How to Stop Your Roku From Talking in Menus
Roku players and TCL Roku TVs have an “Audio Guide” feature. If you press the * button on your remote four times quickly, the narrator speaks menu option names out loud. Here’s how to turn it on and off….
How to Watch March Madness Online without a Cable Subscription
March is the biggest month of the year for college basketball. If you’re looking to catch all the March Madness action, but don’t have an active cable subscription, here are the best ways to stream all 67 games. That’s a lot…
How to Control Your Roku with Google Home’s Voice Assistant
If you’re a Google Home user, you probably love the idea of controlling as many things as possible in your house with just your voice. The thing is, if you’re also a Roku user, it can leave a huge disconnect in your “Hey Goog…
Which Roku Should I Buy? Express vs. Stick vs. Stick+ vs. Ultra
So you’ve decided you want a Roku, but there are so many choices. There are currently five different models (not including full TVs with Roku built-in), and it’s not at all clear what the difference between them is. Which on…
How to Watch Local Video Files on Your Roku
The Roku is a streaming box…and not much else. There’s no hard drive space onboard for your personal videos, and most models don’t even have a USB port for external drives. But that doesn’t mean you can’t play your own vid…
How to Test Your Roku’s Internet Connection
You’ve got big plans for tonight, and they all revolve around Netflix. You fire up your Roku and…it’s not working. Is your Internet down, or is Netflix?
How to Disable Custom Ads and Tracking on Your Roku
In 2017, TV watches you. At least, it does if you’re using a Roku device: that platform monitors everything you do on their devices. Data is shared with Neilson to supplement ratings, mostly it’s used for advertising purposes…
How to Search Every Streaming Site at Once With Roku Search
It’s one of the great annoyances of the streaming media age: figuring out which shows and movies are on which services. Searching Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and other sites individually takes up way too much time, especiall…
How to Get the Most Out of Your Roku: Six Things You Should Do
You finally worked out which Roku to buy, and set up the basics: Netflix, Amazon, and whatever other services you’re subscribed to. What next?
The Best Free Video Channels for Your Roku
If you’ve got a Roku, odds are you’ve already connected your Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon account for streaming. You probably know that you can buy movies and TV episodes on other services too, like Google Play. But there is a l…
Which Roku Should You Get?
Roku’s line of streaming boxes are still the most popular, beating out Google’s Chromecast and the Apple TV. Roku recently refreshed their hardware, but there are still four different options to choose from — not the single …
How to Use Roku Feed to Keep Up with New Episodes of Your Shows
When DVR users want to catch up on their favorite shows, they head to the recordings section, and everything is in one place. Cord cutters don’t have that luxury: some shows are on Hulu, others are on Amazon, and many are off…
The Best Free Roku Channels for Kids
You’ve set up parental controls in Netflix, and worked to make YouTube kid-friendly, and your kids already love it. But there are several other channels you can add featuring only kid-friendly content, from Sesame Street to …
How to Stop Your Roku Theme From Changing on Holidays
Wondering why your Roku looks…different? Roku occasionally changes the background for its millions of users, something they call a “featured theme.”
How to Enable Roku’s “Night Listening” Feature (So Explosions Don’t Wake Your Family)
You’re watching a movie late at night. Your family is asleep. You can’t hear the dialogue during a key scene, so you turn up the volume, only for an unexpected explosion to wake up the entire house. Isn’t there some way to pr…
How to Enable Developer Mode and Sideload Roku Apps
Maybe you’re curious about building your own Roku channels. Maybe you’ve found a Roku channel that you want to use, but there’s no officially supported way to install it. Either way, you need to know how to enable developer …
How to Remove the Fandango Movie and TV Stores From the Roku Home Screen
You probably bought a Roku to watch services like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon. Maybe you’ll even check out some free video channels. But you probably don’t have any interest renting or buying movies from Fandango….
How to Factory Reset Your Roku
Giving away your Roku? Whether you’re giving it to a friend or selling it online, you probably don’t want to leave your Roku account connected to the device.
How to Limit Bandwidth Usage on Your Roku
Does streaming video on your Roku make the Internet unusable for everyone else in the house? Are you up against your ISP’s bandwidth cap, and want to limit data usage? If so, you’ve probably browsed the Roku’s settings lookin…
How to Reboot Your Roku Without Unplugging It
The Roku doesn’t have a power button, and there’s no obvious way to restart it in the user interface. Annoying, right? It’s a problem when things crash, yes, but also because things like updates and adding private channels ar…
Lost Your Roku Remote? It Can Make a Sound Until You Find It
You sit down to watch something, only to realize you don’t know where your remote is. All hope is lost.
How to Rearrange Your Roku Channel Icons
The Roku Channel Store offers hundreds of video sources, not to mention the hidden channels you can find around the web. Keep adding things, and eventually you’ll have way more channels than you can navigate quickly. Isn’t t…
How to Listen to Your Roku’s Audio on Headphones and Speakers at the Same Time
One of the coolest features of recent Rokus—including the Roku Premier Plus, the Roku Ultra, and the slightly older Roku 3 and 4—is the headphone jack on the remote. If your Roku came with a set of headphones, you have th…
How to Add Hidden Private Channels to Your Roku
Not every Roku channel appears in the channel store. There are quite a few hidden “private channels” you have to go out of your way to find.
How to Mirror Your Windows or Android Device’s Screen on Your Roku
Roku devices recently gained a “screen mirroring” feature. With a few clicks or taps, you can mirror a Windows 8.1 or Android screen to your Roku. It works a bit like Apple’s AirPlay or Google’s Chromecast screen-mirroring….
