Roku is one of the popular physical digital media players for streaming media content from online services like Netflix. Here in this post published by MiniTool Software Limited, we will focus on the video formats supported by Roku.

Roku Media Player is a channel able to download through the Roku Channel Store. Also, it may be pre-installed on some Roku streaming devices. Roku Media Player enables its users to watch their videos, listen to their songs, as well as view their pictures relying on the Roku device’s USB port (if available) or by accessing a media server on the local network.

Roku Supported Video Formats

First of all, let’s see the video formats Roku supports.

Different Roku devices support different formats. Newer firmware may support additional formats. In general, Roku-compatible video formats are H.264/AVC including MP4, MKV, and MOV.

If your Roku device supports 4K, then, it can also play videos of:

4K video – H.265/HEVC (MKV, MP4, MOV), VP9 (MKV, WEBM), and AV1 (MKV, MP4) formats.

4K Video – H.264 (Roku Premiere, Premiere+, and Ultra only)

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If your Roku hardware supports 8K, it can further support:

8K Video – AV1 (MKV, MP4) and H.265/HEVC (MKV, MP4)

Roku TV video formats: H.262 (MKV)

Note:

DRM-protected content is not supported.

Roku Supported Streaming Formats

Roku supports special encoding methods and formats for streaming on its devices.

Roku Supported Container Formats

Roku supports several video and audio container formats, which encapsulate one or multiple tracks into one file and include meta-data about each track.

Video Container Formats

  • MP4
  • MOV
  • M4V

(Supported video codecs: AVC, HEVC;

supported audio codecs: AAC, AC3, EAC3, AC4, ALAC, MP3, PCM.)

  • MKV
  • WebM

(Supported video codecs: AVC, HEVC, VP9;

supported audio codecs: AAC, AC3, EAC3, Dolby Atmos, ALAC, DTS, DTSE, FLAC, MP3, OPUS, PCM, Vorbis.)

Audio Container Formats

  • MP3
  • FLAC
  • OGG with Vorbis audio
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Roku Supported Elementary Stream Formats

Some elementary stream formats can be streamed directly without encapsulating the track inside a container.

  • AAC with ADTS framing
  • AC3, EAC3
  • PCM

Roku Supported Streaming Image Formats

The image formats that are currently supported for streaming on Roku are below. PNG format is recommended to be used for UI (user interface) graphics due to the usage of an alpha channel within the UI.

  • PNG
  • JPG/JPEG
  • GIF
  • BMP
  • WebP (since Roku OS 9.4)

Roku Supported Audio Formats

The kind of sound formats supported by Roku is dependent on the type of TV or A/V receiver (AVR) your Roku is connected to.

  • MP3(MP3, MKV)
  • AAC (MP4, MKV, MOV)
  • FLAC (FLAC, MKV)
  • PCM (MP4, WAV, MKV, MOV)
  • AC3/EAC3 (MP4, MKV, MOV, AC3)
  • DTS (MKV, MP4, MOV, DTS)
  • ALAC (MKV, MP4, MOV, M4A)
  • Vorbis (OGG, MKV, WEBM)
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Roku Supported Image/Playlist Formats

Finally, let’s have a look at the Roku support picture and playlist formats.

Roku Supported Image Formats

  • JPG
  • PNG
  • GIF (non-animated)

Roku Supported Playlist Formats

  • M3U
  • M3U8
  • PLS

Convert Videos to Play with Roku Media Player

Some DLNA servers like WMP, Plex, Serviio, and some Synology devices can convert/transcode the unsupported video formats to a compatible format by the Roku device. If you are using a DLNA server that doesn’t have the transcoding feature, or you are playing directly from a USB, you may need to convert the unsupported file format to a supported one.

To achieve that purpose, you need help from a professional and reliable video format converter such as MiniTool Video Converter, which can quickly convert a video or audio file from one format to another.

MiniTool Video ConverterClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

MiniTool Video Converter supports the most common video/audio formats and can help you easily shift between popular file formats.

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About The Author

Helen
Helen

Position: Columnist

Helen Graduated from university in 2014 and started working as a tech editor in the same year. Her articles focus on video creation, editing, and conversion. She also has a good knowledge of disk management and data backup & recovery. Through an in-depth exploration of computer technology, Helen has successfully helped thousands of users solve their annoying problems.