sambarlick 13 Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 Hi, I'm brand new to the Fire TV stick. I've been using a shield and a Sony tv with Android TV previously. I'm having an issue with high bitrate files (50+ Mbps) that kill the Fire TV stick and make it shut down. I have tried adjusting the max quality from Auto to 1000 to 160 to 130 to 120 to 100. I have also tried toggling match frame rate and resolution options. My Fire TV stick is getting 150+ Mbps speed in the native OS speed test. Amazon have replaced the device twice already. Is this an issue with the emby app or the Fire TV stick? Thanks, Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14959 Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chacawaca 106 Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 i dont know if your device is this version. Fire TV Stick 4K Max - 1st Gen https://www.developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/device-specifications-fire-tv-streaming-media-player.html seem limited to 35 Mbps. H.265 (HEVC). Hardware accelerated up to 3840x2160p (4K) @ 60fps, 35 Mbps, Main 10 Profile Level 5.1, Color space 8-bit and 10-bit input with HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbjtech 4333 Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 (edited) So related to the above - what is the bitrate of your video files ? Are they greater than 80Mbit/sec ? My 4K and 4K Max devices stream full remux 4K files averaging 60-80Mbit/sec without issues (over a usb dongle) - so while Amazon themselves specify only 35Mbit/sec - the SOC can do a lot more from my experience. This is with the Amazon store Emby for FireTV App. I've never seen a device shutdown due to load ... Edited July 19, 2023 by rbjtech Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sambarlick 13 Posted July 19, 2023 Author Share Posted July 19, 2023 6 hours ago, chacawaca said: i dont know if your device is this version. Fire TV Stick 4K Max - 1st Gen https://www.developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/device-specifications-fire-tv-streaming-media-player.html seem limited to 35 Mbps. H.265 (HEVC). Hardware accelerated up to 3840x2160p (4K) @ 60fps, 35 Mbps, Main 10 Profile Level 5.1, Color space 8-bit and 10-bit input with HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG. Mine is the 4K Max (AFTKA). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sambarlick 13 Posted July 19, 2023 Author Share Posted July 19, 2023 5 hours ago, rbjtech said: So related to the above - what is the bitrate of your video files ? Are they greater than 80Mbit/sec ? My 4K and 4K Max devices stream full remux 4K files averaging 60-80Mbit/sec without issues (over a usb dongle) - so while Amazon themselves specify only 35Mbit/sec - the SOC can do a lot more from my experience. This is with the Amazon store Emby for FireTV App. I've never seen a device shutdown due to load ... The file I'm using to test is ~83mbps. It buffers on auto quality which defaults to 80mbps. If I manually change it to 100 for the steam the fire stick just dies. If i set the global app quality settings to anything above 80mbps same result the stick dies. I tried another file that was ~40mbps and the app struggled to play at first but then either did play eventually or killed the fire stick. This behaviour has been replicated now on three 4K max sticks. I have to ask, why bother with wifi 6 if they are just gonna limit it to 35mbps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sambarlick 13 Posted July 19, 2023 Author Share Posted July 19, 2023 5 hours ago, rbjtech said: My 4K and 4K Max devices stream full remux 4K files averaging 60-80Mbit/sec without issues (over a usb dongle) I wondered if I'd be better off using the ethernet dongle instead of using wifi. Is this your experience? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbjtech 4333 Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 9 hours ago, sambarlick said: I wondered if I'd be better off using the ethernet dongle instead of using wifi. Is this your experience? This is what I use yes, no issues playing 4K Remux at ~80Mbit/sec. Let me do some wifi tests later on today to see if I have similiar problems on my 4K Max. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14959 Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 14 hours ago, sambarlick said: the fire stick just dies Exactly what is happening? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sambarlick 13 Posted July 21, 2023 Author Share Posted July 21, 2023 11 hours ago, ebr said: Exactly what is happening? When I play a file larger than 35mbps on auto quality the fire stick buffers constantly. If I play the same file on manual quality settings, above the bitrate of the file, the fire stick turns off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37251 Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 Is it supposed to handle bitrates that high? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sambarlick 13 Posted July 21, 2023 Author Share Posted July 21, 2023 13 minutes ago, Luke said: Is it supposed to handle bitrates that high? Hi Luke, You mean the fire stick? Well someone suggested that in this thread but someone else said they are able to play high bitrate files. I would assume that because my fire stick has wifi 6 then it should be capable of high bitrates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sambarlick 13 Posted July 21, 2023 Author Share Posted July 21, 2023 I just spoke to a customer service rep from the fire TV department. He seemed to think that the 4K Max doesn't have bitrate restrictions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37251 Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 25 minutes ago, sambarlick said: I just spoke to a customer service rep from the fire TV department. He seemed to think that the 4K Max doesn't have bitrate restrictions. Every device has a limit of what it can handle. I imagine he just doesn't know the answer to this because this isn't' really what the fire stick was made for. It was made for netflix, disney+, etc, where you're going to be dealing with much lower bitrates. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbjtech 4333 Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 As has been said above - all of my Amazon 4K devices (incl the 4K Max) can handle HEVC 80-90Mbit/sec over wifi or USB dongle without issues. Are you using wifi 6 - as I've only tested on wifi 5. There is a possibility this is the issue?. Maybe force it to wifi 5 if you can and try that ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14959 Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 13 hours ago, sambarlick said: the fire stick turns off I've never seen this happen but I would think that would only happen in some sort of critical case - like the device getting so hot some internal protection code shuts it down. It doesn't reboot? It turns off? I'm not aware of a way to even turn one of these off. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sambarlick 13 Posted July 22, 2023 Author Share Posted July 22, 2023 Ok so it's solved after spending an hour on the phone to they're fire TV department.... I also ended up buying the Amazon USB to ethernet dongle as a test to see if it was wifi (I don't have wifi 6, using wifi 5.) The ethernet dongle fixed the network stability issues. The issue of the device turning off was a different issue... It was an incompatiblity with my hue sync Box! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14959 Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 Excellent. Thanks for reporting back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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