One issue that caused the YouTube TV experience to deteriorate for some Roku users is the result of an update from Google, and it’s doing more than disrupting background playback.
Some users began reporting that the live guide in YouTube TV was broken, and by all accounts that appears to be the case. The issue surfaced in late May and was followed by more reports regarding the shortened Live Guide list.
According to Google’s official community forums, YouTube TV intentionally disabled Live Guide background playback and shortened future program listings to just 24 hours. Feedback has been pasted on several forum reports regarding Live Guide issues. This information comes from a trusted product expert, but it has appeared in several posts over the past few weeks, and Google has not officially refuted this information.
A recent change was made for older and less powerful devices and smart TVs. For these TVs and devices, background play is no longer supported. The amount you can scroll in the future is also affected.
This is to prevent crashes and create a more seamless experience for those devices. Again, this is mainly on older, lower-end devices.
It appears that Google’s YouTube TV update has specifically affected a number of Roku devices.
Most of the posts mentioning these specific issues mark their problem with “Roku TV or device”, indicating that this update has affected many YouTube TV users on “older” Roku units. The same trend was seen in our initial post also.
The advice given in the expert answers is echoed in many of those posts. It is recommended that users upgrade to newer hardware to enjoy the full YouTube TV experience. If not, it looks like some Roku users will have to watch without background playback and a condensed program list.
It’s also unclear how many other devices it affects, and which devices will see a similar change in the future. Hardware requirements do not appear to be specific. The latest information from Google says that devices with less than 512MB of memory “may have a slightly different experience and some features may not be available.”
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