Happy that your setup is now working.  You may have encountered the same unusual problem that I had on Thursday. I got a "not connected to the server" message when trying to use my ROKU to view a movie on Prime.  I tried Netflix on the ROKU and it worked fine.  I then went to the Prime app on my LG OLED and I could view the movie with no problems.  Later in the day, all was well with the ROKU.  I think there must have been some kind of temporary glitch between ROKU and Prime.