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Post by liffy99 on Dec 3, 2019 11:16:24 GMT
Please move if this is not the right forum for this one !
I succumbed to the lure and bought a standard (not 4k) Firestick this week to plug into my 9 year old Pioneer Kuro 50" plasma (still a gorgeous picture, only now being matched and possibly exceeded with OLED and 4k). And then the fun started . . .
First of all the Firestick has no audio output of its own. I could happily see the video when plugged into the HDMI 1.3 port on the TV, but no sound of course.
Found the TV's optical digital output and hooked that up to my Lyngdorf digital amp. No joy. The TV (like all others I understand) cannot split an audio track from an HDMI source over optical or SPDIF due to copyright limitations. Issue resolved for now by taking an analogue feed from the TV into the amp.
So, this got me wondering about better ways to do this (and reduce the number of leads). I could get the optional HDMI module for the amp (silly price mind you) - but presume I would then plug the Firestick into that and use the video pass through to the TV. Or my Oppo blu ray player has HDMI in and out - if I plug the fire stick into that I would still be met with the inability to split a full resolution audio signal from the audio output. However, rather than take an analogue output, the Oppo at least provides a downsampled digital audio output at 16/48 which should be better than analogue.
An AV receiver would probably be a solution, but that would be going backward in audio quality at the prices I could afford (Lyngddorf MP60 anyone - ouch) and I don't need all the channels etc.
What have other done with their Firesticks 
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Post by Pinch on Dec 3, 2019 14:59:37 GMT
That's odd. The audio from my two connected HDMI devices - Firestick and games console - runs from my TV's optical output into my DAC without any problems.
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Post by MikeMusic on Dec 3, 2019 15:10:05 GMT
I use the Toslink from my TV to the digital TAD Pre
Previously RCA from TV to Belles Pre
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Post by liffy99 on Dec 3, 2019 19:35:22 GMT
Must be down to the TV then. On my Pioneer the digital outputs are disabled if the source is HDMI.
What output resolution do you get from your TV over optical ?
I suspect it is downsampled from the 24/96 or 24/192 that comes across from HDMI.
That would be the same as my OPPO does.
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Post by MikeMusic on Dec 3, 2019 20:52:27 GMT
My source is SCART from Tivo and the TV itself, coax from Freeview box
Will try HDMI and see if that changes it
Hang on the Firestick is HDMI and works fine
I was surprised and dead happy it worked !
No idea what resolution I get. TV doesn't do optical in
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Post by Slinger on Dec 3, 2019 21:21:40 GMT
Daft question: Have you checked the audio settings on the Fire stick? "Dolby Digital Plus" can cause problems. If you go to "Home" on the Fire Stick menu and then Settings > Display & Sounds You can check that the "Dolby Digital Plus" is switched off.
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Post by liffy99 on Dec 3, 2019 22:41:27 GMT
Yes, did that. I think it’s simply a matter of what manufacturers are prepared to allow through a digital output. They cannot pass the full, high res signal through optical or spdif as there is no final HDMI handshake at the receiving end. But some , like my OPPO blu ray player, but not my Pioneer tV, will pass a downsampled digital stream. I can live with Analogue for Amazon Prime until a new TV comes along (or I can persuade Lyngdorf to charge a reasonable price for their HDMI module - crikey, £500 would buy me a whole AV receiver.).
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Post by naim1425 on Dec 4, 2019 17:53:17 GMT
has this not got something to do with ARC audio return channel, because on my stick and NVidia shield i play 4k movies through Netflix and get Dolby digital 5.1,the shield and stick is plugged into the oled TV for the 4k picture part and the sound comes through a pioneer 1080p av receiver
when i played the shield/stick through the av amp the 4k picture was scaled down to 1080p.that's why im looking for a new av amp with 4k pass through also is the hdmi set to pass through,i may be totally wrong,but just a thought.when i get a chance i will look at the stick settings.
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Post by liffy99 on Dec 4, 2019 19:57:03 GMT
I’m ok with getting analogue audio out of the TV for now. 4K, OLED, ARC etc are not part of a 9 year old TV. I was just trying to get a digital audio out, in mete 2 channel.
I can probably do this through my OPPO or HDMI de-embedded.
When I am rich I will buy a new TV but probably never be able to afford a Lyngdorf MP60 😂
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