Playback Freezing OTA Fire Stick

Channels Fire TV Troubleshooting
#1

I host Philo, Locast, and an HDHomerun for a single channel via antenna, and it is this channel that is giving me issues. Philo and Locast channels play fine, but the antenna channels seem to have issues. While on the one antenna channel I need, it can occasionally just freeze, yet you can scrub through it and the content is there, just not play it. The channel does record, but also occasionally will not play, even though you can scrub through it and the content is there. A restart of the app fixes this most of the time, but it's annoying to have to do this constantly to watch one channel. Other times it will come up with a black screen and the circle will spin, but it won't play until you reset.

Any idea what the issue is? I assume it's some kind of decoding error, but I don't know if it's the fire stick, Channels, or the server. Not much of a tech person so I could use a few tips. It plays fine through the HDHomerun itself so it's an issue with how Channels is receiving it. I've attached a couple images, not much to see other than that the first appears paused though it is frozen, and the second is a recording that will not load.

IMG_2854
IMG_28544032×3024 1.47 MB
IMG_2852
IMG_28524032×3024 1.01 MB

#2

Which model Fire stick? You could try Settings > Playback > Advanced > Video Decoder: Software

#3

4k Fire Stick, I tried changing it to software before but from the server instead of the actual app- I see it now. Hopefully that helps then, I'll let you know if the issue persists.

#4

Another thing to try.... On the Firestick ChannelsDVR client, do Settings->Playback->Streaming Quality->Home Streaming and then choose something other than "Original". This will, I think, force the data stream to get routed through the DVR server and transcoded en route to the fire stick. The transcoding process might clean up whatever is causing problems. I did this to eke a little longer life out of an old (non-4k) Firestick stat had trouble keeping up with the full-bandwidth data stream.

#5

Hello,
sometimes it happens also to me when I see OTA channels from HDHomerun.
When hannens I have to to to "On Air" page and reselect the channel to view (play/ pause forword and rewind do not work)
If I try to use software decode I can't see HD channels (they pixelling)
I Have raspberry PI 4 with only Channel dvr (with network cable) and Firestick Tv 2021 version
Thank you

#6

Any good news?

thank you

#7

Sounds to me like you have a marginal signal and the decoders can't handle to errors/dropouts. Is it the same for every channel? Or are some channels better/worse?

Also, while watching a live channel in the Channels app, if you can figure out the IP address of your HDHR tuner, enter that in the address box of a web browser, then click on the "Tuner Status" link, then click on the tuner that the Summary says is in use and look at the Signal Strength, Signal Quality, and Symbol Quality values. The symbol quality should be 100% for a good experience.

#8

Thank you for your reply.
It happens the same for every channel and it does not happen if I use HDhomerun app.
The signal strength, quality and symbol are about 100%.
It happens on two firestick after a few tens of minutes.
For each firestick the bandwith is better then 200 Mbps

#9

I think it ould be usefull a system that retry to restart the streaming also it happen lost of signal

#10

This appears to be similar to the UK issue, some SD channels don't work on Hardware Mode, HD channels don't work properly on software mode they go all choppy, all the channels work fine on the HD Home run app, I've been struggling to find a solution that doesn't require manually switching between software and hardware for years.

#11

Another thing you can try is to have the ChannelsDVR transcode the broadcasts for you.

On the firestick client, go to Settings->Playback->Streaming Quality->Home Streaming and then pick 8mbps instead of Original.

Does this help?

#12

Thank you for your suggestion,
but I can't change:
Settings->Playback->Streaming Quality->Home Streaming
because it is gray

best regards
Gianluigi

1 Like
#13

That probably means it is being overridden in the server settings. You may want to remove that override from the Clients page in the DVR web UI.

#14

Thank you
you are right.
Now I can set it and I will try if the issue happen

1 Like
#15

Hello,
I tried to set bitrate to 8mbps but it doesn't work: I can't see the streaming.
I tried it also on smartphone connected throgh wifi but it works only if I set Original.
Is there any setting to change on the server?
I understood that it works only at original bitrate and It is the same proble I have if I try to view channels from web player.

#16

Your dvr is not powerful enough to transcode so only original will work.

#17

It is rasoberry PI 4 with 4GB ram.
May be I have to set sometinths on it?

OS linux raspbian
10.10 (kernel: 5.10.60-v7l+)
CPU 4 cores / ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
load averages: 0.31 0.37 0.36
RAM 3.51 GB 82.2% free

#18

ttm1 you are right!
I tried to install dvr server on my home pc with Windows 10 and trascoding works fine.
I can see channels from any device with different bitrate than Original.
So my question is: is there any setting or feature to install on raspberry in order to make working transcoding.
I think may be not a problem of computional power because I can't see video starting at low frame rate or freezing: simply it not starts and I see "Remux Running: 23s @ 1.24x (30.15fps)"
On server interface I see:
4 cores / ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
load averages: 0.78 0.47 0.36

And "top" command on raspberry says:
cpu load 25% mem 2,5% (for channels-dvr)

On the other hand I think freezing OTA fire stick is another problem.
Here are logs:

From HDHomerun
20210918-10:03:44 Tuner: tuner0 tuning 1 Rai 1 (t7dvbt:206MHz-3401)
20210918-10:03:45 Tuner: tuner0 streaming http to 192.168.1.20:35340
20210918-10:03:45 Tuner: tuner0 lockkey forced release by 192.168.1.20
20210918-10:36:23 Tuner: tuner0 http stream ended (stop request)

From DVRserver
2021/09/18 10:03:45.103019 [TNR] Opened connection to 1241A749/0 for ch1 Rai 1
2021/09/18 10:36:23.183978 [SNR] Statistics for ch1 Rai 1: ss=92%-94% snq=99%,0%-100% seq=99%,0%-100% bps=8246933,0-9127776 pps=706,0-782
2021/09/18 10:36:23.190009 [TNR] Closed connection to 1241A749/0 for ch1 Rai 1

Thanks for your support

#19

Any support?
is it possible to implement automatic resume of the play after signal loss like a normal TV?

#20

I had this problem for months and it was driving me bonkers. I have a HDHomerun and and OTA antenna, which would occasionally glitch my recordings in bad weather, etc. Every time, and I mean every time I'd play back these recordings on my Fire Stick, it would freeze when it hit these glitches. Meanwhile, the exact same recordings would play fine, with no freezes on my iPad, iPhone, my smart TV with AndroidTV built in, but would always freeze on my 4k Fire Stick. Thinking maybe I had a bad Fire Stick, I bought another one. Same problem. Then I thought, could it possibly be all Fire Sticks? On a whim I went to WalMart and bought their cheapest $20 ONN Android TV box. I replaced the Fire Stick with it, and guess what? Absolutely no freezes since. Even the exact same recordings that froze on the Fire Stick play with no problems on the ONN. I can tell where the glitches are. There's no pixelation, just a fraction of a second pause in the video, and no pause the audio, whenever it hits a bad spot in the recording, but it plays right through with no freezes. There's definitely something wrong with the Amazon Fire stick. It can't handle glitched recordings.