[voip-ninja]

voip-ninja, this is Brajesh from AVSForum. If you drop your MKV into tsMuxer and output a M2TS file, your playback will most likely be fine. I and at least another guy (who had the same issue with OUYA) reported the issue here, but waiting XBMC devs to acknowledge. So, far I've had this issue also with 'The Dark Knight Rises', 'Django Unchained', and 'Bedtime Stories'. Container shouldn't matter, but XBMC for Android seems to be having issues with some H.264 MKV's when those same video/audio streams inside M2TS play just fine.

Thanks Brajesh for the information. Has a bug report been filed along with the needed log outputs? If not that's something I would be willing to do in order to get this acknowledged and see an eventual fix.

I probably won't change containers, etc, just for one box that I'm only doing an initial test with. The Fire TV shows a lot of promise but really doesn't seem to be there yet for "high quality" media that is sourced directly from BD... I see a lot of issues whether it be VC1, HD audio, 23.976 playback, and now this issue with MKV files.

Might play with it a bit more or maybe just send it back to Amazon.

[DaveNinja]

What skins are you all using? Confluence is super fast but I'd like a tiny bit more customization (like having a playlist in favorites start playing when clicked on instead of bringing up the contents). I tried Hybrid since its was what i used before but it really lags. What other skins are as fast as Confluence?

[Apothis]

I see a lot of issues whether it be VC1, HD audio, 23.976 playback, and now this issue with MKV files.

Might play with it a bit more or maybe just send it back to Amazon.

VC1 is down to Amazon, probably not licensing it. HD audio and 24fps are both limitations of Android, and not likely/possible to be fixed without Android changing.

But yeah, simple answer as always, if this box doesnt meet your needs, then its best to get something else.

---

What skins are you all using? Confluence is super fast but I'd like a tiny bit more customization (like having a playlist in favorites start playing when clicked on instead of bringing up the contents). I tried Hybrid since its was what i used before but it really lags. What other skins are as fast as Confluence?

Ace, looks nice and not laggy for me

[mjbxx]

What skins are you all using? Confluence is super fast but I'd like a tiny bit more customization (like having a playlist in favorites start playing when clicked on instead of bringing up the contents). I tried Hybrid since its was what i used before but it really lags. What other skins are as fast as Confluence?

Try the Amber skin. It works great with PlexBMC and it is just as fast as Confluence while offering nice upgrades to the UI.

[hdmkv]

voip-ninja, I haven't gotten around to posting a log file or reporting the bug officially. If you can do so, appreciate it. This issue also affects OUYA users, and I imagine other Android-based boxes.

[voip-ninja]

[quote='voip-ninja' pid='1708640' dateline='1399993418'] I see a lot of issues whether it be VC1, HD audio, 23.976 playback, and now this issue with MKV files.


But yeah, simple answer as always, if this box doesnt meet your needs, then its best to get something else.

I knew about VC1, HD Audio and 23.976 when I bought the FTV, however I'm rather gobsmacked that nobody has mentioned that some H.264 MKVs won't play properly either... that's a pretty big deal to some of us... those of us who rip our own media anyhow.

[dukester]

[quote='voip-ninja' pid='1708640' dateline='1399993418'] I see a lot of issues whether it be VC1, HD audio, 23.976 playback, and now this issue with MKV files.


But yeah, simple answer as always, if this box doesnt meet your needs, then its best to get something else.

I knew about VC1, HD Audio and 23.976 when I bought the FTV, however I'm rather gobsmacked that nobody has mentioned that some H.264 MKVs won't play properly either... that's a pretty big deal of us... those of us who rip our own media anyhow.

i have a 1TB library which is 90% h.264 mkvs, mostly high bitrates (20+gb files) i havent encountered a single one that doesnt play perfect, this is streamed over WIFI via an SMB share to boot.

[voip-ninja]

[quote='voip-ninja' pid='1708640' dateline='1399993418'] I see a lot of issues whether it be VC1, HD audio, 23.976 playback, and now this issue with MKV files.


But yeah, simple answer as always, if this box doesnt meet your needs, then its best to get something else.

I knew about VC1, HD Audio and 23.976 when I bought the FTV, however I'm rather gobsmacked that nobody has mentioned that some H.264 MKVs won't play properly either... that's a pretty big deal of us... those of us who rip our own media anyhow.

i have a 1TB library which is 90% h.264 mkvs, mostly high bitrates (20+gb files) i havent encountered a single one that doesnt play perfect, this is streamed over WIFI via an SMB share to boot.

Do you do 1:1 rips of your own BDs? If so, I can give you several that demonstrate the problem and are 100% reproducible. The reality is that 95% or more of the folks here get their media in other ways than ripping it from discs they bought. You all know what I mean.

If we are getting out the "measuring stick" - I have a 16TB NAS in my basement which is 85% full of mostly 1:1 BD rips. I have purchased and ripped over 400 BDs... so while your experience is interesting it does not match my own. I have an i3 based HTPC with a GT430 running OE that plays all of these titles fine, it's just the FTV that has trouble... clearly for the torrent crowd this does not appear to be a concern, but some of us buy this stuff and don't want to transcode it just so it will play on one box.

[ixian]

What skins are you all using? Confluence is super fast but I'd like a tiny bit more customization (like having a playlist in favorites start playing when clicked on instead of bringing up the contents). I tried Hybrid since its was what i used before but it really lags. What other skins are as fast as Confluence?

I'm rather fond of Eminence, which works great on the FTV. It's a WIP skin but good enough for day to day use at this time - just missing a few things (like home screen widgets for music and weather) that will come eventually.

It looks fantastic and in spite of that performs very well on lower end hardware. Also has a great EPG for LiveTV if that is needed.

---

[quote='voip-ninja' pid='1708640' dateline='1399993418'] I see a lot of issues whether it be VC1, HD audio, 23.976 playback, and now this issue with MKV files.


But yeah, simple answer as always, if this box doesnt meet your needs, then its best to get something else.

I knew about VC1, HD Audio and 23.976 when I bought the FTV, however I'm rather gobsmacked that nobody has mentioned that some H.264 MKVs won't play properly either... that's a pretty big deal to some of us... those of us who rip our own media anyhow.

Well the things barely been out for a month and someone has reported it - you are that someone I mean, these things take time, it's a new device and there's a new XBMC out, within days/weeks of one another.

Now that it's known hopefully you'll get some traction on the issue. I have quite a few 1:1 rips myself that I just haven't tried on the FTV because I've A) Already watched them and B) Mostly use the FTV for TV Rips as it is. That said I'll test some of my BD rips and look for the problem.

[elmerohueso]

If we are getting out the "measuring stick" - I have a 16TB NAS in my basement which is 85% full of mostly 1:1 BD rips. I have purchased and ripped over 400 BDs... so while your experience is interesting it does not match my own. I have an i3 based HTPC with a GT430 running OE that plays all of these titles fine, it's just the FTV that has trouble... clearly for the torrent crowd this does not appear to be a concern, but some of us buy this stuff and don't want to transcode it just so it will play on one box.

You don't have to be a torrenter to value your disk space. I actually rip most my BD down to 720p x264 and shoot for 4-8 GB. I've only kept full 1080p for maybe 10% of my collection.
I've got a 39" TV and a 27" TV, and no complaints (and no issues playing them on the FTV).

[jhatfield]

[quote='voip-ninja' pid='1708640' dateline='1399993418'] I see a lot of issues whether it be VC1, HD audio, 23.976 playback, and now this issue with MKV files.


But yeah, simple answer as always, if this box doesnt meet your needs, then its best to get something else.

I knew about VC1, HD Audio and 23.976 when I bought the FTV, however I'm rather gobsmacked that nobody has mentioned that some H.264 MKVs won't play properly either... that's a pretty big deal of us... those of us who rip our own media anyhow.

i have a 1TB library which is 90% h.264 mkvs, mostly high bitrates (20+gb files) i havent encountered a single one that doesnt play perfect, this is streamed over WIFI via an SMB share to boot.

Everything I play is h.264 mkv's. All my streaming issues went away after I did a restart of the fire tv.

[Apothis]

Do you do 1:1 rips of your own BDs? If so, I can give you several that demonstrate the problem and are 100% reproducible. The reality is that 95% or more of the folks here get their media in other ways than ripping it from discs they bought. You all know what I mean.

If we are getting out the "measuring stick" - I have a 16TB NAS in my basement which is 85% full of mostly 1:1 BD rips. I have purchased and ripped over 400 BDs... so while your experience is interesting it does not match my own. I have an i3 based HTPC with a GT430 running OE that plays all of these titles fine, it's just the FTV that has trouble... clearly for the torrent crowd this does not appear to be a concern, but some of us buy this stuff and don't want to transcode it just so it will play on one box.

Dont know about anyone else, but I'm certainly not trying to suggest that you arent seeing this problem, just saying that I havent. But then I keep most of my full bluray backups in ISO format.

However, comparing the performance of an i3, with a discrete GPU, and an optimised linux install, with this little box running a mobile phone operating system probably isnt a fair comparison.

For what its worth, I think the firetv is a great little box, which probably does more than we should expect for the cost. What I dont think it is, is suitable as the media source for a fully fledged home cinema setup, and to expect it to be is just asking too much. Although I wish it was

[MrCrispy]

I'm not so sure about the 'does more for the cost' part, as there are tons of Android boxes/tv sticks that have similar playback functionality. What sets the Fire apart is a slightly faster SoC for more responsive navigation, its made by Amazon, other services etc. But the hw playback side of it has been pretty much the same for a while now.

[voip-ninja]

If we are getting out the "measuring stick" - I have a 16TB NAS in my basement which is 85% full of mostly 1:1 BD rips. I have purchased and ripped over 400 BDs... so while your experience is interesting it does not match my own. I have an i3 based HTPC with a GT430 running OE that plays all of these titles fine, it's just the FTV that has trouble... clearly for the torrent crowd this does not appear to be a concern, but some of us buy this stuff and don't want to transcode it just so it will play on one box.

You don't have to be a torrenter to value your disk space. I actually rip most my BD down to 720p x264 and shoot for 4-8 GB. I've only kept full 1080p for maybe 10% of my collection.
I've got a 39" TV and a 27" TV, and no complaints (and no issues playing them on the FTV).

TV is 65" .. watching 720P is noticeably inferior to 1080P at that screen size when sitting 9' away.

---

Well the things barely been out for a month and someone has reported it - you are that someone I mean, these things take time, it's a new device and there's a new XBMC out, within days/weeks of one another.

Now that it's known hopefully you'll get some traction on the issue. I have quite a few 1:1 rips myself that I just haven't tried on the FTV because I've A) Already watched them and B) Mostly use the FTV for TV Rips as it is. That said I'll test some of my BD rips and look for the problem.

I've only seen it on a handful of titles.

Frozen and Gravity are two that definitely had it. Oddly with Frozen it only started showing up after the movie played fine for 1 hr. I will do a hard reboot on the box to see if Gravity still fails since I've tried all sorts of video settings and it still has the macro-blocking green fuzz whenever I play it on FTV.

[thefrog]

I've only seen it on a handful of titles.

Frozen and Gravity are two that definitely had it. Oddly with Frozen it only started showing up after the movie played fine for 1 hr. I will do a hard reboot on the box to see if Gravity still fails since I've tried all sorts of video settings and it still has the macro-blocking green fuzz whenever I play it on FTV.

• I do Full BD ISO (from BD's I have purchased mostly from amazon), but I haven't ripped anything since Mid-2012 (yes, I have a backlog).
  
• I have about 26% BD's that are VC-1 (41 VC1, 113 hdmv)
  
• I have no AVR, so all audio is downmixed to Stereo
  
• My eyeballs are not sufficient to notice the 3:2 pulldown
  
• I run Gotham RC1 (not upgraded yet)
  
• I run SMB off a FreeNAS over Ethernet (Plan to test NFS when I have time)
  
• I _was_ running MediaCodec, I have been testing with libstagefright recently
  
• Only MediaCodec glitch I was able to capture-reproduce was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK5TiehvnxA
  

With some of the nightlys and earlier versions while opening BD ISO files and then stopping almost immediately (to populate media info) in succession, XBMC would exit frequently and sometimes render the AFTV unable to play Amazon or Netflix video until a reboot. I have not seen the green fuzz yet, but I'd be willing to compare. The machine that has the BDROM drive is in storage (why do I find that funny?) -- Otherwise I would test 'Gravity'. Is the green fuzz mostly newer movies?

Have you been experimenting with the BluRay Menus?

Side Note: do you have a link for your NAS build?