The latest software update, version 5.0.3.1, for the 2nd-gen Fire TV Stick has been rolling out for a week now and should be available on most devices. Amazon continues to be coy with the details of this bug fixing update, but AFTVnews readers have thankfully chimed in with their findings to give all of us an idea of what has and hasn’t been fixed.
The big issue with the new Fire TV remains to be surround sound audio. This update appears to bring the new Fire TV closer to audio perfection, but not all the way. Chris Wolfe and Edgar R. are reporting that DTS audio, including passthrough capabilities with kodi, are now working with this latest software update. What still seems unstable is the older Dolby Digital audio format. While some readers, like PAPA and BBS, say that Dolby Digital audio is now at least somewhat working, others, like Vulcan195, Jay, and Ray, are still not getting Dolby Digital from the 2nd-gen Fire TV to work with older A/V receviers. Amazon still says Dolby Digital will work by November 30th, so hopefully we’ll see another update by then that fixes DD audio once and for all.
Also included with this latest software update are firmware updates for the new wifi-based voice remote and game controller. After installing the 5.0.3.1 software update, using your remote or game controller for the first time will result in a pop up message infroming you the peripheral is being updated. Since some users were reporting only sporadic connection issues with the new remote and controller, it’s a bit more difficult to determine if this update fixes those issues, but readers are saying the remote does seem to be improved.
With both the 2nd-gen Fire TV and Fire TV Gaming Edition back in stock and shipping to customers, it seems Amazon is confident they’ve fixed enough of the issues to start shipping the new Fire TV to new customers again. Additionally, the device’s star rating has been slowly climbing up week after week, so it seems reviewers have noticed the software improvements as well. Be sure to chime in in the comments with what you think of this new update and if there are still issues you’re waiting to be fixed.
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My AFTV 2nd Gen has updated both remote and OS. The volume is back to normal 1st Gen level. Live streaming is improved. Amazon content is seamless when selecting the next episode. YouTube ad skipping is one touch again.
But the best thing is the remote feels like my lost friend is back. Quick and reacts as fast as the blue tooth remote but works a longer distance.
Thumbs Up from rural MN!
The remote started working right the update before this and volume seem fixed as well with the last update…props to Amazon Developers for trying to fixed there product…..Hopefully the old DD will get fixed shortly as well.
This update killed VLC. When I say killed, it made it so that when I paused an Amazon Prime film, VLC would start in the background and play whatever video or audio file it last played. I had to uninstall VLC in the end. I discussed it with Amazon support and they advised it would be looked into.
That’s is correct. It almost seems like the VLC and FireTV codecs are getting jumbled.
I can’t get the wireless Xbox receiver or the ouya game controller to work with my fire tv 2. I have now tried two wireless receivers and neither work.
neither can I… not sure what the issue is but Id love for my 360 controllers to work again… Im having MarioKart withdrawals!
I’ve had a reply from Amazon. Only the official controller is compatible with fire tv 2.
I’m hoping we sell a roll out to the first gen devices soon. I’m wondering if there will be a performance differences or not. I have a 1st gen box I am probably going to sell, but am curious to first see how it compares to 2nd gen when they both have the same OS.
For instance Netflix opens much faster on 2nd gen, but I don’t think that is hardware. It seems in 2nd gen OS, Netflix stays in memory, while on 1st gen it seems to be re-opening each time I go into the app.
I remember having problems with Hulu a couples of weeks ago wherein it would pause and buffer repeatedly. Well, this morning I watched an entire 60 minute episode of Jimmy Fallon and it did not freeze, pause, stutter or anything. Looks like they fixed something somewhere. Just a FYI for someone else to verify.
Was it a mistake to say “2nd-gen Fire TV Stick” in the first sentence? I got a gen2 Fire TV Stick a couple of weeks ago and have yet to see any update.
Will there be any update to fire tv 1st Gen anytime soon? I keep checking for updates but last update was sept 3rd.
This helped, but DD still not working correctly on Yamaha 3050 receiver. Also, everything still a bit laggy compared to my 1st gen FireTV device.
My Voice Control FireTV Sticks worked from day 1 with my older Yamaha Dolby Digital and DTS only Receiver. It’s running 5.0.3.2 still (updated as soon as I ran it for the first time). I do not see the 5.0.3.3 update mentioned elsewhere on this site. The preference control only mentions Dolby Digital Plus, but my receiver is getting regular Dolby Digital as far as I know. I use a JTek breakout box to get a toslink optical signal to the receiver (which is component video only) and it also switches 3 HDMI inputs with a remote for me (my projector is HDMI, but receivers back in 2008 were a lot more with HDMI and it’s an older HDMI now anyway).
Kodi gives me DTS, DTS-ES and Dolby Digital to that receiver. Sadly, the FireTV Stick only seems to support 48kHz output as my receiver reports 48kHz audio when I send it 44.1kHz PCM or DTS (as in DTS Audio CD ripped to WAV). This actually speeds up the pitch on the DTS Music CDs. The only way I could find around that was to have Kodi convert DTS to Dolby Digital when playing DTS Audio CDs. It appears to do that after extraction and so the 48kHz Dolby Digital signal is pitch correct.
It’s also now Dec 1st as of this post and I see no promised update from Amazon what-so-ever.
I also cannot get Kodi to remain active when starting up something like the side loaded ProjectM visualizer App (others have told me it does work on their unit) and I don’t know if this is related to the Voice Control version eating up too much memory (the Voice control is an internal App it would seem) and that causes Kodi to crash/exit or if it’s something else entirely.
Yes, where is the 30th November fire tv 2 firmware update that is supposed to fix 5.1 sound in kodi? If it doesn’t appear soon I will be selling mine and I will get a Roku 4.