What to do if video is blocky or black while using Live TV Pause
Live TV Pause is a feature that allows you to pause up to 90 minutes of live television.
How does it work?
Live TV Pause is only available on the Antenna TV input of your Roku TV™ and requires a dedicated USB 2.0 compatible flash drive with at least 16GB of storage for recording the video.
To pause live television, press the Play/Pause button 
on your Roku TV remote control. Even if you do not pause, you can rewind the current channel up to 90 minutes, or to the point where you first tuned to that channel. As soon as you tune to another channel, power off the TV, or leave the Antenna TV input, the place where you paused the program will be lost.
After being paused for 90 minutes, playback begins automatically.
If you need help enabling or disabling Live TV Pause, learn more about pausing live television on Roku TV.
What should I do if the video is blocky or black while using Live TV Pause?
There a couple reasons why this might happen.
- Check the signal strength - The quality of the over-the-air signal can fluctuate due to environmental conditions. You can check signal strength by tuning to an over-the-air channel and pressing
on your Roku TV remote control. The more bars you see, the stronger the signal. You can sometimes improve signal strength by adjusting the location or position of the HDTV antenna. - Try a different USB drive - The USB drive may have bad blocks or might be too slow for live video recording. The USB drive is tested by the Roku TV during formatting, but if there is a problem with the drive, you may experience sporadic issues during recording and playback of the paused video.
Last updated at 2/19/2026 7:34:48 PM
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