[Q] Fire TV Stick & playing MKV files - Fire TV Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi folks
Got a Fire TV Stick there and have XBMC/Kodi sideloaded. I also have a QNAP NAS which is hardwired to my Virgin Superhub 2 router. When I play most of my MKV's, which are stored on the NAS, the playback is kinda sluggish/low frame rate.
Is there anything I can do to sort this for smooth playback? Does the stick just not have the power to play the MKVs? Is it the network?

takkischitt said:
Hi folks
Got a Fire TV Stick there and have XBMC/Kodi sideloaded. I also have a QNAP NAS which is hardwired to my Virgin Superhub 2 router. When I play most of my MKV's, which are stored on the NAS, the playback is kinda sluggish/low frame rate.
Is there anything I can do to sort this for smooth playback? Does the stick just not have the power to play the MKVs? Is it the network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine plays mkv from smb shares with no problems. Are these really large files? Id suspect its a network issue. How good is the signal in the room with the stick? Maybe do a speedtest or if possible move the stick to a tv closer to the router.

KLit75 said:
Mine plays mkv from smb shares with no problems. Are these really large files? Id suspect its a network issue. How good is the signal in the room with the stick? Maybe do a speedtest or if possible move the stick to a tv closer to the router.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They range from 2-4GB in size. The router is right beside the TV, so dont think it would be a range issue. I'll check the router setting this evening to see if I can maybe change the signal frequency to get faster speeds.
But the Fire TV Stick should play MKV files smoothly, even if they're around 4GB?

Press O on a Keyboard in Kodi, while a video is playing to see both the CPU stress (in percentages), as well as the cache fill rate, dropped frames, ...
You guys are all treating this problem like you were banging on a black box. Just use the obvious diagnostic tools baked into the platforms. Act like you weren't part of the Smartphone generation that is seen as being too dumb to do any kind of problem solving using diagnostics. Start by RTFM.

harlekinrains said:
Press O on a Keyboard in Kodi, while a video is playing to see both the CPU stress (in percentages), as well as the cache fill rate, dropped frames, ...
You guys are all treating this problem like you were banging on a black box. Just use the obvious diagnostic tools baked into the platforms. Act like you weren't part of the Smartphone generation that is seen as being too dumb to do any kind of problem solving using diagnostics. Start by RTFM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This may be dumb, but how do you press O without a keyboard?

The little problems you have to solve...
Because I've leaned myself out of the window in other topics so recently - I'll just name the solution in here -
If you have an Android Phone (or tablet), or an iPhone (or iPad), or access to someone who has - install the FIre TV Remote App (or any similar app) on it and it will provide you with an on screen keyboard that can also be used to send "O" to Kodi.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.storm.lightning.client.aosp&hl=en
In fact - amazon notifies you, that this App exists in the setup process of the Fire TV if I am not mistaken.
If you have only access to a PC, or Mac - there are other solutions out there. Look for them in the Kodi Wiki (xbev).
---------- Post added at 05:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:13 PM ----------
edit: it is even possible to send the O command via adb -
adb shell input text o
Next time, you try to find one of the solutions yourself, promised? Maybe even share them. Like if this place would be something else, different to a consumer product support infrastructure.

harlekinrains said:
The little problems you have to solve...
Because I've leaned myself out of the window in other topics so recently - I'll just name the solution in here -
If you have an Android Phone (or tablet), or an iPhone (or iPad), or access to someone who has - install the FIre TV Remote App (or any similar app) on it and it will provide you with an on screen keyboard that can also be used to send "O" to Kodi.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.storm.lightning.client.aosp&hl=en
In fact - amazon notifies you, that this App exists in the setup process of the Fire TV if I am not mistaken.
If you have only access to a PC, or Mac - there are other solutions out there. Look for them in the Kodi Wiki (xbev).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many thanks for the info. I completely forgot about the app, as I've just been using the remote. I'll give that a whirl later to see what it says.

Related

Xbmc Torrents on AFT

Has anyone installed xbmc-torrents on Amazon Fire Tv and experienced any problems? Thx
athosk said:
Has anyone installed xbmc-torrents on Amazon Fire Tv and experienced any problems? Thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works perfectly fine for me
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
athosk said:
Has anyone installed xbmc-torrents on Amazon Fire Tv and experienced any problems? Thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have che following setup.
Rooted ftv. Xbmc 13.1. Stick mount to connect an external HDD.
Xbmctorrent is configured to save stuff on a subdir in the HDD. It works fine for TV series episodes. Yesterday night I tried with a movie and had two times the fire TV to completely crash after something like 15 minutes watching. I guess this might be related to having downloaded a file which is larger than a certain threshold. The first time it crashed I also got scared because it was stuck in the Amazon black screen without any sign of life. I removed power for a while to have it start back.
I am watching a TV episode now and it seems fine.
The other issue I experienced is sometimes getting the Xbmctorrent script failed. Not on eztv though, I guess this is related on how they handle individual sources.
Any help or other experiences?
Do you guys also know a better way integrated in xbmc to pick up a torrent to be downloaded and then watch it later, rather than immediately streaming?
I have two AFTV with XBMC 13.1 and xbmctorrent.
I never had issues with any files over 4gb. I mounted a usb flash drive (NTFS formatted) with stickmount, but I don't use that for xbmctorrent. I have xbmctorrent buffer up on the AFTV internal memory.
Shinyhead said:
I have two AFTV with XBMC 13.1 and xbmctorrent.
I never had issues with any files over 4gb. I mounted a usb flash drive (NTFS formatted) with stickmount, but I don't use that for xbmctorrent. I have xbmctorrent buffer up on the AFTV internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is really interesting. I wonder why I have so serious issues.
Yesterday I tried with a TV show, and it was stopping the reproduction immediately after starting, even though the download had no problems at all! After tried a few times, I had again the most disruptive crash with AFTV stuck on the black screen with white amazon logo. After that, I decided to uninstall the plugin.
Any suggestion?!
bastXda said:
This is really interesting. I wonder why I have so serious issues.
Yesterday I tried with a TV show, and it was stopping the reproduction immediately after starting, even though the download had no problems at all! After tried a few times, I had again the most disruptive crash with AFTV stuck on the black screen with white amazon logo. After that, I decided to uninstall the plugin.
Any suggestion?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try not putting any path for the download field in xbmctorrent, so it will use the internal memory to download on.
XBMCTorrent
This issue is happenning to me as well, I have toyed with all the options\save pathes possible, nothing seems to fix it.
I also opened an Issue on XBMCTorrent's Gibhub and Stream (a fork of this addon) but no help yet.
This is my favorite addon and it's a total deal-breaker for me about the AFTV
I really hope someone will find a fix for this...
Is there a difference between xbmc torrent and an android based torrent client?
Sent from my SM-G900A using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Dragracekid said:
Is there a difference between xbmc torrent and an android based torrent client?
Sent from my SM-G900A using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the difference is xbmc isnt a regular torrent addon. Its used only to stream/seed movies. you cant load a regular torrent file and expect it to download.
Oh ok cool thanks
Sent from my SM-G900A using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I think the solution is simple.....uninstall XBMC and install SPMC (XBMC for Ouya). Alot more stable and dosnt keep the data stuck in memory.
You can get it here
https://github.com/koying/SPMC/releases/download/13.2.1-spmc/spmc-armeabi-v7a_13.2.1.apk
athosk said:
I think the solution is simple.....uninstall XBMC and install SPMC (XBMC for Ouya). Alot more stable and dosnt keep the data stuck in memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there evidence of better behavior of SPMC on AFTV than regular XBMC? I just went to the official XBMC, but maybe I did the wrong choice! Is it possible to install it without losing all the preferences over current XBMC?
I'm using the xbmc with the launcher mod, and last night got the xbmctorrent to sort of work. It was making my firetv unstable, I had at least two blackscreens while using it.
I'm not on the latest xbmc but am on the latest torrent plugin, but at this point I'm not inclined to keep chasing the plugin too often, neat as it is when it works.
bastXda said:
Is there evidence of better behavior of SPMC on AFTV than regular XBMC? I just went to the official XBMC, but maybe I did the wrong choice! Is it possible to install it without losing all the preferences over current XBMC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the older version of spmc works the best.
load the apk on post 9
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=54237038&postcount=9
I have personally tried XBMC on all available platforms (Apple TV, Ipad, Windows 8.1, Android minix, Android tv box wih quad core processor and 8core graphics card capable of 4K output). Best one i think is windows.....it would be apple tv but that only gives 720p output.
Now, with Amazon, XBMC torrents somehow data is being saved somewhere and if you look at the screen before launching it, you will notice that the data file keeps getting bigger and at some point that would create a problem as AFT has only 8 GB memory.
With SPMC, I haven't really seen any increaments on the data file size...i wil keep you posted in the next few days if i notice any change
I've been seeing many of the issues with xbmc torrent that I've heard reported from others - problems downloading, issues where, once a stream gets into enough trouble, the box itself resets, very long initial load times.
I thought I was giving up on it, but I was curious and decided to look into what I was seeing.
Once things get bad enough that the FTV bombs out, I also noticed that I needed to reset my firewall to get anything going on the internet in the house - aside from things that were running before I started xbmc torrent.
I took a look, and my firewall has an 8064 session limit. What I'm seeing is that I need to limit how many sessions a single client can spin up. The xbmc torrent plugin is insanely chatty, and it was exhausing my session pool!
When things got to their worst, I wasn't able to get DNS moving and when I dug in, I found that what I was seeing was that I couldn't translate the DNS requests from my lan. (In some ways, the firewall I'm using is a gynormous pain in the butt - it'd be nice if I had more than 8k outbound translations - but it makes up for it with truly epic diagnostic info.)
So, it's worth trying to see if there's a way limit the number of connections a client on your network can establish. I'm getting decent performance and still having resources available to other systems using a 512 session limit.
My impression on the FTV rebooting is that once DNS was unavailable, other services I was trying to run were crapping out, taking the OS with them.
XBMCTorrent
athosk said:
I think the solution is simple.....uninstall XBMC and install SPMC (XBMC for Ouya). Alot more stable and dosnt keep the data stuck in memory.
You can get it here
https://github.com/koying/SPMC/releases/download/13.2.1-spmc/spmc-armeabi-v7a_13.2.1.apk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mejdam said:
the older version of spmc works the best.
load the apk on post 9
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=54237038&postcount=9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried XBMC 13.1 official, BeyondXBMC, XBMC For Ouya and SPMC.
In all of them the plugin had made my XBMC go crazy and eventually reboot the entire Fire TV, on some occasions even corrupted my XBMC Skin settings somehow.
athosk said:
I have personally tried XBMC on all available platforms (Apple TV, Ipad, Windows 8.1, Android minix, Android tv box wih quad core processor and 8core graphics card capable of 4K output). Best one i think is windows.....it would be apple tv but that only gives 720p output.
Now, with Amazon, XBMC torrents somehow data is being saved somewhere and if you look at the screen before launching it, you will notice that the data file keeps getting bigger and at some point that would create a problem as AFT has only 8 GB memory.
With SPMC, I haven't really seen any increaments on the data file size...i wil keep you posted in the next few days if i notice any change
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
roustabout said:
I've been seeing many of the issues with xbmc torrent that I've heard reported from others - problems downloading, issues where, once a stream gets into enough trouble, the box itself resets, very long initial load times.
I thought I was giving up on it, but I was curious and decided to look into what I was seeing.
Once things get bad enough that the FTV bombs out, I also noticed that I needed to reset my firewall to get anything going on the internet in the house - aside from things that were running before I started xbmc torrent.
I took a look, and my firewall has an 8064 session limit. What I'm seeing is that I need to limit how many sessions a single client can spin up. The xbmc torrent plugin is insanely chatty, and it was exhausing my session pool!
When things got to their worst, I wasn't able to get DNS moving and when I dug in, I found that what I was seeing was that I couldn't translate the DNS requests from my lan. (In some ways, the firewall I'm using is a gynormous pain in the butt - it'd be nice if I had more than 8k outbound translations - but it makes up for it with truly epic diagnostic info.)
So, it's worth trying to see if there's a way limit the number of connections a client on your network can establish. I'm getting decent performance and still having resources available to other systems using a 512 session limit.
My impression on the FTV rebooting is that once DNS was unavailable, other services I was trying to run were crapping out, taking the OS with them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is very interesting!
I have tried various combonations of this plugin (keep torrents, trying to save to SMB share, to Disk on Key, changing File Systems [exFAT,fat32,ntfs] and nothing seemed to work).
I have never thought of it as a network problem...
It works so good on my Windows PC and my Android Mini PC...
Maybe someone can post a way to limit the connections?
Thanks
Yeah maybe you are on the right track. My xbmctorrent also crashes quite oftenly and makes my firetv to reboot. It's very annoying.
Enviado de meu GT-N7100 usando Tapatalk
KillerJoeBR said:
Yeah maybe you are on the right track. My xbmctorrent also crashes quite oftenly and makes my firetv to reboot. It's very annoying.
Enviado de meu GT-N7100 usando Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me.
Has anyone gotten the stream plugin to work? It's being actively developed and is apparently a fork of the xbmc torrent code.
I'm unable to get it to run, either on ftv or on a tablet, and the diagnostic logging doesn't say much to me.
My firewall supports outbound rules that apply per host, and the values it takes are sess-limit per-src-ip <number>
Probably you can do something similar in one of the open source dd-wrt platforms. There's an interesting discussion of advanced config of those at http://markmaunder.com/2011/01/26/h...-your-room-mate-or-bad-office-colleague-uses/ - but it doesn't cover sessions, but rather total per-address or per-network bandwidth. (Which I've also had set up to deal with aftv chewing up everything it can when I need to have a few hundred low-latency kilobits to reach the office - it's challenging to apply QoS to inbound, simpler to drop everything over a cap that's trying to reach a host. I unset those rules before trying xbmctorrent.)
I have the impression that xbmctorrent, at least, has its own torrent client built in. And although I've seen a configuration in the system / network menus that lets you define a proxy for xbmc to use, I haven't seen a similar config for global torrent settings.
Many standalone torrent clients have a lot of controls over maximum connections, in addition to upload/download speeds, etc.
I haven't looked to see whether a standalone torrent client, or one of the various torrent plugins for xbmc, might be able to give one systemwide control over session initiation, session timeout and session number - applying some settings that xbmctorrent would need to respect, in essence.
I suspect that they'd make it harder to use if they were able to control those things, though - xbmctorrent is doing something pretty unusual: it's polling a swarm of peers (into the thousands) and asking not just 'who has the file' but 'who has this specific piece of the file starting at time X'
It would be nice if those kinds of advanced network settings were available in the configuration of one of these video on demand torrent clients, though

Cannot decide between Fire Tv stick or chromecast.

Chromecast advantages
1. Cast anything from PC , especially streaming videos from browser tab.
2. Cast entire desktop, but mostly useless if you do not have proper internet connection.
Fire Tv advantages
1. Sideloading any android app
2. can work independently
Will fire tv ever get casting support for windows ? amazon cast plugin or something ... if it gets that i will easily ditch chromecast
Just get both lol. That's what I did
Fire stick is closer to a tablet than anything
depakjan said:
Chromecast advantages
1. Cast anything from PC , especially streaming videos from browser tab.
2. Cast entire desktop, but mostly useless if you do not have proper internet connection.
Fire Tv advantages
1. Sideloading any android app
2. can work independently
Will fire tv ever get casting support for windows ? amazon cast plugin or something ... if it gets that i will easily ditch chromecast
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way I see it, AFSTV is a tablet used for streaming. Chromecast needs more apps and a native browser; maybe chromecast II will be able to compete in the same league (if it ever shows up).
depakjan said:
Chromecast advantages
1. Cast anything from PC , especially streaming videos from browser tab.
2. Cast entire desktop, but mostly useless if you do not have proper internet connection.
Fire Tv advantages
1. Sideloading any android app
2. can work independently
Will fire tv ever get casting support for windows ? amazon cast plugin or something ... if it gets that i will easily ditch chromecast
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4. Most US FTV's from Amazon, Staples, BestBuy, Radio Shack can still be rooted.
depakjan said:
Chromecast advantages
1. Cast anything from PC , especially streaming videos from browser tab.
2. Cast entire desktop, but mostly useless if you do not have proper internet connection.
Fire Tv advantages
1. Sideloading any android app
2. can work independently
Will fire tv ever get casting support for windows ? amazon cast plugin or something ... if it gets that i will easily ditch chromecast
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 2 of each, but hands down the Fire Stick is a better device with may more uses.
FS has MUCH MUCH(get the idea) better wifi.
The one thing I've found that the CC is better at is taking on a trip since you don't need the remote to get it connected on a new wifi. FS you MUST have remote so far as I can figure out.
gottahavit said:
I have 2 of each, but hands down the Fire Stick is a better device with may more uses.
FS has MUCH MUCH(get the idea) better wifi.
The one thing I've found that the CC is better at is taking on a trip since you don't need the remote to get it connected on a new wifi. FS you MUST have remote so far as I can figure out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as taking it on a trip, if you stay in a hotel that requires you to accept the terms of service through a browser good luck connecting the chromecast.
I have both, and I never use my Chromecast. The only reason I could think of why I would use it is for my 2 movies in Google Play... The Fire Stick is just better in every way.
adfurgerson said:
As far as taking it on a trip, if you stay in a hotel that requires you to accept the terms of service through a browser good luck connecting the chromecast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes neither works perfectly traveling, but having to bring remote just to get it to connect to phone sucks. The only thing chromecast did right was the private wifi setup with devices.
Both are good I'm leaning more to aftv just has more features.. But I also have chromecast connected as well it's good to have back up to send media to the tv with my phone
adfurgerson said:
As far as taking it on a trip, if you stay in a hotel that requires you to accept the terms of service through a browser good luck connecting the chromecast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. Although having just experienced this, you'll need to sideload a browser and some mouse mode (controller, mouse, phone mouse,etc) to actually navigate and accept terms.
What I do is tether to my phone and cast predownloaded movies using All cast.
Chromecast is great for basic stuff and used with a tablet. When using my phone, everything gets paused and occasionally locks up when getting calls and messages on my phone.
Fire TV stick is also a pretty good emulator player for retro gaming on the go.
Unless you need to stick with the small form factor or the budget doesn't allow, the correct answer if you can't decide between the two is to get a Nexus Player. If you are not in a hurry, wait until spring when I'm sure the market will be flooded with cheap Chinese Android TV boxes (Android TV version of Android, not just Android on a stick). Essentially the same as FireTV, but with Chromecast functionality built in.
If I had to choose between a Chomecast or AFTV stick I'd take AFTV stick every time.
Comes Down to Apps
You should research the App you know you want to use. I really just want a Chrome cast with a physical remote. I was excited when I grabbed a FireTV stick for $25. I was not excited that the Showtime Anytime app doesn't support on Dish on FireStickTV but does on Chrome cast?
I would tell you make a list of the apps you really want and see what platform has them.
thats what i did too
No brainer.. AFTV.
Maybe its just me, but i really dont have the urge to "cast" everything from various devices. A nice standalone box that can connect to networked drives on its own while having native streaming capability nicely beats a simple "casting" box...
If you have a miracast compatible computer, you can use that with the firetv.
Youtube on chromecast is good in "social" settings. Friends can queue up videos (eg. songs) to be played.
ziddey said:
If you have a miracast compatible computer, you can use that with the firetv.
Youtube on chromecast is good in "social" settings. Friends can queue up videos (eg. songs) to be played.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen 1 person post that Miracast works from a PC to the Fire TV.
See this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/help/miracast-t2954237/
After using both for a few weeks apiece, the fire stick with xbmc and a remote >>>>>>>>>>>> the chromecast.
It gets tiresome having to keep turning my phone etc and having some files need transcoding with the chromecast. The stick, since they updated the firmware and fixed the video quality problems, is almost perfect and I love that remote
The only thing chromecast has over the fire tv is the ease of use with the phone with the little cast button but I can live without that
As soon as the fire sticks go on sale again, I'm picking up another 3!
The AFS seems to be a more flexible platform. It's essentially a Android Stick computer. Will be even better when someone figures out how to root it. For the most part you can sideload the same working apps that work on other Android devices. That's pretty useful.
The Chromecast seems to be more of a one trick pony. The casting feature is interesting but why would you not want to just run apps directly to control it?
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
I have both.
I bought the Chromecast last year. The biggest use I got out of it was binge watching to catch up on Game of Thrones via HBO Go app. Video was definitely grainy, lower quality than the On-Demand HD from Comcast. Since then, I've rarely used it. Having to start everything via the phone or pad, then "casting" feels clunky. Casting videos/movies from my PC browser was choppy at best.
The Fire TV Stick is pretty smooth. I like having the physical remote and looking at the TV when I do things (i.e. not having to use/look at the phone). YouTube works (although I'm not able to play Purchases). Plex works well, as does SPMC (XBMC fork). NBC Live Extra app seems to work ok, but I'll get a better feel for that tonight watching football. HBO Go isn't officially available for the FireTV STICK yet. On my Fire TV (box) I am disappointed that HBO Go and Showtime Go (I would be there are some other apps too) do not have the ability to sign in for Comcast/Xfinity customers like the apps on iOs and Android do. I do realize that is a COMCAST limit, but it still stinks.
As @alton987 said earlier, it important to know the apps you want to use, and what is available on a particular device.
I bought a Fire TV Stick the day before Thanksgiving at Best Buy for $24.99. I bought it primarily for Amazon Prime.
So far, it's been working perfectly. Along with Prime movies and tv, I'm also using Prime music, Netflix, Crackle and AllCast. All work perfectly except for Netflix. On Netflix, video freezes about 10-15 minutes before the end of the movie, audio continues. I have to back out and then resume. Only takes a few seconds but it's annoying. It's the only app that's giving me a problem.
I also sideloaded BS Player and ES File Explorer. I wanted to use them for playing movies stored on my PC. Both are working just fine. I have mine connected to my A/V receiver (Yamaha). Picture quality is excellent, as is audio through my system.
I'm VERY pleased with the stick, and will buy another one for a second tv.
I have no experience with the Chromecast so I can't comment on it.
But the Fire tv stick is, for me, a no brainer if you subscribe to Amazon Prime. Terrific add-on to my system.

[Q] Multi-Room Kodi via Fire TV?

I'd like to extend my Fire TV's Kodi experience beyond my living room to a second TV in the bedroom. Is there any way to share all the Favourites I've saved on my living room Fire TV to a second set up in the bedroom?
You can do it thru UPNP
http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Share_libraries_using_UPnP
Or you can setup a mysql server
http://kodi.wiki/view/MySQL/Setting_up_MySQL
http://kodi.wiki/view/MySQL/Setting_up_XBMC
Thanks for the ultra-fast response.
designgears said:
You can do it thru UPNP
http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Share_libraries_using_UPnP
Sweet! So If I understand this correctly, as long as the two FireTV boxes are on the same LAN, I can us UPnP, correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Raymondo17 said:
Thanks for the ultra-fast response.
designgears said:
You can do it thru UPNP
http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Share_libraries_using_UPnP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet! So If I understand this correctly, as long as the two FireTV boxes are on the same LAN, I can us UPnP, correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is correct.
If I understooed the above UPnP link correctly, it setup device A (living room) as the server and device B (say, bedroom) as the client so if you are watching a show in the living room to 10:44 minutes, then you should be able to go to the bedroom and continue watching the same show from 10:44 min without having to start from the beginning, this part I think I understand. What if you watch the show to 11:05 min in the bedroom (the client) then you want to continue watching it from where you left off in the Living room (server). I am not sure if this is possible with UPnP server/client relationship. I think you will need to setup SQL for it, do I have the correct understanding ?
lowbee said:
If I understooed the above UPnP link correctly, it setup device A (living room) as the server and device B (say, bedroom) as the client so if you are watching a show in the living room to 10:44 minutes, then you should be able to go to the bedroom and continue watching the same show from 10:44 min without having to start from the beginning, this part I think I understand. What if you watch the show to 11:05 min in the bedroom (the client) then you want to continue watching it from where you left off in the Living room (server). I am not sure if this is possible with UPnP server/client relationship. I think you will need to setup SQL for it, do I have the correct understanding ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should work both ways.
OK, finally got around to setup MySQL for all 4 of my FireTV running Kodi
Watched status is working for videos stored on my LAN meaning I can watch a show half way in the living and continue from the same spot in the bedroom.
Syncing and library for Genesis add-on is NOT working, I searched high and low on the Internet but couldn't find a solution except to use an add-on called trakt but I prefer not to use it due to privacy issue so if anyone have any tips or trick on how to sync watched status in Genesis across 4 XBMC on MySQL server, please share. Thanks in advance.
This article here explains how to setup Genesis for mySql.
http://kinkeadtech.com/2015/06/sync-genesis-tv-movie-libraries-across-multiple-kodi-htpcs/
It only works when you add a movies or tv show to your library. Once you have, watched status will work across all devices communicating with your mySql database. One thing that won't currently work is resuming from another device. This is stored locally. I believe the developer of Genesis has this in his pipeline to get done.
I setup mysql for the 1st time a couple weeks back and its pretty awesome! My experience getting it to work was very easy (not advanced like the wiki says) but one thing threw me off. I had devices running isengard beta1 and 2. Thought they'd share the same database but I was wrong. Beta1 is myvideos92.db and beta2 is myvideos93.db. I knew you needed to run the same version but didn't think beta2 would be on a completely different db.
Just thought I share in case someone misinterprets the guide like I did.

[Q] Fire TV XBMC Stutter/Jitter

I have spent about 3 weeks with my Fire TV now and have scoured the internet for a solution but have had no luck thus far. Out of all my research thought this forum seem to have the most relevant answers, thus why I am posting here and hopefully somebody will be able to assist before I get rid of it.
First I can stream movies and television shows on Netflix and XBMC with no problems, running Kodi 14.1.
When I try and stream a movie or television show from my Windows server I get a very annoying stutter/jitter when both wired and wireless.
This happens with 720p or 1080p. I do not get any dropped or skipped frames while running codecinfo.
I have changed the video acceleration and playback settings numerous times with no luck. ie. hardware, software video acceleration, libstagefright, mediacodec etc. messed with audio and several other things that I found suggested on the internet.
Now prior to this I ran everything wireless over a WDTV with no issues at all, video nive and smooth. Should I just give up on the Fire TV and go back to the WDTV?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
I had similar issues. Did you try SPMC instead of Kodi? Also, you might want to try using a advancedsetings.xml file to correctly set the caching and read-ahead.
EDIT: Here's mine for Kodi 14.1:
Code:
<!-- tuxen -->
<advancedsettings>
<network>
<curlclienttimeout>45</curlclienttimeout>
<cachemembuffersize>104857600</cachemembuffersize>
<readbufferfactor>10</readbufferfactor>
</network>
<gui>
<algorithmdirtyregions>3</algorithmdirtyregions>
<nofliptimeout>0</nofliptimeout>
</gui>
<videoscanner>
<ignoreerrors>true</ignoreerrors>
</videoscanner>
</advancedsettings>
How are the videos shared from your Windows server? What protocol are you using?
Have you tried a different protocol? I use SMB from my Win7 machine to FireTV and it's always worked well.
KCFish said:
How are the videos shared from your Windows server? What protocol are you using?
Have you tried a different protocol? I use SMB from my Win7 machine to FireTV and it's always worked well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had some issues with stuttering as well. I changed my router and the new one did not support Samba, so I switched to NFS and things got better. I still occasionally get a buffering break now, but I can't be sure if it was the new router or NFS. Everything I've read is that NFS is much faster than Samba.
Thank you all for your answers.
Sizzlechest; as for the advancedsetings.xml I did set that with other setting I found on the internet, I will give yours a try. Can someone tell me if I can edit my existing advancedsettings.xml and if so how? or do I just create a new one and push it to my Fire TV
As for what protocol I'm using on my windows server I'm not sure. I am accessing it via samba share on my fire tv, I couldn't seem to find the server using NFS, but will try it again.
It's a Windows Homer Server with Power Pack 3 2009
on an Acer Aspire Easystore.
I've read that SPMC is better on the Fire TV then KODI and have planned to try it, I just need to find some install instructions for it on the Fire TV, I have some computer background but am fairly new to the XBMC scene.
pj311 said:
Thank you all for your answers.
Sizzlechest; as for the advancedsetings.xml I did set that with other setting I found on the internet, I will give yours a try. Can someone tell me if I can edit my existing advancedsettings.xml and if so how? or do I just create a new one and push it to my Fire TV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There won't be an advancedsettings.xml file on a regular install. It has to be added.
Ok here is another strange one.
I brought the fire tv to my basement and hooked it up to me Epson Power Lite Home Cinema. I do not have a wired connection here so I had to run it wireless. Well it played everything perfectly!
What I was playing on before was a Sony KDL EX-500, could my TV be the problem?
This makes no sense to me, it's it something to do with the refresh rate of the tv, or a possible setting in the tv?
Ok I solved the problem .....My Sony TV has a feature called Cinemotion. I had played with the Motionflow both on and off and that didn't help the problem. Turns out Cinemotion was on and this is what was causing the stutter with XBMC. It had nothing to do with Fire TV and XBMC like I had thought and spent the last week blaming....thanks again for your help.
Cheers

AFTV ver.1 Video Playback micro stutters (local media files over network)

Ok So I have an AFTV ver. 1 Running Fire OS 5.0.5 and Kodi 16.0. and all of my media files will micro stutter (doesn't matter if the file is High Bitrate or not) my settings are as follows:
I have Audio Pass through enabled with Resample rate set to Low (my receiver can handle DD and DTS and the sound comes out as expected)
I have also set in video settings set display to match source refresh rate (i have tried both "Always" and "On Start/Stop")
For the Most Part the video files play fine, but every so often the file will micro stutter. All of my files are h.264 mkv's (either blu-ray rips or HD TV shows) The TV shows seem to do it the worst. I have searched the web for answers and can't figure it out. One theory that I have is that the AFTV can't output and any other refresh rate than 60hz so that is causing a problem with things that were filmed in 23.97fps or 29.97fps. If anyone has any advice for me I would really be thankful.
I may be making a big deal out of nothing, but coming from a WD TV Live box I didn't have any problems like this, don't get me wrong I wont be going back to the WD now that I have the speed of KODI, but I just want to know if its a limitation of the Hardware.
Edit I have come to the acceptance that it is a limit of the hardware. I grabbed my roommates FTV ver 2 (also updated to Fire OS 5.0.5 and running KODI 16.0 and configured it the exact same way) ran the same files and they played flawlessly. Looks like I will be upgrading.
jdawg0024 said:
Ok So I have an AFTV ver. 1 Running Fire OS 5.0.5 and Kodi 16.0. and all of my media files will micro stutter (doesn't matter if the file is High Bitrate or not) my settings are as follows:
I have Audio Pass through enabled with Resample rate set to Low (my receiver can handle DD and DTS and the sound comes out as expected)
I have also set in video settings set display to match source refresh rate (i have tried both "Always" and "On Start/Stop")
For the Most Part the video files play fine, but every so often the file will micro stutter. All of my files are h.264 mkv's (either blu-ray rips or HD TV shows) The TV shows seem to do it the worst. I have searched the web for answers and can't figure it out. One theory that I have is that the AFTV can't output and any other refresh rate than 60hz so that is causing a problem with things that were filmed in 23.97fps or 29.97fps. If anyone has any advice for me I would really be thankful.
I may be making a big deal out of nothing, but coming from a WD TV Live box I didn't have any problems like this, don't get me wrong I wont be going back to the WD now that I have the speed of KODI, but I just want to know if its a limitation of the Hardware.
Edit I have come to the acceptance that it is a limit of the hardware. I grabbed my roommates FTV ver 2 (also updated to Fire OS 5.0.5 and running KODI 16.0 and configured it the exact same way) ran the same files and they played flawlessly. Looks like I will be upgrading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exact same issue running the aftv1, but using plex not kodi. I'll try my aftv2 like you to see if it makes a difference. It shouldn't [emoji2]
Try turning off rate switching. AFAIK Android does not yet support this.
jmerrilljr2 said:
Try turning off rate switching. AFAIK Android does not yet support this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried rate switching on and off. Same problem. Doesn't happen on the FTV 2
I have no idea what is going on with your set-up but I can tell you that I have 4 FireTv1 units in my home and I can watch different content from my NAS without any issues at all.
I do not think we should be blaming the hardware......... just saying
bula1ca said:
I have no idea what is going on with your set-up but I can tell you that I have 4 FireTv1 units in my home and I can watch different content from my NAS without any issues at all.
I do not think we should be blaming the hardware....I am just saying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind posting your video and audio settings? Also what version Kodi are you running?
jdawg0024 said:
Would you mind posting your video and audio settings? Also what version Kodi are you running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will post them when I get home tonight but honestly I do not remember doing anything special other then install zero cache. BTW have you ever use Raw Maintenance to clean cache etc. I will recommend using it once a week at least. BTW I am on v16 at the moment just updated few days back from v15.2
bula1ca said:
I will post them when I get home tonight but honestly I do not remember doing anything special other then install zero cache. BTW have you ever use Raw Maintenance to clean cache etc. I will recommend using it once a week at least. BTW I am on v16 at the moment just updated few days back from v15.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have zero cached enabled already and I will try to clean the cache
jdawg0024 said:
I have zero cached enabled already and I will try to clean the cache
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a search on youtube on how to install Raw Maintenance, it has three options Clear Cache, Deletes Thumbnails and Purge Packages
bula1ca said:
Do a search on youtube on how to install Raw Maintenance, it has three options Clear Cache, Deletes Thumbnails and Purge Packages
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All that can be done from the maintenance tool add-on. Under general maintenance.
bula1ca said:
I have no idea what is going on with your set-up but I can tell you that I have 4 FireTv1 units in my home and I can watch different content from my NAS without any issues at all.
I do not think we should be blaming the hardware......... just saying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about your video encoding settings, what file formats, codecs you use that work well...
Thanks for all of the suggestions, but I have purchased a Fire TV gen 2 and it has fixed all my problems. I have it set up the exact same way as the gen 1 and everything plays great
jdawg0024 said:
Thanks for all of the suggestions, but I have purchased a Fire TV gen 2 and it has fixed all my problems. I have it set up the exact same way as the gen 1 and everything plays great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, you didn't "fix" the problem at all, you circumvented it by buying another piece of hardware [emoji6]
ldeveraux said:
What about your video encoding settings, what file formats, codecs you use that work well...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, been busy with my kids for the last few days. I did not change any of the video encoding settings from what I remember.
bula1ca said:
Sorry, been busy with my kids for the last few days. I did not change any of the video encoding settings from what I remember.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant the files you're playing, not the FireTV. I think it may be a combination of video/audio encoding and the FireTV1 not playing well. What container and audio/video codec for your video files? What does MediaInfo output on them? This may be the key to understanding how best to store media for the device...
ldeveraux said:
Well, you didn't "fix" the problem at all, you circumvented it by buying another piece of hardware [emoji6]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct, I did not fix the problem with my FTV gen 1. Over the past couple of days I had the FTV 1, FTV 2, and the Fire Stick (was setting up the stick for a friend). Both the FTV 1 and Fire Stick showed the same issues while trying to play large bitrate files. They would stutter. (not to the point that the file was unwatchable, but it was bad enough.) The FTV 2 however plays the same video file smoothly.
jdawg0024 said:
You are correct, I did not fix the problem with my FTV gen 1. Over the past couple of days I had the FTV 1, FTV 2, and the Fire Stick (was setting up the stick for a friend). Both the FTV 1 and Fire Stick showed the same issues while trying to play large bitrate files. They would stutter. (not to the point that the file was unwatchable, but it was bad enough.) The FTV 2 however plays the same video file smoothly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about the stick? Is that Stick1 or Stick2? I mean, your results aren't surprising, it would be cool to figure out exactly why.
ldeveraux said:
What about the stick? Is that Stick1 or Stick2? I mean, your results aren't surprising, it would be cool to figure out exactly why.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is the firestick 1 and I am not surprised that it had a little stutter problem. I was more surprised about the Fire TV 1 that had a problem. It streams Netflix and Hulu just fine. I know that may be comparing apples to oranges

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