[canadave]

Hey there everyone,

I've been using XBMC/Kodi on an ATV2 for quite some time now. I'm finally realizing that it might be time to upgrade to something a little more robust. I see a deal on Amazon.com for the FireTV, but it ends in three hours, so I just need a quick response to my question if possible!

Basically I just need to know if it will be powerful enough to play 1080p mkv files from my NAS wirelessly. No HD audio, just Dolby/DTS at most. Will do?

I did see the Kodi wiki article on the FireTV, and it sounds great, but then I read other people saying it's not that good....so, I'm just not sure if it will do those specific things I need it to do.

[wrxtasy]

As you're coming from an ATV2 you probably don't even notice the flickering when the camera pans in a video scene with 23.976fps content.

The Fire TV is Android based. It does not do on the fly refresh rate switching either, it probably won't bother you.
23.976fps (24p) won't be perfectly synced to the TV.

De-interlacing does not work either with Hardware acceleration enabled, but there is not a lot of interlaced material around unless your watching live TV from a backend server.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=203600&page=2

USB drives cannot be connected unless you have a rooted Fire TV. You have a NAS so its a non issue.

Dolby/DTS passthrough works:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=203593
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1729036

Definitely powerful enough to play 1080p H264 content well, even at high bitrates.
The SPMC spinoff for Android has bleeding edge Kodi releases.

http://spmc.semperpax.com/

Sell your ATV2 with XBMC on it now on Ebay and you will still get a good price for it.

[canadave]

Thanks so much!! So, wireless 1080p isn't an issue, then? In that case I'm sold.

[wrxtasy]

The question is how long is a piece of string ?

I always use Ethernet because as soon my microwave oven, which is 25 odd feet away is turned on I get bad WIFI interference on my home network with devices on 802.11g which use 2.4GHz. Microwaves ovens use a frequency near 2.45GHz.

The Fire TV uses the 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi standard. So if you have a wireless NAS/Router that is 802.11n capable (2.4 and 5 GHz) you should have no issues.

This post is encouraging too:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1723579

Have a further read about DTS passthrough here - Nickr sums it up pretty well.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1722589

[canadave]

Fair enough--thanks again. I took the plunge and ordered one Almost feel like I'm cheating on my beloved ATV2...lol.

[wrxtasy]

Ha Ha.

I felt like that when I bought a RPi B+ to use as a frontend for XBMC and Live broadcast TV.
My Crystalbuntu ATV1 now just acts as a TvHeadend server. The combo works very well.

My rule is never buy expensive hardware now, as it will be obsolete in a year or two.

I cannot believe the crazy prices that ATV2's are still going for on Ebay tho !

[GoodCode]

Fair enough--thanks again. I took the plunge and ordered one Almost feel like I'm cheating on my beloved ATV2...lol.

Congrats! I just received one of these last week and so far absolutely love it. It's a bit of a hassle getting it configured nicely as an XBMC device rather than a "Sell Amazon Content" device, but IMHO well worth it.

Note: Most of the US content isn't available in Canada without a proxy (e.g. Hulu, Amazon Prime), but it's a great box nonetheless.

The family absolutely loves that we can now access XBMC, Netflix, Youtube, Twitch, Slacker, light games all from the same box / interface using a single remote. I just wish it had volume control

If you plan on rooting, www.aftvnews.com is your friend. Fantastic easy to follow guides there

[canadave]

Thanks Goodcode! I do have a VPN, so I'm hoping to use that to access some of the US-centric content. Thanks for the rooting link. I'm really hoping the one I receive is rootable. It does all appear to be a rather complex process compared to the ATV2 jailbreaking, but hopefully it won't be too too onerous

[krom12]

Hi ,

did the same replaced my ATV2 with the Amazon FireTV using it with my nas ,its almost flawless and very easy to setup no jailbreak/rooting required just sideloading xbmc/ kodi apk,

easy setup tool for windows and mac called adbFire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX7JBDX8Qb4 , just need apk from this site.

selling my ATV2 and buying another one for the bedroom

happy days

Ps: Kodi DD/DTS passthrough looks like it works for me (still testing) : http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-setup-ple...und-audio/