2021-09-09, 15:47
2021-09-09, 16:37
All good on the improved specs, except for that paltry 8GB of storage yet again!
2021-09-09, 16:40
I pre-ordered it ... (though I have zero expectations to fix pending kodi issues / functionality, e.g. IEC passthrough).
2021-09-09, 21:33
2021-09-09, 21:51
On Amazon page, it said the new Fire Stick 4K supports "Dolby Atmos, 7.1 surround sound, 2-channel stereo, and HDMI audio pass through up to 5.1". So I see HD Audio or 7.1 LPCM passthrough is still not here?
2021-09-11, 11:48
(2021-09-10, 15:41)fritsch Wrote: The content they sell, they support. That easy it is.
Yes - if you buy a media player from a content provider, only expect it to be compatible with content that provider makes available on their platform, or the content that it allows others to make available.
This is why Apple TV, Fire TV devices, Google Chromecast with Google TV etc. are only compatible with the content they are.
Third party media players that don't also run their own streaming services are in a different situation.
2021-09-11, 13:24
(2021-09-10, 15:41)fritsch Wrote: The content they sell, they support. That easy it is.Yeah but we can't expect streaming devices to support lossless multichannel audio meant for Blurays. The 2 mediums aren't the same. Kodi is always going to be facing an uphill battle in trying to get passthrough working on devices meant for casual viewing rather than enthusiast viewing. The only time this willl ever change is if the disc format dies out completely and movies get distributed on USB sticks which can be inserted into a streaming box for local high-bitrate playback or literally everything goes streaming and people pay extra to have UHD-Bluray quality streaming when they buy a movie, complete with master audio.
2021-09-12, 10:44
(2021-09-11, 13:24)Kodroid Wrote: The only time this willl ever change is if the disc format dies out completely and movies get distributed on USB sticks which can be inserted into a streaming box for local high-bitrate playback or literally everything goes streaming and people pay extra to have UHD-Bluray quality streaming when they buy a movie, complete with master audio.
Yep - and broadband and reliable WiFi speeds improve to cope. A PCM 7.1 48kHz/24 bit audio stream is 9.2Mb/s just for the audio, if you go for very high quality video (as used on UHD BDs) then you could very easily require >100Mbs for the video at peaks.
2021-09-12, 19:28
Sony's movie streaming service requires a 115mb/s connection for max quality. They actually say you have to use WiFi because their shitty smart TVs only have 100m Ethernet. They don't bother with lossless audio, but obviously it would be no big percentage increase in bitrate. The only real hardware impediment is the SPDIF bottleneck on TVs made before eARC.
2021-10-07, 19:25
2021-10-08, 10:38
Couple of questions:
Will this new device support unmolested audio passthru of Dolby Atmos / DTS:X bitstream to an AVR (typically mkv’s sourced from blu-ray rips) just like the Shield? Or does it have the same limitations as the current 4K Stick?
Will the current 3rd party USB Gigabit adaptors that work with the current 4K Stick work with the Max? A shame Amazon haven’t updated their own adaptor to Gigabit!
Thanks in advance to anyone who can test/answer these.
Will this new device support unmolested audio passthru of Dolby Atmos / DTS:X bitstream to an AVR (typically mkv’s sourced from blu-ray rips) just like the Shield? Or does it have the same limitations as the current 4K Stick?
Will the current 3rd party USB Gigabit adaptors that work with the current 4K Stick work with the Max? A shame Amazon haven’t updated their own adaptor to Gigabit!
Thanks in advance to anyone who can test/answer these.
2021-10-08, 11:04
(2021-10-08, 10:38)pixeluk Wrote: Couple of questions:1) We are not sure but OS7 might allow perfect passthru. We can't say this until a dev or somebody technical with a 4K Max stick can confirm it.
Will this new device support unmolested audio passthru of Dolby Atmos / DTS:X bitstream to an AVR (typically mkv’s sourced from blu-ray rips) just like the Shield? Or does it have the same limitations as the current 4K Stick?
Will the current 3rd party USB Gigabit adaptors that work with the current 4K Stick work with the Max? A shame Amazon haven’t updated their own adaptor to Gigabit!
Thanks in advance to anyone who can test/answer these.
2) It seems a gigabit adapter doesn't matter on the 4K Max or the older 4K Stick because:
Quote:However, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max still uses a USB 2.0 micro USB connection for power and data. This means that you still can’t achieve wired Ethernet speeds faster than around 300-400 Mbps, even if you use a compatible Gigabit Ethernet adapter.
2021-10-08, 11:38
(2021-10-08, 11:04)Kodroid Wrote:Some 4K rips are over 100Mbps so even if a Gigabit adaptor is limited to USB 2.0 speeds it’s still sufficiently faster than the 100Mbps adaptors to support smooth playback. The issue with the Gigabit adaptors is that there are a range of chipsets (typically Realtek) in use and the current 4K stick doesn’t support them all – it can be a lottery to find one that is supported!(2021-10-08, 10:38)pixeluk Wrote: Couple of questions:1) We are not sure but OS7 might allow perfect passthru. We can't say this until a dev or somebody technical with a 4K Max stick can confirm it.
Will this new device support unmolested audio passthru of Dolby Atmos / DTS:X bitstream to an AVR (typically mkv’s sourced from blu-ray rips) just like the Shield? Or does it have the same limitations as the current 4K Stick?
Will the current 3rd party USB Gigabit adaptors that work with the current 4K Stick work with the Max? A shame Amazon haven’t updated their own adaptor to Gigabit!
Thanks in advance to anyone who can test/answer these.
2) It seems a gigabit adapter doesn't matter on the 4K Max or the older 4K Stick because:
Quote:However, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max still uses a USB 2.0 micro USB connection for power and data. This means that you still can’t achieve wired Ethernet speeds faster than around 300-400 Mbps, even if you use a compatible Gigabit Ethernet adapter.
2021-10-08, 15:19
(2021-10-08, 11:38)pixeluk Wrote: Some 4K rips are over 100Mbps so even if a Gigabit adaptor is limited to USB 2.0 speeds it’s still sufficiently faster than the 100Mbps adaptors to support smooth playback. The issue with the Gigabit adaptors is that there are a range of chipsets (typically Realtek) in use and the current 4K stick doesn’t support them all – it can be a lottery to find one that is supported!That's a good point. I do, however, seem to get a great wifi signal with the old 4K Stick. I do wish we had a box with gigabit ethernet, though.
In other news, 19.2 just came out (almost) in time for the new stick being released yesterday.
https://mirrors.kodi.tv/releases/android/arm/
