Having been involved on and off video production over the last 30 years, I will categorically state what is causing all the issues people are having with jerky video, and a total fix Google could implement TODAY with just a few lines of code.
Why am I getting judder, frame skips, jitter, jerkiness, artifacting, flashes or sporadic lagging?
All of these issues (every single one, period) is caused by frame rate mismatch between the content app, Google streamer and finally your TV.
Whilst different TV's might exhibit different types of judder symptoms, all of these problems (every single one, every single time, 100%) can be fixed by the TV switching to the same frame rate as the content being played.
I worked on these industry problems (and the solutions) over 20 years ago, and the solutions have been in place since then.
The modern day solution further expands and fixes the problem 100%. This solution is called frame rate switching or seamless frame rate switching. This means your device adjusts your TV to the appropriate frame rate to eliminate all of these problems, all of the time.
So why are some of my apps having issues and others play smooth as butter video?
Because the APP DEVELOPER has not enabled frame rate switching in the app.
So if the app developers can't be bothered to fix it, how can Google fix this issue TODAY, with a few lines of code?
As some app developers haven't implemented frame rate switching, the solution Google can provide is to allow users to set individual frame rates for each app.
For example, ITVX and NowTV are UK apps, all of the content is encoded at 25fps. To fix the judder completely, go into your Google streamer display settings and set the frame rate to 25 fps (Hz).
The issue is it will make all your other American apps judder because they are encoded in 24 fps. And so, to watch your American apps, you'd have to go back and set the frame rate to 24fps. It's a pain, and not something we should have to do in 2025.
This is why my workaround of setting frame rates PER APP will fix absolutely everything, period.
The option would look something like this
ITVX - Set Desired Frame Rate: 25fps, [X] Ignore frame rate setting if seamless frame rate signal received
Disney+ - Set Desired Frame Rate: 24fps, [X] Ignore frame rate setting if seamless frame rate signal received
This would allow you to set the frame rate for each app, but ignore the setting if the app suddenly decides to work properly and actually send the seamless frame rate signal.
I like to enable the motion smoothing effect on my TV, will your solution fix that too?
Yes, 100%. My solution will solve all of the secondary issues that cause motion smoothing lags / frame skips. It's a complete fix for people with motion smoothing enabled or disabled.
Google doesn't need millions of dollars of research, nor endless support teams and investigations, just put this simple feature in that sets the Android TV system frame rate before launching the app, and the problem will be fixed, dead and buried for good. As a bonus, Google could set Android TV to change the frame rate back to 60fps when a user goes back to the home screen, to ensure a smooth UI experience on the home screen.
I can't believe that nobody at Google is aware of this horrible problem and the absolutely simple and easy fix. My only guess is that their support is outsourced and the people answering all your questions have no idea of what the problem is.
Therefore, I encourage every single person on here to copy this post, contact Google support and insist it is forwarded to their dev team. Once they see the solution, I'm sure they'll implement my fix and push it out as soon as possible to avoid any future damage to the products reputation.
There is nothing wrong with your Google streamer hardware, and this is not a hardware issue. Your hardware is more than capable of streaming frame rates up to 60fps with zero stutter, lag or juddering.
Can I ask people to share this on Reddit and every other social media channel you can think off. If you see anyone posting about Judder, just copy and paste my post as the reply. We have to get this over to the developers so this problem can finally be fixed and put to bed. Only then can we can all finally enjoy what is otherwise an awesome Google product. I know everybody here loves their Google streamer, and just wants this problem fixed. So please, share far and wide and let's get the job done!
