Okay, so I wanted to know which caused my ROKU freeze/reboot on F/F problem, the low memory or the TabloTV Preview Channel?
I started out removing the added microSd memory stick, problem didn’t return yet. Then I added about 10 new channels! I went to Tablo app and could NOT get it to freeze and reboot while f/f and r/w during playback of a recorded show. So NOT the memory issue causing it.
Next I signed back into my ROKU account online, added the (Beta) Preview Channel using the channel code “tablopreview” and went to the Roku3 settings and forced a check for update so the new channel could show up. Once it was listed again, I started playing a show (it happened to be Big Brother) and started to F/F and play, F/F and rewind and play, over and over a few times and VIOLA!
The screen froze (no response to any remote presses) and in a little while the box rebooted itself!
So I found the culprit on my box, the new TabloTV preview channel app is my immediate problem.
Whether that is indirectly caused by a firmware update from ROKU or not, all I know is my problem must have started when I installed the preview app (and the issue also shows up on the old app too while preview app is loaded). So I will uninstall the Preview Channel once again and I should be OKAY again.
Until the (Beta) preview channel is forced upon us as an update (let’s hope they fix the problem before then).
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I hope this info helps anyone looking for a solution like I was!
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Just uninstall the new (Beta) TabloTV Preview channel (app) from your ROKU 3 (4200X) box and your problem should disappear after a reboot when the app. is cleared out.
Doni
I didn’t either until I tried FF commercials. Have you tried Ff commercials? I’ve started using the FireTV stick on the main TV since it has more features and doesn’t crash Ff commercials.
I first reported this problem back on April 8th. I was running old tablo firmware and the old tablo app and didn’t have the new app installed. The reboot started immediately after the Roku firmware upgrade. Then everyone started saying it didn’t happen with the new tablo app. Since then every kind of magic spell, voodoo, and pixie dust has been tried.
Maybe hopping on one foot naked and chanting for 30 minutes will make the problem go away.
@zippy
This is the first report I have read directly correlating the FF reboots starting when Roku was updated. My experience appeared to be the opposite since the Tablo update was manually accepted / allowed in April and my problem with FF reboot immediately began. The Roku update apparently required no approval, taking place on power-up automatically and my Rokus are powered up with each use.
Glad to finally see evidence that Roku is the root cause but their ownership of this issue and remedy have been unapolegetically pathetic and still lacking.
I actually explained this to you months ago. Taboo released their firmware update, then the very next day Roku released their firmware update that resulted in the issue. Since the Tablo update requires user intervention, you likely updated the Tablo the same day you got the Roku update.
Yes @theuser86 you actually did offer such an explanation to explain how Roku rather than Tablo could cause this problem.
Until the comment was just posted by zippy, however, no other users have decisively confirmed your theory on this Tablo forum nor have any developers on the Roku developer forum posted a single reference to this FF reboot issue in nearly 5 months to give your theory credibility. My dozens of unproductive reports to Roku customer service also brought ZERO confirmation of their awareness or ownership, still true to this day.
So yes, you opined an explanation and now I have one other Tablo user who offers the same opinion you voiced which I am glad to see as confirming evidence. So I hear your “I told you so”…
I have, for whatever it is worth, spent countless hours loading and trying dozens of other channels trying to make this issue appear and have NEVER EVER EVER SEEN rhis problem on any other channel other than Tablo.
Since I had so many channels installed but never deleted them after experimenting, I was especially optimistic that this might be contributing to memory management issues causing Tablo to fail. I am now back to 6 channels from 50 or more previously installed with no improvement in FF reboots.
So, I accept the distinct possibility that Roku is the cause. Yet 5 months later I still have a very flakey and very annoying experience watching Tablo, as apparently do many others in this thread of over 300 posts.
Hi Guys,
Sorry uninstalling the preview app didn’t help like it did for me.
All I can say is, it helped in my case.
I have a few questions to you guys, is your ROKU3 a 4200 or 4200X?
I don’t remember if one has different hardware or is remanufactured etc?
Mine says 4200X on the bottom, maybe that is different?
Also, after removing the preview app. I still froze/rebooted but only 2 times in like a 100 ff/rw tests. Before removing it, I could get the problem to occur almost immediately, maybe 1 out of every 3 ff/rw play attempts, so huge it’s a huge difference for me!
And then as time goes on, like a day or two after, I haven’t been able to deliberately get it to ff/reboot at all. So RetiredEngineer maybe now that you removed the preview channel, a few days later, the problem will lessen?
Let me know if you see any difference in occurance level of the problem please, maybe it doesn’t completely clear up immediately? (some bad code still in cache ?(even after reboot)).
Hi Roraniel, LOL Well I haven’t done the reverse test with my equipment to see if I can use the preview (beta) app with the stable app removed. I will try that if I have free time maybe but I am reluctant because it IS working for me now.
And basically that is the only reason I came back here after a year, because I was searching for help on something that was driving me insane. Now that it’s no longer a huge annoyance to me, I don’t know if I want to mess around with things again and risk a return of the problem with any further changes. And then having to go thru all the steps all over again just to hopefully return to a working state again.
Just remember, I dealt with this problem literally for many months before I reached my tipping point, then I googled “ROKU rebooting” and found posts of people drilling holes from years of issues. I tried that first and then decided to see if it was possibly a Tablo specific issue after the holes didn’t solve my problem. I also noticed I hadn’t experienced the issue happening on my Netflix or other apps. So there might be many more people experiencing this who haven’t visited this site yet also. I doubt they start reading all 330 posts (so far) either when they do finally reach their frustration point to act to find a solution.
BUT I will keep your question in mind for a test in future for me to try.
I don’t get paid by TabloTV as a tester however, LOL so since they haven’t asked me to try this, maybe they already know the answer to that?
I own seven Roku 3’s and am using six with one as a spare/test unit. They are both 4200 and 4200X models. All have the same reboot problem.
I wish I could tell you that the reboot problem entirely disappeared or improved somewhat as a result of making the changes you suggested. Sadly, such is not the case. I have used the Tablo and 4 of the Rokus heavily today as did my wife as well. Neither one of us saw any improvement.
I want to offer 5 signicant observations, having reread this entire thread from beginning to end today, and also doing quite a bit of online research:
There are absolutely, positively, no other references on the Internet using either Google or Yahoo search engines to any other channel on Roku having fast-forward reboots other than Tablo. Searching for “Roku rebooting fast forward”, for example, brings up numerous Tablo references. Isn’t it odd that Netflix, with a declared user population of 66 million users, does not show one single complaint or reference any place? Isn’t it odd that no other Roku channel users for the publicized ~1700 Roku channels have not voiced a single complaint on the Internet? Try Google or Yahoo yourself.
Every single reply on this thread referring to other channels exhibiting fast-forward rebooting issues which claim they occur cite references to other types of Roku freezing unrelated to fast-forward playback. There are several other known types of Roku freezes, crashes, and reboots reported, and these have been acknowledged on Roku’s developer website. These relate to freezes during playback, during updates, during channel selection, and other Roku functions such as game play. Nothing, and I repeat nothing has been posted regarding fast-forward issues except for Tablo.
There have been two Roku firmware updates since this problem began in April, each preceded by beta testers declaring that the beta versions of impending Roku official releases had fixed the fast forwarding problem. Sadly, such has not been the case.
I have asked Tablo support, in this thread, TWICE, which other channels on Roku supposedly have this same issue, as they claim, and have not received a reply.
The developer forum for Roku developers is open to the public, and I have posted a link to it months ago in this thread. It is filled with Roku issues of all types, including rebooting and freezing issues. However, I have yet to find any other references to fast-forward reboots. If Netflix, CBS, Hulu, etc. are actually seeking Roku assistance in resolving fast-forward rebooting, where are their posts? And BTW, where are Tablo’s posts requesting help?
Each Roku channel has software developers who write code to present the screens and content which their channel offers. When a mistake occurs in their code, it shows up as a problem on their channel. I have noted, for example, that the vertical scrolling in the program guide works correctly in my Tablo channel but does not work correctly in the Tablo Preview beta app. No doubt, it was programmed correctly by Tablo channel software developers in one app but was not developed correctly in the other. Mistakes in writing code happen all the time, and Tablo certainly can not point to Roku on this bug to avoid ownership.
This problem has been going on far too long.
Since it is clearly not affecting all Roku users, it would seem prudent to provide a beta modified version or two or three or as many as may be needed to those of us experiencing problems to see if some revision to Tablo code may help. Beta testing in debugging of the latest firmware should be offered to those with a problem to see if it improves things.
And Tablo merely acting as a messenger to send complaints to Roku month after month appears to be an ineffectual, time wasting digression that appear to date as accomplishing nothing.
I don’t want to start an arguement, but the Hulu+ post is literally a single post by one user - no follow-up what so ever by the OP. So it may have been a real problem, or not - but it wasn’t a bunch of people saying ‘me too’. Tablo FFW reboots are a very real problem, with more documented discussion than I’ve seen for any other Roku app.
One single post 3 months ago related to Hulu is hardly a compelling piece of evidence, given millions of Hulu users and no other post whatsoever anywhere but that single one.
Also, it is entirely possible that BOTH Tablo and Hulu developers made a mistake in prograaming their apps, causing the same apparent outcome.
Wven if Roku is at fault, 1698 out if 1700 channels do NOT have this problem. Maybe we should ask the question WHY NONE OF THEIR USERS are complaining anyplace…
You keep saying that (and even “scream” it with capital letters) but you are mistaken. For example, on the Roku Beta test site, there are many complaints about this issue covering a number of apps. There are threads like “HBO GO rew/ff causes Roku to reboot” or “Acorn TV crashes during rewind” or “Roku restarting when trying to rewind HBO”
Now I can say that I try to avoid discussing in public topics such as politics, religion or whether Tablo or Roku is at fault over the rewind problem. I have no clue. But if you believe that “1698 out of 1700 channels do NOT have this problem” that may be a bit of an overstatement.
Tablo is aware of this issue; Roku is aware of this issue. Not sure how reprising the “Who is at fault?” debate is all that helpful (although it does have its entertaining moments).
You won’t get an argument out of me, this needs fixing NOW. My family is really tired of the constant reboots.
However, I was replying to the statement that there were zero occurrences of FFWD reboots for any other channel, which is patently false and an overstatement.
@TabloTV and/or @TabloSupport can we please get an update on this? If this drags on into September my family has requested I look at other solutions for our DVR needs.
@luker - I can totally appreciate why you’re frustrated by this. We really had hoped that this would be resolved by now.
Our CEO has asked the team to place a priority on this issue so hopefully these additional resources along with closer cooperation with Roku will assist us in getting this solved.
Am I imagining that you’re based in Ottawa? If you’re willing, our team may want to work with you more closely as we still haven’t been able to reproduce this issue in our dev environment and you seem to be able to do so consistently.
