BinaryShrub 3 Posted February 14, 2016 Posted February 14, 2016 I just recently starting seeing an issue on my Fire Sticks after the FireOS 5.0.5 release where videos with 5.1 audio are not playing the center channel at all. It's quite strange, I hear the surrounding sounds, but most all vocals are gone. This doesnt happen with 2.1 channel videos. I have tried reinstalling the server and factory resetting my Fire Sticks, but the issue is still happening on both, on two different TVs.
Badders 0 Posted February 14, 2016 Posted February 14, 2016 Yep seeing exactly that same issue, and massive performance hiccups and stuttering playback since the os update
BinaryShrub 3 Posted February 14, 2016 Author Posted February 14, 2016 Exactly what kind of Audio track? AAC 5.1 was the one I noticed the issue with. But I suspect any 5.1 will have this issue.
psycopuppy 0 Posted February 14, 2016 Posted February 14, 2016 (edited) I was thinking it was only me, but bad audio on both my devices. Edited February 14, 2016 by psycopuppy
stevek480 2 Posted February 14, 2016 Posted February 14, 2016 I can't get sound to work on any videos on the FireTV app after the update either. I've tried changing the audio setting in the FireTV settings to both Dolby Digital over HDMI and Dolby Digital Off, and tried changing the Emby app to both direct and compatible audio but nothing worked. I tested videos with AAC, AC3 and DCA codecs and silence all around. Everything worked fine before the OS update so it seems that is to blame.
BinaryShrub 3 Posted February 15, 2016 Author Posted February 15, 2016 If there is a way to force downmix to 2.1 for now I think that would be an acceptable workaround until it is fixed. If only I knew how xD I tried changing the sound option for the emby app to compatible, but that does nothing.
ebr 15667 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 Changing the setting in the app to "Compatible" should be forcing it to stereo. I'll guess we'll have to dig into whatever they broke in this update. Are all of you on sticks? Is anyone plugged into an actual receiver?
cdru 0 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 Changing the setting in the app to "Compatible" should be forcing it to stereo. I'll guess we'll have to dig into whatever they broke in this update. Are all of you on sticks? Is anyone plugged into an actual receiver? Changing the setting to compatible does not seem to make a difference. No change was apparent for me at least. Both my Fire TV sticks exhibit this behavior, whether plugged directly into a TV or into a receiver. When plugged into my receiver, only the L and R channels appear active. It acts as if 5.1 is supported, but only L and R make it through.
BinaryShrub 3 Posted February 15, 2016 Author Posted February 15, 2016 Changing the setting to compatible does not seem to make a difference. No change was apparent for me at least. Both my Fire TV sticks exhibit this behavior, whether plugged directly into a TV or into a receiver. When plugged into my receiver, only the L and R channels appear active. It acts as if 5.1 is supported, but only L and R make it through. Ditto, I also have two Fire Sticks and am seeing this exact same behavior plugged directly into TVs. Thank for being so responsive about this ebr!
ebr 15667 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 If the compatible setting doesn't make a difference, we could be in a real quandry here...
ebr 15667 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 Hmmm... the items you guys are seeing this with - are they direct-playing or transcoding?
cdru 0 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 I'll grab a copy of the log file if like but I know in one case it definitely was transcoding AC3 5.1 audio for an episode of Elementary to AAC 5.1. I'd have to check the logs for the several movies I tried as well.
CBers 7114 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 Is this only affecting Fire TV Stick users, or Fire TV Box users ?? I'm still waiting to get the 5.05 update on my Fire TV.
ebr 15667 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 I'll grab a copy of the log file if like but I know in one case it definitely was transcoding AC3 5.1 audio for an episode of Elementary to AAC 5.1. I'd have to check the logs for the several movies I tried as well. Okay, then that would explain why the compatible setting made no difference as, if it is transcoding, it is playing back with the native player (actually exo).
Solution ebr 15667 Posted February 15, 2016 Solution Posted February 15, 2016 Alright, I've done some testing with my Fire stick which is running 5.03. For me, 5.1 works great when plugged into my receiver. But, when directly into the TV, it isn't able to determine that it should only be stereo so you are only getting L/R of the 5.1 track. I've made a change so that the "Compatible" setting will affect transcoded items and force stereo for those as well. This is going up to the beta group as 1.1.47. Are any of you in the beta? 1
Redshirt 1487 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 ebr, I'm guessing compatible is using OpenSL ES? Looking at the commits for VLC-Android it looks like they've given up on getting AudioTrack output on Amazon hardware altogether. A shame that Amazon had to break the rules with their audio implementation.
BinaryShrub 3 Posted February 15, 2016 Author Posted February 15, 2016 I'm not in beta, how do I sign up?
Luke 40082 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 I'm not in beta, how do I sign up? http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/24350-android-open-beta-testing/ 1
BinaryShrub 3 Posted February 15, 2016 Author Posted February 15, 2016 http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/24350-android-open-beta-testing/ Done. I can have my wife try compatible mode in a few hours, or I can try it after work.
BinaryShrub 3 Posted February 15, 2016 Author Posted February 15, 2016 BTW, You guys are quick! I reported this issue not even 48 hours ago.
BinaryShrub 3 Posted February 15, 2016 Author Posted February 15, 2016 http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/24350-android-open-beta-testing/ Do you guys have beta through developer.amazon.com? Or do I need to side load?
ebr 15667 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 Do you guys have beta through developer.amazon.com? Or do I need to side load? You need to PM me the email address associated with the Amazon account on that device. And you need to be sure you have all marketing communications allowed on that account. Thx.
ebr 15667 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 ebr, I'm guessing compatible is using OpenSL ES? Looking at the commits for VLC-Android it looks like they've given up on getting AudioTrack output on Amazon hardware altogether. A shame that Amazon had to break the rules with their audio implementation. That's what it does if you're using VLC. However, in these instances, people are transcoding which means they are not using VLC. In that case, the option had no effect but I just changed that so that it will also limit transcoded audio to 2-channels. On the normal Fire, I still get good performance with passing LPCM or DTS tracks through VLC. DD, however, does not work so I have to force that to stereo (osles).
themohom 0 Posted February 15, 2016 Posted February 15, 2016 I'm also experiencing this issue on both Fire TV sticks, I'll have to apply for the Beta for now...
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