[salata]

Is there a way using something to move the Kodi data to my Flash Drive formatted as storage?  I have a lot of movies in Kodi and fill up the internal memory on my new Firestick 4K Max quickly?

for me solving this isuue was to move all Thumbnails to my UNRAID/NAS using path substitution option in advancedconfig.xml

Code:

<pathsubstitution>
        <substitute>
        <from>special://thumbnails</from>
        <to>nfs://192.168.X.Y/mnt/user/cachedata/Thumbnails</to>
        </substitute>
    </pathsubstitution>

[Tarkus_]

Anyone else having issues with many vertical videos not displaying properly in Kodi Nexus, with hardware acceleration turned on?  I notice that they all show 1.00:1 in Estuary, regardless of their actual aspect ratio.  And with hardware acceleration turned on, many (though not all) are stretched wide, without the original aspect ratio respected.  If I turn off hardware acceleration, they play with the proper aspect ratio, but keeping hardware acceleration off is not practical.

This was never an issue in Kodi Matrix, using the same 4K Max hardware.

[banderson1311]

I bought a 4K Max earlier this year and have noticed audio sync issues with Kodi where the audio is delayed by 150-250 milliseconds.  I was seeing it for all the Fire Stick apps and eventually needed to set the HDMI input on my LG to PCM.  That fixed the sync issue on other apps but it persists with Kodi. 

One thing I noticed while testing different videos this week is that the problem only occurs for 5.1 videos.  Videos with 2.0 are perfectly in sync.  I've tried every combination of audio settings in Kodi that I can think of and nothing has fixed the issue.  I ended turning on stereo upmixing so that everything is output as 5.1 and set the audio to be ahead by 150 milliseconds and that's made things better but I'd like to find an permanent solution.

Has anyone else run into a similar issue?  Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot?

[UncleBabyBilly]

Just picked up a new Firestick 4k MAX, Running Kodi 21 Omega Beta 1 with Plex Kodi Connect

some issues:
- Dv7 /8 displays black screen during playback regardless of compatibility mode being checked.
- VC1 playback dropping frames, dashboard says direct play
- some DTS-HD master files play back as Mult Chann Stereo, while others work fine

[izprtxqkft]

Dv7 /8 displays black screen during playback regardless of compatibility mode being checked.

known issue with the stick https://github.com/google/ExoPlayer/issues/11096 (not fixable by Kodi)
 

VC1 playback dropping frames, dashboard says direct play

the stick doesn't have a hardware decoder for VC-1 so yea software decoding is going to suck (as it always does) https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-t...layer.html
 

some DTS-HD master files play back as Mult Chann Stereo, while others work fine

in general FireOS can have issues with DTS, start a new thread in the Android Support section and provide a full Debug Log

[UncleBabyBilly]

VC1 playback dropping frames, dashboard says direct play

the stick doesn't have a hardware decoder for VC-1 so yea software decoding is going to suck (as it always does) https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-t...layer.html

Any chance to force the video to get transcoded in Kodi settings? It plays fine in Plex.

[izprtxqkft]

Any chance to force the video to get transcoded in Kodi settings? It plays fine in Plex.

presumably, i know jellyfin will do it but i don't use plex to say for certain

[boboc]

Dv7 /8 displays black screen during playback regardless of compatibility mode being checked.

known issue with the stick https://github.com/google/ExoPlayer/issues/11096 (not fixable by Kodi)

quietvoid has a fix for that.

[izprtxqkft]

Dv7 /8 displays black screen during playback regardless of compatibility mode being checked.

known issue with the stick https://github.com/google/ExoPlayer/issues/11096 (not fixable by Kodi)

quietvoid has a fix for that.

not really, quietvoid's strips the Dolby Vision so the file is playable, not exactly the same as fixing Dolby Vision playback just avoids it
more of a "workaround"

[boboc]

Sharing my experience with the network performance (SMB) of the new stick.

I've upgraded from 4K Max 1st gen to 4K Max 2nd gen. The WiFi Performance of the new stick is much worse than of the old one. Although the connection tests show the same speed 225 Mbps (max of my Internet connection), the performance of SMB is much lower with the new stick.

In the file copy test I was getting steady 22-30 MB/s (depending on chunk size) with the old stick. The new stick starts copying at 30 MB/s but very quickly (within 2 sec) slows down to 12 MB/s and a few seconds later to 6-7 MB/s. Trying to playback from SMB confirms the copy test results. With the old stick jellyfish samples with 140 Mbps played without issues, even up to 200 Mbps video could be played with small issues. The new stick can only play 60 Mbps videos.

I first thought there is a hardware issue with the new stick and got it replaced (two times). All three sticks showed the same bad SMB-over-WiFi performance.

Because I've updated my very old AVR to a modern one, I wanted the HD sound from the stick. That's why I wanted to keep the new stick. I bought an USB LAN adapter (and a splitter USB cable). When choosing the adapter I did my research. It was a common advice to choose an adapter with ASIX ax88179 chip and avoid adapters with RTL chips. Presumably because the firmware on Fire stick includes drivers for ASIX but not for RTL.

I bought an adapter with ASIX ax88179 and it worked immediately. I was disappointed with the performance though. The file copy test from SMB showed 20 MB/s. Files with 100 Mbps could be played but it struggled on files with higher bitrates. I connected the adapter to MacBook and checked its properties. It was detected as Realtek 8153. WTF?

The product information page on Amazon obviously contained false data. But the adapter worked nonetheless. I guess newer firmware of the stick now includes drivers for RTL chips too.

I was even more curious if the ASIX chip would provide better performance and bought another adapter - Amazon Basics 1000Mbps adapter - which, according to posts on different forums, was based on ASIX chip.

The first adapter had an USB hub with three USB 3.0 ports. That was the reason why I chose it over Amazon adapter at first.

I checked the new Adapter on MacBook, which confirmed it was based on ASIX chip and then did my tests with Fire stick Max 2 gen. This adapter performed much better! Steady 30 MB/s in file copy test. Easy playing of 140 Mbps videos from SMB. Even 200 Mbps videos play without big issues.

To test if the USB hub part of the first (RTL) adapter may have caused worse performance I did another test: connected RTL adapter to Fire TV and then the ASIX adapter into an USB hub port of the first adapter. The LAN cable was connected to the second (ASIX) adapter. The network performance was just the same as with the ASIX adapter alone. That proved the USB hub was performing nicely without issues.

I don't think the RTL adapter is bad. In other tests (on other devices) in the Internet the RTL adapters perform even better than ASIX adapters. I think the driver included with Fire TV isn't good enough. That makes ASIX adapters a much better choice for Fire TV at the moment (this may change in the future).

Another small info: the RTL adapter took 0.4Watt and the ASIX adapter took 0.7Watt - both numbers measured in idle. The RTL is more power efficient even though it includes USB hub.

Conclusion: WiFi on Stick 4K Max 2 gen sucks. Use an USB LAN adapter instead but be careful to choose the right one.

[passthrough]

My receiver is Onkyo NR696. Since 2020, I've being using ODROID-N2 with coreelec kodi. This allows HDMI passthrough 7.1 for dolby atmos, DTS-truehd etc.

I’m happy with my ODROID-N2 but it’s almost 4 years so I look for replacement. Yesterday, I got fire tv 4K max to try if it would work. Then I read that amazon says it support “ HDMI audio pass through up to 5.1” only but I tried anyway. On this tread I’ve not found a success story how to setup fire tv 4K max to passthrough 7.1 neither. Nevertheless, I’ve tried fire tv 4K max. 

Amazon software is really bad but I’ve managed to install kodi nexus, set 7.1, allowed all formats and… surprise… all work! I’ve tested on promo DVD “Dolby Atmos Blu-Ray Demo Disc (Sep 2015)” stored on NAS, played via SMB. DTS-HD 7.1 videos also work perfectly.

The only problem is a slow wifi. Even 100mbps videos play with interruptions, forget about 200mbps. You will probably need LAN adapter as described few posts above.

See below screenshots of my kodi settings. I'm not sure what to set in 'output contig', will appreciate any advice.

[kentyman]

DTS passthrough works on this device? how about the trued transcoding? So the pcm 7.1 from Kodi will be transcoded by this device to dd+ 7.1? Or dd+5.1? Can some one test this?

No DTS and any HD Audio passthrough. Up to DD+(include DD+ Atmos) can be passthrough.
PCM 7.1 from Kodi is transcoded by Fire OS to DD+ 5.1, however it seems there is speaker mapping mismatch. Side channel of Kodi 7.1 is determined as Surround back channel by Fire OS.
I'd recommend set Kodi to 5.1ch and let Kodi downmix 7.1 to 5.1.

I wanted to mention that I upgraded from a 2021 1st Gen to a 2023 2nd Gen because it supports 8 channel (7.1) PCM, but I've found that it has the Rear and Side channels swapped. Has anyone found any fix for Fire OS's bad mapping?

[looun]

DTS passthrough works on this device? how about the trued transcoding? So the pcm 7.1 from Kodi will be transcoded by this device to dd+ 7.1? Or dd+5.1? Can some one test this?

No DTS and any HD Audio passthrough. Up to DD+(include DD+ Atmos) can be passthrough.
PCM 7.1 from Kodi is transcoded by Fire OS to DD+ 5.1, however it seems there is speaker mapping mismatch. Side channel of Kodi 7.1 is determined as Surround back channel by Fire OS.
I'd recommend set Kodi to 5.1ch and let Kodi downmix 7.1 to 5.1.

yes , with New Fire TV Stick 4K Max 2nd Gen HD Audio passthrough work

https://dongknows.com/fire-tv-stick-4k-m...23-review/

[boboc]

I've found that it has the Rear and Side channels swapped.

Does this happen in Kodi only or in other apps too?

[HomerJau]

There is info in this thread that confirms the 2nd Gen Firestick TV 4K Max can do TrueHD Atmos Passthrough and DTS-HDMA Passthrough with Kodi v21 Omega. I did not test Kodi v20.

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/...ost-747593

The Dolby Atmos channel order is sides before rears. If Atmos is decoded by an AVR (or other official Atmos decoder) the channel order is correct. I suspect when Kodi decodes the Atmos core it does not switch the channel order correctly, but I haven’t tested that since I decode with AVRs.

BTW: The files I provide to configure Kodi in the that thread is only for a new FTV as it copies add-ons and the add-on database which will overwrite any preexisting installation.