FireTV Cube 3 now supports TrueHD + DTS!

[Antinoitikos 4]

Hello all! I have very exciting news to share! With the most recent update 7.6.1.3 (PS7613/3686) from Amazon, passthrough of audio content works natively with the Emby app. I can confirm that my TrueHD and DTS content passes through to my Sonos and triggers the correct flag! It looks like my Shield TV can finally retire…

[VirulentPip 83]

You get the Dolby Atmos come up for TrueHD Atmos on the Sonos App? 

[Antinoitikos 4]

31 minutes ago, VirulentPip said:

You get the Dolby Atmos come up for TrueHD Atmos on the Sonos App? 

Yes I do! You can even change the audio settings in Emby to disable DTS-HD and converts the audio to multichannel. Screenshots attached to show Sonos properly registering the codecs it supports, and the Fire TV converting the DTS-HD MA content to Multichannel PCM.

They also added the option so when the Cube goes to sleep it cuts the signal and no longer sends a black screen. My two biggest issues with it have been fixed by Amazon Engineering!

[VirulentPip 83]

Niiice thanks! I sent mine back cause of this, reordered one happy days. 
 

@rbjtech will be happy too. 

[VirulentPip 83]

Just set mine up, so happy they added this update, absolute game changer. 

[horstepipe 356]

What does a 3rd gen cost in a „regular“ sale?

if you get it for 100 bucks it is a good (cheaper) alternative to the shield now ?

[Antinoitikos 4]

The only thing that the Shield has on it is the AI upscaling. Everything else the 3rd Gen. Fire TV can now do, or it does a better job in most cases.

The ethernet port is only 100 Mbps, but I bought the eero 6e 3-pack when they were on super sale for $250 and can verify that it handles 4K TrueHD content as though it was hard wired…mind is blown by the capabilities of a 6E network working properly.

 

In the US it has never gone on sale. But you can trade in a super old fire stick to Amazon and get 20% off.

[rbjtech 4265]

12 hours ago, Antinoitikos said:

The only thing that the Shield has on it is the AI upscaling. Everything else the 3rd Gen. Fire TV can now do, or it does a better job in most cases.

The ethernet port is only 100 Mbps, but I bought the eero 6e 3-pack when they were on super sale for $250 and can verify that it handles 4K TrueHD content as though it was hard wired…mind is blown by the capabilities of a 6E network working properly.

 

In the US it has never gone on sale. But you can trade in a super old fire stick to Amazon and get 20% off.

Shield (on the old Android) still has Direct File Access - so I've decided to wait for the new Shield, but I must admit, I am very tempted as I can then get rid of the Echo Dot and have the full Alexa experience on the main TV.   'Alexa, open Emby' - should then turn on the Cube, then the AVR, then the TV and then proceeds to load the Emby App ... It does on my Gen2 Cube anyway - but that's attached to another TV.

Edited December 16, 2022 by rbjtech

[cncb 17]

Does it pass through DTS-HD MA or just standard DTS?  Any chance this is coming to the 4K Max stick?

[Antinoitikos 4]

It passes through DTS-HD MA, I just disabled mine in the Emby app options since Sonos doesn’t fully support it at this time and creates a weird clicking noise when the Sonos Arc tries to downscale it.

 

I highly doubt this update will be coming to the 4K Max stick since the primary reason Amazon needed to provide passthrough was due to the fact the 3rd Gen. Cube has an HDMI IN port for Blu-ray players and such. Without it, the HDMI IN passthrough would be (and was) useless since the 3rd Gen. box would break audio codecs.

[rbjtech 4265]

6 hours ago, Antinoitikos said:

I highly doubt this update will be coming to the 4K Max stick since the primary reason Amazon needed to provide passthrough was due to the fact the 3rd Gen. Cube has an HDMI IN port for Blu-ray players and such. Without it, the HDMI IN passthrough would be (and was) useless since the 3rd Gen. box would break audio codecs.

Tend to agree - it's also one of the few selling points it has over the 4K Max which is about a 3rd of the price. 

It's currently way too expensive - if it had come with the Remote Pro I would have dipped a toe, but currently my Shield Pro does everything I need.

[Tsch3ns 14]

I switched from FireTV to Shield because I have some private holiday movies in UHD with 60 fps with very high bitrate. For such videos, Amazon devices can’t keep up with Nvidia Shield. The 100 Mbit connection is a bad joke.

[Antinoitikos 4]

1 hour ago, Tsch3ns said:

I switched from FireTV to Shield because I have some private holiday movies in UHD with 60 fps with very high bitrate. For such videos, Amazon devices can’t keep up with Nvidia Shield. The 100 Mbit connection is a bad joke.

If you are using the ethernet connection, yes, it is a very bad joke indeed. If your home network is Wi-Fi 6E, then it is more than enough to support UHD to the extreme. Amazon went all in on the wireless aspect and I’ll admit that it works once everything is compatible…6E throughput is no longer a theory, it can definitely handle the playback smoothly.

[Tsch3ns 14]

Theoretically, you are right. But I strongly prefer wired connections for my streaming devices because this offers a stable 110 MB/sec transfer rate. I have lots of wireless clients here and it could become a bottleneck with high bitrate as soon as other use the WLAN for whatever reasons excessivley. I dont have a 6E WLAN.

Btw: I made the experience that my FireTV 4K had not enough CPU power to play lots of my home 4K 60fps home videos although in many discussion most of the users claim they dont have any problems. No problems with 4K rips of a BlueRay, thats true. But a home video (GoPro Hero 8 or DJI drone movie in 4K 60fps) is another story. Nvidia Shield plays everything smoothly. I know that the Cube 3rd gen should be better, but I trusted more in the Shield and never looked back after changing my 2 Fire Sticks. The claims of others may vary.

[Kyrunner 21]

Has anyone tested the fire cube gen 3 with emby? How does it compare to nvida shield pro are the menus quicker on the cube 

might pull trigger but wanted to ask if anyone has tested it

 

 

 

[pwhodges 1530]

This thread is about the Fire Cube 3 and Emby - what question have you that is not already covered?

Paul

[VirulentPip 83]

4 hours ago, Kyrunner said:

are the menus quicker on the cube 

I find it to be a bit zippier yes. 

[rbjtech 4265]

Amazon have updated the specification pages now as well to include all of it's new capabilities -

Device Specifications: Fire TV Cube | Amazon Fire TV

Quote

Fire TV Cube - 3rd Gen (2022) Device Specifications

Feature	Description
Friendly name	Fire TV Cube - 3rd Gen (2022)
Retail name	The Fire TV Cube, Hands-free streaming device with Alexa, Wi-Fi 6E, 4K Ultra HD.
Release year	2022
Marketplaces available (More details)	amazon.com amazon.co.uk amazon.ca amazon.in amazon.de amazon.co.jp amazon.fr amazon.it amazon.es amazon.com.au
Form factor	Cube
Build model android.os.Build.MODEL	AFTGAZL
Android version android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT	Android Level 28 (Android 9)
Fire OS version	Fire OS 7
Processor (SoC)	Amlogic POP1-G (Amlogic - AML Popcorn)
CPU	ARM 4xCA73 @ 2.2GHz + ARM 4xCA53 @ 2.0GHz
Application Binary Interface (ABI)	32-bit
GPU	ARM G52 MP8, 800MHz
Memory (RAM)	2GB, LPDDR4/x - 4224 MT/s
Mic	4-Mic Array
Connectors / Ports	HDMI: 1x HDMI 2.1 input; 1x HDMI 2.1 output (ARC), HDCP 2.3, 1 USB 2.0, IR Extender, 10/100 Ethernet
Speakers	Direct firing built-in 11W speaker with 120cc back volume
Audio codecs (input formats)	Dolby MAT trancoding for Streaming application and HDMI Input Dolby MAT Input to Dolby MAT Output for HDMI Input Dolby TrueHD passthrough DTS passthrough DTS-HD passthrough (basic profile) AC3 (Dolby Digital)/ EAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus) /Atmos(DDP+JOC)/AC4(Atmos)/Dolby TrueHD(Atmos) MPEG-H passthrough AAC Profile (AAC LC). Support for up to 8 channels from 8 kHz to 48 kHz MPEG-4 HE AAC Profile (AAC+). Support for up to 8 channels from 8 kHz to 48 kHz MPEG-4 HE AACv2 Profile (enhanced AAC+). Support for up to 8 channels from 8 kHz to 48 kHz AAC ELD (enhanced low delay AAC). Support for up to 8 channels from 8 kHz to 48 kHz xHE-AAC (enhanced HE-AAC). Support for up to 8 channels from 8 kHz to 48 kHz FLAC. Up to 48kHz, 2 channels, 16-bit and 24-bit (no dither for 24 bit) MIDI. MIDI (Type 0 and 1), DLS (Version 1 and 2), XMF, and Mobile XMF. Ringtone formats RTTTL/RTX, OTA, and iMelody. MP3. Up to 48kHz, 2 channels in DSP (16-bit and 24-bit) and software (16-bit). Vorbis. Ogg (.ogg), Matroska (.mkv). PCM/Wave. Up to 96kHz, 6 channels, 16-bit and 24-bit. AMR-NB. Supported. Opus. Up to 8 channels, 48 kHz.
Video codecs	Dolby Vision. Support for Profile 4-MEL, 5, 8, 9 and 10. (Up to Level 9 for profiles 5 and 8. Up to Level 5 for Profile 9.) H.265 (HEVC). Hardware accelerated up to 2160p (4K) @ 60fps Main 10 Profile Level 5.1 H.264. Hardware accelerated up to 2160p @ 30fps or 1080p @ 60fps, 8 bit, High Profile Level 5.1 AV1. Hardware accelerated up to 2160p (4K) @ 60fps Main Profile 10bit Level 5.1 VP9. Hardware accelerated up to 2160p @ 60fps, Profile 2 up to 30 Mbps (with limitations) MPEG-2. Up to 1080p @ 60fps MPEG-4. Up to 1080p @ 60fps
DRM Digital Rights Management	Widevine L1 v11 PlayReady 3.3
HDR High-dynamic-range	HDR10 HDR10+ HLG Dolby Vision
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.0 (BLE supported)
Max OpenGL version Open Graphics Library – 2D and 3D graphics rendering	OpenGL ES 3.2
Wifi	Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax; 2x2 MIMO (2.4 GHz, 5.0 GHz and 6GHz Tri- band)
Ethernet	10/100 Mbps
Storage	16 GB internal
Miracast (display mirroring with Fire tablet)	Supported
Far-field Alexa control Hands-free voice control	Supported
Near-field Alexa control Mic button on remote	Supported

 

[rbjtech 4265]

17 minutes ago, VirulentPip said:

I find it to be a bit zippier yes. 

Hi - Can you confirm if it plays DV Profile 7 (UHD Disk) ok ?   Specs suggests it does not .. which would be a dealbreaker for me ..

[VirulentPip 83]

37 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

Hi - Can you confirm if it plays DV Profile 7 (UHD Disk) ok ?   Specs suggests it does not .. which would be a dealbreaker for me ..

I'm glad you asked cause that was a disappointing outcome. 

HDR Format: Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-Ray Compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible

TV triggered HDR not Dolby Vision. 

However, 
HDR format: Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2094 App 4, Version 1, HDR10+ Profile A compatible

TV triggered Dolby Vision.

Edited December 19, 2022 by VirulentPip

[cncb 17]

It's too bad they did not add VC-1 support since I have a lot of blu-rays (mkvs) with VC-1.

[rbjtech 4265]

14 hours ago, VirulentPip said:

I'm glad you asked cause that was a disappointing outcome. 

HDR Format: Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-Ray Compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible

TV triggered HDR not Dolby Vision. 

However, 
HDR format: Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2094 App 4, Version 1, HDR10+ Profile A compatible

TV triggered Dolby Vision.

Thanks for testing.  

I'm not entirely sure why they would support THD and DTS-HD and omit the dominant DV Video HDR standard that those HD Audio formats come from ... 

[VirulentPip 83]

Well what confuses me is that the one with the HDR10 compatible stream triggers HDR but the one with the HDR10+ (not supported by my TV) triggers DV. I’ll open up a new post about it anyways.  

[rbjtech 4265]

1 hour ago, VirulentPip said:

Well what confuses me is that the one with the HDR10 compatible stream triggers HDR but the one with the HDR10+ (not supported by my TV) triggers DV. I’ll open up a new post about it anyways.  

I take it you've tried multiple source files ? 

[ebr 14913]

7 hours ago, rbjtech said:

I'm not entirely sure why they would support THD and DTS-HD and omit the dominant DV Video 

Its because they really are only supporting those audio codecs to support passing them through on the HDMI in, right?  So, the internal support for them is just kind of a happy accident.  They don't need to support the video codecs for that pass through because the outboard hardware is already decoding it.