Database Users

[Q] Limelight Game Streaming

Has anyone used the Limelight app? I've got my PC which is wired into a Airport Extreme and then of course the Nexus Player is connected over N my router doesn't do AC. If I do the Nvidia Utility to optimize games and then run at 720p everything runs perfect but if I up it to 1080p it lags not really bad but bad enough that it annoys you. I know it is not the PC because it can run with everything maxed out no problem. I'm assuming it is a bandwidth issue getting to the nexus player. Would it be best to maybe get a USB ethernet adapter or a AC router. I have no problem running the ethernet cable actually already have one ran for my Roku 3.

jtboyz01 said:
Has anyone used the Limelight app? I've got my PC which is wired into a Airport Extreme and then of course the Nexus Player is connected over N my router doesn't do AC. If I do the Nvidia Utility to optimize games and then run at 720p everything runs perfect but if I up it to 1080p it lags not really bad but bad enough that it annoys you. I know it is not the PC because it can run with everything maxed out no problem. I'm assuming it is a bandwidth issue getting to the nexus player. Would it be best to maybe get a USB ethernet adapter or a AC router. I have no problem running the ethernet cable actually already have one ran for my Roku 3.
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mine operates 1080p fine
the only problem I have is sometimes when I load a game directly it is black screen, so I just load it through the steam dashboard.

Streaming from the nvidia tools, the picture is not great but I believe it's due to compression and not resolution. Also there's a bit of input lag, which appears to be due to streaming and not input communication (near instant response on the broadcasting PC).

Gave it my first shot tonight.
I'm using the Nexus Player over LAN via USB OTG and a StarTech (see: cheap-ass) USB 2.0 HUB. I set connection to 1080p 60FPS, and 100MB connection. I'm using a Netgear R6250 AC router. I was able to play Steam Big Picture without any noticeable input lag. I tested several different games: BioShock Infinite (the final checkpoint to the ending), Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (much higher than 60FPS), Final Fantasy XIII (about 1 hour of gameplay), and Brutal Legend (played about 20 minutes of gameplay, hated it). The main point is: I was taken back. I didn't expect this to work so well, and I don't regret my Nexus Player purchase anymore, even if Google were to abandon the project as it stands now (lets be real, this project needs a lot of work).
If there's anything else you'd like to know, I'd be happy to provide the information. Oh, while I'm mentioning what I played, I'm running a fairly decent rig, an i5 4670k, with 8GB Corsiar RAM, and an EVGA GeForce 660Ti. Nothing is currently overclocked.

khoooool

SoundMage said:
Gave it my first shot tonight.
I'm using the Nexus Player over LAN via USB OTG and a StarTech (see: cheap-ass) USB 2.0 HUB. I set connection to 1080p 60FPS, and 100MB connection. I'm using a Netgear R6250 AC router. I was able to play Steam Big Picture without any noticeable input lag. I tested several different games: BioShock Infinite (the final checkpoint to the ending), Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (much higher than 60FPS), Final Fantasy XIII (about 1 hour of gameplay), and Brutal Legend (played about 20 minutes of gameplay, hated it). The main point is: I was taken back. I didn't expect this to work so well, and I don't regret my Nexus Player purchase anymore, even if Google were to abandon the project as it stands now (lets be real, this project needs a lot of work).
If there's anything else you'd like to know, I'd be happy to provide the information. Oh, while I'm mentioning what I played, I'm running a fairly decent rig, an i5 4670k, with 8GB Corsiar RAM, and an EVGA GeForce 660Ti. Nothing is currently overclocked.
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What controller did you use? And was there any issue with button mapping?

SoundMage said:
Gave it my first shot tonight.
I'm using the Nexus Player over LAN via USB OTG and a StarTech (see: cheap-ass) USB 2.0 HUB. I set connection to 1080p 60FPS, and 100MB connection. I'm using a Netgear R6250 AC router. I was able to play Steam Big Picture without any noticeable input lag. I tested several different games: BioShock Infinite (the final checkpoint to the ending), Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (much higher than 60FPS), Final Fantasy XIII (about 1 hour of gameplay), and Brutal Legend (played about 20 minutes of gameplay, hated it). The main point is: I was taken back. I didn't expect this to work so well, and I don't regret my Nexus Player purchase anymore, even if Google were to abandon the project as it stands now (lets be real, this project needs a lot of work).
If there's anything else you'd like to know, I'd be happy to provide the information. Oh, while I'm mentioning what I played, I'm running a fairly decent rig, an i5 4670k, with 8GB Corsiar RAM, and an EVGA GeForce 660Ti. Nothing is currently overclocked.
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Click to collapse
Hmm sounds like it must be a bandwidth issue for me since the Nexus Player is using wireless N and the host is wired. Time to buy a adapter and get a wired connection. Just for curiosity can you try using your AC wireless and see the performance please.

jtboyz01 said:
Hmm sounds like it must be a bandwidth issue for me since the Nexus Player is using wireless N and the host is wired. Time to buy a adapter and get a wired connection. Just for curiosity can you try using your AC wireless and see the performance please.
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I would think in the case of streaming, it would always be better to try to go LAN. I know it's certainly possible to not use WiFi, as I also own an Nvidia Shield Tablet and I play remotely every day (Wifi N,) but certainly preferable to be hard-wired in whenever possible. The Nexus Player automatically switches to LAN when it's connected and settings become available once plugged in. A shame so many things are needed to make that happen though.

I would like to play Grim Fandango Remastered on NP, is it possible via Limelight?
http://grimremastered.com/

Already run an Asus AC68u router (before owning the NP) so I've been playing limelight over ac WiFi. I also have a gtx660ti in my gaming computer. Extremely impressed by nvidia and the folks at limelight who REd the game stream protocol. Truly great experience for me, but I'm not an fps multiplayer fanatic. I just like playing campaign, adventure, hack n slash games on the big screen. My input lag and decode lag was 9ms. I honestly don't know if that's good or bad but it's the numbers I remember from playing Arkham Origins last night. I don't notice any performance hit with that lag. Everything feels real time to me, but I'm probably not very sensitive to that like some real avid gamers may be. Never tried Lan
Everything in my stream library has worked so far. I use the dual shock controller with the sixaxis apk (sideloaded). That screws up the remote but I use my tv remote through HDMI cec anyway, along with the ds3 controller I don't miss the standard controller. The sixaxis apk has a nifty trick that has helped me a few times. In preferences you can toggle "mouse" support with any button. I choose the PS-power button on the ds3. I can't recall which but one of my stream games just sits there asking me to press start, and I can toggle the mouse mode to press it. Most games that ask that (even without game pad support) usually go straight to the game as if limelight is helping you along by providing the start click or something

No problems with Limelght stremaing on mine.. 1080p/60fps, over ac wifi using an AC68u router. I've tested it with about a dozen games at this point, most only briefly.
Latency reported varied from 6 to 10ms, with the median probably falling about 9ms. Feel wise, it was barely perceptible, and didn't have any effect on gameplay in any games tested. I did not test with any shooters, other than Defiance, which is toward the slow end anyway as shooters go. I probably ran about 1hr of Guild Wars 2 through it without any problems - no disconnecting, crashing ,or other wonkyness. Once or twice I'd notice compression artifacts but they would clear up in under about 1/4th of a second.
On the gamepad side of things, I played Assassin's Creed: Black Flag a bit, using a 360 wireless gamepad and the MS usb receiver for it. Here's an interesting tidbit - the game popped into gamepad mode, even though there wasn't a gamepad hooked up to the PC itself.
The gamepad mappings were correct/all buttons worked the same within the game as they do when the gamepad is hooked directly to the PC. I'm not 100% sure that's an out of the box thing though, because I have been messing with the keymap file for the 360 controller to get it's d-pad working in general. I'll have to do a little more testing in that respect when I get a chance.
Overall the experience was great though, and really opens up some interesting possibilities.

I wish my Limelight would work but i think its a problem with my PC and Nvidia Experience sins i cant even get the program to open on my PC, just errors every time i try top open Nvidia Experience, and i tried to connect to my PC from the app and i got prompted with a box to enter the pin and managed to start a game from steam but it didnt work so good, the game started but suddenly i lost the ability to stear and the app kicked me and it takes 10 tried to get it to start just to play 1 minute...
So i tried Splashtop THD and Splashtop 2 but those where unuseable sins the screen was all green and flickery so i have to settle with Kainy HD that works fairly good...

DarkShadowSwE said:
I wish my Limelight would work but i think its a problem with my PC and Nvidia Experience sins i cant even get the program to open on my PC, just errors every time i try top open Nvidia Experience, and i tried to connect to my PC from the app and i got prompted with a box to enter the pin and managed to start a game from steam but it didnt work so good, the game started but suddenly i lost the ability to stear and the app kicked me and it takes 10 tried to get it to start just to play 1 minute...
So i tried Splashtop THD and Splashtop 2 but those where unuseable sins the screen was all green and flickery so i have to settle with Kainy HD that works fairly good...
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Which nvidia GPU are you running?
I remember hearing about something similar called kino console but I've never tried it

darker_slayer said:
Which nvidia GPU are you running?
I remember hearing about something similar called kino console but I've never tried it
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well damn, that worked a lot better, might even pay the ~10$ sins it worked way better than my ~20$+ Splashtop THD.
i got a 970 GTX so should be no problem, but my Nvidia Experience wont even start and seems just buggy as hell, so Kino was a good alternative, low latency and smooth gameplay with the default remote.

Too bad. My 660 does great with limelight. Did you enable gamestream and tell it where to scan your game libraries?
It can also work well just staying inside steam, but on your steam-server you need to go to big picture mode and enable hardware accelerated encoding. HW decoding was enabled by default I believe, but encoding was not. Without it steam IHS will suck through steam and consequently through limelight

darker_slayer said:
Too bad. My 660 does great with limelight. Did you enable gamestream and tell it where to scan your game libraries?
It can also work well just staying inside steam, but on your steam-server you need to go to big picture mode and enable hardware accelerated encoding. HW decoding was enabled by default I believe, but encoding was not. Without it steam IHS will suck through steam and consequently through limelight
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Click to collapse
ah, yes, the streaming was enabled and last time i used it i managed to laung borderlands but it soon stoped working and i allways have connection issues and gets disconnected soon after i connect.
the hardware encoding was not tho..., gonna give it one more go with it enabled when my kid goes to bed tonight, cheers again,

darker_slayer said:
Too bad. My 660 does great with limelight. Did you enable gamestream and tell it where to scan your game libraries?
It can also work well just staying inside steam, but on your steam-server you need to go to big picture mode and enable hardware accelerated encoding. HW decoding was enabled by default I believe, but encoding was not. Without it steam IHS will suck through steam and consequently through limelight
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never knew this was an option . i shall be testing this too thanks
might explain why sometimes i a SLOW ENCODE message on the bottom left , im not using limelight however i have another pc i was just curious about limelight so took a gander in here , glad i did!

Videos randomly stop playing in Kodi

Anybody had or having this issue? I am using TVMC, and I have my video library set up with an SMB share to the Nexus. I will start playing a TV episode and it will stop a few minutes in or halfway through and return back to the episode list. I don't think this has happened with a movie (yet).
I have tried messing with Hardware Acceleration vs Software (one actually works better for streaming sources from outside of my network). Tried clearing out the cache, purging packages. None of these have made any improvements. Thinking I may try to install a vanilla version of Kodi, and maybe also try Gotham.
Did a little searching and haven't found any solutions yet.
This is probably #3 in my disappointments with this device so far along with lack of apps, the Netflix bug, SlingTV's frame rate, and the Live Channels app. Starting to wish I opted for the Fire TV.

Yep Kodi runs like sh.. on my Nexus Player as well.
But on my Shield Tv it runs without any problems.

Video not playing on Kodi
Hi, I had the same problem. My video library is hosted on a Windows 7 PC and connecting over SMB to stream a film would work sometimes but not others. After much research I found the problem to be the network connection to the Windows PC. I found this out by installing ES File explorer on my Android TV and copying a large file to the local storage of the player. The copy would usually start then suddenly stop after a random length of time, additionally the bandwidth was very low. Try this to make sure you can copy a large file to the device without any problems.
I fixed the problem with a combination of solutions. I upgraded the network card drivers of the Windows 7 PC, I purchased an OTG LAN adapter for the Nexus Player and finally I used haneWIN to connect to my media library via NFS rather than SMB.
I now have a rock solid connection.
Hope this helps

Thanks for the responses. I have found that streaming the videos to Kodi via UPnP with Emby works fine. So I am thinking that is a network issue. I have DHCP set up, so I think what I will try is setting a static IP for the Windows PC
I also have one of these Ubee Modem/Router combos, but I have been using my own router. I didn't have the Ubee in bridge mode, which I changed last night. So I will get everything set again like I had it and see if it will play without stopping.

your problem is most likely trying to stream content over wifi. i dont care what anybody says, wifi + streaming media sucks. it can work fine 1 minute and then stop working another regardless of how good your connection may be.

[Official] Fire TV 2 / Fire OS 5 (Fire TV 1) Tips & Complaints Thread

WORK IN PROGRESS: UPDATING
STOP PRESS: FIRESTARTER 3.0 RELEASED. SANITY RESTORED.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/themes-apps/app-root-home-launcher-replacement-app-t3118135
Before sending your Fire TV/Stick back to Amazon in disgust, beware of its limitations, and try these tips.
Bottom line is it's going to be a solid step up from Fire TV 1. But right now, it has a few issues.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: the angry reviews. Almost all the complaints are about the glitchy remote (we have a fix), battery cover (sometimes the customer isn't always right), audio issues (Amazon is patching, stay tuned). No question, it's got some bugs out of the gate, but Amazon has responded and hopefully all will be resolved shortly . Enjoy:
http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-DV83YW-Fire-TV/product-reviews/B00U3FPN4U/
Fire TV 2: hardware shortcomings by design that many regard as substandard.
If these are important, you might need to look elsewhere.
1. USB 2.0 not even USB 3.0. USB-C is the new standard appearing on phones and laptops.
2. Ethernet 10/100 not GB.
3. No optical port. Possible solution: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B010JQMHNW/?
4. HDMI 1.4, not HDMI 2.0, limited to 4K at 30fps.
Software bugs and annoyances, most probably due to OS 5, but yet to be confirmed.
Could be fixed either by Amazon or developers.
1. Audio limited to stereo other than for Amazon Prime. Quiet audio.
As promised, Amazon has released a patch (extremely quickly):
“By this coming Monday, October 12th, you will receive an automatic software update that enables Dolby Digital Plus for customers who have a Dolby Digital Plus system (including support for Netflix and Amazon Video). An update for older Dolby Digital systems (not Dolby Digital Plus) will be distributed on November 30th.” -Amazon
Update from AFTVNews:
One of the new device’s largest complaints, a lack of Dolby Digital surround sound support, which has been partially fixed already, stems from changes made to support Netflix. I’m told by my source at Amazon that Netflix gave the Fire TV engineering team a new version of their software at the last minute which required changes to the Fire TV’s software to work correctly. Those changes conflicted with Dolby Digital surround sound support. With not enough time to fix support for both, Amazon was faced with the decision to ship without Netflix or without Dolby Digital surround sound. They chose the latter which, in my opinion, was the right choice.
http://www.aftvnews.com/amazon-is-d...-internal-testing-pool-for-bug-fixing-effort/
2. Fire TV 2 WiFi Remote drops out, glitchy, lags, etc.
Do this when setting up if you're connecting via Ethernet: disconnect your LAN cable, connect to WiFi, reconnect your network cable.
And then do this anytime if your remote becomes laggy: disconnect Ethernet cable, reconnect Ethernet cable.
That should fix it. Really, it's usually that simple.
If not, there could be interference, you could try changing channels or frequency on your router or restrict the available protocols (just N or AC, for example). Let us know if you're still having problems.
3. Highly inconvenient to launch Kodi and other sideloaded apps.
Long story, somewhat shortened: The Fire OS only shows icons for apps obtained from Amazon's App Store. That, unfortunately, doesn't include Kodi, everyone's favourite media player, and about 99% of the reason the AFTV has a cult following. There have been two popular ways to get around Amazon's belligerence: by having Kodi launch as proxy of another app (usually Ikono TV) using Llama; or by employing Firestarter to bind it to the Home button.
Both can be loaded via ADFire.
Unfortunately, Llama no longer works (for this purpose) in OS5/AFTV2, so skip that route and install FireStarter:
ADBFire : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2786505
FireStarter http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/themes-apps/app-root-home-launcher-replacement-app-t3118135
Kodi: http://kodi.tv
I recommend mapping the Home Button single click to Kodi, and the Home button double-click to Amazon Home. Or if you'd prefer to use Firestarter as your home screen, then map it to the double-click. The added bonus to this setup is every time you're in Kodi and hit the Home button inadvertently, instead of losing your **** yet again, it'll just flash in and out of the app and then pause whatever you're watching.
Here's a guide on sideloading to the Fire. Again, I strongly recommend ADBFire:
http://www.aftvnews.com/sideload/
If you have an Android tablet or phone, there are several apps that can push apps across to the Fire, such as Apps2Fire. That way you can download your apps direct from the official Google Play Store. Don't forget they won't automatically update. You'll need to push those updates across as well.
4. Can't connect via ADB to sideload using ADBFire etc since using FireStarter
First up: make sure you have ADB enabled. Settings>System>Developer Options> Both ADB Debugging and Apps from Unknown Sources need to be On.
FireStarter has two methods of intercepting Home button presses: one using ADB, and one not using ADB. The issue that's arisen since the introduction of Fire OS 5 is that the operating system no longer permits parallel ADB connections, so if FireStarter is using it to intercept Home button presses, you won't be able to connect to the Fire TV using ADB, and thus you won't be able to sideload apps and files using ADBFire.
We now have two options:
Option 1 (Firestarter won't use ADB): Open FireStarter, under Settings, uncheck "Home Detection via ADB."
Advantage: You only need ADB enabled to connect with ADBFire. No need to touch FireStarter.
Disadvantage: Only detects your customized Home button choices within the Fire TV's home screen, and not within apps. Pressing Home within Kodi, for example, will return you to the Home screen. Pressing it again will send you back to Kodi (or whatever action you've chosen. A potential advantage is this now gives you three variants of the Home button: a single and double-click from the Home screen; and the traditional Fire TV Home shortcut from within any app.
Option 2: (FireStarter uses ADB): Open FireStarter, check "Home Detection via ADB"
Advantage: FireStarter will now obey your Home button choices (single and double-click) from anywhere.
Disadvantage: You will either need to kill FireStarter (see below) or temporarily revert to Option 1 in order to do your ADB stuff. Note: there's now a handy shortcut direct to the ADB Debugging toggle within FireStarter.
Tip: If you go with Option 2, you can quickly kill FireStarter's grip on ADB by going: Settings>Manage Applications>FireStarter and Force Stop. And then restarting FireStarter or the Device once you've finished your ADB business.
5. External storage limited to disks formatted in FAT32.
There's no reason why Amazon couldn't enable other formats, but there's little incentive to bother. Even Macs don't support NTFS out of the box. Either format your drives in FAT32 (and split larger files if necessary) or move them to a network share. Not hard to work around. Here's a tip:
http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-play...b-off-the-fire-tvs-fat32-usb-storage-in-kodi/
6. Difficult to remove battery cover?
No it's not. Slide it back then lift it up. Dead easy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3t1GOCzjzY&
7. Can't move Kodi to external storage.
http://www.aftvnews.com/some-apps-like-kodi-cannot-write-to-external-storage-yet-on-fire-os-5/
Upgrade to Jarvis (still in alpha but perfectly acceptable).
8. LED only glowing when it detects a remote button press
Either a bug or a new way of doing things. Either way, it's not ideal.
9. Can't Chromecast from Android device to Fire TV
Yes, you can cast from Youtube, but nothing else (that I can find). Blame Google for that:
http://www.aftvnews.com/google-has-chromecast-receiver-app-pulled-from-fire-tv-appstore/
You can, however, Airplay to it. Via Kodi is one method, that usually works, but can be flaky sometimes. There are a bunch of apps you can try. Some work better than others. I picked up this one when it was free, it works:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/x9F99-x65B9-x513F-AirReceiver/dp/B00L5HQRGS/
And for those of you with other Amazon devices, there's always Fling:
https://developer.amazon.com/public...g/docs/understanding-the-amazon-fling-service

How about Bluetooth controller frequently loses connection to the AFTV? Mine drops it's connection probably 2 or 3 times every hour.

sudman said:
How about Bluetooth controller frequently loses connection to the AFTV? Mine drops it's connection probably 2 or 3 times every hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't the AFTV2 remote Wi-Fi?

I will be watching this thread closely. Thank you for posting.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using XDA Free mobile app

list additions
I would add to the list:
Issues with day 1 software update, (several resets, issues to get working)
Wifi remote constantly cuts on/off (taking out batteries seems like temp fix)
Stutters in apps like WatchESPN
Second the dropping of lama/kodi icon support
Despite better hardware, little change in actual performance (yet to be fully seen)

Claude Koch said:
Isn't the AFTV2 remote Wi-Fi?
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I was under the impression that it was BT same as the original but cant find a definitive answer eitherway. Eitherway the damn thing keeps discontecting!!!! Will be sending mine back if things dont improve fast.

sudman said:
I was under the impression that it was BT same as the original but cant find a definitive answer eitherway. Eitherway the damn thing keeps discontecting!!!! Will be sending mine back if things dont improve fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.aftvnews.com/list-of-all-fire-tv-and-fire-tv-stick-remote-and-game-controller-specs/

Claude Koch said:
About time we compiled a tally of what's broken, missing or just plain annoying on the new Fire TV, and what's (about to be) broken by the official release of OS 5 on the old Fire TV.
4. More to come.....
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Thanks for this. I was criticized elsewhere for bringing up some shortcomings of 2. I am very interested in the gizmo you linked that breaks off the 5.1 via Optical and 2ch mini-jack from the HDMI stream. The product dates back to 2013 which makes me skeptical. I've bought a few of these that did not work. I have 4 port Monoprice HDMI switch that has the 5.1 and 2ch breakout. It disappoints as it is 5.1 OR 2ch, not both. The one's I have had tried similar to your post would pass sound to all six speakers but it was in reality Stereo which will fool some people. The clue for me is, does the blue Dolby light come on? A quick test for DD Plus handling is "House of Cards". If you get a blue light viewing that, it's good to go. It's been almost a year since I last fooled with them so maybe there is something that is NEW and works.
I am still looking for one that really works. The only thing I know that splits off 5.1, for real, is 1's Optical connector.
What's funny is that I pitched my Roku3 over the DD+ impasse. Now Roku4 is coming out and it HAS an optical connector.
I have an Echo/Alexa too and waiting to see how all that works out with my 1 if it does at all. I'm rooted so unless Rbox comes through, I'm out of luck. Right now my Echo is pretty much a party novelty but it can now control my Nest and Insteon devices. Just found the most useful feature is using it as a meat timer.
It's a shame 2 isn't all of 1 but better and more.

I had problems with the connection with my remote too.
Are you used ethernet at the first start to connect with your router? Never set up wifi connection?
Try this
1. disconnect fire tv from ethernet
2. connect fire tv to wifi
3. reconnect the remote to fire tv
4. connect fire tv to ethernet again
for me i think it works... I am not 100% sure because the connection lost was very rare before. but give it a try.. :laugh:

There are huge issues with the WiFi the gain on the 5GHz 802.11ac is terrible in addition to issues above. I sent two of them back. Returning all of them is the only way Amazon will fix this!

I hate to say it, but it's looking like a lemon.
Edit: things are looking much better today.

What is an "Accessory Port". On my 1 I use a little dongle called Flirc to allow my Logitech Harmony One unified remote to control it. Needed it to feed the "Menu" command to 1. I now have a Harmony Ultimate with Hub and just imported the same settings.
I wonder if 2's "Accessory port" will allow a Flirc dongle to support unified IR remotes. Also wonder if it is even necessary with the 2. The Ultimate remote is still totally IR but the Hub is WiFi allowing it to talk to some smart devices. Guess I could test but hate to fix something that ain't broke. That's the main reason I'm afraid of 2. See no benefit except for 4K and I don't have that. My 1 setup works pretty well.
What I want to do is ditch my $160/mo DirecTV bill and replace it with another DVR option. SBC (aka AT&T) ate them and nothing good will come from that. "Repeating" myself, the Tivo Bolt is intriguing. Would replace FireTV and DirecTV. On the other hand, my rooted 1 with Nova Launcher and a Logitech K400 KB is a pretty nice little big screen Android box.
Nothing is just right.

sudman said:
How about Bluetooth controller frequently loses connection to the AFTV? Mine drops it's connection probably 2 or 3 times every hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's an abomination. Seems like the wifi keeps dropping out.
Edit: fixed.

Claude Koch said:
It's an abomination. Seems like the wifi keeps dropping out.
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Click to collapse
But it's ON SALE. hurry while the supply lasts. Pulling 2 1/2 Stars. Not good.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U3FPN4U/?tag=aftvndeal-20

The Main Reason AFTV 2 Is Not For Me
Root and Nova Launcher

Claude Koch said:
It's an abomination. Seems like the wifi keeps dropping out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A page back i posted a method to fix that if you are used ethernet cable at the first start o AFTV2.
Try this
1. disconnect fire tv from ethernet
2. connect fire tv to wifi
3. reconnect the remote to fire tv
4. connect fire tv to ethernet again
For me no connection losts between remote control and AFTV2 after a couple of hours.

I know the Apple TV was looming, but I don't get why Amazon felt the need to rush this out so fast. There just really isn't a reason to refresh a video streaming device annually. I understand they wanted to beat Apple to 4K, but looks like it cost them this time. I am sure updates will make it better, but this box might be the dud when we look back and the history of these things. I just hope it doesn't flop so bad they stop future revisions.

MajorWinters said:
A page back i posted a method to fix that if you are used ethernet cable at the first start o AFTV2.
Try this
1. disconnect fire tv from ethernet
2. connect fire tv to wifi
3. reconnect the remote to fire tv
4. connect fire tv to ethernet again
For me no connection losts between remote control and AFTV2 after a couple of hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip. I'm going to let it be for a couple of days, then try your fix. Otherwise, I won't know it it helped.
Been trying to get it to detect the bluetooth remote from my other Fire TV but not having any luck.
EDIT: Great tip, seems to have done the trick! Added to list.

I sent mine back. I can't believe that the newer Fire TV performs much worse than my 1st Gen Fire TV. Here is what I find annoying.
Remote cover is very hard to open. Broke my nail and it took me nearly a half hour to get it open. Once it is open it is much easier after.
Remote freezes and stops responding. Have to take out batteries and put them back in. At first I though the unit froze but my BT keyboard works fine. Had to use that quite often.
Netflix no 5.1 surround sound. Also it takes much longer to get up to 1080p. On my old Fire TV 1080p instantly and if not just restart the stream. On the 2nd gen Fire TV mud quality sub 480p which can take up to 40 seconds or longer to get to 1080p unless I fast forward and rewind the stream but then it ends up ruining what I am watching when there are spoilers in the beginning of the program.
Other third party apps actually run worse. They stutter and skip frames like trying to watch a HD video on a Celeron PC from 2008.
The external storage option is a joke. First thing is they should have included more than 8gb of internal storage because the external microSD is useless. I moved all the apps and games I can to the external storage however most apps and some games still store at least half the data on internal storage so even then I was already running low on space while my 64gb microSD barely used any space.
Box runs much warmer than before and I have it on a cooling pad.
To me the picture quality seems worse. I don't have a 4k TV just 1080p but the picture is much darker and reds look more pixelated.
That is what I can think of off the bat but in the end I ended up sending it back like many others and I see a recall soon from Amazon. They should have never released this thing as the 1st Gen Fire TV was pretty much perfect. Yes it had issues when it first came out mainly the once outdated Netflix app and having to occasionally clear the Amazon video data app when it would not play but otherwise it performed much better than this new thing does.

It's looking like under OS5, external storage is sandboxed as read-only to Kodi. The same seems true of Android TV (Nvidia Shield), so I suppose it's a Lollipop security issue. If I'm right, this means no moving Kodi data/thumbnails to external storage and using the /sdcard/xbmc_env.properties to redirect. Can anyone confirm/disprove this?

[SOLVED] Help with streaming 4k video across network

EDIT: Seems to be working just fine now. Getting sustained 80mbps across my network for playback, no issues. In the settings, I migrated everything to the SD card, but I think Kodi (and thus Plex temp files) are still on the internal storage. Maybe this fixed it, who knows.
I'm having trouble getting 4k video to play back continuously without pausing and skipping. I occasionally get the message that the source is too slow. Here is a quick overview of my setup.
- Media is on an UNRAID server running plex. It's an AMD A6-3500, 8GB memory, 3x 4TB WD Red (1 parity).
- UNRAID server is connected by ethernet to my Asus RT-AC87U. My shield was connected on 5g, but I ran a temp ethernet cable and still see the issue.
- Kodi 17 is running on my Shield TV using the PlexKodiConnect plugin. Video playback is direct play, no transcoding (verified in Plex).
I'm not sure where the trouble lies and exactly where to work.
I did test by using SolidExplorer to copy the 4k file to the device to see what rates I get. Speeds are about 6-8MB/s but its very inconsistent and drops below 1MB/s often. I'm not sure if this is a good test to go by or not. Is the Shield capable of streaming and playing 4k over a network? Or is the hardware not fast enough to do this?

Constant buffering on most streaming apps.

Hi all, hope somebody can help as I'm going crazy with this issue. I bought my first nvidia shield 3 weeks ago after months of considering if I should buy one.
I've been having buffering problems from day one.
I've done a factory reset 3 times, I've watched every YouTube video about how to fix buffering I could find.
I've change the cache setting, tweeked player settings, streaming quality, all, suggestions from YouTube videos but nothing works.
I even upgraded my Internet soeed to fibre extra, shield is connect via ethernet and speed is around 68 down. (with vpn on).
I'm using ExpressVPN (location closest to me).
I've also paid for a real debrid subscription and links are showing on add ons.
I'm having buffering on kodi, bee tv, cinema HD, I have other apps but haven't used them yet but I would guess the problem would still persist.
Have newest version ok kodi leia, everything updated so don't know what to do.
Starting to regret buying the shield, I'd bought a MECOOL km9 and didn't have issues with buffering but I sent it back because I wanted a shield.
Now, wishing I had stuck with the km9
Any assistance would greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Have you tried anything local? As in, a movie on a USB plugged directly into the Shield?
Just trying to see if your stuttering is a hardware issue, of if your VPN is having problems.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Johnny14o said:
Have you tried anything local? As in, a movie on a USB plugged directly into the Shield?
Just trying to see if your stuttering is a hardware issue, of if your VPN is having problems.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for reply.
I don't have anything downloaded on any USB as I don't download movies, I just stream them.
I've been trying to watch hannibal (TV series) and managed one episode but had to pause it every 20 mins or so to let it buffer.
Then just to test something else, I'm trying to play The Mask, i clicked on the to pirate bay torrent option (real debrid) and after about 10 mins it downloaded bit movie hasn't started. It's now on the kodi list of movies with the mask highlighted and at the top right corner of screen, it keeps flashing something, like when kodi is looking for another source.
I don't have any problems watching YouTube videos, can't say about other stuff as Netflix, but just remember now that at the moment I have amazon prime (just for this month and never used it)
I'm going to use it to see if it works fine.
Thanks for any help.

Well, amazon Prime is working flawlessly. Playing John Wick 2 and picture is great and no buffering.
The shield is behaving fine, as in, it seems to be funny so don't know if it could be a hardware issue.
I've Google a lot and apparently, lots of people have problems with buffering on the Shield.

Just done a test (switched off vpn) and played something on kodi and the buffer/progress bar really progressed quickly and a lot more than before.
I guess it's the vpn then. I'm with ExpressVPN, going to do some research and perhaps try a different vpn.

Sounds like you are on the right path. I have 3 Shield TVs for playing local movies (collection of 1400 movies) via KODI as well as streaming HULU, Netflix, DirecTV now services. I can say I have not had issues with any of these that were related to the Shield.
I would encourage you to check your main Modem/router or gateway (whatever kind of hardware you have). I have internet service through AT&T and their gateway is a piece of crap (IMO), but I find that if I reboot it 1x/month, everything works fine.
Just out of curiosity, why do you feel the need for a VPN?
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

SOLVED: It was ExpressVPN. I'm using nord now and it's working great. Also saw some posts of people having same problems with ExpressVPN on the Shield. Spread the word.

wilborama said:
SOLVED: It was ExpressVPN. I'm using nord now and it's working great. Also saw some posts of people having same problems with ExpressVPN on the Shield. Spread the word.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that Nord provides a very fast VPN. I had buffering issues and received this response:
"Please try switching the connection protocol between UDP and NordLynx. It can be changed in the NordVPN application settings.
"Within NordVPN application open the settings menu > VPN Protocol > OpenVPN (UDP) / NordLynx.
"Afterwards, please try connecting to these newest and closest US servers and check whether the buffering persists..."
Nord support provided (5) servers that met this criteria and while I still encounter buffering, this has helped a lot.

Mostly, VPN doesn't solve any problem when streaming online youtube video, even though you get higher 60mbps. Instead, you'd better try watching or streaming online youtube video with lower resolution, instead of 1080p or 4K 2160p. If you insist on 4K or even 8K, you'd better download ultra hd 4k video. Online streaming high-resolution video is usually accompanied with constant buffering or freezing.