Samsung Netflix Stream Freezes

[Gilbert Douglas]

I recently purchased a samsung bd-p1590 and have just started trying to stream movies through netflix instant play. Unfortunatley however, I have recently had a lot of problems with the movies freezing mid-play. Does anyone have any suggestions on potential fixes for this problem? I performed a firmware upgrade when first plugging the device.

[[e-mail]]

My experience tells me that hitting any button (FF, Rev, pause, etc) is what triggers this. Perhaps you FF or stop during the closing credits? That is probably why you have issues in the second movie.

[madisonhack]

Recent update.

I added 2 gig memory to the front USB port via SD card. The problem has been markedly changed and reduced. Now I don't get a freeze; what happens is after several movies played flawlessly, the fourth movie stopped, reloaded, and then continued running EXACTLY where it left off. This tells me that the problem is indeed memory related and by adding perhaps 8 gig to the front USB port I can probably eliminate the problem altogether. Remember, I said that the condition returns to normal after a power reboot, so this should give me enough memory to watch maybe 8-10 movies before I have to do that - if at all.

[[e-mail]]

VERY interesting....I shall give that a try one of these days.

[mscroggi]

I have a different opinion on this. I dont believe the freezes are due to a lack of memory. I have had lockups early in playback sessions, very late in sessions, or not at all.. I believe there is an issue where the players lose the timecode sync.

A thumb drive is a mounted filesystem to be read for displaying pictures etc by the player. It isn't used as system memory. Streaming video isnt stored on the thumb drives during playback. I am not saying that possibly plugging in a thumb drive changes the behavior of the unit. It just doesn't seem logical that plugging in a thumb drive somehow increases the system memory..

My $.02 FWIW

[madisonhack]

I disagree. The manual specifically says that the host USB port is used for memory when BD Live is being used. That is online content which is streamed. The manual also suggests at least 1 Gig of memory.

If you haven't tried this, you should.

[mscroggi]

Exactly it is storage for BD live. This is not system memory. Netflix streaming is not BD Live functionality

[madisonhack]

It is internet based data which streams from Netflix to your machine. I don't have any other explanation to understand why this has had the effect it has except that if it were strictly a time code issue, it would act randomly. It isn't random, in my case.

I could set a watch by the freezes after the first one.

I have a high speed oscilloscope in my home workshop. I could probably monitor the USB port during a playback of Netflix - when I have the time to do that - and tell you if I see anything on the buss. If I see data, my guess is that it's being offered to a parallel port for storage. If not, you have a winning argument.

[mscroggi]

Why not just unplug it after the next freeze and plug into a computer?

Anyway I hope I am wrong on this.. I dug up an old 4gb USB flash drive.. I have my fingers crossed. I will do some extensive testing and report back.

[mscroggi]

After setting up the USB drive, I started some testing. On the fourth movie streamed, I saw a freeze during playback at 1:34:43 in. I have done all the tricks posted on this board, but it appears there is still an issue.

damn!.

[dianeja]

Damn is right. There always seems to be something that works if you are willing to fuss with the unit long enough. Turning if off seems to be the simplest. It is just a shame that we have to go through such lengths to do so. Also, I wonder how many of us have reported back to Netflix that we experienced a problem with a movie. Too bad Samsung can not rise to the occasion to admit that there is a problem with freezinq and offer some type of solution or assistance. There is no mention of this problem in their "trouble shooting" section, nor has a any tech rep ever eluded to it while chatting online. I have learned to live with the problem and will think twice about ever purchasing a Samsung electronics product in the future due to their poor warranty. Be suspect of any product that offers only a 3 month warranty with free carry-in service. Not too many of us want to travel across the USA to deliver this product for a service check. So, be prepared to pay for postage -$15 bucks. If you can learn to live with the freezing, then you will probably enjoy the movies that work 100% and for most of the time.

[[e-mail]]

Or it is not supposed to be. But if we see that Samsung did something wrong with their firmware/hardware, why is it so hard to suppose that the error(s) could include some other wrong instruction regarding the manner in which external memory is actually being utilized...and because of that, this is a valid workaround?

[mscroggi]

I could definitely see it being some kind of memory leak which eventually exhausts buffer memory. The thing is,if this is the case, it should be easy for them to detect and fix. Samsung hasnt updated the firmware in months... Its pretty frustrating.