STR DN1080 upscaling HD content to 4K - played on Amazon Fire TV to LG OLED65B7V

[peterwbaker]

I have the following set up:-

1. Media ripped to 1080p on Synology NAS [Confirmed HD through a number of players]
2. Plex App on Amazon Fire TV 4K Digital Media Streamer [Confirmed steamer will play 4K to Amp/TV through use of NetFlix and YouTube Apps] HDMI connect to:
3. STR DN1080 which says it up-scales input to 4K HDMI connect to:
4. LG OLED65B7V

If I play 4K content on the Fire TV It displays in 4K (which is nice!), however the DN1080 has Auto Upscale enabled so I would have thought it would upscale the HD content played on the Amazon Fire TV to 4K?.

Not sure if I am missing something here? Thanks in advance, Peter

[The_Black_Rose]

Hi peterwbaker,

I've just had a look into the help guide of the amplifier, I found that the 4K upscaling function works only when video signals are received via the HDMI IN jacks.

HDMI input signal must be 1080p/24 Hz 2D signal. You can find more information here: https://bit.ly/2VwbVrd. Can you make sure that the content you are trying to play is with the same format mentioned in that link?

Cheers,

The_Black_Rose

[peterwbaker]

Thanks The_Black_Rose, the Fire TV is connected to an HDMI in port so I'm good there I think.  Using Leowo software I had ripped at the orginal frame rate of 1080p 25 fps (see Black Hawk Down media). Based on the info below I tried at 1080p 24 fps (see SAS Rogue Warriers media).  Looking at the media seems the 25fps version got a Video Frame Rate of PAL (highligted) - not sure how that happened...  and ripping at 24fps gets me to a Video Frame Rate of 24p (highligted) I think that is what is needed, but it still does not upscale when played:-( any other thoughts or suggestions please? Peter

[The_Black_Rose]

Hi Peter,

Could you try another file that is originally in 1080p/24 Hz 2D not a converted file? Maybe the issue is with the conversion done.

Cheers,

The_Black_Rose

[peterwbaker]

Happy to do that but not sure how?  All my media is ripped from DVD, Could I use the YouTube app on the Amazon Fire to search for 1080p/24 Hz 2D (something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EShxVGHaSyM) or just search Prime for 1080p/24 Hz 2D. Maybe I missed something easier?  Thanks, Peter

[The_Black_Rose]

Hi peterwbaker,

Do you have any apps on the firestick which contains content in 1080p/24 Hz 2D?

Cheers,

The_Black_Rose

[peterwbaker]

Thanks @The_Black_Rose I'll have a look

I also did some digging on the Fire TV (Gen 2) output spec and found the attached.  Currently all my media is ripped to H264 so that looks like it would get h/w acceletated to 1080p 30fps which outside the spec of the DN1080.

I'll try ripping a DVD to H265 and see if that gets accelerated to 4K which if so should work?  Maybe:-)  Peter

[The_Black_Rose]

Hi Peterwbaker,

Let us know if it works with a file with the specified resolution.

Cheers,

The_Black_Rose

[peterwbaker]

Resigning myself that H264 content is hardware accerated beyond what the DN1080 will take I tried H265.  That did not work via the Amazon Fire TV either:-( Tried H265 1080p and H265 4K which in theory should either be presented or hardware accelerated to the DN1080 at 4K.  However both formats just play at 1080p on the TV!   

Interesting enough:-) I also have a Sony UBP-X800 connected to the DN1080 and when browsing to my server location it plays all H264 & H265 content in 4K.  My guess is the Amazon Fire TV does some internal trickery to get Amazon 4K content presented to the DN1080 correctly which does not work with the Plex App! 

I can't see a way to browse to my content "natively" for more testing on the Amazon Fire TV or a way to install Plex on the UBP-X800 so I'm going to give up for now:-).  My DVDs look quite OK at 1080p and life is short!  Plan B is to replace the Amazon Fire TV with a nVidia Shield that has better hardware and has Amazon, YouTube and Plex pre-installed.  Thanks for the help on this:-) Peter 

[The_Black_Rose]

Hi peterwbaker,

Well, at least now we know what was causing the issue in the very first place. I'm really glad about it.

Cheers,

The_Black_Rose