A FIX for freezing and buffering issues?

[Michael Wright]

I was having issues with the screen freezing and of course buffering on my U5. On a whim, I bought the ifi LAN iSilencer and installed one at my Comcast/Xfinity router, and another at my Verizon router, I have two ISPs, two different internet services, so two of these ifi units in my case. The freezing and buffering issues are not 100% gone, but I would say 90% is. We have watched TV for hours at a time in the past week without one single freeze on multiple channels. And my troublesome channels, the freezing issue is now not that big a deal. It will freeze at times, but now it is momentary, and pops right back. Check out one of these ifi LAN iSilencer units, they work on both wired and WiFi setups, I have tested. Hope this helps someone. 

[nbs.]

I watch TV for hours at a time freeze free without using those devices

[dishuser]

 I would have 2 bought 2 E5's for that cost

[Michael Wright]

Well, I was trying to help folks out with IPTV services, I thought this would help. Instead, smartass remarks. I will erase the above, no use wasting my time with a device that actually works. Thanks guys! 

[dishuser]

21 minutes ago, Michael Wright said:

Well, I was trying to help folks out with IPTV services, I thought this would help. Instead, smartass remarks. I will erase the above, no use wasting my time with a device that actually works. Thanks guys! 

good luck trying to erase

[Emporium]

Sorry dude, but this device looks like a bunch of snake oil.There is 0 technical information on it.  Just a bunch of marketing buzz words.  Any testing and non-bias reviews have shown negligible differences.

I don't see how you say this is applicable to both wired and wireless.  This is a ethernet device with RJ45 ends.  What does that have to do with wireless ?

Your money is better spent replacing aging network hardware people may have in their network setups already.  Crappy old model Dlink switches are huge problems on networks even if your devices are not directly plugged into them.  I have had at least 3 cases (one being my own network), where an old dlink switch was causing chaos on the network.  Had all sorts of dropped packets, inexplicably, devices would stop communicating and other bizarre issues.  I tried for weeks to figure out the issue, until one day I just unplugged and replaced the dlink switch with another switch, and the whole network just stabilized.  Worst part is this dlink switch I replaced was not even a "main" switch, it was just a small switch I had in my garage for the occasional testing.  My main switch at the time was a 24port Netgear Prosafe managed switch.  The dlink was not even feeding anything at the time, it was just connected to my main switch.

Also, if you do have cables running in the house, ensure they are of a good quality.  And if you crimped your own ends, make sure the connections were properly done.  The amount of poor crimping I have seen, is nuts.  If your cables run very close to power cables, that feed high powered devices (like water heaters, larger motor/compressors, heating systems, etc..) try to use shielded cable (STP instead of the usual UTP).  It does make a huge difference for network stability.

Cables are NOT all the same.  And just because they are stamped CAT 7, CAT 8, etc.. does not always mean they are better.  I'd prefer a good quality CAT 5, over crappy $1 cable claiming to be a CAT 7.  And just because those $10 network cable testers say the cable is good, does not mean it is good.  Just means there is continuity on all pins.  But when you put a load on it, it may not behave properly.

Fix the source of the issues, rather than spending money on these snake oil products. 

The U5 is NOT the problem.  It just streams.  I have a U5, X5, Classic, E5, B5 and older boxes on my home network and have no issues with freezing on any of them (at least not once I got rid of that crappy switch).  I was at mom's yesterday and she has the lowest model (the B5) and for 3 hours I was there, there was not  a single glitch.  But in her case, the modem/router and the B5 are right next to each other, connected with  short cat 6A cable, with no other wired devices on the modem. rock solid.

 

 

[Michael Wright]

Well, sorry to disappoint, it works. Even the picture quality improved. That is the problem with you measurement guys, you are like a cult. You will bash folks, but will never put your money where your mouth is and actually purchase the products you tear apart. It is like commenting on a book you have never read. Hypocrisy and dishonesty, what a way to live. 

[Michael Wright]

The cabling, it all passed on my test gear, and the U5 is the only streaming device out of over a dozen in the house that has issues. Everything else runs just fine. I have home runs from my electrical panel to the AV gear, NetGear switches, a variety of QUALITY Cat6 Ethernet cabling, installed myself and tested. The ifi device worked, it solved an ongoing issue along with improving the picture quality. In fact, I have a dedicated ISP for the streaming, and a separate one for the rest of the house. And yes, I swapped around ISPs and still had an issue with the U5. For $89 it was worth a shot, and I could return it if it did not work, well, it worked. Lot's of folks swear by these ifi sticks, stating it solves these hang up issues with a variety of devices, especially with streaming music and some hardware. Saying it is snake oil when so many out here, at least in my research, have solved these annoying issues with this particular device.  

Some of the streaming devices, all without issue, all hard wired... 2 Roku Ultra units, two Apple TV units, one Volumio Rivo Streamer, one WiiM Ultra streamer, two WiiM Pro and one WiiM mini streamers, one Pi2 Mercury V2 streamer, and probably a few more... The U5 is the only one with issues, and the ifi LAN stick now has it running pretty solid. Snake oil or not, which is BS, the device works. 

[Michael Wright]

5 hours ago, dishuser said:

good luck trying to erase

You are right, bunch of jackasses here. 

[Ryu]

1 minute ago, Michael Wright said:

You are right, bunch of jackasses here. 

you are here too 

[dishuser]

2 minutes ago, Michael Wright said:

You are right, bunch of jackasses here. 

so only your opinion matters?

are you sure your name isn't kevin?

[dishuser]

13 hours ago, Michael Wright said:

And my troublesome channels, the freezing issue is now not that big a deal. It will freeze at times, but now it is momentary, and pops right back.

doesn't sound like it worx to me

[Ryu]

9 minutes ago, Michael Wright said:

The cabling, it all passed on my test gear, and the U5 is the only streaming device out of over a dozen in the house that has issues. Everything else runs just fine. I have home runs from my electrical panel to the AV gear, NetGear switches, a variety of QUALITY Cat6 Ethernet cabling, installed myself and tested. The ifi device worked, it solved an ongoing issue along with improving the picture quality. In fact, I have a dedicated ISP for the streaming, and a separate one for the rest of the house. And yes, I swapped around ISPs and still had an issue with the U5. For $89 it was worth a shot, and I could return it if it did not work, well, it worked. Lot's of folks swear by these ifi sticks, stating it solves these hang up issues with a variety of devices, especially with streaming music and some hardware. Saying it is snake oil when so many out here, at least in my research, have solved these annoying issues with this particular device.  

Some of the streaming devices, all without issue, all hard wired... 2 Roku Ultra units, two Apple TV units, one Volumio Rivo Streamer, one WiiM Ultra streamer, two WiiM Pro and one WiiM mini streamers, one Pi2 Mercury V2 streamer, and probably a few more... The U5 is the only one with issues, and the ifi LAN stick now has it running pretty solid. Snake oil or not, which is BS, the device works. 

after reading about this device this device nothing but helps with noise cancelation sound related. this clearly tells that there problem in your network. you said all passed on your test gear, but like emporium said pass mean nothing. and you know that you still got noise and noise filtering helped you but you are still having intermittent issue. it did not resolve 100%. what does this tells you? we dont have noise issue and thats why we dont see this problem. 

[Emporium]

30 minutes ago, Michael Wright said:

The cabling, it all passed on my test gear, and the U5 is the only streaming device out of over a dozen in the house that has issues. Everything else runs just fine. I have home runs from my electrical panel to the AV gear, NetGear switches, a variety of QUALITY Cat6 Ethernet cabling, installed myself and tested. The ifi device worked, it solved an ongoing issue along with improving the picture quality. In fact, I have a dedicated ISP for the streaming, and a separate one for the rest of the house. And yes, I swapped around ISPs and still had an issue with the U5. For $89 it was worth a shot, and I could return it if it did not work, well, it worked. Lot's of folks swear by these ifi sticks, stating it solves these hang up issues with a variety of devices, especially with streaming music and some hardware. Saying it is snake oil when so many out here, at least in my research, have solved these annoying issues with this particular device.  

Some of the streaming devices, all without issue, all hard wired... 2 Roku Ultra units, two Apple TV units, one Volumio Rivo Streamer, one WiiM Ultra streamer, two WiiM Pro and one WiiM mini streamers, one Pi2 Mercury V2 streamer, and probably a few more... The U5 is the only one with issues, and the ifi LAN stick now has it running pretty solid. Snake oil or not, which is BS, the device works. 

Tested ?  With what type of tool and what type of testing ?  True network cable testers are prohibitively expensive for most people (including small businesses), often >USD$3K.  It is often cheaper to replace any suspected cable than to even consider getting real testers.  Most cheap testers out there just check basic continuity and that means squat. I can use old ribbon cables to build the patch cables and they would show as "passing" any testing.  And you may have quality cabling (as you claim), but what about the termination ?  Doesn't take much to break the CAT 6 compliance.  Untwist one too many time, leave a little too much slack, etc.  Everyone picks up a cheap $10 crimper and some jacks and thinks they are a pro because youtube told them they did it right.  Most don't even know that there are different jacks for solid and stranded cables.

Your device is snake oil, and what you claim of "improving the picture quality" is BS.  These are digitally encoded streams.  So unless you are losing massive amounts packets, so the device is forced to interpolate there is no way it will IMPROVE the picture quality.  And if you are losing packets, then there is an issue on your network.  Now if it was an analog signal you were passing over these cables, it would be different. 

Switches can also fail over time and there are different quality switches.  And even for unmanaged switches (I won't get into managed, since sky is the limit on those), there is a reason why there are $10 switches and $300 switches.  Low end junk will just split the signal and decrease the attenuation causing marginal signals to just get worse.  And the longer your runs, the worst it gets.   Better switches will properly regenerate the signals.  On the low end they will regenerate but better ones will condition and regenerate.  "If" this device does "anything", it is the latter (condition and regenerate a crappy signal), which means there is something wrong somewhere on your network.

If you feel this "solves" your "problem", then knock yourself out.  But you are just masking some other issues on your network.  Last year in April you kept blaming the U5 for all sorts of stuff, and at the end of the day you changed server providers, reset the U5 and you said that things stabilized and you and you were not heard from for a year.

Keep in mind IPTV is more than just getting a single server provider.  ISPs are actively trying to put a wrench into things.  So what works today may have issues tomorrow.  I know the various ISPs locally are alternating between who is blocking or throttling what regularly.  And many say to use VPN to help, but even a big VPN provider (n****) has been having issue with streaming services also.  So don't compare streaming a youtube video with streaming from an IPTV service provider.

Cabling and cable routing can make all the difference.  I have a buddy of mine who moved into his newly built home this summer, and during construction he had the whole thing wired for CAT 7 cabling using Panduit parts, from a local reputable network firm who did the install. And they used shielded riser rated cabling where needed.  In his previous house, he had a mixture of Mii box, Nvidia Shield, and even a few buzz boxes.  He had 2 boxes (even wired), that no matter what he did would always have glitches and freezing for IPTV and everything else seemed fine.  Fast forward in the new home, same ISP, same router, same boxes, but completely new wiring, and I gave him a 24 port Netgear Prosafe switch, and he is amazed that all his devices are now solid.  No glitching, no freezing, nada.

But, if you feel this snake oil product helped you, then great.. It just proves that it is not the U5 the problem.  It is something on your network obviously because you did not change anything on the U5.