Ditch it.
Go to amazon and buy a 49 buck fire TV.
Buy a Roku for $30 and be happy all the time.
Xfinity is Commiecast/NBC.
Feeding the propaganda beast.
I have Xfinity internet. They sent me one of their boxes free. I’ve been using Firestick and Roku. You couldn’t pay me to use it, it’s complete junk. Worst UI ever.
Newsmax is on Pluto tv. It’s free
Buy a Roku, fire stick, etc, and put that Flex away somewhere safe. Knowing Xfinity, they'll likely charge if you don't return it and shut down their service.
If it has a web browser, try watching it on newsmaxtv.com.
I found the browser sometimes streams better than they app.
I going to do this too..amazon prime..i thi k last time i did this i didnt need the firestick w my smart tv and high speed internet..had a cheap deal on cable but there is soooo much junk going to ditch cable..its Infinity.
..now they are having a contract dispute with the main three channels that I watch Dateline on so it hasn’t had the mainstream channels for 3 weeks now WHAAT? Illgo to internet with rabbit ears..electric rabbit ears..awesome.
Dateline is so relaxing compared to the news these days hahaha
I have one of these and it works great:
I think you are getting a network feed that is not showing commercials during the slots for local ads.
If this happens regularly are 20 min after and before the hour you might just have to wait two minutes to see if it comes back.
FIOS has OAN
(software engineer here)
My guess is that some channels are more of the ‘old style’ cable TV signal, where the cable box has a ‘tuner’ that is able to traverse different spectrums on the cable for each channel, while others are ‘internet streaming’ via regular ethernet (and up, e.g. UDP/IP) protocols.
This message you see every 30 seconds, is, most likely, the way they present ‘buffering!’ when the internet transmission speed is inadequate for the quality of the stream.
If that is the case, that would be a bit disturbing, as the bit-rate needed for Newsmax shouldn’t be unusual (less than sports channels). How is your internet speed? Try speedtest.net to test your available bandwidth. If slow (<20Mbs), that’s your problem - although today, that would be absurdly slow. I get 240Mbs. This could be wiring in your home, or at the outside box, or beyond. Cable company needed.
If you have good internet speeds, I believe it’d have to be some problem with your local cable company network OR I’d try a different cable box just to mix it up.