Amazon Prime Always Errors

[bearmccloud]

I have a roku device connected to my TV and runs through a wireless modem from Hugh's Net. I can watch Netflix, Roku channel, history and other apps like Freevee but each time I try to watch Amazon Prime, it says "an error has occured" and forces me to go back to the Ama,on Prime home screen. I'm using an HDMI cable between the roku and TV, and this only happens on Hugh's Net. I also notice that the ping time is around 1 second when running speed tests through speedtest.net. please help me understand why I cannot watch Prime videos using Hugh's Net

[GabeU]

If you have one to try it on, does Prime Video work when you try it with the browser on your computer? 

As for the latency (ping), it's normally somewhere between 600ms - 650ms with geostationary satellite internet service like HughesNet. If you know how to, and again if you have one, I'd try testing the ping rate with your computer. Speedtest.net can often give odd results with HughesNet. The recommended speed site to use for HughesNet is testmy.net, but the latency results with that site can often be way out of whack as well.

[bearmccloud]

Unfortunately, I do not ha e a computer to test on. However, I do have a phone and have tested using it. Typically, I get somewhere in the 800 to 900 ms with about 180Mbps download rates. I just tested it twice and got 817 ms at 189.42 bps on the latest test, which is the better of the two tests.

[bearmccloud]

I just tested the testmy.net and had between 600ms and 1.2s with deviations between 15% and 58% for both a city in the same state and hitting amazon servers.

[Damian]

@bearmccloud,

Thank you for posting and welcome to the community. I am sorry to hear this. I took the liberty of running remote diagnostics and the equipment is reporting as fully operational as well as ample data left. I do, however, see that all of the devices connected to your network show either poor or fair signal. This will definitely cause severe buffering and time out errors. Moving your Roku stick closer to the modem or using a WIFI extender would help with this. Now due to the fact that your other streaming services work despite the poor signal quality, the amazon app may be more sensitive to poor signal quality on Roku sticks and TV's specifically. Inherent satellite latency combined with weak signal can make streaming app's act strangely but seems to be much more common with the Amazon Roku app, based on anecdotal evidence. If getting an extender from our company or moving the device closer to the modem is not possible, the best I can recommend is downloading Amazon prime videos for offline view through your phone and casting it to your tv or using a device that can display video from USB to HDMI. -Damian   

[bearmccloud]

Damian,

I am unable to move the roku device closer to the wifi modem as it sits less than 3 feet from the modem. As for downloading from my phone and casting to the TV, it is not a smart TV so that is not an option. 

Based on what you've said, and correct me if I am wrong, is that Hughsnet is not stable enough to handle Amazon Prime?

[maratsade]

 "Based on what you've said, and correct me if I am wrong, is that Hughsnet is not stable enough to handle Amazon Prime?"

If it were, everyone would experience the same issue, and that's not so. It may be that in your area, or with your configuration, Prime doesn't work as well. 

[MarkJFine]

HughesNet is stable enough to handle Amazon Prime, as I've watched it myself.

What you're probably experiencing is a corrupted cached DNS entry, not an issue with lag time. Amazon likely uses a different path to it's streaming content than it's menuing application and the images it uses, and that path has been somehow corrupted. I've experienced this myself at times.

To correct this, you may want to:
1. Unpower your modem by removing the cord from the power brick - this will automatically kill any cached DNS entries.

2. While the modem is off, similarly remove the power input to your Roku - this will kill any cached entries in the Roku.

3. You may want to optionally unpower or restart anything else connected to the wifi to ensure those devices aren't similarly harboring any cached DNS entries that are corrupt.

4. Re-apply power to the modem and wait a few minutes until the wifi reappears.

5. When the modem is fully operational, restart your Roku (and any other devices).

[MarkJFine]

Having said all this, apparently Amazon changed the way it works with ads and there is a possibility that there's an issue with the way it now interacts with video optimization. If you have video optimization always enabled, temporarily snooze it to make the 'oops, it seems a problem occurred. please try later' go away.

[GabeU]

Hopefully a rep will reply soon to help.