Poor TV internet signal

Arsenal2019

Hello,

I have just bought a smart TV and have put it upstairs.

my WiFi router is downstairs and when I watch my smart tv’s apps such as iPlayer, Netflix, itv player and so on, it works perfect.
However, the TV upstairs struggles badly with internet connection. It connects fine, but keeps lagging and buffering when watching apps on my smart TV.

Does anyone know why this may be?
js there anything on the market which I could buy to rectify this?

Its strange as my Xbox is upstairs (underneath the tv)& it’s connection is absolutely fine, as are the mobile phones /laptops. It is just the upstairs TV which struggles for good signal

Any help would be appreciated

thanks 

Neil_Jones

If the TV seriously had issues with its internet connection none of the apps you've listed would work either.

Are you sure you don't mean TV reception?

[Deleted User]

TV's can be a bit of a nuisance for wifi connectivity for many reasons. They usually only have a small wifi aerial on the circuit board. The fact that they usually have sheet of metal internally in the screen means wifi doesn't always penetrate very well - depending on what angle it comes from. Also you mention it is coming from downstairs so the wifi needs to pass through the floor and TV stand - solid objects and in particular glass weakens the wifi signal if it is on a glass stand. Another factor is they are usually mounted on or near a wall, again another blocker of wifi.

Draw an imaginary line from your router to the TV and see what solid objects are in the way and see if anything can be re-arranged. Make sure the router itself is out in the open, clear of solid objects and ideally reasonably high up in the room.

Try swapping between 2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz bands if the TV is capable - the 2.4 Ghz will usually be stronger and is fast enough for TV streaming (assumes TV and router is dual band).

If there is no option to move the TV / router or the above doesn't help then you will be looking at a few other options:

1. Ethernet cable - highly recommended if you are gaming on the Xbox to get minimum lag and fastest response times with online games so might as well run a cable up to the room and use a switch to connect both the TV and Xbox directly to internet.

2. Wifi repeater - get a wifi repeater that can be located approx halfway between the router and the TV.

3. Upgrade to a mesh wifi system

4. Last option but personally not recommended is powerline ethernet adaptors to run ethernet through your mains cables from the router to the TV. I'm not a fan of them but some people do get good results.

Sandtree

Arsenal2019 said:
when I watch my smart tv’s apps such as iPlayer, Netflix, itv player and so on, it works perfect.

However, the TV upstairs struggles badly with internet connection. It connects fine, but keeps lagging and buffering when watching apps on my smart TV.

Hu?
So it works perfectly but lags and buffers?

On a purely personal experience perspective... I've found that smart TVs are just generally not as good at streaming etc than dedicated devices. Our LG TV is in the same room as our wifi/router... computers, iPads, AppleTV can all stream 4k services without problems but the TV (thats newer than most of the devices) buffers fairly badly at times.  For me its not a problem as we have a TV and projector so having an external device that can feed both is the preferred solution anyway but very unimpressed with the smart features of the TV (unlike the picture)

Korkyb

I personally have had good results with powerline adaptors (mine is an old granite house with very thick walls).

If the wi-fi signal isn't easily improved then perhaps using the x-box (which you say has a good connection) as a streaming device could be an easy (but slightly finicky) workaround.

pbartlett

also not all routers are created equal - you may improve the situation if you purchased a better one with a more powerful wifi output.

Arsenal2019

Neil_Jones said:

If the TV seriously had issues with its internet connection none of the apps you've listed would work either.

Are you sure you don't mean TV reception?

The TV signal when watching TV is 93-98% so I would say that’s strong enough. It’s just when I’m watching apps such as iPlayer, 4od, 5 on demand, Netflix and Amazon.. that sort of thing. It keeps lagging!! But when I run speed tests upstairs my internet speed is good. It’s like 55mbps. I don’t understand why this happens 

Arsenal2019

[Deleted User] said:

TV's can be a bit of a nuisance for wifi connectivity for many reasons. They usually only have a small wifi aerial on the circuit board. The fact that they usually have sheet of metal internally in the screen means wifi doesn't always penetrate very well - depending on what angle it comes from. Also you mention it is coming from downstairs so the wifi needs to pass through the floor and TV stand - solid objects and in particular glass weakens the wifi signal if it is on a glass stand. Another factor is they are usually mounted on or near a wall, again another blocker of wifi.

Draw an imaginary line from your router to the TV and see what solid objects are in the way and see if anything can be re-arranged. Make sure the router itself is out in the open, clear of solid objects and ideally reasonably high up in the room.

Try swapping between 2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz bands if the TV is capable - the 2.4 Ghz will usually be stronger and is fast enough for TV streaming (assumes TV and router is dual band).

If there is no option to move the TV / router or the above doesn't help then you will be looking at a few other options:

1. Ethernet cable - highly recommended if you are gaming on the Xbox to get minimum lag and fastest response times with online games so might as well run a cable up to the room and use a switch to connect both the TV and Xbox directly to internet.

2. Wifi repeater - get a wifi repeater that can be located approx halfway between the router and the TV.

3. Upgrade to a mesh wifi system

4. Last option but personally not recommended is powerline ethernet adaptors to run ethernet through your mains cables from the router to the TV. I'm not a fan of them but some people do get good results.

Hi,, yesS there is quite a lot of things in the way if I draw an imaginary line like you say. The WiFi box is downstairs on top of a unit, and there is nothing electrical next to it.
I have an Xbox which is directly under the upstairs tv and this runs absolutely fine on the internet.

the tv is mounted on the wall so perhaps this is doing something to the WiFi connector within the TV causing it to lag ? 

But when I watch regular Televsion such as bbc1,2,3 and so on, the signal strength is never less than 93%.

So must be a problem with the WiFi within the Tv??

Arsenal2019

[Deleted User] said:

Try swapping between 2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz bands if the TV is capable - the 2.4 Ghz will usually be stronger and is fast enough for TV streaming (assumes TV and router is dual band).

Also, I have absolutely no idea how I would swap between 2.4ghz and 5, nor do I know what a dual band is hahaha! (I’m not very technical). My WiFi router is one of the newer routers for talk talk. And this tv in question is a hisene 4K 43’’ (2 month old)

pbartlett

Well, as above the problem seems to be that the wifi signal is not powerful enough for the tv, and you can check this by temporarily moving the tv nearer the router.

Once you have proved that is the problem, then choose one of the suggestions various people have posted (signal boosters, powerline adapters, using an ethernet cable instead of wifi, buying a better router etc)

Arsenal2019

Yes I presume that would be the case.

well ideally, I’d want to get something which is wireless. Something that I don’t need to plug into an Ethernet cable and have it plugged in all the time. Can anyone reccomend a good/cheap one? Whether that be a WiFi extender or  WiFi booster 

(ideally one that comes with no/little packet loss)