Fire TV stick as media Player

[sgajjala]

Hi,
I have Fire TV stick ( not 4K one ) 2nd Gen with Alexa voice support remote. I am looking for possible solution to convert this into media player.
The challenges that i have to do this

1. Connect the Fire TV stick to external USB drives
2. Fire TV stick supports only FAT32 formatted USB drives. Is there a way to connect the NTFS hdd to stick without formatting to FAT32
3. Support of DD and DTS audio formats while playing media from USB

If all 3 above are possible then, I need to work on getting the required hardware/tools .
Please let me know if this is possible.
Thanks,

 

[jagadeeshwarank]

Hi,

I was in same boat as you few months back.

1. You need a splitter cable that can take power input and a USB input. I used this (https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07DMWZPMS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
2. Yes you are right Firetv stick cannot read NTFS file format. Best is to use a Network drive NAS and access your videos from your Firetv stick.
3. I haven't tried this as I didnt have my AVR back then, so cant comment. I guess you can use Kodi to bitstream DD and DTS lossy formats.

No NTFS was a downer for me so I returned the cable.

 

[superczar]

1) Best long term solution - Use a dedicated NAS or alteratively (less preferable), hook the drive to your router USB port and share it.. Local playback via USB is quite a dated concept
And in case you want a short term/ stop-gap till you order a NAS or don't have router that supports drive sharing, just enable sharing of the content folder from the machine where the file is sitting

2) Honestly, don't bother

3) Yes, it does

 

[sgajjala]

Thanks jagadeeshwarank and superczar for your inputs.
I would want to explore the NAS setup and local drive sharing via router (I do have usb 3.0 port on my router)
I am using airtel vfiber Huawei router.
Please guide me for help in these areas

 

[sgajjala]

I have seen a video where user is connecting NTFS formatted drive and accessing with es file explorer in fire stick. Not sure if it's true. Any pointers?

 

[superczar]

Thanks jagadeeshwarank and superczar for your inputs.
I would want to explore the NAS setup and local drive sharing via router (I do have usb 3.0 port on my router)
I am using airtel vfiber Huawei router.
Please guide me for help in these areas

Should be pretty simple.
Once you hook up a HDD to the router port and enable sharing, it will show up a a shared drive visible to all devices on your network including the fire stick. You can leave it there connected permanently.

Then instead of choosing a local drive on your preferred playback app on the firestick (or any other device) ,u should be able to start playback as if it were connected directly

 

[sgajjala]

I am able to setup the hdd connected to routers USB port and sideloaded KODI app in fire tv stick.
I allowed pass through in audio settings but my receiver shows multichannel not true surround sound. Tried changing the audio in stick but none of the options gives DD or DTS in my receiver.
Am I missing anything?

 

[mathan]

I am able to setup the hdd connected to routers USB port and sideloaded KODI app in fire tv stick.
I allowed pass through in audio settings but my receiver shows multichannel not true surround sound. Tried changing the audio in stick but none of the options gives DD or DTS in my receiver.
Am I missing anything?

I think Firestick does not support DTS. Please correct me if I am wrong. As for Dolby Digital it is always a hit and miss through KODI. Sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't.

 

[sgajjala]

Have you tried MX Player pass through. If it is effective we can try that. Anyone else tried?

 

[sgajjala]

I ordered the OTG cable from Amazon and able to connect the Fire TV stick with USB connected . The following are my observations.
-> Fire TV stick only detects the USB formatted in FAT32 . NTFS format is still not supported. However there are few methods by which we can open NTFS formatted drives ( by using ES explorer )
-> With NTFS drives , the movie file runs through Kodi player whereas the surround sound is not supported. Tried all the options like passthrough but AVR doesn't show the proper 5.1 Audio
-> If the USB is formatted in FAT32, the drive is recognized by Fire TV stick and Kodi pass through works fine. I am getting proper surround sound in AVR and AVR shows DD or DD+ depending on the audio input.
-> When the OTG cable is connected with USB to Fire TV, it reboots frequently. The supplied power adapter has 1 Amp output. By connecting the 2Amp connector, the fire tv is not restarting.

I am able to succeed half way . Now I need to test all Audio formats my AVR supports.
Let me know if you have any inputs.
Thanks,