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2018 - Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K
(2019-07-17, 11:06)blizzardreign Wrote: Edit : Yes I managed to test it out! Sadly, you are right. The side and rear channels are reversed. So there's no way to get correct 7.1 when playing back a file with Dolby True HD or DTS-HD MA. With the DD+ sample file, it works perfect. There is no way to correct the channels right? If I set to 5.1 in Kodi settings, I assume I won't be getting any sound from my rear speakers when I play a 7.1 file?

I don't know of a solution short of modifying Kodi and recompiling. What speakers are used depends on your AVR settings.
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(2019-04-09, 03:07)Luke M Wrote:
(2019-04-09, 02:36)wrxtasy Wrote: @thefrog thx. Smile

Will add it to list of known issues on Post #1

Since you're keeping track of issues, note these audio problems:
1. 7.1 PCM doesn't work correctly (side & rear channels reversed). Select 5.1 audio in Kodi settings.
2. 2-channel PCM is transcoded to DD/DD+ (can be avoided by selecting 5.1 "fixed" audio output, instead of the default "optimized").

Note: if using 5.1 fixed (as opposed to passthrough), Kodi will degrade the quality of AC3 audio by default. Can be overridden with advancedsettings.xml file.

Is this still true with the latest firmware?
What needs to be written in the xml?

I've been having various audio delays which i think are now fixed after allot of changes so don't want to make further changes, if i don't have to. I only have a 3.1 Soundbar.

Think what really fixed my audio delays was switching HDR to Adaptive.
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(2019-07-21, 15:57)JonSnow88 Wrote:
(2019-04-09, 03:07)Luke M Wrote:
(2019-04-09, 02:36)wrxtasy Wrote: @thefrog thx. Smile

Will add it to list of known issues on Post #1

Since you're keeping track of issues, note these audio problems:
1. 7.1 PCM doesn't work correctly (side & rear channels reversed). Select 5.1 audio in Kodi settings.
2. 2-channel PCM is transcoded to DD/DD+ (can be avoided by selecting 5.1 "fixed" audio output, instead of the default "optimized").

Note: if using 5.1 fixed (as opposed to passthrough), Kodi will degrade the quality of AC3 audio by default. Can be overridden with advancedsettings.xml file. 

Is this still true with the latest firmware?
What needs to be written in the xml?
Code:
<advancedsettings>
<audio>
  <!-- Whether to use Dynamic Range Compression (DRC) on AC3 streams. 1.0 is "full" compression, as defined by the audio track's metadata, which is recommended for "basic" sound systems such as the internal speakers on a TV. 0.0 is no compression at all, which is recommended for people with nice multi-speaker sound systems. -1.0 (default) defaults to whatever ffmpeg uses, which is currently the same as 1.0. This has no effect if passthrough is enabled for AC3. -->
  <applydrc>0.0</applydrc>
</audio>
</advancedsettings>

If you set up ADB (which I recommend), you can write it to the FireTV like this:
Code:
adb push advancedsettings.xml /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/userdata
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Anyone any idea if it'd be possible to fix 1080p VC-1 stutter for this device?

Looks like with software decoding only about 50% CPU capacity is used, which leads me to the question if something extra strange is going on? Shouldn't the device have enough cpu power to do 1080p vc1 via software?
⬅️⬅️ Feel free to leave a 👍 on useful posts  |  A Confluence ZEITGEIST (A modern reimagination of Confluence)  |  axbmcuser REPO (Download Link)  |  Kodi 17.7 DSPlayer x64 BETTERGUI (2020 build)
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(2019-07-22, 15:42)axbmcuser Wrote: Anyone any idea if it'd be possible to fix 1080p VC-1 stutter for this device?

Looks like with software decoding only about 50% CPU capacity is used, which leads me to the question if something extra strange is going on? Shouldn't the device have enough cpu power to do 1080p vc1 via software?

I have been using BD Rebuilder since May to transcode 196 VC1 BD ISOs to H.264 BD ISOs.  I have retained original the VC1 ISO files.  This probably isn't the solution for which you were hoping.
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(2019-07-22, 15:42)axbmcuser Wrote: Anyone any idea if it'd be possible to fix 1080p VC-1 stutter for this device?

Looks like with software decoding only about 50% CPU capacity is used, which leads me to the question if something extra strange is going on? Shouldn't the device have enough cpu power to do 1080p vc1 via software?

Very likely.

You might want to investigate disabling HW decoding just for VC-1 as seen in decoder-filter.xml (click)

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(2019-07-23, 03:04)wrxtasy Wrote:
(2019-07-22, 15:42)axbmcuser Wrote: Anyone any idea if it'd be possible to fix 1080p VC-1 stutter for this device?

Looks like with software decoding only about 50% CPU capacity is used, which leads me to the question if something extra strange is going on? Shouldn't the device have enough cpu power to do 1080p vc1 via software?

Very likely.

You might want to investigate disabling HW decoding just for VC-1 as seen in decoder-filter.xml (click) 
I just did a bit of this with an edit to the decodefilters.xml and setting VP9 and VPX to 'false' .. (snippets below)

Before:
code:

<filter>
<name>OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.VP9</name>
<allowed>true</allowed>
<stills-allowed>false</stills-allowed>
<dvd-allowed>true</dvd-allowed>
<min-height>0</min-height>
</filter>
<filter>
<name>OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.VPX</name>
<allowed>true</allowed>
<stills-allowed>false</stills-allowed>
<dvd-allowed>true</dvd-allowed>
<min-height>0</min-height>
</filter>
Log: https://paste.kodi.tv/ikituwewaj.kodi

After:
code:

<filter>
<name>OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.VP9</name>
<allowed>false</allowed>
<stills-allowed>false</stills-allowed>
<dvd-allowed>true</dvd-allowed>
<min-height>0</min-height>
</filter>
<filter>
<name>OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.VPX</name>
<allowed>false</allowed>
<stills-allowed>false</stills-allowed>
<dvd-allowed>true</dvd-allowed>
<min-height>0</min-height>
</filter>
Log: https://paste.kodi.tv/conedotabu.kodi


Hopefully I have all this 'correct' and correctly reported.  I just don't see that much of a difference.

I see some grumpyness about my whitelist, but 18.3 doesn't seem to let me edit it.

I hope this aids someone in finding a solution.
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hi so my setup is like this samsung tv -> spdif to logitech z906

fire stick is set to always dolby digital and tv recognise it like that.
kodi is set to transcode to ac3.
the logitech speakes is now always indicating that its decoding so that is good but how can I now make sure that the file that is played is decoded the correct way, that the rear channels are going to the rear speakers.

I think I need to find a file and play it in kodi that is just noise coming from selected speakers. Do we have something like that? dts ac3 eac3? because I dont know if it is working as intended now.

thanks

edit: ok it works found 5.1 dts test file
edit 2: getting skipped frames on 1080p x264 encodes Sad but not on 720p strange will post more details soon
edit3: all is well, i used old advancesettings that were flooding the ram, forgot this has only 1.5GB Smile
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(2019-06-21, 17:23)gb160 Wrote: So, the long awaited 'h264 interlacing fix' from amazon has finally arrived, and its not good news on the Kodi front guys.
Using a TVHeadend server, and the TVHE PVR client, I get beautiful deinterlaced playback for about 5-10 seconds, then the players locks up until a reboot.

The positive news is using the 'dream Player TV' app, which is just a TVHeadend client...1080 interlaced h264 content is playing perfectly now on the fire stick 4K, it definitely wasn't before as I checked when I first got the device.

Im using the 18.2 RC, Im happy to provide logs etc if they can be of use to anyone.
I am looking to update to Kodi / firestick also. Currently, I have a FireStick 4K with PlexKodiConnect, playing a video with acceleration works fine. In contrast, IPTV in FHD quality only works for a few seconds and Kodi blocks.
When I disable hardware acceleration, videos from PlexKodiConnect do not work smoothly, IPTV starts to work.
Now every time I turn on or off hardware acceleration depending on what I'm watching.
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(2019-07-29, 22:30)FloydKulis Wrote:
(2019-06-21, 17:23)gb160 Wrote: So, the long awaited 'h264 interlacing fix' from amazon has finally arrived, and its not good news on the Kodi front guys.
Using a TVHeadend server, and the TVHE PVR client, I get beautiful deinterlaced playback for about 5-10 seconds, then the players locks up until a reboot.

The positive news is using the 'dream Player TV' app, which is just a TVHeadend client...1080 interlaced h264 content is playing perfectly now on the fire stick 4K, it definitely wasn't before as I checked when I first got the device.

Im using the 18.2 RC, Im happy to provide logs etc if they can be of use to anyone.
I am looking to update to Kodi / firestick also. Currently, I have a FireStick 4K with PlexKodiConnect, playing a video with acceleration works fine. In contrast, IPTV in FHD quality only works for a few seconds and Kodi blocks.
When I disable hardware acceleration, videos from PlexKodiConnect do not work smoothly, IPTV starts to work.
Now every time I turn on or off hardware acceleration depending on what I'm watching. 
If you want to watch x264 interlaced content then look for another device, its still borked on the firestick 4k, and Amazon dont seem in the slightest bit bothered.
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(2019-07-30, 11:21)gb160 Wrote: If you want to watch x264 interlaced content then look for another device, its still borked on the firestick 4k, and Amazon dont seem in the slightest bit bothered.
I can live without interlacing. I can not live without hardware acceleration. When I watch TV (from IPTV), I need to disable acceleration for FHD channels. I enable hardware acceleration for local movies (PlexKodiConnect).
I do not understand why, for 5-10 Kodi works properly in IPTV and later Kodi disables / blocks the image.

For me, the solution would be if watching TV acceleration turned off and for movies was turned on automatically.

Amazon definitely has it somewhere because Kodi is not the software it supports.

But the pilot is great!
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This may be a stupid qn. I have Kodi 18.3 on FireStick 4K, passthru enabled and am playing back UHD rip with TrueHD 7.1 audio, it shows up on my AVR as 5.1 PCM (I only have 5.1 speakers so its fine). 

Does this mean Kodi is decoding HD audio->PCM or is it just reading the uncompressed audio and passthru in a different format?
And is there any difference in audio quality in this PCM vs HD bitstreaming?

I see no reason to get a Shield etc if the audio quality is same, true?
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(2019-08-02, 00:27)MrCrispy Wrote: Does this mean Kodi is decoding HD audio->PCM or is it just reading the uncompressed audio and passthru in a different format?
And is there any difference in audio quality in this PCM vs HD bitstreaming?

Yes, it's decoding to PCM (and downmixing 7.1 to 5.1). Quality should be the same.
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I received my Fire TV Stick 4k yesterday and overall I'm pretty pleased with the device. It feels snappy and was really easy to set up. Coming from Kodi DSPlayer with MadVR I was expecting a bit of degradation in video quality, but I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised how well it performs on my Panasonic VT60 Plasma (1080p).

The dongle is hooked up to my B&W soundbar through HDMI, but unfortunately the soundbar only supports Dolby Digital (not Plus), DTS and stereo PCM. I can confirm that I get proper DTS and DD passthrough and multi-channel downmixing into Dolby Digital for other audio formats, when setting speaker configuration to 2.0 and enabling Dolby Digital transcoding. The audio is also perfectly in sync, both with passthrough and transcoding (this is not the case with Plex however).

The only thing that's bugging me is that framerate switching only works until I turn off my tv and/or soundbar. After this it will only use 60 Hz. I have to go to the Fire TV settings and switch resolution from 'Auto' to '1080p 60Hz', and then set it back to 'Auto' and also turn on 'Framerate switching' again. After this it will work again until my devices are turned off. If I go to the Whitelist settings it will only show 1080p @59.97Hz. When I do the settings trick, all the other resolutions and refresh rates will show in the Whitelist settings. UNTIL I turn off soundbar/tv. Very annoying, but I appreciate that this is a bug with the FireTV, because Plex also suffers from this issue.
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Instead of using a UGREEN USB 3.0 Hub with Ethernet: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LLUEJFU/
Have you guys tried a UGREEN USB 3.0 Ethernet only: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MYTSN18/

I don’t need 3xUSB Hubs, so I’m thinking of getting that one.
It has the same AX88179 chip. Will it get >200Mbps too?
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2018 - Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K3