Amazon Fire TV question for our video experts.

[CobraBob]

So I've been using an Amazon Fire TV 4K stick for about 2 years. About two weeks ago I noticed that ESPN basketball games were sub-par quality. Very noticeable. I had to watch the last two UConn Women's NCAA championship games with some distain. The video was fuzzy and looked to be like 480 vs. the normal 720/1080. After a couple of hours sleuthing with Google, I was leaning towards the culprit being ESPN downgrading their stream due to high user demand. Researched a bit deeper researching the YouTube TV app, and then the actual Fire TV 4K stick. Well, I read a post where someone said that upgrading to the latest Fire TV 4K Max stick should fix the problem. So I went to Amazon, read up on the 4K Max stick and noticed there was a $20 discount so I figured, what the heck, I'll try it. At that point I had no specific reason to expect it would solve me problem.

It was delivered a couple of hours ago and I set it up right away. Moved my existing Amazon Fire TV profile to the new device and WALLA! Perfection! The ESPN channel video was perfect HD. Night and day difference!

OK, so now a question for those here who have a lot more video expertise than I do. Why did the new stick solve my video quality issues? Was it simply a case of my 2-year old stick failing? I can't think of any other reason. I don't know exactly what these sticks do, so that is a factor on me not knowing for sure why the new stick corrected my quality issues. I will say that months ago the quality (I think) was very good but I don't remember it being this good. Maybe it was, just hard for me to know for sure.

 

[cobracide]

firestick os version. update the old one and see if it makes a difference. if not, then they updated the hardware.

 

[quad]

Video playback can be blurry because it is throttled down due to bandwidth issues. Perhaps there was a glitch with your ISP modem causing subpar connection to that streaming site when you tried to watch the game? Sometimes I have to reboot our fiber modem if I start getting connection issues to some sites.

Maybe there was a new version of the ESPN app out for your old 4K? I would play around with it. It is billed as 4K so there is no reason why it should not at least be able to play 2k/1080P.

That said you can't go wrong with the Fire Stick 4K Max for the price. Best bang for the buck out there. I picked one up myself last year and even hooked it up inside my Cobra for a test of the head unit. Not that watching Netflix will be a good idea while driving lol! I just tested it in the garage.

I still have a Nvidia Shield that I bought in 2015 that's hooked up to the same TV as the 4K Max. I sometimes flip back and forth between the devices and use Plex, Kodi, HBO Max, Netflix etc. on both devices. The 4K Max is still outmuscled by the Nvidia Shield in my opinion but it is getting pretty close to the Nvidia Shield. I use Apple Airpods sometimes to watch movies and a few nights ago the 4K Max audio would start skipping on the headphones every now and then. So I switched over to the 2015 Nvidia Shield, connected the Airpods and played the very same video on Plex and no audio stuttering at all. Not sure what caused this issue with Bluetooth on the 4K Max since it never did that before. However it is such a compact device - there's gotta be some compromises compared to the Shield which has more room for hardware.

It's also not a far comparison because the Shield is using a 1 GB ethernet cable whereas the 4K Max is connected via WIFI - not sure if this was why the Airpods were skipping audio. There is an ethernet adaptor available for the Fire Stick. It becomes a mess of wires though. WIFI is fine for most situations but a hardwire cable is better and faster.

The 2015 Nvidia Shield is not without issues. Lately I've seen it freeze up occasionally which never happened in past years. It's a bit dusty even though it is behind glass doors. I should probably wipe down the cabinet and equipment at some point. I just reboot the device or sometimes let it sit and it will unfreeze on it's own eventually lol. Our 2019 Nvidia Shield in the bedroom has no issues at all and seems snappier than the 2015 Shield.

 

[03cobra#694]

I’m lost, lol.

 

[CompOrange04GT]

I’m lost, lol.

Pluggy inny no worky no more

Buy new improved pluggy inny. Tv worky again

 

[CobraBob]

Me, too! LOL.

@quad, there was no issue with my ISP. They weren't throttling my bandwidth. I proved that when switching to the new Fire TV 4K Max device resolved the issue.

To summarize my original post.
1. My video quality (on my OLED TV) became poor about two weeks ago.
2. I investigated reasons why it could have happened. On a long shot, I upgraded my Amazon Fire TV 4K to an Amazon Fire TV 4K Max.
3. Picture quality instantly went back to true HD. Problem solved.
4. Question. If the original Fire TV 4K device was failing, why/how does it adversely affect the video quality? Serious question.

 

[quad]

Me, too! LOL.

@quad, there was no issue with my ISP. They weren't throttling my bandwidth. I proved that when switching to the new Fire TV 4K Max device resolved the issue.

To summarize my original post.
1. My video quality (on my OLED TV) became poor about two weeks ago.
2. I investigated reasons why it could have happened. On a long shot, I upgraded my Amazon Fire TV 4K to an Amazon Fire TV 4K Max.
3. Picture quality instantly went back to true HD. Problem solved.
4. Question. If the original Fire TV 4K device was failing, why/how does it adversely affect the video quality? Serious question.

Interesting. Have you tried playing a video with the original 4K recently after you got the 4K Max? it could be that specific day there was a bandwidth issue but then by the time the 4K Max arrived at your home the issue was resolved?

I'd be curious to see your results if you playback the video stream within minutes of each other on the 4K and 4K Max. If the quality is still low you might want to compare network settings on the 4K vs 4K Max. Bad, low res video quality is usually a bandwidth issue.

And streaming services will lower the quality of the video if they detect a network connection that's insufficient to sustain a higher quality video feed. Their first priority is a smooth frame rate, quality be damned lol!

 

[quad]

@bob, more troubleshooting here:

How Do I Improve Fire Stick Streaming Quality?

To improve your Fire Stick streaming quality, you can change the quality or perform some maintenance to ensure your Fire Stick is working optimally.

www.lifewire.com

 

[robvas]

They device either works or it does not - there's no real wearing out. Very slight possibility it could overheat and throttle itself but other than that...

My guess would be a setting or software update on either your end or with the streaming site. Other people would be reporting it as well.

I have a Samsung TV with the built in apps and every once in a while I have to manually set Youtube to use 1080p. It's normally on auto but once in a while it won't change out of low res and looks like crap until I change it.

 

[SolarYellow]

Quite frankly speaking, the older fire sticks are junk. Those have a tendency of overheating thus causing a number of issues.

 

[BlueSnake01]

Could be something that was changed that is now interfering with the older Firestick antennas? Or maybe an update that crippled the video playback?

Does this happen with other streaming apps as well? I have both Max and 4k day one sticks. 4k still stream perfectly fine on Netflix/Disney, etc on the older stick

I stream sports thru DirectTV as its probably the only one to give you 60FPS AND 5.1 DD. Not only is the picture quality great but so is the sound.

 

[CobraBob]

My real reason for even asking the question was to try to get a better understanding of how the Fire TV stick works and how the technology handles the incoming video stream. Ie. can it directly affect the quality of the stream? If I knew the answers I'd have a better understanding why some sticks might work better with higher end OLED 4K TVs than others, etc. And what to look out for if they start to fail.

@BlueSnake01, what streaming service are you using for the regular channels? I might research DirecTV streaming and compare with the YouTube TV that I'm now using. YouTube TV's channel guide is pretty decent, but I miss my old DirecTV channel guide. It was so much better.

 

[BlueSnake01]

I use DirecTV Stream. Im grandfathered from the original days so have a ton more channels than what they offer now.

I tried YTTV, loved the UI and profile system but the quality wasnt as good nor did it offer 5.1 DD. Not too many sports channels were offered in 60 FPS either which IMO makes a world difference.

Far as the Firestick, shouldnt matter what TV is being used on, usually just upscales most of the programming anyway. Live streaming apps are usually streamed at 720/1080p but are upscaled by the Firestick to 4k if TV supports it.

 

[SHIFTYBUSINESS]

My real reason for even asking the question was to try to get a better understanding of how the Fire TV stick works and how the technology handles the incoming video stream. Ie. can it directly affect the quality of the stream? If I knew the answers I'd have a better understanding why some sticks might work better with higher end OLED 4K TVs than others, etc. And what to look out for if they start to fail.

@BlueSnake01, what streaming service are you using for the regular channels? I might research DirecTV streaming and compare with the YouTube TV that I'm now using. YouTube TV's channel guide is pretty decent, but I miss my old DirecTV channel guide. It was so much better.

If you have a smart tv why do you need a fire stick?

 

[jrandy]

If you have a smart tv why do you need a fire stick?

All of my TV's are smart, but I have a FireStick on each of them because smart TV UI's typically blow.

 

[SHIFTYBUSINESS]

All of my TV's are smart, but I have a FireStick on each of them because smart TV UI's typically blow.

So mainly for the interface selecting apps?
I just bought an LG C1 oled and was surprised by the stock interface.

 

[quad]

All of my TV's are smart, but I have a FireStick on each of them because smart TV UI's typically blow.

My father-in-law just bought a TV with built-in Android TV. The Firestick and Nividia Shield both run variants of Android TV. But I agree the UIs of proprietary systems by Samsung and LG etc. are not as good. My mom has a Smart Samsung and we watch Netflix, HBO Max and a few others on it. It's ok and gets the job done. But I don't think you could run Plex or Kodi on it. BTW I am done buying Samsung since I've been screwed by them a few times with their hardware. Switching to LG or something else moving forward.

 

[BlueSnake01]

My father-in-law just bought a TV with built-in Android TV. The Firestick and Nividia Shield both run variants of Android TV. But I agree the UIs of proprietary systems by Samsung and LG etc. are not as good. My mom has a Smart Samsung and we watch Netflix, HBO Max and a few others on it. It's ok and gets the job done. But I don't think you could run Plex or Kodi on it. BTW I am done buying Samsung since I've been screwed by them a few times with their hardware. Switching to LG or something else moving forward.

You can run Plex on Samsung Smart TV's but not Kodi.

I also have smart tv's that are used with firesticks. Firesticks just have a better faster UI and the new remotes make it simpler to get to apps. Running most of them on Wifi 6 as well with no streaming issues.

 

[CobraBob]

All of my TV's are smart, but I have a FireStick on each of them because smart TV UI's typically blow.

This! The LG interface sucks compared to the FireStick. And they not expensive. I got my FireTV 4K Max for only $37.21 after the $20.00 Amazon coupon discount.

 

[CobraBob]

So mainly for the interface selecting apps?
I just bought an LG C1 oled and was surprised by the stock interface.

Surprised in what way?