How well do your video Streaming Apps perform?

Cafe Society
1

Q1 Are you using the smart tv App or Casting from your phone or PC?

Q2 Which smart tv Apps do you use? YouTube, Prime, Peacock, Paramount+, MAX, Pluto or something else?

Q3 How well do they perform? Any time outs, lock outs or aborts? Ever have to go into Menu and reboot the tv?

I tried Casting for awhile. Had nothing but frustration. I tried watching a James Stewart western in Oct. It’s not available streaming. So, I have it on my phone. Casting frooze several times. It aborted and threw me back to the Vizio home screen. Still stuck in casting mode and connected to my phone. I had to reboot my tv and phone. Start over. I eventually finished the movie.

I currently use YouTube, Prime, Peacock, Paramount+, MAX, Pluto Apps on my Visio smart tv.

All the Apps work great except Prime and Paramount+. I can pause, rewind, fast forward without streaming problems.

Prime is reliable most of the time. Except for high def. For example Monk is offered in regular or high def season packs. I bought hi def. I occasionally get streaming issues. The dreaded spiral circle. Rewind and Fast Forward are clunky and choppy.

Overall thats rare on Prime. It’s pretty darn good.

Paramount+ :astonished: OMG, it’s terrible at streaming. Don’t even think about rewind if you missed a scene. You get the dreaded spiral circle.

Pause is clunky. Don’t get impatient and press several times. It will lock up the tv.

I gave up trying to watch a tv episode tonight. I didn’t touch any controls. The video just freezes with the spiral circle. Eventually a blue click bar pops up says unexpected error and clicking throws me back to the main Paramount menu.

I tried rebooting the tv.

I don’t think it’s my network. I immediately loaded Peacock and watched a movie. No problems.

I think it’s the Paramount App. Vizio doesn’t allow installing Apps and Uninstalling. Vizio manages the Apps on the tv.

I love the content on Paramount+. But may cancel the service. It’s too frustrating dealing with their App.

2

I use Roku as a hub for all the streaming services and it works quite well. All of it is a factor as to how strong your internet - wifi service is.

3

Q1: I use the smart TV app.

Q2: Netflix, Prime, Peacock, Pluto, Tubi, Vudu.

Q3: The performance seems tied to the TV. I have a very nice LG in my living room and a cheap HiSense in my bedroom. The LG is maybe six years old now and still runs like a champ. Looks great, streams great, very responsive.

The HiSense is a couple years younger and it just sucks in so many ways. It works but it is sloooooow. Shows will pause sometimes while playing and so on. Usually the problems are when first starting a show and it gets better after a few minutes. But things like rewind and fastforward are always clunky and unpleasant to use. Again, they work, but it’s not a nice experience. The much more expensive and older LG does these things with no fuss at all.

You get what you pay for I guess.

4

I use Netflix and Prime on an Xbox One (I guess I’ve also used Tubi and CBC Gem once in a blue moon). They both work fine; any issues would be related to our wifi network (which usually doesn’t have any problems). I’ve never seen any “time outs, lock outs or aborts” or need to reboot.

5

I have TCL Roku smart TVs, and run straight from the TV’s OS. Our streaming preferences are:

Vudu/Fandango: if we purchase a movie, we do so thru Vudu - there are plenty of sales, and redemption codes are cheap. It’s a great interface that we rarely have trouble with. If I could do it again, I think I’d have made Apple my preferred retailer to buy through, since they automatically upgrade to 4k (and beyond) as technology progresses.

Apple TV+: I feel like they have a more consistent picture, but god I hate their layout. They mix in all types of ads for movies/series you have to buy, and navigating to just original content is difficult. The upside is that this service is the easiest to cancel and resubscribe when there is enough content to watch.

Disney+: I have 3 kids - I’m surprised they don’t charge me more. Video quality is fine, I think there are more timeouts here than normal.

Max: I get this free with my cell plan. It’s far too underused - plenty of recent releases and old content, and their original watchable programming is the deepest.

Amazon Prime: I really dislike the format of Prime - the channels for sale, the poorly labeled categories, etc. I will buy through Amazon since I rack up digital credits pretty often, but always make sure I’m buying a Movies Anywhere compatible movie so it imports to Vudu or Apple.

6

I have a Firestick, I don’t have Prime any more, but I have a lot of things I’ve bought on Amazon. I also have Shudder, Netflix, Plex, and Peacock.

Sometimes the Amazon stuff the audio and video are out of sync. I’m not sure how that happens but when it does I have to get out of the program and restart it.

Shudder will sometimes log me out for no reason. It doesn’t always remember where I stop something, but I’ve heard that’s normal for everyone. But usually works well.

Netflix usually works perfect. Only here and there does it say it can’t play.

I use Plex with my brother and his movies, usually works well, but sometimes it looks like it is missing frames so it just looks off. Not sure if its his files or my connection.

I rarely use Peacock, I got a year deal just before the Olympics, but I’ve not had any problems with it I can remember.

7

Roku devices hooked to LG tvs. Fiber Optic internet with a 3 station Google mesh and zero issues.

8

YouTube TV, Prime, Netflix via FireStick.

Not many complaints, except that Netflix has started doing a weird thing where the beginning of a program is audio only with a black screen. I have to back out of it and restart the episode and all is well. This happens maybe 25% of the time.

I really like YTTV. Prime I have only because it’s “free”.

mmm

9

I’d love to have a network like that.

AT&T hasn’t run fiber on our street. Maybe next year.

10

I will admit I’m spoiled. We were early adopters when MetroNet came through the neighborhood. Initially I was running 2+ GB down and around 1 GB up. It’s down to about 1.5 down and 700 MB up, but still going strong.

11

I use an Amazon Firestick. It came with Prime, and I’ve installed Disney+ and Netflix on it. It’s cabled into my modem, I don’t like WiFi, so the signal is always strong, though the occasional restart is needed every couple of months. That also means my TV is connected directly to my PC so I have additional access to downloaded files. And I also have years of collected DVDs on my shelves.

12

We have a Fire Stick in one room, a Roku in the other. Our apps are MAX, Netflix, Prime Video, Apple+, Kanopy, and Paramount +. Everything is mostly fine, except

  • Paramount+ is the most laggy, unintuitive app ever. I hate it, but it’s the only one that carries the sports I’m interested in.
  • I installed Kanopy on the Roku last night so we could watch a film, and the weirdest thing - the audio was there, but the video was dark (and yet, if I fast-forwarded or rewound it showed the appropriate pictures).

We have 1GB speed internet, and the router is directly next to the TV with the Fire Stick, so I don’t expect any issues there. (but Paramount + still sucks)

13

My everyday streamer is an Apple TV 4K. I bounce around between apps, they integrate pretty well with it. A few of them are a little clunky but not what I would consider awful.

I also have a Fire TV stick 4K and a Roku Express. I use the Fire Stick when I travel and the Roku…well it’s the worst of the bunch and it’s in my electronics junk drawer.

14

Q1 Roku and Nvidia Shield (Smart TV apps suck)
Q2 Youtube TV, Prime, Netflix, Plex for my CD,DVD, Blu-Ray and UHD library
Q3 My setup works great. No glitches, lock outs or aborts.

15

We use an AppleTV.

Right now we stream Prime, Peacock, Paramount+, Disney, Kanopy (from our library).

Everything works fine 99% of the time. Every once in a while some service won’t work. Usually works when we clear the open windows (or whatever the term is for that.). But not a big deal. Doesn’t even happen once a month.

Biggest problem is the AppleTV remote is crap. The xfinity remote was an intuitive work of art compared to this thing.