Background
Television manufacturers offer a variety of displays with different resolutions and frame rates. Your Roku streaming player can be configured to always detect the best resolution and frame rate of your TV, or you can choose to manually select the resolution and frame rate, known together as display type.
What is resolution and frame rate?
Resolution is the measure of how much detail you can see on the screen. Typical resolutions on TVs today are 720p, 1080p and 4K Ultra HD (4K UHD), with some 4K UHD TVs also supporting higher frame rates and more color information with High Dynamic Range (HDR). The higher the resolution, the sharper and more realistic the image appears.
When playing video, what you see is a quick succession of still images, or frames, which creates the illusion of motion or animation. The number of frames displayed each second is known as the frame rate and is measured in frames per second (fps), or frequency (Hz). The higher the frame rate, the smoother the motion appears.
How do I configure my player to always detect the best resolution and frame rate?
During setup, your Roku player will analyze the HDMI® connection to determine the resolutions and frame rates supported by your TV. Select Auto detect display type to begin this process.
Based on the information reported by your TV, your Roku player can automatically select the highest resolution and frame rate so you don’t have to manually configure the settings. To put your player into this automatic mode, choose OK, go to automatic…after the HDMI connection is analyzed.
And then confirm, Yes, the screen looks good.
When your Roku player is in the Auto detect mode, it will always set the display type to the highest possible resolution and frame rate, even if you upgrade your TV.
How do I change the display type on my own?
If for some reason your Roku player is unable to correctly detect the capabilities of your TV, you may wish to configure the display type on your own.
Press the Home button
on your Roku remote.
Scroll up or down and select Settings.
Select Display type.
Choose one of the available display types.
Your Roku player will analyze the HDMI connection.
5. If your Roku player detects support for the display type, select OK, go to…
6. If your Roku player is unable to correctly detect the capabilities of your TV, you may see a message like the one below.
Choose Force output to… if you believe the display type is supported.
What should I do if there is no picture after changing the display type?
If you do not see a picture after choosing Force output to…, your TV does not support the resolution or frame rate. Wait 15 seconds and your player will return to the previous display type. When the picture returns, choose Auto detect or try selecting a different display type.
If you believe your TV supports the desired display type, but you continue to see no picture, review the setup requirements for 4K or the setup requirements for 4K HDR.