Sky puck sound and/or picture intermittently freezes when watching (mostly) UHD content

[mojo_333]

When viewing UHD content live (e.g. F1) or on-demand (e.g. Day of the Jackal) in UHD, the picture and or sound will freeze for a number of seconds at vartiable times throught the program which makes it unwatchable.

Setup: Sky Puck wired directly to router with WiFi option in the Sky Puck disabled.

Router Speed: 1GB down / 110Mb/s up (Virgin Media 1GB line)

Sometimes if I reboot the Sky Puck, I can watch a UHD program without freezing for about 15 minutes but eventually the intermittant freezing will start.

I have a second Sky Puck on WiFi (as it cannot run via Ethernet) and have the same experience.

I have tried a factory reset as well but unfortunately about 30 minutes into a UHD program it started freezing again.

It feels like the Sky Pucks are either processor bound i.e. some random process(es) causing 100% CPU spikes or it's RAM constrained when trying to buffer UHD content and can't buffer enough to smooth the stream.

I also have Apple TV and I have never had this issue on that device - always been very smooth UHD content via AppleTV, Netflix, Prime etc.

Any help appreciated.

[GD1]

@mojo_333  It may well be worth  swtching to wif if you have a strong & fast speed on that, although ethernet should stopp any interference there could be a cable issue.

Wifi on the VM Hub 5 is wifi 6, pucks support wifi 6 & in theory should get around 600 - 700mbps.

Before doing that I woukd open the netflix app on yhe puck, go to get Hel[p and run the connection test, what speed is being reported?

[Mister_Dalek]

@mojo_333 

The key difference between the Stream puck and the Apple TV 4K box (aside from price) is that the entire OS and all apps are downloaded and stored locally on the Apple device. With Sky Stream, all of the apps are stored on a server, therefore adding an extra bit of latency when streaming. Various parts of the Entertainment OS are also stored on the server (such as the EPG and playlist logs) hence the need for there to be a constant, stable connection to that server. 

Unfortunately Stream pucks can be very sensitive to any form of speed or quality fluctuation in your broadband connection, hence the glitches you are experiencing. 

There's also speculation that customers on different servers can often suffer fewer or not have any glitches if that server is less congested than others. 

[mojo_333]

Hi @GD1 

My 2nd Sky Puck is on Wi-Fi and I have the same issue unfortunately as the wired one.  I did a Netflix test as suggested and get a connection speed of 81.12 Mbps. 

Thanks for the info / suggestions (@Mister_Dalek as well) but not sure where to go from here as the UHD service as it stands is unuseable. 

[Exiled-in-HH]

You can use YouTube nerd stats mode to check connection speed variability😉

[mojo_333]

@Exiled-in-HH a good idea. Ran on both wired and wireless versions of my Sky pucks and neither had any dropped frames when viewing 4k content for approximately 15 minutes. Connection speed was variable but circa 79094Kbps. 

Out of interest, I started watching Dune yesterday in UHD on my wired puck and it  started stuttering / freezing in the 2nd minute or so. I got fed up and rebooted the puck and managed to watch the whole program (about an hour long) without any glitches. Unfortunately just watched another UHD program now and glitching again. 

[j4m355]

@mojo_333 I am having the same issue as you describe.  I have 3 pucks and a Glass and they all suffer the same symptom. 

My glass is wired and 2 of my 3 pucks are. For both wired and wifi the symptom is the same. 

I am also a Virgin Media broadband user with 1gb line.  Speed test via Netflix app on all my devices is between 81 and 83 mbps. My internet connection speed wise is fast and stable - wired and wireless for my computers are a lot higher than 81-83mbps. 

I do not have issues with apps like Netflix or YouTube. However Day of the Jackal is unwatchable for the number of pauses, same with other Sky On Demand content. 

Everythign was fine until the past two weeks. Is this the same for you?

[mojo_333]

@j4m355 it's been longer than 2 weeks (e.g. watching F1 has been problematic for a while but not overly so) but definitely the stuttering/freezing (video and/or sound) has been a lot worse over the last two weeks. 

Rebooting the pucks seem to help for a bit, anywhere from 15 minutes to being able to watch a whole episode in UHD but it's madness if I have to do this before each UHD show I want to watch. Just to add, I cannot ever pause or fast forward a UHD show e.g. over initial credits as this immediately brings on stuttering of video and/or sound. 

[j4m355]

Thanks for your reply @mojo_333 

I wonder if there is a point of note in us both being VM broadband customers and if there could be a routing issue at the ISP level and out of our control.

Would be interested to see if any other VM internet customers have the same issue. I haven't watched enough live tv of late to be able to comment, but I have been looking forward to the F1 this weekend and am now fearful.

Have you tried ringing Sky Support yet? Any success? I'm a bit afraid to because I worry i'll get patronised and get no where, then get angry. But if there are a few of us, i'd feel better about making a case for investigation.