Beta version v1.0.86 for Z9X Pro/Z20 Pro/Z2000 Pro/Z2600/UHD5000 release

Good question - I guess it depends what's coming out of it. What codec is the file you're playing?

 

The files I am playing use DTS X / DTS HD MA / DTS or DOLBY ATMOS / DOLBY TRUE HD / DOLBY DIGITAL

 

So out of that only Dolby Digital and DTS can pass on S/PDIF.

DTS-HD and DTS-X will pass the DTS core, Dolby TrueHD and TrueHD Atmos will probably get converted to Stereo PCM unless there is a separate AC-3 track since TrueHD doesn't have a core compatibility track.

 

This is a very good possibility. Therefore I don't understand why the spdif hd audio downmix option on or off function does not seem to matter.

In both cases it seems the above mentioned to be happening because in both cases I have sound.

If this is true then why is this option avalaible....very strange.

 

Maybe it converts to LPCM if the switch is off and uses DTS Core and AC3 (if available) if the switch is on for the appropriate HD codecs. Not something I've really tested to be honest because I use HDMI.

 

Interesting possibility.

Wich audio quality is better?

When it converts to lpcm does it convert for instance the DTS HD MA track or the DTS core is a question wich comes to mind.

 

S/PDIF is always worse. In 5.1 or 7.1 the sound is always compressed.

 

When a DTS or Dolby multichannel soundtrack is mastered, metadata is included on how to downmix to stereo, and that's what's used if it's converted to LPCM stereo - and that's the problem - it's only stereo so you lose the multichannel information.

Theoretically this can be decoded back to multichannel in a limited way by using a Dolby Pro-Logic decoder but it doesn't replace true discrete multichannel encoding.

So the multichannel version is always preferable.

As to whether it's the MA track or core that's decoded, I believe it's the MA track (and TrueHD in the case of Dolby).

I would choose AC-3 or DTS over PCM stereo regardless of how the stereo is derived.

 

I have a pretty epensive high end stereo set with a external dac so one way or the other I can only use spdif output to my external dac wich only support 2 channel input.

 

Ok, set output to Stereo LPCM in Audio Settings and you should be good.

 

also cant you use USB Audio out to your DAC for the highest quality stereo ie my Z9X pro is connected to my Topping DAC via usb cable for audio

If you want hi quality mch youd be better off getting the Eversolo A6 or the even better 8 model which will support full mch over hdmi

 

Hi

Why is Zidoo Music shows [Invalid] status every time I reboot the device?

Im using Synology NAS.

Removing the sources and re-add them again will solve the issue.

any advice?

 

If you are using a pretty expensive hi end stereo set up, what zidoo is doing there?)) Aurender should be your choice.
Always wondering about people who are talking about good sound quality using zidoo)) Eversolo should be a minimum to start and if we are talking about "pretty expensive stereo set up" you definitely need to use a different source to play your files.

 

Well it is not so difficult to think of a reason(s) is it....

I am not gonna spend a lot of money on something from wich in the beginning I am not sure wether I am gonna like it, wether it is worth the amount of work that comes with digitalising a large media library and getting familiair with how all of this works.

For me this is an experiment besides my main Panasonic UB9004 UHD player and wanted a reasonable price / quality to begin with.

For now it serves my main purpose wich is to digitalise my media library and preserve them because I was having several disc titles suffering from disc bronzing rendering them useless for playback.

And out of curiosity....wich Aurender are you reffering to wich also has a media library management system for movies and tv shows?

 

You have connected your Z9X Pro through USB to your dac....how....as far as I know the USB port of the Z2000 Pro is input only.

How will that be a higher quality stereo sound compared to coaxial spdif out en input because it is still the same source quality to begin with.

Multichannel sound is not an option for how I live now.....better a excellent stereo quality than a poor multichannel setup wich would be the case for now.

 

does spdif support dsd natively ?

i use usb to audio for 2 channel .dsf files ...ie got around 7 -800 sacd albums converted to .dsf plus loads of 24/192 /96/ flac albums

edit looked it up and

S/PDIF doesn't have the bandwidth to transmit DSD, nor does Toslink""
and
S/PDIF can carry two channels of uncompressed PCM audio or compressed 5.1 surround sound (such as DTS audio codec or Dolby Digital codec); it cannot support lossless surround formats that require greater bandwidth.

So usb audio to a better DAC should be way better for high end audio systems

 

Anyone tried the Ugoos AM6B+ ? Allegedly as well as full fat FEL playback VS10 is now 90% working - just through community support! even with ISO, not sure if this translates into full menu playback - I've got one on order.

 

Very happy with this firmware. Movies play smooth untill now.

One thing I noticed ...offline trailers...dont play all.
Both not in file manager and posterwall.
They are in mp4. They are grabbed by TMM with yt-dlp.
They play on the pc.
I remember we had similar a year or 2 back.

 

I understand what you mean however I don't use DSD files.

My music collection are all 24bit 192Khz uncompressed wav files wich works fine with spdif output.

 

First of all, thanks for the latest firmware that practically brought my Z9X Pro back to life and now I can play all my files without a black screen. But I would like to report a bug that has been occurring since version v1.0.75 and still continues in v1.0.86. I can no longer download subtitles. My Z9X Pro is configured with the Brazilian Portuguese language (Portuguese BR) and in firmware v1.0.52 I was able to locate the subtitles in Portuguese (PT) for Portugal, which already helped me a lot. If I set my Zidoo's language to English, it can also find the subtitles in English. Only in Portuguese BR or Portuguese PT does a message appear that the search for subtitles failed. This is a function that I used a lot and I hope it returns in the future.

I don't know if it's valid information, but if I go to the opensubtitles website and search for the subtitle with the title of the film translated into Portuguese like Zidoo translates it, on the opensubtitles website I can find the subtitles in my language.