Identify the antenna feature first
Roku’s setup guide describes Live TV Pause on the integrated television’s Antenna TV input, using a dedicated USB 2.0-compatible flash drive with at least sixteen gigabytes. This is a different context from pausing a streaming app, whose available window can be set by its provider.
Keep the selected input and programme source with your notes. An external HDMI player or an internet live channel should not automatically be assigned the antenna feature’s storage rules. Establish the actual route before buying, formatting or replacing a drive.
Understand the buffer’s retention boundary
For the antenna route, Roku says the viewer can rewind up to ninety minutes or the point where that channel was first tuned. It also says changing channels, powering the TV off or leaving the Antenna input loses the paused position. After ninety minutes paused, playback starts automatically.
These behaviours describe a temporary buffer rather than a saved programme archive. If your viewing plan requires returning after switching to another app, the retained position should not be assumed to survive. A bigger drive does not change those documented lifecycle events.
Preserve files before enabling the feature
Roku warns that setup reformats the dedicated drive and erases its contents; USB hubs are unsupported in this route. Preserve any existing files before deciding to allocate a drive to the feature. Do not treat the formatting prompt as an ordinary media-library scan.
If pause playback becomes blocky or black, Roku separately identifies antenna signal and drive performance as possible causes. Report the input, drive specification and whether the issue is lost history, slow playback or missing reception. That evidence is more useful than repeatedly increasing storage capacity for a pause window whose maximum duration and retention rules are fixed by the feature.