[lowridin_guy]

interesting....please post back with the results.

[rupert]

But on regular SD files it works fine right? And if I turn on software rendering it should handle 720p?

With the Stick's settings set to output at 720p, I got decent looking software decoding for all the files I threw at it when viewing on my 46 inch TV.

HOWEVER, when looking at it on a larger screen (110 inch projection screen) even this is CLEARLY not doing clear 720p. In this scenario, the picture quality is very noticeably fuzzy (compared to other 720p sources on this screen). I have not looked at Amazon or Netflix content at 720p on my PJ from the stick yet to compare.

Also, I have poor eye site, so others may spot this fuzzyness on smaller screens then I'm capable of seeing.

-Rupert

[dastick]

Harry, I was with you until I read this bit:

"Note:
DTS/DOLBY Support doesn't meant that you will get true multichannel audio output. In MX Player it will be downsampled to 2.0 (stereo) since Android doesn't support multichannel audio output"

on that xda url.

This is what I am going to do to fix the video quality issue on the FireTV stick.

I am going to have XBMC launch MX player for videos. The hardware acceleration on MX player is far superior than that of XBMC on android.

http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Use_externa...on_Android

Note: as of the last mx player build AC3/dolby/dts is no longer supported due to licensing issues. You will have to get the updated codec to support this at XDA here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/mx-...t-t2156254

[harrybuckman]

MX player will do passthrough. I believe what he was trying to say was that the output from an android device.

[dastick]

Well, if it will do passthrough you shouldn't need codecs though?

Someone in that thread tried it on the regular fire tv with no luck:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/mx-...st55694024

I read a couple of dev type forum posts, from couple months ago earlier that basically said Google doesn't want android passing more than 2 channels pcm, so it was restricted on an os level. I tried this a bit playing around with different things yesterday and it always was just a stereo upmix sent to all 5 channels when via pcm.

Not trying to discourage you, for sure feel free to try it out. I hope you're right!

[ikecomp]

does any of the online streaming plugins work on firetv stick?
say xbmctorrent or analog?

I tried the Apple trailers plugin, HD trailers plugin and a few others and they all work.

Back on topic, there is an overall playback quality issue. I notice it even when using other streaming apps with the stick (plex, Amazon prime video, etc). The picture is sharp with 1080p but has some slight micro stutter or clipping of the picture. 720p in kodi is bad like everyone has mentioned. I checked by watching a video in plex and watching the same video with kodi. There's a noticeable difference in quality.

Update: Reset the device to factory default and the microstutter is completely gone. The 720p playback quality still sucks but progress is progress. I can definitely confirm the issue with 720p files is only in spmc/kodi. Using the Amazon plex app and mx player doesn't exhibit the issue.

[harrybuckman]

This post here say that passthrough works on mx player.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=197728

I am going to try it once I have a chance

Also the FireTV stick has a slightly different android because it states that "it supports audio passthrough up to 7.1"

[harrybuckman]

hat tip goes to "dastick"

MX player won't do ac3/dolby passthrough
XBMC will.

Having XBMC launch MXplayer to play videos solves all video playback issues though. Playback is smooth, video is crisp

HD video looks perfect when being streamed by mx player through xbmx.

The down fall is 2 channel audio.


This is good news though because that means the video quality issues in xbmc are fixable and not a hardware/amazon issue.

[rupert]

It should be possible to prove the subsampling with a testcard style video that has alternate black and white lines.
If displayed with "actual size" scaling you should see the stripes.
If subsampled you will see solid white, black or gray.

Any idea where I could get such a test card video? I'm not sure the one I tried is good enough (both are 720p)

I downloaded this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suP84Culp...rjioSilver

And this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMq6awGB1...rjioSilver


First picture is Chromebox, second picture is Fire Stick with HW decoding turned (libstagefright only) on & both systems are set to output 720P to the display.

I don't see a section of solid color instead of lines, but I suspect the grey replacing the white lines is still a symptom of the same bug you theorized. Does this confirm your theory?

watch gallery

Edit: I also took a look comparing the HW & SW decoding on the fire stick, the pattern & black/white/grey color mistakes seem to my eyes to be the same w/both HW & SW decoding. That sorta seems to discount your theory, as you stated SW decoding would not go through the effected code path.

[popcornmix]

First picture is Chromebox, second picture is Fire Stick with HW decoding turned (libstagefright only) on & both systems are set to output 720P to the display.

I don't see a section of solid color instead of lines, but I suspect the grey replacing the white lines is still a symptom of the same bug you theorized. Does this confirm your theory?

Can you use the screenshot option in kodi to capture the two images? I believe the low video quality will be present in the screenshot.
(printscreen key, but you can map a remote key if you don't have a keyboard).

[noggin]

It should be possible to prove the subsampling with a testcard style video that has alternate black and white lines.
If displayed with "actual size" scaling you should see the stripes.
If subsampled you will see solid white, black or gray.

Any idea where I could get such a test card video? I'm not sure the one I tried is good enough (both are 720p)

I downloaded this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suP84Culp...rjioSilver

And this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMq6awGB1...rjioSilver


First picture is Chromebox, second picture is Fire Stick with HW decoding turned (libstagefright only) on & both systems are set to output 720P to the display.

I don't see a section of solid color instead of lines, but I suspect the grey replacing the white lines is still a symptom of the same bug you theorized. Does this confirm your theory?

watch gallery

The second picture is showing very bad aliasing artefacts on the high frequency gratings.

[rupert]

First picture is Chromebox, second picture is Fire Stick with HW decoding turned (libstagefright only) on & both systems are set to output 720P to the display.

I don't see a section of solid color instead of lines, but I suspect the grey replacing the white lines is still a symptom of the same bug you theorized. Does this confirm your theory?

Can you use the screenshot option in kodi to capture the two images? I believe the low video quality will be present in the screenshot.
(printscreen key, but you can map a remote key if you don't have a keyboard).

Yeah, it's gonna take me a bit to figure out how to set the keymaping on the firetv, and then again to pull the images off of that dang thing ;-)

I'll get you a set of 3 images, 1 from my Chromebox, 1 from fire stick with HW on and one with SW. Would you like any more specific settings tested?

[popcornmix]

I'll get you a set of 3 images, 1 from my Chromebox, 1 from fire stick with HW on and one with SW. Would you like any more specific settings tested?

That sounds fine.

[rupert]

I'll get you a set of 3 images, 1 from my Chromebox, 1 from fire stick with HW on and one with SW. Would you like any more specific settings tested?

That sounds fine.

Here you go, and looking at the pictures I obviously lied, the Stick is running at 1080p (musta left the DR HDMI set wrong).

imgur didn't give me the chance to label the pics, should be ChromeboxSW, StickHW, StickSW.

watch gallery

Let me know what else I can do to help figure this one out.

[popcornmix]

Let me know what else I can do to help figure this one out.

Can you set zoom mode to actual size (so there should be no resizing occurring). Also would be useful if chromebox was set to 1080p.