Firestick general discussion thread

The iPlayer is an absolute pita to use sometimes for no apparent reason as is the channel 4 player

I get that and other errors regularly on iPlayer, as Nowso says try a different location. Note I also get the same behaviour on an Nvida Shield on the main TV.

The dance I find helps is to launch iPlayer, then launch the VPN, and go back to iPlayer. If I do it the other way (VPN first) invariably I get the error and have to come out and change location. It'll sometime happen again after watching an episode, in which case change the location.

I'm using NordVPN - not sure if there's any difference with others.

Cant recall who posted it, but STV has been suggested as a good alternative to iPlayer as it shares a lot of content, but is more VPN friendly.

Is your friend saying you would be better off running the IPTV app on the TV itself?

In that case, I would say that is incorrect. A firestrick has more processing power than most smart TVs and is specifcally designed for streaming content

When you say you are using mobile data - are you using a router with a sim card or hot-spotting via your phone?

If its your phone, how often do you do this eg every day or evening?

Does your TV have an eithernet port and is this what you're friend means.

At 5/6mbs per second your connection is not particularly fast. While WiFi is useful there will be some loss of speed. At higher rates it is not so noticeable but at those speeds it might be better to use a wired connection to maximise what you have.

Any reason why a firestick would be struggling with 300+mbs download. Going back on the stream then jumping forward? Download speed verified on firestick itself

It's a shared network between a few individuals but nobody on it right now as i type so absolutely no interference or anything like that

Hard to say without specific info:

What exact model FTV stick are you using?

Also is the wifi connection direct to the router or via an access point/extender or a mesh system?

Have you sideloaded apps?

For a start I would reboot Firestick and router:

Some possible causes on device:

• Low storage - unload apps or other files
• Low memory - clear cache and force stop all streaming apps
• Outdated firmware
• Overheating - a hot firestick may not function correctly.
• Has a VPN been left on
• Mismatch between display settings and TV specs - Turn off "Match original frame rate"

Some possible causes on router:

• Device Priority settings
• Channel overlap
• QoS Settings

yeah so low and behold (unsurprising) I got that package and have given it a try out with the firestick here.

its evident during peak times that wifi could be a problem (like now) as there is a lot of buffering even though the download speed is very high.

And it's doing pretty much what it was doing with mobile data so back to square one

I only use the iptv so that's the main problem. I dont use netflix. I tested a prime video here and its free flowing

Would it be a provider issue? Try putting this url http://bit.ly/3Qj2eLD on to a playlist and see how it works. I have a crap wireless broadband with speeds barely above 10 MB and i'm watching the US open all weekend with no issues using the SSIPTV app which is free but I don't think it's on the stick. You can use a 7 day trial of one that is to check though.