[grabber]

Is Amazon 4K Stick only Android based device on market which supports Automatic Frame Switching ?

[knubbze]

Is Amazon 4K Stick only Android based device on market which supports Automatic Frame Switching ?

The nVidia shield also supports it.

[llonca13]

Is Amazon 4K Stick only Android based device on market which supports Automatic Frame Switching ?

The nVidia shield also supports it.

And Fire Tv 3rd gen, Xiaomi Mi Box, some Minix devices...

[benicehavefun]

Anybody using here using an Amazon Fire Stick 4K, with Kodi 17.6, as a client for watching live TV with MediaPortal 1.22 as the backend?

I have a home theater setup I've been using for years, with Raspberry Pi's running OSMC and Windows laptops running Kodi, that works really well.  Most of the clients are wired, but one that I use for multiple hours every night (a Windows convertible laptop) uses gigabit WiFi.  All clients are running the Titan skin and the library database is a centralized MySQL setup.  Primary content is live TV and playback of live TV recordings.

I've been trying to get 1st gen and 2nd gen Fire Sticks working, but neither can handle the MediaPortal live TV stream for long.  The 1st gen starts pixelating pretty quickly (no doubt due to the lack of gigabit WiFi), and the 2nd gen has audio sync issues that no amount of tinkering with the settings has been able to resolve.

So, I've ordered a Fire Stick 4K in hopes that more horsepower will do the trick.  Anyone with a similar setup that has suggestions on getting the 4K Fire Stick working in this type of environment would be most welcome.  I'd like to use WiFi if possible for this application, since that adds to the appeal of the Fire Stick over using more Raspberry Pi's.

[noggin]

Is Amazon 4K Stick only Android based device on market which supports Automatic Frame Switching ?

The nVidia shield also supports it. 

But only within Kodi - other Android TV apps need to be coded specifically to support it, and the big Android TV apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer etc. don't have support for it.

[noggin]

Is Amazon 4K Stick only Android based device on market which supports Automatic Frame Switching ?

Beware Amazon 4K Stick doesn't support automatic frame rate switching in all apps. In my experience it is just Kodi and Amazon Prime Video that do.  (Netflix and BBC iPlayer don't)

[wrxtasy]

@noggin, are you able to do a definitive test of mpeg2 and h264 Interlaced TV - Kodi Leia performance. ie. correct Full Motion deinterlacing or not ?
Sports with lots of motion would be the best test I suppose, or scrolling News tickers.

There seems to be a LOT of confusion around deinterlacing and what works properly on the 4K Stick.

[noggin]

@noggin, are you able to do a definitive test of mpeg2 and h264 Interlaced TV - Kodi Leia performance. ie. correct Full Motion deinterlacing or not ?
Sports with lots of motion would be the best test I suppose, or scrolling News tickers.

There seems to be a LOT of confusion around deinterlacing and what works properly on the 4K Stick.

Sure - just doing a system update on my Fire TV 4K Stick.  

Which version of Kodi should I side load for the most useful testing?

** EDIT : OK - downloaded Kodi 18.4 using the Downloader app (I had to disable Javascript support to be able to get to the Android download page)

The 64 bit version didn't install because it 'wasn't compatible', so I went with the 32 bit version.

TV Headend running DVB-T/T2 Freeview HD in the UK results below.
 

• DVB-T MPEG2 576i25 native interlaced content (BBC Two Rugby World Cup Highlights).  Correct motion (i25 to p50 with full 50Hz motion and output at 50p) - though the SD broadcasts here are not great and I haven't spent much time looking at quality (*). amc-mpeg2(S) (HW) is reported at the video decoder, with Deinterlace method (hardware)
  
• DVB-T2 h.264 1080i25 native interlaced content (BBC Two Rugby World Cup Highlights - same programme). Black screen or horrible green screen full of artefacts, or nothing.amc-h264(S) (HW) reported as the video decoder, with Deinterlace method (hardware)
  

UK h.264 DVB-T2 is broadcast using constant 1080p25/1080i25 on-the-fly encoder switching for optimised encoding efficiency - so this may complicate my testing (however the content I was watching was 100% 1080i25 at the time I was watching so I'd expect the encoder to be in 1080i25 MBAFF mode). (1080i/p switching is entirely compliant with the h.264 spec, but it's not a widespread implementation, a bit like us using AAC 5.1 rather than AC3 or E-AC3...)  If I get a chance later I'll try a DVB-S2 feed that is permanent 1080i25.

I have Mediacodec (Surface) enabled and Mediacodec disabled in the hardware acceleration settings. (I think these are the default)

NB : I also tried the Amazon Fire TV native HD Homerun app (outside of Kodi) and that also gave me 576i25 MPEG2 stuff correctly deinterlaced (*) and displayed, however the Freeview HD channels gave me 'Audio only' in the HD Homerun app.

[wrxtasy]

@noggin, are you able to do a definitive test of mpeg2 and h264 Interlaced TV - Kodi Leia performance. ie. correct Full Motion deinterlacing or not ?
Sports with lots of motion would be the best test I suppose, or scrolling News tickers.

There seems to be a LOT of confusion around deinterlacing and what works properly on the 4K Stick.

Sure - just doing a system update on my Fire TV 4K Stick.  

Which version of Kodi should I side load for the most useful testing?

I suppose most people would be using the latest stable - Kodi Leia v18.4

[Ukrop]

Hi!

I just got my Firestick 4k. I'm wondering how do you watch DVDs on this thing?

Thanks!!!!!

DVD Troubleshooting:

I updated to Kodi 18.2 and the flickering subtitles of the DVDs was resolved.  Playback of DVDs was still jumpy and sometimes with decoding artifacts.  After a bit of research, I found this ticket: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/issues/15405 which seemed to describe my problem -- a heated debate derailed the technical information a bit.  Used this information to review this thread and some posts (such as https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2794828 ) led me to test MediaCodec.

MediaCodec and MediaCodecSurface being disabled resolved the visual issues with DVDs -- but these need to be enabled for other videos.  It is interesting that the few MPEG2 BluRays I have do not seem to suffer from the MPEG2 problems that the DVDs have (maybe I should revisit these more closely)

I am gonna try this: 

<advancedsettings>
    <video>
        <mediacodec>
            <!-- -1 is default, 0 is never used this codec, 1 is always use this codec, bypassing blacklist -->
            <usempeg2codec>0</usempeg2codec>
        </mediacodec>
    </video>
</advancedsettings>

and report back.   I'm not familiar enough with the code to know if that is what hits this escape hatch: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/aba6aa...c.cpp#L390

[Ukrop]

Hi picopico99,

Did you manage to solve your issue? I have brand new 4k stick and have the same struggle - it doesn't see anything on OTG cable - Ethernet adapter, mouse, IR receiver...

Anyone could chime on this?

Thanks!!!!!

Need a little help getting the device onto a wired network. I have a Fire TV Stick 4K with what I believe is updated software. I have the Ugreen USB gigabit adapter mentioned many times in this thread. I have the power adapter as well, and an OTG cable. I've hooked everything up, but the Fire TV doesn't indicate it's on a wired network, and the port on my switch doesn't light up to indicate traffic. 

I have it connected as:

Cat 6 cable from my ethernet switch to the Ugreen ethernet input port (and verified the Ugreen works by trying it with a laptop)
Ugreen USB dongle into the OTG cable USB female port
Power adapter into Ugreen power port
Amazon power adapter into OTG female micro USB port
OTG male micro USB dongle into Fire TV
Fire TV into receiver HDMI port (I can see it on my TV)

I've tried two different brands of OTG cable and two different power adapters for the Ugreen module. As far as I can tell, all my cables, the Ugreen, and my switch work. Yet still the Fire TV doesn't indicate it's wired.

Is there some setting or process I need to follow to get it wired? As it is, I can't watch 4K material due to being only on wireless.

[Turisto]

Followed this thread, but unfortunately didn't find the answers to question: Will the stick play files with over 35 Mbps rate?
I have a lot of files from my drone in HLG HDR and bitrate about 100 Mbps.
Will the Kodi play them as HLG on compatible TV?
Can someone please check:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1o0gVQD...UyGNGHUKui

[hdmkv]

Just tested your video on 4 different players: Fire TV 4K Stick, Vero 4K+, nVidia Shield TV, and Odroid N2. All played the clip smoothly, w/o stutters (all my players are wired, playing over SMB or mounted shares), but only the Odroid N2 got my projector to engage HLG HDR mode. Colors looked great, while washed out as expected on the other players. I also have a couple of VP9 Profile 2 HLG videos and none of the players enable HLG HDR mode for them. Looks like only HEVC HLG works w/N2, not VP9.

I'm surprised why Fire TV 4K Stick won't engage HLG HDR mode w/local files via Kodi as both Smart YouTube TV and the new official YT app do.

BTW, what drone/camera combo do you have? Nice 4K PQ.

[noggin]

Just tested your video on 4 different players: Fire TV 4K Stick, Vero 4K+, nVidia Shield TV, and Odroid N2. All played the clip smoothly, w/o stutters (all my players are wired, playing over SMB or mounted shares), but only the Odroid N2 got my projector to engage HLG HDR mode. Colors looked great, while washed out as expected on the other players. I also have a couple of VP9 Profile 2 HLG videos and none of the players enable HLG HDR mode for them. Looks like only HEVC HLG works w/N2, not VP9.

I'm surprised why Fire TV 4K Stick won't engage HLG HDR mode w/local files via Kodi as both Smart YouTube TV and the new official YT app do.

BTW, what drone/camera combo do you have? Nice 4K PQ.

The colours are mostly washed out because it's Rec 2020 not Rec 709 gamut - rather than because it's HLG. (HLG displays pretty well if played with an SDR EOTF, it's one of the reasons it exists, but only if the playback is correctly triggering the display into Rec 2020)

[Turisto]

Just tested your video on 4 different players: Fire TV 4K Stick, Vero 4K+, nVidia Shield TV, and Odroid N2. All played the clip smoothly, w/o stutters (all my players are wired, playing over SMB or mounted shares), but only the Odroid N2 got my projector to engage HLG HDR mode. Colors looked great, while washed out as expected on the other players. I also have a couple of VP9 Profile 2 HLG videos and none of the players enable HLG HDR mode for them. Looks like only HEVC HLG works w/N2, not VP9.

I'm surprised why Fire TV 4K Stick won't engage HLG HDR mode w/local files via Kodi as both Smart YouTube TV and the new official YT app do.

BTW, what drone/camera combo do you have? Nice 4K PQ.

Thank you for testing. I also surprised that Fire TV stick didn‘t recognize HLG.
Quite bad news because I ordered it today specifically because of HLG HDR support.

P.S the video was recorded by drone: DJI Mavic Pro 2.