Develop Bugs

Fire tv + Netflix & Dolby digital plus

Anyone else having issues with this? Short story is im not getting DD+ through netflix/amazon, yet will get DTS/DD through xbmc.
Im having issues with dolby digital plus and my fire tv. I have a new LG home theater system BH9530TW. Ive set the firetv audio settings to play dolby digital plus over hdmi and have the firetv plugged into the receiver, the receiver is set to multi channel pcm. When ever i play a netflix or amazon prime movie with 5.1 i get no sound, i have to change it back to stereo for any sound. Ive tested xbmc and get DD and DTS through movies on that, i don't have any DD+ files to test that, im not sure if xbmc will passthrough DD+ anyway.
Taken from the specs of the receiver:
Audio - LPCM
Audio - Dolby Digital
Audio - Dolby Digital Plus
Audio - Dolby TrueHD
Audio - DTS
Audio - DTS-HD High Resolution Audio
Audio - DTS HD-Master Audio
Audio - MPEG 1/2 L2
Audio - MP3
Audio - Audio - ID3 Tag
Audio - MMA
Audio - AAC
Audio - FLAC

Strange, I can confirm that my Onkyo properly plays Dolby Digital + from Amazon and Netflix. I also have no trouble with DD or DTS via XBMC. My FireTV is connected the same way yours is, via HDMI straight to the receiver.

jeebuspwnz said:
Strange, I can confirm that my Onkyo properly plays Dolby Digital + from Amazon and Netflix. I also have no trouble with DD or DTS via XBMC. My FireTV is connected the same way yours is, via HDMI straight to the receiver.
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Damn, i was hoping it was an issue with the firetv lol. Must be a receiver issue, hopefully a firmware update may resolve it in the future. I will test it with an optical cable and see if i can atleast get DD 5.1 out of it that way. The "virtual" surround it produces is extremely good however and i may stick to that yet.

Af tv optical dd
garvani said:
Damn, i was hoping it was an issue with the firetv lol. Must be a receiver issue, hopefully a firmware update may resolve it in the future. I will test it with an optical cable and see if i can atleast get DD 5.1 out of it that way. The "virtual" surround it produces is extremely good however and i may stick to that yet.
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Is not your receiver, AFTV DD over optical doesn't work.

I have an LG 7540tw home theater and DD+ doesn't work for me too. What I did was set the dolby digital plus setting to Auto for the Fire TV, so now the receiver plays DD 5.1 which is downmixed from the DD+ 5.1 of Netflix thru HDMI, I don't have an optical cable connected from the fireTV to the receiver. There are others with this issue too, but I cant find the amazon forum's link anymore

DD+
I ran in to this with Netflix from a Roku3 via HDMI to a 54" Vizio 5.1 sound bar. All issues with DD+ involve whether or not something in line can decode it. Also, DD+ is HDMI only so Digital Coaxial or Optical won't work either. I came to FireTV as it will output DD via Optical which my soundbar will handle. The Vizio sound bar only is capable of DD and DTS. DD+ results in silence.
To do DD+ you need an AVR that decodes it.
BTW, I do not recommend the Vizio sound bar. It does do rear surround and sub-woofer via bluetooth which works well. The downside is that it has only one HDMI input and supports only DD and DTS. I bought it as I didn't want to drill my new house. By the time I paid $500 for it, $50 for an HDMI switch, and $100 for AFTV I would have been much better off buying a more capable traditional AVR system for much less money.

ars_92 said:
I have an LG 7540tw home theater and DD+ doesn't work for me too. What I did was set the dolby digital plus setting to Auto for the Fire TV, so now the receiver plays DD 5.1 which is downmixed from the DD+ 5.1 of Netflix thru HDMI, I don't have an optical cable connected from the fireTV to the receiver. There are others with this issue too, but I cant find the amazon forum's link anymore
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I will have to give this a try, i would have thought i had already but possibly not. DD5.1 is adequate enough.
To clear things up i have the AFTV connected to the receiver via hdmi in, then receiver connected to my projector via hdmi out. I only mentioend optical as possible alternative.

schneid said:
To do DD+ you need an AVR that decodes it.
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Its not that simple either as my AVR has support for DD+ but ends in silence as well. Theres something weird going on there, im glad im not the only one with the issue.

garvani said:
Its not that simple either as my AVR has support for DD+ but ends in silence as well. Theres something weird going on there, im glad im not the only one with the issue.
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Have you tried another HDMI cable?

garvani said:
Its not that simple either as my AVR has support for DD+ but ends in silence as well. Theres something weird going on there, im glad im not the only one with the issue.
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Maybe I'm missing something, but if you have your AVR set to multi channel PCM, doesn't that assume the FTV will do the decoding (which it can't). Shouldn't you be sending the DD+ as passthrough for the AVR to decode?

bruce7373 said:
Maybe I'm missing something, but if you have your AVR set to multi channel PCM, doesn't that assume the FTV will do the decoding (which it can't). Shouldn't you be sending the DD+ as passthrough for the AVR to decode?
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I agree, FTV decodes nothing. An AVR of some sort that has paid the licensing fee must be in the mix. If the AVR is DD+ rated, I'd take a hard look at the HDMI cables. Don't have to be expensive but do need to be capable of handling the standard being pushed through them.

[Q] Does the amazon fire tv work with bluetooth headphones?

I want to know if its possible to pair some bluetooth headphones with the fire tv since it does have bluetooth? I would be nice to be able to watch a movie using bluetooth headphones with the unit. Only makes sense that this should be a feature.

biglo said:
I want to know if its possible to pair some bluetooth headphones with the fire tv since it does have bluetooth? I would be nice to be able to watch a movie using bluetooth headphones with the unit. Only makes sense that this should be a feature.
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Did you ever get this to work? If so, how did you do it? Roommates are complaining about my late night tv watching habits.

biglo said:
I want to know if its possible to pair some bluetooth headphones with the fire tv since it does have bluetooth? I would be nice to be able to watch a movie using bluetooth headphones with the unit. Only makes sense that this should be a feature.
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Yes if you install the Android Settings.apk you can make the FireTV pair with bluetooth audio devices. However with both devices I tried, a headset and a speaker, there's horrendous audio lag that makes it basically unusable. I guess I'll just wait for official support from Amazon.

sadboyzz said:
Yes if you install the Android Settings.apk you can make the FireTV pair with bluetooth audio devices. However with both devices I tried, a headset and a speaker, there's horrendous audio lag that makes it basically unusable. I guess I'll just wait for official support from Amazon.
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Dang that sucks, this thing really needs a be update now because so far it's missing a lot of things.
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Have you used the audio offset feature to correct the lag ? I had to use it to correct the lag while using my Ouya and a Bluetooth enabled powered PA speaker.

biglo said:
Dang that sucks, this thing really needs a be update now because so far it's missing a lot of things.
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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There's a good chance the next update will come June 18th when Amazon reveals their smartphone. I would expect the Fire TV will need to be updated in order to interact with the phone.

27scoob said:
Have you used the audio offset feature to correct the lag ? I had to use it to correct the lag while using my Ouya and a Bluetooth enabled powered PA speaker.
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It's not a constant lag on the firetv, lag increases the longer you play something.

All you need to do is connect a USB Bluetooth receiver that often comes with the headphones and pair it with that directly. Get a multi-USB hub so you can connect various other things to it also. I'm using everything with the USB port like air mouses etc. and all work perfectly and it doesn't require any settings or rooting.

where to get a working settings.apk ?

I used settings.apk to pair my headphones. Music plays just fine. However playing an .mkv video thru XBMC-Kodi did not work at all. I just got really loud static -- I guess there was a problem with the dts audio. Knowing there was an audio lag anyway, I didn't mess with the XBMC setting to downmix.

Cross posting from the bigger thread...
I successfully paired my bluetooth headset using settings.apk method - thanks!
However - Bluetooth only puts audio out of my headset for SIDELOADED apps - but not apps from FireTV's app sources, i.e. NETFLIX. (I even confirmed by installing NETFLIX and sideloading NETFLIX - audio comes out differently ...)
Does anyone else experience this?
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Anyone?

Bumping an old thread.
Why is Bluetooth working so well wire AFTV now? Not complaining, just wondering.
Xbmc contained apps are still delayed but native apps are perfectly synced...

[Q] Surround Sound Support in Kodi

I am using Kodi on my Fire TV and noticed that the movies are only playing in stereo mode. The Dolby settings on the Fire TV itself are set to automatic and trailers play in surround sound. Are there settings in Kodi that need to be modified? Any help is appreciated!

burowyako said:
I am using Kodi on my Fire TV and noticed that the movies are only playing in stereo mode. The Dolby settings on the Fire TV itself are set to automatic and trailers play in surround sound. Are there settings in Kodi that need to be modified? Any help is appreciated!
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Go to the audio output settings in Kodi, and make sure you are on the expert level. Put the number of channels to 2.0, passthrough enabled, and select all the audio formats at the bottom.

Yes I'm struggling getting surround sound as well, have lived with it up until now as usually everything I'm watching says 2.0 stereo, but last night actually found something that said 5.1 and I wasn't getting any sound from that! lol
Have tried different settings (as above) but still no sound through my amp, have only just really started looking into it but nothing worked in all the different guides I tried.
Will hopefully get this sorted soon, there are quite a few settings in the expert mode so will hopefully get round to trying them all, it's just having to go back and forth after changing the set up that's the pain lol

wonneil said:
Yes I'm struggling getting surround sound as well, have lived with it up until now as usually everything I'm watching says 2.0 stereo, but last night actually found something that said 5.1 and I wasn't getting any sound from that! lol
Have tried different settings (as above) but still no sound through my amp, have only just really started looking into it but nothing worked in all the different guides I tried.
Will hopefully get this sorted soon, there are quite a few settings in the expert mode so will hopefully get round to trying them all, it's just having to go back and forth after changing the set up that's the pain lol
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What is your connection to the amp? Is it HDMI, or optical?

lennie paz said:
What is your connection to the amp? Is it HDMI, or optical?
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I have an HDMI connection, when playing a 5.1 video I can see the front left/right speaker icons stuttering on my amp (usually it would show all 5 speakers) and no sound comes through. I suppose it could be the stream but think it's probably my settings...
Is the amp supposed to convert even when playing a 2.0 stream or does it have to be a 5.1? I have always assumed it has to start as 5.1 which is why I've left it until now

wonneil said:
I have an HDMI connection, when playing a 5.1 video I can see the front left/right speaker icons stuttering on my amp (usually it would show all 5 speakers) and no sound comes through. I suppose it could be the stream but think it's probably my settings...
Is the amp supposed to convert even when playing a 2.0 stream or does it have to be a 5.1? I have always assumed it has to start as 5.1 which is why I've left it until now
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Some amps will convert a 2.0 audio stream into a fake 5.1 stream, but it's an actual setting on the amp. Do you have DD audio set to On in the settings for the AFTV? What brand is the amp?

lennie paz said:
Some amps will convert a 2.0 audio stream into a fake 5.1 stream, but it's an actual setting on the amp. Do you have DD audio set to On in the settings for the AFTV? What brand is the amp?
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Yes I've set it to DD Plus via HDMI and have now pretty much tried all the settings in the audio options including 2.0, 5.1 and also (my setup) 7.1 but none seem to work, have also tried changing the Output config, Stereo upmix, Resample quality, Keep audio device alive but nothing is happening, still getting no sound when it displays 5.1 DD on the stream, even tried another episode and the same thing.
My amp is a Sony STR-DA3600ES which is DTS capable but like I say the speaker icons flicker when playing the stream so there's definitely something not quite right
I have never had problems with anything else so think I may have to just give up on this Kodi problem

wonneil said:
Yes I've set it to DD Plus via HDMI and have now pretty much tried all the settings in the audio options including 2.0, 5.1 and also (my setup) 7.1 but none seem to work, have also tried changing the Output config, Stereo upmix, Resample quality, Keep audio device alive but nothing is happening, still getting no sound when it displays 5.1 DD on the stream, even tried another episode and the same thing.
My amp is a Sony STR-DA3600ES which is DTS capable but like I say the speaker icons flicker when playing the stream so there's definitely something not quite right
I have never had problems with anything else so think I may have to just give up on this Kodi problem
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Here are my exact settings, and 5.1 audio plays perfect. If these settings don't work for you, then it might be that the AFTV doesn't play well with your amp when connected with HDMI. I bought a Denon amp a few weeks ago, and no matter what the settings were, I couldn't get 5.1 audio to work. I returned the Denon, and bought a Yamaha, and 5.1 audio plays perfectly. Another thing you can try, is run an optical cable from the AFTV to the Sony, and see if that works. Make sure you go into the AFTV settings and change the audio output from HDMI, to optical. You may also want to try a new HDMI cable.

lennie paz said:
Here are my exact settings, and 5.1 audio plays perfect. If these settings don't work for you, then it might be that the AFTV doesn't play well with your amp when connected with HDMI. I bought a Denon amp a few weeks ago, and no matter what the settings were, I couldn't get 5.1 audio to work. I returned the Denon, and bought a Yamaha, and 5.1 audio plays perfectly. Another thing you can try, is run an optical cable from the AFTV to the Sony, and see if that works. Make sure you go into the AFTV settings and change the audio output from HDMI, to optical. You may also want to try a new HDMI cable.
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Cheers Lennie, I thought about changing the HDMI cable so will definitely try that when I get home, if not will try optical as I didn't even think of that lol
Have tried your settings already (although didn't have the volume on downmix option) with no luck so the cable changes are the only thing left, will let you know how I get on... :good:

I managed to have a look at this last night (after searching various forums) and thought I would try XBMC to see if anything broke in Kodi 14.1, so installed the last Gotham built SPMC (13.4.0) but that had exactly the same results.
Pulled out all my equipment to change the HDMI cable over but that made no difference either, so plugged in an optical cable, changed the audio input on my amp and changed the AFTV to DD over optical and had 5.1 sound straight away :good:
So looks like there's something strange with Kodi/XBMC when trying to get 5.1 surround using HDMI on some amps...

wonneil said:
I managed to have a look at this last night (after searching various forums) and thought I would try XBMC to see if anything broke in Kodi 14.1, so installed the last Gotham built SPMC (13.4.0) but that had exactly the same results.
Pulled out all my equipment to change the HDMI cable over but that made no difference either, so plugged in an optical cable, changed the audio input on my amp and changed the AFTV to DD over optical and had 5.1 sound straight away :good:
So looks like there's something strange with Kodi/XBMC when trying to get 5.1 surround using HDMI on some amps...
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Glad you got it sorted out. Like I said, I bought a new Pioneer a few weeks ago, and couldn't get the audio to work using HDMI. I returned it and bought a Yamaha, and it works perfectly. The only reason I figured it out, was when the audio wasn't working, I took the AFTV and hooked it up to my other home theater setup, and it worked fine with my Denon receiver. The audio was making a really high pitched static sound when using the Pioneer. My Xfinity box's audio worked fine with the Pioneer, so I know it was the AFTV, not the Pioneer, that was the issue.

lennie paz said:
Here are my exact settings, and 5.1 audio plays perfect. If these settings don't work for you, then it might be that the AFTV doesn't play well with your amp when connected with HDMI. I bought a Denon amp a few weeks ago, and no matter what the settings were, I couldn't get 5.1 audio to work. I returned the Denon, and bought a Yamaha, and 5.1 audio plays perfectly. Another thing you can try, is run an optical cable from the AFTV to the Sony, and see if that works. Make sure you go into the AFTV settings and change the audio output from HDMI, to optical. You may also want to try a new HDMI cable.
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Know this is a old thread but hopefully you will reply. Using Kodt why do we have to select 2.0 to get 5.1 surround sound or am I not understanding what you are saying?

lartomar2002 said:
Know this is a old thread but hopefully you will reply. Using Kodt why do we have to select 2.0 to get 5.1 surround sound or am I not understanding what you are saying?
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That's because Passthrough has been enabled, which means your receiver is doing the audio decoding.

Interesting. If I remember correctly I did not have to do that with SPMC Gotham 13.2, strange.

I know this is not the right spot but maybe someone could help me. I just got my shield console and it is sending multi channel audio to my receiver. I DO NOT want multi channel audio i want 2.0 audio. Does anyone know a way to NOT send multi channel audio?

Very helpful thread thanks!
Just a query though...
If I have 'Number of channels' set to 2.0 and have 'Stereo Upmix' on the reciever seems louder and high quality but with vocals coming out of all speakers which to me it should be centre speaker only. But if I have 'Stereo Upmix' off the centre channel is vocal only which to me is perfect but the quality is lower.
Is it just how it is or am I doing something wrong?
Running Fire tv stick (quad core version) running to Onkyo reciever.
Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk

FYI, if you want to keep DTS Passthrough, don't upgrade KODI past 16.1 Jarvis. DTS passthrough is gone in Krypton on AFTV because that "Android" standards require API 23 (Marshmallow/Android 6.0) to "officially" support DTS and AFTV is still on API 22 (FireOS based on Android 5 Lollipop). I don' t see Amazon updating to a Marshmallow based image for FireOS anytime soon. It is a sad day.

Also if you want dts passthrough you can't enable "sync playback to display" otherwise it's going to passthrough as Dolby digital.

Using BT headphones with FTV has lag when playing video. Any fixes?

I updated my FTV in hopes of using the BT headphones to watch movies in bed so I don't bother my wife. I can get the heaphones to pair but in every video app there seems to be lip sync issues where the audio is slow a few seconds from the video.
I am using a LG HBS700 headset and don't know if it's the headset or the FTV that is the problem. Is there a way to fix the lag?

I hooked up my Plantronics BackBeat Go 2 to the Amazon FireTV. Amazon Prime and Netflix seems to sync audio and video just fine but XBMC has noticeable sync issues. That can be easily offset within the video playback settings in XBMC. I have to adjust the audio ahead 800ms in addition to the subtitle behind 1000ms.

I have a LG HBS-900 and have the same problem.

I remember seeing a warning message that hooking up bluetooth headsets may cause connection issues with the WiFi. Even though I'm connecting through WiFi from bedroom, didn't appear to affect me other than XBMC. You may also try it through wired Amazon FireTV connection to see if that makes a difference. So unless they have some newer firmware for your bluetooth headset, you might be SOL. Try another brand?

Audio of Fire TV Cube Routing to Cube Speaker

Hi All,
I was trying to share some games over Zoom video conference and I got Zoom working, however when I start my screen share, audio is getting routed to the speakers on the Fire TV Cube and not the screen share(or my TV). Any idea how to fix the audio routing?
Thank you!

BrettB0727 said:
Hi All,
I was trying to share some games over Zoom video conference and I got Zoom working, however when I start my screen share, audio is getting routed to the speakers on the Fire TV Cube and not the screen share(or my TV). Any idea how to fix the audio routing?
Thank you!
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You can use an another TV sets will fix the audio routing.

AmznUser444 Dev said:
You can use an another TV sets will fix the audio routing.
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Not sure what you mean.