C4 just released an Amazon Fire TV driver that doesn't suck

[azkid]

On 8/12/2021 at 9:52 AM, ashwinmj said:

We tried that. We do see the "firetv apps", but even if we make it visible, it doesn't show up in the watch section. Everything else before and after that shows up though. My dealer isn't able to figure out why it's happening, would you be able to have a quick look? I would really appreciate that! 

apologize on further investigation it looks like with the new updated driver you are correct it doesn't work.  It did work with the original "new" driver that was only published for a few days before taken down.  Not sure if those are related but it was a cool feature so it would be nice if they brought it back. 

[Topfox]

4 minutes ago, azkid said:

I run into this also.  I've found sometimes you actually need to use the original firestick remote to just press one button and then the c4 remote starts working again without a reboot.  Also sometimes on reboot it doesn't work with C4 control until you use the firestick remote first and also noticed sometimes it just hangs and the only solution is to rescan for firesticks and reselect the firestick in composer for it to start working again.  All of these have happened in a home with 5 firesticks each set up with separate drivers. Not sure if having so many firesticks integrated into the project is also causing issues. Much better than the old slow response driver but still very far from being "rock solid".  Another solution is installing with FLIRC IR adapters when possible as these solves both the reliability issues and the slow response issues of the old drivers. 

Yeah. I’ve got 6 FireTVs in the configuration. I’ve noticed on a reboot it takes 20 or so secs before it will start working with C4. Grabbing the original remote hasn’t fixed it for me this far. Only a reboot when it happens. 
 

Glad it’s not only me.   I migrated to this driver from IRUSB devices. 

[ashwinmj]

6 hours ago, azkid said:

apologize on further investigation it looks like with the new updated driver you are correct it doesn't work.  It did work with the original "new" driver that was only published for a few days before taken down.  Not sure if those are related but it was a cool feature so it would be nice if they brought it back. 

Thanks for checking it. It is a useful feature to have, so hopefully they bring it back soon.

[Topfox]

On 8/13/2021 at 5:18 PM, azkid said:

I run into this also.  I've found sometimes you actually need to use the original firestick remote to just press one button and then the c4 remote starts working again without a reboot.  Also sometimes on reboot it doesn't work with C4 control until you use the firestick remote first and also noticed sometimes it just hangs and the only solution is to rescan for firesticks and reselect the firestick in composer for it to start working again.  All of these have happened in a home with 5 firesticks each set up with separate drivers. Not sure if having so many firesticks integrated into the project is also causing issues. Much better than the old slow response driver but still very far from being "rock solid".  Another solution is installing with FLIRC IR adapters when possible as these solves both the reliability issues and the slow response issues of the old drivers. 

I just upgraded all 6 of my Fire TVs (2nd Gen 4k box and 1st Gen Cubes) to the 2nd Gen Fire TV Cubes. Currently on sale for $20 off totaling $99 pre tax in all the stores that carry them. So far the C4 driver with these new devices is super fast. We will see if I have the same issues with it eventually going from working to not working and requiring a reboot of the FireTV device. 

[ashwinmj]

On 6/2/2021 at 10:09 PM, RyanE said:

The FireTV driver has been released to Control4's online database.

Part of today's post:

----------------------------------------------

Control4 Amazon Fire TV Driver Headlines:

- Driver is now supported world-wide!
- Driver supports every model of Fire TV except the original Fire TV, released in 2014*
- All Universal Mini-App drivers supported (visit our smart skill within the tech community, search: 000005142)

Expected future features (not available in this release):

- The Grid View dynamic list of installed apps is disabled, and the Media Service Proxy (MSP) is forced hidden on every refresh.
- Only the buttons from the original Fire TV remotes are available. There is no support for numeric buttons.
- No support for TV features (channel selection, input selection, power control) for Fire TV Edition televisions.

The Amazon Fire TV Control4 driver (FireTV.c4z, version 12) is now available within the online database in Composer.

----------------------------------------------

RyanE

When will the Fire TV Apps folder that was in the original driver from November be available? I assume that's what you meant by the grid view. It looks like people here are looking forward to it, so I hope it will be available soon. Thanks for your reply. 

[Topfox]

On 8/16/2021 at 8:18 AM, Topfox said:

I just upgraded all 6 of my Fire TVs (2nd Gen 4k box and 1st Gen Cubes) to the 2nd Gen Fire TV Cubes. Currently on sale for $20 off totaling $99 pre tax in all the stores that carry them. So far the C4 driver with these new devices is super fast. We will see if I have the same issues with it eventually going from working to not working and requiring a reboot of the FireTV device. 

Looks like I have the same issue.  Works great for awhile and then it stops until I reboot the FireTV device.  In the debug log I see the following errors basically when it isn't working.

08/17/21 14:19:00 : Error checking if device supports Fire TV remote service:     Error 7: Couldn't connect to server
08/17/21 14:19:08 : Error checking Fire TV remote service:     Error 28: Timeout was reached
Fire TV Not supported:    No DIAL server found    39c75805-4e34-3e67-a0ec-87c31eb3d016
08/17/21 14:19:08 : Error getting current app from Fire TV:     Error 28: Timeout was reached
08/17/21 14:20:55 : Error checking if device supports Fire TV remote service:     Error 7: Couldn't connect to server
08/17/21 14:20:58 : Error checking if device supports Fire TV remote service:     Error 7: Couldn't connect to server
08/17/21 14:21:19 : Error getting current app from Fire TV:     Error 7: Couldn't connect to server

[ashwinmj]

All of the mini apps and RF apps are working great with the Fire TV, apart from Prime Video for me. The Prime Video app is opening the Fire TV home screen instead of the Prime Video home screen. Is anyone else facing the same problem?

Thanks for your help. 

[zaphod]

How do I go to my FireTV home screen rather than directly to a mini app?

[Topfox]

On 8/17/2021 at 2:38 PM, Topfox said:

Looks like I have the same issue.  Works great for awhile and then it stops until I reboot the FireTV device.  In the debug log I see the following errors basically when it isn't working.

08/17/21 14:19:00 : Error checking if device supports Fire TV remote service:     Error 7: Couldn't connect to server
08/17/21 14:19:08 : Error checking Fire TV remote service:     Error 28: Timeout was reached
Fire TV Not supported:    No DIAL server found    39c75805-4e34-3e67-a0ec-87c31eb3d016
08/17/21 14:19:08 : Error getting current app from Fire TV:     Error 28: Timeout was reached
08/17/21 14:20:55 : Error checking if device supports Fire TV remote service:     Error 7: Couldn't connect to server
08/17/21 14:20:58 : Error checking if device supports Fire TV remote service:     Error 7: Couldn't connect to server
08/17/21 14:21:19 : Error getting current app from Fire TV:     Error 7: Couldn't connect to server

Aight annoyed. Happening on all 6 of my devices now. Guess it’s time to switch back to IRUSB. It’s a shame, this driver fulfills my needs otherwise…when it works.
 

[azkid]

FYI just realized that the chowmain paid driver on driver central now works with FireTv.  Will be testing that to see if it will be more stable.  Will report back if I find it better. 

[ashwinmj]

10 minutes ago, azkid said:

FYI just realized that the chowmain paid driver on driver central now works with FireTv.  Will be testing that to see if it will be more stable.  Will report back if I find it better. 

Isn’t that the driver that needs debug mode on the Fire TV to be enabled, and that has a large delay between a command from C4 to it reflecting on the device? Or am I mixing it up with some other driver? 

[ashwinmj]

On 8/30/2021 at 9:47 PM, azkid said:

FYI just realized that the chowmain paid driver on driver central now works with FireTv.  Will be testing that to see if it will be more stable.  Will report back if I find it better. 

@azkid how does the chowmain driver seem to work? 

[ashwinmj]

Has anyone tried the new version of the driver that was released on Sep 15th? 

[ashwinmj]

Every time that my controller restarts or my fire TV restarts, I lose control of the Fire TV from C4. My dealer says that it’s because the driver doesn’t see the Fire TV any more, and he has to rescan for Fire TVs in composer. Once he does that, it works fine. Is anyone else facing this problem?

It’s not practical to have my dealer do this every time either the controller or Fire TV restarts. 

[zaphod]

That sounds strange, but you should also be able to rescan in Composer HE so if you have that you don't need your dealer - assuming that you don't then have to redo the connections.

[ashwinmj]

9 hours ago, zaphod said:

That sounds strange, but you should also be able to rescan in Composer HE so if you have that you don't need your dealer - assuming that you don't then have to redo the connections.

Even if I do it in Composer HE, it seems like a clumsy solution to have to go into Composer every time the controller of Fire TV restarts. This doesn’t seem to be a problem with any other device apart from the Fire TV. 

Is this a limitation of the driver and it’s happening with everyone, or is it something only I’m facing? 

[Amr]

12 hours ago, ashwinmj said:

Even if I do it in Composer HE, it seems like a clumsy solution to have to go into Composer every time the controller of Fire TV restarts. This doesn’t seem to be a problem with any other device apart from the Fire TV. 

Is this a limitation of the driver and it’s happening with everyone, or is it something only I’m facing? 

No, it’s only u, are u using a DHCP reservation or you made a static IP for your FireTV?

[ashwinmj]

1 hour ago, Amr said:

No, it’s only u, are u using a DHCP reservation or you made a static IP for your FireTV?

I haven’t done either, but it has been picking up the same IP address. It could still explain the disconnect that happens on Fire TV restart, but my understanding is that is wouldn’t explain the disconnect on the controller restart. 

The only option that we see to pick the Fire TV is from a drop down box in the driver properties, that lists all the Fire TVs. This list gets empty on controller restart, and the specific Fire TV disappears on the restart of a Fire TV. 

[Amr]

15 hours ago, ashwinmj said:

I haven’t done either, but it has been picking up the same IP address. It could still explain the disconnect that happens on Fire TV restart, but my understanding is that is wouldn’t explain the disconnect on the controller restart. 

The only option that we see to pick the Fire TV is from a drop down box in the driver properties, that lists all the Fire TVs. This list gets empty on controller restart, and the specific Fire TV disappears on the restart of a Fire TV. 

This could be network related as well, what is your controller and Software version? Am trying to narrow down the issue as this is very unique to your setup, I have HC800 on 3.2.2 and 2 Fiver TV’s I never had this issue at all, both are running latest Firmware as well, so am not why it’s not discoverable easily.

[Neo1738]

If you are using IRUSB for ip control you have to wait for the FireTV to boot up and then load the IRUSB app which takes about 2 min total. 

[ashwinmj]

On 11/7/2021 at 1:37 AM, Amr said:

This could be network related as well, what is your controller and Software version? Am trying to narrow down the issue as this is very unique to your setup, I have HC800 on 3.2.2 and 2 Fiver TV’s I never had this issue at all, both are running latest Firmware as well, so am not why it’s not discoverable easily.

Thanks @Amr. I have an EA3 running 3.2.3. I have 5 Fire TVs and it’s the same problem with all 5. Surprising that I seem to be the only one facing this problem. 

 

50 minutes ago, Neo1738 said:

If you are using IRUSB for ip control you have to wait for the FireTV to boot up and then load the IRUSB app which takes about 2 min total. 

I’m using the official Amazon Control4 Fire TV driver that does direct IP control without an IRUSB. 

[Amr]

EA3 is very weak to handle all that, how many devices u have and do u have zigbee? Controller maybe very loaded, what is ur CPU and memory looks like?

[ashwinmj]

12 hours ago, Amr said:

EA3 is very weak to handle all that, how many devices u have and do u have zigbee? Controller maybe very loaded, what is ur CPU and memory looks like?

We observed the CPU over 5 minutes and it ranged from 7% to 45%, with it being closer to 7% most of the time. The memory was at 1GB of the 4GB total available. We’ve not seen any other issues that can be indicative of an overload so far. 

The only Zigbee device is one SR260. In terms of other devices, what kind of count would be helpful? 

[msgreenf]

13 hours ago, Amr said:

EA3 is very weak to handle all that, how many devices u have and do u have zigbee? Controller maybe very loaded, what is ur CPU and memory looks like?

i'm not sure where you came up with that an EA3 can't handle this...

[zaphod]

5 hours ago, msgreenf said:

i'm not sure where you came up with that an EA3 can't handle this...

Exactly. Why would this put a load on an EA3?  An EA5 is a 1.6GHz dual core X86 and and EA3 is a 1.6Hz X86.  Not that much difference in speed.  And I wouldn't think that controlling TVs puts much of a burden on a controller since it is almost always idle and likely only uses CPU cycles when the driver is actively sending commands.