Z9X - SMB playback issues while streaming from NAS

Discussion in 'HDD Media player(RTD 1619DR)' started by matty2k, Dec 30, 2020.

  1. DIKKE

    DIKKE Active Member

    yep, i even clear the cache and unload background app's with the cleaner. No difference. What could be an option is to do a complete factory reset, and reload the latetst FW? Thing is that NFS does work, it is just SMB that gives issues here?
     
  2. DIKKE

    DIKKE Active Member

    thinks that is normal CPU behavior. Normally your cores are not going full speed all the time. They adjust on load and background procc. I have the feeling this is Samba related protocol/driver issue?
     
  3. Whitfield

    Whitfield Active Member

    Can very well be. Maybe consistent with this would be the fact that during copy/paste trials with my Z9X, NFS transfer speeds are higher than those of SMB.
     
  4. DIKKE

    DIKKE Active Member

    just doing an AB test with a GT-KING core elec player, and the Z9x. Same files, and over synology [CIFS(SMB3)] SMB. This is the LAN traffic graph from the syno with the GTKING upload_2021-2-10_15-36-4.png and from the z9x including the freezes. upload_2021-2-10_16-11-23.png
     
  5. ZIDOO2020

    ZIDOO2020 New Member

    I owned a z9s with the same playback issue with nas previously. Just bump into the z9x area to see how it fares.
    I've mkv files that playback from nas and pc (both connected wirelessly via 2 huawei ax3 pro mesh setup). My pc is installed with comfast intel ax200 pci-e wifi6 card.
    Initially i playback most of mkv files via nas but it lagged and stuttered. But when i tested the same mkv file from my pc, it run smoothly without any problems.
    So now i removed all the hard disk (except one for data backup) from my synology nas and put in my pc together with all my mkv files. No problems so far for playing back my mkv files from pc.
    What i can think off here is the intel ax200 pci-e card speed up the transfer rate for playback of mkv files to z9s.
    What do you all think ?
     
  6. Whitfield

    Whitfield Active Member

    I haven't kept track on WiFi evolution but assume the technology has taken large steps forward. It'd be quite surprising if the Zidoos would prove themselves to show no problems with WiFi playback,
    as opposed to where they would via wired connection. I can imagine people wanna try this out.
     
  7. SolarGlider

    SolarGlider Member

    Hi @Whitfield, I've deactivated this function since the beginning. But now I've got something positive to tell. I still had issues with playback over NAS and computer but then I activated the option 'maximum CPU performance' in the Zidoo under developer options. I've played all my 'problematic' files with the Zidoo and now finally they're glitch free. The only strange issue I encountered was with a Dolby Vision ISO demo disc where the playback is slightly choppy with some test files. It doesn't buffer them luckily but the playback isn't smooth. I'm just thankful that after many months there is a lot of improvement with the new Zidoo. I will not get a new player from the start anymore but will wait until firmware matures from now on. But now I finally requested a refunds with Amazon for the Dune.

    Edit: there still are some very slight performance issues. I had one small buffer watching 4 different UHD files completely. I also noticed that there is slight choppy behaviour sometimes with MKV files when I turn the Dolby engine on.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2021
  8. Rob W

    Rob W Active Member

    I think the developers should still update to SMB 3.0 client. It should provide further improvements and will mean people can run SAMBA 3 servers and not have to run older dialects.
     
  9. Whitfield

    Whitfield Active Member

    Nice going! The option itself strikes me as a bit strange though. Makes one wonder why the Zidoo won't go full throttle with initial settings.
    More people reporting better network performance, I guess things are getting more stable. But Zidoo's not there yet.
     
  10. Whitfield

    Whitfield Active Member

    I can imagine. Testing SMB from my Windows 7 pc (so, that would be SMB 2 or 2.1?) lately, the Zidoo already proves to be stable on playback. I simply can't reproduce the issues others are having.
    Something that does stand out is the high SMB speeds people achieve during copy/paste trials. It would sort of contradict certain arguments to SMB playback problems. Therefore, a possible culprit to the issues is how SMB (or NFS, for that matter) is implemented/carried out in conjunction to media playback. Buffers constantly have to be filled in such a way that they are not running too low or high. Since bitrates aren't equal all the time during playback, I can imagine the processes handling playback, buffering and network traffic still are not optimized to each other.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2021
    SolarGlider likes this.
  11. Rob W

    Rob W Active Member

    Yes on Windows 7 you would be connecting on 2/2.1 Dialect. Windows Samba server isn't the problem because on Windows 10 it is happy to connect to the Zidoo on 2.1 and other Windows shares on 3.1.1 dialects. The problem comes with Linux samba servers and NAS devices because it seems to only connect at SMB 2 across all devices unless you force SMB 3 in configuration and then the Zidoo can't connect. So you have to run a lower version on your network to keep compatibility with the Zidoo which is annoying. SMB 3 was added in Android 9 so I don't know why the Zidoo does not support it properly and they should.
     
    Armin Moesslacher likes this.
  12. Armin Moesslacher

    Armin Moesslacher Active Member

    Yes, reflects my findings as well! Even SMB 2.1 is not supported by the Zidoo...............
     
    Rob W likes this.
  13. DaMacFunkin

    DaMacFunkin Active Member

    Since the latest firmware I am having SMB problem with my NAS, somewhere between 45-60 mins my files (doesn’t matter if it is 1080p or 4K) clog up and cant get running again, I stop the file and then resume playback and all is fine, obviously a buffer problem.
    Didn’t seem to be there on previous firmware.
    As a additional note NFS seemed to be ok on earlier firmwares on my system, not sure when it changed but at the moment it is a total no no.
     
  14. Whitfield

    Whitfield Active Member

    I would like to know how you can tell.
    Is there a way to get confirmation of what SMB Dialect/version is being used, whether it'd be on the Zidoo or (my win7) pc?
     
  15. matty2k

    matty2k New Member

    For example, if you are using Synology NAS, you could check Protocol-Center for details.
    In my Log there is shown, that z9x is accessing the data with SMB3.0 protocol. So I assume that z9x is supporting and using SMB3.0.
     
  16. Armin Moesslacher

    Armin Moesslacher Active Member

    I set SMB version 2.1 (ONLY so from version to version) on the NAS, I reboot the NAS (needed for QNAP so setting REALLY takes place) login from Zidoo not psossible......same for version 3
     
  17. Rob W

    Rob W Active Member

    On windows open PowerShell as admin then
    Get-SmbConnection

    This only tells you what client Dialect your using to connect to a samba server.
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2021
  18. Whitfield

    Whitfield Active Member

    Thanks, but I can't run 'Get-SmbConnection' on Windows 7. I get an error.
     
  19. jmmy

    jmmy New Member

    Hello, I'm the same. Plus I still have stuttering issues. It occurs at different times and the resolution of the file does not matter.
    The connection is SMB to a synology. I have tried to activate the option "less cache" and it does not solve it.
    Thanks a lot.
     
    DaMacFunkin likes this.
  20. Rob W

    Rob W Active Member

    If I set SMB 3 on my samba server on my Raspberry pi the Zidoo can't even see it. My computers all are able to connect to the pi at 3.1.1.
    I haven't used a Synology but it seems to have an option for Minimum SMB protocol. Try setting that to 3 and see if it still works for you.
     

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