24 Dec 2020

[kyl416]

The 2nd gen fire stick was released in 2016, hardware based HEVC decoding was still limited to higher end devices at the time. Software HEVC decoding was introduced with Lollipop, but the initial version was limited in what profiles and resolutions it could decode. The software HEVC decoder from that era probably can't handle HD content.

[robertbaetke]

As a general guideline, if a playback device doesn't claim 4K support, it doesn't have an HEVC decoder, and therefore won't play ATSC 3 channels.

I used an app called "Informer" to read out the capabilities of the Firestick and it lists...
Video Support: H.265(HEVC), H.264, H.263, MPEG-4, MPEG-2
Audio Support: eAC3, AC3, AAC3-LC, HE-AACV1, HE-AACV2, and a bunch of others.

I also ran "Informer" on the 4K Firestick and it shows video support for H.265 as well.
However, it lists AC4 under audio support.

So, it seems to me that the video should work on the regular Firestick but there will be no audio due to lack of AC4.
Is that correct? Does that also mean the old Firesticks will never work with ATSC 3.0?

[CBme]

As a general guideline, if a playback device doesn't claim 4K support, it doesn't have an HEVC decoder, and therefore won't play ATSC 3 channels.

I used an app called "Informer" to read out the capabilities of the Firestick and it lists...
Video Support: H.265(HEVC), H.264, H.263, MPEG-4, MPEG-2
Audio Support: eAC3, AC3, AAC3-LC, HE-AACV1, HE-AACV2, and a bunch of others.

I also ran "Informer" on the 4K Firestick and it shows video support for H.265 as well.
However, it lists AC4 under audio support.

So, it seems to me that the video should work on the regular Firestick but there will be no audio due to lack of AC4.
Is that correct? Does that also mean the old Firesticks will never work with ATSC 3.0?

Support for codecs isn't always universal so it may be that the older firestick shows it but that it can only be used with certain apps, or more likely with certain types of containers (.mp4 but not a transport stream). As for AC4, it may be possible for the old firestick to be updated via software, I doubt they would care to, especially given the low cost of those things and the fact they are releasing new versions every year or two. But once FFMpeg is updated and apps incorporate the support, you should be able to play TV through something like Plex where it is transcoded to something the device can support.

[jasonl]

Refer to kyl416's post. It might list it but if it doesn't explicitly claim 4K support then odds are it's not going to work. All of these streaming devices are of course primarily targeted towards streaming video. Streaming video that is 1080p or lower is almost always AVC (H.264), so there's no real reason for a non-4K device to include HEVC support, especially since it adds to the manufacturer's cost. The majority of 4K streaming video is HEVC, so 4K devices do include HEVC support. ATSC 3 is all HEVC, so as a result, you can pretty much expect that you need a 4K-capable device to play it, even if the broadcast itself isn't actually 4K.