Roku 3 v Roku Express

[Anonymous User]

Hello good people of the NOWTV forum

I've had horrendous repeated intermittent loss of wifi issues with a brand new Roku Express resulting in constant buffering whilst watching live Sky Sports content since purchasing it in January 2018.

No problems with the fibre broadband from Plusnet, other devices able to stream content without buffering/losing wifi connection with brand new router.

Can also stream the footy using the NOWTV app on the iPad without buffering/losing wifi.

To cut a very long story short, despite extensive help from the NOWTV Live Chat and completely uninterested chat with the Roku support it wasn't possible to resolve the problem, so I took it back to retailer for a refund under warranty. Didn't want to try a replacement Roku Express for fear of damaging the living room wall any further..........

My question is the performance of the Roku 3 any better using the ethernet connection?

Cheers!

[Tony-D]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

Hello good people of the NOWTV forum

I've had horrendous repeated intermittent loss of wifi issues with a brand new Roku Express resulting in constant buffering whilst watching live Sky Sports content since purchasing it in January 2018.

No problems with the fibre broadband from Plusnet, other devices able to stream content without buffering/losing wifi connection with brand new router.

Can also stream the footy using the NOWTV app on the iPad without buffering/losing wifi.

To cut a very long story short, despite extensive help from the NOWTV Live Chat and completely uninterested chat with the Roku support it wasn't possible to resolve the problem, so I took it back to retailer for a refund under warranty. Didn't want to try a replacement Roku Express for fear of damaging the living room wall any further..........

My question is the performance of the Roku 3 any better using the ethernet connection?

Cheers!

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Welcome to the forum @Anonymous User 

An ethernet cable will do the job much better but it's still a bit weird that your original Roku did not work properly. Was it just the NOW TV App not working correctly @Anonymous User ?

[Anonymous User]

Hi Tony-D

Don't think it was the app, tried delete/reinstall same issues, anyway not going there again!

Yes I would have thought ethernet cable would be better than wifi hence me thinking I'll get the Roku 3, just need to know if anyone else can enlighten me about it's performance etc.

@Tony-Dwrote:

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Welcome to the forum @Anonymous User 

An ethernet cable will do the job much better but it's still a bit weird that your original Roku did not work properly. Was it just the NOW TV App not working correctly @Anonymous User ?

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[Tony-D]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

Hi Tony-D

Don't think it was the app, tried delete/reinstall same issues, anyway not going there again!

Yes I would have thought ethernet cable would be better than wifi hence me thinking I'll get the Roku 3, just need to know if anyone else can enlighten me about it's performance etc.

@Tony-Dwrote:

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Welcome to the forum @Anonymous User 

An ethernet cable will do the job much better but it's still a bit weird that your original Roku did not work properly. Was it just the NOW TV App not working correctly @Anonymous User ?

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Nope, wouldn't go back myself @Anonymous User I wonder if any of our super users know much about this? Any ideas @Andy @commanda6 @schnapps ?

[Andy]

@Anonymous User @Tony-D

Well it's always difficult when users post issues like this to know what the actual cause is. If all the apps on the Roku Express showed problems it would point towards an issue with the Roku itself or the wifi connection, but if it's just the NOW TV app on the Roku with picture issues and all the other apps streamed fine that's a hard one to sell.

Similarly you could suspect an issue between the broadband connection and the NOW TV service, maybe IP/routing issues or the use of a VPN/proxy servers but then you would expect the NOW TV service to suffer on all devices not just the Roku.

It's always preferable to use Ethernet where this is practical but as you can't really pinpoint where the issue lies you can't say for sure a Roku 3 will solve it (or any other Roku/NOW TV box/stick). I can say I have a Roku 3 and don't have any issues with NOW TV either via Ethernet or wifi.

But I wouldn't want to say buy a Roku 3, connect it to Ethernet and it's definitely going to work for you. Sorry!

I suppose at the end of the day you'll have to go with some sort of device, try another Roku, look at a NOW TV stick/box or whatever and see what happens. Have a look at the following list of supported devices as you might have something completely different you can use eg a games console or Chromecast.

http://help.nowtv.com/article/Supported-devices

[Tony-D]

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@Andy wrote:

@Anonymous User @Tony-D

Well it's always difficult when users post issues like this to know what the actual cause is. If all the apps on the Roku Express showed problems it would point towards an issue with the Roku itself or the wifi connection, but if it's just the NOW TV app on the Roku with picture issues and all the other apps streamed fine that's a hard one to sell.

Similarly you could suspect an issue between the broadband connection and the NOW TV service, maybe IP/routing issues or the use of a VPN/proxy servers but then you would expect the NOW TV service to suffer on all devices not just the Roku.

It's always preferable to use Ethernet where this is practical but as you can't really pinpoint where the issue lies you can't say for sure a Roku 3 will solve it (or any other Roku/NOW TV box/stick). I can say I have a Roku 3 and don't have any issues with NOW TV either via Ethernet or wifi.

But I wouldn't want to say buy a Roku 3, connect it to Ethernet and it's definitely going to work for you. Sorry!

I suppose at the end of the day you'll have to go with some sort of device, try another Roku, look at a NOW TV stick/box or whatever and see what happens. Have a look at the following list of supported devices as you might have something completely different you can use eg a games console or Chromecast.

http://help.nowtv.com/article/Supported-devices

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Thanks @Andy for the insightful response 🙂

So @Anonymous User, it seems that its gonna be a risk either way. Could have been a faulty Roku as all apps were affected but it could be something completely trivial. We won't know until it's tried. Suppose you could return the Roku 3 if ethernet fails to help the issue at all.

[schnapps]

Hi @Anonymous User

Do you have either an entertainment, cinema or kids nowtv pass to test the Roku Express, rather than a Sports Pass ?

The reason why is that a couple of people have reported recently about picture issues on the Sky Sports channels, where you may also be effected rather than a drop out of the WiFi on your Roku Express.

If you have a different nowtv pass, try playing some nowtv content on either demand or catchup (for now don't test on the live streams).

Edit ~ Ignore my post, I just releaised that you have taken the Roku Express back to the Retailer for a refund 

[Andy]

@schnapps The Roku Express has already gone back, so no further troubleshooting can be done on it, thus any advice is a bit of a stab in the dark.

[schnapps]

Hi @Andy

Yeah, just realised that, I didn't read the post in full 

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the input @schnapps@Andy@Tony-D

The NOW TV service to watch Sky Sports content using the iPad app was faultless so I suspect there's not an issue with my ISP Plusnet and I don't use a VPN or proxy server.

The only other two apps I tried briefly on the now returned Roku Express were BBC iplayer and YouTube, the iplayer buffered but YouTube didn't. I'd read somewhere that streaming YouTube content doesn't make the same demands of the Roku compared to watching live content using the NOW TV app. Anyway, not going back there!

I mention in passing that I also use a Youview + box hard wired by ethernet and get BT Sport from Plusnet and have had no buffering issues.

So I'm thinking ethernet is the way to go, just asking around for others experience of the Roku 3 as there seems to very favourable reviews of the device.