Firestick 4K and DTS audio (pass through) not working

[Embyfied 1]

A while (couple of weeks) ago, I had a problem with some audio not working, but I didn't have time to look into it and most things were working fine. Recently, I've tracked down the problem to files with DTS audio not passing through.

I have two systems: "Upstairs" is a firestick 4k plugged directly into a DTS capable receiver and, "Downstairs" is a firestick 4k plugged into a Samsung 8 series TV and then, via HDMI, to a DTS capable receiver.

Both systems produce no sound when playing a file with DTS audio. The Upstairs receiver (better one) shows "Stereo" on its front panel. Choosing an external player (VLC) produces stereo sound. The "nerd" menu shows, "Transcode Reason: Direct play error". All the files I've tried are "vanilla" DTS 5.1.

Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks.

 

[ebr 14959]

Hi.  I doubt the TV supports passing through DTS as most don't.  Can you play one of these for just a few seconds and then send a log from the app?

[Embyfied 1]

Re: "I doubt the TV supports passing through DTS as most don't." --> I first noticed the "error" on the "Downstairs" system that is set up that way (firestick to TV to receiver). I know it used to work because there are "continue watching" entries (with DTS audio) there that aren't too old.

Re: "Can you play one of these for just a few seconds and then send a log from the app?" --> Absolutely... Will be about 14 hours from now. I'll do it from the "Upstairs" system that's (firestick to receiver to TV). I've read the, "How to Report a Problem" and found the, "Debug Options" in the app.

Thank you for the help!

[ebr 14959]

9 hours ago, Embyfied said:

I know it used to work because there are "continue watching" entries (with DTS audio) there that aren't too old.

That doesn't really mean that the audio passed through.  It just means you played those items.

[Embyfied 1]

Log sent at 1:02pm (13:02, UTC -5 -- if I calculated it right). User was Chris and the file was Yes - Acoustic.mkv.

Thanks again for your time.

[ebr 14959]

It is failing when trying to initialize the audio.

12-17 10:01:26.166 17909 16668 E AudioTrack: Could not get audio output for session 2337, stream type -1, usage 1, sample rate 48000, format 0xb000000, channel mask 0x3f, flags 0x1
12-17 10:01:26.167 17909 16668 E AudioTrack-JNI: Error -22 initializing AudioTrack
12-17 10:01:26.167 17909 16668 E android.media.AudioTrack: Error code -20 when initializing AudioTrack.
12-17 10:01:26.169 17909 16668 E ExoPlayerImplInternal: Renderer error: index=1, type=audio, format=Format(2, null, null, audio/vnd.dts, null, -1, en, [-1, -1, -1.0], [6, 48000]), rendererSupport=YES

Have you tried some different inputs or rebooting or checking settings on the Fire itself?

[Embyfied 1]

Duh?... (happy face) :)... I'm lucky enough to have two Emby servers running now (one on my original WD DL4100 and the other on a new unRAID server). The "new" server will transcode properly, but won't pass through DTS.

Just keeping the thread alive... The very best wishes to you and yours for the holidays ebr!

 

[Tupsi 4]

I just stumbled over this and want to add my findings on Fire TV 4k "passthrough" ability. To what I learned the hard way, it currently does not exist at all. The sticks warps everything into what you configured in preference (only options auto, DD and DD+), where "auto" means it tries to use either stereo, dd or dd+ regarding what your output tells the stick it can do.

In our case, that means, that we are stuck with a DD+ signal at most, but not "passthrough", which I verified with my Denon reciever, as that one shows me what is coming into it.

If you wanna lose life time on yourself, you can google it and will find replies fomr Amazon stating this is actually an intended feature and not even near a bug.

Which resulted in my frustration boiling up to ordering a nvidia shield today, in the hopes this is better there.

Not convinced yet, that I will get my opus passthrough there working, but at least the website states "passthrough" for a couple of audio codecs.

 

TLDNR version: Fire TV 4k does not have "passthrough" (anymore)