[Drtatom]

So even though Iperf is stating data transfer speed of 32MB the reality of the situation is somewhere around 12/13MB.
Which would suggest a Gigabit Ethernet adaptor is pretty much pointless.
I've have tried both SMB and NFS with no difference.

Am I missing something here or does that make sense?

That sounds plausible. Iperf tests the speed the OS can move data at; Kodi-level connections are always slower. That said, the maximum permitted bit rate for a UHD blu ray remux is 128Mb/s I think, so you don't really need to move data faster than that. On other platforms there is a way to mount the connection at OS level and have Kodi treat it as a local folder, but I've never figured out how to do that on the Fire Stick - maybe someone can tell us?

I'm officially a happy bunny, and quite by accident.

I was transferring some files from my NAS to my Android phone and noticed slow speeds, around 5MB/s while getting around 50MB/s to a Windows laptop.
After a quick Google I tried using FTP rather than SMB, and straight away around 35MB/s transfer speed.

So onto the Firestick and changed Kodi to use FTP rather than SMB.

Previously:
If I played the Jellyfish high bitrate samples in Kodi the 80/90/100/110Mb/s samples played fine but stuttering started at the 120Mb/s (15MB/s) file.
Now:
I can now play the same Jellyfish high bitrate samples right upto 250Mb/s (31.25MB/s) with no stuttering, stuttering starts at the 300Mb/s (37.5MB/s) file.

Not that I'm going to have anything to actually play at those bitrates, but it's nice to know the limit.

Amazing. I watched Jellyfish at 250 mbps without droped frames. The limitd for smooth playng alwas was 90 mbps. I thought it was a hardware limitation but it ended being a networking problem. 
Thank you!

[svemonix]

It all comes down to the protocol.

Current SMB versions implement signing and encryption wich will add pressure on the CPU if that one is weak and/or already busy with other stuff. It will also add data overhead.

FTP on the contrary is very basic and all data is exchanged without encryption like NFS.

[mountainhill2]

It all comes down to the protocol.

Current SMB versions implement signing and encryption wich will add pressure on the CPU if that one is weak and/or already busy with other stuff. It will also add data overhead.

FTP on the contrary is very basic and all data is exchanged without encryption like NFS.

I second this.
I don't really like FTP as it is not encrypted.

Plus I had a revelation just now.
I am using the uGreen USB-to-Ethernet and, as I've mentioned in my previous post, it tops at around 100 Mbps when I do Internet Speed Test.
So it would buffer when playing the 4K HDR DV+Atmos demo.

After the post about FTP, I was curious to check all other options.
My NAS supports DLNA, so I thought "let's try DLNA/uPnP".
I did and ... boy ... I've got no buffering anymore!

So for you who have the USB-to-Ethernet and still experience buffering on high-bitrate 4K HDR rips, I suggest you try uPnP if your Gigabit NAS supports it.

[alekseyzimin]

Hi,  I know this is not related to the Fire TV stick 4K, but I use the Fire TV 3rd gen (pendant) and Kodi works fine on it, even after the latest firmware updates with the new interface.  I use Kodi 18.3 with some modifications to decoderfilter.xml, (allow hardware acceleration for HD resolution and higher for MPEG2, MPEG4 and h.264).  Auto frame rate works, everything is smooth, DD and DTS passed through properly.  No HD formats of course but no one really expects Amazon hardware to pass through DTS-HDMA or Dolby TrueHD. I have not tried multi-channel 5.1 though, because I use ARC.  I set Kodi to encode 5.1 into DD.

[alekseyzimin]

Another thing: Fire TV 3 properly supports HDR HLG outputting proper HDR signal.  Fire TV stick 4k outputs SDR...  Fire TV stick 4k looks bad compared to Fire TV 3 pendant.  Lots of these are available on ebay for ~$50, and Kodi performance is likely the factor holding the price up.

[mountainhill2]

Another thing: Fire TV 3 properly supports HDR HLG outputting proper HDR signal.  Fire TV stick 4k outputs SDR...  Fire TV stick 4k looks bad compared to Fire TV 3 pendant.  Lots of these are available on ebay for ~$50, and Kodi performance is likely the factor holding the price up.

Care to elaborate on Fire TV stick 4K outputs SDR only on HLG signal?
I have a sample HLG video and, if I remember it correctly, my LG OLED will switch to HDR (show HDR logo) when I play it.
I can confirm it later after my kid has finished with the youtube kids.

[alekseyzimin]

Another thing: Fire TV 3 properly supports HDR HLG outputting proper HDR signal.  Fire TV stick 4k outputs SDR...  Fire TV stick 4k looks bad compared to Fire TV 3 pendant.  Lots of these are available on ebay for ~$50, and Kodi performance is likely the factor holding the price up.

Care to elaborate on Fire TV stick 4K outputs SDR only on HLG signal?
I have a sample HLG video and, if I remember it correctly, my LG OLED will switch to HDR (show HDR logo) when I play it.
I can confirm it later after my kid has finished with the youtube kids.

I have a Sony X950G with fire stick 4k plugged in directly.  Using Kodi 18.8 fritschfiretv build of 100120. "His Dark Materials" TV show from the UK encoded in HDR HLG plays in SDR on Fire Stick 4K.  Fire Stick 3rd gen and Fire Cube 2nd gen output HDR.  Confirmed by "Display info".

[User 309201]

I have a Sony X950G with fire stick 4k plugged in directly.  Using Kodi 18.8 fritschfiretv build of 100120. "His Dark Materials" TV show from the UK encoded in HDR HLG plays in SDR on Fire Stick 4K.  Fire Stick 3rd gen and Fire Cube 2nd gen output HDR.  Confirmed by "Display info".

The Fire Stick 4K can output HLG - if you play a YouTube video that's tagged as HLG, that plays correctly. But the iPlayer guys haven't got around to upgrading the iPlayer app to support 4K/HLG streaming. (And HLG stuff on iPlayer isn't available via the iPlayer Kodi add-on on any platform, as far as I'm aware).

[mountainhill2]

Another thing: Fire TV 3 properly supports HDR HLG outputting proper HDR signal.  Fire TV stick 4k outputs SDR...  Fire TV stick 4k looks bad compared to Fire TV 3 pendant.  Lots of these are available on ebay for ~$50, and Kodi performance is likely the factor holding the price up.

Care to elaborate on Fire TV stick 4K outputs SDR only on HLG signal?
I have a sample HLG video and, if I remember it correctly, my LG OLED will switch to HDR (show HDR logo) when I play it.
I can confirm it later after my kid has finished with the youtube kids.

I have a Sony X950G with fire stick 4k plugged in directly.  Using Kodi 18.8 fritschfiretv build of 100120. "His Dark Materials" TV show from the UK encoded in HDR HLG plays in SDR on Fire Stick 4K.  Fire Stick 3rd gen and Fire Cube 2nd gen output HDR.  Confirmed by "Display info".

I'm using LG OLED B8.
The LG shows "HLG HDR" when I play HLG HDR sample file using Kodi v19.1 on AFTV4K.

[testphase]

the firetv stick 4k still cannot output lpcm 7.1 correct?

[RKCRLR]

I'm running Kodi 19.1 on my Firestick 4K.  
Kodi is shutdown after the Firestick has been off for a while, I assume this is normal.  
However, Kodi now takes a long time to start.  This may have started when I upgraded to 19.1 but I'm not sure.  If I force stop after I've tried to start Kodi then Kodi starts right away.  I've tried clearing my cache and it doesn't help.  
Are there some settings I should change?

[foghorn2]

Question for those who have owned both a fire stick 4K and a fire cube: is the image quality any better on the cube?

I don´t know which TV you have ... but I can say, unfortunately, that my oled webos internal player is MILES better image quality compared to Fire Stick 4K...

Yes the Fire Stick image quality is really not very good; that's why I'm wondering if the Fire Cube might be better. (TV's internal player is not an option for me, partly because the TV introduces an unacceptable level of audio lag - the sound lagging behind the picture - and partly because that bypasses my Lumagen video processor).

The AirTv Mini 4K and the Google 4k Stick has superior PQ over the FireSticks and the hardware decoding / deinterlacing works perfect.

[User 309201]

The AirTv Mini 4K and the Google 4k Stick has superior PQ over the FireSticks and the hardware decoding / deinterlacing works perfect.

There is actually another reason why I was considering a Fire Cube - it's one of the few media players that that supports 4K/HLG on iPlayer. I'm guessing neither of those devices can deliver that?

[noggin]

The AirTv Mini 4K and the Google 4k Stick has superior PQ over the FireSticks and the hardware decoding / deinterlacing works perfect.

There is actually another reason why I was considering a Fire Cube - it's one of the few media players that that supports 4K/HLG on iPlayer. I'm guessing neither of those devices can deliver that?

I don't think there are any Android TV platforms that support HLG UHD iPlayer.  The Fire TV used to be sub-par when I last checked it with iPlayer as it didn't use 50Hz frame rate for output - but that may have changed now.

[himey]

the firetv stick 4k still cannot output lpcm 7.1 correct?

It was working for me the last time I used my 4K stick about a month ago. No pass through of 3D audio of course.