• 1
  • 2(current)
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 119
2018 - Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K
#16
(2018-10-12, 16:25)honcho Wrote: The specs clearly say it's for power only. 


Not sure why this is even being discussed anymore.
 Amazon advertise this https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Ethernet-A...B074TC662N (10/100 only)

It has power pass-through... Don't see why this is seen as a big thing. Amazon and Google Chromecast both have OTG+PSU combined functionality on their MicroUSB connector for Power + Cabled Ethernet support.

The product page includes support for the Fire TV Stick 4K.

This confirms PSU + OTG support. You just need to find a supported Powered OTG adaptor and USB GigE adaptor that the FireTV supports in its kernel.
Reply
#17
Post #1 updated with detailed Tech Specs and initial user reports.

Thx. @aerogems for the AVS Forums link (click)

Reply
#18
WRXTASY EDIT for readability...

I stumbled at this user mini review of the amazon fire stick 4k over at reddit, seems like it hits all bases! He managed to run Kodi on it. Full report here
Quote:So last night my Fire TV Stick 4K arrived and I set out to get it setup in the media room. Prior to the Fire TV Stick 4K arriving I'd picked up an extra OTG power cable and a UGreen USB/LAN hub that I've had success with on other Android devices without LAN ports.
Biggest plus for this device is that it features USB 3.0 and gigabit LAN. This allows for LAN speeds of upwards of 300Mbs over wired LAN through the Android devices USB 2.0 port and its rock solid.

After connecting the OTG cable and USB/LAN hub to the Fire TV Stick 4K and plugging it in we were off to the races. The Fire TV Stick 4K instantly recognized the OTG attached USB/LAN hub and downloaded an available OS update and restarted.
After that a quick walkthrough of the setup for the new (and excellent) 2nd gen Alexa Voice Remote which supported both my Sony TV and my Denon receiver.

My TV isn't UHD and so I can't speak to the 4K or HDR performance of the Fire TV Stick 4K but I can say that it is very snappy. Much faster than the previous gen Fire TV Stick and easily on par with the performance of the Mi Box 3, at least from a real life user perspective.

Details on the MT8695 have been hard to come by but AIDA64 confirms that the CPU is in fact based on ARM Cortex-A53 architecture.

From an audio standpoint I set the audio output of the Fire TV Stick 4K to Dolby Digital only and when testing Netflix and Prime Video my receiver reports Dolby Digital 5.1 instead of Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 which means that the Fire TV Stick 4K has a proper Dolby license and converts DD+ to DD properly.
This mean no audio artifacts for Netflix or Prime Video. I also didn't notice any audio dropouts while watching Netflix for an hour or so last night.
On the flip side it doesn't appear that the Fire TV Stick 4K supports the passthrough of HD audio streams in Kodi as you can only enable passthrough for AC3, EAC3 and DTS.
I tried playing a couple of network files with TrueHD 7.1 and DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio streams and they were decoded to PCM 7.1 before being passed to the AVR.
Otherwise Kodi performance is excellent on the new Fire TV Stick 4K.
Reply
#19
Under best available audio, Stereo files will be output as DD+ 5.1.

Not great if you don’t like upmixing.

Strange that you can’t just get it to output source, or convert when there’s no native support.
Reply
#20
What adapters do you need to connect the GbE USB hub to the Micro USB port on the fire stick?
Reply
#21
Micro USB Host OTG Cable with USB Power cable:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C452XFO/

UGreen USB3 > Gigabit Hub adapter: (I've seen these cheaper elsewhere)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LLUEJFU/

Reply
#22
anyone can confirm refresh rate switch working on kodi? 

I tested it, and wasn't able to get it working. So I dled MrMC Lite and refresh rate switch works properly on it.
Reply
#23
(2018-11-01, 09:01)shaniqua1990 Wrote: anyone can confirm refresh rate switch working on kodi? 

I tested it, and wasn't able to get it working. So I dled MrMC Lite and refresh rate switch works properly on it.
 Which version of Kodi and if a nightly/beta did you enable resolutions in the whitelist?
Reply
#24
A lot of people would be interested in the Fractional Frame Rate support (23.976, 29.97, 59.94) after auto refresh switching.
To test D/Load and unzip the following:

FPS_Test_r3.zip (click)

Pay particular attention to the ~ 40 second mark when playing FPS_test_1080p23.976_L4.1.mkv and look for any Frame upsets.

Reply
#25
(2018-11-01, 06:39)wrxtasy Wrote: Micro USB Host OTG Cable with USB Power cable:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C452XFO/

UGreen USB3 > Gigabit Hub adapter: (I've seen these cheaper elsewhere)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LLUEJFU/
 Thanks!
Reply
#26
I just got one of these so I thought I'd try the frame rate test since I already have the test files in my collection. I am using Leia Beta 4 with adjust display refresh rate set to on start/stop and sync playback to display off. 

I tried the 23.976 pattern and I don't see anything strange around the 40 second mark, but to be fair I'm not sure what a failed test would look like or what to look for.
Reply
#27
Q. have you Whitelisted (selected) all the resolutions in Kodi Leia > Settings > System > Display > Whitelist ?
Also I believe FireOS settings has to be setup for Auto Resolution and Frame Rate Matching.

If you are getting auto refresh switching (frame rate matching) and your TV is auto switching....
The 23.976fps / 40 second test was to ensure the Stick is actually outputting 23.976fps video at 23.976fps and Not 24fps which would give you a distracting frame upset approx every 40 seconds.

Reply
#28
I had not whitelisted all my supported resolutions, so I did that. This is an older TV. The default resolution is 1920x1080 at 59.94 refresh rate.

The default FireOS setting was auto resolution but not frame rate matching, so I turned frame rate matching on.

Playing the 23.976, 29.97 and 59.94 samples all seem ok to me.

If there's anything else I can test, let me know.
Reply
#29
Nice work, seems it's all working fine and should make a fine Kodi media player. Smile
The only other one to test would be 50fps if your TV supports a 50Hz mode.

And now for the bargain of the year.....

Amazon Black Friday 2018 Prices Revealed — Fire TV Stick 4K for $34.99 (click)

Reply
#30
i'll probably pick up 2
Reply
  • 1
  • 2(current)
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 119

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
2018 - Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K3