When using a laptop to stream screen will go black

What sort of internet service do you have?  What's your measured download speed?

Spectrum

100 Mbps down and 10 up

No problems streaming from direct sites (History, TBS, etc.) and no problems with Netflix or Prime.

Hi @WiNgZ, thanks for reaching out to us.

We understand how important it is to have your service working properly.

Let's try the following steps in order to get this fixed:

1. Delete history, cookies and cache.
2. Make sure that a supported browser (Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome) is being used.
3. Close all the windows from your browser.

We will be here if further assistance is needed.

Angela, DIRECTV Community Specialist

I've done all of that. I even hooked the laptop via ethernet so it's not my wi-fi either. I use Edge. I tried Opera and Google Chrome also. Same results.

Hi @WiNgZ, thanks for the information.

To better assist you and to take a closer look on this. Please check your DIRECTV Message Inbox (It's the chat icon next to the bell icon in the upper right corner of the Forums).

We will be there waiting for your answer.

Sergio, DIRECTV Community Specialist

Make sure you don't have ad blockers or VPN

Ad blocker is off and no VPN.

Thanks for the advice though.

I know that I'm not the only one having this issue as when I do a search it brings up a lot of people having the same issue. Of course I didn't find any information to help thus the reason I ended up here hoping maybe that someone else may have had this issue and was able to get it sorted out.

If you can't get video at all, the normal suggestion is to open an incognito window (in Chrome, or the equivalent in other browsers) and access the URL in that.  Incognito (generally) disables all browser extensions, and that helps because more than just ad blockers are issues (privacy extensions like Privacy Badger are known problems, perhaps others).

However, intermittent video with black screens is less clear.  Generally, congestion or other network issues lead to freezes, pixelation, or loading bars.   I haven't seen a black screen, but I very rarely use the service on a computer.  Which browser are you using on which platform, and is this a recent problem, or has it never worked well for you on a computer?  Do you use other streaming devices (Roku, FireTV, etc.) on the same network with the service, and if so, do you encounter problems with them?

Trying Edge In Private Window right now. I'll let you know the results.

Thanks

InPrivate (Incognito) in Edge was much better. I only had 3 one second blackouts and 2 of them were during commercials. This might not be the total fix but it did do a lot better than it's done in a couple of weeks.

Commercials seems to make it hang a lot. I'll keep testing and try another computer tomorrow.

Thanks Jrandomuser for the advice. 

Well, it's not totally fixed. It's more like a bandaid using incognito.

This doesn't happen with Netflix, Youtube, and other streaming sites. I can also log into sites Like History, TBS, etc and it will not freeze or go black while on those sites.

There's definitely a glitch that effects certain users when viewing laptops/computers and hopefully it'll be addressed.

Thanks for all the advice but I'm a computer technician and networking is what I do on the side. This is definitely an issue with DirecTV Stream's site and how they handle the programming. Especially during commercials. 

I've decided to go with another streaming service and hope that they will get this issue resolved in the future.

I stopped by a friend's house and asked if I could try to login via my laptop to his TV and it seems that they have finally fixed the issue with streaming from a laptop to a TV via HDMI on chromium based browsers. Kudos but it's a touch late for me. Maybe I'll keep DirecTV Stream in mind when my current sub runs outs. Then again...... I have more channels and less $ with where I am now ;-)