Sony KDL-32W706B & Amazon Instant Video

[conceptual_primate]

Hi everyone,

First time poster here.

I purchased a Sony Bravia TV (model above) a few weeks ago for the bedroom after reading many positive reviews of the model.  All set up no problem, however I have this persistent issue on Amazon Instant Video and I am not sure if this is the app, the TV or the network.

In short, it will play a show for a short while before looking like it is buffering, but then give me an error message to the effect "Attention: this video is taking longer to load than expected, please retry or check your network connection or try again later"  No matter how many times I "Retry" it will never reload.  If I choose "Exit" the whole app will freeze for several minutes before finally returning to the TV.  I have had the occasional buffering issue with Netflix, although it doesn't appear as frequent... but that might just be my more frequent use of Amazon at the moment.

My first thought (after searching online) was maybe I have a WIFI deadspot in the bedroom so I bought a Sky wireless booster, and this had no effect (i.e. still crashing when connected).  Furthermore, I have just bought a PS4 the other day which is also in the bedroom and this can play Amazon instant video via the onboard app with no streaming issues (the picture seems better quality as well) it is situated right beside the TV.  This suggests to me the issue is the TV.

To back this up further, running a speedtest on my laptop in the bedroom I get 9.5Mb average download speed, which should be plenty of juice for Amazon (I would have thought).

Other symptoms (some may just be the nature of the beast re: SMART TVs) is that the interface seems generally sluggish.  i.e. I will often press the [HOME] key on the remote and it will take 5-10s for a response; sometimes the TV will "ping" to say it has registered my button press but then do nothing.  As a first experience of SMART TV cannot say I am impressed if this is the norm... almost frustrating to the point of unusable.

To clarify as well, when I am experiencing these issues, there isn't an abundance of devices using the wifi, probably only the TV really.  I have also confirmed the firmware is up to date and have performed a factory reset with no avail.  Do these symptoms sound like anything anyone else has experienced and has a fix for, or is this par for the course / nature of the (disappointing beast)?

Hoping someone can help, may consider replacing under warranty if not.

Regards,

Stuart

[Anonymous]

Hi there

I guess the first thing to do, is actually rule out Wifi altogether (either confirm its the issue or disregard it).  Can you test using a wired connection (ethernet cable) between the TV and the router and see what happens?

Cheers

[conceptual_primate]

Hi Quinnicus. Thank you for your response. As the router is downstairs and no phone port in the bedroom, I haven't tried this admittedly, however I had used an ethernet cable between the wireless booster and the TV, with no difference in outcome. In my head, this should be an equivalent check (given speed test, other devices etc).

Stuart

[Anonymous]

Hi there

I note that you have stated that you have the latest firmware installed and that you have done a factory reset already.  Also as no others have complained (as far as I am aware), we really have to look at the setup and reduce things back to the bare basics - at least for a test anyhow.

As the TV is 32" and not a 60+" beast, I would strongly recommend that you move the TV close to your ISPs router and connect to it via an ethernet cable.  I am a fuddy duddy on Wifi and streaming - too many issues can occur on which streaming requires a constant 'stream' of data (we will leave the buffering out of it for this arguement though). Even with a cable from the Wifi booster (AP?), you are still relying on wifi at some point of the way.

Also, its been a fair while since ive used Amazon video (was Lovefilm then), if this still produces problems when streaming, is there a way to lower the quality of the video (just in case, thats the issue)?

Please test this out anyhow, and see how things go?

Cheers