After first rolling out to developers for beta testing back in late July, the Roku OS 15.0 smart TV platform is finally making its way to a wider testing audience. As reported by Cord Cutters News, Roku’s next-generation TV operating system is now rolling out to a “small group of Roku device owners.”
According to the publication, Roku OS 15.0 primarily focuses on improving system performance, which the company is reportedly achieving through a number of code optimizations. These include nullifying JSON data processing inefficiencies, removing data management redundancies, and refining how the system processes information using its in-house BrightScript programming language.
Assuming these optimizations prove effective, the end result should be faster app loading times, more responsive user interface elements, and a leaner, more technically efficient Roku OS across the board.
Ruku has yet to make an official announcement as to when its Roku OS 15.0 update will launch in a stable, public-facing capacity. With the broadening of the beta program to a wider subset of Roku hardware owners, there’s a good chance that we could see this 15.0 release be seeded to all users sometime before the end of the current calendar year.
Roku OS performance enhancements are much appreciated
There’s nothing worse than a slow and laggy smart TV interface
In my experience, the single biggest issue plaguing smart TVs and set-top-boxes alike is their rather unimpressive performance metrics. While it’s true that high-end silicon isn’t required to drive a basic operating system and streaming-centric applications like Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu, a system should be sufficiently capable of providing fluid interactions within its various user-facing interface elements.
Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Over the years, I’ve encountered laggy UIs, stutters, frame rate drops, and unresponsive buttons across LG’s webOS, Samsung’s Tizen, Google’s Android TV, and just about every other smart TV platform except for the Apple TV. Part of this is due to a reliance on relatively underpowered silicon, and part of it is the result of a lack of software-side optimizations.
…I genuinely appreciate Roku’s back-to-basics approach of refining what’s already available in the here and now.
With Roku OS 15.0’s focus on under-the-hood software enhancements, I have hopes that Roku streaming hardware will finally be able to keep pace with my every last TV remote input. Roku OS has never been the worst offender when it comes to smart TV lagginess, but I also wouldn’t describe it as being a snappy experience, either.
Personally, I’m fatigued by the modern trend of cramming in more features, more AI, and more busy interface elements into every last corner of every operating system, and so I genuinely appreciate Roku’s back-to-basics approach of refining what’s already available in the here and now.
