[stammie]

 

Thanks fro the reply. What codec is used for the Freeview HD channels? Sorry for asking maybe a dumb question, but is it 1080i h264? 

I believe the majority of Freeview HD broadcasts are 1080i h264, however I seem to remember reading a while back that the BBC were switching between 1080i/50 and 1080p/25 depending on the program being broadcast.
Sorry I'm not up to spec on the subject any more than that.

[Vlaves]

 

Thanks fro the reply. What codec is used for the Freeview HD channels? Sorry for asking maybe a dumb question, but is it 1080i h264?  

I believe the majority of Freeview HD broadcasts are 1080i h264, however I seem to remember reading a while back that the BBC were switching between 1080i/50 and 1080p/25 depending on the program being broadcast.
Sorry I'm not up to spec on the subject any more than that. 

Thanks for the Information Seems like I am gonna buy now the Fire TV Stick 4k and till Kodi can utilize hardware deinterlacing bugfree, I will use the Dream Player TV App till then

[noggin]

 

Thanks fro the reply. What codec is used for the Freeview HD channels? Sorry for asking maybe a dumb question, but is it 1080i h264?   

I believe the majority of Freeview HD broadcasts are 1080i h264, however I seem to remember reading a while back that the BBC were switching between 1080i/50 and 1080p/25 depending on the program being broadcast.
Sorry I'm not up to spec on the subject any more than that.  

Almost correct. The encoders used for PSB3 - the main UK Freeview HD mux (which carries BBC One HD, BBC Two HD, CBBC HD, ITV HD, C4 HD and C5 HD) and which is encoded by the BBC (or their partners) - use advanced encoders that dynamically switch between 1080i25 and 1080p25 encoding on-the-fly (not programme by programme) based on whether they detect the source to be native i25 interlaced or native p25 progressive. I think this encoder switching can change GOP by GOP, but not within a GOP.

I don't know if the Arqiva-encoded COM7 and COM8 (which carry BBC News HD and CBeebies/BBC Four HD, along with other channels) use the same encoding.

When the BBC switched from permanent i25 encoding (with MBAFF) to on-the-fly i25/p25 encoder switching (to improve coding efficiency), some Sony HDTVs started glitching on the i/p changes... (Incidentally this is also why some Sony TVs report channels being 1080p25 rather than 1080i25)

[Jackie78]

Does anybody know if the "auto framerate bug" (only working once when Fire TV is started) has been or will be fixed? This is sooo anoying not getting the right framerate in Kodi.

[blizzardreign]

Since you're keeping track of issues, note these audio problems:
1. 7.1 PCM doesn't work correctly (side & rear channels reversed). Select 5.1 audio in Kodi settings.
2. 2-channel PCM is transcoded to DD/DD+ (can be avoided by selecting 5.1 "fixed" audio output, instead of the default "optimized").

Does 1 apply to the case where I'm passing through Dolby TrueHD or any other format as PCM like mentioned in the first post? I managed to get it working by following the instructions but I'm not sure if the side and rear are reversed. Is there a way to tell?

[retro83]

A lot of people saying audio is out on MrMC and Kodi,  but does anybody else have audio sync problems across all apps on these sticks? 

It's not actually a problem in Kodi as you can adjust the offset per-file and get it nearly perfect.  But IPlayer, All4, youTube and all other video apps are out of sync and because the audio is ahead of the video I can't fix it in my receiver.

[ontap]

The 4K sticks are going for £25 on this current prime promotion , absolute bargain.
I have tried various android boxes over the years, I have a MeCool BB2 with 3gb ram in one of the spare rooms and apart from the advantage of being able to flash it wit core elec so it boots straight into kodi , as long as your sensible with the size of your build, the superior quality hardware on  the new stick out performs all of those boxes. imo.

[ozkhan1]

I am considering a combination of firestick 4K and an odroid n2 for my man cave hdr tv.
How does the firestick 4K measure up to say Apple TV in terms of quality of audio video for Netflix, prime, YouTube, etc? I know appletv doesn’t do 4K you tube but firestick does now. It also has auto frame rate and all.

I know this is not a kodi question but I feel kodi users are most knowledgeable about this stuff, so thanks for your feedback.

[wrxtasy]

I am considering a combination of firestick 4K and an odroid n2 for my man cave hdr tv.
How does the firestick 4K measure up to say Apple TV in terms of quality of audio video for Netflix, prime, YouTube, etc? I know appletv doesn’t do 4K you tube but firestick does now. It also has auto frame rate and all.

I know this is not a kodi question but I feel kodi users are most knowledgeable about this stuff, so thanks for your feedback.

The Apple TV 4K and the Fire TV Stick 4K both have variants of an Imagination Technologies Power VR GPU.
Picture quality from that newer GPU will be superior vs the old Maxwell GPU in the Nvidia Shield.

Both have Dolby Audio Licences so can decode and re-encode Dolby audio to be widely compatible with various old and new audio receivers.
Copy protected streaming services like Netflix and Prime use mainly DD+ audio, some content with Atmos extensions - on both devices that can be decoded to PCM or output as lossy DD+(Atmos) or remixed into DD only audio for widespread audio receiver compatibility.

There might be some issues with PCM - correct audio channel mapping on the Stick. Details are in this thread somewhere.

As for Video.
Both have DolbyVision, Amazon Prime may have some HDR10+ content. I'm not sure how much. The ATV 4K does not support that type of rare, in the real world - dynamic HDR.
FireTV Stick also supports HLG. Not sure if the BBC iPlayer works with test broadcasts of HLG in the UK.

The ace in the hole for the ATV 4K is that it can do Auto Frame Rate Matching with the Netflix App. It's the only platform I've seen that can do this with that specific App. It's an excellent Netflix viewing platform. Really slick.

Interestingly I was Airplaying 1080p YouTube yesterday with the ATV 4K and it uses Auto Frame Rate Matching for viewing YouTube content with that specific combo.
The App does not do that on any media player platform.

The FireTV Stick 4K will measure up well for video streaming Apps usage, especially for the price paid if you can put up with the pushy in your face Amazon interface.
It has the best wireless remote control you can get on any media player. Kudos to the Amazon hardware engineers for that !
It's on 48hr, Amazon Prime Day sale at the moment for $24.99

The ATV 4K has better worldwide, local Apps coverage, once you get outside of the USA and parts of Europe.

Yes with a dedicated 4K HDR10 Linux Kodi Leia device like the N2, you should have virtually all bases covered.

W.

[ozkhan1]

I am considering a combination of firestick 4K and an odroid n2 for my man cave hdr tv.
How does the firestick 4K measure up to say Apple TV in terms of quality of audio video for Netflix, prime, YouTube, etc? I know appletv doesn’t do 4K you tube but firestick does now. It also has auto frame rate and all.

I know this is not a kodi question but I feel kodi users are most knowledgeable about this stuff, so thanks for your feedback.

The Apple TV 4K and the Fire TV Stick 4K both have variants of an Imagination Technologies Power VR GPU.
Picture quality from that newer GPU will be superior vs the old Maxwell GPU in the Nvidia Shield.

Both have Dolby Audio Licences so can decode and re-encode Dolby audio to be widely compatible with various old and new audio receivers.
Copy protected streaming services like Netflix and Prime use mainly DD+ audio, some content with Atmos extensions - on both devices that can be decoded to PCM or output as lossy DD+(Atmos) or remixed into DD only audio for widespread audio receiver compatibility.

There might be some issues with PCM - correct audio channel mapping on the Stick. Details are in this thread somewhere.

As for Video.
Both have DolbyVision, Amazon Prime may have some HDR10+ content. I'm not sure how much. The ATV 4K does not support that type of rare, in the real world - dynamic HDR.
FireTV Stick also supports HLG. Not sure if the BBC iPlayer works with test broadcasts of HLG in the UK.

The ace in the hole for the ATV 4K is that it can do Auto Frame Rate Matching with the Netflix App. It's the only platform I've seen that can do this with that specific App. It's an excellent Netflix viewing platform. Really slick.

Interestingly I was Airplaying 1080p YouTube yesterday with the ATV 4K and it uses Auto Frame Rate Matching for viewing YouTube content with that specific combo.
The App does not do that on any media player platform.

The FireTV Stick 4K will measure up well for video streaming Apps usage, especially for the price paid if you can put up with the pushy in your face Amazon interface.
It has the best wireless remote control you can get on any media player. Kudos to the Amazon hardware engineers for that !
It's on 48hr, Amazon Prime Day sale at the moment for $24.99

The ATV 4K has better worldwide, local Apps coverage, once you get outside of the USA and parts of Europe.

Yes with a dedicated 4K HDR10 Linux Kodi Leia device like the N2, you should have virtually all bases covered.

W.

Excellent and detailed.
Cheers, mate!

[wrxtasy]

Furthermore I don't think you will get lossy Dolby Atmos with Netflix on the Fire TV 4K Stick - only with 4K Amazon Prime (and then possibly on with Jack Ryan)
Dolby Atmos definitely works with Netflix, iTunes, VUDU and Prime Video on the ATV 4K:

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/64066

How to stream Dolby Atmos from Netflix, iTunes, Vudu and Amazon (click)

[Luke M]

Since you're keeping track of issues, note these audio problems:
1. 7.1 PCM doesn't work correctly (side & rear channels reversed). Select 5.1 audio in Kodi settings.
2. 2-channel PCM is transcoded to DD/DD+ (can be avoided by selecting 5.1 "fixed" audio output, instead of the default "optimized").

Does 1 apply to the case where I'm passing through Dolby TrueHD or any other format as PCM like mentioned in the first post? I managed to get it working by following the instructions but I'm not sure if the side and rear are reversed. Is there a way to tell?   

TrueHD passthrough isn't supported. The only way to get (correct) 7.1 is via DD+.

You can find some channel check demos here:
https://www.demo-world.eu/2d-demo-trailers-hd/

[blizzardreign]

Since you're keeping track of issues, note these audio problems:
1. 7.1 PCM doesn't work correctly (side & rear channels reversed). Select 5.1 audio in Kodi settings.
2. 2-channel PCM is transcoded to DD/DD+ (can be avoided by selecting 5.1 "fixed" audio output, instead of the default "optimized").

Does 1 apply to the case where I'm passing through Dolby TrueHD or any other format as PCM like mentioned in the first post? I managed to get it working by following the instructions but I'm not sure if the side and rear are reversed. Is there a way to tell?   

TrueHD passthrough isn't supported. The only way to get (correct) 7.1 is via DD+.

You can find some channel check demos here:
https://www.demo-world.eu/2d-demo-trailers-hd/

Hi mate. Thank you for the reply. I was referring to this in the first post in the thread :
7.1 Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA will be decoded to 7.1 LPCM audio and output
(hint - set Kodi audio channels 7.1 and disable those Kodi HD audio options)

So do u mean that this method won't give correct 7.1? Are u referring to the sides and rears being reversed or are you saying that its not 7.1 but actually 5.1 being repeated at the rear? I have been playing a few movies and it seems like the rear is correct, for example when a car zooms from the back into the front, I can feel the sound moving forward from the rear to the front.

[Luke M]

Does 1 apply to the case where I'm passing through Dolby TrueHD or any other format as PCM like mentioned in the first post? I managed to get it working by following the instructions but I'm not sure if the side and rear are reversed. Is there a way to tell?   

TrueHD passthrough isn't supported. The only way to get (correct) 7.1 is via DD+.

You can find some channel check demos here:
https://www.demo-world.eu/2d-demo-trailers-hd/  

Hi mate. Thank you for the reply. I was referring to this in the first post in the thread :
7.1 Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA will be decoded to 7.1 LPCM audio and output
(hint - set Kodi audio channels 7.1 and disable those Kodi HD audio options)

So do u mean that this method won't give correct 7.1? Are u referring to the sides and rears being reversed or are you saying that its not 7.1 but actually 5.1 being repeated at the rear? I have been playing a few movies and it seems like the rear is correct, for example when a car zooms from the back into the front, I can feel the sound moving forward from the rear to the front.  

It's 7.1 but with the side and rear channels reversed.

[blizzardreign]

TrueHD passthrough isn't supported. The only way to get (correct) 7.1 is via DD+.

You can find some channel check demos here:
https://www.demo-world.eu/2d-demo-trailers-hd/  

Hi mate. Thank you for the reply. I was referring to this in the first post in the thread :
7.1 Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA will be decoded to 7.1 LPCM audio and output
(hint - set Kodi audio channels 7.1 and disable those Kodi HD audio options)

So do u mean that this method won't give correct 7.1? Are u referring to the sides and rears being reversed or are you saying that its not 7.1 but actually 5.1 being repeated at the rear? I have been playing a few movies and it seems like the rear is correct, for example when a car zooms from the back into the front, I can feel the sound moving forward from the rear to the front.  

It's 7.1 but with the side and rear channels reversed.

Oh ok thanks mate. Any idea how I can check those demo files using Kodi?

Edit : Yes I managed to test it out! Sadly, you are right. The side and rear channels are reversed. So there's no way to get correct 7.1 when playing back a file with Dolby True HD or DTS-HD MA. With the DD+ sample file, it works perfect. There is no way to correct the channels right? If I set to 5.1 in Kodi settings, I assume I won't be getting any sound from my rear speakers when I play a 7.1 file?