List of Supported devices

[signde]

Picked up the latest (2023) Amazon Fire TV stick 4K Max today.

The two remaining major networks in ATSC 3.0 here that have not enabled DRM are now using 5.1 channel audio that I wanted to leverage.

Initial runs of the app with no audio configuration, passthrough, and 5.1 surround all resulted in some flavor of PCM that was various levels of terrible. One option was low volume, one was high volume with crazy boomy bass, and all had bad 5.1 mixing / sounded heavily compressed.

Changed AFTV stick surround sound settings from the default of best available to Dolby Digital Plus, changed HDHR app output to passthrough. AVR is now showing 5.1 channels of DD+ audio input and everything sounds perfect. I think the default AFTV audio setting must be useless.

Quite pleased with the results here.

Thanks I was getting out of sync audio your suggestion above fixed for me on my new FireTV max.

is it staying in sync over a period of time for you?

after getting this set up, over the last two evenings on two different ATSC 3 channels i have noticed after some time the audio drifts out of sync on this device in this configuration. if i change the channel or quit the app and come back, the audio will be in sync again. after ~10 minutes or so it will have drifted back out of sync.

the same 3.0 channel on a different device using the cloud transcode service is fine as is the ATSC 1.0 version of the channel on the same firestick device.

[HenryGab]

The HDHomeRun app uses the AC4 support that is built into the player device. If there is no AC4 support the HDHomeRun app falls back to using our cloud transcode service which transcodes to stereo audio. This thread discusses player devices with built in AC4 support (which reminds me I should edit the first post and add player devices that have been released more recently with AC4 support).

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the amazing support and responsiveness you've shown, over many years. I appreciate you!

Quick question: Is there any chance that, if the cloud transcode is required, that the resulting stereo audio stream can be stored for later use (in DVR setups)?

I ask because this would not only reduce cloud transcode costs for SD, but might also reduce user frustrations (family: "But I watched that recording yesterday! Why is it not working now?").

(e.g., a similar-named stream stored with the original recording, checked for at playback?)

Thanks, and good luck Friday!

[signcarver]

Currently using my new "ZW" ATSC3 STB picked up from CM. Just wanted to see if AC4 was processing correctly with the HDHomeRun app if anyone at SD cares to look. I may answer my own question as I look at other things on it but currently hooked only to a 2 speaker tv so a bit hard to tell. I am liking it a lot more than the A*** box I often use the same way. App seems very responsive on it.

Edit: Got an android audio codec failed error when changing from a standard ATSC channel to an ATSC 3 channel changing the channel to another ATSC 3 channel succeeded in bringing it back to working. Tried such again and didn't reproduce.

[nickk]

I can check the codecs - can you please enable "send diagnostic information" in the Settings menu of the HDHomeRun app then restart the app.

[signcarver]

I'll make sure to restart it when I get home later tonight. I thought I had restarted at least once since setting it to send such data but may not have watched a 3.0 channel since the last restart and I also briefly went back to a chromecast on the same tv to compare how snappy the UI seemed to be which may or may not have messed with the logs. A few people have reported having to restart device even on its own ATSC3 Tuner player when switching from a ATSC (mpeg2/ac3) to ATSC3 (hevc/ac4) channel so I have a feeling the HDHomeRun app more graciously caught that error rather than lock up though the message may have come from android (I had not seen such message before and have not seen it again... something about Android Audio Codec Failed, To fix in the app, I just changed from 110.1 to 108.1 and everything was back to working then I restarted in case it switched to online transcoding because of it). I then tried to reproduce the error a couple of times switching between 12.1 and 110.1.

[nickk]

Looks like diagnostic logging is enabled, just didn't get the start. It is doing AC4 "passthrough" conversion.

Try setting the Speaker configuration to 5.1 surround sound in the HDHomeRun settings menu - will be interesting to see what it does.

Ok to set it back to Digital passthrough after testing a few channels.

[nickk]

Fire TV Stick 4K Max (gen2) supports both AC4 passthrough conversion and AC4 via a system codec.

Note however that...
1) the AC4 passthrough conversion will only deliver 5.1 if the FireTV audio output is set to DD+. If it is set to DD or PCM the FireTV will output stereo. This is something the Fire TV Stick does and is not related to the HDHomeRun app.
2) the AC4 system codec always downconverts to stereo. This is something the Fire TV Stick does and is not related to the HDHomeRun app.

The only way to get 5.1 surround sound playing AC4 content on a Fire TV Stick 4K Max (gen2) is to set the FireTV output to DD+ and set the HDHomeRun app speaker configuration to Digital Passthrough (or leave it Unconfigured as the app auto-detects correctly).

[signcarver]

Started a few times between 5:55pm phoenix time and now... also turned on 5.1 speaker configuration rather than passthrough

[nickk]

Started a few times between 5:55pm phoenix time and now... also turned on 5.1 speaker configuration rather than passthrough

Good test - thanks.

The box does not have an AC4 system codec so AC4 passthrough is the only option for local decode. Most likely it will only output 5.1 when converting to DD+.

Also there appears to be a problem with MPEG2 decode forcing the app to switch to software decode in lower quality mode.

We might have to get one here to test MPEG2 in more detail.

[Cabal]

The new Walmart Onn 4k Pro ($50) may have native AC-4 support. It's not officially for sale yet, but some have been picked up off shelves due to early (mistaken?) stocking.

I look forward to giving one a thorough workout when I can find one near me.

[Cabal]

Yikes, ignore my comment above. Having now tested it, the Onn 4K Pro is a very poor device, in addition to lacking native AC-4 support (or is super buggy).

[signcarver]

How did you "test" for ac4 as I didn't see a post here about it with changes of audio (speaker) config aa often they may support such but no native codec only passthrough to typically eventually output better than the online stereo transcode.

Right now unless it has at least partial ac4 support, since it benchmarks worse than 2 versions ago on the 4k box but does have more ram and storage, and supposedly supports mic/speaker for "hey Google " remoteless control and has ethernet... but those features hardly make it "pro" worthy when processor is so limited compared to the older 4k models. I will get one eventually but I have a 4 week cruise coming up soon so trying my hardest not to spend money for a couple of months. I'm almost tempted to get it just for remote but there are cheaper/better remotes out there. I've also heard they are limiting it to 32 bit.

[Cabal]

You're right, this isn't easy to test. There are no OS-level AC-4 configuration options like my working AC-4 boxes. Attempting to watch an ATSC 3.0 broadcast in HDHomeRun fails with an audio error and doesn't fall back to cloud transcoding. From other reports I've seen, it sounds like there may be player-specific AC-4 decoding supported.

After some additional testing with HDHomeRun debug logs enabled, I was able to get some AC-4 audio out (transcoded) to my AVR as 5.1 (I think), but it was extremely buggy and failed often compared to my other devices on the same app/network. It's tough to tell what audio the app was actually sending since the device wants to re-encode everything as DD+.

@nickk Device ID is 10A4C0B0. Would you mind perusing and see if the transient-but-frequent failures make sense? I immediately tested my RockTek G2 afterward and verified no weird broadcast issues (other than KTBC/Fox might be down this morning).

Thanks.