Skip to main content

What to do when your TV tech breaks

Roku is the leading streaming platform in the United States, and its Roku TVs — which have the Roku operating system built in — are among the most popular smart TVs around. So when the Roku service breaks, keeping the device from being able to show anything at all, folks are going to take notice.

Such was the case Wednesday night with Roku, which tells Digital Trends that some sort of glitch somewhere made the company “aware of an issue reported by users who are unable to access some Roku services.” By which it meant in part that (among other things) HDMI ports quit working, and a hard reset didn’t solve anything because activation servers weren’t working. Basically, a perfect storm.

Related Videos

The question, then, is what you can do as a consumer when things don’t work, and it’s not your fault.

You won’t like any of the answers.

Blue screen of death on on TV.
Phil Nickinson/Digital Trends

Fix your stuff

When your tech breaks, take a walk

Servers inevitably go down. Computers crash. ‘Twas ever thus. And when that happens, you can either sit and stew and foist your rage upon the internet at large, or you can do something else.

There’s a sort of cerebral reaction when something that just worked no longer works — particularly when it’s not because of anything you did. When Amazon Web Services goes down and takes half of the internet (or more) with it, there’s not a whole lot any single end-user can do.

One thing you learn as you get older is that getting mad doesn’t help. Raising your blood pressure over something that you can’t control is simply a waste of time.

Just walk away.

Girls walking on train tracks.
When the TV doesn’t work, it’s fine to take your kids outside and trespass (read: play) on train tracks. Phil Nickinson/Digital Trends

That’s it. Leave it be. Unless we’re talking live sports or news, there’s a pretty good chance that what you wanted to watch right then will be available a little later on-demand. And even then, replays of live events are a thing.

There’s not a damn thing you can do about someone else’s server problem. If you can report it to the company — whether it’s through Twitter or Down Detector or some other means, great. But there’s also a pretty good chance they’re already aware. It’s not worth your sanity.

Redundancy is important is important

There’s a reason over-the-air antennas still exist in 2022. (OK, there are a few reasons.) One of which is that you’re plucking a broadcast signal out of the air and piping it into your television doesn’t require an internet connection on your end, or the server to be up on someone else’s end.

And so it might well be worth spending $50 or so and an hour of your time to rig up an OTA antenna. (Remember, kids — outside and higher is better than indoors and lower.) On the rare occurrence that your streaming service of choice goes down, you will still have something to watch, provided that it’s available on one of your local broadcast affiliates. That won’t cover everything, of course. But it’s better than nothing. And outside of the initial cost of the antenna, there’s no other monthly fee.

Now, that wouldn’t really help in the worst-case scenario, such as what Roku briefly experienced. Or if the problem is at the source. But that’s why the further up the stream you go, the more redundancy you’ll find.

Alternatively — and this isn’t something most people would ever really want to do — you could subscribe to a second streaming service for some overlap. That’s a bit silly, though, and probably not something most people would do.

Editors' Recommendations

YouTube TV rolls out multiview: watch up to 4 NCAA games at once
An example of YouTube TV's multiview feature.

If you love college basketball and can process more than one game at a time, you're going to go bananas for YouTube TV's new multiview feature, which will be rolling out on a limited, early access basis starting March 14.  With multiview, you'll be able to pick up to four channels and see them all simultaneously, with the ability to easily flip the active audio from one to another. The new feature is compatible with any TV-based YouTube TV installations (streaming media players, smart TVs, and game consoles), but it doesn't yet work on mobile devices or computers.

Initially, multiview will only be available to select YouTube TV users, who will be chosen at random. But Google says the goal is to include every subscriber by the time NFL football season starts in the fall. Another limitation, at least for now, is that YouTube TV will preselect the multiview channels you can choose. At launch, only channels that carry NCAA tournament games will be included in that preselected list.
How to use YouTube TV multiview
If you're one of the lucky, randomly chosen users, you'll see an option to watch up to four preselected, different streams at once in your “Top Picks for You” section. After selecting multiview, you can switch audio and captions between streams, and jump in and out of a full-screen view of a game.
It's all about sports
At the moment, YouTube TV sees multiview as an enhancement of the sports viewing experience, so only sports content will be eligible. YouTube TV has had some big sports wins in 2022, including 4K coverage of the Soccer World Cup, and that trend will continue in 2023 thanks to its acquisition of the NFL Sunday Ticket games. However, YouTube TV recently lost access to MLB Network and the MLB.tv add-on, which reduces the amount of sports content available for multiview in 2023.

Read more
Pioneer Elite’s latest flagship AVR is jammed with new audio tech
Pioneer Elite VSX-LX805 AVR with a TV.

Pioneer electronics makes some of the best AV receivers money can buy, and its flagship Pioneer Elite brand is about to push that envelope further with the announcement of its latest AVR (audio video receiver), the Elite VSX-LX805. The 11.2.4-channel network receiver will be available this Spring for a premium $2,999, but that big price gets you big power at 150 watts per channel, a new 32-bit digital audio converter, some AI-driven room calibration, and some audiophile upgrades.

The Pioneer Elite VSX-LX805 is the first Pioneer receiver to be designed in cooperation with Premium Audio Company since its licensing agreement with Pioneer/Pioneer Elite in 2021, which put them in charge of marketing and selling the brands' AVR business globally (except in China). PAC is a powerhouse of home audio gear, with huge brands under its umbrella, including Klipsch, Onkyo, Teac, and Energy, so expectations are high for its new arrivals. 

Read more
I used two of the year’s oddest tech gadgets so you don’t have to
The open Nokia 5710 XpressAudio and Huawei Watch Buds

If you’re intent on not keeping your true wireless earbuds in a normal charging case, and want to hide them inside a different gadget, now is your time. The Huawei Watch Buds is a smartwatch with a pair of true wireless headphones inside, and the Nokia 5710 XpressAudio is a 4G phone that stores a pair of earbuds in the back.

It’s a bizarre niche that I’m surprised contains two products. I’ve used them, so it's my duty to report that both are a bit silly — and I don’t want to use any more of them, thank you very much. However, for the few people out there thinking they want to buy one, this is what they're like. For everyone else, you get to marvel at two of the oddest tech products seen in a while.
Phone or smartwatch?

Read more