Video Slow and Flickering on Android TV

[Thinspirit]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

TCL Android TV

Operating System

Android TV

My Question or Issue

When trying to play videos in Spotify on my Android TV, the video is really slow, choppy, and flickers to black continuously. I have restarted the TV as well as uninstalled and reinstalled the Spotify app.

Anyway to resolve this? 

[vpanos]

This is just straight pathetic for a top tech company…unwatchable flickering on my tv probably really bad for people with epilepsy. someone will sue you at some point…

[user-removed]

Only way is to uninstall Spotify app on TV and then to select the crome cast option on your phone. 

It works perfectly then despite Spotify blaming the make of TV. 

[LucBR]

It's so ridiculous that they tagged as "solved" with the argument that casting doesn't flick.

CASTING IT'S NOT A SOLUTION!

That's why I don't use Spotify anymore, only for Rogan, while he is held hostage.

[AndroidTVappISbad]

This issue should not be marked as solved, as it is NOT solved. Multiple devices with Android TV have stuttering video playback on the Android TV Spotify App. Casting from a phone is NOT a solution, as the bug was raised for Android TV, not for Android Phone.

[spikey369]

Still having this issue in 2025! Spotify, at least add streaming quality settings on the Android TV app. Shouldn't this be an easy fix? The fact that something as inconvenient as casting has been marked as a solution is ridiculous and continues to show how Spotify doesn't care about its customers. 

[lonestar7]

2026 and the problem is still there!

[Thinspirit · Accepted solution]

Might as well post an update.

Apparently this is an issue with TCL, not Spotify. TCL has to update their software to fix the issue and they seem to refuse to. It's a built in decoder issue or video driver issue within the TV that causes the problem. Might be the same for other cheap companies and their Androids on smart TV's. 

I ended up getting a Fire TV 4k and Spotify works fine on that. I also get the full 4k the TV is capable of, which when using TCL's Android, doesn't have hardware powerful enough to run 4k video... on a 4k TV. Gotta love that.