ROKU XS - Any problems?

[PopcornNMore]

As most of you know I received a ROKU XS for Christmas and have been using it daily. This afternoon while still home sick I was adding some additional channels when all of a sudden I heard a "pop" and the TV went dark. When the TV rebooted ROKU was rebooting as well and a very large green horizontal line appeared at the bottom of the screen. When I switched to the Dish Network input a large yellow horizontal line appeared at the bottom of the screen. I almost had a heart attack thinking my new 50" LED TV had been damaged by the ROKU streaming device. I then powered down the TV and turned it back on resulting in the horizontal line being gone. My heart started beating again.

Then about an hour later while "moving" a channel logo on the main GUI the ROKU rebooted again. I then used it for an additional 5 or more hours with no problems.

Has anyone ever experienced any problems using their ROKU streaming devices? I worry due to it's small size that it doesn't have the protection circuitry needed.

PS: I also noticed that HULU and Netflix produce a slightly better picture quality using one of my blu-ray players. However, perhaps it's just my imagination.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Had mine for over a year with no reboot or green line issues. It is in stand-by mode 99% of the time, but there when I want it!

 

[navychop]

No probs here, but I'm a light user.

 

[mike123abc]

I have never seen that problem before. But, that does not mean that your unit is not defective, or you have bad power...

 

[PopcornNMore]

I'm seeing the problem once again tonight when using the ROKU XS. When I scroll fast through the channels a colored line "ghost image" appears at the bottom where the advertising is located. The color of the line matches the color of the ad being displayed. For example if the ad has a green background the line on the sides is green while scrolling through channels. If the ad has a white background the colored lines appearing on the sides are white.

To test I switched to another input (HDMI 1) for Dish Network and scrolled through the guide fast and saw a faint colored line appearing in the same area of the TV along the bottom. If the "pop" I heard was indeed the TV the TV might have been damaged by me using the ROKU XS. Tomorrow I might attach the ROKU to another TV to see if the color lines disappear. If so, the TV is probably damaged. I purchased the 50" LED TV 6 months ago for $1,000. I doubt if ROKU would pay for the TV to be repaired or replaced. I don't even know if the warrantee on the TV would cover this since I was operating the ROKU device at the time.

 

[PopcornNMore]

When I did a search tonight I was surprised by the large amount of ROKU negative feedback. Many say units fail after 5 or 6 months. I'm wondering if they are a poor device or if many people just don't understand the technology.

http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/Roku

 

[concord]

I see several people complaining about Roku requiring a credit card to register, but if they just look at the webpage, they would find an option to skip entering a CC.

I've have two roku originals, one that was purchased new about 3-4 years ago and still going (but only 720p). Got a used one off a ebay about 2 years ago (the guy didn't reset it so I could have used their netflix etc accounts, but I did a full reset ), it worked wirelessly for about 6 months and then stopped working, so I switched it with the one in the living room (it's wired). Got a re-furbed 2 XD about 6 mnths ago and still working.

When the 2's first came out, I think there was alot of problems trying to connect via wireless, especially the wireless-only ones.

 

[PopcornNMore]

When the 2's first came out, I think there was alot of problems trying to connect via wireless, especially the wireless-only ones.

I believe this is the biggest problem, especially with people not familiar with routers and best placement of the Roku device. I always wire my video devices for the best connection which is why I wanted the Roku 2 XS.

 

[PopcornNMore]

I believe I resolved the color line problem that appeared along the bottom of the TV while scrolling through the channels...

After not being able to sleep last night thinking about the possibility of my 6 month old 50" TV being damaged by the Roku I read the Roku instruction book once again. When I read that the remote is RF rather than IF enabling the unit to be controlled while out of sight it made me think that perhaps since the Roku is positioned directly under the TV the internal antenna might possibly be interfering with the TV. This made sense, because the colored lines only appeared along the bottom of the screen while scrolling through the channels.

Tonight after work I moved the Roku unit to a lower shelf on the TV stand and scrolled through the channels fast and saw NO color line interference. I then switched inputs to Dish Network and scrolled fast through the guide and saw NO color line interference. It certainly looks like this was the problem and perhaps I can breath easier tonight and get some sleep not worrying about the TV.

 

[concord]

Good to hear you figured it out. After reading IceBerg's thread about MummyBox ( http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/301909-Mummybox-gone ), I fear there will be a bunch of channels disappearing...if that happens, there will be many more rokus up for sale on ebay and the price will drop.