Roku TVs have hidden ‘test’ to reveal why your picture quality is so bad – it’s on list of four handy ‘secret’ screens
DID you know that by tapping the right combination of buttons on your Roku remote that you can unlock new controls?
Roku devices have four secret screens that host features not accessible any other way – and one of them can reveal why your picture quality is poor.
Speed test
Roku TVs can run a speed test which can illuminate a few issues – but mostly why TV shows and movies are appearing blurry and slow.
Press the Home button five times, then hit the up arrow, then the down arrow, then the up arrow again, the down arrow again, and the up arrow once more.
Then you’ll get access to Resets, Logging, and an AP Speed Test.
The main culprits here are likely to be a weak Wi-Fi connection, and lack of storage space due to too many apps.
Soft reset
If your Roku is glitching or behaving strangely, resetting it can often be the solution.
A soft reset is best, however, if you want to keep all your settings and preferences.
To do that, press Home > Home > Home > Home > Home > Up > Rewind > Rewind > Fast Forward > Fast Forward.
The screen will go black after a bit and then the Roku screen will come back up.
Full reset and update
You can do a full factory reset if you wish to delete all your settings and preferences.
For that, there are two button combinations:
Home > Settings > System Advanced System Settings > Factory Reset and then following the onscreen instructions.
Or you could use a secret menu by pressing Home > Home > Home > Home > Home > Home > Fast Forward > Fast Forward > Fast Forward > Rewind > Rewind.
This will get you a menu that has Factory Reset, USB test, Cycle Channel Store Server, Cycle Software Update Server, and Update Software.
See all channels
For a list of all the channels that you have downloaded to your Roku, press Home > Home > Home > Up > Up > Left > Right > Left > Right > Left.
This can be helpful if you need to have a cull of your downloads.
The screen will show a list and then you can click on each one for the option to uninstall it.
It can also tell you which Roku device version and build you have.
Roku voice commands – the official list
Here are some voice commands to try with your Roku mobile app, as revealed by the TV giant itself...
- Find a specific movie or show
“Harry Potter”
“find Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
“show me episodes of Silicon Valley” - Search for your favorite actors or directors
“Halle Berry”
“search for comedy movies with Will Farrell”
“find all Martin Scorsese films” - Browse popular genres
“show me comedies”
“find thriller movies” - Find content in a genre on a channel
“show documentary films on Sky Store”
- Launch a streaming channel
“go to YouTube”
“launch Prime Video”
“BBC iPlayer”
- Playback commands
“fast forward”
“rewind”
“pause”
“stop”
“resume”
“continue”
“skip”
“next”
“replay” - Closed captioning commands
“turn on closed captioning”
“hide the captions”
“show captions during replay”
“turn on captions during mute”
“what’s my captions setting?”
- Move forward a specific amount of time
“forward 15 minutes”
“skip 5 minutes”
“fast forward 3 minutes”
“go forward 10 minutes” - Move backward (or rewind) a specific amount of time
“go back half an hour”
“rewind 30 minutes” - Restart video from beginning
“start over”
- Search for content
“play Taylor Swift”
“play Daft Punk on Spotify”
“play S-Town on TuneIn” - Interact with your streaming service
“thumbs up/down”
“like/dislike”
“what song is this?”
- Switch devices
“switch the input to HDMI 3”
“switch to antenna TV”
“switch to Blu-ray player” - Change over-the-air broadcast channels
“channel up”
“channel down”
“tune to NBC”
“find channel 7.1″
“previous channel” - Launch or hide Live TV Channel Guide
“open live tv guide”
“open channel guide
“hide channel guide” - Adjust volume levels
“turn the volume up”
“volume down”
“mute”
“set volume to 50%”
“set volume to 5”