Help with my buggy TV/Streaming Services

[DaveC426913]

TL;DR

My sound keeps cuttng for a few seconds out every 20 minutes or so. Can't figure it out.

I have a two-step question. All of this is getting to the question: what is wrong with my sound?

• When I am watching a show on Amazon Prime, the audio cuts out maybe every 20 minutes or so.
• It happens the same way every time. It cuts out for a half second, then it's fine for a second, then it cuts out for five to ten seconds and then comes back.
• Nothing is wrong with the picture. No pauses, no spinning discs etc.
• Notably, I can rewind ten seconds and replay, and the audio break will not recur at that same spot. (until next itme, 20 minutes from now.) This is how I watch Prime now - with my finger on the rewind button.
• It happens on the TV speaker as well as on the third party Bluetooth headsets (2) that we use to watch TV normally.
• It does not seem to happen on other streaming services, as far as I know.
• It does happen on at least two Prime shows regularly. (American Gods and Cold Case). It has been happening in Cold Case for months now, so it's not really new.
• I have a second TV in another room, with the same setup. I ran both simaultaneously. It does not cut out at all (as far as I can tell) on my second TV. Not even at the spots where it cuts out on the first.

My setup: I have

• an LG TV.
• a Bell Fibe to my house and Wifi connection for internet.
• Bell Fibe service to my TV.
• a bunch of streaming services, including Netflix, Disney and Amazon Prime.

My first question is:

How exactly is Amazon Prime and my other streaming services getting to my TV? Do they come through my Bell box, or do they come irectly from my Wifi service to my TV? The streamnig services use my LG remote, which pops up over top of my Bell TV service. I am tenatively reaching the conclusion that my streamnig services are bypassing my Bell box and going straight to my TV. Which means there is little point in me calling Bell to ask for a test and/or replacement of my Bell box. Yes?

I've reset my Wifi box connection, to no avail.
I've wiggled and dusted off the optical connection to my headphone box (solid as a rock, BTW).
My upstairs fam, have complained about their TV/internet service too, athough I am not sure that's related. We have the occasional hiccup in service throughput, but I see no real correlation with this particular bug. (They do not have Amazon Prime, so I cannot run a control test.) If it continues I will be calling Bell to complain.

My second question is:

What is the next differential test I can do to narrow down the problem? How do I "debug" a streaming service running from my fibre connection to my TV?

 

[jedishrfu]

Apparently, folks have had this issue with Amazon Prime for many years:



https://www.amazonforum.com/s/quest...K/sound-cutting-in-out-frequently-on-smart-tv

It almost sounds like a garbage collection issue in the app. While its likely not a Java app, apps written in java will experience garbage collection in a kind of stepped sawtooth on a memory used graph, where there are small collections that don't affect things much and then there is a much larger collection that does. I've seen it where there are say 10 small collections of memory but it slowly creeps up to a final threshold and then there is a big collection and release of memory. Java had three heaps in use one for short term, one for longer term and one for static data. It would move chunks of memory around in these heaps.

So it might be that you need a faster device where the app runs.

Have you noticed it with other streaming services?

 

[DaveC426913]

Apparently, folks have had this issue with Amazon Prime for many years:

It never occurred to me.

I feel like a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

And placed squarely on Amazon.

Have you noticed it with other streaming services?

Nope.

 

[Tom.G]

I don't have a TV but, as @jedishrfu said, your problem description is classic 'Buffer Full, Time To Do Some Clean-up'.

Solution? Replace either the signal source (Amazon) or the consumer device (TV, not you ).

You mentioned an Amazon app, there is always the possibility they have a 'New and Improved' version that may help.

Cheers,
Tom