[Dennis_H]

The new Chromecast w/ Google TV. I got one, seems to work fine for what I need. And it doesn't freeze on HDMI-CEC like the AFTV 4K does on my setup.

Thanks for that info. Full passthrough of all audio? DTS, AC3, PCM, all multichannel? If so, sounds like my KODI box. Support SMB mapping, or do I need to enable UPNP?

[hdmkv]

Doesn't support 24p though, unless something changed recently.

[Kodroid]

Kodi plays the format specs that Amazon sells nicely. And more their exoplayer fork also cannot achieve.

Let me put it this way: the FireTV 4K stick, or any other box, including the Shield TV, Google TV with Chromecast, etc were never meant to passthrough DTS or DTS-MA. Those are formats commonly found in Bluray discs, which are on the way out as far as the industry is concerned. The only way such formats will be natively supported on Android-based streaming boxes is when discs finally die as a format and streaming services begin to offer high-bitrate video and lossless audio to satisfy enthusiasts. That's why Exoplayer currently plays EAC3 and is going to natively support passthrough of DTS-MA, so that enthusiasts will someday be able to stream video at a quality that was only previously possible on a locally played disc.

Every Android-based TV device is going to continue moving forward no matter what backend Kodi clings to. That means dropping old standards and adopting new ones. Do you think Kodi with it's current backend is going to work well on Android-based TV devices 10 or even 5 years from now? Probably not. Kodi will always be desperately cobbling together fixes for new standards adopted by OEM hardware vendors. It will be a never-ending game of catch up, that will just frustrate Kodi Android devs.

That's why every commercial Android player, including Plex, is now using Exoplayer as their backend. They want to use what everybody is using instead of wasting resources to fix an old backend. Even open source players like SmartTube and Nova have switched to Exoplayer or are going to switch to Exoplayer. They especially don't have the manpower and time to support an old backend.

That is why Kodi needs to adopt Exoplayer as a backend for the Android port. It's just that simple. There's no way around it.

People saw this coming even 2 years ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comm...diaplayer/

[88keyz]

Kodi can still output multichannel PCM even in the current bugged 6.2.7.7 Fire OS release. It's my preferred output choice, and yes, I'm getting all 7.1 channels. The problem is that the stick is no longer stable over time and tends to reboot spontaneously, even though it's left on Kodi 24/7 and never sleeps.

That works for your purpose but for anyone else that means they lose surround sound support on the streaming apps.  I don't understand using the FTV4K as a dedicated Kodi only device anyway, building a CoreELEC device is a much better solution and you'll have full lossless audio support up to Atmos and DTS:X.

[crawfish]

That works for your purpose but for anyone else that means they lose surround sound support on the streaming apps.

No it doesn't. As I posted, "Stick's 'Surround Sound' is on 'Best Available.'"

I don't understand using the FTV4K as a dedicated Kodi only device anyway, building a CoreELEC device is a much better solution and you'll have full lossless audio support up to Atmos and DTS:X.

I gave several reasons in this post:

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?pid...pid2995520

I'll add that it's readily available and easy enough to administer with adb. The downside is that I'm not fully in control of OS updates, though I hope I'm right that disabling sleep suppresses automatic updates as it seems to have done since at least last March on the stick for which I disabled it.

My only experience with CoreELEC was setting it up on an old PC I gave to my sister a few years ago. If there's a CoreELEC device comparable to the stick, i.e. readily available, cheap, and fanless, I'd be interested to hear about it. I don't care about Atmos or DTS:X at present.

[88keyz]

No it doesn't. As I posted, "Stick's 'Surround Sound' is on 'Best Available.'"

Those settings do not result in multichannel PCM output on my FTV4K with 6.2.7.7.  Stick on "Best Available" with Kodi set to "AudioTrack (IEC), Kodi IEC packer (recommended)" and Fixed 7.1.  FTV4K is connected directly to my Denon AVR.  Tried multiple files, all playback as Stereo.  Also tried "AudioTrack (RAW), Android IEC packer", same result, Stereo output.

CoreELEC will run on pretty much any Amlogic based Android box but a S905X3 device is the best bang for your buck.  The following is a decent option with only a MicroSD card required to install CoreELEC on.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000643684717.html

[Undivide]

bought a nvidia shield pro to replace my 4k fire stick today.  plugged into the same exact cable that feeds my vizio sound bar before going ARC to TV.  loaded up kodi beta straight from google play store and amazing it runs at full resolution unlike my Sony TV's android interface running 1080p.  I'm able to run pass-through audio again but not through Kodi's IEC packer, I have to switch over to Android's packer.  I will eventually have to get a newer sound bar to take advantage of all these new HD formats beyond DTS & DD 5.1.  What is nice is that this old vizio sound bar pick out the lower level surround audio from an HD stream, like some TrueHD will trigger Dolby 5.1 and some DTS-HD will trigger DTS 5.1.  Some more complex audio tracks just freak out the sound bar all together, but much better than what the fire stick was letting out.  good luck you all with your fire sticks.  maybe amazon did this to cause faults on all the devices being used with illegal streams on kodi

[crawfish]

Those settings do not result in multichannel PCM output on my FTV4K with 6.2.7.7.  Stick on "Best Available" with Kodi set to "AudioTrack (IEC), Kodi IEC packer (recommended)" and Fixed 7.1.  FTV4K is connected directly to my Denon AVR.  Tried multiple files, all playback as Stereo.  Also tried "AudioTrack (RAW), Android IEC packer", same result, Stereo output.

That's got to be due to some HDMI implementation difference between our AVRs. Mine's a Pioneer VSX-1124.

[mountainhill2]

Those settings do not result in multichannel PCM output on my FTV4K with 6.2.7.7.  Stick on "Best Available" with Kodi set to "AudioTrack (IEC), Kodi IEC packer (recommended)" and Fixed 7.1.  FTV4K is connected directly to my Denon AVR.  Tried multiple files, all playback as Stereo.  Also tried "AudioTrack (RAW), Android IEC packer", same result, Stereo output.

That's got to be due to some HDMI implementation difference between our AVRs. Mine's a Pioneer VSX-1124.

I'm on Leia 18.9.
Setting AFTV4K Audio Output to "Stereo".
Kodi output to 5.1 (as I only have 5.1 speaker system)
AVR Pioneer SC-LX77
Kodi Multi-channel audio (AAC, DTS, Dolby) all output as 5.1 PCM by AVR.

If AFTV4K Audio Output is on "Best Available", Kodi multi-channel audio all transcoded to DD+

I don't think there's such a thing as "some HDMI implementation difference between AVRs" in this case.
It's really about AFTV4K/Kodi's implementation.

[crawfish]

I'm on Leia 18.9.
Setting AFTV4K Audio Output to "Stereo".
Kodi output to 5.1 (as I only have 5.1 speaker system)
AVR Pioneer SC-LX77
Kodi Multi-channel audio (AAC, DTS, Dolby) all output as 5.1 PCM by AVR.

If AFTV4K Audio Output is on "Best Available", Kodi multi-channel audio all transcoded to DD+

I don't think there's such a thing as "some HDMI implementation difference between AVRs" in this case.
It's really about AFTV4K/Kodi's implementation.

I've never had to set the stick to "Stereo." It's always been on "Best Available."

"HDMI implementation" was meant to include handshaking issues, which can occur even on the same set of equipment as you switch inputs. I documented the first case I ever saw of that myself in these messages, which occurred while using the recent cursed Amazon 6.2.7.7 release:

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2994883
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2994910

As I wrote in the second one, power-cycling the AVR restored the PCM 7.1 state. However, this workaround doesn't really help, because as I wrote there and in a subsequent message, the stick spontaneously reboots from time to time, which it never did before. I'm currently on my other stick with 6.2.7.6 and hoping that disabling sleep keeps it from auto-updating, as it apparently did for the 6.2.7.7 one, which hadn't updated since March before I stupidly manually updated it last week.

BTW, like you, I also only have a 5.1 speaker system. However, as my AVR is 7.1, there's no point in not setting Kodi to 7.1 and letting the AVR sort it out, so that's what I do, and it does sort it out correctly per audio test files.

[crawfish]

CoreELEC will run on pretty much any Amlogic based Android box but a S905X3 device is the best bang for your buck.  The following is a decent option with only a MicroSD card required to install CoreELEC on.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000643684717.html

Interesting, thanks. I realize now I meant LibreELEC when I was talking about the PC I gave to my sister a few years ago. Always something new to explore!

[fritsch]

Oh and btw: I am not frustrated ;-). I knew this would happen since my first experience with big companies (google: fritsch xvba),  so the party was okay for these 35 € I paid - nothing to be frustrated about.

[sirmedia]

How long before they block sideloading of apps?

[wizziwig]

That brings up the question, why isn't Kodi in the Amazon app store?  I remember it was there many years ago and then removed.  Did they give a reason?  Meanwhile Kodi forks like MrMc are still there.

[wizziwig]

Doesn't support 24p though, unless something changed recently.

The Google device does support 24p (23.976 to be precise).  You just have to toggle it manually outside Kodi if you intend to play content at various framerates.  If all you watch is movies and TV series (99% of which are 23.976), you can just leave it at 24p all the time in the Android display settings.