Fire TV stick problems

[Gren]

Really crappy connection on my Fire TV stick...

I've got a Virgin Hub 3, okay not the best WiFi router but it seems to work well enough with the TiVo box right next to the Fire stick. iPlayer etc not a problem.

The Fire stick though has never been great. Picture quality is sometimes great but often goes blurry, not even SD quality. Last night it even gave up on us altogether while watching Good Omens, claiming bandwidth problems. Connection was down as 'good' in the settings screen. Switched straight over to iPlayer and all was perfect.

Not sure how much is my end though. The Grand Tour was never great on a Friday night (just like Good Omens last night) and wondered whether it could be an Amazon server thing or even Virgin?

[AJB88]

My Firestick is a couple of years old now but it stutters like hell, even loading the main screen takes a while. Compared to my Fire TV HD Box its quite poor.

its also sat next to a Google Wifi box but struggles for connection.

[The_Jackal]

Fire TV sticks are built to such a low level of processing power, they really do struggle with any slightly demanding streams.
I would never recommend them to anyone anymore.
I would say do everything from your phone and send it to a Chromecast. Those things are much faster and they just work.
Also, anyone in the family or visitors can easily show stuff on the TV.

[AlexC1981]

I bought my OAP mum a Fire TV stick last year, it seems to work well enough, but the interface is such a confusing mess she couldn't get the hang of it and has given up with it, preferring to use her laptop instead.

[Murph7355]

If you have a laptop available, connect that via WiFi and see if you can stream from that OK.

I have 3x firestick TV 4ks in use and they work fine. I only have 1 connected wirelessly though.

[dave_s13]

Google "firestick ethernet adapter".

Assuming you have a compatible stick and somewhere to plug it in then it'll make it work much smoother.

Edited by dave_s13 on Saturday 8th June 21:10

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

My Fire Stick drives me mad too. It's not the greatest or most seamless piece of technology I've ever encountered. They has been a few occasions where it's been lucky not to have been thrown out of the upstairs window.

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

In fact I'm sitting here now, watching UKTV Play buffering yet again on the Fire Stick and in a minute it'll give up and say there has been a problem with the playback.

[bristolracer]

Make sure you are using the proper power supplies for your firestick

People often use the usb on the back of the tv and it often doesn’t output sufficient power ( amps not volts). Low power will affect performance.

[deckster]

Conversely I've never had any problems with mine that weren't directly related to the quality of the wireless network. Give it a decent connection and it's just fine (for HD - I wouldn't try to stream 4k over a wireless connection regardless of what hardware I was using).

[bighop]

dave_s13 said:

Google "firestick ethernet adapter".

Assuming you have a compatible stick and somewhere to plug it in then it'll make it work much smoother.

Edited by dave_s13 on Saturday 8th June 21:10

You might as well just buy a Fire TV box if you're going to hard wire it. The adapters are limited speed wise.

[dave_s13]

bighop said:

dave_s13 said:

Google "firestick ethernet adapter".

Assuming you have a compatible stick and somewhere to plug it in then it'll make it work much smoother.

Edited by dave_s13 on Saturday 8th June 21:10

You might as well just buy a Fire TV box if you're going to hard wire it. The adapters are limited speed wise.

They're dead cheap and work great though.

[bazza white]

My last one one was getting stuttery and generally being crap. Bought a thr new 4k stick and its much improved.

[Gren]

Thanks for all the replies.

Hardwiring isn't an option and as much as the TiVo right next to it works well, I do think it's the wireless signal. Option 1 (the cheap option) is a hdmi extension cable so that I can place the stick out from behind the TV - should be arriving today. If that doesn't work then option 2 looks to be a newer 4k stick which claims to have a better aerial and at least will futureproof the setup for when I get a new telly.

Option 3 might just be the excuse I need to get a new mesh setup to tinker with...

[AJB88]

bazza white said:

My last one one was getting stuttery and generally being crap. Bought a thr new 4k stick and its much improved.

Might do that myself, mine upstairs struggles with just opening the menu, and there's hardly anything installed on it.

[Gren]

Quick update....

Fitted it with the longer hdmi cable last night. Just under a metre long.

At first I placed the stick just underneath the screen to the side, next to the soundbar. Nothing changed. Blurry screen after a couple of minutes and buffering within 5.

I then placed the stick on top of the TV using the power/hdmi cables to hang it over the top corner. Within a 30 seconds or so the picture cleared and I watched 2 hours of Good Omens in perfect HD.

Not a conclusive test but this looks promising and for a £5 cable I'm currently very happy.

[dave_s13]

Cool.

My 1st gen stick works perfectly fine in my bedroom. Sited very close to a wireless access point.

Just for some balance.

[Paul Drawmer]

Sometimes a Firestick can struggle when powered from a TV USB. Try a separate power supply.

Never tried wifi though, always ethernet for me.

[AJB88]

Mine runs from a USB charger, last night watching Netflix and the sound started stuttering, the picture was fine. Dropped it down from 1080 to 720 as per a few posts online to see if that helps.

[gman88667733]

Our 1st gen fire stick is our sole way of watching anything on our TV. I find that it is usually fine after about 5 minutes from first booting up. Our internet speed isn't exactly the best, but we get the odd stutter or buffer maybe once a week and it is used heavily. I keep wanting to swap to the latest one, but it seems pointless if the 1st gen is still ticking along!