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Samsung tv app freezing

Timheffer — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 18:57:32 GMT

Has anyone got any advice on how to fix an issue we have with the BT Sport app on a Samsung TV? Used to work fine, but now works for about a minute and then the picture freezes and audio continues. Able to go back and start again but the same happens. No issues with Netflix, Amazon Prime etc and the checker says there are no issues with the internet

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

DarrenDev — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 19:04:49 GMT

Are you watching BT Sport Ultimate? (you'll see the Ultimate logo in the corner of the screen). If so, then instead of clicking the match you want to watch from the front screen, try going across to the channels menu at the top and then select the channel it's on. When asked if you want to watch on Ultimate, say no.

The problem with Ultimate at the moment is that it's only available in higher video quality, so if you have any bandwidth issues it can't keep up with the lowest available quality and switches to audio-only.

We're working on a solution.

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

Timheffer — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 20:15:00 GMT

I don’t believe I have access to ultimate and the same issue happens if I select the channel from the list

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

Timheffer — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 20:17:06 GMT

Sometimes there appears to be a timing issue when it happens too as the audio goes back about 30 seconds

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

DarrenDev — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 21:19:11 GMT

OK, these aren't issues we've heard of before.

Could you please provide your TV model number?

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

Timheffer — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:22:19 GMT

UE55MU6400

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

tom196 — Sun, 02 May 2021 09:42:23 GMT

Same issue for me. Worked fine a few weeks ago, now the picture freezes after 30 secs but the sound continues.

TV model UE50MU6120

I've deleted and reinstalled the app, nothing changes. This happenes on all channels too

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

mbw1982pembury — Sun, 02 May 2021 12:50:18 GMT

I have the same issue.

Samsung Frame Model Code: UE49LS03N

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

Rob221 — Sun, 02 May 2021 15:28:34 GMT

same thing happening with my samsung tv after about 30 seconds , I've deleted and reinstalled the app and no matter how you select how to watch it it happens on all live channels.

worked fine until today , i have a 300mb connection working fine so can't be a bandwidth or speed issue

the picture freezes the audio goes back in a 30 second loop

tv model UE65MU8000

ive rebooted tv as well

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

DarrenDev — Sun, 02 May 2021 16:55:46 GMT

Unfortunately, our ability to debug issues like this on Samsung TVs is limited. It isn't something we see on any of the devices we have, so we have no way of identifying the cause.

The advice we've been given by Samsung for issues like this is (test the app between each step):

1. Check for TV software updates

2. Reinstall the app

3. Factory reset the TV

If these steps fail, Samsung have advised that you should call their helpdesk and they can remotely control your TV to obtain further details on the cause of failure.

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

mbw1982pembury — Sun, 02 May 2021 18:11:13 GMT

I don't think this is really acceptable. BT Sport must have done something in the last 2 weeks to cause this issue but are reverting to Samsung.... Reinstall and reset has got me nowhere. Clearly an issue here with Samsung devices.

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

DarrenDev — Sun, 02 May 2021 18:32:47 GMT

We are in the process of enabling content protection on all our streams, as required by our contracts with the football leagues.

This is something that all devices should be able to cope with, and many thousands of devices are coping with just fine.

There are a few exceptions, however we have no way to diagnose issues with the player on Samsung TVs. It is for this reason that Samsung have specifically recommended to us that we provide the above instructions to users who have any problems.

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

Rob221 — Mon, 03 May 2021 07:41:39 GMT

thanks DarrenDev

i can't see how reseting the tv to factory settings will help when its only freezing on the live channels, the highlights work fine and i think the extra channels are ok although i can't check that at the moment as there's no feeds

if anyone has had success by resetting to factory default id be surprised, its a considerable inconvenience to have to reinstall all the apps and passwords but worth it if it works.

incidentally it is working fine on my other samsung tv (for now)

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

mbw1982pembury — Mon, 03 May 2021 08:06:17 GMT

I'm going to have to revert to Samsung help desk when I get a moment. Till then can only view on tablet and phone.

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

DarrenDev — Mon, 03 May 2021 08:30:24 GMT

Content protection is currently only enabled on the live channels, which is why you're only seeing an issue there.
A key part of content encryption delivery is individualisation - this happens when the TV is first booted, causing it to generate a key that is globally unique to that device. Just a guess, but if that fails or the key becomes corrupt in any way, it may require a reset to generate it again? Pure guesswork though, as we can't see the internal logs to see the reason for failure.

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

Rob221 — Mon, 03 May 2021 09:01:27 GMT

Has anyone had any success with a factory reset? and could anyone share the Samsung support number? i hope they are better than BT support

i used to really enjoy the 4K sport 😞

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

Rob221 — Mon, 03 May 2021 09:47:48 GMT

not surprisingly BT tech support haven't got a clue and have never heard of this issue before

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

DarrenDev — Mon, 03 May 2021 10:33:38 GMT

You guys did start to worry me a bit thinking we had a wider issue here, so I've been digging into some statistics. We don't see the broken video experience in our logs, so we can't tell it's happening (the player doesn't report any errors to us). Instead, we're reliant on session length - assuming people stop playing if the video stops working.

Based on that assumption, I've compared viewing figures over the last couple of weeks to see any difference between when content protection is turned on, vs when it's turned off. I'm not seeing any anomalies.

Taking the specific TV models that have been mentioned in this thread, I can see the following average viewing times on Saturday:

UE55MU6400 94.9 minutes

UE49LS03N 96.7 minutes

UE50MU6120 101 minutes

UE65MU8000 112 minutes

The only statistic that looks a little suspicious to me is the app version - specifically just for Samsung 2017 TV models (with M in the model code) version 1.0.3 of the app has an average viewing time of 97 minutes, whereas 1.0.2 is only 39 minutes. This suggests possibly a problem with the older app version, but you guys say you've already tried reinstalling the app (which would always take the latest app version).

So I'm afraid this issue really does look like it's just affecting some specific devices, and Samsung really are the best people to talk to about it.

On your TV settings menu, there should be a "Support" menu, which then has a "Request Support" option. There, you can enter your phone number and request that Samsung call you back - it'll also send a device report to Samsung so they know everything they need to before they speak to you.

There's really no benefit to calling the BT helpdesk about this. The best you could hope for is that they'll raise a ticket that may eventually get through to our customer experience team, who'll then speak to me or one of my colleagues. They're not trained for or briefed on complex faults that only affect small numbers of people.

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

Rob221 — Mon, 03 May 2021 10:44:43 GMT

well here's the latest, after a lengthy conversation with Samsung support it was decided that even though the tv is set to autoupdate and it says its on the latest version a manual download of the latest file to usb and then select it to update manually this didn't work either, unbelievably the next suggestion was to speak to who i bought the TV from !! really !!

so in short the BTsport app that worked fine until yesterday on my Samsung TV now doesn't work BT say talk to Samsung, samsung say speak to who you bought the TV from , good luck with that , hope someone else has more success than me

Re: Samsung tv app freezing

DarrenDev — Mon, 03 May 2021 10:50:35 GMT

By telling you to speak to who you bought the TV from, they're suggesting that you get a warranty repair/replacement. i.e. your TV is broken and needs to be repaired/replaced.