TennisTV choppy video and stuttering - how to fix the problem

[speedysteve]

I thought I'd start a new thread about the TennisTV problems I've had, and the fix!

For a couple of years I've only really been able to use TennisTV and get smooth video using MS's Explorer (Win8) and then Edge (Win 10) browsers.

Chrome and Firefox always gave choppy video. I accepted this as it worked on Explorer and Edge in spite of TennisTV support always telling me that Chrome was their preferred browser and I should be using Chrome!
The old platform had it's problems - needing to clear cache and DNS flushing regular being major bugbears!

BTW, I use two laptops, one for upstairs, an old but good Lenovo X200 and a Lenovo G500 in the lounge that I connect up up to the big screen. Both work faultlessly with every other Streaming service Eurosport player, Netflix, Amazon prime, BBC Iplayer, Ch4 player, ITV etc etc.
I always have the latest OS, Browser, Adobe flash and Silverlight versions. Eurosport player uses Silverlight

Come the release of TennisTV's new platform (minus the WTA Grrr!), I have never been able to get a smooth stream using any browser! Always choppy and stuttering and unwatchable.

I raised this with TennisTV straight away, I'd and found it was only problem on the newer matches and replays that run at 6.0mb/s. The classic matches at 3.5mb/s all play fine.

3-4 weeks of prodding TennisTV for help - nothing, always the issue was passed on to the tech team but never anything back.
Oh yes, Their new service worked perfectly well on my Android Tablet! Just the screen is a bit small for any real tennis watching.

After much frustration I got some help from a friend of a friend who works in the browser industry.

I had been seeing processor loads on all browsers of up to 96% (well into the red) and thus the lagging and stuttering).
I have a plenty fast enough and stable internet connection BTW.

He advised me to do the following in Google Chrome - bear in mind I had avoided Chrome like the plague for 2-3 years of TennisTV watching!

Tick the hardware acceleration box in the settings box when the player is playing (right click - I'd tried this many times but not had any luck with this in any browser).
Now, most articles on the internet tell you to untick all HW acceleration setting as they cause problems!

BUT also I should now set HW acceleration in Google chrome settings - advanced settings, under System, tick Use HW acceleration when available.

With this done I instantly saw processor loads drop to 34-40% and the play became much smoother.

He also advised me to change the HW acceleration settings in google chrome Flags:

In the web address box type Chrome://flags - enable override of software rendering list settings and then find the GPU rasterization and enable.

After doing this and relaunching Chrome the processor load dropped to 25% and the processor speeds were regulating well below the max process capacity. The laptops are no longer running hot and the stream is always 6mb/s and completely smooth the whole time.

See

https://fixmynix.com/enable-hardware-acceleration-in-chrome-chromium-opera-slimjet/

Enable hardware acceleration in Chrome, Chromium, Opera ...
fixmynix.com
We often experience choppy graphics performance in almost any chromium based browser like Chrome, Chromium, Opera or Slimjet. Screen tearing and some dark


After doing this all is fine on both laptops and I get perfect smooth streaming for hours on end!

i have advised TennisTV of all this and that they should put the HW acceleration settings advice up on their support pages (which are quite frankly - useless).

Searching the internet it seems other chat fora folk are having the same choppy problems too! So I am not alone.

Hope this might help someone in the future...

 

[sportmac]

Been using TennisTV and Tennis Channel Plus for awhile now. Plus has an app on AppleTV and Roku and both work pretty well. For TennisTV I cast to my Google Cast and it's a big difference over using a device (tablet, computer). I think it's because of how Chrome Cast works. You still need to be casting it from a device but the Cast goes out and takes finds it then takes over from the device (I think that's what it's doing). So it's the same quality as a built in app on AppleTV/Roku. I also read where TennisTV is working on apps for these devices.

Bad thing about it is that from a laptop browser it's kind of funky getting full screen. Have to play with it a bit. Not an issue with phone or tablet.

I prefer TennisTV. Has a lot more tournaments. Though you're right, no WTA this year. The WTA is working on their own streaming service which is supposed to come out this year. I just saw where Plus is going to be broadcasting all of Indian Wells WTA matches.

 

[speedysteve]

We finally got a new smart big TV this year, and so the HDMI ports opened up new possibilities.

Chromecast works well in 1080p set up from my TennisTV phone app.

TennisTV does not currently support TV App / Browser smartness though.

WTATV doesn't have an app yet but it works well enough to Chromecast from phone browser.
The browser app does work and the picture is slightly better but it forgets the login id and PW, so a real pain in the arse..

 

[am1899]

For the benefit of others, I’m bumping this. I started with tennistv last month. Everything was fine, except the output on the tv was just slightly jittery - enough that watching was just not that enjoyable. Over time it drove me nuts.

After some digging, I discovered that tennistv streams their content at 50fps. By contrast, most other American television content is streamed at 60fps. As such, most tv’s and streaming sticks, boxes, cable boxes, etc made for the US market are set by default to fire video signal to the monitor/tv at 60hz. Once I switched my appletv to 50hz for tennistv, I received beautifully smooth playback. Hope this helps someone.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I believe all that is needed is a little percussive adjustment. A good-sized hammer might be required in some instances.

 

[am1899]

@SystemicAnomaly dont think I didn’t consider that!