# Picture Quality on Amazon Fire TV Stick



## MJedi (Jun 17, 2002)

Hello all,

I recently got an Amazon Fire TV Stick (2nd-Generation) to stream from my TiVo Bolt at my house to my in-law’s house. It works okay, except the picture quality degrades, gets better, and degrades again while watching. I don’t think it’s the Internet because we have 10 Mbps upload at my house, and 50 Mbps download at the in-laws. Also, if I stream using the TiVo app on my iPad, the quality is steady. Is it that the Fire TV Stick can’t process the stream quickly? Would a higher-end Fire TV be better? Or the app on the Fire TV is just not good?


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## Puppy76 (Oct 7, 2004)

If it's working on your iPad, I'd guess it's the hardware or the program. 

A work around MIGHT be getting an AppleTV, and using Airplay with an iPad/iPhone. (I've not done it, though am curious about it...)


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

MJedi said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I recently got an Amazon Fire TV Stick (2nd-Generation) to stream from my TiVo Bolt at my house to my in-law's house. It works okay, except the picture quality degrades, gets better, and degrades again while watching. I don't think it's the Internet because we have 10 Mbps upload at my house, and 50 Mbps download at the in-laws. Also, if I stream using the TiVo app on my iPad, the quality is steady. Is it that the Fire TV Stick can't process the stream quickly? Would a higher-end Fire TV be better? Or the app on the Fire TV is just not good?


I think it may be that 10Mbps upload speed that is causing your problems, much of the TV signals that you record are going to exceed that bit rate and cause either buffering or reduction in quality, do you have an affordable speed tier which will give you 20Mbps upload?


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## MJedi (Jun 17, 2002)

Puppy76 said:


> If it's working on your iPad, I'd guess it's the hardware or the program.
> 
> A work around MIGHT be getting an AppleTV, and using Airplay with an iPad/iPhone. (I've not done it, though am curious about it...)


This is what I've been doing. It was cumbersome, which is why I wanted to try the Amazon Fire TV Stick option.



fcfc2 said:


> I think it may be that 10Mbps upload speed that is causing your problems, much of the TV signals that you record are going to exceed that bit rate and cause either buffering or reduction in quality, do you have an affordable speed tier which will give you 20Mbps upload?


If it's a bandwidth issue, how come the TiVo app on the iPad has no problem streaming?


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

MJedi said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I recently got an Amazon Fire TV Stick (2nd-Generation) to stream from my TiVo Bolt at my house to my in-law's house. It works okay, except the picture quality degrades, gets better, and degrades again while watching. I don't think it's the Internet because we have 10 Mbps upload at my house, and 50 Mbps download at the in-laws. Also, if I stream using the TiVo app on my iPad, the quality is steady. Is it that the Fire TV Stick can't process the stream quickly? Would a higher-end Fire TV be better? Or the app on the Fire TV is just not good?


Similar bandwidth with no problems at all.


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## MJedi (Jun 17, 2002)

Sparky1234 said:


> Similar bandwidth with no problems at all.


So your shows don't pixelate from time to time?


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

MJedi said:


> So your shows don't pixelate from time to time?


Never! I only have issues when the shows transmission is having problems area wide.... like NBC nightly news last night. Bolt+ recorded 27 minutes long, should have been 30 minutes, because of a glitch signal from the provider.

Netgear routers and hubs plus cat 6 ethernet throughout for 1GHz home network. I think the distribution of cable signal also makes a difference. Limited splitters and powered where needed.


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

OP, this happens all the time with the TiVo app on my FireTV box. Sometimes the PITA fixes don't always work, and this is all on my gigabit LAN. Meanwhile the same conditions on my FireTV using the SlingPlayer app provides clear, crisp HD with no hiccups, even the DishAnywhere app on the Fire also provide stable no hiccups HD clear and crisp.

It feels like TiVo is just not really working to make the TiVo app what it could be.


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