I recently upgraded my Fire TV to the latest 4K model. I was delighted to find this model could be easily rooted (thanks to XDA devs), but was disappointed that the microphone on the remote control (which I otherwise love for its simplicity) is still rendered essentially useless outwith Amazon content. What a total waste of an opportunity, with Android TV etc expanding every day!
Anyway, I was testing out an app I recently purchased called SoundSeeder Music Player which allows you to play back audio via multiple devices around your home (like Sonos). I have installed the Play Store on my Fire TV (following the instructions laid out here and at AFTV News) so the SoundSeeder app installed and seemed to be working well (it didn't work prior to installing the Play Store). The odd thing I noticed, however, was this: There is a Mic/AUX Mode within the SoundSeeder player, which allows you to stream a live feed from your microphone. I didn't think it would do anything, of course, since the Fire TV doesn't have a built-in mic like a smartphone, but I started the service anyway and noticed that the graphical audio levels seemed to be registering incoming sounds, so I tried pressing the microphone button on the Fire TV remote and, amazingly, it registered my voice (with a faint echo) for as long as I pressed the microphone button down. I did this for about a minute before trying to stop the service, but doing so crashed the Fire TV and I had to restart.
Does the fact that this happened indicate that there may be a way to utilise the Fire TV remote as a microphone for other apps?
The only pertinent thread I could find on XDA - http://goo.gl/21crhi - identified that one of the files being utilised by the Fire TV to control the microphone was "com.amazon.vizzini.apk", but there was no final conclusion as to how it might be utilised. The developer provided a small RAR file (search.rar) for download, but I wasn't sure what to do with it (flash it?) and I'm not keen on disabling key Amazon services, which was also advised.
It would be fantastic if someone could develop an app or a simple method of registering the microphone as a regular smartphone mic so it could be used for Google Now or Android TV or even as a wireless microphone in an audio application. I'm sure a lot of people have been over this, but I thought it was worth mentioning in case this anomaly opens up any new options as regards making the built-in mic a thing of beauty rather than the irritating, pointless feature it is now (those of us in the UK can't even make use of Alexa).
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I have 2 major problems:
1. amazon prime movies have no sound, and sound works properly every where else.
2. I cannot download amazon apps from amazon fire TV home screen, it won't even let me click into them to see the price.
Looking for some help what it could be.
Notable tweaks:
I have a rooted device with nova launcher, xbmc, rboxs module google play store module. And various other apps.
Not knowing how you are hooked up, that is hard to speculate about. One thing though, some movies are encoded with Dolby Digital Plus and not all equipment can handle it. The AFTV also has an Optical Out so one can get Dolby Digital instead. I pitched my Roku3 I for this reason. I could not get surround from Netflix movies. Had to to opt for Stereo.
Here's more info, I don't think its the way I'm hooked up. I have aftv HDMI to TV then fiber optics to sound bar. Appears to be software or something. Any one else had this problem?
bumpaudio said:
Here's more info, I don't think its the way I'm hooked up. I have aftv HDMI to TV then fiber optics to sound bar. Appears to be software or something. Any one else had this problem?
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Click to collapse
It's still a little hard to diagnose with that info. Could be the HDMI so you'd try a different cable (higher quality if possible)
I'm sure you've tried rebooting by now but sometimes that fixes lots of issues, in fact I've fixed some sound issues with a simple reboot. Other times I've unplugged it for a short period of time then plugged it back in.
The only other thing is lots of people have complained of netflix/prime video playback but I don't think the sound was the problem for any. The fix there, that I know of is go to amazon video in apps section, clear data 3 times, unplug 10 seconds then it works.
But I'm just hoping I might help. Based on the info I'm just taking a stab. Of course you might eliminate the sound bar or try a different tv if possible to rule out software like you suspect. Good luck.
Since you have Optical connected to your soundbar is Optical selected in AFTV Settings for sound output? Just asking.
No offense taken, thanks for your suggestion! I have ruled out the cables, I got the apps to work, it was a module that puts the amazon app store on that was causing other apps not being able to install.
So now its just the sound not working only while watch amazon prime videos, the sound works in every other app!
OK its all fixed you were right sound out put all it was. Went thru the trouble shooting tips here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201452570
bumpaudio said:
OK its all fixed you were right sound out put all it was. Went thru the trouble shooting tips here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201452570
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DD+ is a nightmare for many with equipment a few years old. it is HDMI only and meant for 7.2. Kind of overkill for many. It is supposed to backward compatible to DD 5.1 but not in many instances. Had to ditch my Roku3 because of it but found the AFTV which is more fun anyway.
Film ve dizi seyret
Dizi filmler sinema filmleri için site önerebilirmisiniz acaba?
Sound fixed
bumpaudio said:
I have 2 major problems:
1. amazon prime movies have no sound, and sound works properly every where else.
2. I cannot download amazon apps from amazon fire TV home screen, it won't even let me click into them to see the price.
Looking for some help what it could be.
Notable tweaks:
I have a rooted device with nova launcher, xbmc, rboxs module google play store module. And various other apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take a look at the amazon tab. I found a crossed out speaker icon on it. right click to unmute and then turn up the sound. worked for me. Check out chrome://flags/#enable-tab-audio-muting
I switched from the Apple TV2 that I loved so much but started to crash a lot with Kodi.
Loving the FireTV, but was going insane trying to get my airplay setup working. I use airfoil from my mac to stream spotify to 3 airplay zones. With all the FireTV apps I downloaded, there was some latency issues that would be off during every connect and reconnect. Adjusting the settings didn't matter as it would be off again the next connect.
Tried Kodi's Airplay support, and not all that bad, though no volume (didn't know when I bought it that FireTV can't adjust internal audio), and no album artwork on the screen.
Thought about it for a few days and remembered that Airfoil has a speakers app for Android phones to turn it into an Airfoil receiver. I side loaded the app and Viola, all zones play simultaneously and album art on the screen. Tried the volume up and down on my mac (master volume) and low and behold it adjusts the volume on the FireTV. So happy that I have all the functionality of my AppleTV in a much more dynamic and faster device. Thought I would post this in case it helps someone else out as I have seen a few people ask about this in other forums, but haven't come across this solution.
grinny11 said:
I switched from the Apple TV2 that I loved so much but started to crash a lot with Kodi.
Loving the FireTV, but was going insane trying to get my airplay setup working. I use airfoil from my mac to stream spotify to 3 airplay zones. With all the FireTV apps I downloaded, there was some latency issues that would be off during every connect and reconnect. Adjusting the settings didn't matter as it would be off again the next connect.
Tried Kodi's Airplay support, and not all that bad, though no volume (didn't know when I bought it that FireTV can't adjust internal audio), and no album artwork on the screen.
Thought about it for a few days and remembered that Airfoil has a speakers app for Android phones to turn it into an Airfoil receiver. I side loaded the app and Viola, all zones play simultaneously and album art on the screen. Tried the volume up and down on my mac (master volume) and low and behold it adjusts the volume on the FireTV. So happy that I have all the functionality of my AppleTV in a much more dynamic and faster device. Thought I would post this in case it helps someone else out as I have seen a few people ask about this in other forums, but haven't come across this solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is why I love XDA, splendid.
Hi there,
Is this solution still working on your side? I tried the same last night and side loaded Airfoil speakers app. This is the first time I sideloaded anything. It is perfectly in sync with my other devices as long as I use my system audio from my PC. But when I try to use Spotify as source the app on the AFTS crashes. Do I need to have other apps services installed on my fire tv stick for this to work? What versions are you using?
I use apple music on my Macbook and it works fine. I use the latest version apk from the android play store.
I bought the fire TV when I can pre-order it, and I rooted it and block the firmware update. Recently youtube is not working, so I decide to update to latest OS as root is not that important to me. So I reset to to factory default then update to 5.0.5 (must be from 51.x). After installing new OS, there is no sound at all, not even from menu navigation. I tried each settings in audio and still no solution, reset, restart, change the HDMI cable etc.
What even worse is that I cannot stream video and audio at all. I have wired LAN to a router directly with 150Mb Comcast. Now I cannot even load the fireTV introduction video. I can install the youtube without any issue and it can load the play list, subscription list etc. I tried to stream Amazon video and MP3 and it stuck at the beginning and would never start.
I side loaded the latest kodi, it plays mkv from NAS but still no sound. The FireTV and TV have not been changed except OS update. Please help.
Do you have a little red muted audio sign in the top corner (right hand side) of youre screen? If thats the case using a keyboard press the + button to get the audio back on! If not search on Google i also had a problem simular to this a while back after a new install of Kodi & found the solution from there after looking through for around 5 minutes.
Hope this helps if so press that thanks button
It is not just kodi, but fire TV itself does not have sound.
Amelia2006 said:
It is not just kodi, but fire TV itself does not have sound.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I looked on the net for you, try these -
Go to Settings > Display and Sounds > Audio > Dolby Digital Output > Select Dolby Digital Plus OFF (I used Dolby Digital Plus Automatic and that worked)
Or this -
If you hear regular TV sound that means that whatever that sound comes from is still running. Maybe you have a cable box or DVR connected to an amplifier? You need to turn it off when you are using the Fire.
You should hear the sound from the Fire TV directly from your TV, not your amplifier. You'll need to make sure the TV's sound is turned up.
Or -
Check the volume setting. Most TVs have separate volume controls for each input, so it may be you just have that input turned all the way down. Also check your TV's owner's manual and see if the input you are using supports sound. On my TV one HDMI input processes sound and one is video only for some reason.
Or this -
Do you have another HDMI cable you can try? & have you tried on another tv?
Hope this solves ur problem (I keep my fingers crossed for ya), if it does press that thanks button
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
I had the same problem and called amazon, and they told me it was a known issue and are looking into a fix.
I'm on a new Fire TV running 5.2.4.0
I've noticed that about half the time if I'm watching something in one program (channel... whatever) and hit the home button, I can still hear the video playing even though I'm on the home screen. It's as if the program is still running in the background somehow.
I'm coming from a roku so am new to fire tv. I'm wondering if there's a more appropriate way on the fire tv to quit a program??
Any help/info would be greatly appreciated.
I always just hit the back button to back out of the app...
Pressing home is not supposed to quite the app. This is the expected behavior on all Android devices, not just the Fire TV, so that you can jump in and out of multiple apps without losing your place. If you want to quit an app, you need to either use the app's built in quit/exit option (if it has one) or go into the Fire TV's settings menu and force quit an app from list of installed apps.
Audio from an app continuing to play while you're on the Fire TV home screen is also the intended behavior. This is so you can start music, like in the Amazon Music app, Spotify, or Pandora, and do something else on the Fire TV while the music is still playing. If audio is playing while you're on the home screen, you should be able to press play/pause/fast forward/rewind to control the audio, even though the app is not in the foreground.
Hi All, I've done some googling but I haven't quite found the right answer to my question. Right now I have a Viva Roav Pro in my car and a Android Auto compatible head unit. If I ask Alexa to play music either via the steering wheel controls or the Roav, music starts streaming via the Alexa app. However as the Alexa app isn't one of the music apps with Android Auto integration, Android Auto doesn't offer controls to skip tracks etc - worse, if you try to, music will stop streaming and Android Auto will take over with whatever was playing last on Android Auto.
As I use Amazon Music and have the app, which DOES integrate with Android Auto, all I really need is for Alexa to open and play my request from the Amazon Music app as opposed to the Alexa app, but I've not figured out a way of doing that. Anyone else got any ideas?