New Insignia FireTV and Wifi

Channels Fire TV
#1

My install is all new, HDTV Antenna, HDHomeRun Quatro, Insignia FireTV, Premium TV and Channels DVR. The TV IS at the far end of good WifI but I wanted to see if what I see in The Channels logs match what I think is a WifI problem. The stops, break ups, voice problems is all local OTA channels. Tuner stats say I have at least 80-90% signals.

Virtual Channel 50.1 WRAZ HD
Frequency 683.000 MHz
Program Number 3
Modulation Lock 8vsb
Signal Strength 89%
Signal Quality 78%
Symbol Quality 100%
Streaming Rate 14.308 Mbps
Resource Lock 192.168.1.16

Speedtest to DVR gyrates from 8Mbs to 130Mbs

2018/11/27 09:31:56 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 5.1 from 192.168.1.16 (encoder=h264_qsv, resolution=1080, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=8000)
[mpegts @ 000000000061bd00] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 0)
[mpegts @ 000000000061bd00] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 1)
[mpegts @ 000000000061bd00] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 2)
[hls @ 0000000002dc0040] Non-monotonous DTS in output stream 0:0; previous: 3873870, current: 3846843; changing to 3873871. This may result in incorrect timestamps in the output file.
[hls @ 0000000002dc0040] Non-monotonous DTS in output stream 0:0; previous: 3873871, current: 3849846; changing to 3873872. This may result in incorrect timestamps in the output file.
[hls @ 0000000002dc0040] Non-monotonous DTS in output stream 0:0; previous: 3873872, current: 3852849; changing to 3873873. This may result in incorrect timestamps in the output file.
2018/11/27 09:32:49 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch5.1-dANY-ip192.168.1.16 @ 51.52s
2018/11/27 09:32:49 [TNR] Closed connection to 107615DB for ch5.1
2018/11/27 09:32:52 [TNR] Opened connection to 107615DB for ch5.1
2018/11/27 09:32:52 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 5.1 from 192.168.1.16 (encoder=h264_qsv, resolution=1080, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=8000)
[mpegts @ 000000000258bd00] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 2)
[mpegts @ 000000000258bd00] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 0)
[mpegts @ 000000000258bd00] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 1)
[hls @ 00000000025ac4c0] Non-monotonous DTS in output stream 0:0; previous: 1612611, current: 1543542; changing to 1612612. This may result in incorrect timestamps in the output file.
[hls @ 00000000025ac4c0] Non-monotonous DTS in output stream 0:0; previous: 1612612, current: 1546545; changing to 1612613. This may result in incorrect timestamps in the output file.
[hls @ 00000000025ac4c0] Non-monotonous DTS in output stream 0:0; previous: 1612613, current: 1549548; changing to 1612614. This may result in incorrect timestamps in the output file.
2018/11/27 09:33:11 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch5.1-dANY-ip192.168.1.16 @ 16.750067s

#2

Define "good WiFi."

You don't have this problem with PTV channels? That would tend to indicate it's not the LAN or WiFi network.

There's something seriously amiss with that. Is the DVR on a wired connection? From what did you do your speed test to the DVR?

Have you tried doing a speed test to the TV? (Channels app has to be running.)

#3

The problem does not happen with SD Premium Channels or Hulu. We have both services but are going to drop Hulu when I get this problem fixed. My HDTV antenna is not quit dialed in for the most watched channels yet.

This is the TV bought on sale for $249
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-55-class-led-2160p-smart-4k-uhd-tv-with-hdr-fire-tv-edition/6245800.p?skuId=6245800

My Azus router with Merlin build is on one end of the first floor but the Insignia FireTv is at the other end of the first floor. From lazy tests we already have a weak signal with Ipads there as well but I could wire ethernet there if I had to. Not a small task.

My DVR server (Windows 10 computer 4 cores / Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570) is wired directly to the Azus router
CPU @ 3.40GHz

Speedtest from TV to DVR Download 23.35 Mbit/s Latency 3.19 and Jitter 3.25 then again
Download 64.67 Latency 31.37 and Jitter 38.89

I don't know how to do the speedtest from the DVR to the TV.

Later today, I'm going to move the TV closer to the WifFi router to see if that helps. And, I'm about to pull the trigger today on an Eero mesh wifi system since we have problems at the far end anyway.

#4

Ok, I believe SD PTV is not yet HD? They of course don't come right out and say it, but they do say each channel runs about 2.5Mb/s. A native HD channel runs more along the lines of 10Mb/s to 15Mb/s. Quite a bit more bandwidth demand.

I've no clue what Hulu does.

Re: ASUS router: I'm not saying that is part of your problem. I'm simply going to repeat my Network Design Mantra: Routers to route, switches to switch, access points to supply WiFi, never the terne shall combine, and don't use common "consumer grade" network hardware.

That being said: If you have a weak WiFi signal at your TV there's a good chance that's your problem. (But see my Network Design Mantra, above.)

How big is your house? How many floors?

Re: Eero mesh, or any other "mesh" system: Some people report success using these for streaming. Others not so much. There's really nothing "magic" about how mesh systems work. In the end they're a bunch of WiFi repeaters. WiFi repeaters are a sub-optimal solution to getting good WiFi coverage because every bit that passes over a WiFi repeater has to go through it twice: Once between repeater and client, and again between repeater and the thing it's repeating.

#5

Like jseymour said, the biggest difference between SD Premium and Antenna is that SD Premium is compressed, so uses far less bandwidth. The fact that you’re only seeing issues with Antenna channels is a very strong indicator that bandwidth is the issue. I suspect you’ll see improved performance as you decrease the distance to the router.