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 16169]

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 16169]

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 16169]

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 16169]

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.

[TVTech 7]

On 4/1/2021 at 4:04 PM, ebr said:

It is in the app.

I don't see this option anywhere in any of the Emby client apps. Can you please send a screenshot of where this option is found or give me step by step instructions to find it on the Emby PC app?

[ebr 16169]

18 hours ago, TVTech said:

I don't see this option anywhere in any of the Emby client apps. Can you please send a screenshot of where this option is found or give me step by step instructions to find it on the Emby PC app?

It is only in the Android TV app and is labeled "Convert unsupported Audio to DD".

[Luke 42077]

We are working on getting this option added to the standard Emby android app. Thanks.

[TVTech 7]

7 hours ago, Luke said:

We are working on getting this option added to the standard Emby android app. Thanks.

Will it be available for the PC app as well?

Edited February 8, 2025 by TVTech

[Luke 42077]

On 2/7/2025 at 8:53 PM, TVTech said:

Will it be available for the PC app as well?

We can add it there as well. Thanks.

[TVTech 7]

On 2/7/2025 at 2:30 PM, Luke said:

We are working on getting this option added to the standard Emby android app. Thanks.

When will this option be available in the standard Emby android app? Also I would like to know if Emby will encode only the audio but direct play the video.

[ebr 16169]

9 minutes ago, TVTech said:

When will this option be available in the standard Emby android app? Also I would like to know if Emby will encode only the audio but direct play the video.

Hi. It should be there in the latest version already.

[TVTech 7]

5 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi. It should be there in the latest version already.

You're referring to the standard Emby android app? When did it get an update?

Edited March 27, 2025 by TVTech

[ebr 16169]

10 minutes ago, TVTech said:

You're referring to the standard Emby android app? When did it get an update?

You may need to sideload it from our website to get the latest beta for this feature.

[TVTech 7]

6 minutes ago, ebr said:

You may need to sideload it from our website to get the latest beta for this feature.

Do you have a code that I can enter in Downloader on my FireStick to get to the app page on your website?

[TVTech 7]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

You may need to sideload it from our website to get the latest beta for this feature.

Okay I sideloaded the latest version of the standard Emby android app directly from your website and I enabled the option to 'Convert unsupported surround audio to Dolby Digital'. I also made sure to grant audio transcoding permission on the server side. However Emby still direct plays all the movies that have AAC 5.1 audio. What am I doing wrong here? How do I get Emby to convert AAC 5.1 to AC3 5.1?

Edited March 27, 2025 by TVTech

[Luke 42077]

58 minutes ago, TVTech said:

Okay I sideloaded the latest version of the standard Emby android app directly from your website and I enabled the option to 'Convert unsupported surround audio to Dolby Digital'. I also made sure to grant audio transcoding permission on the server side. However Emby still direct plays all the movies that have AAC 5.1 audio. What am I doing wrong here? How do I get Emby to convert AAC 5.1 to AC3 5.1?

It's currently not doing that for aac. We'll have to look at that. Thanks.

[TVTech 7]

8 minutes ago, Luke said:

It's currently not doing that for aac. We'll have to look at that. Thanks.

Please update me here when it is fixed. Thanks.

[TVTech 7]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

It's currently not doing that for aac. We'll have to look at that. Thanks.

By the way did the Emby PC app get a recent update to where this feature is now available on there?

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, TVTech said:

By the way did the Emby PC app get a recent update to where this feature is now available on there?

Hi, it’s something we can look at for the windows app. Thanks.