Roku - Ultra Streaming Media Player - Black

I would start by going to Roku's forum and read some threads there. You will see there are lots of people have the same issues I described below. Stay away from Roku. Very poor customer service, no audio, loud popping chirping, HDCP 2.2 errors, and no communication on a fix. In the forum there are threads of the problems described below going back to January 2017, 4 months and no update or communication of an update. My experience is below. I have/had a Roku 4 that displayed 4k content and had no issues with the sound, it worked great. Then I got an email promotion to get the Ultra at a discount because I already had a Roku 4. Great, I will move the 4 to the bedroom and put the ultra in the living room. But when I go to watch any movie on Vudu with the Ultra that is DD+ 7.1 I have no sound. The latest example would be Star Wars Rouge One, no sound when playing HDX DD+ 7.1. If I switch it to SD, which is DD+ 5.1 it works fine. On top of having no sound for some movies, I am also getting a loud chirping/popping every 10-15 minutes or so on all content. I am also getting HDCP 2.2 error sometimes when watching 4k movies. Again, the Roku 4 never had any of these issues with the same exact setup. I know what you are thinking, just move the Roku Ultra to the bedroom and the Roku 4 to the living room. Well the Roku 4 will no longer turn on and when I called about it I was told it was 2 weeks out of warranty, too bad, buy a new one. Very poor customer service and not very happy about that either but that is an entirely different issue. I was on the phone for 50 minutes last night with tech support and they gave me a case number (that I forgot at home so I don’t have it) and was told somebody else would call me back to help. Well no phone call. They had me unplug and plug in the Roku Ultra and the TV, didn’t work. Go through the settings on the Roku Ultra, didn’t work. Remove the Vudu channel and add it, didn’t work. Switch HDMI cables and HDMI ports on the TV, didn’t work. I went as far as to hook up the Roku Ultra directly to the receiver with an optical cable on the second optical input so it wouldn’t go through the TV, didn’t work. All the HDMI cables I have are rated for high speed 4k content. I have the Roku Ultra wired directly to my modem and is a 60 Mbps I am at the point now where I wish I never bought the Roku Ultra and I wish my Roku 4 still turned on. I am very, very disappointed in Roku and I don’t think I would recommend any Roku products to anybody.

Before purchasing this item I was wavering between Roku and Fire stick in my journey to cut the cable and save money. I wanted to be able to use Sling TV as my love TV source. I was very upset to see the first review from Best Buy staying that this Roku model doesn't work with Sling. I did more research and found that often, it is not Sling that is the issue, but individual home Networks or Internet connections that can cause the problem. I decided to take the chance and I am so glad I did! When I powered on the device, it created me by telling me Roku had recently worked very hard to make updates to make my experience much better. It seems they knew there were issues... My cable television would occasionally freeze, or sound would cut out. I was used to bugs and paying out the nose to have problems all the time so I was prepared for there to be some issues with the Roku. I already had Netflix and Amazon Prime. I added Hulu for $8 a month and the second tier Sling package for $25 a month to my subscriptions and there hasn't been a show I can't view! When exiting Sling, there is about a 10second delay before Roku returns to the home screen. Hulu has frozen once and when I exited and re-entered it was fine but that used to happen with Netflix on my Smart TV as well. If those are the only bugs I have, then I'm already a million times happier than I was with cable TV and I'm not paying for 1000 channels I don't watch or rental fees for boxes and remotes! I love the voice search function on the remote! It hasn't mixed anything up yet and I use it constantly! Then I can see all the places my show is available. It lists the free ones as well as paid ones depending on which service I want to use to access it. My TV is a 4k model and there is a 4k spotlight app to show me all the content that is available in my beautiful Ultr High def! I really like that I can "follow" shows and Roku gives me updated when new episodes become available (kind of like setting a DVR but I don't need to store the recordings). My husband loves being able to plug the headphones into the remote and watch TV with out me having to hear whatever he is watching. Sling had a deal where if you pre-pay for 2 months, you get a free Roku stick or 50% off on the Roku model just under this one of you pre-pay for 3 months. I took the second deal and now I have that Roku device in my bedroom. I do miss the voice search function on that model though!

I was excited to try 4K streaming, but the Roku Ultra has managed to disappoint in every possible way. The trouble began as a series of intermittent HDCP errors (purple screens), with no help to be had from Roku support. I bought a series of expensive cables from every vendor I could find, but nothing would fix the issues. For the time, I went back to standard 1080P format -- and finally a series of software updates was made to the Roku to supposedly "fix" the issue. It seemed to be working for a bit. I began streaming my first show with Netflix in 4k format, and then some strange audio interruptions would happen randomly during viewing. Shortly after this, the signal would de-sync, and then both the audio and visuals would drop out for a few seconds. Sometimes when watching Netflix in 4K the red colors would become saturated and flash for one or two frames before returning to normal. I thought maybe Netflix was to blame, so I tried Prime, Youtube, and the built in News feed -- all with the same results. In combination with this, I again tried every HDMI cable I could get my hands on, but no luck. I began to suspect it was the television (Samsung 4K 60" KS8000 Quantum series), so I hooked my PS4 Pro up and was able to run Netflix, Prime, and games at 4K without a single interruption -- even on the lowest rated HDMI cable I had. I have put up with this issue for months now, browsing every forum I could find on Google searching for a solution, and reading similar stories from other users. Here we are 6 months later, and nothing has been resolved. I've been cautioning everyone I know away from these devices -- stick to the built in software or apps available on 4k Bluray players or the PS4 pro -- at least until Roku irons out all of the bugs.

So we went to Best Buy to get the new 4K Apple TV when they came out but luckily for us, they didn’t have any in stock. For less than 1/2 the price, we picked up the Roku Ultra on sale. We had read reviews of all the name brand streaming devices before going and decided on the Apple TV because we have iPhones & iPads. But that didn’t matter at all as it turns out, we can use this Roku with ease! Basically sets itself up with the help of an HDMI cable. We plugged it in and the colorful UI showed up. We set up our network info and we were good to go. So easy! There are some preselected “apps” but there are tons of channels and apps so we removed those we didn’t need and set up those we did - like HBO Go, Showtime now (some are confused by those - you DO need a subscription to watch) and local stations so we could have “on demand”. Because we don’t have a cable box but use a TiVo we didn’t have “on demand” but now we do and we love being able to see what we want when we want! You can also set the apps to show up in the order best suited for you. I put our most watched at the top. This unit does support 4K which we don’t have now (we do have an HD tv now), but when we do, we’re ready! I also believe this does upscale. The picture is beautiful. The clear picture we get and the fast streaming is incredible! There is almost no lag time. We previously had options to stream some channels via the blu-ray player and TiVo but they were very slow, limited selection and would stop frequently for buffering. That hasn’t happened once with the Roku. The voice search on the remote works extremely well for us. Example “Meryl Streep” brings up a listing of shows/movies with Meryl. Some may need a subscription others may be free to see but they’re all there for you. The remote is also very convenient as 1 touch to any button will turn on the tv, set it to the correct input and turn on the Roku. We can also cast from our iPhones via the Roku app. We use it to cast personal photos and videos! It simply couldn’t be easier. I HIGHLY recommend the Roku Ultra. I don’t see how you could be disappointed!! Just remember to see shows on Netflix, Amazon prime and other pay services, you do need to subscribe to those services.

I picked this up to finally replace my Apple TV. With this device I'm hoping that I can watch all my streaming with one device. The newest Apple TV still can't do Amazon Prime and my old Apple TV couldn't do Plex (streaming from my home media server). Plus the CW network now has an app that doesn't work on the old Apple TV. A big issue as new episodes on that network are no longer on Hulu. So, this Roku Ultra does it all for me. I no longer have to fire up Apple TV, a PS3, or an XBox based on what I'm watching. This doesn't appear to run hot like the old Roku 4 and there is no fan either so it is a lot quieter than the Roku 4 (that this model replaces). The only con I see so far is closed captioning on Roku is really poor compared to Apple TV (or other devices in general really). The captions are poorly placed, have black boxes all around them, and can't interpret things like apostrophes so it leaves a blank box where symbols like those should be. So my wife who uses captions all the time is a little disappointed. Other than that I have no complaints so far.

I am very happy with my purchase of the Roku Ultra. I was even happier to get it on sale $10 off the regular price! This is my first streaming device so I don't have a reference to compare it to. I read reviews on all Rokus & all other streaming devices before I purchased it. I chose the Roku Ultra over the Roku 4 because I had read some reviews where it was said that the Roku 4 would sometimes overheat, so that info along with the sale price I got with the Roku Ultra, I chose to purchase the Roku Ultra. I considered Apple TV, but the price is more expensive, & I read that Roku has more content available than all other streaming devices. Set up is easy. I was surprised when I first used it how much content there is available, & how much free content is available. The picture & streaming quality is excellent. The remote is easy to use. I only have an HD TV now, which it works well with, but Roku Ultra will stream 4K with a 4K TV whenever I get a 4K TV. The only complaint I would have is that the voice search doesn't recognize what I speak well, & I have to repeat it several times before it recognizes what I am trying to say, & sometimes I get frustrated & just type in my search item. If this is a deal breaker for you, I've read that the new Apple TV voice search with Siri works very well. One other minor note is that the image on the TV froze on the screen a couple of times & wouldn't respond to the remote, but unplugging the Roku & then plugging it back in took care of the problem. I bought the Roku Ultra because when my contract with DirecTv is up, I plan on "cutting the cord" to DirecTv, & save money in the process by streaming thru Roku & using an HD antenna. I am very happy with my purchase.

I have been with Roku since the company first started. We cut the cord on cable way back in 2008 and the roku has been an indispensable media player in our home. As a graphic designer and computer graphics professional, I use my model for slideshows & presentations, business use, church use and personal use. I find the quality of the video and audio to far exceed that of Apple TV. I have owned nearly every model of the roku set-top box that supports full-HD and UHD. Currently, my family owns 3 roku devices and the Roku Ultra has been the most stable and powerful version yet: flawless speedy setup, superior speed, Zero crashes, stalls or audio issues. Wifi range is killer and no lag in app performance either. The option for wired LAN is great for connection directly to switches and routers for even more network speed and for connecting to media servers. Bluetooth support is powerful but my absolute favorite feature is the 3D audio (via headphone jack) on the remote. Listening to your favorite shows, movies, anime or music with the wireless remote audio through over-the-ear vmoda headphones is an experience you MUST TRY! The Roku Ultra is a great model with outstanding video quality--this model delivers. Don't have UHD yet? Don't sweat it, this model provides a better image than any roku model yet due to its better graphics hardware--even on standard HD. Quite simply, it's a no-compromise media center in a tiny box. Other models suffered from lack of coloring. This unit stays cool!

I bought the Roku ultra a few weeks ago and wish I had never bought it. I have it connected to a high end av surround receiver and it is continually making a loud chirping sound or sometimes a cracking or popping sound that alternates to various speakers. I have tried every different setting combination available on the devices and still have the noise. I called Roku support 2 times and after at least an hour on the phone each time, they took my information and said they would call me back, it has been over 2 weeks and I have not heard back from them. I can hook my Apple TV to the same wire and play with no issues. I only bought the Roku because the Apple TV does not do Amazon video, I am about to the point of cancelling the Amazon and throwing the Roku in the trash. I am concerned that this device will damage my speakers with the popping and cracking. I bought a high end high speed HDMI cable, which made no difference and even tried hooking the HDMI directly to the tv and an optical cable to the receiver and it still had the same issue.