[Technology] Amazon Prime Tech stuff - watching experience

[The Oldman]

Have watched 3 matches via fire stick to tv. No buffering and picture quality very good.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Since I first started this dull thread, I have added a second 4K Panasonic TV for football. Newer than the original set it is much more of an enrty model sub £400. Some viewing observations from last night, which might prove helpful to someone.

1 set up to watch the game on the new Panasonic TV, for comparison I also had it on a PC - result 90 seconds lag.
2 Switched to a 4K Chromecast and sum number one tried casting the game from his admittedly aging android phone - result Stream crashed.
3 Reverted to the old TV (the one that was prodcuing a dark picture on Amazon Live games), which now has a Chromecast TV attached - result excellent picture quality no noticeable delay versus push goal notifications.

Note my WiFi download speed is typically around 270Mbs, so broadband and Wifi generally don't throttle performance.
The conclusion here is that the Panasonic TVs whilst capable of producing a quality 4K image, are under powered when it comes to decoding a high quality live sports stream and have some issues with Amazon UHD streams with the dark image thing. Both problems go away if you use a modern add on device, like the Chromecast TV, Fire stick etc.

The latest iteration of the Chromecast includes a simple remote control and android TV, which provides a blended view of choices by category from all of your subscription services. For example crime could include recommendations from Netflix, BBC iplayer Disney Plus, Amazon Prime (I think 4OD is the only obvious absentee) or you can still use the individuals services. So far it has unearthed a couple of things I would otherwise have missed (sadly it found the Arsenal game OK)

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Since I first started this dull thread, I have added a second 4K Panasonic TV for football. Newer than the original set it is much more of an enrty model sub £400. Some viewing observations from last night, which might prove helpful to someone.

1 set up to watch the game on the new Panasonic TV, for comparison I also had it on a PC - result 90 seconds lag.
2 Switched to a 4K Chromecast and sum number one tried casting the game from his admittedly aging android phone - result Stream crashed.
3 Reverted to the old TV (the one that was prodcuing a dark picture on Amazon Live games), which now has a Chromecast TV attached - result excellent picture quality no noticeable delay versus push goal notifications.

Note my WiFi download speed is typically around 270Mbs, so broadband and Wifi generally don't throttle performance.
The conclusion here is that the Panasonic TVs whilst capable of producing a quality 4K image, are under powered when it comes to decoding a high quality live sports stream and have some issues with Amazon UHD streams with the dark image thing. Both problems go away if you use a modern add on device, like the Chromecast TV, Fire stick etc.

The latest iteration of the Chromecast includes a simple remote control and android TV, which provides a blended view of choices by category from all of your subscription services. For example crime could include recommendations from Netflix, BBC iplayer Disney Plus, Amazon Prime (I think 4OD is the only obvious absentee) or you can still use the individuals services. So far it has unearthed a couple of things I would otherwise have missed (sadly it found the Arsenal game OK)

Interesting. My 2 year old Samsung's built in app produces perfect 4k pictures with prime. Whereas both my Chromecast ultra and Google TV don't.

In regard to Google TV, I've found a few apps, prime and iPlayer for example, experience frame drops. Have you noticed that at all? Mine isn't connected through Ethernet but Netflix works perfectly. Perhaps Netflix buffers a little or more whereas iPlayer and prime don't?

 

[CheeseRolls]

Interesting. My 2 year old Samsung's built in app produces perfect 4k pictures with prime. Whereas both my Chromecast ultra and Google TV don't.

In regard to Google TV, I've found a few apps, prime and iPlayer for example, experience frame drops. Have you noticed that at all? Mine isn't connected through Ethernet but Netflix works perfectly. Perhaps Netflix buffers a little or more whereas iPlayer and prime don't?

Watched both Prime and iPlayer last night on Chromecast/google TV can't say I noticed a single glitch and don't recall any issues, other than setup which didn't work properly first time. So many factors at play including WiFi interference/positioning. I have a WiFi6 setup with Asus ZenWifi nodes upstairs and downstairs.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Watched both Prime and iPlayer last night on Chromecast/google TV can't say I noticed a single glitch and don't recall any issues, other than setup which didn't work properly first time. So many factors at play including WiFi interference/positioning. I have a WiFi6 setup with Asus ZenWifi nodes upstairs and downstairs.

I think that you are right. Most probably would disappear if it was connected by ethernet. The old Chromecast ultra however, doesn't seem to be affected when only using wifi. Perhaps the new version is less sensitive to the signal strength or more sensitive to the quality?

Cheers