Apple TV on Firestick keeps freezing

I loaded Apple TV app on a second generation Firestick. For the first few shows it worked fine and then it kept freezing every few minutes. I followed all the instructions online to try to fix - uninstalling and reinstalling app, updating the firestick, clearing data and cache, running the video troubleshooting in the app settings (which said everything was fine) but the app kept freezing. Then I happened to notice in the app settings that you can set the app to play in SD (standard definition) only, which finally resolved the issue! While my connection should support HD, for some reason the app can't handle it. I didn't see this solution posted anywhere, so I thought it may help others to post.