tdiguy 96 Posted February 19, 2018 Share Posted February 19, 2018 Well this annoyed me like no tomorrow. I found out today that if these dam amazon devices ever cant phone home they stop working. I had a brief internet outage today and i suddenly could not use the fire stick or fire tv to watch anything heck couldnt even see the apps installed on them or anything at all. I could go to network settings and thats it. Anyone know a way around this? Like can i set up a spoofed domain name on my lan to keep these stupid devices happy if i lose internet for a few minutes? Pretty sure with dd-wrt i can set up a dns server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37095 Posted February 19, 2018 Share Posted February 19, 2018 How did you find this out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 19, 2018 Author Share Posted February 19, 2018 (edited) How did you find this out? My internet went out for about 5 minutes last night. During that time the only menu option available on my fire tv was network settings. I then chatted with amazon online and asked about it and they confirmed that is considered working as intended so when a firestick or fire tv lose internet they become mostly useless. So i then chatted with the people at roku and they confirmed that their devices do not do such things, internet connectivity is required to download channels but if using local content the roku will be able to use it. Edited February 19, 2018 by tdiguy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14923 Posted February 19, 2018 Share Posted February 19, 2018 Yeah, the reason Amazon sold you the Fire Stick for $39 was so that you would buy content from Amazon. If you can't get to Amazon, then, in their eyes, the device is worthless . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 19, 2018 Author Share Posted February 19, 2018 Yeah, the reason Amazon sold you the Fire Stick for $39 was so that you would buy content from Amazon. If you can't get to Amazon, then, in their eyes, the device is worthless . Lol yep that is pretty much what they have done with it. Kind of a shame to me anyway. This means i cant rely on the devices so i am switching over to roku. I really like the shield tv but dam i mean i spent less money on my emby server. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted February 19, 2018 Share Posted February 19, 2018 Try a MiBox 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tur0k 143 Posted February 19, 2018 Share Posted February 19, 2018 Yea, Mibox isn’t bad. If your good a tooling you could buy a rock64 maker board and load it with android. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 19, 2018 Author Share Posted February 19, 2018 (edited) I might consider one for the bedroom tv and for travel. I still want to have a system i can plug in a usb stick loaded with movies for when we go to great wolf lodge this summer so i can have a few of zacks favorites with us in case he has a meltdown. For the living room and my daughters room I am going with a roku mostly because they are very simple to use. Edited February 19, 2018 by tdiguy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 19, 2018 Author Share Posted February 19, 2018 Ok emby guys, I like the look of emby on roku, looks pretty much like emby everywhere else took me about 5 minutes to explain to my 7yo how to work the tv and play her movies through the roku. Very nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 Try a MiBox Curious on this. I found the roku has pretty limited support on formats so i think it will work fine for my daughters room since she mostly watches movies and her recorded shows anyway. But when it comes to the mi boxes i am curious. They are essentially android boxes, some of them list a pretty small number of formats supported, is that because of the apps on the mi box or because of hardware limitations? For example would installing emby on one of them allow it to direct play tv? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mastrmind11 717 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 (edited) Curious on this. I found the roku has pretty limited support on formats so i think it will work fine for my daughters room since she mostly watches movies and her recorded shows anyway. But when it comes to the mi boxes i am curious. They are essentially android boxes, some of them list a pretty small number of formats supported, is that because of the apps on the mi box or because of hardware limitations? For example would installing emby on one of them allow it to direct play tv? There are a few different mibox's out there, you want the latest which I think is a mibox3 and has true Android TV. Check the walmart website, they sell the right version for like $80. Yes, it will direct play live tv. The only issue I've (and others everywhere) have with it is it will not play DTS. If you're ok with that, it's a great little box. edit: Here it is https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mi-Box-Android-TV/54827138 Edited February 21, 2018 by mastrmind11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 There are a few different mibox's out there, you want the latest which I think is a mibox3 and has true Android TV. Check the walmart website, they sell the right version for like $80. Yes, it will direct play live tv. The only issue I've (and others everywhere) have with it is it will not play DTS. If you're ok with that, it's a great little box. edit: Here it is https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mi-Box-Android-TV/54827138 Ha, thats the one i just saw on walmart and ordered for pickup tonight i figured it would at least be worth playing with. I just hope it is easy to use so i dont have to spend all night explaining it. Going to pick this up tonight on my way home and i hope to test it out. Might buy 2 of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mastrmind11 717 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Ha, thats the one i just saw on walmart and ordered for pickup tonight i figured it would at least be worth playing with. I just hope it is easy to use so i dont have to spend all night explaining it. Going to pick this up tonight on my way home and i hope to test it out. Might buy 2 of them. It's a standard Android TV interface. My 5 year old uses one in the family room all day. While you're at it, pick up a basic USB to Ethernet adapter. While I didn't find anything wrong w/ the wifi on the unit personally, I hate the occasional buffering that wifi is so willing to provide from time to time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 It's a standard Android TV interface. My 5 year old uses one in the family room all day. While you're at it, pick up a basic USB to Ethernet adapter. While I didn't find anything wrong w/ the wifi on the unit personally, I hate the occasional buffering that wifi is so willing to provide from time to time. I am not a big fan that it doesn't come with a wired connection but i think this will work very well when we go on vacation. Being android i bet i can also put openvpn on it. Looks very promising and not a bad price. I will see how it goes once i get my hands on it maybe i will upgrade all of the streaming devices to this. After all if i can direct play 100% of the time to all the devices normally used i can dedicate more resources to converting recordings. I love this community. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14923 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 After all if i can direct play 100% of the time to all the devices normally used i can dedicate more resources to converting recordings. The key will be if you have items with DTS soundtracks. That is really the only fly in the ointment for this box. It advertises support but it just doesn't work. Anyone know if they have released any firmware updates that may have addressed this...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 The key will be if you have items with DTS soundtracks. That is really the only fly in the ointment for this box. It advertises support but it just doesn't work. Anyone know if they have released any firmware updates that may have addressed this...? Would that be direct streaming or transcoding if i had something encoded with DTS? Normally though i convert everything ( or rather emby ) to aac which is nearly universally supported at this point. If i remember correctly most tv programs i have seen are in ac3 sound. Even when i get a dvd i have that converted to aac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14923 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 It will have to convert the audio so whatever you want to call that... If the video is direct playable it will just copy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mastrmind11 717 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Would that be direct streaming or transcoding if i had something encoded with DTS? Normally though i convert everything ( or rather emby ) to aac which is nearly universally supported at this point. If i remember correctly most tv programs i have seen are in ac3 sound. Even when i get a dvd i have that converted to aac. For me, at least, it simply will not play DTS audio, even when hitting the panic button to force a transcode. Others have luck. Either way, if you're doing aac or ac3, it'll direct play just fine (that's what I've been doing lately for my kids movies since they don't care about DTS obviously). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 For me, at least, it simply will not play DTS audio, even when hitting the panic button to force a transcode. Others have luck. Either way, if you're doing aac or ac3, it'll direct play just fine (that's what I've been doing lately for my kids movies since they don't care about DTS obviously). Good to know I highly doubt many tv programs will be transmitted in DTS and movies even from tv I end up recording and converting first, the .ts files are huge so i like to convert them and get rid of them asap. I never would have thought i would fill a 1tb hard drive, but i am at 90% right now and i havent been using emby long. I have even downscaled a lot of movies and shows with ffmpeg. I have a 3tb on the way and will be ordering one to use as a backup soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 For me the dts audio is converted instantly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Also Android 7 is in beta, for it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14923 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Good to know I highly doubt many tv programs will be transmitted in DTS and movies even from tv I end up recording and converting first, the .ts files are huge so i like to convert them and get rid of them asap. I never would have thought i would fill a 1tb hard drive, but i am at 90% right now and i havent been using emby long. I have even downscaled a lot of movies and shows with ffmpeg. I have a 3tb on the way and will be ordering one to use as a backup soon. No recorded TV will have DTS. Some will have DD. So if all your content is sourced from recorded TV you will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 Excellent I do have a lot of recorded movies, but when i record them i convert over to aac. I dont even own a receiver so i could actually record everything with mp3 stereo and probably not notice a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mastrmind11 717 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 (edited) Oh, and FYI the DTS issue has been reported as fixed in the Android 7 release for the box. https://github.com/google/ExoPlayer/issues/2550 edit: As far as ExoPlayer is concerned anyway... which I assume Emby is still using under the hood. Edited February 21, 2018 by mastrmind11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdiguy 96 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 Even better, Looks like this will be a great fire tv replacement. I love the simplicity of the remote and that its very similar to amazon's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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