All UK HD streams jumping and stuttering since 6.2.7.3 firmware

Channels Fire TV
#1

I have done a search and no one else seems to be reporting this which worries me but for the last week or so my wife has been moaning that the TV is unwatchable using channels. I have been home over the weekend and witnessed it myself on ITV.

Basically the sound continues fine but the picture sort of freezes and stutters all over the place

To try and ensure the issue isn't my signal (never had issues before) I installed the HDhomerun app which played the same channel on the same tv perfectly. Switched back to channels and it started to glitch again.

I have several FTV 4ks around the house and my wife said she has seen it on a few.

Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks very much

#2

Are you running the FireOS 6.2.7.3 update? Is the app set to Software or Hardware decoding?

#3

Yes on the tv I witnessed the issue on myself at least it's running 6.2.7.3 and I set all the sticks to hardware decoding when you did whatever you did to fix the issue months ago. They have been perfect until this since then.

#4

Maybe they've broken something in the new firmware then. Diagnostics from the app would be helpful.

#5

Do you need it submitted just after it does the glitch or can I submit any time?

#6

I am just doing a little bit more testing on which channels it seems to be present on and just ensuring the same issue is not replicated on the HDhomerun app.

I am at work today but this morning I quickly put ITV 1 on and within 20 seconds this is how the video looked:

I switched across the HDhomerun and all was fine, when I get chance this evening I will do a bit more testing and submit diagnostics but so far the issue only seems to be on channels not HDhomerun

Thanks

#7

Diagnostics submitted after watching a few minutes of ITV HD

1 Like
#9

I have done a bit of comparison with HDhomerun and it seems that HDhr just manages the glitches on a different way.

Where channels will go crazy flickering around as shown above HDhr instead will just freeze until it is happy with the broadcast it is receiving again and will continue to play. Basically I think the issue is the same on both apps in reality.

Some programs seem to play perfectly well, news and sport that change scenes and have a lot of fast moving seem worse than something slow and simple like a British Soap. I'm sat here watching something called "Doc Martin" it's an awful watch but it isn't glitching at all. The adverts started and then some of those glitched.

ITV was always the worst channel previously before you did whatever you did to fix the issue, but since then it has been perfect. I suspect you are right that this is linked to the new FTV 4K firmware update.

Do you think this is something you can resolve within the software? I'm gutted if it's broken permanently as every TV in the house uses FTV 4K and channels so really need this to work correctly ideally.

#10

I'm not really sure what Amazon has done to cause this. Are you sure it's not a signal issue? What is the signal strength and quality on my.hdhomerun.com under Tuner Status

#11

I couldn't find Tuner status on the hdhomerun website but I do have the old app on my phone which has proven very reliable in the past. See attached screenshot!

Screenshot_20200901-193202_Hdhomerun Signal Meter|236x500

I haven't touched the aerial, weather is lovely and I haven't had a single signal issue in the last 20 months of living here so I can't see what would have suddenly given me signal issues.

I have seen signal issues on weaker channels i have that I don't really watch and they don't behave in the same way as this glitch. I would put money on this being related the amazon's latest update as its only recently started

#12

Just been round every TV in the hope 1 of them hadn't updated so I could try and do a side by side to show the older firmware behaving correctly on the same show as a newer 1 having issues but unfortunately they have all updated.

Just have windows pc's and my little girls fire tablet which I don't have channels for.

I could play ITV through plex and see if that has the same issues? It'll possibly transcode it but at least it'll show the signal is OK

#13

Signal does seem fine. If the only thing that's changed is the FireTV firmware then it certainly sounds like they broke the hardware decoder in some subtle way. Last time I got lucky and found a workaround, but I'm pretty sure I can't do that magic trick twice.

If you can capture a few minutes of ITV stream and email to support that will be helpful. Change duration to 300 or so.

#14

I only have a live TV pass I'm afraid so no way of capturing the actual video through channels just recording on my phone but I'm guessing you mean you actually want a recorded video file.

Do you have any UK users you could reach out to who have dvr access and could do some testing and recording?

Thanks for your help really hope you can fix this or else I've got to go out and look for alternative streaming devices again the FTV4K is perfect for me though

#15

I linked instructions above on how to make a capture from the HDHomeRun.

1 Like
#16

Sorry i was being thick. I'll wait until there's a show on that is giving the FTV glitches and record some and send it. Currently there's a gardening show on and it's playing perfectly.

The news is on at 10 and that seems to glitch a lot so I'll capture some of that

Thanks again for your help on this

#17

I've just used your method above to record 5 minutes via the ip address which I will forward as requested, its a large file size so may have to look at some sort of cloud share to get it to you.

I also recorded 2 minutes of the same footage on my phone at the same time viewed on the FTV 4K. As you'll see there is no signal issues on the ip recording but the FTV glitches a lot.

Hopefully this may help you see what's changing in the stream to make it glitch. Watching the 2 streams side by side shows the FTV issue very clearly.

1 Like
#18

As a temporary fix I have replace the ITV HD with just ITV SD in the guide, its not ideal watching standard definition streams but if there is a fix in the future and its just 1 channel its not the end of the world, but it a step backwards on what was working previously which is a shame.

Let me know if you need anything else to try and help resolve this. Thanks again for looking into it and trying to resolve

#19

Just got home and my wife said the glitching was happening on Channel 4 HD today whilst she was watching Fraiser.

Not good news she watches normal TV more than me but sounds like this issue is potentially on more than just 1 or 2 channels

#20

OK this isn't good news I have just sat and witnessed the same issue on BBC 1 HD, ITV HD, Channel 4 HD and 5 HD.

I would imagine this may mean it glitches on every channel now, like i said yesterday the type of program you are watching seems to have the biggest impact on the glitches.

For example a gardening show and a show soap opera were fine on ITV yesterday. A program about trains on Channel 5 is fine now. But put the news or a games how on any of the channels and it's unwatchable.

This is a little worrying as its essentially made all the tvs in my house useless!

#21

@tmm1 Have you had chance to look at my samples I emailed through?

Do you think this is something you guys can fix or are all my TVs going to be fairly useless until I either change the devices or wait for another firmware update from amazon that'll probably never come.

What I'm finding strange is that no one else seems to be complaining about this?

Are no other UK FireTV 4K users seeing this issue?