I've never seen so many angry Roku owners in my life. Seriously. The forums are absolutely on fire right now with complaints about some bizarre video quality issue that's been wrecking people's viewing experience for almost a WEEK now.

God. Remember when watching TV was supposed to be relaxing?

What the hell is going on with those colours?

The problem? Everything looks "washed out" - like someone cranked up the brightness and sucked all the colour out of your favourite shows. It started with Disney+ (of course it did), but now users are reporting the same awful picture quality on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and basically anything that uses HDR content.

I checked in with my cousin who has a Roku TV last night. His response: "Yeah it's terrible... Tried to watch that new Marvel thing and it looked like it was filmed through a milk bottle."

Parents at breaking point

One poor soul on teh Roku forum summed it up perfectly: "This issue has been going on for nearly a week with no fix or timeline on when it will be fixed. This is unacceptable service."

Another parent wrote something that hit me right in the feels: "It's frustrating because my young girls love watching Disney movies." I mean... imagine trying to explain to a 5-year-old why Elsa suddenly looks like a ghost.

Tuesday night ruined for many, according to another user who was looking forward to watching Andor. (I was planning to start that show myself this weekend... guess I'll wait.)

The rage is real

My favourite comment came from someone who clearly typed with their blood boiling: "After a hard day of work I just want to kick back, relax, and enjoy the convenience of having properly displayed HDR content directly on my Roku TV, but they don't care. Nobody is investigating my issue. FIX THIS!"

I feel that in my soul.

So what's Roku doing about it?

Roku finally acknowledged the problem on May 1st, which feels like ages after people started complaining. Their response was... underwhelming.

"We're investigating the Disney Plus HDR content that was washed out after the recent update," a company rep said. "We appreciate your cooperation, and we'll keep you posted."

That's it. That's all we get after nearly a week of unwatchable content. No timeline, no explanation of what went wrong, just "we're looking into it."

Talk about bad timing...

The irony here is painful. This disaster comes right after Roku launched their fancy new streaming sticks - the Roku Streaming Stick and Roku Streaming Stick Plus. They're replacing the old Express models and supposedly offer "more features at the same affordable price points."

The basic Streaming Stick costs £29.99/$29.99, which is actually cheaper than Amazon's Fire TV Stick HD (£39.99/$34.99). Back in 2018, I spent about $40 on my first Roku device and thought I was getting a bargain... now I'm wondering if I should've gone with something else.

These new models do have better Wi-Fi connectivity (allegedly) and voice-enabled remotes. But what good is all that if the picture looks like garbage?

When will our shows look normal again?

No idea. Roku hasn't given any indication of when a fix might arrive. Meanwhile, people are missing their favourite shows and parents are dealing with disappointed kids.

Listen. I'm not usually one to pile on when tech companies have issues... these things happen. But almost a week with no solution? With no clear communication?

That's just not good enough.