Fire tv stick slow and locks up

Donut417 · October 6, 2019

I have an Fire TV stick. Second gen I think. It has become slow and will lock up in some cases. Restarting it seem to fix it temporarily. Mainly I use Prime video, Netflix, Hulu and Plex. But I got YouTube and twitch installed as well. Part of the reason I stuck with the fire stick is due to MPEG 2 support. I use an HD home run with Plex. And Plex is the only way I can watch live tv.

Should I look for a different product? I was looking at one of the Amazon boxes that does 4K and has Gigabit Ethernet. As the router is in my room. But I’m not sure if it’s worth it. Or if I should consider a different product. To be clear I don’t have a 4K, not yet anyway, maybe in the future.

circeseye · October 6, 2019

have you tried hard resetting the firestick (if its possible?) i know it would suck cause you have to reinstall apps and relog in.

Donut417 · October 6, 2019

6 hours ago, circeseye said:

have you tried hard resetting the firestick (if its possible?) i know it would suck cause you have to reinstall apps and relog in.

Not on mine. But my mom also had a 2nd Gen Firestick and it did nothing to hers when we reset it. I can try that, but I wont hold my breath. Also, I notice Plex runs really slow on the Firestick compared to the 4K Roku sticks we have on other TV's. For example using the Guide on the 4K Roku's you can just smoothly scroll thru. While on the Firestick, you can go so far and then it has to catch up. The only reason I have invested in a Roku is MPEG 2 support. I notice that the Roku's have to transcode Video and some times audio when watching OTA TV.

circeseye · October 6, 2019

apparently some of the newer roku's support mpeg2 now...Ultra (4640) and the premiere (3920) so far after looking around. not the little sticks thou

Donut417 · October 6, 2019

2 hours ago, circeseye said:

apparently some of the newer roku's support mpeg2 now...Ultra (4640) and the premiere (3920) so far after looking around. not the little sticks thou

Yeah I was looking at those. But if I’m buying one I’d want to use Ethernet. The issue is they are only 100Mbps ports. That could be an issue if I decide to upgrade to a 4K TV, I’ll likely digitize the movies and use Plex. I’ve read a 4K stream can be over 100Mbps.

I was looking at one of the Amazon boxes and it had Gigabit Ethernet. Though I just don’t know what available now days in the streaming market.

Metallus97 · October 12, 2019

Bro...... I had this issue to. tried EVERYTHING

Ended up getting a AppleTV -> works

Zodiark1593 · October 14, 2019

On 10/6/2019 at 10:11 AM, circeseye said:

apparently some of the newer roku's support mpeg2 now...Ultra (4640) and the premiere (3920) so far after looking around. not the little sticks thou

I wouldn't have otherwised believed MPEG 2 support would be a problem for anything made in the past 20 years until I did some searching.

Donut417 · October 14, 2019

2 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I wouldn't have otherwised believed MPEG 2 support would be a problem for anything made in the past 20 years until I did some searching.

Its not a big issue. It just my Plex server has to transcode the content. I rather not have 3 transcodes happening at a time. Ive been told the Nvidia Sheild is the best player, but it also costs almost $200. Im not looking to spend that kind of money.