XBMC/SPMC/Kodi crashes on Amazon FTV !!! ( Solved ) - Fire TV Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have tried Xbmc Gotham, Spmc and Kodi alpha on Amazon Fire TV.
But every time i found the same problem of crashing, i just wonder is it really a problem or just something wrong with my AFTV ?. It happens very often so i can not conclude that when exactly it crashes. Even i have not rooted my device. and nothing is installed except XBMC.
Also somebody would like to answer is there any way to update librtmp without root ?
Any suggestions would be appreciated !
Thank

arif01 said:
I have tried Xbmc Gotham, Spmc and Kodi alpha on Amazon Fire TV.
But every time i found the same problem of crashing, i just wonder is it really a problem or just something wrong with my AFTV ?. It happens very often so i can not conclude that when exactly it crashes. Even i have not rooted my device. and nothing is installed except XBMC.
Also somebody would like to answer is there any way to update librtmp without root ?
Any suggestions would be appreciated !
Thank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try the KODI forum? Mine crashes every fourth selection, no matter what section or add-on I am in.

What addons do you have enabled?
Sent from my SM-N900A using XDA Free mobile app

captainjapan said:
What addons do you have enabled?
Sent from my SM-N900A using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1Channel
Crackle
ESPN Video
HD-Trailers.com
Icefilms
IGN.com
Revision3
YouTube
Plus WMC.PVR
Doesn't matter which one I'm using, crashes just as I select the fourth video, even when changing channels in PVR.

that is not normal behavior.. I've been running pretty solid since April. You need to produce a log and see what's happening could be so many things.

BigB42078 said:
1Channel
Crackle
ESPN Video
HD-Trailers.com
Icefilms
IGN.com
Revision3
YouTube
Plus WMC.PVR
Doesn't matter which one I'm using, crashes just as I select the fourth video, even when changing channels in PVR.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried running without addons installed? Try only one installed at a single time to root out the cause. I only have Icefilms on two devices and have yet to experience a crash.

Set decoding method to "Hardware accelerated", fixed crashing for me.
Sent from my Nexus 7²

BigB42078 said:
Did you try the KODI forum? Mine crashes every fourth selection, no matter what section or add-on I am in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for late reply as i was on vacation.
NO i haven't tried there, i thought i will get quick response/solution here instead
mastafunk said:
that is not normal behavior.. I've been running pretty solid since April. You need to produce a log and see what's happening could be so many things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
File is attached , if possible please explain me the error information
Now i have removed the file as the problem is solved (23Oct2014)
verboten said:
Have you tried running without addons installed? Try only one installed at a single time to root out the cause. I only have Icefilms on two devices and have yet to experience a crash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have only installed one addon
V8vroom said:
Set decoding method to "Hardware accelerated", fixed crashing for me.
Sent from my Nexus 7²
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By default it is selected
Thanks all for resonses

Now the working/solution part
This solution will ONLY solve problem for those who are using Live tv, (at-least as I do). Both, SPMC and official XBMC crashed on Live tv (or any Live Stream addson) but not when playback from local contents. Now my fire tv runs quit smoothly with no crashed issues.
These are the following steps which needs to be done :
1. Turn off both filters (mediacodec and libstagefright) under hardware acceleration.
(goto System->Settings->Video->Acceleration>disable both filters MediaCodec and Libstagefright)
2. Change hardware acceleration to software. (when there is no filter activated it will automatically work as software, so basically Decoding method can be leave as Hardware accelerated as well)
3. Enable 'Allow multi thread software decoding' (optional if you changed DecMtd to Sofwre)
For those user who are not using LIVE TV but they have the same problem while using any other addson or streaming media from local server.
ONLY turning off Mediacodec could stabilize the system. Also bare in mind everything works fine with software rendering but sometimes cpu can be exhausted so try to put the device in open area where air can easily circulate, haven't notice so much heat but its better to be prepare.
With Mediacodec disabled, it also notices that XBMC runs little slower while watching movies and for example navigating the menus. That could also be cachemembuffersize, if experiences the lagging issue increase the cachemembuffersize.
Now i simply request to our respected developers to make some adjustments/fix to the media library so it can smoothly support Fire TV hardware.
Thanks all folks for helping each other.

arif01 said:
Now the working/solution part
This solution will ONLY solve problem for those who are using Live tv, (at-least as I do). Both, SPMC and official XBMC crashed on Live tv (or any Live Stream addson) but not when playback from local contents. Now my fire tv runs quit smoothly with no crashed issues.
These are the following steps which needs to be done :
1. Turn off both filters (mediacodec and libstagefright) under hardware acceleration.
(goto System->Settings->Video->Acceleration>disable both filters MediaCodec and Libstagefright)
2. Change hardware acceleration to software. (when there is no filter activated it will automatically work as software, so basically Decoding method can be leave as Hardware accelerated as well)
3. Enable 'Allow multi thread software decoding' (optional if you changed DecMtd to Sofwre)
For those user who are not using LIVE TV but they have the same problem while using any other addson or streaming media from local server.
ONLY turning off Mediacodec could stabilize the system. Also bare in mind everything works fine with software rendering but sometimes cpu can be exhausted so try to put the device in open area where air can easily circulate, haven't notice so much heat but its better to be prepare.
With Mediacodec disabled, it also notices that XBMC runs little slower while watching movies and for example navigating the menus. That could also be cachemembuffersize, if experiences the lagging issue increase the cachemembuffersize.
Now i simply request to our respected developers to make some adjustments/fix to the media library so it can smoothly support Fire TV hardware.
Thanks all folks for helping each other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Changing these settings worked for me too! Only on Live Tv my Premium channels would freeze and just keep playing audio(DIY, Lifetime, History, Animal Planet, Fox News, All HBO, SHOWTIME etc...) BUT now the problem is the picture has a lag to it, without he accelerations enabled they lag, I am using the new fire tv 2015, any other ideas to fix this or is Amazon Fire Tv just no good for Kodi? I will say I tried Kodi 14.2, 15.2, 16, and I have a paid subscription for iptv, my same settings work perfect on my windows machine.
Thanks

Related

XBMC App for Ouya working well on Fire TV

I wanted to post here since this is the "Apps" category for Fire TV...
By following the XBMC wiki for FIre TV, I got XBMC running in just 3 minutes.
> Wiki info page- http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Amazon_Fire_TV
My SMB share was discoverable and my library was populated just a few minutes later.
I've verified good video and audio playback on SD, 720p, 1080p videos. Scanning and skipping works well in video playback too.
The only thing I continue to stumble with is that pressing the "Home" button returns you to the Fire TV homescreen, backgrounding XBMC.
I haven't yet found a way to create a homescreen or "Recents" shortcut for XBMC, so it's a chore to open it every time by navitgating to Settings > Applications...
If anyone knows how to get the PleXBMC add-on working within XBMC, I'd love to know how. I tried it and get a script load error every time I try to launch the add-on.
Other than that, do you know have any other add-on recommendations to make XBMC even better for the Fire TV?
archa1c said:
I wanted to post here since this is the "Apps" category for Fire TV...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good, thank you! with hope, people will write about xbmc/spmc in this thread, instead of random other threads, or, even worse, that unholy "amazon fire tv" proto-thread that refuses to die.
archa1c said:
I've verified good video and audio playback on SD, 720p, 1080p videos. Scanning and skipping works well in video playback too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I prefer gotham, it was great on ouya. but on firetv I had to switch to spmc (12.4.2 as of koying's latest recommendation).
even the "master" and "amazonfiretv" nightlies and test-builds of gotham, give me a headache - it's weird and I can't describe it too well - pulling up the info overlay by pressing 'o' on the keyboard, I see that there are zero skipped frames and zero dropped frames. but ?something? is still screwy with motion blur - no artifacts or anything. but there is this jerkiness, or something, that hurts my eyes and the lasagna in my brainpan...?
my only complaint of spmc is that it breaks most of the 360 controller (a "ok/enter" and b "cancel/back" still work, but not the sticks or dpad). I still can't figure out how - neither xbmc nor spmc come with any keymap files, not under system/keymaps and not under userdata/keymaps. I have tried 360 keymap xml files from various github sources, both spmc and xbmc, no dice.
my only complaint of **MC in general is not being able to mess with network buffer sizes in the UI (yes I am that lazy) - usually don't have a problem with 720p mp4/mkv, and this is on wireless, even. but sometimes my landlord uses netflix over wireless and that kills everything else.
archa1c said:
The only thing I continue to stumble with is that pressing the "Home" button returns you to the Fire TV homescreen, backgrounding XBMC. I haven't yet found a way to create a homescreen or "Recents" shortcut for XBMC, so it's a chore to open it every time by navitgating to Settings > Applications...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
alt-tab isn't bad if you're already into using a keyboard...
I haven't tried it yet but people using alternate launchers have reported using Llama they can make it jump to their preferred launcher after pressing the home button. it might work equally well setting it to jump to xbmc rather than a launcher? hm I may have to try that...
I actually quite like the native Fire TV UI and would be happy with a hacky way to add a shortcut for side-loaded apps to the native menus.
I'm sure it's possible, so I'll be patient and wait for it to happen ?
I don't have any control issues because I'm using the fore TV remote, but I will be plugging in my Windows MCE remote USB IR receiver to see if I can get my Logitech harmony remote working on the fire tv.
The only other thing I would like is a mapping of the back button to "stop" when playing video in XBMC. the default xbmc behavior for the "back" action is to keep playing the current file in the background while displaying the last screen.its a very odd behavior IMO, and with no "stop" button on the fire TV remote, the only workaround is to pause the video when you want to go "back".
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
archa1c said:
I actually quite like the native Fire TV UI and would be happy with a hacky way to add a shortcut for side-loaded apps to the native menus.
I'm sure it's possible, so I'll be patient and wait for it to happen ?
I don't have any control issues because I'm using the fore TV remote, but I will be plugging in my Windows MCE remote USB IR receiver to see if I can get my Logitech harmony remote working on the fire tv.
The only other thing I would like is a mapping of the back button to "stop" when playing video in XBMC. the default xbmc behavior for the "back" action is to keep playing the current file in the background while displaying the last screen.its a very odd behavior IMO, and with no "stop" button on the fire TV remote, the only workaround is to pause the video when you want to go "back".
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are the steps that the user over on the XBMC forums posted to help us out with llama:
Event 1:
When phone starts up - set Llama variable 'startup' to 'true'
Event 2:
When the current app is XBMC on Ouya - set Llama variable 'starup' to 'false'
Event 3:
(Use the AND option) {when the current app is KFTV Launcher and when 'startup' has a value of 'false'} - run XBMC on Ouya.
However, you don't have to set KFTV Launcher as the trigger. I just picked a random app I didn't want to use as a jump pad. I installed the smithsonian app and put it in place of the launcher. Now when I open the smithsonian app, it flips back to XBMC. Not efficient, but works better than digging through the settings.
You can re-map buttons in XBMC with an add-on called keymap editor available in the programs menu>program add-ons>get more>key_map editor.
You can also just hit "Select" on the FTV remote and that will bring up the OSD. Then you can just d-pad to the stop button when you want to exit a movie.
v13 gotham beta4 release just came out (ok 2 days ago, I wasn't paying attention I guess). all my complaints about weird undescribable video motion are gone!
and that is even with turning off mediacodec and only having libstagefright turned on! yay!!!
http://xbmc.org/xbmc-13-0-gotham-beta-4/
http://mirrors.xbmc.org/releases/android/arm/
the beta4 announcement also said force update your repositories if you're having problems such as they're no longer staying up to date, or they're suddenly empty, etc.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on_manager#Force_refresh
they recommended this if you are coming from xbmc v12 (not spmc, it has its own separate file tree) or even if you are coming from earlier betas of v13.
tarvoke said:
v13 gotham beta4 release just came out (ok 2 days ago, I wasn't paying attention I guess). all my complaints about weird undescribable video motion are gone!
and that is even with turning off mediacodec and only having libstagefright turned on! yay!!!
http://xbmc.org/xbmc-13-0-gotham-beta-4/
http://mirrors.xbmc.org/releases/android/arm/
the beta4 announcement also said force update your repositories if you're having problems such as they're no longer staying up to date, or they're suddenly empty, etc.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on_manager#Force_refresh
they recommended this if you are coming from xbmc v12 (not spmc, it has its own separate file tree) or even if you are coming from earlier betas of v13.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also read that you can install SPMC and XBMC side-by-side due to the unique installation paths and libraries. I may try out the latest Gotham release, but I've been very happy with the performance of SPMC so far.
I really just need the ability to add a shortcut to the main menu, in either "Recent" or "Apps" etc for it to be convenient to access.
archa1c said:
I also read that you can install SPMC and XBMC side-by-side due to the unique installation paths and libraries. I may try out the latest Gotham release, but I've been very happy with the performance of SPMC so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you got it, they won't step on each other because all the resources and binaries are separated into com.semperax.spmc and org.xmbc.xbmc. which is also a nice way to keep testing v12 vs v13 simultaneously...
although now that the motion-blur-weirdness-but-thats-not-exactly-it, is gone from gotham beta4, I am done with spmc (I could still never figure out why it broke so many buttons of the 360 controller, and I spent hours with keymap xmls and junk, ugh. whereas gotham always worked 100% fine. they both must have built-in keymaps you don't even see in their filetrees, or something)
archa1c said:
I really just need the ability to add a shortcut to the main menu, in either "Recent" or "Apps" etc for it to be convenient to access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah it doesn't bother me enough to reinstall nova launcher and mess with Llama.
but, recent, man that would be perfect. until now I was not a big fan of recent-type-behavior (sure, sometimes in the start menu in linux or windows, ok...) - but now with firetv it is awesome.
like, my watchlist menu is turning into some huge unholy mess. but the recent menu is serene and shows me exactly what I was doing: "why yes, sir, latest indications show that you were halfway through season 4 of sg1, and you were also using Plex around the same time".
of course they also jam those stupid semi-ads in the recent menu, so for that, screw 'em.
Something you can try is using the app "llama" to start XBMC whenever a certain program is lauched. For me, I have XBMC start whenever I open the app "Tubi TV". I just chose an app on the store that had an icon I could remember and set it up.
Works very well for me.
Nick0742 said:
Something you can try is using the app "llama" to start XBMC whenever a certain program is lauched. For me, I have XBMC start whenever I open the app "Tubi TV". I just chose an app on the store that had an icon I could remember and set it up.
Works very well for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you be open to sharing exactly how you set this up?
What I can't figure out is how to use the library plugins to index both movies and shows. I have my entire collection in a single folder. Right now I can only enable either one or the other in XBMC. Is there a way to do both at the same time?
Try just adding the same path a second time, except denote it as a different media type the second type.
Not sure if XBMC will reject that or not since you've already added it once as a different content type (TV, movies etc)
Sent from my unknown using Tapatalk 2
solo said:
What I can't figure out is how to use the library plugins to index both movies and shows. I have my entire collection in a single folder. Right now I can only enable either one or the other in XBMC. Is there a way to do both at the same time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just verified that you can add the same path twice.
The first time, select a "TV Shows" scraper to have it scan TV show content for your library.
The second time, select the 'Movies" scraper to scrape and add Movie content from that directory to your library.
You will likely have some issues with some shows importing to your movie library, and some movies importing to your tv shows due to common names between both (example- Transformers movies will probably get scanner by the TV scraper and add the Transformers tv show series to your TV library).
Aside from these unavoidable duplicate scraping issues, all of your content should load.
I recommend braking our your library into separate directories for "TV Shows" and "Movies".
An easy way to do this is to install Sickbeard to automatically scan and move your TV Shows to a new directory, leaving just movies in your current media directory.
archa1c said:
I just verified that you can add the same path twice.
The first time, select a "TV Shows" scraper to have it scan TV show content for your library.
The second time, select the 'Movies" scraper to scrape and add Movie content from that directory to your library.
You will likely have some issues with some shows importing to your movie library, and some movies importing to your tv shows due to common names between both (example- Transformers movies will probably get scanner by the TV scraper and add the Transformers tv show series to your TV library).
Aside from these unavoidable duplicate scraping issues, all of your content should load.
I recommend braking our your library into separate directories for "TV Shows" and "Movies".
An easy way to do this is to install Sickbeard to automatically scan and move your TV Shows to a new directory, leaving just movies in your current media directory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually tried that same tactic before and it didn't work (Frodo). I am going to install Gotham today anyway, will try again.
My setup is that I download via utorrent and when completed, the files are moved to a single folder storage drive mounted on my RT-N66U. XBMC then reads the files from there... I'll look into sickbeard, thanks!
Has anybody tried LiveTV with tvheadend? It does work for me, but I am only able to use the channel that is already tuned. As soon as I try to switch to a different channel then XBMC crashes. It works fine on my Android phone, therefore it must be something with it running on the FireTV.
Gesendet von meinem Nexus 5 mit Tapatalk
Maybe a dumb question but how do i install .zip plugins downloaded from my computer?
NVM reading is my friend...
vogli said:
Has anybody tried LiveTV with tvheadend? It does work for me, but I am only able to use the channel that is already tuned. As soon as I try to switch to a different channel then XBMC crashes. It works fine on my Android phone, therefore it must be something with it running on the FireTV.
Gesendet von meinem Nexus 5 mit Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Am testing with TVH.
Opening a channel is ok, HD or SD (h264 1080i without deinterlace).
Zapping is an issue, no crash but video gets very choppy like 4fps sounds is ok. Stop and Play fixes the issue.
Is the XBMC Ouya still the best xbmc for fire tv atm ?
c0mm0n said:
Is the XBMC Ouya still the best xbmc for fire tv atm ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, the full 13.1 release for Android ARM from the main is best.
Thx !
Any special tip/setup on hw decoding ?

How well does XBMC work on Fire TV

Any problems with it? Is it buggy in any way? I'm looking for a cheap xbmc device but a raspberry pi is too much work.
I am using it and it works amazing well for me. Before I had pivos xios, ouya, MINIX neo x7 and they all their own issues. Finally for TV gives best of all of them. Only con is you have to tinker a bit but it's not too hard.
heyredy141 said:
I am using it and it works amazing well for me. Before I had pivos xios, ouya, MINIX neo x7 and they all their own issues. Finally for TV gives best of all of them. Only con is you have to tinker a bit but it's not too hard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No bugs at all? If I am using XBMC, will I be able to access Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant Video? Also, is it easy to unroot and factory reset?
HenryTheUnicorn said:
No bugs at all? If I am using XBMC, will I be able to access Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant Video? Also, is it easy to unroot and factory reset?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't go wrong. You don't need to root to install it. See the XBMC wiki or FireTV News. (I can't post urls.)
urls
XBMC Wiki: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Amazon_Fire_TV
FireTVNews: http://www.firetvnews.com/tag/guide/
jmerrilljr2 said:
You can't go wrong. You don't need to root to install it. See the XBMC wiki or FireTV News. (I can't post urls.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you don't need root, but it would help alot. How well does XBMC work for you?
I would say I works near perfectly for me
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
collindv said:
I would say I works near perfectly for me
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Near perfect? What problems do you have? And I hear that MPEG2 isnt supported, should I be concerned about that?
HenryTheUnicorn said:
you don't need root, but it would help alot. How well does XBMC work for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No flaws. I'm rooted but root is really not relevant to running XBMC. For years I ran Plex on a MacMini. This is way better. Just to start -- DTS pass-thru.
Sideloading is really easy. So is uninstalling. I can't see a down side here.
HenryTheUnicorn said:
you don't need root, but it would help alot. How well does XBMC work for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jmerrilljr2 said:
You can't go wrong. You don't need to root to install it. See the XBMC wiki or FireTV News. (I can't post urls.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is all true. However, to get the best possible XBMC experience on the KFTV will require root and to setup an XBMC Launcher (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2790392). This launcher replaces the KFTV launcher while still providing access to it and Amazon Prime. It's literally the best of both worlds.
mjbxx said:
This is all true. However, to get the best possible XBMC experience on the KFTV will require root and to setup an XBMC Launcher (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2790392). This launcher replaces the KFTV launcher while still providing access to it and Amazon Prime. It's literally the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the links. How do I do a factory reset or unroot my device just incase I decide to return it?
HenryTheUnicorn said:
Thank you for the links. How do I do a factory reset or unroot my device just incase I decide to return it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fire TV News (link in a prior post) has guides for all your issues. I would also recommend downloading ADBFire which you can find in the Fire TV Themes and Apps subforum of this forum
Hi.
I've rooted my AFTV and installet XBMC. It works good, but I have some problems.
1) IPTV PVR SIMPLE addon not working. When I whant to play any channel it freezes and can't go back to menu. Only reset helps.
2) Some kind of shifting in rewind when making step forward or backward fo 30 sec. Very long time of buffering.
3) Sleep mode in XBMC not working properly. It reboots AFTV every time, but no sleep.
4) And the biggest problem in Audio. When I use Direct output with ac3, dts, etc the video playback begins to slow.
Madline said:
Hi.
I've rooted my AFTV and installet XBMC. It works good, but I have some problems.
1) IPTV PVR SIMPLE addon not working. When I whant to play any channel it freezes and can't go back to menu. Only reset helps.
2) Some kind of shifting in rewind when making step forward or backward fo 30 sec. Very long time of buffering.
3) Sleep mode in XBMC not working properly. It reboots AFTV every time, but no sleep.
4) And the biggest problem in Audio. When I use Direct output with ac3, dts, etc the video playback begins to slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. So if I don't use this addon, it won't affect me?
2. What do you mean?
3. Does this fix your problem? http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Amazon_Fire_TV#Sleep_while_XBMC_is_Open_.28Requires_root.29
4. Is there a way for audio and video playback to run smooth without this problem?
HenryTheUnicorn said:
1. So if I don't use this addon, it won't affect me?
2. What do you mean?
3. Does this fix your problem?
4. Is there a way for audio and video playback to run smooth without this problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. May be You know any other way to play IPTV playlist without installing additional server soft (such as Tvheadend)? On my HTPC I use "PVR IPTV Simple Client" and it works perfect. On AFTV it stucks.
2. Fast-forward causes everything to look choppy. I think I should edit advancedsettings.xml
3. I made all steps by this wiki. I've installed this Android Screensaver and it worked normally till today. Now my AFTV every minute reboots instead of sleep mode.
4. Yes. In standart settings it works. Without enable passthrough. But this is not acceptable for me.
Madline said:
1. May be You know any other way to play IPTV playlist without installing additional server soft (such as Tvheadend)? On my HTPC I use "PVR IPTV Simple Client" and it works perfect. On AFTV it stucks.
2. Fast-forward causes everything to look choppy. I think I should edit advancedsettings.xml
3. I made all steps by this wiki. I've installed this Android Screensaver and it worked normally till today. Now my AFTV every minute reboots instead of sleep mode.
4. Yes. In standart settings it works. Without enable passthrough. But this is not acceptable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Darn. What should I get? Amazon Fire TV or Raspberry Pi?
HenryTheUnicorn said:
Darn. What should I get? Amazon Fire TV or Raspberry Pi?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fire TV and do not look back. Besides, you have a 30 day return period throught Amazon. Try it out and see if you like it. You have absolutely nothing to lose doing so.
HenryTheUnicorn said:
Darn. What should I get? Amazon Fire TV or Raspberry Pi?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had a raspberry pi with raspbmc for over a year. I bought the firetv two weeks ago. While I enjoyed tinkering around with the pi and tweaking it to get the best experience for xbmc, the fire tv is much better. It's just so much more powerful and as a result everything is very smooth, menus, video playback - all of it. In addition, you have the added benefit of having access to netflix and amazon prime which you will not get on raspbmc. Now I have to turn on one less device when I want to watch netflix. Finally, it seems like there are some devs working on unlocking the bootloader - so I would imagine that custom roms can't be far off. So if those things sound good to you, I would highly recommend the FTV.
jmerrilljr2 said:
No flaws. I'm rooted but root is really not relevant to running XBMC. For years I ran Plex on a MacMini. This is way better. Just to start -- DTS pass-thru.
Sideloading is really easy. So is uninstalling. I can't see a down side here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DTS pass-thru is something that I was banging my head against the wall to make it work, then I just saw "advanced settings" on the left bottom of menu just to find out that you need to activate this to have access to audio pass-thru. Then it worked flawlessly.
Spmc
You guys should look into SPMC for an alternative solution to xbmc. Its the same app but custom made that was designed for Ouya.works better on Amzon Fire Tv

Amazon Fire Tv - Guide to temporary stabilize/solve XBMC/SPMC/KODI crashes problem

A quick little Guide to avoid random crashes of XBMC/SPMC/KODI on Amazon Fire TV
PART 1:
This part of instruction will ONLY solve problem for those who are using Live TV. Normally XBMC/SPMC/KODI crashes on Live tv (or any Live Stream addons) but NOT when playback from LOCAL CONTENT/SERVER.
These are the following steps which needs to be done :
1. Turn off both filters (mediacodec and libstagefright) under hardware acceleration.
(goto System->Settings->Video->Acceleration>disable both filters MediaCodec and Libstagefright)
2. Change hardware acceleration to software. (when there is no filter activated it will automatically work as software, so basically Decoding method can be leave as Hardware accelerated as well)
3. Enable 'Allow multi thread software decoding' (optional if you changed Decoding Method to Software)
(it seems that this option is also helpful for some users )
PART 2:
For those user who are not using LIVE TV but they have the same problem while using any other addons or streaming media from Local Content/Server.
ONLY turning off Mediacodec could stabilize the system. Also bare in mind everything works fine with software rendering but sometimes CPU can be exhausted so try to put the device in open area where air can easily circulate, haven't notice so much heat but its better to be prepare. Also worth mentioning is that Amazon uses quite big heat sink almost the same size of its PCB under upper/top lid.
With Mediacodec disabled, it also notices that XBMC runs little slower while watching movies and for example navigating the menus. That could also be cachemembuffersize, if experiences the lagging issue increase the cachemembuffersize in advance.xml file.
Now i simply request to our respected developers to make some adjustments/fix to the media library specially for Android so it can smoothly support Fire TV hardware.
Don't forgot to hit Thanks.
Thanks all folks for helping each other.
hey arif01 many thanks for your info and trying to help everyone stabilise xbmc on fireTV.
Has anyone tried the above steps with, any drawbacks to report on?
I personally have SPMC 13.3.3 installed on my two fireTVs and have MediaCodec disabled (and libstagefright enabled) following advice from another thread.

[Q] Live TV and Kodi via TVHeadEnd

Hello
When I use the Live TV via Kodi, as soon as I change the channel, it crash
Since logs are better than randoms word, here the full log of kodi, where I simply launched Kodi 14 and started streaming TV (to make sure it's as clean as possible) : http://pastebin.com/z1Ly3zxL
Anyone has an idea to fix that?
Thanks
Try to use different PVR client or switch to SPMC. Works there for me.
Try the hts addon I posted on the kodi forums...
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=187521&pid=1880970#pid1880970
desmopro said:
Anyone has an idea to fix that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two questions, please:
1) Did you find a resolution?
2) What are you using for a tuner?
wellersl said:
Two questions, please:
1) Did you find a resolution?
2) What are you using for a tuner?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, nope, I don't watch TV that much so it's not really critical for me, but it still bugging me.
I'm using that as tuner : http://avertv.avermedia.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?Id=519 - version A835.
desmopro said:
Unfortunately, nope, I don't watch TV that much so it's not really critical for me, but it still bugging me.
I'm using that as tuner : http://avertv.avermedia.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?Id=519 - version A835.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you been here?: http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/AVerMedia
The last line says the A835 is supported under Linux, so I'd say your chances of getting it to work are better than nothing. FWIW
wellersl said:
Have you been here?: http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/AVerMedia
The last line says the A835 is supported under Linux, so I'd say your chances of getting it to work are better than nothing. FWIW
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It work perfectly under linux, I use TVHeadend without problem anywhere else, but on the FireTV, it crash if I change the channel (Let say that I'm watching the 1st channel, and want to change to the second, well, then, Kodi crash)
desmopro said:
It work perfectly under linux, I use TVHeadend without problem anywhere else, but on the FireTV, it crash if I change the channel (Let say that I'm watching the 1st channel, and want to change to the second, well, then, Kodi crash)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now I feel very bad. I swear I just read about a solution for that. From feeble memory, it was in TVHeadend - not in Kodi.
I'll go pick through my browser history. Maybe I can find it again...
EDIT: This is pounding on my head - 19:15:45 T:1716336336 ERROR: CDVDVideoCodecAndroidMediaCodec:: Failed to create Android MediaCodec
Maybe?: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56230354&postcount=9
wellersl said:
Maybe?: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56230354&postcount=9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It work, but it's not really usable as a solution, CPU get overloaded and video drop frames: http://i.imgur.com/qYRBVTd.jpg , however it would indicate a problem with the hardware video decoder, in that case, out of luck for me, no chance of fixing it without at least having root.
desmopro said:
... no chance of fixing it without at least having root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, damn.
If it's any comfort, we may be in this together. I ordered a Hauppauge 1191 WinTV-HVR-950Q today. But at least I know if it doesn't work with the Fire, it will work on my Pi.
wellersl said:
Well, damn.
If it's any comfort, we may be in this together. I ordered a Hauppauge 1191 WinTV-HVR-950Q today. But at least I know if it doesn't work with the Fire, it will work on my Pi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a boring but not critical issue, the TV is working fine as long as you don't change channel. beside, it might still be fixable by adding a delay to the channel switch. I know TVHeadEnd is a bit special (I also had issue on the Pi (RPi 1 B 256MB Ram) that I needed a proxy to fix.)
Does the CPU get overloaded if you just turn off libstagefright? What doesn't work if you do? (I don't even know what it does.)
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=217301&pid=1914923&highlight=fire+tv#pid1914923
wellersl said:
Does the CPU get overloaded if you just turn off libstagefright? What doesn't work if you do? (I don't even know what it does.)
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=217301&pid=1914923&highlight=fire+tv#pid1914923
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried turning off libstagefright on my FireTVStick and it seems to work most of the time - occasionally the audio and picture go out of sync on the BBC HD channels* and quick channel change fixes it for a while. Alas, as with Kodi on my Nexus 7 and Z1 Compact Kodi just exits on it's own occasionally (presumably memory management). With stagefright on the picture was awful (3-4 fps). This is with TVHeadend connected to a DVB-S2 Sat>IP Tuner (via HomePlugs), a DVB-T2 USB tuner and 2xDVB-T USB tuners.
I have to point out that I've used it massively as it's connected to the same TV as my media centre PC (was more interested in seeing if the stick would be a viable alternative for the Raspberry Pi in the kitchen), and well the Fire TV Stick has only been available for two days!
* Not seen this on BBC ONE East Midlands SD or any other SD channel, or indeed Channel 4 HD. The BBC HD channels are rather high bit rate and didn't work properly on my Pi before over-clocking that so might be hitting the limits of what is possible here too.

HomerunTV - HD Homerun Live TV on Fire TV

Just wanted to share my experience today I bought this app since I own HD Homerun while having it on Kodi with PVR was nice it required a server computer to be running while watching.
Just wanted to let all guys know that the app costs 2.99$ (it's not mine of course I wish I was that skilled) everything works amazingly with fire REMOTE there is only one small issue in order to hit PLAY you must use mouse, I emailed dev asking him about this so it might be fixed soon!
How it works? it uses MX player or VLC media player to play the live channel ( my ISP is Verizon fios ) and channels stream usually around 18 mbps on lan in HD.
My Setup is:
Ethernet Cable
Homerun TV
VLC Media player (newest extracted from playstore) sometimes screen gets black it might be VLC issue (did not try with MX Player)
I'd say it's worth 2.99$ quality over VLC media player is great as well!
Update Feb 06 2015
Small Tips:
In order to play channel you must USE mouse to point it to "play button"
Set VLC media player to "Full hardware accelaration"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zaren.HomeRunTV&hl=en
Stream live TV from your HDHomeRun device to your phone or tablet. (Unprotected, copy freely channels only)
This application will allow you to stream live TV to your android phone or tablet. It can be streamed to your device in 1 of 2 ways.
1. Directly from the hdhomerun to your device. This requires a strong network connection to your device (wireless N recommended) and a powerful enough device to decode 1080i video.
2. Through the HdhomerunStreamServer. This uses VLC to transcode the video to a lower bandwidth.
you're telling me you can stream HD smoothly with this app? It's been a couple months since I tried it when it first was released for the Fire TV, and any HD channel caused severe stuttering. I'm on a wired GBe LAN as well. That'd be great if an update to the app fixed this.
UPDATE: Nevermind, I was referring to the app released by Silicon Dust themselves.
onlinespending said:
you're telling me you can stream HD smoothly with this app? It's been a couple months since I tried it when it first was released for the Fire TV, and any HD channel caused severe stuttering. I'm on a wired GBe LAN as well. That'd be great if an update to the app fixed this.
UPDATE: Nevermind, I was referring to the app released by Silicon Dust themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea the silicondust app is very laggy.
This one streams without a SINGLE lag because it uses MX Player or VLC.
Make sure to sideload VLC media player.
I asked the dev about placing the play button somwhere else. We'll see what happens.
Streams perfectly.
patt2k said:
Just wanted to share my experience today I bought this app since I own HD Homerun while having it on Kodi with PVR was nice it required a server computer to be running while watching.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't mind me asking, what setup were you using with Kodi (e.g. server OS, server software, HDHomeRun configuration, etc.). I've got the HDHomeRun Plus / Extend and have not had a lot of luck settings things up.
I tried using TVHeadEnd on an Ubuntu server and Kodi running the TVHeadEnd plug-in. It streams fine only some of the time, but I get frequent crashes, especially when changing channels. In addition, I could not get any PVR functionality to work, nor have I been able to get h.264 transcoding from the HDHomeRun to work.
I then tried using MythTV, but could not get the Kodi MythTV plugin to work -- it would show the stations, but not be able to connect to the streams. (I also had trouble getting the MythTV server configured with the HDHomeRun, but that's not really related to the Fire TV.)
Thanks.
wunderdrug said:
If you don't mind me asking, what setup were you using with Kodi (e.g. server OS, server software, HDHomeRun configuration, etc.). I've got the HDHomeRun Plus / Extend and have not had a lot of luck settings things up.
I tried using TVHeadEnd on an Ubuntu server and Kodi running the TVHeadEnd plug-in. It streams fine only some of the time, but I get frequent crashes, especially when changing channels. In addition, I could not get any PVR functionality to work, nor have I been able to get h.264 transcoding from the HDHomeRun to work.
I then tried using MythTV, but could not get the Kodi MythTV plugin to work -- it would show the stations, but not be able to connect to the streams. (I also had trouble getting the MythTV server configured with the HDHomeRun, but that's not really related to the Fire TV.)
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use any PVR's I simply use Homerun TV and watch it via the app (I added shortcut in Kodi) so it's faster to open it.
I have a HDHomerun plus, adding the dlna server source of the HDHomerun to the files under videos is by far the best quality live streams I have gotten.
Regarding PVR with the Hdhomerun plus, I tried the same things. I finally said forget it and got a simple TV for $100 on woot with lifetime sub. It actually works much better than the reviews led me to believe. I access the recordings through plex.
goodhur said:
I have a HDHomerun plus, adding the dlna server source of the HDHomerun to the files under videos is by far the best quality live streams I have gotten.
Regarding PVR with the Hdhomerun plus, I tried the same things. I finally said forget it and got a simple TV for $100 on woot with lifetime sub. It actually works much better than the reviews led me to believe. I access the recordings through plex.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw it being offered free not to long ago (lifetime sub)
I'm missing something. I have it installed, but how do I play a stream? When I click on the channel it takes me to a stream diagnostics screen (signal strength, etc.) How do I play it? Thanks!
ChaOConnor said:
I'm missing something. I have it installed, but how do I play a stream? When I click on the channel it takes me to a stream diagnostics screen (signal strength, etc.) How do I play it? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the trick... you must use "mouse" to point it to play button.
I emailed the DEV and asking him if he can somehow in future make it "play-able" via REMOTE.
Every other part of the app works fine with remote.
patt2k said:
Here is the trick... you must use "mouse" to point it to play button.
I emailed the DEV and asking him if he can somehow in future make it "play-able" via REMOTE.
Every other part of the app works fine with remote.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Well that's why I couldn't get it to work. So plug a mouse into the Fire and I should be good then?
ChaOConnor said:
Thanks! Well that's why I couldn't get it to work. So plug a mouse into the Fire and I should be good then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep for now that is what I do. Also in vlc settings turn on full acceleration (hardware) for better playback
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
patt2k said:
Yep for now that is what I do. Also in vlc settings turn on full acceleration (hardware) for better playback
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
I found out a few days ago that you can adjust the quality stream in the actual HDhomerun view app. When the app is open just keep on pressing the menu button rapidly until the settings comes up then you can select the stream quality.
Also I had a Amazon gift card to burn so I actually bought InstaTV Pro. It comes up as a free app but it is by no means a free app. It cost $10 (which bites) because it has to download codecs. However it works very well.

Categories

Resources