Fire Stick 4k

[millerbrad]

Is there an app the works dependably in the US for simple streaming of live TV to the current gen Fire Stick 4K? Live TV right now through the HDHomeRun app is simply awful. I'm not a subscriber to the HDHomeRun DVR service, as I currently use SageTV + SchedulesDirect on my main HTPC in my living room. My issues are with a secondary TV hooked up to a Fire Stick 4K.

My local 1080i NBC station comes through at about 5fps. You can actually see it drawing each frame from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen.

My local 1080i CBS station has the audio lagging about 1 second behind the video. With time, the audio becomes more & more out of sync, video starts stuttering, and eventually it just locks up.

While trying to watch 720p football on FOX yesterday afternoon, after about 15-20 minutes, it simply locked up (both video & audio) on me. I had to just give up and use the TV's weak internal tuner.

EDIT: HDHR Device IDs 1036A700 & 1042D392

[nateb]

Is there an app the works dependably in the US for simple streaming of live TV to the current gen Fire Stick 4K? Live TV right now through the HDHomeRun app is simply awful. I'm not a subscriber to the HDHomeRun DVR service, as I currently use SageTV + SchedulesDirect on my main HTPC in my living room. My issues are with a secondary TV hooked up to a Fire Stick 4K.

My local 1080i NBC station comes through at about 5fps. You can actually see it drawing each frame from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen.

My local 1080i CBS station has the audio lagging about 1 second behind the video. With time, the audio becomes more & more out of sync, video starts stuttering, and eventually it just locks up.

While trying to watch 720p football on FOX yesterday afternoon, after about 15-20 minutes, it simply locked up (both video & audio) on me. I had to just give up and use the TV's weak internal tuner.

EDIT: HDHR Device IDs 1036A700 & 1042D392

I'm using a 4k stick and seeing none of these problems. Your best bet to get the fastest help is by contacting support@silicondust.com and turning on your diagnostic info on your Stick as described here: https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/trouble ... iagnostics

[tdtran_2000]

I still have this problem on my 4K stick as well. I can't play back any video recorded via HDHR in Plex or Emby either, same as you, just freezes up.

I'm getting quiet fed up with it, it's making me wonder if the HDHR is my best option as a DVR as it's been quite a few months unresolved.

Damn, I read that they had fixed the interlaced content issue in the last firmware update but obviously not.

Oddly I can play recorded content fine in Plex, its direct playing as well so no conversion. But as soon as I try to watch a HD channel live the device just locks the video while audio keeps playing.

The HDHomerun app works fine on the Fire Stick Gen 1, Gen 2 and Fire TV Gen 2 (box) but all have interlacing issues so the quality isn't great, I'd hoped this was going to the one that finally got it right.

Same issue with me, only HDHR DVR on Fire TV 4K has problem. Open a case #124419 but there is not much help. Also contact Amazon support but they have not much cared about HDHR app. Very annoying!!

[toppinglift]

Hi All,

Just got my Fire Stick 4K today shortly after discovering and reading this abysmal trail of tears thread for the last 12 pages. I've never seen such lengthy technical pain expressed in a forum like this before, so I didn't have much hope that I was going to have a successful purchase. Sure enough, I loaded the HDHR app, and every OTA channel was pixelated or corrupted, with audio trailing far behind on most channels, or non-existent on others. The one bright spot was the very detailed testing which my fellow forum posters did, and the efforts they made since 2018 to get Amazon to solve this problem with their Fire Stick--a real example of perseverance.

Anyway, I recalled reading in the last 12 pages of postings a few things which, so far, have solved the problem for me (with one exception). Most importantly, Amazon issued a software fix in June for the transcoding problem--it's version 6.2.6.5. Here is the odd thing about first attaching the Fire Stick--the screen says as it is loading that it is "updating the software"--but it didn't update it to the latest update. I didn't know that, until I checked the version (Settings-->My Fire TV-->About). I saw that someone in the prior posting page had a later version. I clicked on "Install Update" and the program updated again to the latest version which number I wrote above. Next, I noted that another poster (sorry I can't remember all the names) mentioned he had switched the audio settings of the Fire Stick from Auto to Stereo and the Display from Auto to 1080p 60Hz or lower. I made those changes and all the OTA channels suddenly had crystal clear video and audio, except for one channel in NYC Fox 5.1 WNYW. So, maybe someone could explain why that one channel is not transcoding properly. I hope this helps. (Of course, there were many postings that the stability did not last long or at most 20 or so hours, so we will see if this will work. I will keep you posted.

[NedS]

We are investigating what is going on with the Fire TV devices. Maybe something weird happened with the last update that was meant to help with the 1080i AVC video stuff. We hope to have it fixed as soon as we can.

[Finchy505]

I'm on version 6.2.6.5 but I'm still having the same problems in the UK with HD channels and recordings from those channels. Just crashes the app. Really annoying that it's still not been resolved. This thing can play large x264 file and 4k stuff but struggles with mpeg recordings. Pffft!

[jasonl]

Do you have the latest HDHomeRun app version installed? It blocks the broken decoder from being used.

[Finchy505]

Do you have the latest HDHomeRun app version installed? It blocks the broken decoder from being used.

Hi Jason. Yes, I am on the latest HDHR app. I have just tried it and it does now work fine for the HD channels, both playback and recordings, although it doesn't seem quite a smooth as normal. Thanks.

So have the Emby and Plex developers been advised as to how to get around the problem as both Emby and Plex are unable to show live video via HDHR or recordings from those channels.

[jasonl]

The hardware decoder provides the best quality results, but only if it actually works.

I don't know what the Emby and Plex developers know. We have our own player on Android so we can selectively block certain decoders from being used if they are known to have problems. In this case we just have some code that checks to see if all three of "running on Stick 4K", "video is H.264", and "video is interlaced", and if so, block that particular decoder from being used. Plex and Emby may or may not have that same level of control over the player in their apps.

[Finchy505]

Ah, ok. They may not be aware. I don't suppose you guys are able to share your info with the Plex devs so they can try to do similar? The main reason for me getting the HDHR was to use it with my Plex setup and it's really frustrating having to individually reencode loads of videos to get them to play back ok.

Thanks

[jasonl]

I don't know how much more there is to share, but they know how to reach us if they have any questions about it.

[jasonl]

An update that should improve the audio sync issues with the Stick 4K is available. Those of you who have seen issues, please test it out and let us know if it improves things for you.

[lbedard@verizon.net]

Running 20191025 still a MESS Freezes constantly, audio keeps going, pretty useless to try to watch.

[mustang5o]

An update that should improve the audio sync issues with the Stick 4K is (finally) available. Those of you who have seen issues, please test it out and let us know if it improves things for you.

Which version should we be looking for?

[jasonl]

20191025 is the app version.