Picture freezing and buffering

Neil S

Neil S

Joined
Oct 26, 2014
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Dumfries and Galloway
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Pilote&Coachman C.vn
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2014
I’m sitting at Benicasim and getting 100% 5G signal on my router which is connected to my Maxview roam roof mounted antenna
And the picture keeps freezing and buffering .
I’ve manually changed networks to Orange Spain from Movistar which has made zero difference , my Firestick is switched to the lowest resolution and it’s still faltering .
Wife is not a happy bunny as she likes her Saturday night telly .
Is there anything else I can try
 
if you have laptop or similar that you can link to the router try watching on that, possibly on the catch up service? If you don't get the problem on there then its your firestick or TV. If you do still get buffering it is the network not delivering. Signal strength does not tell you much apart from you have a signal or not, but doesn't give any indication of the available bandwidth, or yet the contention between you and other users on the mast, It also doesn't tell you what the response time between the originating server and the router.
 
You can run a speed test under settings in the firestick to get an indication of the download speed you are getting.
 
stewartwebr said:
You can run a speed test under settings in the firestick to get an indication of the download speed you are getting.
Click to expand...
Or run a speed test from a laptop attached to the router. It'll give you an indication if it's the router or the FireStick that's causing the problem.

Side thoughts... What's your APN settings. And are you trying to run through a VPN?
 
I have said before 5G doesn't seem to be any quicker than 4G when it gets saturated with users?
Flick phone to 4G and got better download via fire stick sometimes.
If you are using a fire stick you can also turn down picture data and not always noticeable quality.

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We are currently in Spain and also have a maxview roam, streaming through a fire stick which has worked well, with no buffering, as we now have unlimited data I have even turned the quality up hign, the only exception being on channel 4, which constantly buggers even when turned back down.
 
Guigsy said:
Or run a speed test from a laptop attached to the router. It'll give you an indication if it's the router or the FireStick that's causing the problem.

Side thoughts... What's your APN settings. And are you trying to run through a VPN?
Click to expand...
APN is set at prepay.tesco-mobile.com being a U.K. SIM card it doesn’t need a VPN
Tesco seems to prefer Movistar network which is very strong signal 5G here
 
There are many Informative YouTube videos on how to combat Firestick buffering...I found them most helpful..
I have a Firestick in our Apartment which I can connect to our community internet, some residents complain about buffering, I don't have an issue...we are all on the same fibre optic provider.
In our van my router/antenna set up provides for our phones and tablets...and a Firestick...no buffering....
What I can say, perhaps will help you, because it certainly helps me...in the Fire stick settings...Clear Cache and Force Stop all the apps you might have running in the background...this works for me and it's something I need to attend to frequently...give it a try after firstly watch the video how to do it...costs nothing to try other than to buy me a coffee if it works... 😄🇪🇦
 
Neil S said:
Am getting 29.95 Mbps download and 11.45 upload
Click to expand...
That's tons for streaming. So it's probably not the 5G connection, or the WiFi. Either the FireStick is the issue, or the steaming service is throttled. Are all streaming services affected the same way? Is Prime the same as YouTube or Netflix?

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For internet test, speed is not everything. More critical is the "Ping" or "jitter" numbers, the lower and constant the better. If these are high, or have major peaks and troughs, then this hampers data delivery, and thus can cause buffering issues, even if you have "good speeds".

Also note that although you may have "my Firestick is switched to the lowest resolution" this may only be fore the firestick interface, and not necessarily for all the apps it uses, which will have their own quality and resolution settings within the apps. I think iPlayer has the ability to lower resolution, but ITVX does not.

Cache clearing helps a bit, but perhaps also changing the "city" location on your VPN for another may help
 
Guigsy said:
That's tons for streaming. So it's probably not the 5G connection, or the WiFi. Either the FireStick is the issue, or the steaming service is throttled. Are all streaming services affected the same way? Is Prime the same as YouTube or Netflix?
Click to expand...
Don’t do Amazon prime or Netflix you got to pay for them .
Only really interested in live U.K. mainstream channels
 
I've had problems with the VPN, I'm using Nord and sometimes it buffers but if I switch the server it's ok. I wonder if it's the VPN server that's slowing down. Another thing is I can't stream live TV on the BBC, all the others are good. I can get catch up on BBC.
 
Odd-no-more said:
I've had problems with the VPN, I'm using Nord and sometimes it buffers but if I switch the server it's ok. I wonder if it's the VPN server that's slowing down. Another thing is I can't stream live TV on the BBC, all the others are good. I can get catch up on BBC.
Click to expand...
VPNs have a processor power overhead to encrypt the data to send down the VPN. So it might slow down the router or the FireStick a little. The VPN might be a bottleneck because it's bouncing the data via the VPN's server. All the data is taking a longer path, so any request and response will be laggier.

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It’s working faultlessly this afternoon but come tonight I bet it starts playing up.
 
Neil S said:
It’s working faultlessly this afternoon but come tonight I bet it starts playing up.
Click to expand...
That might suggest you are being throttled. My guess is that your Tesco traffic has a lower priority than the native users on the network. So when it gets busy, you play second fiddle. And if they are really smart, they can make your data second class only for certain sites or types. So video streaming might be hobbled and nothing else.
 
Is there heavy rain around? That can cause issues with microwaves.
 
Mleabon said:
Is there heavy rain around? That can cause issues with microwaves.
Click to expand...
I worked on a project that studied 5G. It was a minor thing I looked into, but I couldn't find any correlation between periods of heavy rain and latency or bandwidth. We had weather stations giving minute by minute data within 100m of the receivers. And in the months of data, we had several named storms with some impressive downpours.
 
Still playing up
I’ve had it with unreliable streaming , the guy next door to me with a Cathargo has a Poynting antennae and is having similar issues even with a strong signal .
As he says watching tv via the phone network is not the most reliable way.
Satellite dish is back up and at least we can get a fair few SKY subscription channels plus SKY news without constant hiccuping.
Kabelio TV is the way to go via Hotbird satellite at 13e the footprint covers Spain , Portugal .

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Neil S said:
Still playing up
I’ve had it with unreliable streaming , the guy next door to me with a Cathargo has a Poynting antennae and is having similar issues even with a strong signal .
As he says watching tv via the phone network is not the most reliable way.
Satellite dish is back up and at least we can get a fair few SKY subscription channels plus SKY news without constant hiccuping.
Kabelio TV is the way to go via Hotbird satellite at 13e the footprint covers Spain , Portugal .
Click to expand...
You're not going to like this!:(

Even the telly in The Harbour Inn was working and showing the first leg of the Scotland vs Greece footy game!:whistle2::giggler::getmecoat:

And it was close to taps aff weather, as well!:tounge:
 
Not been to Spain for a couple of years. But last time we were there, the mobile networks were rock solid and incredibly capable compared to the spotty connections we got at home.
 
Guigsy said:
Not been to Spain for a couple of years. But last time we were there, the mobile networks were rock solid and incredibly capable compared to the spotty connections we got at home.
Click to expand...
The phone signal is good on both Orange Spain and Movistar here in Benicassim
But at peak times probably when lots of phone calls and internet traffic are happening everything slows down just when we want TV
 
Ours buffers if plugged into the tv usb for power, when plugged into a separate mains fed usb adapter it is fine, I don’t think our tv outputs enough power to timing the firestick directly
 

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