AAC/AC3 audio issue on Fire Stick

[Ingleby 0]

I just got a new Amazon Fire Stick - plugged into the TV (old samsung) audio going to the TV speakers.

 

I'm trying to watch a DVD but I don't get the main voice channels.  I do hear background music etc.

The same DVD played with the Emby Web Client on my MacBook Pro sounds fine.

 

This shows the transcoding (same for both Emby FireStick and MBP):

Output #0, hls, to 'C:\Users\Media\AppData\Roaming\MediaBrowser-Server\transcoding-temp\a8604f4a13b4dea333900d745f3d14d1.m3u8':

  Metadata:

    encoder         : Lavf57.2.100

    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (libx264), yuv420p, 720x480 [sAR 32:27 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 11571 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 90k tbn, 29.97 tbc

    Metadata:

      encoder         : Lavc57.3.100 libx264

    Stream #0:1: Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, 5.1, fltp, 320 kb/s

    Metadata:

      encoder         : Lavc57.3.100 aac

Stream mapping:

  Stream #0:1 -> #0:0 (mpeg2video (native) -> h264 (libx264))

  Stream #0:4 -> #0:1 (ac3 (native) -> aac (native))

 

I tried setting the sound to Compatible on the FireStick but that made no difference. 

 

Should the FireStick be capable of playing an AC3 5.1 track / AAC?

Where would the down-mix occur on the stick or on the TV?

 

I plugged the fire stick into a new (2015 75" Samsung) and it had the same audio issue.

 

[Ingleby 0]

I tried using VLC on the FireStick and connected to the Emby server - played the same DVD as above and it sounded OK.  I checked the transcoding and it was identical.  So that makes it look like an issue with the Emby for Android TV not handling the audio correctly to me.

[ebr 16169]

The app is handling it correctly but your TV is not.  The app is sending 5.1 audio and your TV is only letting you hear the L/R channels.

 

You can easily solve this by going into settings in the app and forcing your audio into "Compatible" mode.

[drueter 0]

FWIW, I experience this same problem (dialog channel missing from AC3 5.1 audio) on the Kindle Fire TV Stick on some (but not all) titles.

 

I found a work-around to the problem:  If I experience the problem, from the Emby Fire TV app I can turn on Closed Captions.  Then the audio dialog channel works as expected.  I can then usually turn off Subtitles, and the dialog channel continues to work.

 

In my case, my projector is providing me with analog audio out, which I have connected to a two-channel stereo amplifier.

 

I hope this helps.

Edited December 15, 2015 by drueter