When I plugged in my Roku Express for the first time, it stuttered, buffered, and lagged—but with a few tweaks to its settings, I had it running perfectly. Thankfully, maximizing the performance of your Roku’s rough edges is easy with these simple settings tweaks.
8Disable Auto-Playing Videos Immediately
My cheap Roku Express streaming stick isn’t a performance powerhouse. Whenever I’m scrolling through content, videos automatically playing are not only annoying, but they also slow down the UI, not to mention slowing down my network.
Disabling this option also silences some of Roku’s automatic ads, which is rather handy since you can no longer disable ads completely, so this is the next best alternative.
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7Hide Roku’s Content Recommendations
Discovering new movies and TV shows is a very different process for me: I never, if ever, pick something suggested to me by the platform. My approach is by happenstance or fueled by wanting a specific mood. Naturally, I disabled Roku’s content recommendations for good to prevent any influence.
You can go one step further and hide content listed under the Menu items section. All I want to see aremy favorite Roku apps, not an awkwardly placed banner. I more or less want my UI to look as close to Netflix as possible.
6Disable Automatic Display Type
The devices I use daily are pretty good at setting themselves to the right resolution, but I prefer setting the display type myself. I noticed I ran into issues more often than not, like taking longer to boot up or even reverting to a lower resolution. Setting it to a specific resolution was crucial for resolving the issue.
I set my Roku Express to display at 1080p, even though my smart TV can handle 4K. For starters, 1080p is more than enough for what I usually watch. Lastly, I have numerous devices connected to Wi-Fi, and I’d rather not thin my bandwidth even further.
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5Eliminate Stuttering With Automatic Refresh Rate
The stuttering I experienced shortly after I hooked up my Roku Express was a real head-scratcher. I thought it was a network issue, but digging in the menus, I discovered it was my refresh rate. It wasn’t adjusting to match the content I was watching, like movies, where the standard is 24 frames per second. Roku will do the work if you:
While you’re at it, consider also adjusting any motion smoothing your TV may have. This has the opposite effect of a sketchy refresh rate—it makes content look too smooth. Colloquially, it’s called the “soap opera” effect, but in your TV menu, disable any feature referring to motion smoothing, frame interpolation, and motion interpolation.
4Rearrange and Resize Your App Tiles
There comes a point at which an app tile is so small, it just blends in with the rest. Rather than lean into the TV more and make it more comfortable, I’ve set my app tiles to be much larger. You should, too. I’ve had an easier time picking something from the comfort of my bed.
To rearrange an app, go to your list of installed apps, highlight one, and press theOptionsbutton (the star icon) on your Roku remote. From the menu, chooseMove apporMove app to top. Using the arrow keys, position the app, then press theSelectbutton on your remote.
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3Tweak Your Captions So They’re Clear as Day
Do you hate the look of captions over a background? I do, passionately. It’s like looking at a redacted document. If that’s how you prefer your captions, Roku offers a nice selection of styles to choose from.
What’s particularly useful is that Roku gives you a preview window on the right. I recommend removing the background, keeping the text white, and giving it a drop shadow. That’ll keep the text from being too distracting and still make it easy to read. Personally, I can’t “hear” without my captions!
2Enabling Guest Mode Saved Me Numerous Headaches
Even if you’re more of a recluse and only have company on every other summer solstice, havingGuest Modeready to go for company has saved me so many headaches. I’ve accidentally bought content myself, which means your guests can do it, too.
The good news is your guests can’t use your streaming accounts—they have to sign in with theirs. And as protection for the guest, their information isn’t shared, nor is it saved when they leave. In fact, it should beconnected to a separate network, too, for the sake of protection and to prevent guests chewing into your Wi-Fi bandwidth.
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1Fix Your Audio Settings to Enjoy Your New Speakers
If you have a soundbar, subwoofers, or speakers of any kind, there’s a chance you’re not getting the full range. Roku detects automatically, but that feature doesn’t always get it right.
Once complete, Roku will default to, say, Dolby Digital if that’s what you’ve chosen. Any time you watch content that also supports those formats, it’ll make use of it.
More importantly, you don’t have to make any more changes to your Roku device. Just in time, too. Your Roku device hasall sorts of secret menusto access!
