So added another TV and this time using 4k fire stick in lieu of ATV as on other TV's. Only while watching live TV I'm getting freezing picture and error message about network. bandwidth is great, 100+ MbPS speed at fire stick. I switched video playback from original to 8mbps and it seems to stop the issue.
My question is am I losing video quality? and why do my ATV's work fine with original? Thinking of switching back to ATV if I'm losing picture quality or 8mbps really isn't helping
thanks
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Thought I was the only one seeing this problem. I get frozen video while the audio continues. No error messages about the network though. 3 Mbps (it's a small screen) and a monthly manual restart from Settings seems to keep that at bay. But the other day I was using a beta client to get around another issue, forgot to lower the bit rate, and the freezing happened again.
This problem happens on only one of my Fire devices, a small Insignia "Fire TV Edition" TV set, so I thought it could be that device is under-powered and has less memory than most. But it could also be because the other Fire devices here aren't used as much or are restarted every time. My Fire TV Stick 4K for example is powered by the TV's USB port, so always gets powered off and powered on with the TV.
Switching from Original to anything else causes the stream to be remuxed, meaning video and audio streams are separated from the original incoming stream, and put back together in a new stream. Often, this can expose errors in the original stream, which the remuxing can correct on-the-fly. When the streaming quality is set to Original, it is simply passed through directly to the clients, so errors in the original stream will need to be handled by the client instead of the DVR server.
As far as quality loss, that depends. If your sources are internet/TVE/Locast streams, chances are that your incoming streams are less than 8Mbps, so the video stream will just be repackaged, and otherwise passed through untouched. If it is an OTA/cable stream, you may experience a slight reduction in quality, as those can have bitrates up to 12Mbps, but that only infrequently is the case, and more often with cable.
For the difference between devices, I believe it comes down to the hardware/software interplay. (This is based on the assumption that "ATV" is Apple TV, not Android TV.) Apple's hardware video decoders tend to do far better than those embedded in chipsets marketed for use in phones and cheap streamers, and have better software to assistant in this because of the tight integration.
Thanks for clarification. Yes, Apple TV. I experience the freezing issue on OTA channels only, never with TVE
Nothing I can do about? just leave on 8mbps or switch back to ATV.
Have you enabled Tuner Sharing on your Fire TV clients? What you are describing sounds more like a network issue. By default, OTA streams go direct from the tuner to the client, bypassing the DVR. Tuner sharing changes this to instead route all streams through the DVR. (This will effectively do the same thing as changing the streaming quality to 8Mbps, but without any chance of loss of quality.)
Also, is this only with live broadcasts, or do recorded OTA streams have the same "freezing" problem? If it is only the live streams, then enabling tuner sharing will probably solve your troubles. (In each client, go to Settings > Playback > Advanced > Tuner Sharing, or set it globally from the DVR by using the Server Settings options from the Clients page on the web UI.)
@racameron in my experience reducing the bit rate will only delay the inevitable screen freeze. I have to restart the Fire device once a month as well. This happens to us with recorded cable shows, and does not happen on two other Fire devices but as I wrote above that could be because the offending device is under-powered, or it could be because one of the others is used less and another is powered off after every use.
I don't know why you switched from an Apple TV to a Fire TV device, but if your primary usage of the device is with Channels, I would recommend you switch back to the Apple TV.
The Apple TV is the primary development target of Channels, and all new features come to that platform first. (Other Apple devices get the features next, ultimately followed by Android/Fire OS devices; in fact, there are features the Apple TV client has that still have yet to appear on Android-based devices.) So, unless there was some particular reason that drive you to switch platforms, if Channels is your primary use-case, then I suggest switching back.
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Does tuner sharing mean all TV's watch same channel?
space behind a new wall mounted TV made the stick easier. But I will find a way to hang the ATV and remove the fire stick. Channels is about the only thing I watch
No, tuner sharing means that the DVR handles HDHR connections for the clients. By default, every client opens its own dedicated stream to the tuner. So, if two client devices are watching the same channel live, that is using two separate tuners on your HDHR device. And if you are recording that same channel, too, then there is a third separate stream for the DVR.
With tuner sharing enabled, the DVR opens a single stream/tuner for the channel, and every client with it enabled gets its stream from the DVR. So instead of 3 separate streams being sent to the different clients and the DVR, only a single tuner is used to send the stream to the DVR. Then, the DVR sends that "shared" stream to the two clients, and saves it to disk for the recording.
The only real drawback to tuner sharing is it may take a little longer to initially tune an OTA channel. Otherwise, it works the same as for TVE streams.
So for now our only solution is to switch to Apple TV? 
Not gonna happen here. I have faith the devs will smooth this out eventually. So far this doesn't seem to be a widespread issue either, and I don't want to discourage anyone from trying Fire TV.
I never said that. I offered a possible cause of the issue, along with a possible solution. The OP simply stated they didn't have the problem with an Apple TV, and I suggested they might move back to that platform both to alleviate their issue, as well as receive a better experience with Channels.
Please don't put words in my mouth, or conflate suggestions with end-all solutions.
(And of course, everything is really just a guess, because there are no real/concrete details or data provided, just anecdotal evidence. But based upon the past and personal experiences, I gave suggestions as to what I felt was most likely happening.)
OK, sorry. You did say "I recommend" not "solution". And it certainly seems like an easier course of action than lowering the bit rate and rebooting regularly, but I'll stick with that for now.
I have 3 TVs each with its own Amazon 4K Fire Stick and they all work pretty much flawlessly (with caveats). That being said, I've found that the Fire Stick does not perform well if your speed back to the DVR server is less than 200Mbps. Make sure you've connected it to the fastest band on your WiFi router (it may be an explicit 5GHz ID apart from the regular 2.4GHz ID). On the Fire Stick that I use the most, I bought a Gigabit Ethernet adapter for it. With the wired connection I measure ~350Mbps to the DVR server. Things are very solid and very snappy. (well, except I do need to reboot the Fire Stick every couple of weeks, things just start to get wonky if I go much longer than that without a reboot).
my other 2 devices (apple TV's) never have 200 mbps. The fire stick is 7' from an Orbi satellite router (which is hardwired to the main Orbi) I have 400mbps plan with Orbi mesh system. I normally get 300+ wifi speed around the house. I'd rather not swap devices but it is annoying.
Thanks, but it's on wired gigabit Ethernet. Two other Fire devices, one getting a slower speed due to a long cable run and the other much faster, show no symptoms at all. Main differences are the troublesome one gets more continuous use, and probably has less memory and a slower processor.
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@llzel have you ever submitted logs after these incidents? I submitted one in April, but the devs may not have enough data yet.
I haven't but will next time it happens.
The other problem I have is that you can't assign a band with Orbi Mesh Systems. I'd like to assign 5mghz only but haven't seen how yet.
The problem with the FireTV 4K is it has very little free storage and that is where Channels DVR keeps the buffer forcing a transcode instead of original quality ... the buffer is stored at the DVR. With the new Interface you have much more Ads and recommendations which take up storage... Clearing Cache on other Apps helps. Live TV is a pain in the butt when you have limited storage.
So before you go crazy trying to switch ethernet or wireless etc ... force a transcode when watching LiveTV and see how that performs.