NFS or SMB for best performance ?

Hi, which network protocol are you using for local NAS streaming? I personally prefer NFS with Z9X, which seems to be more stable and faster than SMB. I have Synology 918+ NAS. I know that there was a bug in a former firmware concering SMB... and it was supposed to be solved, but I have noticed some skiped frames and jerkiness while using SMB in some 4K material with high bit rate even on 6.1.15... So I wonder if SMB is really fixed or need some more work?

 

NFS.

 

Have been using NFS on all my synology nas boxes to Zidoo and other media players for years, no problems at all.

 

Hello, I'm sorry, I have a QNAP NAS and the Zidoo Z9x but, I don't know why, the NFS doesn't work for me. Tried several times already, it recognizes everything, until the end but, the Multimedia folder where I have the contents does not recognize me ..... Ideas ...... ????????? In the meantime, I take this opportunity to send all of you my most sincere wishes for a happy Easter.

 

What error exactly are you seeing?

For NFS setup on Qnap please go to:

Control Panel -> Shared Folders (under privilege) -> then select this:


Then here select "NFS host access" and make sure that the IP of the Zidoo has read access. In my case I just use "*" to enable all devices.

 

Just to stick my oar in a little bit here...

I'm running a partially managed Cat5 network with approx 100 clients (depending on mobile devices and what gets switched on and off) with 10 switches, 5 of them managed and 5 of them dumb and 5 access points.

I used to use NFS years ago in the days of SMB1 because we found that the lower overhead of NFS (a more primitive protocol) allowed for higher bitrate transfers over the network compared to SMB1 (this is well before even HD was around!)

As I'm sure a lot of people did, I kept the habit, but these days, with SMB2 and SMB3 that advantage is redundant and indeed can cause issue.

When I started messing with Dune and Zidoo Realtek boxes (after Sigma left the market) I found that NFS caused transfer issues, so switched over to SMB and have used that exclusively since then.

I can honestly say that I've never had a single dropped frame due to network issues with these boxes over SMB, so that's where I stick.

Of course every network is different so YMMV

 

Goodmorning everyone, thank you very much for the very comprehensive answers, even with a lot of screenshots ..... So, to the answer "which type of connection is better performing between SMB or NFS", what could we say? @Sledgehamma: "So here select" NFS Host Access "and make sure the Zidoo IP has read access. In my case I only use" * "to enable all devices.": How do I make the Zidoo IP with read access? @Markswift2003 So, in your experience, it's useless to use NFS, but SMB is enough. In any case, really kind and very prepared for the problems that for an average / poor user has ........ Greetings to all of you, I wish you all a happy Easter, Andrea.

EDIT: OT to be honest I have the problem in the settings of the Qnap NAS. In fact, every time I turn on the Zidoo, for example it does not see the Multimedia folder, so I have to restore from backup. Surely it's my fault, in the sense that I touch the settings believing I know, I actually mess it up more. I would therefore need to "fix it" for good but, I don't go into doing these things ......... And I'm ashamed to ask for definitive help here on the forum.

 

On the Zidoo go to settings -> Network -> Ethernet -> and you will see the IP address of your Zidoo under "IP address". Then put this IP address where I have the "*" in my picture.

 

i use SMB exclusively. With my firmware at 1.05G, I no longer have stutter with normal content.

 

I use NFS 100%, always have and never missed a beat (frame). So it's an old Protocol - so what, it works!

Since I bought my Zidoo last year, I've read a lot of posts where people have issues with SMB

 

Hi, could you reload your photo ? I cant see your attached photos..

 

I have a QNAP also, I have always used SMB, never a problem so far. When I got my Zidoo 3000 a few weeks ago it found my network instantly.

 

Good evening
Today I got Zidoo (with fw 6.4.06) after much waiting and made the connection via LAN with QNAP NAS with NFS protocol, as I always had with the previous player (HiMedia Q10 pro).
While playing both UHD and HD files I was noticing slowdowns and jerks, after several attempts with the setting I also flashed (downgrade fw 6.3.92),
unfortunately the problem was not solved.
As a last attempt I tried to change the network protocole from NFS to SMB and I played the same files without any problem, everything was smooth without any slowdown or jerking of the images, when I went back to NFS protocol the same problems returned .

 

Back in the day, a couple of decades ago, with high bitrate (at the time) DVD rips, NFS was the protocol of choice - it's an old protocol (although so is SMB!) and has a lower payload than SMB so less network overhead, and with the network adapters at the time, this worked fine.

But things change, protocols improve and with today's network adapters and today's bitrates and files, SMB is the way to do it. Some still like to cling to the old rules, but they just don't fit anymore - I've used SMB ever since we've been able to rip 1080p BluRays and wouldn't consider using NFS these days.

YMMV

Again.

 

I’ve been troubleshooting some performance issues on SMB and noticed that the the Z9x is using a read request size of 65535 bytes when accessing a file over SMB either playback or a copy to local storage. In comparison a Win11 client is using a request size of 1M. These have been confirmed on Wireshark.
This results in a limited throughput of 12-20MB/s on the Zidoo whereas I get 95MB/s on the Windows client. I have tried both Win11 and MacOS as the SMB server and it is the same behaviour.
Is there a way to increase read request size of the SMB client configuration on Z9X?

 

its happening the same here.. even with my ip adress on NAS. Synology 1815+ is my NAS.
Anyone could help ?
Thaks

 

As my signature indicates I have a QNAP NAS and use SMB. No problems playing UHD rips, to mkv over the wired network. As I understand it NFS is very old and not used very much these days. I tried to use it as an experiment once and couldn't get it to work. Networking is my blind spot so basically all I did was connect everything, turned it on and it worked. The only thing I did do on the advice of Mark Swift was assign a fixed or protected IP address for all my sources to the Zidoo.

 

I am surprised with the answers in the beginning of this thread and would have expected them to be switched with how awesome SMB is and how terrible NFS is, which is what I have experienced trying to setup NFS extensively twice now over the years on Z9X. Both times were terrible experience, not being able to install and mount drives or get a stable connection with NFS and when I did for a short period of time, the videos just stuttered.

I, in fact tried setting up NFS with my PC this past weekend and again when trying to scan those NFS sources, the Sources page kept crashing back to main HT screen. So I just gave up and keep using SMB for now. I am on .60 FW. Maybe my PC is too old? But it works fine with my Oppo streaming over network so I don't really know.

 

Hi there, I’m a new member of the Zidoo family and also have a QNap as my server. Can you point me in the direction of Mark Swifts instruction on assigning a fixed IP address? Also, do you have any issues of losing your library and having to rescan every time zidoo is powered off? Do you need to renter QNap password, Etc? Doing a ton of reading up but it gets overwhelming. Any help would be appreciated.

 

This is best done from your router. It will allocate the IP's.
You will need to read up on your model and then allocate IP addresses to your QNAP, Zidoo, any other NAS, PC, TV, printer etc.
Library is not lost when power is off. The network password can be saved (if you use one).