I noticed that Roku finally added hbo max and updated my hbo+ app

I’m using a metra 3 year old downmixer for the audio to my whole house Audio matrix. The audio on hbo max is very garbled/static.  But not the other apps (except vudu). I went into the Roku audio settings and set it to stereo (from DD/DTS bitstream or auto) and that fixes it but I’d prefer to leave it on bitstream for my HT, which is why I have the Metra in the first place.

I reached out to Brent and he hasn’t heard of this yet.  I’m guessing it’s something to do with Hbo max.  I have a friend who is using a different brand of down mixer and having the same issue. Just started when Roku updated hbo+ to max within the last 2 weeks.


Just wanting to see if anyone else has seen this or has any thoughts.

Have you rebooted the Roku yet? Sometimes it fixes new firmware issues. Otherwise, I got nuttin for you John.

Buy a second Roku for your home theater.

How old is your Roku? Some new devices are now trying to do atmos sound.

Looks like HBOmax tries to do Dolby Digital Plus if possible. The downmixer may confuse it

[Link: businessinsider.com]

John, did you find the problem?

No I haven’t found a solution. Brent was supposed to check it out in the Metra lab but hasn’t responded since

My Roku is older but a friend of mine has a newer Roku, using a different down mixer and started having the same problem with the upgrade to hbo max. We’ve both set the Roku to pcm and it solved the issue. Although it is a pain to go into settings to flip back and forth. A dedicated Roku for the HT is an option. But I like the option of pausing the movie in the theatre and instantly continuing in another room (i know, waaaa)

Again, it seems that hbo max (and vudu) is broadcasting in DD+ and the Metra can’t deal with it. All other streaming formats sound fine, so they must broadcast in a different bitstream that the Metra IS capable of down mixing?

OK, have been out of the office... but.
Yes, we are seeing audio issues that we have not been able to pin yet, we are also getting calls on the latest Roku Ultra having EDID problems (just tried to buy one on Amazon, but are N/A until Jan 20.).
We are working on this and will update as soon as we know something.

It’s streaming from the cloud. If you stop it on one device and go to another device, it will still resume where you stopped