Develop Bugs

S3 as "HTPC"

I'm trying to hook my S3 to my TV setup and am not having much fun with it. With the MHL I am getting stuttering and lagging. I have:
Samsung MHL adapter (from Infuse)
Samsung 11-to-5 pin converter
Samsung 1080p HDTV
BT keyboard & mouse, charger, HDMI, etc.
Stock ROM
The image quality is good for web and photo use but it lags and stutters. For games it makes some games nearly unplayable. I can see the phone's screen and everything is smooth but looking at HDTV I can see a lag maybe 0.5 seconds and much slower update rate, very obvious when you move the mouse. The TV shows [email protected], so it's not 1080p. I've done a LOT of searching online so maybe there's not anything new to say but I guess some people have been able to get [email protected] I guess one thing I didn't find, does ANYONE have smooth/lag-free 1080p with S3 MHL with any adapter?
I wonder if 1080i video plays at true 1080 resolution because I noticed when I play back 1080i videos I've taken with the phone itself the image quality and speed are much better. Maybe that's why Samsung decided on 1080i output rather than 720p? I came across a kernel for HTC One S (which is also a Qualcomm S4) that supposedly forces 720p... is there one for the S3?
Another issue is that audio only comes out HDMI, I want it to come out of headset to plug into AV system. I've seen a lot of people with the problem posting but no solutions? Probably isn't possible...
My third problem I actually found an issue to. That is removing the onscreen keyboard when using bluetooth keyboard and mouse. For that I used the app Null Keyboard: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wparam.nullkeyboard&hl=en

gillius said:
...Another issue is that audio only comes out HDMI, I want it to come out of headset to plug into AV system. I've seen a lot of people with the problem posting but no solutions? Probably isn't possible...
...
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Thought I'd pipe in. I am also trying to figure out if this MHL adapter allows 1080p video as I want to use it for watching movies on a 60" 1080p plasma TV, as I don't want to purchase it if it doesn't and the forums are very confusing on whether it does or doesn't.
I wanted to say about your second problem. If you want to pipe the audio to a stereo/surround sound system, all you have to do is plug the TV audio output into the sound system's audio input. This is how I have my laptop to TV setup currently: laptop HDMI-> TV; TV audio out -> sound system.
Just be aware, some TV"s or sound systems might not have compatible audio connections. For example, in order to hook up my Vizio sound bar to my Panasonic Plasma, I had to use the fiber optic cable.... didn't have audio RCA audio out on my Panasonic.

Thought I would amend my previous statement. I was assuming that you wanted the sound that goes with the TV only... However, if you are just looking to have music on without turning on your TV, you can get a cheap miniplug-to-RCA adapter from Radioshack or the like. Should probably cost around $10 on any given day. I've been doing this with my sound system and portable phone/players for years.

buy a dual/quad core HDMI "thumbstick" for $100.
It'll be better then what you are trying to accomplish

[Q] Problems Using HDMI to AV Converter

Hey guys...
I've bought a Fire TV to setup a easy to use XBMC based streaming device for my father in law, he does not have a HD TV yet so I had to find a way to convert the HDMI to RCA.
I've bought this converter, but it's giving me multiple issues, since we have root now I was hoping there was a way to fix these issues.
http://www.dx.com/p/playvision-hdv-...FuIVP5QJEdbgJkLvoj-ZI0Osx3Xw_wcB#.U6DPePldVKc
The Fire TV won't pass by startup screen when it is booted with HDMI connected to Converter (problem with HDCP handshake?)
When I boot the FTV with HDMI connected directly to my own HD TV it loads fine, removing the HDMI from my TV plugging it into the converter will push video through the RCA cable but images is black and white and distorted.
Does anybody have any experience with this ? Would downscaling to 480 help if possible ? or does anybody know another solution to get this working on a older TV ?
Thanks in advance....
Edit:
Looks like http://forum.xda-developers.com/member.php?u=334644 made a fix for some Samsung devices with a similar Snapdragon 600 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2621550
Not sure if that would be something that could be adapted for use on the Fire TV though.

It's going to be a challenge, because the copyright police are all over HDMI and what can cannot be output from HDMI.
I see a very few HDMI to analog video output devices. I'd expect to pay about 50-60 bucks for a good one.
I'm picking that price because it's what Monoprice charges (more or less) for a box that takes HDMI in and outputs HDMI and audio over RCA jacks. You basically need a video DAC!
The other option would be to move to a Sony or similar smart tv, one that has both Netflix and Prime built in. Granted it's more expensive to do but your dad may well find it worth the simplicity. At our house we currently have remotes for the Fire, the TV, the bluray player and the preamp. I can manage most of it from the IR blaster on the tablet, the glaring exception being the Amazon box which uses Bluetooth, won't pair with the tablet and actually works better with not just a remote but keyboard to boot.
It's a giant PITA for the uninitiated.

Userr12, I think I have the same adapter, here is the one I bought.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008FO7PQA/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I actually have the Fire TV connected to an HDMI splitter, one port goes my main HD TV, the other to the HDMI2AV adapter linked above. An interesting side effect is when I turn off the HD TV the second output cuts out for 2-4 seconds, then comes back.
That said, when I initially setup my Fire TV, I tried an HDMI to DVI cable on a Dell monitor to see what would happen, but couldn't get through the setup. Direct HDMI was the only way I could get the intro video to show. Not sure why.
Sent from my TouchPad using XDA Premium HD app

I've played around with the unit a bit more and it's actually working
I was using a old LCD TV I have laying around but realized there is also a RCA input on my HD TV, when I use this input in combination with the converter it works, I will have to try this still on my father in laws TV, but the FTV to RCA/Composite works at least on some TV's
The image quality is doable, the color of the menu's in FTV and XBMC are a little flat and pixelated, video is more clear though, think the quality looks like what should be expected from a analog display.
Sound works fine, although I used a different USB power source to power the converter, I think there might be a power delay (or something else funky) happening with the USB port on the FTV, creating a nasty static, this static did interfere with the video image as well. (creating some distortion what seems to be running at the same Hz)

According to my experience, iDealshare VideoGo is the best one to Convert Amazon Fire TV unsupported WAV, FLAC, AIFF etc to Amazon Fire TV supported AAC or MP3.

I used a converter made by Bleiden, which I got on Amazon. The Amazon sku is B01MQGHNAR (just search in amazon or google for that and you'll find it).
I had to buy an HDMI cable to connect my Fire TV to the converter, but the converter itself worked without any problem. There were no restrictions on what I could or couldn't play. No video distortion, other than what you'd expect watching a 16:9 picture on a 4:3 TV.

Hdmi to av convertor for amazon fire stick fix
use a 5v usb adapter with twin ports plug in both amazon fire stick and the Hdmi to the same adapter,now your amazon fire stick will work fine

Dolby Digital Plus Output

I realized my receiver isn't dolby digital plus compatible. Is there a decoder or other device that can convert the DDP signal to a Dolby DTS 5.1 signal and still output via HDMI?

Not that I have found and I have been looking since July. I didn't want to drill my new house so I bought a Vizio 5.1 54" soundbar. Sub and rears are wireless. It does not support DD+ so things like Netflix will not play unless set to Stereo. This issue made me trash my $100 Roku3 and buy the AFTV as it has a built-in solution. Unless its changed, if you look or read, it has a DD 5.1 Digital Optical Output. Most receivers, unless really old, including my old when new Vizio, have an Optical In. For me it works great.
I have found NO DD+ to DD down-coders other than newer AVR's. I have researched and tried all kinds HDMI switches and converters and haven't found one that will work. DD+ is HDMI only so something has to be in line to pull off the Audio stream and make it useable to legacy devices as REAL 5.1. AFTV does this through Optical. Don't fooled by the devices that play Stereo sound spread out to all six channels. It ain't 5.1.
Bottom line is that the AFTV is EXACTLY what you need if your receiver as Optical In.

schneid said:
Not that I have found and I have been looking since July. I didn't want to drill my new house so I bought a Vizio 5.1 54" soundbar. Sub and rears are wireless. It does not support DD+ so things like Netflix will not play unless set to Stereo. This issue made me trash my $100 Roku3 and buy the AFTV as it has a built-in solution. Unless its changed, if you look or read, it has a DD 5.1 Digital Optical Output. Most receivers, unless really old, including my old when new Vizio, have an Optical In. For me it works great.
I have found NO DD+ to DD down-coders other than newer AVR's. I have researched and tried all kinds HDMI switches and converters and haven't found one that will work. DD+ is HDMI only so something has to be in line to pull off the Audio stream and make it useable to legacy devices as REAL 5.1. AFTV does this through Optical. Don't fooled by the devices that play Stereo sound spread out to all six channels. It ain't 5.1.
Bottom line is that the AFTV is EXACTLY what you need if your receiver as Optical In.
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So the optical out isn't DD+? From what I was reading it was. I believe mine does have optical in. I guess I would have to bypass the receiver and go straight to my projector then for video. Must investigate. Thanks.

xm41907 said:
So the optical out isn't DD+? From what I was reading it was. I believe mine does have optical in. I guess I would have to bypass the receiver and go straight to my projector then for video. Must investigate. Thanks.
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Optical will NOT carry DD+ as it is limited to HDMI. You go Digital 5.1 via Optical (audio only) to your AVR and HDMI to your projector for Video as you say. I do just that HDMI to TV and optical to my new but old soundbar. DD+ is up to 7.2 and not many installations support that. Not sure what Netflix was thinking but at least Amazon was thinking of a way around it for us 5.1 folks.
DD+ is supposed to carry DD piggybacked via HDMI too but many manufacturers have mucked that up. Probably to save a few cents.

[Q] Jerky playback when connected to AV receiver

Hi all.
I recently bought a Fire TV stick. When plugged into an HDMI socket on the TV it works fine, but if I plug it into a spare HDMI socket on my AV receiver the playback is rather jerky, as if the processor on it is struggling to maintain the frame rate. This happens both on HD content from Prime and on 480p video played with Plex.
This makes no sense to me. Surely the Fire TV doesn't care what it's plugged into - it just outputs video. Can anyone shed any light on what's going on here? It isn't the end of the world but obviously it's a lot easier to switch inputs on the reciever than on the TV.
Thanks
John

Is the receiver doing any kind of processing on the video? Someone mentioned a while back that their TV had some video mode that would cause the same kind of issue.

Well, not that I'm aware of. It doesn't do upconverting or anything like that. Presumably it is extracting the audio to process locally, but the TV does the same since I still get 5.1 sound through the amp. The system has Control for HDMI, whatever that means.

a number of fire TV users have reported that the device is picky about which HDMI cables they use - it's entirely possible that an av receiver could be sending back information to the fire TV that it has to think about, slowing it down, or that the internal connections within the receiver are noisy - writing inside receivers is often amusingly lightweight, makes you scratch your head over the thousands of dollars some folks sink into cabling for an amp that's using a printer ribbon to route multichannel audio internally (including some very good amps, expensive enough gear that if the manufacturers wanted to add 100 bucks to the price for a few feet of heavier wire, they wouldn't likely lose many sales.)

Interesting. I did actually buy a cheap HDMI extension cable so that the stick wouldn't be behind the amp. Perhaps I should try using plugging it into the TV using that cable to see if it's at fault?

It would be interesting to know. And it can't take more than a few minute to find out...

Ok, tried out the HDMI cable at the weekend and it's not that.

5.1 audio for projector/amp setup

I have the 2nd gen 4K Fire TV. It is rooted and all works more or less as I expect. HOWEVER, because the 2nd gen version doesn't have a digital audio link to connect directly to my amp (which is connected to a 5.1 speaker setup), I have been forced to use a USB to SPDIF adapter (Fanmusic FM-6011, but there are many alternatives available). It is a very solid adapter and works without issue whenever my projector is off. When I fire up the projector, however, the audio signal is sent directly to the projector's built-in speakers via HDMI and I lose the SPDIF connection to my amp.
I have tried all the available audio configurations in the Fire TV settings, but none of them make any difference. Given that the audio works when the projector is off, this surely indicates that the problem is not with the USB connection or the SPDIF adapter. Is there any setting or program or workaround that will allow me to send the HDMI signal to my projector and the corresponding audio via the USB adapter to my amp?
If not, is there a cheap gizmo that I may be able to source on eBay which will allow me to split the HDMI audio signal from the HDMI video signal? Such a shame that they decided to drop the audio port on the 2nd gen.
I'd be very grateful for any pointers from anyone who has any experience with a similar setup.

pfhastie said:
I have the 2nd gen 4K Fire TV. It is rooted and all works more or less as I expect. HOWEVER, because the 2nd gen version doesn't have a digital audio link to connect directly to my amp (which is connected to a 5.1 speaker setup), I have been forced to use a USB to SPDIF adapter (Fanmusic FM-6011, but there are many alternatives available). It is a very solid adapter and works without issue whenever my projector is off. When I fire up the projector, however, the audio signal is sent directly to the projector's built-in speakers via HDMI and I lose the SPDIF connection to my amp.
I have tried all the available audio configurations in the Fire TV settings, but none of them make any difference. Given that the audio works when the projector is off, this surely indicates that the problem is not with the USB connection or the SPDIF adapter. Is there any setting or program or workaround that will allow me to send the HDMI signal to my projector and the corresponding audio via the USB adapter to my amp?
If not, is there a cheap gizmo that I may be able to source on eBay which will allow me to split the HDMI audio signal from the HDMI video signal? Such a shame that they decided to drop the audio port on the 2nd gen.
I'd be very grateful for any pointers from anyone who has any experience with a similar setup.
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I had similar issues myself with my aftv2, wanting to have digital audio sent to my pioneer av system.
My pioneer av system is hdmi but unfortunately the hdmi part no longer works.
I stumbled upon a thread which advised of a certain gizmo what was exactly what I needed,
Here is the exact device I bought :
Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250970565434
The only drawback I had with this is its only 1080p, where as the aftv2 is 4k, so your limited to 1080p.
Not too bad as I cant tell much difference.

sconnyuk said:
I had similar issues myself with my aftv2, wanting to have digital audio sent to my pioneer av system.
My pioneer av system is hdmi but unfortunately the hdmi part no longer works.
I stumbled upon a thread which advised of a certain gizmo what was exactly what I needed,
Here is the exact device I bought :
Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250970565434
The only drawback I had with this is its only 1080p, where as the aftv2 is 4k, so your limited to 1080p.
Not too bad as I cant tell much difference.
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Click to collapse
Oh, ye gads! Thank you so much. Yes, it was madness losing the digital audio on this version, but as long as there's a workaround, I can happily live with 1080p for now (it'll be a while before I can afford a decent 4K projector). A great help.