[crawfish]

I don't think so, though - I'd love to see adb logs from you guys playing multi channel pcm. Perhaps it's a local handshake issue with my AVR? Just that we have more than one data.

I have a couple of logs that may shed some light on my new problems with Amazon OS 6.2.7.7 using both Leia 18.8 (fritsch) and Matrix Beta 2. I have the stick's "Surround Sound" set to "Best available," and Kodi is set to 7.1 Fixed. The first one is the good one, in which my Pioneer VSX-1124 AVR switched to the configured Fixed PCM 7.1 when I started Kodi, and the second is the abnormal one, in which my AVR switched to Dolby Digital Plus when I started Kodi. They were each obtained from a freshly restarted stick, with Kodi being the only thing run. The difference is that before launching Kodi for the DD+ case, I switched to another input on my AVR, and then I switched back. As you can see, in the DD+ case, only one "AUDIOTRACK device" was enumerated. For the PCM case, two were enumerated. Now, if Kodi's already running and using 7.1 PCM, and I switch inputs, it stays on 7.1 PCM when I switch back, so it's not a huge problem, but this could explain at least some instances of trouble people are having.

1. 7.1 PCM (good)

https://paste.kodi.tv/ovifukedoz.kodi

2. DD+ (bad)

https://paste.kodi.tv/zahohoqihu.kodi

[fritsch]

Yes - nothing we can do about it. Kodi "force opens" all formats when being started / devices are reenumerated. Firmware can't do IEC in your failed log. It does not allow to even open 2 channel IEC format, which is the reason the device is gone, via: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/master....cpp#L1028

Sometimes the firmware reacts way later or when you switch refreshrate / resolution (either in firetv settings or in kodi).

[crawfish]

Yes - nothing we can do about it. Kodi "force opens" all formats when being started / devices are reenumerated. Firmware can't do IEC in your failed log. It does not allow to even open 2 channel IEC format, which is the reason the device is gone, via: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/master....cpp#L1028

Sometimes the firmware reacts way later or when you switch refreshrate / resolution (either in firetv settings or in kodi).

Thanks. One workaround seems to be to exit Kodi, power-cycle the AVR, and restart Kodi. At least it worked once. Again, once Kodi switches to 7.1 PCM, it still seems to stay there across AVR input changes, so all is not lost. I never encountered the DD+ behavior prior to the recent Amazon OS update, which I was stupid to try, because I was on an old version that hadn't updated since March. I'm guessing it didn't auto-update in all that time because I disabled sleep to keep the stick on Kodi 24/7. I have another stick which I use on another TV, for which I didn't disable sleep, and it did auto-update.

In addition to both Leia and Matrix beta 1-2 being susceptible to this new DD+ behavior, which I never noticed prior to the recent Amazon OS update, I found tonight that the stick spontaneously rebooted while sitting in a movies InfoWall in Leia 18.8. I thought this was new to the Matrix beta, but it may be due to the Amazon update. It could also be a weird power supply coincidence, so I've swapped adapters between the two sticks. The only remaining possibility is that it is somehow related to moving the thumbnails folder to a network location, but I've noticed no problems with thumbs, and it rebooted once when sitting in Audio settings. None of this seems due to Leia/Matrix differences, which is good to know.

[Luke M]

I still get 5.1/7.1 output correctly using this test file.

https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/7.1au...v2_rtb.mp4

What AVR are you using? Maybe the problem is AVR specific. I have a Marantz (same as Denon). Unfortunately I don't have any other AVRs to test with.

I have a Denon, and PCM multichannel works perfectly with MrMc.

I confirmed that MrMC does output 5.1 (7.1 doesn't work). Either DD+ 5.1 or PCM 5.1 depending on the FireTV setting.

I noticed in the debug log that MrMC uses 16-bit audio samples instead of float. But this may be irreverent to the issue.

[h3ct0r]

I confirm the random reboots when playing 5.1 media on Fire Stick 4K (6.2.7.7) with Kodi 18.9. It seems that messing around with the sound options triggers the reboots. Also, the exit button in Kodi does not work in most cases after trying to play something with passthrough enabled.

Damn, I just want to block any forced updates from Amazon.

[mamachan]

. Also, the exit button in Kodi does not work in most cases after trying to play something with passthrough enabled.

Exit button don't works if you use recomended passtrhrough. With raw passtrhrough works fine.

[crawfish]

I have a bug report for Kodi Matrix Beta 2, Amazon OS 6.2.7.7, which did capture some problems at the end of the logfile.

1. Yesterday: Played two TV episodes in Kodi. Switched AVR away from stick. All was fine, audio 7.1 PCM throughout.
2. Today: Switched AVR back to stick. Kodi was where I left it. Played one TV episode. All is fine, everything still 7.1 PCM.
3. Switched to Apple TV to watch some Netflix.
4. Switched back to Fire TV Stick 4K. Kodi is still running, AVR back to 7.1 PCM. Looks fine.
5. Played movie which normally plays fine, but this time, it had no audio and froze after 10 seconds or so. The stick spontaneously rebooted within 30 seconds.

The end of the logfile has a bunch of these errors, "CDVDAudio::AddPacketsRenderer - timeout adding data to renderer," which were made after I started playing the movie in step (5), just before the stick rebooted. There is also a "CVideoPlayerVideo - Stillframe detected, switching to forced 23.976024 fps" in the midst of all of the former. I do NOT have Kodi match the FPS of the source. If I could, I would set it to output a constant 60 Hz, but I just checked, and the options are grayed out and set to 59.94 Hz.

I don't know if any of this matters, but during NORMAL playback, there were a bunch of "ERROR <general>: CMediaCodecVideoBuffer::ReleaseOutputBuffer error in render(0)" and "WARNING <general>: CRenderManager::WaitForBuffer - timeout waiting for buffer." Again, all the PROBLEM behavior is at the end of the logfile.

https://paste.kodi.tv/gigiqesobi.kodi

[d0zer]

On my system with firestick directly in onkyo 676 receiver, I do not get dts pass through. It seems to be transcoded to dd 5.1 and that is acceptable till I get a different box.
Using matrix 19.0 beta 2
System/audio settings
Raw device
2.0 channels
Pass through raw device
Everything enabled.

Tried iec device, but no output in any settings.

do you really hear surround on all 5 or more speakers? does the voice come through center?

[Dennis_H]

On my system with firestick directly in onkyo 676 receiver, I do not get dts pass through. It seems to be transcoded to dd 5.1 and that is acceptable till I get a different box.
Using matrix 19.0 beta 2
System/audio settings
Raw device
2.0 channels
Pass through raw device
Everything enabled.

Tried iec device, but no output in any settings.

do you really hear surround on all 5 or more speakers? does the voice come through center?

Yes, it seem to be mapping correctly. Would rather have dts passed, but dd+ seems to be an ok compromise. I'll wait till after Christmas and see if it gets re-enabled on Amazon's side, but may move to a shield of that's the best then. Would dump the firestick, but still use it for my recast on 3 sets. It does have great WAF. Not going to go to techy for her.

[Undivide]

this update has just made me hate the fire stick.  kodi still runs flawlessly and plays all my 2160p encoded files just fine but the passthrough not working like it used to is a killer.  I've loaded kodi on my android tv and it can pass the audio just fine to my sound bar BUT for some reason it can't handle to bitrates I guess because on occasion the video freezes up while the audio is still playing then it has to re-sync itself.  so many files have DTS audio as the only audio track and to not be able to use that despite the sound bar fully supporting the format is garbage.
might pickup a shield tomorrow and just be done with it.  why does kodi's IEC not pass through anything but android's IEC passes DD just fine and nothing else

[fritsch]

So finally, they removed the support of stuff they don't sell by intention ... yeah, too bad ... The 2 channel option + enabling Dolby Transcode + _only_ AC3 should still work, right?

Perhaps I can do some additional workarounds so that we get higher bitrate AC3 output or even make DD+ possible, if that helps. But yeah obviously removing / shit f*cking the IEC option as this is an output they cannot control is bad - sad ...

So if I summarize:
- IEC option which uses official Android's IEC format: https://developer.android.com/reference/...G_IEC61937 is now entirely gone or just not working anymore?
- RAW option only supports E-AC3 and AC3, right?

[crawfish]

Perhaps I can do some additional workarounds so that we get higher bitrate AC3 output or even make DD+ possible, if that helps. But yeah obviously removing / shit f*cking the IEC option as this is an output they cannot control is bad - sad ...

Appreciate all your work on this. Did my logfile including errors right before the stick spontaneously rebooted shed any light on anything? I'm the one who wants Kodi to always output 7.1 PCM.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2995188

[fritsch]

No, nothing wrong in kodi's log - only the replies we get from the firmware. If someone knows someone at amazon, just ask kindly if they sell too many devices that are only used with kodi

[wizziwig]

Even devices used only for Kodi still generate revenue for Amazon via the many advertisements on the home screen.

So if I'm reading all the recent complaints correctly, this device no longer supports DTS and AC3 (aka Dolby Digital) passthrough?  Stereo AAC or Opus are pretty common formats for many streaming apps (youtube for example) so strange they would now force lossy transcoding of those formats to DD+.

[Undivide]

So finally, they removed the support of stuff they don't sell by intention ... yeah, too bad

I don't know why I am so surprised by this except for the fact that everything has worked plug & play since I bought the latest fire stick 2 years ago.  I am not familiar with IEC or how it is implemented into kodi.  All I know is the default recommended setting (audiotrack IEC/kodi IEC packer) for passthrough device does not let any sound make it to my soundbar.  
changing this to the audiotrack raw/android IEC packer allows my soundbar to pickup ac3/eac3 stream but everything else (DTS) gets down-sampled to dolby stereo.

not sure if anyone on the kodi team has firesticks to test on when they make code changes?

let me know if posting any logs from my stick would help.