I’m using the Android app to stream shows, or at least attempt to. And commercials are absurdly slow and stops and buffers for minutes sometimes, then plays a few seconds and goes back to buffering. If I put up with it long enough and the streaming content plays, it does so just fine with no hint of a problem playing.
I actually tried the app 4 or 5 years ago and experienced the same thing and just gave up on it until I decided to try it again.
I can’t imagine I’m the only one that experiences this and had the same exact things happen 5 years apart and, honestly, a bit amazed it still appears to be a problem after all this time and have been using the most current app from the play store each time I’ve tried to use it.
Any suggestions? Could there somehow be a setting that I’m overlooking?
I’d like to try it out and maybe eventually use the media player and store content on my local network. But not if I can’t get past the commercials and having to wait 15 or 20 min to watch 2 min worth of commercials.
Is there a better place to ask than in the forums?
Thanks for the replies and sorry for the delay answering.
I’ve only tried the app that’s for Android phones and tablets. I will have to try it on other devices to see if that makes a difference but I’ve been using the most recent app on a Samsung tablet with Android 14.
So far every time I’ve tried watching it the commercials sit and buffer for extended periods. Sometimes after 5 or 6 minutes it will get thru them while other times it doesn’t seem like it will ever make it thru them. Yet the actual video that I’m trying to watch plays fine.
Do you know if the commercials stream at a much higher resolution than the video content? I just find it strange that I encountered the same exact issue a few years ago which would have been a much older/earlier version of the app. I will also email the app log soon.
I got rid of cable a couple years ago and my family streams everything that we watch so we use/watch probably a dozen or more apps between everyone in the house and don’t have streaming/buffering problems with the other apps. I also have the various devices and apps set to a lower video resolution if they have a setting for it in an attempt to lower the monthly data and bill.
Anyways, I’ll send the log and see if that might provide some insight.
It is certainly not an issue with all ads, nor on all client types. It is only certain ads or certain ad cutomers. These need to be identified.
So in order to investigate this further, the team needs the client log files. Or at least date and time of the ad choking up.
I can try to make a list of the commercials but honestly at this point it seems like they all do it to varying degrees. From really annoying to unwatchable, and so far I usually give up and close the app before I get thru whatever I’m trying to watch. But I’ll keep trying and see if I can come up with some type of list, but honestly I don’t think I’ve seen one commercial that plays thru without buffering. I’ll also try sending the log file and hopefully that’s more helpful.
I watch other free services that rely on commercials and they don’t seem to have a problem so maybe they adjust the resolution to match the video and/or the download rate? Or they allow a larger buffer?
I don’t know how it all works and I guess speculating about things I don’t know about isn’t helpful. But it seems like either the commercials are either at a much higher resolution and require a very large amount of data to download or are encountering a separate bottleneck or server where the speeds slow to a crawl?
I’m going to try watching on more devices as well as other platforms like Roku, Fire stick, etc. I also downloaded an app that shows download speeds in the notification bar so I can see what happens. During video play and commercials the speed stays right around 370 KB/s (I thought it would be higher) and the video plays fine and builds up a decent buffer according to the bar that shows the video “position”. Yet the commercials don’t play more than they do and sit frozen while it keeps buffering only to play a couple seconds and freeze again. I’m really surprised more people haven’t brought this up!?
