I’ve addressed this in a few threads previously but not getting much traction…
When trying to watch Live TV on my Fire TV Stick HD channels load fine but only plays for a few seconds, freeze for a moment, and then resumes. This cycle continues infinitely on all HD channels. Pre-recorded content already on my PMS transcodes and/or direct plays fine and so does most SD live TV channels.
I’m using a HDHomeRun with Cable Card, am able to tune and record the same channels with no problem, and for the short moments when Live TV is playing, the picture quality is clear and without issue.
Live TV in HD works perfectly on all my iOS devices.
PS:
Does anyone the story on deinterlacing video with Fire Stick? I’ve seen people says that the Fire TV Box can deinterlace on the fly. Is this true? Do you know if this feature is coming to the Stick and/or the new 4K “box” coming out later this month?
I’m having the same issue. antenna, tuner card and local programs play ota tv nicely on my computer.
I have tried to play live tv on the plex app running on fire stick using the same computer as the plex server. Audio and video sound and look great, but playback hangs every 10-15 seconds for 3-4 seconds.
plex media server 1.9.4.4325 running on windows 10
hauppauge wintv quad hd tuner card
2nd gen firestick
5 ghz wifi network running off a recent comcast router
logging.txt is the text from the fire stick plex app. the zip is the server logs. the live tv session in which I replicated the issue happened 10/13 22:25 through 22:26.
I’m also seeing freezes on Fire TV Box (non-stick). Both HD & SD channels. Very frustrating to be on a 5 min delay to have plex freeze and lose those 5 mins.
PMS version 1.9.6 on win7
Plex app for Fire version 6.7.1.xxxx can’t remember the last digits off hand.
If your FireTV is wireless at least ensure it is on the 5Gh network not the overcrowded, interference havin 2.4Gh network.
Hard wired always the best, but I have one that keep on WiFi to test with.
@SiscoPlex said:
PMS version 1.9.6 on win7
Plex app for Fire version 6.7.1.xxxx can’t remember the last digits off hand.
If your FireTV is wireless at least ensure it is on the 5Gh network not the overcrowded, interference havin 2.4Gh network.
Hard wired always the best, but I have one that keep on WiFi to test with.
I will reconfirm these versions when I get home from work this evening.
@SiscoPlex thanks, I did that earlier today (1.9.6.4401 and 6.7.1.2498). I still get the freezing on NBC and others. But strangely didn’t on ESPN tonight. All others i tried froze.
I am not familiar with gathering logs … can you point to something to show me how to do that and include all the information you need to diagnose?
I would roll back to PMS version 1.9.5 as this seems to be the most stable version for the fire devices.
1.9.6 has issues for some users.
1.9.4 the quality can only be set at 720p medium to not experience stuttering.
@SiscoPlex I’ve had the problem since day 1 when Live TV for Amazon Fire TV was rolled out and it’s happened with all versions of PMS, 1.9.4 included. This seems like a Amazon Player/Android OS issue and not a Plex Server issue. Especial since I have no problem with Live TV on my iOS devices and Web Browser.
How have you been setting live TV to 720p? They only way I’ve found to limit it is to would impact all my other pre-recorded content and I’m not jazzed bout having to keep switching back and forth.
With PMS 1.9.4 go to the fire app select quality and then select 720p medium in the local setting and remote setting… yes this would affect all streams to that device.
So… I would instead install PMS 1.9.5 which allows me to select maximum under those settings which then streams all files perfectly.
PMS 1.9.6 seems to have borked it again for many users so I wouldn’t recommend this version.
A little background on me setup:
Win7 pro server currently running PMS 1.9.5 connected to a gigabit switch with a static IP set in windows.
Asus Darknight n66u router with a manual port forward connecting to the same gigabit switch.
Two Silicondust HDHomerun primes also connected to the same gigabit switch.
All other streaming devices(FireTV’s,Roku,Nvidia Shield) that are ethernet capable also attached to the same gigabit switch.
All patch cables are cat6e even though they are probably not needed.
All streaming devices not capable are connected to at least the 5GHz WiFi.
All other devices(printers/copiers/VOIP Phone/Son’s XBOX One/Cameras/PC’s) wired to an entirely separate gigabit switch from a different port on the router.
Within the Plex app for all of my devices the settings are as follows:
Quality is set to maximum for Local and remote
Allow fallback to insecure connections is “On same network”
Audio pass-through is “Auto”
Auto rate switching is off except for the Nvidia shield.
Expand SD video… yes.
When playing a video then open the OSD and tick “Display information overlay” this helps determine if the client is transcoding.
Let me know if there are any other settings you may be inquiring about and when you attempt live tv is it being transcoded.
What was odd about my issue on 1.9.6 is ESPN would play fine … but others like NBC would freeze. Both reported “HD” “Stereo” in the UI. Makes me wonder if certain channels are providing different streams that is breaking something?
