Kodi Community Forum

+1. I'll wait and not downgrade for now.

(2018-02-06, 05:18)mirror88 Wrote: [ -> ]

(2018-02-06, 01:49)hdmkv Wrote: [ -> ]It's definitely a problem... can't access SMB shares from Media Center/File Explorer directly either. NFS is fine. With 1.5.0, SMB works fine.

Other users too.

 It's a special character issue, we'll fix it in the next version. 

Can you be more specific please mirror so we can avoid something? I personally do not have problems accessing my SMB shared folder on my W10 PC.

(2018-02-07, 12:35)nikos_a Wrote: [ -> ]

(2018-02-06, 05:18)mirror88 Wrote: [ -> ]

(2018-02-06, 01:49)hdmkv Wrote: [ -> ]It's definitely a problem... can't access SMB shares from Media Center/File Explorer directly either. NFS is fine. With 1.5.0, SMB works fine.

Other users too.

 It's a special character issue, we'll fix it in the next version.  

Can you be more specific please mirror so we can avoid something? I personally do not have problems accessing my SMB shared folder on my W10 PC. 

 I'm guessing if you use straight ASCII in your server/share names you're OK - but if you use 'special characters' (i.e. punctuation, anything accented or with diacritics etc.) then you may have issues (in certain circumstances).  That was my reading of the post.

Is there a way to manually adjust the aspect ratio horizontally or vertically? My Mede8er allows you to hit the zoom button on the remote, then hit the left/right/up/down buttons along the x-axis and y-axis so if you are playing a video where the aspect ratio is a bit off (squeezed/stretched), you can manually tweak it as little or much as you need in 1% increments to get it looking just right. You can even save 2 different custom aspect ratios (A and B) so you can hit the zoom button and go straight to them instantly if you have certain videos that always have a certain aspect ratio.

It's indispensable for when you play a video that was encoded in the wrong ratio, which sometimes happens with online videos.

I added an image to my previous post for "Player "freaking out" when booting with Deep Color 12-bit through Certified Premium HDMI 2.0 cable".  You can click the image to view it full-size. You can see the diagonal rows of white dots. The camera only picked up a few but more are visible. As it is booting, they flicker and the screen flashes on and off, and this carries over to the main home screen, until the resolution witches and then it settles down.



Can anybody verify that this happens on their setup with the modes I listed in the previous post?  As mentioned previously, for me it happens in all color space modes when 12-bit or Auto Deep Color is enabled (but not 10-bit), except YCbCr 4:2:2.

Is there a way to get the ZidooPlayer to play a folder of files straight through without stopping after each file, like playing a folder of short clips? I can find no way to do this, but I cannot believe they didn't think of this. Have they not considered that some people like to sit back and play a folder of short clips or trailers?

I have no idea what's wrong with this forum, but I can't successfully edit a post I made earlier, so I'll have to just create a new post here with some updated information:

Player "freaking out" when booting with Deep Color 12-bit through Certified Premium HDMI 2.0 cable - UPDATE

So after solving my black flashing issue with the new 18Gbps certified HDMI 2.0 cable I bought from Wal-Mart, I've discovered a newer problem. When booting, the player goes nuts when Deep Color 12bit is enabled. There are rows of diagonal flickering white dots across the boot screen, along with some random flashes to black. Once the home screen appears, it continues until it sets to the correct frame rate and resolution, then it settles down. Here's the details:

Switch frame rate and resolution
HDMI mode: AUTO / 3840x2160P 60Hz
Deep Color: 12bit / Auto
Color Space Mode: YCbCr 444 / YCbCr 420 /  YCbCr 422 / RGB 444 / Auto

This doesn't happen with 10-bit - only 12-bit and auto. This tells me Deep Color on AUTO is actually selecting 12bit for me. I tried each color space mode with each deep color mode. Only the modes I list above are affected. It doesn't happen when HDMI mode is set to 1080p or 720p.

I also tried my old cable again and it doesn't happen with the old 1.4 cable. So the new cable has solved the black flashing issue I mentioned previously, but introduced a new "bug" or issue for me by enabling full support of Deep Color in the cable.

Sometimes I can start the player up several times in a row (3-5 times sometimes) and it boots fine, then one time I get the flashing and flickering dots.

I found it also happens with Color Space Mode set to YCbCr 422. Previously I didn't think it happened in 422. So it does happen with all color modes when using 12-bit color.

So the question is why is this happening? What is happening at boot with Deep Color on 12bit that is causing this "corrupted" boot-up? Sometimes it boots okay, sometimes it doesn't.




The above videos show the boot issue I'm having, but it doesn't happen with every boot.

A member on the Zidoo forum mentioned that it could be that this combination of 4k/60Hz with deep color enabled is breaking HDMI 2.0 spec, so that could be the reason this is causing issues at boot. But then why only in 12bit, since 10bit should also be breaking HDMI spec? And why does the player allow outputting settings that break spec? It should read my EDIT from my TV and put out the maximum it can support, but I figured it would stay within spec. Is that not how it works?

@lionne, if you have a LG OLED you will be interested in this ATV 4K - Infuse App 12-bit related TV post:

https://firecore.com/comment/81943#comment-81943

There's been lots of discussion about frame rates and banding lately over on the Ziddo forum for the 2.0.5 firmware thread. One very interesting discovery posted today by litlegi74 involves his HDFury Vertex which he was using to measure frame rates. He explains:

"I guess the guys over at HDFury have got it right when they say:

Actually very few devices will report the correct frame rate.
It is all about the clock frequency, the theory is 24/1.001 = 23.976023976
BUT there is no PLL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-locked_loop) at the source that actually gives a corresponding clock which would yield that.
So once a signal leaves the source, the clock is always off and usually ebbs and flows, means changes all the time.
We just decided to show what it really is from the particular source rather than approximating what it should be as many are doing since they cannot
report exact frame rate like we are doing with Vertex"

He tested his blu-ray player and even the blu-ray player claimed it was outputting only 23.973. So taking this into consideration, do we really have an issue with 23.976 @ 4k 4:4:4 10bit/12bit? Wesk05 reported that his HDMI analyzer shows 23.976 is output incorrectly at 4k 4:4:4 10bit/12bit. But could this be the same situation as litlegi74 ran into with his HDFury Vertex? Just a thought.

(2018-02-13, 23:01)lionne Wrote: [ -> ]Wesk05 reported that his HDMI analyzer shows 23.976 is output incorrectly at 4k 4:4:4 10bit/12bit. But could this be the same situation as litlegi74 ran into with his HDFury Vertex? Just a thought.

What the HDFury person talks about is not to emphasize on the third significant digit. Very few devices can set the pixel clock perfectly. In other words, 23.97x is good for 23.976Hz, but 23.9xx isn't good. If I recall correctly, HDFury Vertex is rounding to 3 significant digits (I have to re-check this).

I have mentioned this in the official Zidoo forum but getting no confirmation even looking into this.

SEAMLESS BRANCHING on movies like close encounters,leon,independence day and rogue one (3D) for starters do not work without the image jumping when switching.

On the zidoo forum someone started a thread dated March 14th 2017 about this issue and still been ignored, this will become a BIG issue in the future and will make this device unusable especially for 4k just you wait and see.

(2018-02-14, 14:14)gadgetman67 Wrote: [ -> ]I have mentioned this in the official Zidoo forum but getting no confirmation even looking into this.

SEAMLESS BRANCHING on movies like close encounters,leon,independence day and rogue one (3D) for starters do not work without the image jumping when switching.

On the zidoo forum someone started a thread dated March 14th 2017 about this issue and still been ignored, this will become a BIG issue in the future and will make this device unusable especially for 4k just you wait and see.

 I've also asked for confirmation in there and heard nothing back. I wouldn't hold my breath for this to get addressed. I agree it's a big issue.

I still haven't heard an explanation as to why some troublesome UHD/HDR content looks great with the Zidoo set to 12bit but has more banding when set to 10bit. UHD discs are encoded in 10bit, so 12bit should just be adding a bunch of empty data and delivering the same image as if it were set to 10bit, when playing 10bit content. So then why does setting the Zidoo to 10bit look worse than when set to 12bit? They should look the same, no?

Frame Drops

I posted this over on the Zidoo 2.0.5 thread also. I don't know how much easier I can make this, so Zidoo can do what they want with it. I have spent hours running motion bars on the Zidoo, in order to track down under which configurations the 23.976 frame drops occur. This is the file I used, linked to from the Kodi wiki:

https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut-fix...6_L4.1.mkv

It is a 1080p 23.976fps motion bars test pattern, used for watching for frame drops. These bars make it easy to spot frame drops, though it can make your eyes go a bit wonky after a while. The times I list are what is shown on the bottom-left corner of the test file (in seconds).

Here are the results:


2160P - 10bit - 23.976fps

Switch frame rate only
HDMI Mode: 2160p 60Hz
Deep Color Mode: 10bit
Color Space Mode: YCbCr 422, RGB 444

Frame Drops:
83 seconds
254 seconds
425 seconds
596 seconds
(171 seconds apart after 1st frame drop)



2160P - 10bit - 23.976fps

Switch frame rate only
HDMI Mode: 2160p 60Hz
Deep Color Mode: 10bit
Color Space Mode: YCbCr 444, YCbCr 420

Frame Drops:
52 seconds
161 seconds
270 seconds
379 seconds
(109 seconds apart after 1st frame drop)



2160P - Deep Color OFF - 23.976fps

Switch frame rate only
HDMI Mode: 2160p 60Hz
Deep Color Mode: OFF
Color Space Mode: YCbCr 444, YCbCr 420, YCbCr 422, RGB 444

Frame Drops:
83 seconds
254 seconds
425 seconds
596 seconds
(171 seconds apart after 1st frame drop)



1080P - 10bit - 23.976fps

Switch frame rate only
HDMI Mode: 1080p 60Hz
Deep Color Mode: 10bit
Color Space Mode: YCbCr 444

Frame Drops:
81 seconds
249 seconds
417 seconds
585 seconds
(168 seconds apart after 1st frame drop)



1080P - 10bit - 23.976fps

Switch frame rate only
HDMI Mode: 1080p 60Hz
Deep Color Mode: 10bit
Color Space Mode: YCbCr 422, RGB 444

Frame Drops:
83 seconds
254 seconds
425 seconds
596 seconds
(171 seconds apart after 1st frame drop)



1080P - Deep Color OFF - 23.976fps

Switch frame rate only
HDMI Mode: 1080p 60Hz
Deep Color Mode: OFF
Color Space Mode: YCbCr 444, YCbCr 422, RGB 444

Frame Drops:
83 seconds
254 seconds
425 seconds
596 seconds
(171 seconds apart after 1st frame drop)

These frame drop patterns are repeatable. Every time I run the patterns I see the exact same frame drops in each configuration. My TV's native media player plays the test file without any frame drops, as do my older media players (Mede8er, WDTV Live). I have not tested with other frame rates besides 23.976, but it is quite possible other frame rates also drop frames (24.000/25.000/29.970/59.940). I have not tested extensively with 12bit, but I can say that regular frame drops also happen in 12bit, though possibly spaced further apart.

Notice the frame drops happen not only when outputting 2160p, but also 1080p. Also notice the frame drops happen even when deep color is disabled.

Conclusion: With the current 2.0.5 firmware, the Zidoo x9s suffers from frame drops when playing 23.976 material, across all 1080p and 2160p configurations. The timing of the frame drops varies depending on the configuration of color space mode, deep color mode, and resolution.

Either Zidoo can look into this serious issue, or ignore it. I will not be keeping my player with the firmware in the current state that it is in. These issues need to be fixed. If this gets resolved, I may buy the x9s again at a later date. I have done my best to help bring attention to some of these flaws so that Zidoo can focus on them. It does not help when some members over on the Zidoo forums claim "I don't see it, so it must not be happening". If you don't see it, then move along. Not everyone is sensitive enough to see these issues. The x9s (and likely the x10 too, since they share similar firmware) have issues that need addressing. Brushing it under the rug, or trying to blame my TV, is not helping the situation.

One final note, I watched a 23.976 UHD/HDR movie last night on the x9s, and I did indeed notice the frame drops even with casual viewing. As I said previously, it's one frame drop every x amount of seconds. For some this will be very annoying, and for others they will never notice it. That doesn't mean it's not a problem.

(2018-02-16, 05:18)lionne Wrote: [ -> ]One final note, I watched a 23.976 UHD/HDR movie last night on the x9s, and I did indeed notice the frame drops even with casual viewing. As I said previously, it's one frame drop every x amount of seconds. For some this will be very annoying, and for others they will never notice it. That doesn't mean it's not a problem.

Nicely said !

This is the sort of in depth, 24p video playback visual testing I do as well on various Kodi boxes. For those of us living outside the USA that have never had to put up with 3:2 pulldown video playback judder, smooth video playback is important especially the bigger the TV / Projector screen gets.