Channels & viewing

[FENSTERBARON8]

I've been grumbling about this ever since I signed up, about 4 months ago.  To answer your question, it seems to have gotten somewhat better in the sense that less shows (for me, anyway) are having the buffering problem.  But any show that buffers once is going to buffer repeatedly.  That's been my experience anyway.  It's as if they have good servers and bad servers, and some percentage of the shows are on the bad server.  Based on my usage, about 15% to 25% of their shows are still hosted on inadequate servers. 

[SouthPawPhlly]

I've had intermittent problems but not so much to be annoyed.  You can call them.  208 254-0535.  

If you get an solution please post it here.

[FENSTERBARON8]

Thanks, I might just do that.  For me, the buffering is never intermittent, although, as I say, it only affects maybe 1 in 5 titles at most. But if buffering happens once in any film, it's sure to happen every few minutes in that film.   Occasionally it will hold out for as much as 10 minutes, but then it buffers yet again, and each time it takes longer to return to the film.  If I keep watching in spite of the buffering, I eventually get a message blaming the buffering on my supposedly "slow connection," although I have high-speed Internet and have never had a buffering problem anywhere else.

I'll post here when I get a little time to make that phone call.

PS It's Classic Reels in more way than one: not only are the videos old, but the whole watching experience transports one back to the 11K-modem days of the 1990s.

[SouthPawPhlly]

Classic Reels and Classic Reel are not the same company.  They may have the same type of content, but I did contact Classic Reels and was told that they are not the Classic Reel that streams on Roku.

I browsed through previous post concerning Classic Reel and the 'loading' issue goes back a couple of years.  Don't know why, I just found it interesting/confusing that it still continues.

Yeah, if the movie you want to watch starts loading you might as well give up because it will just continue to start and stop -- very frustrating. 

[chlojo1]

I'm seeing a lot more posts about buffering the last couple of days.  Basically I endorse what SouthPawPhilly said.  If the movie you're watching starts loading more than once, pick another flick.

And if you're getting the problem regularly and consistently, maybe paying 2.99 a month for all that aggravation isn't worth it.

Good luck.

[RokuKariza-D]

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the posts.

Does the issue only occur on a specific channel or across other channels on your Roku device? If you haven't tried yet, you may remove the channel > restart your Roku > add the channel back in. 

For step-by-step instructions, you can refer to this link: How do I resolve channel playback issues?

Moreover, if the issue persists from one channel after attempting the suggestions above, videos from other channels play fine, contact the channel provider's customer support team to report the issue and get help. Channels on Roku are maintained by the channel developer themselves. There's likely an issue within that specific channel that needs to be addressed with an update from them.

All the best,
Kariza

[SouthPawPhlly]

Removing and reinstalling Classic Reel doesn't work.  In my case, it's just Classic Reel that has a loading problem.  The real problem is contacting the channel provider because there is no available email nor has Roku provided any means to contact them.  I discovered a phone number by browsing old posts and was able to talk to a real person at Classic Reel.  That was in 2020 when we were all quarantined.  I was told it was because they had dozens of new subscribers and had to move  the movies to new servers.  The problem did get better but it never went really went away..

Instead of the same Roku rhetoric about reinstalling the channel it would be more helpful to provide information on how to contact Classic Reel.

When browsing old post the loading issue with Classic Reel is not a new one.  Users complained about it pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, and now post pandemic.

I apologize for my abrupt comments here, but I have seen the same Roku employee advice to reinstall the channel many times and being told to contact the channel without any information on how to contact channel.

[HumphreyBogart]

I fixed my Classic Reels constant buffering problem by demanding (politely of course) that Spectrum update my router and modem to their latest models.

That fixed the problem.  Classic Reels is now trouble free.

[SouthPawPhlly]

I'm pleased to hear that I already have all the new stuff and still see the loading issue from time to time.  I also updated to Roku Ultra which also seemed to help......  Maybe.

[FENSTERBARON8]

Thanks, Karza. The problem is finding a contact at Classic Reel.  There's more than one company with a similar name.  Someone provided a phone number in a previous post, tho' it sounds like someone may have already tried that and did not reach them. I tried to reach them a few months ago and couldn't find any correct phone number or website.

Also, It's definitely a problem with the channel, since so many people experience the same thing.  I don't think any generic "fix-it" steps are going to help, tho' folks who are less skeptical about that are free to try.

I complained about the situation to Roku through their contact form a couple of months ago, but I never heard back from them.

This problem is exclusive to Class Reels and has never occurred on any other channel, whether well-known or obscure.