[mythtv-users] Stupid Fire Stick Match Frame Rate feature

Paul Gardiner lists at glidos.net
Sat Mar 27 22:38:31 UTC 2021


On 27/03/2021 21:22, James Abernathy wrote:
> 
> 
> On Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 5:16 PM James Abernathy <jfabernathy at gmail.com 
> <mailto:jfabernathy at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>     On Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 4:44 PM Paul Gardiner <lists at glidos.net
>     <mailto:lists at glidos.net>> wrote:
> 
>         On 27/03/2021 19:55, Peter Bennett wrote:
>          >
>          > On 3/27/21 3:21 PM, Paul Gardiner wrote:
>          >> This is not really a mythtv question, but it is related.
>         I've been
>          >> using Leanfront a lot lately. It's just awesome now. It
>         seems to play
>          >> perfectly anything I throw at it. Possibly, if I hadn't already
>          >> recently acquired a NUC-based front end, I might now not bother.
>          >>
>          >> Still, that said, what ruins it is how useless is the Fire
>         Stick 4K's
>          >> match frame rate feature. I'm wondering if others are seeing
>         the flaw
>          >> I see. Every time I power cycle it, or power cycle my AV
>         receiver, or
>          >> even switch the AV received away from the Fire Stick, it
>         seems to
>          >> forget my TVs modes. The setting pertains: the fire stick
>         still shows
>          >> display mode on automatic and the match-frame-rate feature
>         enabled,
>          >> but neither leanfront or Prime video will switch. Leanfront
>         explicitly
>          >> reports that the mode it wants isn't present.
>          >>
>          >> I can make it work by temporarily switching the fire stick
>         to 1080p60
>          >> and then back to automatic plus reenabling the match
>         feature. Works
>          >> perfectly, but I have to do that every time I turn it on.
>          >>
>          >> I find it sort of pathetic. The fire stick is produced by a
>         company
>          >> with huge resources and with one purpose - to play video.
>         How can they
>          >> be content with such a flaw.
>          >>
>          >> And Netflix?! Another company with huge resources and exist
>         only to
>          >> supply video, yet their app doesn't even support frame rate
>         switching.
>          >>
>          >> I guess, mitigating this for many is the smoothing feature
>         that many
>          >> modern TVs have, which make motion a little unnatural, but
>         can hide
>          >> frame rate mismatch. Seems a terrible solution to me.
>          >>
>          > I have never seen this problem. I have fire stick 4k's on
>         several TV's
>          > and they switch frame rate without a problem.
> 
>         And I'm guessing by that you mean, not only does the video look
>         good,
>         but you see the explicit switching message. You must mean that:
>         you'd
>         have noticed if it was otherwise.
> 
>          > I have the fire stick
>          > plugged directly into the TV. I suspect your AV receiver is
>         confusing
>          > things somehow. Does "match original frame rate" in the fire
>         stick
>          > settings get disabled?
> 
>         No, the setting stays set. It was entirely a mystery when I was
>         using
>         just the Amazon Prime app, but Leanfront gives more information. It
>         still "considers" switching but reports the mode it wants not
>         present.
>         (A much better written app than Amazon Prime :-) )
> 
>          > Does this happen if you plug the fire stick directly into the TV?
> 
>         I haven't tried that, but perhaps I should. I've been assuming
>         all is
>         fine with my set up because my mythfrontent always switches
>         faultlessly,
>         but I've just realise it's cheating in that I have it loading
>         EDID from
>         a binary file. That's also reminded me that it used to work
>         before I
>         loaded EDID, but only if I turned on the AV receiver before the
>         frontend. It may be that the FireTV picks up EDID only on boot
>         and when
>         the display settings are changed... although that wouldn't
>         explain why
>         you've never seen the problem... so I guess not.
> 
>          > Frame rate switching in leanfront also works on nvidia
>         shield. If you
>          > have a shield you could try it there to narrow down whether
>         it is a
>          > problem specific to the fire stick.
> 
>         No shield to try this on, sadly.
> 
>          > I plug the fire stick directly into the TV, then take optical
>         output
>          > from the TV to the audio system. This successfully carries
>         dolby digital
>          > to the audio system without having the audio system in
>         between the TV
>          > and the fire stick. Another option may be to use a splitter
>         to pass the
>          > hdmi to the tv and the audio system.
> 
>         That's sounds like good advice. That set up never occurred to
>         me. I'd
>         hope my TV has optical out.
> 
> 
>     My FireTV 4k Stick is plugged directly into a really old Sony XBR6
>     TV.  I don't think the TV is doing any compassating or correction.
>     I just spent some time testing on FireTV 4K with some British Crime
>     dramas on Prime Video and they play very well just like USA TV.
> 
>     However, the Shield TV seems to be a lost cause.  At one time I
>     could get the framerate matching beta fix to work, but your really
>     need a newer Shield TV with the fancy new remote with the setting
>     button.
> 
>     Jim A
> 
> 
> I use a HDMI 2.0 splitter and also a HDMI 2.0 switch in my setup.  My 
> UHD TV only has 2 HDMI inputs and I have 4 UHD devices.  So The output 
> of the switch goes to the HDMI 2.0 splitter with one output going to my 
> AV receiver and the other going to the TV.
> 
> My TV will not pass 5.1, but sound from the TV apps can pass 
> multi-channel sound to the AV receiver via optical.  Short of buying a 
> lot of new equipment, this will have to do.

As you and others have suggested, direct connection to the TV seems to 
be significant. I just tried that with my FireTV and it switches 
perfectly, so I'm just ordering this: 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neoteck-Extractor-Adjustment-Optical-Converter-Green/dp/B07D7M8LDN/ref=sr_1_11?crid=2WUNHLIO2DLDT&dchild=1&keywords=hdmi+audio+extractor&qid=1616879398&sprefix=hdmi+audio%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-11. 
Hopefully that will sort out the problem, and the splitter being in line 
wont cause the same problem as the receiver.

Thanks everyone for the help.


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