Streaming issues

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Originally Posted by RayCJ
If he's viewing with a personal computer based setup, he needs to make sure the computer is not being bogged-down (for any reason) with a high CPU utilization. I don't recall if firestick or AppleTV uses an HDMI or DisplayPort interface bur nonetheless, both of those interfaces have separate paths for audio, video and synch signals. It's up to the computer (either a PC or Internet TV) to obtain, synchronize and output those signals. If the computer is not up to the task (for any one of a million reasons) you will have synchronization problems.

BTW: A "Internet TV" is nothing more than a dedicated PC with a scaled-down motherboard, a graphics card just adequate to do the job and a big monitor. The OS is usually Linux based and some of them are straight-up Android variants(i.e. Google TV sets). If users do not have them configured properly (DNS settings, DHCP, Network Interface, MTU settings, Firewall settings etc) the CPU can be going haywire for no apparent reason. In PC streaming environments, it's the CPUs job to synch the audio and video for a streaming signal. If the CPU is bogged-down because of a misconfiguration, you are almost guaranteed to have synch issues.
And again, OP is not using a PC nor Internet TV.
 
If the video is not buffering/stalling and the issue is that the audio is out-of-sync with the video, I reiterate, the problem is NOT an Internet speed or router issue. If Dolby Digital is able to be disabled in the playback hardware, I would try that first. Quattro Pete was steering you right, this is a known problem with some hardware. Most Dolby Digital receiver/amplifier/decoders have audio sync adjustments for this very reason.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by RayCJ
If he's viewing with a personal computer based setup, he needs to make sure the computer is not being bogged-down (for any reason) with a high CPU utilization. I don't recall if firestick or AppleTV uses an HDMI or DisplayPort interface bur nonetheless, both of those interfaces have separate paths for audio, video and synch signals. It's up to the computer (either a PC or Internet TV) to obtain, synchronize and output those signals. If the computer is not up to the task (for any one of a million reasons) you will have synchronization problems.

BTW: A "Internet TV" is nothing more than a dedicated PC with a scaled-down motherboard, a graphics card just adequate to do the job and a big monitor. The OS is usually Linux based and some of them are straight-up Android variants(i.e. Google TV sets). If users do not have them configured properly (DNS settings, DHCP, Network Interface, MTU settings, Firewall settings etc) the CPU can be going haywire for no apparent reason. In PC streaming environments, it's the CPUs job to synch the audio and video for a streaming signal. If the CPU is bogged-down because of a misconfiguration, you are almost guaranteed to have synch issues.
And again, OP is not using a PC nor Internet TV.




Wrong. The OP has not stated precisely what the viewing devices are.
 
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Wrong. The OP has not stated precisely what the viewing devices are.
But he stated that his streaming devices are Amazon Firestick and Apple TV. You do not plug such devices into a PC. You plug them into a TV (or a home theater receiver with HDMI inputs).
 
Originally Posted by wag123
If the video is not buffering/stalling and the issue is that the audio is out-of-sync with the video, I reiterate, the problem is NOT an Internet speed or router issue. If Dolby Digital is able to be disabled in the playback hardware, I would try that first. Quattro Pete was steering you right, this is a known problem with some hardware. Most Dolby Digital receiver/amplifier/decoders have audio sync adjustments for this very reason.


OK, So why did a new router fix this very same issue for me?
 
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Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Wrong. The OP has not stated precisely what the viewing devices are.
But he stated that his streaming devices are Amazon Firestick and Apple TV. You do not plug such devices into a PC. You plug them into a TV (or a home theater receiver with HDMI inputs).




I have an older TV that has HDMI and a newer "Internet TV" that has HDMI input. The Internet TV has all the same network interface settings that a PC does. The DHCP lease time once got set to a ridiculously low value and gave all kinds of weird problems. I also have a PC-based wall screen projector which is basically the "home theater receiver" you mentioned. It appears to be Linux based has has all the same network inferface settings as any other Linux box.
 
Originally Posted by RayCJ
I have an older TV that has HDMI and a newer "Internet TV" that has HDMI input. The Internet TV has all the same network interface settings that a PC does. The DHCP lease time once got set to a ridiculously low value and gave all kinds of weird problems.

Even if the OP did have an "Internet TV," if he is plugging his streaming device directly into the TV's HDMI port, then he is not using any of the TV's network features/settings. The TV is just being used as a display monitor, not as a network device, in this scenario.
 
Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
OK, So why did a new router fix this very same issue for me?
Was yours a lip-syncing issue (audio lagging behind video)?
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by RayCJ
I have an older TV that has HDMI and a newer "Internet TV" that has HDMI input. The Internet TV has all the same network interface settings that a PC does. The DHCP lease time once got set to a ridiculously low value and gave all kinds of weird problems.

Even if the OP did have an "Internet TV," if he is plugging his streaming device directly into the TV's HDMI port, then he is not using any of the TV's network features/settings. The TV is just being used as a display monitor, not as a network device, in this scenario.



When you plug the HDMI into the Internet TV, a CPU-based software component has to extract the audio, video and synch signals from the HDMI interface. This is done with software interrupts generated by the HDMI hardware. It then sends the synchronized data to some other CPU-based software component that interacts with the OS to display the output via the video card. If the Internet TV's CPU is messed-up for any one of a number of unrelated reasons, it will prevent those software process from doing their job. In my example case, the Amazon Firestick was configured properly. It was receiving the wireless signal just fine and was presenting the HDMI to the TV's HDMI interface just fine. The TV's own network interface configuration got messed-up somehow and DHCP was releasing the IP address every couple seconds. This caused the Internet TV's CPU to go wild and therefore, it could not process the firestick's signal.

In the case of an older Non Internet-Based TV, the HDMI signal is processed by fixed hardware (most likely a 3rd party ASIC device) and it's less likely to have such problems because the "CPU" in such devices is not involved in processing the HDMI signal.
 
Rat, what are you using for the sound output? The TV's speakers, a sound bar, or an external amp/receiver and speakers?
 
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by RayCJ
I have an older TV that has HDMI and a newer "Internet TV" that has HDMI input. The Internet TV has all the same network interface settings that a PC does. The DHCP lease time once got set to a ridiculously low value and gave all kinds of weird problems.

Even if the OP did have an "Internet TV," if he is plugging his streaming device directly into the TV's HDMI port, then he is not using any of the TV's network features/settings. The TV is just being used as a display monitor, not as a network device, in this scenario.



When you plug the HDMI into the Internet TV, a CPU-based software component has to extract the audio, video and synch signals from the HDMI interface. This is done with software interrupts generated by the HDMI hardware. It then sends the synchronized data to some other CPU-based software component that interacts with the OS to display the output via the video card. If the Internet TV's CPU is messed-up for any one of a number of unrelated reasons, it will prevent those software process from doing their job. In my example case, the Amazon Firestick was configured properly. It was receiving the wireless signal just fine and was presenting the HDMI to the TV's HDMI interface just fine. The TV's own network interface configuration got messed-up somehow and DHCP was releasing the IP address every couple seconds. This caused the Internet TV's CPU to go wild and therefore, it could not process the firestick's signal.

In the case of an older Non Internet-Based TV, the HDMI signal is processed by fixed hardware (most likely a 3rd party ASIC device) and it's less likely to have such problems because the "CPU" in such devices is not involved in processing the HDMI signal.




And FWIW, the OP might have a mis-configuration in any of many places in his home network that is causing the "WiFi Router" to go bonkers. When people are just browsing or sending emails etc, you tend not to notice that the gateway router is not running optimally. When you pass real-time video traffic through that mis-configured router, you suddenly notice how bad things are because, voice and video are not tolerant to bad network conditions. You see it immediately in the form of delays, freezes and synch problems.

Many people just "buy a bigger/better router". Truth is, some device on the network might still misconfigured but, that new bigger/better router can muscle it's way through the problem and still keep-up with passing data quickly. Most problems are caused by things of this nature.
 
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Many people just "buy a bigger/better router". Truth is, some device on the network might still misconfigured but, that new bigger/better router can muscle it's way through the problem and still keep-up with passing data quickly. Most problems are caused by things of this nature.
If OP's router wasn't "passing data quickly" enough, he would be experiencing pauses and stuttering of both video and audio. From what he described, that is not what is happening.
 
Originally Posted by wag123
Ray, what are you using for the sound output? The TV's speakers, a sound bar, or an external amp/receiver and speakers?


On the Internet TV, we're just using the speakers built into it.

On the projector, it has an audio-out that I feed into a stereo amp and separate speakers.

BTW: I'm not having any issues with my setup. Everything is running fine.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Many people just "buy a bigger/better router". Truth is, some device on the network might still misconfigured but, that new bigger/better router can muscle it's way through the problem and still keep-up with passing data quickly. Most problems are caused by things of this nature.
If OP's router wasn't "passing data quickly" enough, he would be experiencing pauses and stuttering of both video and audio. From what he described, that is not what is happening.



Please quit already. That's obnoxious.
 
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Please quit already. That's obnoxious.
You keep bringing up things like PC and Internet TV, which are completely irrelevant to the OP's issue, and you call me obnoxious? LOL!
 
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Originally Posted by wag123
Ray, what are you using for the sound output? The TV's speakers, a sound bar, or an external amp/receiver and speakers?


On the Internet TV, we're just using the speakers built into it.

On the projector, it has an audio-out that I feed into a stereo amp and separate speakers.

BTW: I'm not having any issues with my setup. Everything is running fine.



Sorry Ray, I meant Rat.
blush.gif
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Many people just "buy a bigger/better router". Truth is, some device on the network might still misconfigured but, that new bigger/better router can muscle it's way through the problem and still keep-up with passing data quickly. Most problems are caused by things of this nature.
If OP's router wasn't "passing data quickly" enough, he would be experiencing pauses and stuttering of both video and audio. From what he described, that is not what is happening.
Yep.
I have been down the buffering road and also down the audio/video sync road. They are two different problems caused by two different things. The reason that I asked Rat about what he is using for his sound output is because I had an audio/video sync problem with a sound bar.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
OK, So why did a new router fix this very same issue for me?
Was yours a lip-syncing issue (audio lagging behind video)?




Yep. Both Youtube and Netflix. It wouldn't happen all the time but it occurred enough for us to try a new router.
 
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Sp there's two different streaming services and the issue appears on multiple TV so it really could just be your router struggling to keep up with HD content. We used to have an older Netgear router at home that couldn't keep up with HD streaming if there was any other device actively using the same band - ended up with the same issue as you. Got a new router and everything was hunky-dory.

Also, by any chance does your TV have multiple HDMI ports on the back? Specifically any ones that are labeled "60hz" and "30hz"?
 
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