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About a month ago we started having issues with Amazon Instant Video on our home entertainment PC—the videos it streams end up being choppy and stutters. For the most part it's not that bad but still really annoying, and we don't have the same issue on any of the other computers. What kind of things should I be checking to fix it?

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  • Since I'm not allowed to answer: vanilla install of Firefox did the trick.
    – Andrew
    Feb 8, 2020 at 17:02
  • Well mostly fixed it. Amazon needs to get it together and live up to the "leadership principles" the preach.
    – Andrew
    Feb 10, 2020 at 8:26

8 Answers 8

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I have stuttering issues with Silverlight 5 in Netflix, especially after Silverlight updates. I figured out that it is a combination of settings and the video card driver being used. Silverlight does not play nice with HD or 3dp video card drivers. Try these steps if your video in Silverlight seems choppy, stutters, audio gets off, or the image looks like it is behind a pane of non-glare glass.

  1. Change your display settings to a lower resolution, keep stepping down until you find one that works well. 1152 x 864 usually works well for Netflix streaming.

  2. try playing with Hardware acceleration turned down or off in the display settings panel AND with it turned off in your browser.

  3. If these work some but not all the way press (Shift+Alt) while left clicking on the video and the Silverlight manager will pop-up. Select manual and a slower stream-buffer rate.

  4. If all else fails, try to install a slightly older video card driver and make sure the one you have is for the exact model card you are using. If the driver is compatible but not exact Silverlight will not always play smoothly on XP or Vista systems.

Good Luck, I wish you well, as SIlverlight is just a huge resource hog with older computers. It loves to steal all of your cpu, since Microsoft refuses to fix the hardware decoding/acceleration issue.

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  • Netflix always works well, but Amazon was stuttering in Chrome and audio lagging/mis-sync in Firefox. Lowering my desktop resolution and restarting browser fixed both. Thanks @Romanticapped
    – Will Thomson
    Aug 4, 2016 at 20:26
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Maybe your connection is not good enough for HD streaming. If that is the case, on the video page (example page for Under the Dome), click on "Also available in Standard Definition" to switch to standard definition and it should play smoothly.

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Uninstall Silverlight and watch using Adobe Flash player instead.

First delete these files:

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Silverlight.plugin
/Library/Receipts/Silverlight.pkg
/Library/Receipts/Silverlight_W2_MIX.pkg
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/WPFe.plugin
/Library/Receipts/WPFe.pkg

After you uninstall Silverlight, load the video page and click the Or watch using Adobe Flash link in the lower right hand corner (see screenshot below).

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I know this won't be a popular answer but I was having the same problems watching Amazon videos in the Chrome browser. Since I was using a Windows machine, I just started watching in Internet Explorer and it worked just fine. It would appear that Silverlight is optimized for Explorer.

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  • Note that this seems to work even without silverlight installed. For some reason GPU decode acceleration isn't working for amazon in chrome.
    – hazzey
    Dec 28, 2016 at 22:40
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I was watching Amazon videos HD Silverlight on Google Chrome. I started having long buffering time, choppy speech and other annoying things like mentioned in your question. I downloaded Mozilla Firefox, which was a very quick install, and now watch my Amazon videos there in HD Silverlight. Try it, it might work for you and it is quick and easy.

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Best answer is to remove all traces of Silverlight and to run Amazon through Flash... it works ... 100x better than Silverlight. Good luck.

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Change from 1080p or 1080i, to automatic (if watching on an HD TV.)

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Actually, the problem is not so much your computer as Amazon servers.

I have a stuttering / pausing / freezing issue quite consistently with Amazon, but with NO other server.

I am using a Roku, (a few different models,) and I also stream via my computer too and they all have the issue.

I have CBS, HBO Now, Netflix, You tube, I watch Newsy, Reuters, The NASA channel, and several others.

NONE of them have any issues whatsoever. ONLY Amazon.

This has led me to believe the problem is with Amazon, not me.

So keep a stiff upper lip, just deal with it and feel free to hate on Amazon.

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