Would love some assistance from someone that's got their Fire TV up and running. I got mine this morning and played around a bit, loved it - but had to go back to work. Now that I've had the chance to check it out more I'm having all sorts of issues.
I'm familiar with GTV boxes and the Android client in general - this is nothing new to me - but I can't seem to get audio sorted out.
My Fire TV is going through my Onkyo receiver. With the exception of stereo, all audio is being transcoded. It will only even play audio if I go into the device media profile and uncheck support for everything. DD & DTS will only play using PCM. Lots of video plays just result in 'this file cannot be played'.
In the device media profile I've tried switching around from Android, Google TV & Direct Play... Direct Play results in not being able to play any video. The other two seem to make no difference.
99.9% of my library are H.264 Mp4/MKV w/DD 5.1 or DTS.
Really surprised I'm having so much trouble with this and think surely there must be some ridiculously obvious setting I'm missing somewhere either on the Fire or the Plex Client.
EDIT
This should really be moved to the new FireTV forum.
Well... I have to say this is what I was expecting... I don't think the plex client was tailored for the new device and is running essentially the stock android client. According to documentation I saw on the amazon developer site for the fire, there are only a few select codecs and bitrates that are supported by what I can tell is the system API for decoding and displaying video. I haven't actually looked at the SDK but I'm guessing their API only allows for those specific codecs. That said, if the plex client was tailored for the device we might see support for more codecs with software decoding and possibly HD audio pass through but my hopes are slim to none for this.... Again I am disappointed by what seemed like a cool device being released only to find out that just like every other gimmicky player on the market that has settled for subpar video and audio quality while targeting the masses who probably don't know or don't care. When are we going to see a true plex device where we get 24p playback, HD audio pass through, a good remote and smooth playback / menu navigation...? I'm convinced we wont see from any of the big players in the market anytime soon :( my only hope is that a client for xbone will show up with HD audio playback....
you must be the only one who cared enough to post from the group getting theirs today. Just wait until tomorrow. I think you'll have a lot more responses as that is when most are getting theirs.
I'm confident there will be a lot of actual details then so your issues may get worked out.
I get mine tomorrow and will be attempting to get this working. The specs say it should support pass though of the hd audio so I am hopeful it is a client profile issue. BTW, lots of discussion here as well: https://forums.plex.tv/topic/104667-plex-for-amazon-firetv
Wow — I was just coming on to post this. I use a Denon AVR-X1000 in the room where the FireTV is located. I set it up exactly the same as the Sony NSZ-GS8 that it was supposed to replace. Like David, no audio would play back at all. I had to de-select all the audio options in the Plex app settings as well as disable Dolby Digital Plus in the FireTV settings before any audio would play back. So not only is all audio transcoding, but it's all stereo. Unless there are some hidden menus I'm not seeing it looks like this puppy is going straight back to Amazon.
Wow — I was just coming on to post this. I use a Denon AVR-X1000 in the room where the FireTV is located. I set it up exactly the same as the Sony NSZ-GS8 that it was supposed to replace. Like David, no audio would play back at all. I had to de-select all the audio options in the Plex app settings as well as disable Dolby Digital Plus in the FireTV settings before any audio would play back. So not only is all audio transcoding, but it's all stereo. Unless there are some hidden menus I'm not seeing it looks like this puppy is going straight back to Amazon.
Yup, identical issues OmegaRed172. Are you using HDMI? I'm about to switch over to optical and see if it makes any difference.
From the Plex Blog "We’ve been impressed with the performance of the device, and we’re happy to report that Plex runs great on it." ...I'm really starting to question if they had early access to the box to legitimately make that statement. On mine, it's a mess. Aside from the audio problems and video problems, it seems really crash happy. Where as it's a rock solid beast on my NSZ-GT1 & GS8.
Again I am disappointed by what seemed like a cool device being released only to find out that just like every other gimmicky player on the market that has settled for subpar video and audio quality while targeting the masses who probably don't know or don't care. When are we going to see a true plex device where we get 24p playback, HD audio pass through, a good remote and smooth playback / menu navigation...?
Again, again and again. How many years have we been waiting now?!
Pathetic... :(
Yes, I'm on HDMI. I'll try to dig up an optical cable to test whether surround sound works over that. Although if you look at the FireTV settings, the choices are Dolby Digital+ over HDMI, or Dolby Digital (not +) over optical, so it won't be a 1:1 comparison.
I have the same issue with Audio not playing when hooked to my Sony receiver. I also get allot of cannot be played messages. Difference is I am using a Vizio Co-Star not a FireTV... Both are android so I suspect the issue is the same. I found switching back to the old Transcoder allows everything to play.
Yes, I'm on HDMI. I'll try to dig up an optical cable to test whether surround sound works over that. Although if you look at the FireTV settings, the choices are Dolby Digital+ over HDMI, or Dolby Digital (not +) over optical, so it won't be a 1:1 comparison.
Switched to optical - made no difference. Same issues.
Are you running the latest Plexconnect version of PMS? 0.9.9.8
What happens if you replace "Android.xml" with the contents of "Mystery.xml"? They're located in "Resources/Profiles", then restart your PMS server. It's likely matching the stock android profile that doesn't support another other than 2 channel AAC.
Are you running the latest Plexconnect version of PMS? 0.9.9.8
What happens if you replace "Android.xml" with the contents of "Mystery.xml"? They're located in "Resources/Profiles", then restart your PMS server. It's likely matching the stock android profile that doesn't support another other than 2 channel AAC.
I assume you mean Plex Pass version and not Plexconnect. Yes.
I don't have a Resources/Profiles folder in the PMS folder structure.
Switched to optical - made no difference. Same issues.
Yep, I just tried the same thing. No sound unless all audio options in Plex were unchecked, and then only stereo plays. Meanwhile, the same 1080p AC3 file Direct Plays on the NSZ-GS8.
Tried switching to the old transcoder for the heck of it. Forces all video into 640x ...heh, not the desired result. No audio change.
Are you running the latest Plexconnect version of PMS? 0.9.9.8
What happens if you replace "Android.xml" with the contents of "Mystery.xml"? They're located in "Resources/Profiles", then restart your PMS server. It's likely matching the stock android profile that doesn't support another other than 2 channel AAC.
I think you may be on to something. It does look like the Android.xml profile is set to 2ch AAC, whereas the Mystery.xml has many more options detailed. I'll make the switch later this evening and report back. After a quick Google search it appears that others around "teh interwebz" are having similar issues with regard to Plex and surround sound on the FTV, even though Amazon Prime videos playback AC3 without issue.
As someone earlier mentioned, the Plex app is bone stock and all audio seems to currently require transcoding, only playing back in 2ch/stereo.
Perhaps the android Plex app will get updated to better support the FTV? Devs?
I switched the Android.xml profile with the Mystery.xml profile in the PMS app (Version 0.9.9.8.436-8abe5c0 on OSX). No luck. DTS content transcoded to 2ch, while AC3 content had no sound at all.
I also queued up an Amazon Prime video to test. Justified S01E01 played in DD+ 5.1 sound with no problem. So it appears the issue does lie with Plex, either in the android app or the profile settings within PMS itself.
I also queued up an Amazon Prime video to test. Justified S01E01 played in DD+ 5.1 sound with no problem. So it appears the issue does lie with Plex, either in the android app or the profile settings within PMS itself.
Yeah I have no issue getting 5.1 from anything else... this is solely a Plex issue. Though we've had no official feedback from devs I'm hopeful this will be an easy enough fix.
Elan is aware of the issue (see the bottom of his blog post), so there will likely be a fix in short order.
