Roku’s ‘hidden’ modes instantly upgrade picture quality – and bonus ‘secret’ setting will stop arguments in your home
EASY-TO-MISS Roku settings can instantly upgrade your television with very useful perks.
But unless you’re a TV whiz, there’s a good chance you’ve never even noticed some of the best “secret settings”.
Your Roku TV has plenty of hidden features that are worth checking out[/caption]One might even help restore some peace to your household.
STOP ARGUMENTS WITH ROKU NIGHT MODE
There’s no shortage of TV to watch on Roku, so your streaming sessions might drag on late into the night.
But the loud sounds of whatever you’re watching might cause trouble at home.
Thankfully there’s a special Night Mode tucked away in the Volume Modes section of your Roku settings.
Explaining what it does, Roku says: “The volume of soft sounds like whispering is increasedl.
“While the volume of loud sounds like explosions is decreased, making it easier to hear your show at night without disturbing others.”
To find it, just press the Star button on your Roku remote then go to Sound settings.
Then simply switch the Volume Mode to Night.
There’s an even better solution if your home is really struggling with late-night noise.
It’s called Private Listening mode, which lets you listen to content through headphones.
You can do this by using the Roku mobile app and connecting headphones to your smartphone.
Then simply hit the headphones icon inside the app to activate it.
Up to four people can “privately” listen this way.
ROKU GAME MODE FOR YOUR CONSOLE
If you’re a gamer then you can also give your TV a boost to better serve your needs.
Roku voice commands – the official list
Here are some voice commands to try with your Roku mobile app, as revealed by the TV giant itself...
- Find a specific movie or show
“Harry Potter”
“find Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
“show me episodes of Silicon Valley” - Search for your favorite actors or directors
“Halle Berry”
“search for comedy movies with Will Farrell”
“find all Martin Scorsese films” - Browse popular genres
“show me comedies”
“find thriller movies” - Find content in a genre on a channel
“show documentary films on Sky Store”
- Launch a streaming channel
“go to YouTube”
“launch Prime Video”
“BBC iPlayer”
- Playback commands
“fast forward”
“rewind”
“pause”
“stop”
“resume”
“continue”
“skip”
“next”
“replay” - Closed captioning commands
“turn on closed captioning”
“hide the captions”
“show captions during replay”
“turn on captions during mute”
“what’s my captions setting?”
- Move forward a specific amount of time
“forward 15 minutes”
“skip 5 minutes”
“fast forward 3 minutes”
“go forward 10 minutes” - Move backward (or rewind) a specific amount of time
“go back half an hour”
“rewind 30 minutes” - Restart video from beginning
“start over”
- Search for content
“play Taylor Swift”
“play Daft Punk on Spotify”
“play S-Town on TuneIn” - Interact with your streaming service
“thumbs up/down”
“like/dislike”
“what song is this?”
- Switch devices
“switch the input to HDMI 3”
“switch to antenna TV”
“switch to Blu-ray player” - Change over-the-air broadcast channels
“channel up”
“channel down”
“tune to NBC”
“find channel 7.1″
“previous channel” - Launch or hide Live TV Channel Guide
“open live tv guide”
“open channel guide
“hide channel guide” - Adjust volume levels
“turn the volume up”
“volume down”
“mute”
“set volume to 50%”
“set volume to 5”
Some Roku TV models have a dedicated Gaming picture mode.
It’s called THX Game Mode, and is designed to improve visuals quality when playing games.
Roku explains: “When enabled, THX Certified Game Mode assures you that game play appears as the game creator intended.
“Providing vivid colors, crisp details, and better contrast, all while maintaining fast response times.”
Try out different Picture Modes to get the best visuals[/caption]You can find it by going into the Picture Settings menu and looking for Gaming under Picture Mode.
But note that it’ll only work with the following consoles:
- Nintendo Switch
- PlayStation 3
- PlayStation 4
- PlayStation 5
- Xbox One
- Xbox Series X
And if you don’t see the setting, it likely means that your Roku TV model doesn’t support the feature.
You can adjust Volume Mode to make sure you’re not disturbing other people at home[/caption]BOOST PICTURE QUALITY WITH ROKU EXPERT MODE
There are several ways to tweak how the visuals of your Roku TV appear.
One of the easiest ways is to simply choose from one of the available Picture Modes.
Here’s how Roku describes them:
- Auto (recommended): Automatically adjust your TV settings for what you’re watching
- Low Power: Optimized to save energy. This is the default “out of box” setting
- Standard: Good for everyday viewing in moderate to bright rooms.
- Vivid: Intense and brilliant picture for use in rooms with a lot of light
- Sports: Optimized for sports viewing where camera panning, and action shots are common
- Movie: Ideal for darker rooms to view the movie as the director intended
Where to buy Roku devices
*If you click a link in this article, we may earn affiliate revenue
Roku streaming devices can be purchased from the following stores in the US:
- Roku – shop here
- Amazon – shop here
- Best Buy – shop here
- Walmart – shop here
- Home Depot – shop here
- Staples – shop here
Read more on Roku:
- Fire Stick vs Roku: which is better?
But there’s an extra system that you can try if these aren’t enough for you.
It’s called Expert Picture Settings, and it gives you even more control over how your TV looks.
“If you have a 4K Roku TV system, you can select Expert settings from the Customize picture menu to fine-tune key picture quality settings,” Roku said.
“Expert Picture Settings is designed for expert AV enthusiasts and professional TV calibrators who are comfortable with, and knowledgeable about, advanced picture quality concepts.”
So don’t tinker with them unless you know exactly what you’re doing.