HDHomeRun App on Roku vs Firestick

[ExplodingSidewalk]

Why is the HDHomeRun App on the Roku so bad versus the App on a FireStick? All functionality is on the Firestick even watching ATSC 3.0 channels. SiliconDust needs to step up the programming when it come to the Roku because it's really piss poor. In fact it's embarrassing.

[signcarver]

Roku is limited to just the roku player... with android (firetv is currently using android) there is much more one can do.

For ATSC3 on roku you need a recent Ultra model.

Ny personal recommendation is to NEVER use a roku when it comes to TV content (it can be fine for internet content).

[nickk]

The Roku app is a major ongoing project for us - we are doing regular progress releases.

The last release added full grid TV guide.

The next release (currently in QA) adds the Tasks screen for handling both recording rules and seeing upcoming recordings.

[ExplodingSidewalk]

I'm not sure I agree with your statement of firesticks over roku. Maybe if your comparing hdmi sticks but, I own three roku ultras with specs that destroy the latest firestick. Just to point out three specs: IR capability, ethernet, and microsd.

[JDazell]

Buy a Walmart .onn 4K Smart Google streaming device and move on.

[kyl416]

I'm not sure I agree with your statement of firesticks over roku. Maybe if your comparing hdmi sticks but, I own three roku ultras with specs that destroy the latest firestick.

It doesn't matter how good the specs are, Roku puts so many restrictions on what developers can do. So nearly every function that other platforms like Android/FireTV, iOS, MacOS and Windows can automatically support via the common UI has to be coded seperately for Roku.

That's just the UI part of things. It's much worse when you get to the components needed for playback. Roku doesn't let developers bundle their own player libraries to support any missing or poorly implemented codecs like those other platforms, they're forced to use Roku's internal player. At one point Roku removed MPEG-2 support entirely from that player, even though it is required for ATSC 1.0 and most digital cable signals, but when they eventually brought it back they used a poorly designed MPEG-2 decoder that can't handle error correction, so playback halts whenever there's an imperfection in the broadcast signal due to noise interference or a strong gust of wind.
Only certain models ship with an internal AC-3 decoder, so you're at the mercy of your TV supporting AC-3 decoding over HDMI for audio since the HDHomeRun provides the signal as is from your broadcast or cable signal and can't provide alternate AAC streams like streaming providers can. And for ATSC 3.0, since Roku requires developers to use their internal player, it can't support the cloud AC-4 transcoder, so you only get audio on the specific Ultra models that have internal AC-4 decoding.

Several Roku OS updates over the years also temporarily broke things needed for playback and couldn't be fixed until Roku issued a patch to their OS, and since in many cases these were specific to MPEG-2 decoding, Roku didn't give it the urgency they would if it was something related to H264 or HEVC decoding that would have also affected streaming apps. On other platforms they can just blacklist the hardware codecs on the affected OS versions and models and fallback to the codec libraries bundled with the HDHomeRun app until either an OS or app update came out that fixed it.

[ExplodingSidewalk]

The top streaming devices sold in 2023 and 2024 are !Roku! You would believe that SiliconDust would quickly program their app to play nice with these streaming devices. In fact the top selling streaming device in 2024 is the Roku Express 4K+. The HDHomeRun App should be improved if not on the same par, as it's android version. I also find it hard to believe that Roku would be impeading SiconDust's efforts to provide a functional HDHomeRun App.

[nickk]

The top streaming devices sold in 2023 and 2024 are !Roku! You would believe that SiliconDust would quickly program their app to play nice with these streaming devices. In fact the top selling streaming device in 2024 is the Roku Express 4K+. The HDHomeRun App should be improved if not on the same par, as it's android version. I also find it hard to believe that Roku would be impeading SiconDust's efforts to provide a functional HDHomeRun App.

Roku apps are basically a UI skin/theme over Roku's built in video player. The UI skin can only be programmed using a Roku-specific custom scripting language. Roku's built in video player is missing a number of features that Android and other platforms have.

While we don't stop the app from running on a Roku Express 4K+ we do specify the minimum supported Roku hardware as a Roku Ultra 4800X or newer.

Roku Express 4K+ does not support AC3 audio used by ATSC 1.0. It will pass AC3 audio through to the TV or AVR so ATSC 1.0 will work with the right TV or AVR connected (and with the right settings).
Roku Express 4K+ does not support AC4 audio used by ATSC 3.0 so ATSC 3.0 will not work at all on the Roku Express 4K+.

[kyl416]

The HDHomeRun supports a lot more than just network connected media players. Roku's market share for phones, tablets, game consoles, laptops and desktops is 0%. Most of those other platforms along with AndroidTV/FireTV can use the common UI, while Roku requires them to have a seperately coded UI. They have similar UI limitations for Apple TV, but in Apple TV's case at least they can still use their own bundled player to support the codecs that Apple TV doesn't natively decode.

Roku's developer policies aren't just a HDHomeRun limitation, it's the same reason why you can't natively run Kodi or VLC on Roku. Even Google had problems when Roku refused to support something they wanted to implement for YouTubeTV, which led to the app being removed from Roku for much of 2021.

It being the top selling media player doesn't change the fact that unless Roku changes their policies to allow native code and drop the requirement to use their internal media player, there is nothing Silicondust can do about their poorly implemented MPEG-2 decoder or lack of native AC-3 or AC-4 decoding on most of their models. The HDHomeRun has no control over what local stations or cable providers send over their signals, for ATSC 1.0 most video is MPEG-2 and all audio is AC-3, for ATSC 3.0 the spec is HEVC for video and AC-4 for audio, for digital cable it's usually a mix of MPEG-2 or AVC for video and AC-3 or PCM for audio, in DVB countries it varies between MPEG-2/AVC/HEVC for video and AAC/PCM/AC-3 for audio. The streaming apps like Netflix, Prime Video and Hulu don't have this problem because they can re-encode all of their content to alternate codecs H264/AVC, H265/HEVC, VP9, AV1, AAC etc.

[nickk]

Once again I do not have Roku Express 4K+. I own three Roku Ultras and a Firestick 4K Max. Just by reading the following comments, SiliconDust should have never offered the HDHomeRun App on the Roku period. Clearly the app is NOT ready for primetime and each commentor basically states: "If your going to use HDHomeRun on a streaming device go with Apple / Firestick / Google (Android)." Even though Roku is the top streaming device sold.

As I stated earlier we are doing a series of progress releases for Roku as we work towards the HDHomeRun app getting all planned UI features.

The next Roku release is currently in QA - it adds the Tasks page so you can reorder tasks and view upcoming recordings.

You are correct that Roku is a major platform which is why we are working so hard on these releases for Roku. We have been releasing a major Roku feature update every 2 months or so with bugfix releases in between.

Other commentators are also correct, if you want all features right now then the Android platform has all features. Roku is getting there.

[sirlou]

While we don't stop the app from running on a Roku Express 4K+ we do specify the minimum supported Roku hardware as a Roku Ultra 4800X or newer.

^^^
OK this is good to know. I have been having loads of problems getting my own setup running (two older Roku sticks), as my other posts document .

Nickk, can you point me please to the page that has the SD specifications for the minimum supported hardware, Roku and otherwise. I searched extensively and did not find it before.

Thanks in advance.

-Lou