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Forum Discussion
ramair02
Feb 17, 2021Aspirant
Tweaks for better wireless performance of Rokus?
Hey. So, I'm not sure if this is an Orbi issue and if there are some settings I can change to improve performance, but I'm having some issues. My setup is RBK50 (RBR50 + RBS50) and FiOS gigabit conne...
ramair02
Feb 17, 2021Aspirant
Thanks for your reply.
The speeds I put for the Roku device are tested in the settings menu of Roku. It's their own speed test. The corresponding Ookla Speed Tests were done on my phone standing right next to each device, respectively. Thus, I would think that if there were obstacles affecting speed, they would also affect my phone. The speed are too drastically different, IMO, for that to be the issue.
For the most part, there aren't many issues streaming movies & tv shows. However, the issues appear when trying to stream high bitrate files from my Plex Server. Essentially, anything above 20mbps bitrate will error out at some point and stop playback. To get those movies & shows to play, I need to adjust Plex settings to a lower bitrate, which forces a transcode of the file from my server. The files I'm referring to should be able to direct play, but the Roku is bottlenecking them. That's why I'm wondering if I can push more bandwidth to the Rokus, prioritize them in my network (like QoS althought I know Orbi doesn't let us mess with that feature). Or if there are settings I should change that might help out with this.
Like I said in my original post, I'm not sure this is an Orbi issue. But I have spoken with other people on different, non-Orbi internet setups that typically see 80-100 mbps on wifi with their Rokus. Also, since all of my Rokus (I have 5 in total) are pulling down speeds under 50mbps, I think it's very unlikely that all of these devices have wifi issues, so more likely that something in my network is configured wrong. So I figured I'd turn to the Orbi gods to see if there are settings to tweak or more granular control of QoS.
CrimpOn
Feb 18, 2021Guru - Experienced User
Do the Roku's report which frequenc band they are using?
What 5G channel is the Orbi set to? (on mine, the choices are 36, 40, 44, and 48)
- ramair02Feb 18, 2021Aspirant
Roku is on 5ghz frequency band. Orbi is set to channel 48. I tried some different channels today. It was on 36 before. No improvement in speeds down on the Roku. The basement Roku TV is 10 feet from the router.
- alokeprasadFeb 18, 2021Mentor
Any way to connect the Roku to the Orbi router via an ethernet cable (for testing)?
If that works fine, then you know that the performance issues are because of WiFi.
- CrimpOnFeb 18, 2021Guru - Experienced User
My adventure continues. Now have Roku Ultra. Roku reports "Excellent" WiFi connection, with 37mb internet download speed.
At the same time, a Samsung tablet reports wildly different Ookla speeds depending on (a) orientation (vertical, horizontal), and (b) placement. Moved it two feet and the speed changed from 44mb to 160mb.
Will do much more testing tomorrow. For now, I wonder if (a) Roku's speed measurement is not consistent with Ookla to begin with, and (b) how sensitive Roku performance is to physical placement. (with a six foot HDMI cable, my options are limited).