Netflix keeps cutting out - Fire TV Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have 2 fire sticks, on the 1 I have no issues. The other it is constantly cutting out but only when watching Netflix. When I say cutting out, it will drop audio and visual for a few seconds, the screen goes black, and then it picks back up as if it had been playing the whole time (so you end up missing a couple words of what is being said). I have tried clearing the cache, uninstalling & re-installing Netflix, restarting the fire stick, when I do this stuff, it SOMETIMES fixes it temporarily but before long it starts again. This has gone on for quite a while (despite numerous updates) and only happens with Netflix. I've tried searching for answers online but haven't found anything with exactly this problem and the only things close are what lead me to the steps that I've already taken. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Related

[Q] Buffering Issue

Got the Amazon fire TV one week back and its not rooted, but Installed XBMC.
When I try to watch a video on you tube after 5 to 10 minutes, it starts buffering and the video doesnt play afterwards, I have to go back and open it againa, and forward it to the original place and watch it, again after 5 minutes samethign happens..
Same with XBMC, after 5 minutes video buffers, but after couple of minutes if click play button video resumes, but after couple of minutes buffering starts...
I watch youtube on my laptop or chromecast, it works perfectly , so i dont think there is any problem with wifi. Also I have download speeds of 20MBPS +
Is it because of faulty device or anythign else. Yestereday i cleared youtube apps data, still the problem continues.. Please suggest me how can I resolve it??
TIA
I can't help but blame and jab qualcomm with a stick when it comes to Fire TV problems.
Especially Fire TV is stuck with older v5x instead of v66.
I have my own video issues where it fails entirely.
After long enough,videos completely refuse to work (error ocurred) on YouTube and many others until I restart with ctrl+alt+delete hotkeys.
I haven't seen it happen in quite a while though since modding several minor aspects with various performance tweaks.
I talked to staples, they are sending me a new device, but looking at the problems that people have, the new device may not solve the problem... Lets see..

bbc iplayer buffering issue, have to restart box and then its fine?

is there a fix to this issue
i have to always restart box after clearing cache and data for it to work
otherwise its stuck on the loading circle
any tips?
thanks
I was wondering, have you solved the problem?
BBC iPlayer doesn't seem to like my Fire TV. It starts off fine, but after a while the spinning wheel of death appears and it kills the box altogether.
I have no problems at all with Amazon videos.
Amazon don't seem to able to reproduce my problem, so can't really help (they have tried and got in touch with me several times).
I am in the UK with Talk Talk and on fibre.

Netflix sucks on FTV

My Netflix sucks big time on my rooted fire TV. Stutters quite a bit. No combination of the video frame rate helps in the settings. What more can I do? I shouldn't have to wipe cache and restart every hour to get smooth playback. Thanks
supremekizzle said:
My Netflix sucks big time on my rooted fire TV. Stutters quite a bit. No combination of the video frame rate helps in the settings. What more can I do? I shouldn't have to wipe cache and restart every hour to get smooth playback. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Netflix has been terrible on aftv. Between the loading to 99%, and "unable to play this title right now" not to mention that atv2 has a much better resolution (for me anyway).
I was experiencing a stutter and I think I switched to WiFi to fix it. Not 100% on that but its working better now.
KLit75 said:
Netflix has been terrible on aftv. Between the loading to 99%, and "unable to play this title right now" not to mention that atv2 has a much better resolution (for me anyway).
I was experiencing a stutter and I think I switched to WiFi to fix it. Not 100% on that but its working better now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How'd you fix the two issues you mentioned? Netflix just started doing the same, for no apparent reason about a week ago on my FTV. I found one that here that was said to have the fix, but I've performed each of the steps listed there with no luck. Right now, I'm on 51.1.6.0... I tried the latest, but am affected by the HDCP issue, so had to roll back.
JediSooner said:
How'd you fix the two issues you mentioned? Netflix just started doing the same, for no apparent reason about a week ago on my FTV. I found one that here that was said to have the fix, but I've performed each of the steps listed there with no luck. Right now, I'm on 51.1.6.0... I tried the latest, but am affected by the HDCP issue, so had to roll back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure I did fix it. It may have got better on its own. You could try uninstalling Netflix, clear data 3 times in Amazon video, unplug for 10 seconds. Then it may be beneficial to boot recovery and wipe dalvik and cache partitions. Finally reinstall Netflix.
Mine occasionally doesn't load all the way but restarting the video fixes it.
KLit75 said:
Not sure I did fix it. It may have got better on its own. You could try uninstalling Netflix, clear data 3 times in Amazon video, unplug for 10 seconds. Then it may be beneficial to boot recovery and wipe dalvik and cache partitions. Finally reinstall Netflix.
Mine occasionally doesn't load all the way but restarting the video fixes it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what the deal is, but I've tried all of the suggested fixes, but continue to get the same error message. I'll wait for pre-rooted 51.1.6.3 and see if that fixes it.
JediSooner said:
I don't know what the deal is, but I've tried all of the suggested fixes, but continue to get the same error message. I'll wait for pre-rooted 51.1.6.3 and see if that fixes it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry. Overall Netflix on Amazon has been terrible for a lot of users while others seem to have no problems at all. They're not likely to provide a fix but it doesn't hurt to contact Amazon. At the very least you'll join a growing list of dissatisfied customers. Problem is Amazon points the finger a Netflix and vice versa. But like I've said before, Netflix has always been fine on my other devices going back almost a decade.
KLit75 said:
Sorry. Overall Netflix on Amazon has been terrible for a lot of users while others seem to have no problems at all. They're not likely to provide a fix but it doesn't hurt to contact Amazon. At the very least you'll join a growing list of dissatisfied customers. Problem is Amazon points the finger a Netflix and vice versa. But like I've said before, Netflix has always been fine on my other devices going back almost a decade.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, the part I don't get is that it just stopped working for no apparent reason. It'd been working fine for months, then all of a sudden I start getting the "can't play video at this time" error (something to that effect). Anyway, thanks for the suggestions and feedback.
JediSooner said:
Yeah, the part I don't get is that it just stopped working for no apparent reason. It'd been working fine for months, then all of a sudden I start getting the "can't play video at this time" error (something to that effect). Anyway, thanks for the suggestions and feedback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's any consolation... on 51.1.x.x versions of Fire TV, I never had issues where it wouldn't play video, but I did have studdering and slow/fast issues. On the 51.5.3.0 Fire OS 5 preview, all that has gone away and aside from an issue with 5.1 sound which is solved by putting it on stereo, netflix is working great.
KLit75 said:
Netflix has been terrible on aftv. Between the loading to 99%, and "unable to play this title right now" not to mention that atv2 has a much better resolution (for me anyway).
I was experiencing a stutter and I think I switched to WiFi to fix it. Not 100% on that but its working better now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. Netflix performance actually gotten worse on the Fire TV since the latest official stable update. For months I been using it and it was fine but now once again I have issues where the video would freeze up for about 5 to 10 seconds then speed up right away everyone is super fast while the audio continues. Very annoying as I thought they finally fixed it but it came back again. Now I also been getting the "unable to play title" error again too.
I actually started to use my Apple TV 3rd Generation which is connected to Wifi 5ghz channel 36. Loads programs quickly, no stuttering, no unable to, no credit shrinking.
I've learned that having another video app open while trying to access Netflix is what causes the problem. The reason rebooting fixes it is because you essentially flush the FireTV's memory when you do the reboot. If you exit out of other apps fully, you shouldn't have anymore problems. I miss being able to click the Home button when switching between video apps but ever since I started doing a proper shutdown for video apps before switching to the next one, I no longer need to reboot to get the different video apps work.
JediSooner said:
Yeah, the part I don't get is that it just stopped working for no apparent reason. It'd been working fine for months, then all of a sudden I start getting the "can't play video at this time" error (something to that effect). Anyway, thanks for the suggestions and feedback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That message occurs when you have another background application tying up the video process.
Try rebooting. And never use the home button to exit Kodi or any other video application. Quit it properly. And watch out for SPMC, the way it's been implemented to minimize to the home screen with the back button is really unhelpful on the AFTV.
Same goes for using Kodi as a launcher. Don't expect it to be reliable.
Claude Koch said:
That message occurs when you have another background application tying up the video process.
Try rebooting. And never use the home button to exit Kodi or any other video application. Quit it properly. And watch out for SPMC, the way it's been implemented to minimize to the home screen with the back button is really unhelpful on the AFTV.
Same goes for using Kodi as a launcher. Don't expect it to be reliable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hadn't considered that possibility; however, I don't use an alternate launcher and I always shutdown Kodi properly. Maybe there's something else tying up the video process? I've gone through the 'clear data' process on Amazon Video multiple times, but that didn't fix Netflix. I'll try to go straight into Netflix after a fresh reboot and see what I get.

Cannot Connect to Netflix at this Time Error

If i open netflix 10 times on my fire tv 9 times it will tell me it is unable to connect to netflix . Is anyone else having this issue also? Or has anyone had it and figured out how to fix it. I have cleard cache and data and even reinstalled a few times and nothing seems to fix it. Any idea or help would be great.
Usually happens when you use Kodi as a launcher or minimize to Home rather than exiting. Try quitting Kodi.
If not Kodi, suspect other background apps.
OS 5 handles this better (but has other, larger, problems).
bftiedt said:
If i open netflix 10 times on my fire tv 9 times it will tell me it is unable to connect to netflix . Is anyone else having this issue also? Or has anyone had it and figured out how to fix it. I have cleard cache and data and even reinstalled a few times and nothing seems to fix it. Any idea or help would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's really strange that so many people have had major issues with Netflix for so long and Amazon doesn't seem to acknowledge it on a large scale. Mine has worked fine for months but that wasn't always the case and I still have the occasional video that won't load.
You can try the old prescription (something like this)
1. Uninstall Netflix
2. Go to apps/Amazon video and clear data 3 times
3. Unplug aftv for at least 10 seconds
4. Reinstall Netflix.
*if you have CWM, you can also wipe dalvik & cache partition (after step 3). It's just an added measure and maybe not necessary.
i can get netflix to load now but when trying to watch a video it loads to 25% and then tells me the title cant be played right now...

AFTV Gen 1 Kodi must be forced stopped or revert to blank install

I've been struggling with issues on this AFTV for awhile. My other AFTV is problem free. It's got to be something in my setup but no idea what?
Old issues:
Kodi could not be launched from the main menu. It would crash everytime if I did this so I needed to launch it from settings/manage apps after force stopping it.
***I also couldn't plug in my usb stick or it would revert to a blank install (no video sources, no thumbs, stock skin)
--This I attributed to a glitch with the way I was storing my thumbs on usb but no matter how many times I tried to fix it, it just wouldn't work.
Last week I did a fresh install, wiped data and flashed the latest rom. I also formatted my usb and went through the setup process again to store thumbnails on USB. It worked...sort of
New Issue:
Kodi can now be launched from the homescreen without crashing. HOWEVER, it reverts right back to a fresh install, blank kodi, no sources, thumbs, etc!
--If I force stop it then launch it again, everything goes back to normal (my setup is intact, thumbs are imported from USB.)
***There's ONE more piece of the puzzle that I'm hoping will give someone an idea...everytime I launch kodi, the AFTV seems to temporarily lose it's hdmi connection with the TV. I get the black screen with "no signal" listed in the center. It comes back once Kodi has booted up.
--This happens when it's launched from the main menu only. If I hit force stop then launch it, Kodi starts right up (correctly, setup intact). I notice it skips the splash screen and just goes right to my Homescreen.
Thought I'd take a shot and see if anyone knows what's going on. Would really appreciate any help. I tried to be as thorough as possible but if there's any questions, please help if you think you have an idea. Thanks

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