Hello, when watching some live shows, and sports, I quite often get buffering on my 4k firestick. I’ve done all the things to speed this up, but still get it. I have no problems whatsoever watching movies.
My broadband is with Talk Talk, and the speeds aren’t great. 20Mbps down and 5 upload.
Would a 4k max stick help, or a new router, or am I stuffed?
Thanks
Hi @BigAl
In a word, yes.
Beyond that, there are multiple things that cause buffering. Need a little more info; device using, what apps or add-ons or builds, who or what are you watching Live Tv through, etc.
Also, might do a search above, for live tv buffering. Fairly certain you can find solutions too.
get a vpn and try that
No, don’t get a vpn, your down speeds need to increase.
To be honest it’s one of 2 things.
Your provider is having issues.
Or your downspeed.
I believe you need more downspeed. With that and higer up speed as soon as someone els connects to your inet and uses it, it will buffer.
I’d suggest upping it. Using a VPN will take a bit of downspeed as well.
Your ultimate goal is to increase your download speed, but you also want to protect yourself especially while streaming. Using a VPN will always be recommended but it’s not going to help or fix existing bandidth issues.
Using a VPN will take bandwidth, typically you choose the closest server to minimize the distance between you and the one you’re connecting to to minimize the loss but you cannot completely avoid it (remember a lot of people are already using VPN’s and getting excellent speeds).
End of the day your peace of mind is worth the cost and there are always multi-year deals to be had (IPVanish, NordVPN, etc.).
Capp
Hi @Sbrowne126 I’m using Firestick 4k, also IP Vanish. I also have additional storage bolted on with a flash stick.
I’ve tried using stand alone APKs, such as Le Deporte to stream football, but that’s been unreliable for me, so I prefer to use Kodi with Chameleon build as I’ve found this to be the quickest build that I’ve used so far.
I’m using wifi, but also connected with ethernet through my electrical plug sockets.
My average download speed is 20Mbps and upload of 4
Thanks
Your internets download speed and upload speed is the issue.
Not only do you have a vpn you also are using internet through powerline adapter.
You need better up and down speeds sir.
FYI I used IPVanish for years. About 4 months ago I began testing two other ones. Proton and ExpressVPN. They all worked well. But if it’s speed you need then for me on my 1st gen 2018 4K firestick ExpressVPN gave me a download speed almost twice as fast as the other two. I performed every possible combination of settings/protocols/ports and where possible made sure I was using sever locations in the same town. I then performed tests 3 times a day early morning, mid day and evening. In every test ExpressVPN outperformed the others in download speeds. This was my personal experience and yours may vary. I am by no means an expert.
I would like to point out that upload speeds are not all that important unless you are doing video conferencing or uploading hi res pics or large files. For the average user upload is only needed for network “overhead”. Download, on the other hand, is important. For the most part just for day to day surfing each person on your network will need about 10MBs. So if you only have 20MBs down and you are on the net and even one other user is on, then you’re already overloading your network. Now I know most say 20-25 MBs down is plenty enough to stream, and maybe in 480p or less and under ideal conditions, but in 4 years that has not been my experience. I only have 1 other person in my household that uses the net at the same time as I do, and for us we need around 35MBs download speed in order for me to stream content smoothly. Now I should mention that this is on public free servers. Your speed needs can be less when connected to “private dedicated high powered servers” like netflix or youtube ones or other paid ones, and even those can have issues with being overloaded at times. Heck even mother nature can mess things up with solar flares and storms like we had last Thursday and through the weekend.
Ok, so I’ve just spoken to my broadband provider and for an extra £3 per month they will increase my download speed by an additional 40Mbps.
Let’s wait and see.
Thanks all
So you will have about 60Mbps? That should be enough. I take it you live in the UK and have to use a VPN. Just keep in mind a VPN has a tendency to reduce your speed dramatically. So expect to actually run around 30Mbps.
Imho, this StarLink could be a game changer in the near future!
Yes, I must use a VPN but I’ve run tests with and without and there was next to no difference.
That said, one day, with my old provider it suddenly started taking about 2 minutes to download a 5 second video from Twitter. Before that day they were instant. However, if I put the VPN on then the videos were instant again. Got fed up with that provider so left them
That’s not a bad upgrade 3 bucks for 60?
Report back, that should resolve these buffering issues.
Yeah, I have heard of people who actually got better speed with using a VPN. I’ve heard the same about speed increase using wifi vs ethernet, too. But I believe those to be the exceptions rather than the rule?
bro get a vpn. my mother uses surfshark and she has 20 megs down and she has zero problems. i will admit other than her tv the only other thing that takes up bandwidth in her house is a cell phone. get the vpn. most problems are NOT caused by speed but by congestion and improper app and device maintenance.
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