Amazon Fire TV Stick - poor playback quality?

motorguy

Just bought a fire stick as i have amazon prime, having previously had a chromecast.

All connected up well - display ultrasharp on the menus and pictures BUT the playback quality is very poor.

If we watch a TV program via Netflix and cast to the Chromecast the picture is crystal clear. Watch Netflix (or anything for that matter) through the Fire stick and its slightly cloudy, almost out of focus.

Anyone any ideas?

fiendishlyclever

Mine worked fine before I cancelled prime. Is your Internet connection fast enough for high definition video? Perhaps you could post a speed test...

Nilrem

Aye what is the connection speed like to the FireTV stick, even if it's in the same place and watching the same videos as the Chromecast stick it's possible the signal it's receiving isn't as good due to a different wifi chip or antenna.

It's sometimes interesting (in a geeky way) to put two or more devices in the same place in a room and run the same test on all of them, as the results can vary massively.

motorguy

fiendishlyclever wrote: »

Mine worked fine before I cancelled prime. Is your Internet connection fast enough for high definition video? Perhaps you could post a speed test...

The broadband speed isnt fantastic where we are, but the same tv episodes casted from netflix on any other device to the chromecast onto the same TV play in high quality.

Using the netflix app on the firestick on the same TV (both the firestick and the chromecast sit right above the wireless router) the quality is poor.

We've set the output to HD on our netflix account, cleared the cache on both the netflix app on the firestick and the amazon video app, and i've reinstalled the netflix app after doing all this.

FWIW even the amazon video stuff doesnt play at a good quality level either.

motorguy

Nilrem wrote: »

Aye what is the connection speed like to the FireTV stick, even if it's in the same place and watching the same videos as the Chromecast stick it's possible the signal it's receiving isn't as good due to a different wifi chip or antenna.

It's sometimes interesting (in a geeky way) to put two or more devices in the same place in a room and run the same test on all of them, as the results can vary massively.

Will maybe have a look at that, though both devices are in the same TV and sit about 45 cm above the wireless router.

almillar

Sounds like the Chromecast gets a better WiFi signal than the Fire Stick. Haven't had to do this myself, but have you tried moving the router *further away* from the stick?