Amazon 4K Fire Stick NOW App Watching Sports Micro Stuttering

[schnapps]

Been meaning to ask this question for a while.

Does anybody else notice any micro stuttering on the Fire 4K Stick NOW App when watching sports with a Boost subscription.

Doesn't matter which of the Sky Sports channels i watch there is definitely micro judder when watching on my television.

When watching sports on any other services or Apps the Amazon Fire Stick seems to run smoothly from my testing (apart from NOW sports) though i need to change the Stick Display back to Automatic which doesn't look great on NOW sports.

I have forced the correct display settings in the Fire Stick at 50hz and tried both 4K & 1080p and still see the micro stuttering.

Can't use Automatic or 60hz in the Fire Stick Display settings because the stuttering is far worse and unwatchable for NOW Sports.

Using the same television in question on every single HDMI port my other NOW playback devices (ie NowTV 4K Smart box and BT Youview 4K box) plays NOW Sports silky smooth with no noticeable judder.

Don't know if i am overly sensitive to micro judder and see it more than others.

Just wondering if anybody else notices it or its just me ?

[gavs82008]

@schnapps 

Sorry I am unable to comment, no longer have an active Sports membership. 

What I have done with my Amazon Fire stick is hardwire it thanks to the Ethernet adapter. Is your stick working through Wi-fi or Ethernet?

Not that the latter should really make much difference!

[schnapps]

Hi @gavs82008 

Thanks for the reply.

I am using the Fire Stick over WiFi and the Router is only about 2m away from the Stick in the same room.

The Fire Stick has clear sight of the Router and i am getting 36Mbps down with nothing running in the background, where WiFI reception on the Stick is excellent.

i don't think it's a wifi problem because Boost on my NOW Cinema & Entertainment membership looks great.

When watching Amazon Prime Sports for example the picture looks fantastic and buttery smooth (well impressed).

I need to check out some football on BBC iPlayer with my Fire Stick set to 50hz to see if iPlayer on Sports looks judder free or not.

i was just curious if anybody else is noticing it with NOW Sports or it is just me on my end.

[schnapps]

Just done some testing on the BBC iPlayer App on the Amazon 4K Fire Stick watching a little bit of the games on Match of the Day and 10 minutes of Six Nations Rugby and playback looked smooth with no stuttering problems with the Fire Stick set to 50hz.

[gavs82008]

@schnapps 

That’s interesting to have pointed it out, if you were able to get a hold of the Ethernet adapter I’d still like to see if it helps the Now sports stream. 

Although like you’ve found it could very well be a unfortunate glitch with the Now stream. Which is a shame cause I rate the Amazon stick very highly. 

[schnapps]

Hi @gavs82008 

Probably it's just me where i am susceptible to it on NOW sports watching on the Amazon 4K Fire Stick.

it looks to me i am seeing a frame being dropped now and again on the NOW Sky Sports live stream on the Fire Stick.

Strange i don't encounter it on my other NOW devices when watching NOW Sports.

Apart from that i am really pleased with my Fire 4K Stick purchase (love the forced HDR feature which brings my SDR content come to life on the Stick).

The picture really pops in forced HDR mode but still looks pretty natural or not over saturated when watching SDR.

Only other thing i wished the Amazon Fire Stick and NOW App would integrate together is Auto Frame Match which would save me going into the Stick Display settings each time i swap between the Amazon Prime App and the NowTV App when watching NOW Sports.

[schnapps]

So i just done another test on my Amazon 4K Fire Stick and when watching Sky Sports Main Event live channel on the NOW App with Boost whilst viewing the Sky Sports News ticker banner scrolling across the television screen from right to left where the banner runs really smooth for a couple of seconds then suddenly i see a slight flash/ quick micro judder on the banner tape itself, then back to normal sliky smooth running.

Tried to time the interval gaps of the micro stuttering with a stopwatch, but the intervals seem random over a couple of seconds.

[AlexB83]

I do have a bit of a problem with stuttering on the fire 4k stick, some apps play great so set on 50hz I use the stick to play now tv BT sports and YouTube but I still use the LG TV built in apps for Netflix, Amazon Prime and apple TV and have ditched the fire remote and just control it all with the tv remote. If I have it all set to 60hz then now tv and BT sport stutter and 50fps all the others stutter 

[schnapps]

Hi @AlexB83

I don't subscribe to a BT Sports pass, but using 50hz on the Fire Stick settings would make sense for a smoother playback experience.

You mentioned NOW in your reply would that be watching NOW sports with a NOW sports membership?

I do have a Netflix Sub, but haven't been watching anything on Netflix since I purchased the Fire 4K Stick where the bulk of my streaming has been NOW sports and Disney +,

Disney + plays great when setting the Fire Stick to Auto.

Also my Roku Stick + was working great with its Adaptive Frame Rate setting on when watching most content on it until Netflix or Roku screwed it up when viewing Netflix. 

[AlexB83]

@schnapps yes I use Now for for sports with the boost and it's absolutely smooth no stutter at all.

I use a mix of tv and fire stick apps so I'm not messing about with settings every 5 minutes and works perfectly well like that