Roku Media Player Formats

These are the Roku Media Player Formats Supported on the Roku Platform

While a Roku Media Player does not support every codec or container under the sun, these are the ones it supports.

Roku Channel developers or potential new owners often wonder which file and Roku media player formats are supported. The good news is quite a few. Although some will play much better than others.

When developing a Roku Channel, or if downloading and playing media files from a USB stick or NAS, it helps to know which files can be played on Roku to save a lot of needless aggravation.

This list has every Roku media player format that will work on this platform. Developers, for more information on specific formats and helpful info visit the Roku Streaming Specifications Developer Page

Roku Container Formats

Containers are a format for a file that includes both the audio and video file and even metadata. Common containers you may already be familiar with are MP4 or MOV.

Supported Containers on Roku:

- Flac
- Ogg with Vorbis audio
- MP3
- 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, VP8, VP9
Supported audio codecs: AAC, AC3, EAC3, Dolby Atmos, ALAC, DTS, DTSE, FLAC, MP3, OPUS, PCM, VORBIS

Streaming Formats

These are formats that haven't been enclosed into a container file.

- AAC with ADTS framing
- AC3, EAC3
- PCM

Adaptive Streaming Formats

While the above adaptive streaming formats on Roku are supported. The two most recommended for best performance are Dash and HLS. Roku Developers learn more.

Video and Audio Codecs Formats are Supported on Roku

Roku supports the following individual video codecs.

AVC (H.264) HEVC (H.265)1 VP91

And the following Audio codecs are supported on Roku.

- AAC: HE-AACv2, AAC-LC (CBR)
- MP3
- WMA, WAV (PCM)
- AIFF
- FLAC
- ALAC
- Dolby Audio: Dolby Digital (AC3), Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3)
- Passthrough: DTS

If you ever plan on developing a Roku Channel, here is one thing you should never do on your Roku!