Trouble with YouTube on Panasonic WiFi TV

[john_pifer]

I have a Panasonic TC-P50ST50 that I bought new in 2012. I've loved the TV - it has the best picture quality I've ever experienced in a TV.

I watch lots of YouTube since it has built-in WiFi and the YouTube app. I can look up a video on YouTube on my iPhone and then it plays on the TV. Very convenient.

But, lately, I'd say, in the last 3 weeks or so, all of the sudden I can't get through a YouTube video without the video stopping and the "LOADING..." icon coming up. Sometimes it takes several minutes for the video to resume playing, only to stop again a few seconds later.

Extremely frustrating, to say the least.

YouTube plays just fine on my laptop and iPhone.

I have a Linksys WRT54GS router (several years old) and a Motorola Arris modem (fairly new).

Tested through the Ookla Speedtest app on my iPhone, download speeds are running around 9-13 mbps and upload speeds have ranged between 1-10 mbps over the last few weeks (Comcast). Occasionally, when testing in the wee hours of the morning, the download speeds have dipped as low as .98. However, the download speeds don't seem to be directly correlated with the loading problem, as I've had the problem with the videos stopping even when download speeds are testing in the upper end of that range.

I'm wondering if this could be a hardware problem.

I've had this issue occasionally over the 4.5 years I've had the TV, but only very sporadically. Now I can hardly make it through a video, and this has been going on for weeks.

Ideas?

Any way to isolate the cause of the problem?

 

[Kuato]

Has it been raining a lot lately? If so, your connection quality has probably dropped due to moisture along the line somewhere. (I used to be a phone tech as well as cable tech in another life)

 

[WhizkidTN]

1) See if the TV has an "Update Software/Firmware" menu option and make sure it has the latest version. Update it if is is not the latest.
2) After that is complete, power off the TV, the router and cable mode for 3 min.
3) Power everything back up and wait at least 5 min.

Try it again and see if anything improves.

BTW: I'd also check to see that you have the latest firmware on the router and modem as well with their respective manufacturers.

 

[Quattro Pete]

WRT54GS is pretty ancient stuff by today's standards. It's probably more than 10 years old.

There could be multiple reasons for your issues... the router could be failing, or your neighbor's network signal might be interfering with yours. If it is the latter, try switching your router to a different wifi channel and see if there is any difference. There are free tools for PC (as well as for smartphones) available to help you scan your network environment and help you find least occupied space. Xirrus WiFi Inspector is one such tool. There are others.

Does that TV have a physical network/ethernet port? If so, you could try connecting it to your router that way, just to eliminate the wifi component for the time being.

Does your TV support the 5GHz wifi standard? If so, you might want to buy a router that supports it as well. The 5GHz spectrum is typically less crowded than the 2.4 GHz one, but it also carries over a shorter distance, so you need to take that into account.

Also 10 Mpbs down and 1 Mbps up speeds may or may not be an issue. It may be sufficient for a single HD stream, but if your other devices happen to be using the bandwidth at the same time, it may cause your HD video stream to stall. I've also seen Apple devices periodically upload huge amounts of data into the cloud, to the point where they saturate the upload link, and that can negatively impact your downloads/streaming as well. I ended up having to set an upload limit for these devices so that they wouldn't chew up the entire uplink and cause such issues.

 

[JustinH]

I have trouble on the low 2.4ghz band devices doing HD streaming also.

It works fine on the 5ghz band.
I'd bet your TV only supports the low band.

A couple things you can do, is scan the channels using an android app to see what channels are not used on the 2.4ghz band, and pick that one for your router.

Optimally, you want a dual band router, two SSID's one for high band one for low. You want your video streaming devices to use the high band.

My roku premiere that can do the 5ghz band is miles better than the old roku 1 that does 2.4ghz.

Finally, I have never had luck with any smart tv's or apps built into bluray players. They never seem to work as well as say a Roku or a AppleTV.

If the unit is streaming fine off your phone, why not buy a 30 dollar chrome cast, and cast the picture to the TV.

 

[raytseng]

agree with checking for update. If there is a "software reset to default" on your tv you may want to use that too (up to you if there are customizations you want to redo).

 

[Brybo86]

Did your wife just buy a video baby monitor?
Mine did.
Started causing huge Wi-Fi connection issues between our routers WRT54G-TM/E3000 and our TV which is also a Panasonic TC-P65ST30

I agree that it has the best picture and actual dark blacks of any TV I have seen.

 

[DrRoughneck]

Originally Posted By: Brybo86
Did your wife just buy a video baby monitor?
Mine did.
Started causing huge Wi-Fi connection issues between our routers WRT55G-TM/E3000 and our TV which is also a penny TC-P65ST30

I agree that it has the best picture and actual dark blacks of any TV I have seen.

Makes sens. The WRT54G does B/G on 2.4Ghz band same as baby monitors, garage door openers and microwave ovens. Maybe you can invest in a new access point supporting 802.11N on the 5Ghz band.

 

[Brybo86]

I have a Linksys E3000 flashed with DDWrt which makes 2 SSID's , one G and one N
but the monitor must want to run on the 2.4?

 

[dishdude]

My Vizio did the same thing a few weeks ago, an update came down that fixed it.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: john_pifer
Any way to isolate the cause of the problem?

Yep...use a physical ethernet cable instead of WiFi and test again. If all's well, you know it's a wireless issue.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

We need Like buttons on these forums.
Quit making so much sense sleddriver.

 

[john_pifer]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Originally Posted By: john_pifer
Any way to isolate the cause of the problem?

Yep...use a physical ethernet cable instead of WiFi and test again. If all's well, you know it's a wireless issue.


I'm trying to figure how to do that since the router is in another room.

I wonder if Internet and TV signals both come through the coaxial jacks. Or, is internet signal only through the one jack that my modem is hooked up to now?

There is a coaxial jack by the TV that the cable box is currently hooked up to. If the Internet signal is coming out of that as well, I could put the modem and router next to the TV and hook it up that way.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Using coax for ethernet might be tricky, but probably doable.

However, they sell adapters that allow you to send ethernet over your existing powerlines/outlets. Not sure how well they work, but here is one:
http://a.co/7fRSeRA

 

[john_pifer]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Using coax for ethernet might be tricky, but probably doable.

However, they sell adapters that allow you to send ethernet over your existing powerlines/outlets. Not sure how well they work, but here is one:
http://a.co/7fRSeRA


What I am saying is, the coaxial jack that I have my modem connected to, in the hall, looks identical to the coaxial jack that the cable box in the living room is hooked up to. So, my question is, do both jacks transmit both the internet signal as well as the cable TV signal?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: john_pifer
So, my question is, do both jacks transmit both the internet signal as well as the cable TV signal?

Unlikely. Somewhere in your home you probably have a splitter that separates the two signals.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: john_pifer
So, my question is, do both jacks transmit both the internet signal as well as the cable TV signal?


Typically yes. Any splitters just split the incoming signal into two (or more) streams of the same data. So typically the same jack that is supplying your TV with cable channels is also supplying it with internet channels - but the TV just ignores that portion of the spectrum being provided to it.

The cable modem does the opposite by ignoring the TV channels and interacting with the frequencies allocated to Internet usage. Here is a typical bandwidth allocation illustration:

So you can probably put the modem by the TV and run an ethernet cable to the TV. I have a remote structured media cabinet but I have all the high bandwidth appliances (such as a smart TV) on a wired connection. That helps to minimize congestion on my wireless network.

If you do put the modem by the TV you'll have to use a splitter to provide each with a signal, unless there is some sort of "TV Out" connection on the modem.

 

[john_pifer]

Originally Posted By: kschachn
Originally Posted By: john_pifer
So, my question is, do both jacks transmit both the internet signal as well as the cable TV signal?


Typically yes. Any splitters just split the incoming signal into two (or more) streams of the same data. So typically the same jack that is supplying your TV with cable channels is also supplying it with internet channels - but the TV just ignores that portion of the spectrum being provided to it.

The cable modem does the opposite by ignoring the TV channels and interacting with the frequencies allocated to Internet usage. Here is a typical bandwidth allocation illustration:

So you can probably put the modem by the TV and run an ethernet cable to the TV. I have a remote structured media cabinet but I have all the high bandwidth appliances (such as a smart TV) on a wired connection. That helps to minimize congestion on my wireless network.

If you do put the modem by the TV you'll have to use a splitter to provide each with a signal, unless there is some sort of "TV Out" connection on the modem.


See, this is why I'm on this board!

You guys are geniuses! Thanks!

I'll play around with it and let y'all know what happens.