1.7.7 firmware on my Z9S. Noticed DVD .MKV files (with 16:9 aspect in the metadata) play back as 4:3, and not properly stretched horizontally. Easy to fix by changing aspect ratio in the OSD menu, but it should default to the correct AR, since it is in the meta data. 4:3 DVD .mkv files play properly.
Just took delivery of a Z9S this morning, and although I'm sure support is already aware (as I discovered threads for past players detailing the exact same problems, such as this one for the X10), this issue with DVD playback extends to ISOs with full menus as well as remuxed MKVs. It's also worth noting that not even 4:3 content displays exactly properly, but the default "Fit" aspect ratio setting does get closer to the original for 4x3 content than it does 16x9. But to truly fix the issue, the Aspect Ratio setting needs to be set to either 4x3 or 16x9, depending on the content you're playing. I'm baffled as to why it's taking so long for this to be fixed, as DVD is by far the most well-understood of the optical formats. All the Zidoo should need to look for is the pixel aspect ratio of the content, and automatically select the correct aspect ratio (4x3 for a 720x480 content with a 0.91:1 pixel aspect ratio, and 16x9 for 720x480 content with a 1.21:1 PAR). Pretty simple. Are there any updates on this issue being resolved? I bought this player primarily to be able to easily access my backed up DVDs (the ones I've chosen to keep since they're either not on blu-ray or never will/can be) so I can move the real discs into storage. For blu-ray playback I use the real discs, so I don't need the Z9S for that. So this bug kind of renders the device completely useless for my purposes.
If you are running latest firmware this should be fixed. You can select 4:3 in aspect ratio menu whilst playing ISO.
No, that isn't' a even close to a fix. The player should be adapting automatically to the content, not requiring the user to manually set it. Some DVDs contain material of varying aspect ratios... the main feature may be in 16x9 while some bonus content could be 4x3, or vice versa. We're supposed to constantly be going in to change the aspect ratio while playing an ISO? I don't need to do that on a regular DVD playler. Also, some menus (and the Zidoo player doesn't allow users to select an aspect ratio while in a DVD menu screen) are 16x9 while others are 4x3, but under the current player neither display correctly and never will as long as users are required to manually choose the aspect ratio. The player defaults to "Fit", but that isn't appropriate for either ratio. Why is it so hard to program the player to automatically detect whether it's playing 4x3 or 16x9 content and choose the correct ratio on-the-fly?
Months later, and this still isn't fixed. Zidoo's Home Theatre player doesn't seem to properly understand the way DVDs work at all, with their non-square pixels. Considering the way the player itself even labels DVD images as "BD", I guess I shouldn't be surprised. This is lazy programming, pure and simple. Kodi handles DVD ISOs perfectly and seamlessly switches between 4x3 and 16x9 content, but unfortunately the latest versions of Kodi apparently dont' work with the Z9S due to some issue with Realtek chipsets being blacklisted (according to this post); the 18.x Kodi versions just crash after a few minutes. Personally, I think this is unacceptable. I guess the Z9S is just an expensive paperweight at this point. I'll never be purchasing anything from this company again, and I suggest nobody else does either.
I have just installed vanilla Kodi 18.4 from Kodi site on a Z9S running firmware 2.2.82 and it's been stable playing various bits of media for more than an hour. I think the problem you link to relating to an earlier version of Kodi has been fixed.
That's very odd, considering the fact I also tried running Kodi 18.4 on the latest firmware, and it continues to crash after a few minutes use; usually while trying to navigate DVD menus. 17.6, on the other hand, works without crashing, but I'd rather not using an outdated version of the software. No offense futeko.com, but you never seem to have any issues and have posted unhelpful responses several times already in this thread about believing the issues have been solved when, in fact, nothing has been solved. To the point where it seems like you're just an official spokesman for Zidoo rather than an unbiased observer. Since there's been no official response from Zidoo on this topic, I'm forced to conclude they simply don't care about the issues with their hardware and software. Disappointing, and I'd caution anyone reading this (even if you aren't affected by this specific issue)... eventually there may be some problem that is important to you, and Zidoo could prove themselves just as indifferent.
I'm not impartial, I'm a Zidoo reseller. Saying that, it's 100% true that I was able to run Kodi 18.4 yesterday for several hours without any problems. Also, as a Zidoo reseller, I get feedback from 100s of users and can say based on that feedback that there is no fundamental problem of the type you originally described ("the latest versions of Kodi apparently dont' work with the Z9S due to some issue with Realtek chipsets being blacklisted" - not true at all). You didn't specify in your original post that the problem was related to DVD ISOs. Thanks for this feedback. However, Kodi is not created by Zidoo and is a limit to what they can do to fix Kodi bugs. Regarding anamorphic pixels on DVD in Zidoo's player, I pushed Zidoo to include the option to manually select different ratios. I will ask them again to make this automatic.
