Amazon Firestick 4K Max for Surround Music
- Thread starter HomerJAU
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himey
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
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The Firestick 4K original version did a lot of different formats until a firmware update killed them. Hopefully it doesn't happen again with the Max.
Yes, I scanned the music files with Kodi. (It reads tags from the files to load its database. The Artist Slideshow uses those tags. User’s actually navigate the music database, which is why it’s so much faster than using an Oppo for example. User’s can navigate by folders too, but I seldom do).
I‘ve always used NFS (network protoco) with my NAS for Kodi, but many use SMB. I have one Volume for audio and another for music video (concerts). Other volumes for movies, tv series, backups, etc.
For music I have set up a special Kodi folder named: ‘Artist Information‘ this is used by Kodi to store metadata about each artist: thumbnail (square image, used in Kodi’s ‘Artist’ view); Logo, disc art and multiple Fan Art (all used in the Artist Slideshow), biography, discography etc. Kodi music scraping (scanning) downloads these images/data, the Artist Slideshow also downloads Fan Art when a song is playing.
When I setup Kodi on the new Firestick I set the ‘Artist Information’ folder location, then my music folder location(s) and finally ‘Scanned’ my music folders (The process of finding all music media files and reading tags, cue files etc and updating its music database.
The ’Artist Information’ can also be added or modified manually. I’ve always manually found album covers online (when I tag new albums), I’ve scanned some cover and disc images on a scanner, but mostly I find something already online at Fanart.tv or TheAudioDb.com. For some relatively unknown artists I‘ve searched for images online and manually created the artist biography, but that’s pretty rare. The key is that your music is tagged correctly.
I will upload my Artist Information folder for anyone that’s wants to use it, or just copy specific artist folders. It does not include any music media, just images and data files (xml text files). Last time I checked it was about 5GB and has most artists with surround releases (including many 70s quads).
The trick to getting Kodi to recognise the correct folder is to tag your music with correct and exact artist names, and with a Linux NAS that means the official case (e.g. a-aha is not the same as A-Ha for example). Not many of those to worry about though but there are also artist with and without ‘The’ that surprised me.
The other ‘got ya’ is Kodi wants to read a tag: AlbumArtist - In Kodi ‘Artist’ is the song artist, ‘AlbumArtist’ is the artist that released the album. This allows Kodi to recognise multiple artists in a song: Elton John with Kikki Dee performed on a Song on an Elton John album (Elton John is the AlbumArtist). In Kodi you can find any song performed by any artist (on their own album or any other album, various artist concert, guest appearance etc)
There is also a great free application called Mediaelch (Windows, MacOS and Linux) which auto downloads all the Artist Information for Kodi based on the folder name. I use that occasionally to get new Artist Info and images.
I‘m sure most Kodi users know all this but I thought I’d let others know.
Here is my Kodi QQ Logo mod in action when I play a Penteo Upmix in Kodi with the Artists Slideshow running:
I'd like to see how much of this and some of the other info you've posted in this thread I might be able to apply to my Kodi setup on my Vero 4K+. There was so much for me to learn to get Kodi running properly on that device, and I'm sure I overlooked things that could improve the experience.
himey
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
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When you reinstall Kodi on different machines, how much futzing around do you have to do to get it to the point where you are happy? Are your tags and information folder so complete, that it is just a matter of scanning the files and tags, that it comes out fine, without much additional tweaking? Getting one Kodi machine is nice, but how hard is it to replicate that over to another device?
Edited: To add the two paragraph below: @himey
The only effort is in customising how I want that new Kodi installation to look: Setting up the new skin, Source folder locations, installing some extra add-ons (Artist Slideshow), Date format etc. Mainly configuration. Once that’s done then scanning my source folders to load the Kodi databases (for me it’s music, movies and TV series).
For my music folders/files, once the tags are correct there’s no more work on the next Kodi device if its source is the same (correct) media files. For movies and TV Series the metadata is already set in small xml text files (known as nfo files). This is incredibly fast, 100 movies in less than a minute. The nfo files contain ‘movie tags’: Like Title, Year, Genre, Director, Studio, Actors etc. just like music tags once that data exists it never changes.
I have Kodi devices (2 rooms) that share same media files/folders on my NAS, also share the same Artist Information folder. I don’t have any media on the Kodi devices (music, video, images, data). It’s only Kodi program files and config settings. I do have the Kodi databases on each device but it’s possible to copy them from one to the other if the config ‘source folders’ are the same. it’s also possible to store the databases on a NAS server so they are shared but it’s not quite as fast (network access vs. Local SSD access.
If I do see something that’s not quite right I just fix the tagging issue and BOTH my Kodi devices will show correctly after I rescan the album (Kodi re-reads the updated tags).
Actually having typed all that, each Kodi device caches locally used images (artist and album art, etc) but they are temporary files.
When I test a new device, like I’m doing now with the Firestick, I just point Kodi to my NAS and scan to load into its database.
It’s taken a lot longer with the Firestick as it’s my first Android player (locked down file access), testing playback formats, buying a USB Ethernet adapter etc. I also updated my QQ Logo modified skin for the new v21 version.
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With regard to music tagging... I'm already more than happy with the tagging and cover-art data I've created myself using MP3tag along with .cue sheet file data. How does Kodi respect this and not come up with its own thing?
Kodi doesn't create or alter tags at all. The stuff that it collects on its own does not include any tag data. Kodi runs an artist slideshow that it needs artist bios and artwork for. Don't confuse this with cover art.
Many thanks for the info 
@HomerJAU, looking forward to your "How To" guide! I take it that the VLC player on Firestick does not work with multi-channel music? Is Kodi the only (or preferred) solution for multi-channel music on Firestick?
Some background: I recently purchased a new Denon AVR-X3800H and a Firestick 4K Max was recently brought to my house by a man in a red suit.
I can confirm that Sony 360RA content plays back correctly from the Amazon Music app (with Unlimited subscription), "MPEG-H" is shown on the display of the AVR. Re: multi-channel music playback on the Firestick, I installed VLC and was easily able to connect to my NAS. While it has been able to decode everything I've tried (DTS, FLAC, Atmos), I'm only getting stereo audio out. I have enabled "digital passthru" in the settings, but it doesn't make a difference. On individual tracks, when I try to enabled digital pass-thru, I get a "failed" error message.
Side note, some of my favorite albums I've found in 360RA so far:
Herbie Hancock Secrets, and Thrust
Jamiroquai Travelling Without Moving
Some background: I recently purchased a new Denon AVR-X3800H and a Firestick 4K Max was recently brought to my house by a man in a red suit.
I can confirm that Sony 360RA content plays back correctly from the Amazon Music app (with Unlimited subscription), "MPEG-H" is shown on the display of the AVR. Re: multi-channel music playback on the Firestick, I installed VLC and was easily able to connect to my NAS. While it has been able to decode everything I've tried (DTS, FLAC, Atmos), I'm only getting stereo audio out. I have enabled "digital passthru" in the settings, but it doesn't make a difference. On individual tracks, when I try to enabled digital pass-thru, I get a "failed" error message.Side note, some of my favorite albums I've found in 360RA so far:
Herbie Hancock Secrets, and Thrust
Jamiroquai Travelling Without Moving
I have only been using a Firestick with Kodi as it’s my preferred MCH player. The reason it plays MCH TrueHD Atmos and other pass-through formats is it uses its own Kodi Android bitstream (pass-through) packer. If I select the standard Android bitstream output I lose all MCH playback in Kodi.
I’ll get back to the How To today. Yesterday was a ‘lost afternoon’ down at my local.
Thanks for confirming. Great news!
@audioWolf212 and any other members with a FireStick 4K Max (Gen 2/2023 model).
I’m getting close to releasing a test version of my files to semi automate installation and configuration of Kodi on this device with the QQ Logo modified version of the Aeon Nox Silvo skin.
Please let me know if you are interested in trying it out. Before release I will have tested it on a 2nd FS 4K Max here, so it should work correctly. But as first users there maybe more questions regarding understanding my documentation etc. I’d like to make it as easy as possible.
Once the Firestick is setup (the standard first run after purchase, including connection to your wifi) users must:
BTW: If you are on a Mac you should be able to replicate the Windows batch file as a script very easily.
When the batch is completed (not long), Kodi can be run from the FS. Users will then need to set their music source folder location(s). This is the root folder under which all your surround music album folders are. This could be on a server or PC on your network, or a local usb drive (if you have one connected to your FS). I will document how to do that in Kodi. Kodi will then scan all your files and load its music database.
For Kodi to run as expected ALL your album tracks must be tagged, including the AlbumArtist tag (many user don’t tag this). Every tagging app I know supports this tag, so check your files and add the tag if necessary. If you are just trialling Kodi just fix a few albums and load those into Kodi, you don’t have to do them all.
Of course, to play surround you’ll need to insert the FS into your AVRs HDMI port or into a TV with ARC HDMI to your AVR. Kodi sends MCH audio via HDMI Passthrough.
I’m getting close to releasing a test version of my files to semi automate installation and configuration of Kodi on this device with the QQ Logo modified version of the Aeon Nox Silvo skin.
Please let me know if you are interested in trying it out. Before release I will have tested it on a 2nd FS 4K Max here, so it should work correctly. But as first users there maybe more questions regarding understanding my documentation etc. I’d like to make it as easy as possible.
Once the Firestick is setup (the standard first run after purchase, including connection to your wifi) users must:
- Set the Firestick to ’Android Developer Mode’ (easy)
- Get the IP address of the FS from the FS network info (write it down)
- Download my files into a working folder on a PC.
- Run a batch file (it will ask you for the IP address of your FS) - it installs Kodi and copies the add-ons, config/settings files
BTW: If you are on a Mac you should be able to replicate the Windows batch file as a script very easily.
When the batch is completed (not long), Kodi can be run from the FS. Users will then need to set their music source folder location(s). This is the root folder under which all your surround music album folders are. This could be on a server or PC on your network, or a local usb drive (if you have one connected to your FS). I will document how to do that in Kodi. Kodi will then scan all your files and load its music database.
For Kodi to run as expected ALL your album tracks must be tagged, including the AlbumArtist tag (many user don’t tag this). Every tagging app I know supports this tag, so check your files and add the tag if necessary. If you are just trialling Kodi just fix a few albums and load those into Kodi, you don’t have to do them all.
Of course, to play surround you’ll need to insert the FS into your AVRs HDMI port or into a TV with ARC HDMI to your AVR. Kodi sends MCH audio via HDMI Passthrough.
I don't have a 4K Max Fire Stick (yet), and even if I did, I don't know that I'd want to shell out for Amazon Music HD just to get access to 360RA--especially when I don't (yet) have an MPEG-H 3D-capable AVR, either. But I'm very impressed with what you're doing here, @HomerJAU, and I'd love to stay in the loop, just the same!
Well one option would be to decode in software. Then you could create flac mch. Or if you had the Dolby Media Encoder re - encode to Atmos.
The Android Developer Bridge supports Win7 and above. (MMH is not fully supported on Win7, there may be some tools there you’ll want to use).
In light of these new events, I'm thinking seriously on buying a new Firestick 4K Max for the audio room.
Still using older Firestick in living room, but just basic stuff to keep TWF in check. lol.
Still using older Firestick in living room, but just basic stuff to keep TWF in check. lol.
Oh, between my old Fire Stick 4K; an Apple TV; several Oppos; a Windows 10 laptop with foobar2000, VLC Media Player, Windows Movies & TV, and, yes, Kodi; and a 9.1 channel AVR, I'm okay for now (!). Which is to say: I can play pretty much everything I want to, up to and including Atmos 5.1.4. (And even MPEG-H 3D files converted to 6-channel FLAC or some other format, depending upon the nature of the source material.) But like you, I'm kind of curious to keep up with these new developments....
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