What should I use with the 4K firestick
#1
I'm sorry if this has been asked before. I'm fairly new with Kodi. I've been going to Kodi.tv and downloading the 32 bit Android version to use with my Firestick. I just installed 18.7 a couple of days ago. Then I read about fritschfiretv build and I've been trying to find out if that will work better with the 4K firestick. Is it somehow tweaked to better optimize the firestick? If so where can I go to download this?  Usually I open up Downloader in the Firestick and go to Kodi.TV.  The firestick is the ONLY android device I have so I'm not familiar with Android.
 The way I have things connected are: The 4K firestick is plugged into my Denon avr s540bt via HDMI, then I have a HDMI cable plugged into my Vizio ES-F0 4K tv. Thank you in advance for the help.
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#2
Hi,

there are several versions on this forum, that I provide in order to help out users that invested their money into the wrong company and now argue with OSS developers to fix their fault on the one hand, and ond the other hand there is a version provided by me that ports fixes too intrusive for the current stable version and provides these right now, so that users don't have to wait  1 year+ until there are fixed.

Shitty Version:
Meant for boxes with broken firmware that lack support for audio passthrough (DTS, etc. to an AVR). This version might harm your ears (loud noise) as it tunnels PT audio via a 16 bit PCM audio format in full volume. If Android internally mixes with float or some other application wants to do a popup, it will make "prrrrrssscht" from your speakers. That's the reason it's called shitty: In summary, this version workarounds (with horrible side effects) shitty firmwares of boxes people blindly bought without informing themselves and now loudly whine in this forum. Not suggested at all.

fritschfiretv version:
Kodi Leia implements a supported but outdated version for Audio-Delay. This API does have no knowledge about internal post processing of audio, which means that espeecially Stereo content, which is post-processed by Android itself, is roughly 400 ms out of sync, but not fixed - varying. This hits the FireTV4K because it uses Dolby-Upmixing by default for Stereo content, this internal processing time needed for the audio samples is not returned by the old API. The new API instrumenting Timestamp support, can do that very good and the A/V delay on FireTV 4K is therefore fixed. We sadly cannot backport these changes to Leia, cause they would break especially old AMLogic Boxes, which also don't support official Android Passthrough technology, but at least they have their own "safe" implementation without killing user's ears - which was the reason we carried that for many years now. But these methods stand in the way of getting this new A/V API implemented and tested properly. Therefore it's too intrusive for Leia backport and would be a breaking change for those old devices. If you have a firetv4k, this is the best version you can run. Now something ontop that is very important to me: All those fixes are in Matrix already, this build is not a "spmc" or something like that - it's fully upstream focused. This version therefore runs on all modern Android devices with improved A/V sync as the timestamp method is the most exact available, it's also used by exxoplayer.
First decide what functions / features you expect from a system. Then decide for the hardware. Don't waste your money on crap.
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#3
(2020-05-23, 11:59)fritsch Wrote: Hi,

there are several versions on this forum, that I provide in order to help out users that invested their money into the wrong company and now argue with OSS developers to fix their fault on the one hand, and ond the other hand there is a version provided by me that ports fixes too intrusive for the current stable version and provides these right now, so that users don't have to wait  1 year+ until there are fixed.

Shitty Version:
Meant for boxes with broken firmware that lack support for audio passthrough (DTS, etc. to an AVR). This version might harm your ears (loud noise) as it tunnels PT audio via a 16 bit PCM audio format in full volume. If Android internally mixes with float or some other application wants to do a popup, it will make "prrrrrssscht" from your speakers. That's the reason it's called shitty: In summary, this version workarounds (with horrible side effects) shitty firmwares of boxes people blindly bought without informing themselves and now loudly whine in this forum. Not suggested at all.

fritschfiretv version:
Kodi Leia implements a supported but outdated version for Audio-Delay. This API does have no knowledge about internal post processing of audio, which means that espeecially Stereo content, which is post-processed by Android itself, is roughly 400 ms out of sync, but not fixed - varying. This hits the FireTV4K because it uses Dolby-Upmixing by default for Stereo content, this internal processing time needed for the audio samples is not returned by the old API. The new API instrumenting Timestamp support, can do that very good and the A/V delay on FireTV 4K is therefore fixed. We sadly cannot backport these changes to Leia, cause they would break especially old AMLogic Boxes, which also don't support official Android Passthrough technology, but at least they have their own "safe" implementation without killing user's ears - which was the reason we carried that for many years now. But these methods stand in the way of getting this new A/V API implemented and tested properly. Therefore it's too intrusive for Leia backport and would be a breaking change for those old devices. If you have a firetv4k, this is the best version you can run. Now something ontop that is very important to me: All those fixes are in Matrix already, this build is not a "spmc" or something like that - it's fully upstream focused. This version therefore runs on all modern Android devices with improved A/V sync as the timestamp method is the most exact available, it's also used by exxoplayer.

Hi
You talk about the FireTV4K.  Is that the same as the Amazon 4K Firestick? I know they also have software installed on certain TV's. Just want to be certain it's for the Firestick.
Fritschfiretv version.  This one isounds like it's the one I should use for the 4K Firestick?? If so how can I find a download link?
Thank you
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#4
(2020-05-23, 14:48)DB42 Wrote: Hi
You talk about the FireTV4K.  Is that the same as the Amazon 4K Firestick? I know they also have software installed on certain TV's. Just want to be certain it's for the Firestick.
Fritschfiretv version.  This one isounds like it's the one I should use for the 4K Firestick?? If so how can I find a download link?
Thank you 

You can find fritsch's Kodi builds here: https://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/android/arm/

Just download the most recent build with "fritschfiretv" in the filename.
TV: Sony XBR-65X950G  A/V Receiver: Denon AVR-X3600H (Atmos 5.2.4)  UHD: Panasonic DP-UB820  BD: Sony BDP-S6200 (Region Free)
Media Players: 2019 Nvidia SHIELD TV Pro, 2015 Nvidia SHIELD TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max, S905X3 CoreELEC Device
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#5
Hi fritsch,

     I took your advice. I have installed your version onto my Firestick. It sounds so much better. Thank you for your hard work to create this version and also for your advice.I'm glad I found out about this. It also gave me more options under Settings>Audio.
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#6
So what would be the optimal audio settings for a 4K Stick using a 5.1 sound system with Dolby Digital and DTS?  Currently I have the Stick set to Stereo, with Fritsch-Kodi using all the default settings except channels are changed to 5.1, and I'm using audio passthrough.
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