Your Roku Has The Chance To Play Movies The Way They Were Filmed

Roku streaming devices, as a whole, offer television viewers access to a countless selection of movies and shows across several streaming services, its native app, The Roku Channel, and over 500 free live channels. The company's streaming sticks and TVs also present a lesser-known option that cinephiles may particularly enjoy taking advantage of. Rather than consume media using Roku's default settings, you may instead adjust your device so that you can watch movies in a format resembling how they were originally filmed.

Roku devices naturally stream content at a brisk pace of 60 frames per second, or fps. This particular frame rate is often viewed as a happy medium for modern gaming and some television broadcasts. Hollywood films, meanwhile, are generally shot using a standard 24 fps, a norm which was established to accommodate the rise of synchronized sounds and competition with TV broadcasts.

Viewers hoping for what might be considered a more classic or authentic film-viewing experience in their living rooms have the option to adjust their Roku device's display refresh rate in order to better harmonize with a movie's native format. The display refresh rate is synonymous with its frame rate, and while Roku's higher rate showcases smoother motion adequate for TV viewing, scaling it back to a comfortable 24 or 25 fps will help your picture better resemble the quintessential cinematic feel. This quick change could even render your home theater the next best option to going to the cinema.

All you need to do to enhance your Roku movie streaming experiences with a classic cinematic style is take a quick trip to your device's Settings, which can be accessed from the Home menu. From there, select the System option, followed by Advanced System Settings and Advanced Display Settings, and then enable Auto-adjust display refresh rate. From then on, your streaming stick or smart TV will automatically show content using its original format once playback commences. If or when you disable the feature in the same menu, your device will, once again, display all media using a 60 fps display refresh rate.

Auto-adjusting your Roku device's display refresh rate may help users avoid other annoying quirks which come with playing 24 fps media on a 60 fps display, including the inevitable jerkiness caused by the fps conversion. Additional television settings may need to be messed with to further remedy this issue. Conversely, changing over to the auto-adjust option may result in a black flash as the system switches video modes to account for the necessary refresh rate. This may seem like a small concession to make, however, for the ability to view blockbusters and cult classics like Jack Nicholson's only sci-fi movie, the under-appreciated '90s film "Mars Attacks!," through the dazzling, hyperrealistic lens they were originally intended to be seen, rather than a format meant for a football game or news broadcast.