[InTheBoilerRoom]

Is everyone else having audio sync issues with this stick?

I'm setting one up for a friend. I've been a long time user of the first and second generation Fire TV's. Not at all impressed with this iteration, so far.

Netflix, Youtube, etc are fine, but nearly every video file I've tried in Kodi has required an audio offset. Typically, that's .05s, but VP9 encodes are more than double that. Nothing I've tried - (FireOS set to Stereo, Kodi set to Stereo, various permutations of frame rate switching) has made any difference whatsoever.
 

I haven't had this problem.

The FireTV 4K does weird things with stereo - it transcodes to DD/DD+. That must add some delay so maybe it's related to your problem (just speculating). You can avoid that by setting Kodi to "fixed" 5.1 instead of "optimized".  

Tried various combinations of Stereo/Dolby on both Kodi and the stick. Also passthrough. Had no noticeable effect. TV is being output to a stereo, btw.

Wondering if I might have faulty hardware or whether everyone is experiencing it? 

I'm experiencing a similar issue. The sync issue is worst with a movie that is a DVD with MPEG2 video and 5.1 DD AC-3 audio. There is considerable delay with this video (audio lagging behind video). I can't get the audio to passthrough as 5.1, either. It outputs to the receiver as stereo, even though I have all settings set to passthrough DTS and DD audio.

I do have some sync issues with Blu-rays that are correctly passing through DTS-MA, but it's not as bad. I still need to set up my system with a hardwired ethernet connection, so I haven't fully tested the Blu-ray quality video and audio, though.

[thefrog]

Cool, the bottleneck here is, I presume the usb2 controller?
Out of interest, how do u manage to run iperf3 on the Firestick?
Edit:, don't worry, ive found the instructions earlier in the thread. 

This thread is where I found the instructions.  The FireTV 2 did 4k without HDR just fine -- it did everything great, but didn't have a big enough colour space for the 4k UHD.  The Amazon Fire Stick 4k has been -- finicky -- in comparison to the FireTV 2.  I don't have a solid attribution as to if this is moving from 17.3 to 18.1 or from FireTV 2 to the AFS4K.  I hope to do enough troubleshooting to start providing useful feedback in the future.

[thefrog]

I'm experiencing a similar issue. The sync issue is worst with a movie that is a DVD with MPEG2 video and 5.1 DD AC-3 audio. There is considerable delay with this video (audio lagging behind video). I can't get the audio to passthrough as 5.1, either. It outputs to the receiver as stereo, even though I have all settings set to passthrough DTS and DD audio.

DVD ISOs with MPEG2 encoding do not seem to play as well on this device for me.  The audio is not in-sync and the subtitles flicker and the video itself is also jumpy.  I have not put a lot of time into troubleshooting this as of yet.  None of these were issues prior to new device and the new version of kodi (not blaming... just observing) -- so I need to troubleshoot.

[blizzardreign]

Hi everyone. How do I connect the Amazon Fire TV stick 4K to the UGREEN hub and micro USB otg cable mentioned in this thread to get wired Ethernet? Is this correct: FTV stick - micro USB cable - the USB female connects to the UGREEN USB male port - wired lan cable to router. As for the power, the micro USB female of the otg cable connects to the micro USB male of the original amazon FTV cable and then to the power plug?

[cconstantin1979]

Hi everyone. How do I connect the Amazon Fire TV stick 4K to the UGREEN hub and micro USB otg cable mentioned in this thread to get wired Ethernet? Is this correct: FTV stick - micro USB cable - the USB female connects to the UGREEN USB male port - wired lan cable to router. As for the power, the micro USB female of the otg cable connects to the micro USB male of the original amazon FTV cable and then to the power plug?

You need an extra OTG USB adapter: (I use this one https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00EJP5XR2 )

The result works (I use this setup), it's like this:

[thefrog]

DVD Troubleshooting:

I updated to Kodi 18.2 and the flickering subtitles of the DVDs was resolved.  Playback of DVDs was still jumpy and sometimes with decoding artifacts.  After a bit of research, I found this ticket: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/issues/15405 which seemed to describe my problem -- a heated debate derailed the technical information a bit.  Used this information to review this thread and some posts (such as https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2794828 ) led me to test MediaCodec.

MediaCodec and MediaCodecSurface being disabled resolved the visual issues with DVDs -- but these need to be enabled for other videos.  It is interesting that the few MPEG2 BluRays I have do not seem to suffer from the MPEG2 problems that the DVDs have (maybe I should revisit these more closely)

I am gonna try this: 

<advancedsettings>
    <video>
        <mediacodec>
            <!-- -1 is default, 0 is never used this codec, 1 is always use this codec, bypassing blacklist -->
            <usempeg2codec>0</usempeg2codec>
        </mediacodec>
    </video>
</advancedsettings>

and report back.   I'm not familiar enough with the code to know if that is what hits this escape hatch: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/aba6aa...c.cpp#L390

[wrxtasy]

You need to us the decode filter.xml https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2840569

[thefrog]

You need to us the decode filter.xml https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2840569

OK, I will search and try to unpack that instruction.  I've pulled my decodefilter.xml file off the AFTV for editing.  

The advancedsettings.xml method is 'the wrong way' or is it not expected to work?

Is this related to MPEG2 Interlacing problem?  My MPEG2 BluRays (all 2 of them) play fine as hardware and software progressive decode.  DVD ISOs seem to have the problem.  I suspect the Amazon Recast stores something as interlaced MPEG2 (ATSC MPEG2 Interlaced option) -- wouldn't that mean that Amazon will have to fix this issue?

[Edit: Several external sources that are tracking the issue of MPEG2 hardware decoding of interlaced video are reporting that Amazon has acknowledge the bug and will be issuing a fix by the end of Q2 ... So, traditionally, by July.  Many folks are justifiably skeptical.]

Thanks!

[Luke M]

Is this related to MPEG2 Interlacing problem?  My MPEG2 BluRays (all 2 of them) play fine as hardware and software progressive decode.  DVD ISOs seem to have the problem.  I suspect the Amazon Recast stores something as interlaced MPEG2 (ATSC MPEG2 Interlaced option) -- wouldn't that mean that Amazon will have to fix this issue?

No, the Recast transcodes to AVC (and I assume deinterlaces).

[blizzardreign]

You need an extra OTG USB adapter: (I use this one https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00EJP5XR2 )

The result works (I use this setup), it's like this:

Thanks! Yes that's how I was thinking of connecting it. I received the UGREEN hub and bought another OTG cable adapter and it works a treat!

[txumintxu]

And 8k is in the way. They are waiting until we buy all the 4k stuff.

[FireInMyHole]

I've reported the audio sync issues as a Kodi bug if anyone would like to add to this thread.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=343831

There must be something that can be done within Kodi as MrMC doesn't have the same problem:

[Luke M]

I've reported the audio sync issues as a Kodi bug if anyone would like to add to this thread.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=343831

There must be something that can be done within Kodi as MrMC doesn't have the same problem:

Try this A/V sync test video:

https://www98.zippyshare.com/v/5fdVv2pv/file.html

On my setup it's in sync. I'm just wondering if it's something peculiar to the files you're playing.

[FireInMyHole]

..... deleted

[thefrog]

I've reported the audio sync issues as a Kodi bug if anyone would like to add to this thread.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=343831

There must be something that can be done within Kodi as MrMC doesn't have the same problem:

Try this A/V sync test video:

https://www98.zippyshare.com/v/5fdVv2pv/file.html

On my setup it's in sync. I'm just wondering if it's something peculiar to the files you're playing. 

I have downloaded this file and tested it.  My video/audio is in sync with this video.  Almost all my HD content is in-sync over wired networking.

DVDs with hardware decoding are somewhat problematic .. with software decoding they are watchable and audio synced (with the occasional software decoding idiosyncrasy )

Anything that is interlaced and hardware decoded is supposedly a problem -- but I only have SD content that is interlaced and can not confirm.