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2018 - Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K
(2018-12-02, 23:53)infinity85 Wrote: Also worth mentioning regarding Fire TV Stick 4K: It is always playing back Dolby Didital or Dolby Digital Plus (depending on your equipment), even while browsing through the Fire TV GUI/interface. That means that the Fire TV Stick apparently does some kind of dolby digital plus live encoding, as even 2.0 sources (which output as PCM 2.0 on my Fire TV 2 Box) are outputted in dolby digital plus 2.0 to my Receiver. If connected to my TV, everything is outputtet as 2.0 Dolby Digital if the source is stereo PCM 2.0. Actually that's the first time I see a device doing dolby digital plus live encoding. That may also explain how the new audio dialogue gain feature works: It may be implemented as a metadata of dolby digital (plus) DRC / Center gain. Though even if I have dialogue gain/boost (or whatever it is called in english Fire TV menu) disabled, apps like zattoo IPTV display a +4db dolby metadata gain on my receiver during audio stream initialization. Don't know how Fire TV can decide that a PCM 2.0 source should of all things be boosted by 4db during encoding into Dolby Digital Plus 2.0 (stereo).

This is true for some files. However DTS and DTS HD MA is output at DTS, and 5.1 AAC is output as 5.1 PCM - with passthrough enabled.

With number of channels 5.1 and passthrough disabled DTS HD MA 2.0 output (and everything else that is 2.0) is output as DD+ (as if the Fire TV is converting all PCM 2.0 to DD+), however DTS HD MA 5.1 is output as 5.1 PCM in this mode, as is Dolby Digital.

So it appears that all PCM 2.0 stuff is output as DD+, but anything that is bit streamed DD/DD+/DTS 5.1 is output as DD/DD+/DTS 5.1 in passthrough, and anything 5.1/7.1 DD/DD+/DTS/DTS HD/True HD is output as PCM 5.1/7.1 if passthrough is disabled and 5.1/7.1 channel output is configured?
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(2018-12-01, 19:18)AlleV8 Wrote: About the stuttering with h265 files, I just tried to open one of those with perfect player app and it does autoframerate to 23.976hz without any issue, no stuttering at all. I hope the kodi team is gonna fix this issue on the firestick 4k.
I don't know, I'm the only one or someone else has the same problem with h265 files?
The suggestion from dekomote to open, stop and reopen the same file doesn't work, at least for me.
 I answered in your topic, I have the issue as well, but also with h264 files when this autoframe rate is ON.. really disappointed. Is the shield really the only box to play kodi with autoframe rate and 4K smoothly?
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I sideloaded kodi 18 Leia RC onto my FTV Stick 4K yesterday and tried playback of some of my x264 1080p 24p mkv files.
I activated framerate switch on start/stop within Kodi settings but output is 60Hz on playback. Does auto framerate switching not work with RC, should I try nightly build?

It did switch properly to 24p when I played a Life of Pi HEVC 4K trailer that was .mp4
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Have you enabled the whitelist in Kodi?
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I have problems with x265 aswell, seems like the stick just put everything on 60 fps with terrible motion interpolation.

Other question:

Kodi ignores "_" any idea how to fix that issue?

As an example

_A
_b
_c
AA
BB
CC

etc So i had series sorted by names and some of the new ones were without folder and now its all completly unsorted because Kodi ignores the "_" and some of my drives are not working with "Network Drive not available" which makes no sense because Rasperry Pi 3 and my PC are both can connect via the old Kodi version. Any ideas?
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As above. Have you added the resolutions/frame rates to your whitelist?
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Connected one of these to my 7 series LG oled, and I can't get smooth 23.97 playback, it is 10x more glitchy than my ZidooX9S,
Running RC2, selected the resolutions in whitelist, stick set to auto.
Oh audio is out if synch and everything plays back in Dolby Vision, even 1080p 8bit stuff, does any one have a definitive bunch of settings?
Cheers.
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This is my first time using Kodi 18. Resolution whitelist must be a new feature but it was exactly what fixed 24p playback for me. Thank you guys.

Now I need to figure out why I can't access my SMB shares on my Windows 10 PC, always get the error "operation not permitted" when browsing WORKGROUP to the PC. I can access those fine from my Kodi Krypton Box running Coreelec. I can also access shares on my QNAP NAS without a problem on the FTV.
I will try and add it manually by IP tomorrow.
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(2018-12-06, 22:38)DaMacFunkin Wrote: Connected one of these to my 7 series LG oled, and I can't get smooth 23.97 playback, it is 10x more glitchy than my ZidooX9S,
Running RC2, selected the resolutions in whitelist, stick set to auto.
Oh audio is out if synch and everything plays back in Dolby Vision, even 1080p 8bit stuff, does any one have a definitive bunch of settings?
Cheers.
 
(2018-11-16, 14:50)Hitcher Wrote: Kodi (v18b5)Player/Video -
Adjust display refresh rate: On start/stop
Sync playback to display: Off

System/Display -
Whitelist: All 3840x2160 options enabled (see note below)

System/Audio -
Number of channels: 7.1
Output configuration: Best match
Allow passthrough: On
Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver: On
Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) capable receiver: On
DTS capable receiver: On

Fire TVDisplay -
Video resolution: Auto (up to 4K Ultra HD)
Match original frame rate: On
Colour depth: Up to 12 bits
Colour format: RGB
Calibrate display: No scale
Dynamic range settings: Adaptive

Sounds -
Surround sound: Best available

System

LG OLED B7
Onkyo HT-S3800
Local NAS but using 5Gz Wi-Fi for the Fire TV

The Fire TV 4K can play the 140 Mbps Jellyfish File without any problems and only starts to struggle with the 200Mbps file.

Kodi has a problem right now causing it to switch to 1920x1080 for 4K HDR videos which is why I disabled all 1920x1080 resolutions in the whitelist.
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Three questions:

Does the current Kodi 18 arm64 nightly support the Fire TV 4k Stick or do i need to still use the arm32 one?

Plus: Where do I find the kodi 18 nightly release notes? I know that milhouse does a great job with the Openelec Raspi one but I wasn't able to find a similar forum thread for the android kodi 18 nightly tree.

And last but not least: Is it possible to update kodi nightly on the fire tv automatically?

Thanks in advance Smile
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First of all i wanna thank the whole Kodi Team & Community.
Especially "wrxtasy" for this 2 Threads (including "Hakuna99") --> START HERE - Pick the Right Kodi Box (updated Nov. 2018) & 4K HDR10 - State of Play thread - important media player limitations

Here is my Test-Result Smile

- Test-Setup
TV:               65" LG OLED B7
ISP:              Init7 "Fiber7" 1Gbit/s symmetrical (ISP information is probably relevant for future tests)
Router:         Asus RT-AC88U
NAS:             Synology DS1812+ (Connected with Cat6 Cable to RT-AC88U)
AV-Receiver:  Onkyo TX-NR906E (only relevant for audio tests)
Speakers:      JBL SCS 178 5.1 Speaker Set (not really relevant)

- Today's Test-Device: Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K (connected via 5GHz WiFi)
Running Kodi 18 (Leia) RC1 (set to 3840x2160 10bit 60Hz - Audio set to allow passthrough for AC3 & DTS)
Video Files are streamed from DS1812+ via 5GHz WiFi (SMB-Share)

Used Video-Sample Files: Jellyfish Video Bitrate Test Files (http://jell.yfish.us)

jellyfish-20-mbps-hd-h264.mkv               20 Mbps       1920x1080    H.264    High        4.0    N/A     71 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-20-mbps-hd-hevc.mkv                20 Mbps       1920x1080    HEVC    Main        4.0    High    75 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-20-mbps-hd-hevc-10bit.mkv        20 Mbps       1920x1080    HEVC    Main10    4.0    High    75 MB    Smooth

jellyfish-40-mbps-hd-h264.mkv               40 Mbps        1920x1080    H.264    High        4.1    N/A     142 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-40-mbps-hd-hevc.mkv                40 Mbps        1920x1080    HEVC    Main        4.1    High    146 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-40-mbps-hd-hevc-10bit.mkv        40 Mbps        1920x1080    HEVC    Main10    4.1    High    146 MB    Smooth

jellyfish-55-mbps-hd-h264.mkv                  55 Mbps      1920x1080    H.264    High       4.2    N/A     208 MB    Smooth (Includes HD Audio)

jellyfish-60-mbps-hd-h264.mkv                  60 Mbps      1920x1080    H.264    High       5.0    N/A     213 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-60-mbps-hd-hevc.mkv                   60 Mbps     1920x1080    HEVC    Main        5.0    High    220 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-60-mbps-hd-hevc-10bit.mkv           60 Mbps     1920x1080    HEVC    Main10    5.0    High    218 MB    Smooth

jellyfish-90-mbps-hd-h264.mkv                   90 Mbps     1920x1080    H.264    High        5.0    N/A     322 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-90-mbps-hd-hevc.mkv                    90 Mbps     1920x1080    HEVC    Main        5.0    High    329 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-90-mbps-hd-hevc-10bit.mkv            90 Mbps     1920x1080    HEVC    Main10    5.0    High    330 MB    Smooth

jellyfish-110-mbps-hd-h264.mkv                 110 Mbps    1920x1080    H.264    High       5.0    N/A     394 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-110-mbps-hd-hevc.mkv                  110 Mbps    1920x1080    HEVC    Main       5.1    High    401 MB    Smooth

jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-h264.mkv           120 Mbps    3840x2160    H.264    High       5.1    N/A     431 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-120-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv   120 Mbps    3840x2160    HEVC    Main10    5.1    High    438 MB    Smooth

jellyfish-140-mbps-4k-uhd-h264.mkv           140 Mbps    3840x2160    H.264    High       5.1    N/A     502 MB    Smooth
jellyfish-140-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv   140 Mbps    3840x2160    HEVC    Main10    5.1    High    525 MB    Smooth (Includes HD Audio)

jellyfish-160-mbps-4k-uhd-h264.mkv           160 Mbps    3840x2160    H.264    High       5.1    N/A     573 MB    Almost Smooth (noticed a 1-2s slow down)
jellyfish-160-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv   160 Mbps    3840x2160    HEVC    Main10    5.2    High    586 MB    Almost Smooth (noticed a 1-2s slow down)

jellyfish-200-mbps-4k-uhd-h264.mkv           200 Mbps    3840x2160    H.264    High       5.1    N/A     718 MB    Not Smooth (slow downs / dropped frames)
jellyfish-200-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv   200 Mbps    3840x2160    HEVC    Main10    5.2    High    731 MB    Almost Smooth (sporadic slow downs)

The Result is ridiculously good!
I didn't expect it to run videos with over 60 Mbps Videobitrate via 5GHz Wifi smoothly.
Bought the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K on Black Friday for 39€ just to Kodi on it.
I also bought just in case the Gigabit UGREEN Adapter that wrxtasy recommended.
But i didn't use it yet.

Well im honestly very positively surprised.

side-note: The only thing i noticed having trouble to "fix" is that in the Menu i get an audio-delay for every single movement for about 1/2 a second or up to 1 second.

Cheers!  Nerd
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(2018-11-13, 18:35)DaMacFunkin Wrote:
(2018-11-13, 11:37)shrugg1e Wrote: Have someone informations about the supported filesystems?

I need NTFS and exfat.

thx!

You can't use attached storage with a fire stick, Kodi supports smb and nfs network streaming, how your file source is formatted is a different matter. 
Would it work if you use the following:
Micro USB Host OTG Cable with USB Power cable:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C452XFO/

and sideloaded the Paragon NTFS app to read NTFS and exfat hard drives?
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(2018-12-07, 00:16)Hitcher Wrote:
(2018-12-06, 22:38)DaMacFunkin Wrote: Connected one of these to my 7 series LG oled, and I can't get smooth 23.97 playback, it is 10x more glitchy than my ZidooX9S,
Running RC2, selected the resolutions in whitelist, stick set to auto.
Oh audio is out if synch and everything plays back in Dolby Vision, even 1080p 8bit stuff, does any one have a definitive bunch of settings?
Cheers.
 
(2018-11-16, 14:50)Hitcher Wrote: Kodi (v18b5)Player/Video -
Adjust display refresh rate: On start/stop
Sync playback to display: Off

System/Display -
Whitelist: All 3840x2160 options enabled (see note below)

System/Audio -
Number of channels: 7.1
Output configuration: Best match
Allow passthrough: On
Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver: On
Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) capable receiver: On
DTS capable receiver: On

Fire TVDisplay -
Video resolution: Auto (up to 4K Ultra HD)
Match original frame rate: On
Colour depth: Up to 12 bits
Colour format: RGB
Calibrate display: No scale
Dynamic range settings: Adaptive

Sounds -
Surround sound: Best available

System

LG OLED B7
Onkyo HT-S3800
Local NAS but using 5Gz Wi-Fi for the Fire TV

The Fire TV 4K can play the 140 Mbps Jellyfish File without any problems and only starts to struggle with the 200Mbps file.

Kodi has a problem right now causing it to switch to 1920x1080 for 4K HDR videos which is why I disabled all 1920x1080 resolutions in the whitelist.
So these settings (whitelisting only 2160 settings) seem to stop the sticky playback, although I did keep yuv instead of rgb, but a) we don't get resolution switching. b) the audio is still out of synch. c) Dolby Vision files only play back in HDR10, does Kodi leia RC2 not support DV from MKV?
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(2018-12-07, 21:51)DaMacFunkin Wrote:
(2018-12-07, 00:16)Hitcher Wrote:
(2018-12-06, 22:38)DaMacFunkin Wrote: Connected one of these to my 7 series LG oled, and I can't get smooth 23.97 playback, it is 10x more glitchy than my ZidooX9S,
Running RC2, selected the resolutions in whitelist, stick set to auto.
Oh audio is out if synch and everything plays back in Dolby Vision, even 1080p 8bit stuff, does any one have a definitive bunch of settings?
Cheers.
(2018-11-16, 14:50)Hitcher Wrote: Kodi (v18b5)Player/Video -
Adjust display refresh rate: On start/stop
Sync playback to display: Off

System/Display -
Whitelist: All 3840x2160 options enabled (see note below)

System/Audio -
Number of channels: 7.1
Output configuration: Best match
Allow passthrough: On
Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver: On
Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) capable receiver: On
DTS capable receiver: On

Fire TVDisplay -
Video resolution: Auto (up to 4K Ultra HD)
Match original frame rate: On
Colour depth: Up to 12 bits
Colour format: RGB
Calibrate display: No scale
Dynamic range settings: Adaptive

Sounds -
Surround sound: Best available

System

LG OLED B7
Onkyo HT-S3800
Local NAS but using 5Gz Wi-Fi for the Fire TV

The Fire TV 4K can play the 140 Mbps Jellyfish File without any problems and only starts to struggle with the 200Mbps file.

Kodi has a problem right now causing it to switch to 1920x1080 for 4K HDR videos which is why I disabled all 1920x1080 resolutions in the whitelist.
So these settings (whitelisting only 2160 settings) seem to stop the sticky playback, although I did keep yuv instead of rgb, but a) we don't get resolution switching. b) the audio is still out of synch. c) Dolby Vision files only play back in HDR10, does Kodi leia RC2 not support DV from MKV?  
Dual-stream DolbyVision from UHD Blu-ray rips which use HDR10+DV Helper isn't supported on any Kodi platform currently.

Netflix, Amazon etc. are using single-stream DolbyVision (as they know your display capabilities when you request the stream, rather than needing to stream a backwards compatible version) - and this MAY be supported by MrMC (a fork of Kodi) on Apple TV 4K (not sure about other platforms)

Are your MKVs single or dual-stream?
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Hi they are dual stream, there is no way to rip a 4K DV blu ray to single stream, both streams are needed.
I figured FTV4k stick would be able do this as a DV device, as you say the ATV 4K can play them back.

Anyway, mute point, the lack of reliable resolution switching and out of synch audio make this useless, back to the X9S for now.
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2018 - Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K3