Amazon Fire TV

[ebr 14959]

I doubt any update to our app will affect it as I've never seen any such behavior (I also have a 2nd gen Fire TV).  I wonder if it is somehow a mis-communication in the HDMI chain.

[rfischer1984 3]

I doubt any update to our app will affect it as I've never seen any such behavior (I also have a 2nd gen Fire TV).  I wonder if it is somehow a mis-communication in the HDMI chain.

I found out it has something to do with hdcp 2.2 I hooked it up to a non hdcp 2.2 port and it works flawless. Strange. 

[chambonito 0]

Perhaps someone could help me with a strange problem....I have emby on my fire tv and I went to play a movie last night from my library and it seems to get all the information including run time but when I click play it goes to play and then goes back to the movie info screen.  I played the same movie on my android phone and even casted the same movie to the chromecast as a workaround. Anyone know why this would do this?

[ebr 14959]

Perhaps someone could help me with a strange problem....I have emby on my fire tv and I went to play a movie last night from my library and it seems to get all the information including run time but when I click play it goes to play and then goes back to the movie info screen.  I played the same movie on my android phone and even casted the same movie to the chromecast as a workaround. Anyone know why this would do this?

 

Does it show you a small message on the screen when this happens?

 

Sounds like maybe a transcoding error.

 

Can you open a new topic and post both the server and transcode logs when this happens please?

[leebo 8]

Amazon says they're planning to push an update to fix the Dolby issue on Monday, Nov. 30. I saw this in their replies to complaints in the customer reviews on their site.

 

Signature edited to appease the OCD's

[chambonito 0]

No it does not post any message. I will gladly post logs

[emacholden 0]

Delete has been implemented for recorded TV in the current version of the Fire TV app but not media that is a part of your regular library.

 

Is there any news on when delete for regular library items might be implemented?

[andstein85 6]

DTS is decoded to 5.1 PCM.

 

Considering it shows the MKV w/DTS 5.1 track being streamed direct/v, I presume this means DTS decoding is being done by the Emby app? Is there a reason for doing it this way rather than ofloading this to the audio receiver?

 

I've discovered the following information about PCM as it pertains to my specific setup:

"Surround audio across S/PDIF can only be achieved using Dolby Surround(AC3)/Dolby Digital/DTS. Multichannel PCM (most desirable) is not possible over S/PDIF but is possible over HDMI.

 

S/PDIF can only transport a maximum of 2 PCM channels. i.e. 2.0 stereo"

 

Considering my receiver doesn't have HDMI inputs, and the fact that there is no option in Emby to pass the DTS directly to the receiver, I'm basically stuck....

 

Soooooo if you can find it in your hearts to add an option that lets you choose where or not to offload the signal processing to the audio receiver rather than having the client do it, that would be fantastic because I really really really reallly reallllllllllly love Emby!

Edited December 2, 2015 by andstein85

[ebr 14959]

It isn't our app it is the player (VLC) that is doing the decoding.  S/PDIF should be pretty rare these days although the Fire does actually have one of those ports.

 

The original one, that is.  They got rid of it on the new one.

[andstein85 6]

It isn't our app it is the player (VLC) that is doing the decoding.  S/PDIF should be pretty rare these days although the Fire does actually have one of those ports.

 

The original one, that is.  They got rid of it on the new one.

 

I'm aware its ancient.

I have the 2nd gen Fire TV that connects to a ViewHD HDMI Audio Extractor which sends the audio signal to my receiver via an optical cable and passes video to the TV via an hdmi out.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KBHX072?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

 

Dolby Surround/Dolby Digital/DTS work flawlessly with my setup using Kodi.

 

This will all become irrelevant as soon as I convince my wife to let me buy a new $500 receiver.... but until then, I guess theres no other option but to use Emby for general media consumption in ::cry:: 2.0 stereo, and use the pain-in-the-ass-to-launch-Kodi app on movie nights when the family wants a full movie experience.

Edited December 2, 2015 by andstein85

[CBers 6795]

I'm aware its ancient.

I have the 2nd gen Fire TV that connects to a ViewHD HDMI Audio Extractor which sends the audio signal to my receiver via an optical cable and passes video to the TV via an hdmi out.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KBHX072?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

 

Dolby Surround/Dolby Digital/DTS work flawlessly with my setup using Kodi.

 

This will all become irrelevant as soon as I convince my wife to let me buy a new $500 receiver.... but until then, I guess theres no other option but to use Emby for general media consumption in ::cry:: 2.0 stereo, and use the pain-in-the-ass-to-launch-Kodi app on movie nights when the family wants a full movie experience.

 

You're not crying along, as the app running my Nexus Player won't do DD pass-through either, even though Kodi, also running on the Nexus Player, does.

 

The Emby for Samsung Smart TV app also does it.

[ebr 14959]

You're not crying along, as the app running my Nexus Player won't do DD pass-through either, even though Kodi, also running on the Nexus Player, does.

 

The Emby for Samsung Smart TV app also does it.

 

Just as a point of clarification - the app will pass thru DD on the NP as long as the hardware involved can be discovered properly via the normal HDMI handshake protocols.

 

CBers particular case is running through a TV to a soundbar that only supports certain audio formats.  DD passes through fine from my NP to my receiver.

 

CBers - is your soundbar hooked up via optical...?

[careca 11]

Just as a point of clarification - the app will pass thru DD on the NP as long as the hardware involved can be discovered properly via the normal HDMI handshake protocols.

 

CBers particular case is running through a TV to a soundbar that only supports certain audio formats.  DD passes through fine from my NP to my receiver.

 

CBers - is your soundbar hooked up via optical...?

I also can't pass DD on the Shield TV. Mine is connected directly to the TV who is capable of taking DD and DTS directly. Just like others, I have to rely on Kodi instead of the Android TV app.

[CBers 6795]

CBers - is your soundbar hooked up via optical...?

Yes it is.

 

As I keep saying, Kodi can do it, so it must be VLC.

[ebr 14959]

Yes it is.

 

As I keep saying, Kodi can do it, so it must be VLC.

 

But that is the answer to why you don't get multi-channel for DTS - the optical cable doesn't support it.

 

That also may be why DD doesn't pass through as maybe VLC is seeing that connection and mis-interpreting its capabilities (or maybe the TV is mis-reporting it).  Kodi may just ignore what the device says it can do and force the stream.

[ebr 14959]

I also can't pass DD on the Shield TV. Mine is connected directly to the TV who is capable of taking DD and DTS directly. Just like others, I have to rely on Kodi instead of the Android TV app.

 

If your Shield is running Android 5.1 instead of 5.1.1 that is due to a problem in the OS.

[CBers 6795]

But that is the answer to why you don't get multi-channel for DTS - the optical cable doesn't support it.

 

That also may be why DD doesn't pass through as maybe VLC is seeing that connection and mis-interpreting its capabilities (or maybe the TV is mis-reporting it).  Kodi may just ignore what the device says it can do and force the stream.

 

I doubt it it is the optical connection, as my previous Pioneer surround system was connected via optical from my HTPC and it always recognised DD and DTS.

 

Also, my Nexus Player is connected to my TV via HDMI so there's no way that VLC should be able to see that it is then an optical connection from the TV to the Sonos PlayBar.

[andstein85 6]

But that is the answer to why you don't get multi-channel for DTS - the optical cable doesn't support it.

 

That also may be why DD doesn't pass through as maybe VLC is seeing that connection and mis-interpreting its capabilities (or maybe the TV is mis-reporting it).  Kodi may just ignore what the device says it can do and force the stream.

 

Clarification: Fiber optic audio cables support DTS streams, they don't support what VLC is converting the DTS stream to(PCM) due to bandwidth constraints.

 

The FireTV sees the EDID output from whatever device its connected to, in my case, an audio extractor that has preset EDID options that support 5.1, 2ch, or passthru. The 5.1 preset generates an EDID that lets the FireTV know its connected to a Dolby Digital/DTS capable device supporting 5.1 channels. The application, in this case VLC, also uses that EDID to determine what to do with the audio. So... being that all the other applications I've tested on my FireTV are interpreting the observed EDID correctly and then outputting the correct Dolby Digital or DTS stream to my receiver over an optical cable, that means this is absolutely an application issue, not a hardware issue.

 

Bottom line: Netflix, Amazon Instant, and Kodi are able to output Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 correctly from my 2nd Gen FireTV to my albeit "ancient" audio receiver. Emby does not.

 

A legitimate EDID issue will more often than not present noticeably distorted sound or no sound at all, which is not the case for my setup. For those of you having issues like that, the app is not at fault, but you may be able to fix it with an EDID override hack.

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-home-theater-computers/1227161-edid-overrides-solve-bitstreaming-issues-ati-5xxx-s.html

[ebr 14959]

I doubt it it is the optical connection, as my previous Pioneer surround system was connected via optical from my HTPC and it always recognised DD and DTS.

 

Also, my Nexus Player is connected to my TV via HDMI so there's no way that VLC should be able to see that it is then an optical connection from the TV to the Sonos PlayBar.

 

But, since VLC does not bitstream DTS and, instead, decodes it to multi-channel PCM, that is why it does not work with your setup - because the optical cable cannot support multi-channel PCM.

 

I don't know how many times I can say this, but we are not in control of any of this.  It is all inside the VLC player.

[ebr 14959]

Clarification: Fiber optic audio cables support DTS streams, they don't support what VLC is converting the DTS stream to(PCM) due to bandwidth constraints.

 

The FireTV sees the EDID output from whatever device its connected to, in my case, an audio extractor that has preset EDID options that support 5.1, 2ch, or passthru. The 5.1 preset generates an EDID that lets the FireTV know its connected to a Dolby Digital/DTS capable device supporting 5.1 channels. The application, in this case VLC, also uses that EDID to determine what to do with the audio. So... being that all the other applications I've tested on my FireTV are interpreting the observed EDID correctly and then outputting the correct Dolby Digital or DTS stream to my receiver over an optical cable, that means this is absolutely an application issue, not a hardware issue.

 

Bottom line: Netflix, Amazon Instant, and Kodi are able to output Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 correctly from my 2nd Gen FireTV to my albeit "ancient" audio receiver. Emby does not.

 

A legitimate EDID issue will more often than not present noticeably distorted sound or no sound at all, which is not the case for my setup. For those of you having issues like that, the app is not at fault, but you may be able to fix it with an EDID override hack.

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-home-theater-computers/1227161-edid-overrides-solve-bitstreaming-issues-ati-5xxx-s.html

 

What is the software version on your Fire and what does it show as the last updated date?

[CBers 6795]

But, since VLC does not bitstream DTS and, instead, decodes it to multi-channel PCM, that is why it does not work with your setup - because the optical cable cannot support multi-channel PCM.

 

I don't know how many times I can say this, but we are not in control of any of this. It is all inside the VLC player.

That's probably why the Sonos PlayBar doesn't support DTS, but it does DD.

 

So the question is, will VLC ever support pass-through, or should another solution be looked for? Can decoding be disabled?

 

This is the only reason I don't use the app on my Nexus Player and use the Samsung Smart TV app instead.

 

That said, I do use the Emby app on my Fire TV every day - it's in the bedroom and only connected to the TV

Edited December 3, 2015 by CBers

[andstein85 6]

But, since VLC does not bitstream DTS and, instead, decodes it to multi-channel PCM, that is why it does not work with your setup - because the optical cable cannot support multi-channel PCM.

 

I don't know how many times I can say this, but we are not in control of any of this.  It is all inside the VLC player.

I understood that the first time you said that in post #659...

 

However, I'm assuming you all compiled libvlc yourselves?

 

The capability exists, it just needs the correct audio modules to reference.

 

As described here:

https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Hacker's_Guide/Audio_Output/#Description

"Normally, the audio frames contain an integral number of audio samples coded linearly, i.e. PCM. However, to address the need for digital audio pass-through, the audio output may also receive coded audio frames encapsulated as S/PDIF packets."

 

Also, in the section of the above referenced wiki regarding S/PDIF, its states the following:

"If and only if the format on entry is non-linear, the audio output module can enable digital pass-through mode. To do so, it must set the audio output format to VLC_CODEC_SPDIFL (or VLC_CODEC_SPDIFB). If on the contrary pass-through is not to be used, then the format must be set to a linear FOURCC, usually VLC_CODEC_FL32 or VLC_CODEC_S16N."

 

Both DD and DTS and Non-Linear formats, and thus, capable of being transported over S/PDIF.

 

I may be wrong, but I believe these are the modules that would be needed to make this work(at least for me ):

https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/modules/audio_filter/converter/a52tospdif.c

https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/modules/audio_filter/converter/dtstospdif.c

 

 

What is the software version on your Fire and what does it show as the last updated date?

5.0.3.1_user_534011720

Last updated Nov 23, 2015 (the day I received it in the mail and plugged it in for the first time)

Edited December 3, 2015 by andstein85

[ebr 14959]

No, we are taking libvlc from the android port not the main master.

 

Of course, there is no documentation or support for us using LibVlc in this manner, so we have had to derive all our usage from the Android port of VLC itself.  So, it is certainly possible that there are capabilities in there that we just don't know how to unleash. But we haven't discovered them yet and, if that were the case, I think you would see different behavior from the actual VLC app on the Android TV platform.

 

To my knowledge, that is not the case.  The VLC app on this platform behaves the exact same way our app does (pass-thru for DD and decoding to PCM for DTS).

[ebr 14959]

I understood that the first time you said that in post #659...

 

I was responding directly to CBers because he keeps asking me over and over why Kodi can do it and we can't .

[andstein85 6]

No, we are taking libvlc from the android port not the main master.

 

Of course, there is no documentation or support for us using LibVlc in this manner, so we have had to derive all our usage from the Android port of VLC itself.  So, it is certainly possible that there are capabilities in there that we just don't know how to unleash. But we haven't discovered them yet and, if that were the case, I think you would see different behavior from the actual VLC app on the Android TV platform.

 

To my knowledge, that is not the case.  The VLC app on this platform behaves the exact same way our app does (pass-thru for DD and decoding to PCM for DTS).

 

I see... according to a commit back in April of this year, the option was added in vlc for Android v1.2.4, but if I remember correctly they had some kind of licensing issues with dolby and dts which made them remove some stuff that ultimately ended up crippling its audio playback capabilities. Maybe that was for ios though... I can't remember. Anyway, heres the commit if you're interested:

http://git.videolan.org/gitweb.cgi/vlc-ports/android.git/?p=vlc-ports/android.git;a=commit;h=645e32af3f009d7dbcbcdd206d9c68c96d19633c

 

You are correct though, the Android VLC port behaves exactly the same as Emby with respect to DD and DTS.