I had purchased a fire TV for video streaming, but thought it might be
useful as a music streaming device, i.e. squeezebox client, as well. I
hoped I could use iPeng as the controller, SB player as the player, and
the fire TV as the hardware. I had contacted Wayne, the developer of SB
player, about possibly using it on the fire TV and he was kind enough to
provide a test copy. I think I'm probably the "somebody" that he refers
to above. The bottom line is that the program works and you can stream
output from your LMS through the fire TV through two channel output
through the optical output port into a DAC. The fire TV supports Dolby
Digital, but I don't use that, so I can't comment on surroundsound.
My impressions:
1. Downloading. The test copy downloaded automatically from the Amazon
app store and installed itself.
2. Set up. The first setup attempt was successful, but not seamless. The
Amazon controller clicks through the various setup fields, but it's hard
to tell what field you're actually using as initially they weren't
highlighted, except for the buttons. So it was a bit of trial and error.
The player did not automatically identify the server. When I manually
inputted the server IP address into the correct field, it found the
server and connected, and then I was able to save the server, and it
found the server every time after the first. After connecting, "SB
player" automatically showed up as a device in the iPeng controller app,
and all the normal iPeng controller features worked. Yesterday when I
set up the app, the fields were actually highlighted as I clicked
through them, but when I had to reinstall the program today again they
were not. Don't know why the fields are highlighted sometimes and
sometimes not.
A. The default bandwidth is set to auto. I think the app is designed
for an android phone, and the options are low (for 3G/4G) or high (for
wireless). I was using a wired connection. There is no option for a
wired connection. I think it defaulted to low bandwidth on auto, and
would not stream my ALAC music on low bandwidth, which is about 95% of
my collection. If I set it to "high" bandwidth it streamed ALAC (and
MP3) without difficulty.
B. When I initially set this up, I was streaming through the HDMI
connection to my TV set. When I plugged in the SPDIF cable I was able to
stream two channel directly to a Schiit Modi DAC and then to my two
channel system (Emotiva amp and preamp, with magnepan speakers). Sounded
really good.
3. Use:
After five minutes, the TV screen goes into the screensaver mode, which
defaults to some pretty pictures that Amazon provides. You can download
your own photos from the Amazon cloud if you want to leave the TV on.
Can you look at album art on the TV? Don't know- worth looking into.
Can you turn the TV off? Yes, but after five seconds the fire TV
defaults into standby mode and the music stops. The player still shows
up in iPeng, but is paused. If you click play at that point, it will
begin to play again even with the TV off, and doesn't shut off again.
Can you disconnect the HDMI connection? I don't know for sure, but I
don't think so. The one time I tried it the music stopped immediately. I
didn't think to check what had happened in iPeng. I'm concerned that the
fire TV requires detection of an HDMI output in order to function, but I
don't know this for sure.
Can you use the "wake on LAN" function in iPeng? I don't think so, as I
don't think the fire TV supports wake on LAN. I was able to get my
server to wake up and my other squeezebox player, but not the fire TV.
This means that in order to use it you have to turn on the TV set, and
the fire TV comes out of standby automatically. You then have to
manually load the player each time. There is an option in the player to
connect automatically on start up, but I think it defaults to "auto"
with automatic startup, which doesn't work with a wired connection if
you are trying to stream anything but MP3. I gather there are other apps
that will auto load the player, but I haven't tried them.
What codecs does it support? Don't know for sure. The fire TV supports
MP3 natively as far as I can figure out. The SB player supports multiple
codecs, and most of my music is in ALAC which works well. Didn't try
FLAC.
I was able to listen for a few hours yesterday without difficulty. I
shut the system off and came back a few hours later, and the player
wouldn't load, even though it was present in the app list. I eventually
had to uninstall and reinstall for it to work. Don't know where this
glitch came from, as it's the first (and only) time it's happened.
Bottom line: it works, but it's not completely seamless. It has to be
set up manually each time. I understand there are apps that will auto
load other apps, which might be worth a try, but it defaults to the low
bandwidth auto setup with a wired connection. From the above post, it
looks like Wayne is fixing this. If the fire TV really does require an
HDMI connection in order for the fire TV to boot, that will limit its
usefulness as a standalone music player; I don't know if this is true or
not yet, or whether this requirement could be hacked.
I actually think that this is pretty neat. I was concerned about
maintaining the squeezebox ecosystem when my multiple Logitech hardware
devices start to fail, and this offers at least an pretty
straightforward store-bought option, at least if your music system is
connected to a TV. For about $200 (fire TV plus DAC plus the apps), it's
a nice player- think Duet equivalent. You could spend a lot more on a
high-end DAC if you wanted.
Wish list: I will try to sort out if an active HDMI connection is really
required. If so, it would be nice to figure out a way to eliminate this.
It would be nice to have the app load automatically on start up, and not
default to a low bandwidth connection when it connects automatically. It
would be great if Amazon could introduce wake on LAN functionality as
well. I hope they realize there's a potential market for this as a music
streamer as well as video streamer, and while they are probably just
interested in it as a means to sell their video content, it's great that
they allow other options.
Brooke
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