FireTV hangs tuning live TV from HDHR 4k

[axeltech]

Using a FireTV Cube with Channels App 4.9.4 and an HDHomeRun 4K, I am noticing that when tuning in a live channel, the Channels App will sometimes hang with the spinner in the status bar. Meanwhile the HDHR shows that the channels is tuned in and the Channels web app (if using Tuner Sharing) shows the active connection with 0% dropped to the player. On the TV, I observe that the playback buffer is filling and if I press fast forward, playback starts from that point the buffer. Whenever this occurs, I can press FF and jump ahead to the live signal.

This occurs when using Direct mode with Tuner Sharing both enabled and disabled. It does not occur when using HLS streaming mode. The DVR, HDHR, and FireTV are all on the local network with 1gbps connections (100mbps on the FireTV and HDHR due to limitations of their ethernet interfaces).

I only see this on the FireTV devices. I don't experience this problem on my Apple equipment, both iPad, iPhone, and Mac (using the iOS client).

Any suggestions on what I can try?

[axeltech]

I should clarify since I mentioned I was using an HDHR 4k that this occurs with both ATSC 1 and ATSC 3 content (ATSC 3 has other issues with jittering video on some of my FireTV devices, but that's a separate topic).

[tmm1]

You can try Settings > Playback > Advanced > Video Decoder: Software

[axeltech]

Thanks. The software decoder seems to fix the hanging issue when tuning and works nicely on ATSC 1 channels.

However, it does have the effect of breaking video decoding on ATSC 3 channels (black screen--audio continues to play).