Amazon Firestick 4K Max for Surround Music

[kvsawilson]

I'm a bit bemused as to why only 2-channel flac is supported. And it's only up-to 48kHz!

Show stopper, for me

 

[HomerJAU]

Here's the results:

I found Kodi was losing its HDMI Pass-through settings but I think I've solved it with current version and the Firestick 4K Max latest firmware. The workaround now is to leave the Kodi GUI settings at 1080p 59.94Hz - anything else and the Kodi loses its pass-through when Kodi is restarted. Hopefully that will get fixed soon.

I copied a bunch of albums and files to a USB stick and played them locally. Later today I'll connect the 4K Max to my server and test everything including 4K Dolby Vision movies etc

Audio:
It plays everything I threw at it that plays on my Kodi Intel NUCs here:

• Atmos (BDA rips) & Atmos DDP JOC in m4a with tags, MKVs etc
• TrueHD and DDP 5.1 etc
• DTSHD-MA 5.1 and 7.1
• FLAC 5.1 and 7.1 (but NOT at 192kHz) - My NUCs play 192k FLAC ok)

I didn't try Stereo FLAC but Kodi has always played them, maybe it won't do 192kHz though.

The Firestick will play MPEG-H (it says so in the specs - but I don't know whether Kodi will send via pass-through as I don't have a new AVR with MPEG-H decoder - MPEG-H is Sony's 360 Reality Audio Audio system.
I would imagine MPEG-H would be played via the Amazon Music app.

Video:
I played a couple of Music Videos (Atmos and DTS-HDMA) - both 1080p video - all ok

I also installed Netflix, Tidal and a couple of sports streaming apps but have not yet logged in to those and played anything.


Overall its pretty snappy and responsive. Looks like it would be a good cheap starter for those wanting to try a media player based system for file playback or from streaming services.

More later

 

[HomerJAU]

but is there a version of VLC Player and/or an MPEG-H 3D player for Fire Stick?

I don't know. VLC won't play Atmos TrueHD in M4A anyway. (Edited: Added ‘in M4A’)

The Firestick OS is based on 32bit Android 11, so anything that runs on Android 11 32bit will install and play most probably.

EDIT: There is an Amazon Music Player preinstalled. I will take a look later.

 

[humprof]

VLC won't play Atmos TrueHD anyway.

Not the mobile version, maybe. But on my Windows laptop, I was pretty sure I'd been alternately but more or less interchangeably using VLC and Windows Movies & TV to pass through Atmos TrueHD mkvs (from IAA) to my AVR. Is VLC actually "downscaling" somehow?

 

[HomerJAU]

Apologies. I meant to write VLC won’t play Atmos TrueHD in M4A files (I have now corrected my post).

 

[HomerJAU]

Presumably Apple still has no incentive to make an Apple Music app for Fire Stick, however?

There was an Apple TV app in the Firestick’s App Store, maybe there is an Apple Music app that will support Atmos and 360 music? (Edit yes the 'standard' pre installed Amazon Music app, see my next posts)

 

[HomerJAU]

I'm a bit bemused as to why only 2-channel flac is supported. And it's only up-to 48kHz!

That’s probably only the internal music player app. Kodi is playing 5.1 FLACs at 96kHz.

 

[dabl]

There was an Apple TV app in the Firestick’s App Store, maybe there is a Apple Music app that will support Atmos and 360 music?

That would certainly be huge and new. To date of course, streaming Atmos content on Apple Music has only been playable on Apple hardware. Apple could change this any time they wanted to.

360 content is another story but so far no streaming platform I know of makes it possible yet outside of something like the Sony HT-A9. Even then, with Tidal or Amazon, you have to 'cast' 360 stuff to the HT-A9 from a phone or tablet, it isn't playable directly with something like an Nvidia Shield TV running the Tidal or Amazon apps connected to the HT-A9.

 

[HomerJAU]

360 content is another story but so far no streaming platform I know of makes it possible yet

I found this on a QQ thread on RA360 streaming clearly showing Amazon 360 playing on the FireTV. The new 4K Max can do this now based on its specs. It’s the Amazon Music app:

(this is a screenshot the AVRs 'info' overlay on top of the FireTV screen's Amazon Music app)

 

[humprof]

I found this on a QQ thread on RA360 streaming clearly showing Amazon 360 playing on the FireTV. The new 4K Max can do this now based on its specs. It’s the Amazon Music app:
View attachment 99858

So...pardon me for being slow (it's still 2023 here--barely--and I've had a few beers over the course of the evening), but...would this mean that the Fire Stick is doing the decoding and passing a decoded signal to an AVR? Or would one still need an MPEG-H capable AVR?

 

[HomerJAU]

If you can ask that question you haven’t had enough to drink yet

The spec says ‘MPEG-H Passthrough’ so you’d need a new AVR with MPEG-H decoder.

 

[HomerJAU]

I just signed up for a free 3 month trial of Amazon Music Unlimited. Atmos plays from the Firestick's Music app via my AVR correctly. When I play 360 it comes out as stereo (my AVR does not decode 360).

Since the Firestick 4K Max is plugged into an AVR HDMI port I'm sure the Firestick would send MPEG-H via passthrough if the decoder was present, like it does for Atmos. That's what the spec says.

The only way to know for sure would be for me to take the Firestick into a dealer with a new AVR.

@albertop has such an AVR here in MEL I think. But he's in Europe on holiday right now.

 

[HomerJAU]

I'm going to do a How To 'Install Kodi and set up music on Kodi' in coming days. But in the mean time the Firestick 4K Max (2023) can:

With Amazon Music Unlimited play Atmos via pass-through to an AVR (this will play as real Atmos with a decoder or 5.1/7.1 if users only has DDPlus decoder)
(not tested but I'm convinced) With Amazon Music Unlimited play RA360 (MPEG-H) if the user's AVR has a MPEG-H decoder (a very recent Denon or Marantz)

With Kodi installed on the Firestick:
Kodi will play all standard surround/Atmos files (except FLAC at 192kHz) - more testing to confirm, but everything so far. I don't think it will bitstream DSF/DSD, that will be converted to PCM.
Kodi will play 4K HDR and Dolby Vision/Atmos rips (Concerts, movies, TV shows etc)

 

[Albert Dagger]

I just signed up for a free 3 month trial of Amazon Music Unlimited. Atmos plays from the Firestick's Music app via my AVR correctly. When I play 360 it comes out as stereo (my AVR does not decode 360).

Since the Firestick 4K Max is plugged into an AVR HDMI port I'm sure the Firestick would send MPEG-H via passthrough if the decoder was present, like it does for Atmos. That's what the spec says.

The only way to know for sure would be for me to take the Firestick into a dealer with a new AVR.

@albertop has such an AVR here in MEL I think. But he's in Europe on holiday right now.

I'll be back on 25th January, and I have a Marantz AV10. Happy to give it a try when I'm back

 

[omnipotent1]

We're quite crowded here in the UK, I can see 9 neighbours Wi-Fi!

Same here in Frankfurt,usually over 10 when I check!

 

[César]

I'm going to do a How To 'Install Kodi and set up music on Kodi' in coming days. But in the mean time the Firestick 4K Max (2023) can:

With Amazon Music Unlimited play Atmos via pass-through to an AVR (this will play as real Atmos with a decoder or 5.1/7.1 if users only has DDPlus decoder)
(not tested but I'm convinced) With Amazon Music Unlimited play RA360 (MPEG-H) if the user's AVR has a MPEG-H decoder (a very recent Denon or Marantz)

With Kodi installed on the Firestick:
Kodi will play all standard surround/Atmos files (except FLAC at 192kHz) - more testing to confirm, but everything so far. I don't think it will bitstream DSF/DSD, that will be converted to PCM.
Kodi will play 4K HDR and Dolby Vision/Atmos rips (Concerts, movies, TV shows etc)

Thanks for all the experiments, looks like a good player

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

That’s probably only the internal music player app. Kodi is playing 5.1 FLACs at 96kHz.

Thanks for clarifying that

So Kodi is the software media player that provides the magic source!

My personal set-up would be to connect the 'Amazon Firestick 4K Max' into my OPPO UDP-203's HDMI input, as I want to experience a more modern GUI to navigate to and play my stored music and video files.

 

[lauti]

@HomerJAU Thanks for the evaluation! Seems besides the issue with 192KHz FLAC the only other thing missing is support for DTS-X pass-through as the spec says "DTS-HD pass-through (basic profile)" only? Anyway, not a big issue in practice as only a few movies are using DTS-X.

How about gapless play with Kodi? I assume only works with single m4a/mka files as usual?

 

[barturtle]

I have both the Amazon Fire TV (the square pendant dongle) and Gen 1 4K stick, both of which support Tidal Atmos, but both stutter, even when used with the wired internet adapter.

Is the new version better? Is an AppleTV stutter-free with Tidal atmos?

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

I ordered a UGREEN USB 3.0 Hub Ethernet Adapter, 5 in-1 Gigabit USB to Network Adapter from Amazon today to connect to my Dell laptop as its network port is limited to 100mbps.

Hopefully something like this can be used with the 'Amazon Firestick 4K Max' too, as it offers a USB-C power input