Apps opening slowly.

[Mjstrong]

Just wondered if this is something 'normal' among stream users, or if I have an issue? 

Do your apps take about 10 seconds to open?    I find this weird, as my other devices are (surely) lower specced than the Stream (Firestick, Chromecast, Roku, Smart TV  etc) ...but they all open iPlayer, Netflix, itvX etc WAY quicker than the Stream?   

Also,  opening via Voice control always seems to cause issues, on Netflix it usually means the Account select screen will open but, but frozen, unresponsive. 

Open iPlayer via voice remote ...or from any of the direct program links rather than the iPlayer link,  and the programs will simply open a black screen, with a timeline and play button, but no actual program. 

aside from these issues, the apps run fine!  I find this weird, as these apps are stable as hell on virtually every other platform but this one! 

[dtb87]

Yeah my apps open pretty slowly on the puck

[Anonymous]

Yes the opening is quite slow compared to Apple TV or Firestick. Once open they are relatively stable, saying that I've had a bit of a nightmare tonight with iplayer 😡

[Mjstrong]

Yes, I find iPlayer only really works if you open it from the iPlayer icon,  anything else is asking for trouble. 

[Anonymous]

@Mjstrong 

To be honest I've always found iplayer the most stable of the apps but tonight trying to watch Silent Witness it was all over the place.

Puck reboot sorted it.  

[Stormed]

Yes I've found it quite slow too and probably down to Sky making the hardware as cheap as possible therefore having limited RAM. 

[SlenderRobert]

Stream is excellent for live channels & Sky's own streamed on-demand content, but I have to agree, all the third party apps are much slower & glitchier than on any other device I own. 

[Chrisee · Accepted solution]

@Stormed you are partially correct but for the wrong reason as the apps apparently run remotely on servers like a browser based app. The hardware within the Stream is therefore pretty irrelevant as the feed is like any other stream. There are advantages to this approach including very much quicker roll out of apps, no issues with version control etc etc. and a possible disadvantage of longer load time but on the other hand switching back to the native interface is nearly instant and you never are kept wating downloading a new version. 

This post from a knowledgable forum member explains the system used. 

[Mjstrong]

Ah, thanks @Chrisee!  That's very interesting and explains a hell of a lot. 

[Stormed]

@Chrisee - That's very interesting and I wasn't expecting that to be the setup! Yes things might take a bit longer to load but I've found the picture quality to be excellent for live TV etc which is why I'm sticking with it and enjoying Sky Stream 🙂

[SlenderRobert]

I can see the logic behind going with this method of server based apps - it's just a shame it spoils the experience for me by being so sluggish. 
I had the All4 app crash out on me last night just by doing a search within it. It also takes a good few seconds for the image quality to reach HD quality every time I start something on it. 
Whatever servers these apps are hosted on are not very quick at responding. It's adding annoying lag by having another stage in the communication process - it has to go user>server based app>All4 stream>server based app>user. 
I much prefer having the control of adding and removing apps, flushing caches, updating, restarting, etc which is why I'll stick with using the apps on other devices. 
For most folk though I can see why giving Sky the control of all this kind of thing is better - it makes the device management simpler for the less tech-savvy customer. 

[Chrisee]

@SlenderRobert the All4 app has taken on the wooden spoon for worst app from ITV Hub it badly needs updating IMHO. All 4 streams do seems to use rate adaptive streaming and like you I get glitches but its not that much better on my other platforms. 

Most of the other Stream apps work quite well with the current exception of ITVx which has a separate issue around ad insertion being discussed in another thread. 

[SlenderRobert]

@Chrisee 

I think All4 will be getting an upgrade soon when it's rebranded. Channel 4 have decided, in all their wisdom, to rename it Channel 4.... yes, Channel 4. They want to unify their brand into one, again pointing to the future of broadcasting as streaming. 

I think the app speed on Stream is also very much down to what you're used to. When my mother visited a couple of weeks ago she had a play with Stream and found it to be really good, much quicker in fact than the apps on her ageing LG TV. She's the sort who has to look down at the remote to check every button press before she presses it though, so nothing happens fast in her world. 
As you say, they work 'fine' for most folk but do work better on other devices. The teenagers in our house find Stream intolerably slow and tend to search on their phones and cast to TVs when they want something on the big screen. 

[xenon81]

Server based apps are common on many platforms now, but the device itself still needs to do some of the work and the processor and amount of RAM make a big difference. Much like  how browsing a modern website may feel slow and laggy on an old/low spec PC. 

[PSC133]

@Chrisee 

Very interesting.  It makes you wonder what refreshing apps in the settings actually does.  Maybe it just renews the link to an app?