Nvidia Shield TV - Buffering Issues

Submitted a diagnostic log while turner sharing is on shortly after experiencing this issue.

Seems like symbol quality and bitrate are dropping to zero randomly.

Does the same issue occur in the official HDHR app?

Are you using any coax splitters or amps with your HDHR prime?

I haven't used the official app, well because it's kinda a pain to use IMO. I do occasionally use the live channels app and don't have any issues.

And yes, the HDHR prime is connected to a splitter amplifier. I had to add that as the HDHR was reporting a weak card lock.

I'd advise you to trace and document the coax line from the street to your prime. Figure out where all the splitters are, and make sure there are: as few as possible, they're all high quality, there are no unterminated ends (unused split points), and the cables used are all very thick and screwed in all the way.

If you can move the amplifier closer to the entry into your house that would probably improve the situation. Right now its just turning the volume up on a bad signal.

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tmm1 has good advice. Really, your cable card(s) should have 0 to 1 splits between them and the line into the house. Since they are feeding all your TVs, you have no reason to send your cable signal to each room. The only other device that would require a split is your cable modem. Usually, you can go to the cable box on the side of your house and open it up. It will probably have a 4-way splitter. Figure out which one is the line that feeds to your cablecard, and replace the splitter with just a grounding female/female connector to that one coax. If you do this, remove the amplifier, as you may over power the signal then.

That coax line to your cablecard could also have another split on it in the attic to share it between rooms. But if you go from a 4-way to a single as mentioned above, it wouldn't matter.

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I'll see what I can find out over the weekend. I want to say there's 2 splits before the HDHR Prime. I really don't know the difference between high quality and cheap splitter is. l'm guessing they were supplied by the cable provider at some point.

Thanks for all the advice on this! Like I said, this setup is all new to me.

I was able to trace the wiring yesterday. I found there were 2 splitters between the line coming from my house and the HDHR Prime. The splitter closest to my HDHR was a powered signal amplifier. I was able to temporary remove one of these splitters. This puts my setup at 1 splitter, plain ole normal splitter, between the main line at my house and the HDHR. The other end of the splitter is connected to my modem. I spent quite a bit of time testing yesterday, primary watching sports, and noticed the following:

-local channels, like fox, stream rate is much fast than other cable channels. These channels range from 5 - 7 mb/s. These are provided by cable provider, not OTA.

-other channels stream rate is about the same 2 - 4 mbs. Not much of a difference here, but slightly better.

  • I still get buffering with only 1 splitter with both local channels with higher stream rate and other cable channels. I submitted diagnostic logs this morning for each scenario.

My guess at this point is the signal coming into my house is just weak. I live at the end of my neighborhood. That being said, internet speeds are fast and I don't have any packet loss. I also had a new line put in, from the main box to my house, about a year ago.

I tried try some other apps, I'll be happy to list them if needed but the HDHR was one of them, for about an hour and didn't get any pauses or buffering during playback. I was actually surprised with how good the picture quality of the HDHR app. This totally throws off my assumption of a weak signal. That being said, neither of the apps have the features of channels.

Please don't take any of this as bashing or saying anything about this software. I really like it and it checks all my needs. I'm just trying to add as much info here as I can.

Once again, thanks for all the advice and assistance troubleshooting this issue.

The HDHomeRun has a web interface. Browse to its IP and when you tune channels you can look at the tuner details and it will give you detailed signal statistics. I was recently having an issue with my prime that was a real head scratcher. All channels on the 57 MHz frequency were weak, but all other frequencies were fine. Had Spectrum send out a tech and he had to trace it all the way from the wall to figure out the issue. It was an obscure one too. The tuning adapter that Spectrum provided has a pass through so I had the coax going out from that to the HDHomeRun. Turns out the signal was being dropped in that pass through. He added a splitter to bypass the pass through and now no problems.

I used to be a cable tech back in the day. Being at the end of a neighborhood or on a terminating tap doesn't make any difference. Not saying that you may not have a signal issue, you absolutely could. I'm saying that being on the end of a line doesn't automatically mean that.

In general you only need an amp to overcome signal loss. You should never need one to overcome a mainline issue like the signal is too low at the tap.
Let's say you have a 100ft drop from the street feeding a 4 way splitter. You are going to lose about 4.5db on the drop and then 7db on each leg of the splitter. So that's an 11.5db drop plus the length of cable from the ground block to each device. Take a 15db amp and you are close to net 0 on your signal. But... You should never just add an amp to overcome loss. The signal feeding your drop may be on the hot side and you may not need to overcome any loss. You have to look at your signal level to figure out if one is necessary. Also the amp should NEVER be placed behind the device, that just amplifies bad signal. You should also avoid multiple splits and never use gold plated radio shack splitters. I can't tell you how many of those I ripped out as a tech.

If the hdhomerun app doesn't give you the errors it's likely not a cable/signal issue.

Is your HDHR Prime firmware fully updated?

Yup, verified everything this running the latest firmware.

Thanks for the info! Definitely sounds like you know your stuff. I think I have to work on getting the splitter right on this. So here's my problem, I have 1 person that just wants to use a cable box. So I have to support 1 cable box, 1 modem, and 1 HDHR. Eventually I'd like to add a second HDHR Prime to the mix (already have it). I'm thinking of getting a simple 3 way splitter and another line ran, but that second HDHR I want to add later throws me off. If I just worry about what I have now I was going to get this simple splitter. They also have a balanced version of this splitter as well (-5.5).

Then I also noted they had a lossless 4 way powered splitter which seemed like a no brainer.

I think going simple and splitting this line as little as possible is the way to go right now. Just wanted to get feedback on this.

I would stay away from a lossless splitter honestly. Only go with something like that to solve a problem and really if you need amplification I would go with a traditional amplifier installed at your groundblock. I doubt you need an amp honestly.
Loss is ok in most cases. The signal coming into your house is usually a bit hot becuase of the anticipated loss from attenuation and splitters.

This is what I would get. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LMLP4QM/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_60BWV26DZTXB4QPN0RC5

Best place for this is at your groundblock (where your cable enters the house or in the attic if that's where the cable terminates)

The link is for a 3 way splitter but you can select a 4 way as well. If you use the 3 way, put your modem on the 3.5 leg and then your cable card and set top box on the 7 leg. Check your HDHR signal on multiple channels via the webui and make sure you are OK. I'm not sure how it measures signal but generally anything down to -10dbmv is ok. Also check your cable modems status page and make sure it is downstream and upstream levels are good. You can post them here and I'll take a look if you like.

Are you set for cables cause that's a point of failure as well. Twist on connectors, cheap molded cables, really bad. Also builders are notorious for terrible connectors on the reverse side of your wall plate. I used to go behind other techs and find that after the customer still had issues.

Ordered the splitter you recommend. I think the cable is good. I had a new line put in about a year ago specifically for this. I just have to call to have them run another line.

another option, when you ready to add second HDHR, is run the modem and box on the -7 lines, and then do a 2-way split at the HDHRs for both of them. That way everything is of equal attenuation. If the HDHR works on the current -7, then it will still work when you split the -3.5 for a total of -7 on the two HDHRs.

Good idea, thanks!

Tuning Adapters are the spawn of the devil. Spectrum's are especially flaky.

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The secondary cable line is getting installed shortly. This will put a single splitter between the line coming into my house and the HDHR. I'll give it a couple days and report back.

Any improvement here?

Could you also try the new alpha build in this thread: Nvidida Shield dropping frames/skipping while watching live TV

Sorry, the end of year is super busy over here and I'm just now coming back to this. I have to say the latest release made a huge difference, not only am I not seeing any buffering issues but the picture quality is noticeably better. When watching live sports like football I'd often see large pixelated squares in the grass, especially near players feet. This is completely gone in with the latest release! A big thanks for both to the developers and to the community for the help on this.

The only thing that I have noticed since the latest release is also with live sports. I've noticed that the ball, whether I'm watching soccer or football, is semi transparent when there is a lot of movement. I typically only notice this on a deep pass in football or a long pass in soccer. It makes watching a big play difficult at times as you loose sight on what's happening. I haven't had a change to see if I have this same issue with other Live TV apps provided by Google or HDHomeRun. I can always open up a new issue/troubleshooting thread if needed as my original problem has been resolved.