Speed requirements
| Quality | Stable speed per stream |
|---|---|
| SD | 3 to 5 Mbps |
| HD / Full HD | 8 to 10 Mbps |
| 4K | 25 Mbps |
Run a speed test on the TV device itself. On a Fire TV Stick, use a speed-test app or the network settings. Results on your phone next to the router tell you little about the TV in the next room.
The fixes, in order
- Restart your router and device. Unplug both for 30 seconds.
- Use a wired connection. An Ethernet cable, or an Ethernet adapter for a Fire TV Stick, is the single biggest fix.
- Improve Wi-Fi at the TV. Use the 5 GHz band, move the router out of cabinets, or add a mesh point or powerline adapter near the TV.
- Pause competing traffic. Game downloads, cloud backups and other streams all share your bandwidth.
- Check your screens. Several streams at once need several times the speed. See multi-screen.
- Lower the quality for that channel or device if your speed is borderline. Choose HD rather than 4K.
- Increase the app’s buffer size. TiviMate: Settings > Playback > Buffer size. Other apps have similar settings.
- Switch the player engine. IPTV Smarters lets you change the player in settings, and some channels play better on another.
- Clear the app cache and free up storage on the device.
- Turn off any VPN. It adds distance and slows streams. See IPTV and VPNs.
Device-specific tips
- Fire TV Stick: use the HDMI extender and the mains power adapter, and consider the 4K Max. See Firestick fixes.
- Smart TVs: older TV processors struggle with large channel lists. A streaming stick often fixes it.
- Laptops: plug in and turn off power-saving modes.
When it isn’t your setup
If every channel buffers on every device, even on a wired connection, check the service status and contact us. If only one channel buffers, tell us which, as it may be a source issue we can fix. To understand what happens between our servers and your screen, read how IPTV servers work.