topic Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix in Sky Q

Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

Short-tee82 — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 17:14:05 GMT

I have checked all the service status and internet connections they're all on and working but when I'm watching certain apps on sky box they keep buffering then saying something went wrong, I just have no idea what else to do, can anyone help please

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

kop32 — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 17:30:55 GMT

Hi @Short-tee82 ,

Can you try the following.......

If you are using a UHD TV and Sky Q box then in picture and sound settings I had my default streaming set to Auto,switched it to UHD still had the issue but as soon as I switched to HD then Amazon Prime worked perfectly.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

charlottelouise — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 13:46:45 GMT

My prime is always lagging on Sky Q and I am so crap at tech stuff so I don't understand all the jargon responses. . Sorry. . Should I just stop subscribing or is there any way I can fix this please. .

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

Dallen9798 — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 15:39:42 GMT

@charlottelouise

As my colleague above said, that would probably fix it.

We can appreciate you don't understand jargon but sky can't fix everything sometimes its the customers TV and many other factors not the Sky Q Box.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

FullThrottle — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 17:37:49 GMT

Hmm. These answers seem a bit of a cop out. I have the same problem. Sky Q buffering every 5 minutes for UHD films on Amazon Prime. Luckily I have Amazon Prime app on my TV. I switched over to that - absolutely no problem. Perfect UHD picture and no buffering or glitches at all.

This tells me it is nothing to do with the TV or my broadband. It is 100% a problem with the Sky Q service. Is there a more honest and helpful answer to this problem?

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

Brian4258 — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 22:31:37 GMT

Agree. The Q Box is flaky. Amazon Prime movies are a nightmare to watch via the Q Box. My old Sky box never had this issue. Must be a software issue that Sky are unable or can't be bothered to fix. I have fibre broadband with a 150 download speed, so it can't be that. Thinking of sacking Sky off.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

Chodley — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 06:40:54 GMT

@kop32 wrote:
Hi @Short-tee82 ,

Can you try the following.......
If you are using a UHD TV and Sky Q box then in picture and sound settings I had my default streaming set to Auto,switched it to UHD still had the issue but as soon as I switched to HD then Amazon Prime worked perfectly.

"Just use a worse picture" is not a solution.

Most likely it's flakey wifi in the Q causing it.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

kop32 — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 12:49:30 GMT

@Chodley wrote:
@kop32 wrote:
Hi @Short-tee82 ,

Can you try the following.......
If you are using a UHD TV and Sky Q box then in picture and sound settings I had my default streaming set to Auto,switched it to UHD still had the issue but as soon as I switched to HD then Amazon Prime worked perfectly.

"Just use a worse picture" is not a solution.

Most likely it's flakey wifi in the Q causing it.

TBF I never said it was a solution but purely a work around to be able to watch it, and as for the flakey WiFi well my system is fully wired... but I get your point👍

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

NUGGS — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 20:47:23 GMT

Same as others.

Fine on my TV, crap through Sky Q with buffering and all sorts.

Tried reboot etc but no different

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

Justin9 — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 21:07:44 GMT

Ive had several issues with sky in the last few months and never before that for 24 years

I have had the same issue with prime on sky q and noticed some one said to watch it through the app on your tv

I have done that and it works perfectly in UHD HDR10 so it is definitely sky q that has an issue

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

best+of+the+best — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:28:18 GMT

@Justin9 wrote:
Hi
Ive had several issues with sky in the last few months and never before that for 24 years
I have had the same issue with prime on sky q and noticed some one said to watch it through the app on your tv
I have done that and it works perfectly in UHD HDR10 so it is definitely sky q that has an issue

Sometimes the Prime app on my LG tv doesn't work same with Netflix but both apps will be working perfectly on the Sky Q box

So it doesn't always mean the Sky Q box has an issue.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

afp208 — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 10:13:50 GMT

Hi,

I'm also getting this buffering/"something's gone wrong" issue while watching "Wheel of Time" in UHD on the SkyQ Amazon Prime app. The amount of buffering varies by episode but it is not obvious whether this is episode related (UHD encoding bit rates?) or to when I watch (after 10pm - normally one episode per evening) or something else. The SkyQ box is wired to the fibre router which provides a 300Mb/s internet feed.

Switching to the LG Amazon Prime app on the TV solves the problem for me. The TV is connected to the router over WiFi.

Since I often watch Formula 1 from the Sky F1 UHD channel during the season for 2-3 hrs straight without ever suffering a buffering problem I wonder whether the issue is more likely to be with the implementation of the SkyQ Amazon Prime app - perhaps an issue with server connection or with how its feeding the SkyQ box?

Regardless, it looks like this problem has been running for a while and I suspect many more people have experienced it than the size of this thread suggests and have opted for one of the workarounds.

It would be great if someone from Sky support could give an indication of whether this issue is being actively investigated and, if so, what the current status is.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

xenon81 — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 12:05:14 GMT

I've always found the Amazon app on Sky Q to suffer with buffering when playing UHD,, My box is connected via ethernet to a 500Mb Virgin Media connection. Other apps on Sky are fine.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

COLBY2467 — Sun, 19 May 2024 07:18:24 GMT

I'm having the same issue with Amazon Prime video regularly buffering and sometimes crashing whilst being watched through SkyQ box.

Have tried the switching boxes off/on again to no avail. Superfast fibre broadband with 160 Mbps download.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

kcanham — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 17:27:59 GMT

I am experiencing the same problem with Prime and Netflix apps via Sky q, this has recently happened after the update where options for the colour of the background on the TV guide can be changed to black rather than blue. This I don't believe causes the picture problems it's purely to set the timescale. If I watch either of them through the apps on my Samsung TV the problem disappears completely and this has been for the last few weeks. Hope this helps.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

Lensman — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 16:41:44 GMT

I am having this problem on Amazon but Netflix and Disney works fine. Its not the definition as suggested above as its set to 1080p.

Any ideas?

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

edmund+hamer — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 16:38:34 GMT

I stopped watching prime through the sky box, changed to my smart TV, works perfectly, never interrupted. I think the reason is that sky is oversubscribed and throttling is brought in, hence the hiccups and freezing. My thoughts anyway, Prime works better on my smart TV.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

xenon81 — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 18:34:06 GMT

@edmund+hamer wrote:
I stopped watching prime through the sky box, changed to my smart TV, works perfectly, never interrupted. I think the reason is that sky is oversubscribed and throttling is brought in, hence the hiccups and freezing. My thoughts anyway, Prime works better on my smart TV.

It's not throttling, Prime just doesn't run very well on the ageing Sky Q hardware, and its unlikely to get any better as the boxes gradually become more outdated.

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

kmdcorp — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 17:32:44 GMT

Glad I found this post as I'm having the same issues watching Wheel of Timne on Amazon Portome through my Sky Q box 😞

Whern I contacted Sky, I spoke to someone in the 'Technical team' who asked me how full my box was. When I said 85% full, they told me to delete a lot as a a 2TB Sky Q box shouldn't be over 25% full as this is what was causing the buffering / freezing problems !

They then said to reset my box back to factory, have a replacement box, or an engineer come out

I don't think Sky know how to fit this 😞 as as others have said, watching amazon prime through my TV app works perfectly

Re: Sky box always freezing when watching Amazon prime and Netflix

Chodley — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 20:49:34 GMT

Just watch it through the TV app then. I do. Better picture and proper 24Hz support.