Fix PlutoTV CNN - Nice Feature but Mostly Broken

[Jeff Stevens]

It seems to break a lot.  Any reason for this.  I hate to complain about a free feature.  However, why promote it, list it, if half the time it doesn't work, or breaks for no reason.

[td47]

@Jeff Stevens Your LG TV model is not mentioned. It is often very useful to post this, as functions, APP availabilty, and WebOS/Firmware levels vary a lot.  Plus APP availabilty varies greatly from 2016 to 2017, and 2019/2020 TV's. As the internal hardware (CPU type/capability/cores, memory amount) varies, so does the ability to handle complex APP needs.

With the above in mind, I suspect that what you are seeing is the APP crashing at the Advert transitions. It is very common in older sets (like my 2014 LG), to see this either at the start or end of an advert, a hang or rotating wait graphic (circling dots). I see it a lot on the Catch-up APPS, or TENPLAY, or the SBS apps, ABC iView and a few others in our Australian TV region. 

I understand that Pluto TV relies heavily on Ads' for revenue, so I am not surprised, but it must be frustrating to get frequent issues. Is always when watching CNN? If you get a pattern to the issue, try contacting Pluto TV support.

I saw this on the Cord Cutters website:

"Pluto TV announced today a global distribution deal with LG Electronics, bringing the free streaming service to LG TV Smart TVs. Pluto TV is now available on 2020 LG Smart TV models, with rollouts on 2016-2019 models set to begin in Fall 2020."  Of course, this does NOT mean that it will be available on all models in all countries, as with many things that start in LG USA... 😊