Amazon App on Fire Stick does not playback EAC3 audio over 768 Kbps?

[mholin 23]

Hi Guys

due to the fact, that my Samsung TV does not allow DTS output to my amp when using the emby samsung app, and Fire TV stick has issues with DTS output as well, I usually reencode my h264/AVC movies to h265 and EAC3. I do use the freeware 'Handbrake' for this reendoding.

Yesterday I noticed, that the firetv does not start playback of my movies, when the selected audio track is EAC3 with 1536 or more kbps.

EAC3 with 768 kbps is fine.

 Is this a known limitation? The Samsung emby app does accept EAC3 1536 and 2304 without problems. 

bye Michael

[ebr 16171]

5 hours ago, mholin said:

Yesterday I noticed, that the firetv does not start playback of my movies,

Hi.  What does happen?

[mholin 23]

I guess, this is still an open issue. 

I prepared a sampe h264 file with two audio tracks:

first - englich EAC3 1536 kbps

second - german EAC3 768 kbps

Sample file EAC3

emby on fire tv stick does not play the first audio track. I can reproduce this on either 4K version or 2nd generation (non-4k).

It makes no difference how amazon stick is configured for it's audio output (best/DD+/DD).

The only workaround is to enforce emby to transcode. In this case all audio tracks are transcoded to AC3 (without E) along with the video.

 unfortunately, this short sample video is not displayed in my library, I guess due to it's length < 1 minute.

can somebody please verify this?

bye Michael

 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by mholin

[ebr 16171]

On 1/8/2021 at 9:55 AM, ebr said:

Hi.  What does happen?

 

[mholin 23]

nothing special does happen. Usually I playback my movies with the Samsung TV app. but Samsung TV has limitations with audio as well.

over optical cable it can only output AC3 to my amp. Samsung does not payback any DTS audio track, so here I'm limited to AC3-640.

As I got some HQ movies with DTS-HD audio, I tried to remux them to HEVC and EAC3-2304 to keep the best quality.

during this tests I noticed, that emby on fire TV does not playback EAC3 > 960 kbps.

It looks like EAC3 with higher bitrate is not that common. Or Fire TV is not that common out there

bye Michael

[ebr 16171]

8 hours ago, mholin said:

during this tests I noticed, that emby on fire TV does not playback EAC3 > 960 kbps

What exactly does "does not playback" mean?  What does happen?

I don't believe the Fire devices support DD at those high bitrates, but they should convert and play just fine.

[mholin 23]

Hello ebr

"does not playback" means, playback does not start with this audio track.

Emby menu still has function, so when I select 2nd audio track with 768kbps, this does start.

bye Michael

 

etw, 1509 is standard bitrate for DTS now. I would expect this is ok for EAC as well

Edited February 8, 2021 by mholin

[ebr 16171]

2 hours ago, mholin said:

playback does not start with this audio track.

What does happen?  How long did you wait for it to start?

Have you disabled any of the transcoding options on your server?