Amazon 4k Firestick - AAC 6 channel - only comes out as 2 channel stereo

[bravoland 1]

I've browsed several other threads but nothing seemed to be recent in the last 2 years so i just thought i would ask here.

 

i am starting to believe the Amazon Firestick 4k cannot play 6 channel AAC audio through the emby app.    my tv has an optical cable to my 5.1 System(my sound system doesn't have HDMI as an option) .   i've tried turning on and off the DTS pass through options just to say i did in the emby app.  i changed  the firestick settings - audio from auto to Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus.  no matter what i do it only plays 2 channel stereo for those files.

DTS and AC3 6 channel play fine.

i can use Emby Theater on my Xbox hooked up the same way to the speakers and the AAC 6 channel plays fine.  I'd just prefer to use the firestick for everything.

i am direct playing the files not transcoding them.

 

anyone have an luck getting firesticks to play AAC 6 channel in Emby? 

 

 

[ebr 14958]

Hi.  I believe the only Android device that will support multi-channel AAC is the Shield.  However, I don't think that would be supported on optical anyway - it simply doesn't have the bandwidth for 6 discrete channels.

There will be an option in the next release of the app that will allow you to tell it to convert these to Dolby for surround sound though.

[bravoland 1]

Thanks as always you and Luke are awesome.   funny thing is i just tried my X265 HEVC DTS audio file on the xbox and that video was jerky etc.  i go back to the firestick and it handles it flawless.  

 

i think I'm just going to stick with good old 1080p H264 2channel audio and quit worrying about "cutting edge"  LOL

[SvitSvit 0]

If you play aac 5.1 with Kodi Emby plugin, it works.

[ebr 14958]

4 hours ago, SvitSvit said:

If you play aac 5.1 with Kodi Emby plugin, it works.

With an optical connection?

[bravoland 1]

just saw there was some movement on this thread i started.  i don't have kodi on my firestick. but i will say that the firestick 4k specs show that it does indeed support AAC 6 channel.  also if i switch over to my xbox and pull up the same movie through emby on there it does play the AAC 6 channel.   and this is all going through the same optical cable.

 

just food for thought.

[ebr 14958]

27 minutes ago, bravoland said:

firestick 4k specs show that it does indeed support AAC 6 channel

The stick "supporting" that as an audio input and you actually receiving it as that through your outboard equipment are two very different things.  Android will accept a multi-channel AAC input but mix it down to stereo for output on just about every device except for the Shield (and perhaps the new Chromecast).

An optical cable cannot carry 5.1 PCM - only in compressed formats like DD or DTS.

There is an option in the next version of our app that will convert your AAC to DD so that it will pass as 5.1.

[bravoland 1]

Thanks ebr  that makes sense.   again.   i love emby and very proud of all the work you guys do to make it work!

keep up the good work!

[bravoland 1]

hey ebr quick question

 

the new option in the next version to convert aac to dd.  will that be a server side option or a per client option?

 

 

[ebr 14958]

3 minutes ago, bravoland said:

the new option in the next version to convert aac to dd.  will that be a server side option or a per client option?

It is in the app.