Beta version v6.4(7).42 for Z9X/Z10 Pro/Z1000 Pro/UHD3000/NEO S/NEO X/NEO Alpha release

It's a good release in despite it's not complete with several missing bugs/issues. Anyway it's quite stable as well.

 

re issue with the HDMI2.1 chips being the early ones which couldnt do the full 4k 120hz? (or what ever it was)

Denon has tweaked the serial number of the new models: numbers that end with serial numbers from 70001 onwards should be bug-free, as they will have been manufactured after May 2021 and boast the upgraded HDMI 2.1 chip.
if you have an early version like my 3700H then get hold of Sound United's external HDMI adaptor, which contains the new chip and corrects the bug. Simply fill out the form on the Denon(opens in new tab) or Marantz(opens in new tab) website to get one for free.
simple black box adapter that goes in between the reciever and the TV ie zidoo - reciever -black box -TV
Even here in NZ you could get one sent free All i did was say i was getting a ps5/xbox x

 

@Markswift2003

Mark,

Thank you and others very much for this new DV and HDR update, which really makes all videos look excellent.

Could you please, or someone else from ZIDOO, look a little bit at sounds setup. As I have already said it here, it would be nice to solve this AAC 5.1 sound issue, since it plays it as PCM2.0 stereo all the time, does not matter what settings I change. I use SPIDF audio, setup to RAW, tried to use HDMI RAW settings too, but in both cases all video clips coded with AAC 5.1 audio comes out as PCM2.0 stereo although in Info it says that ZIDOO plays AAC 5.1, 6 channel audio. Yes, there are some people who uses that old sound coding and it would be nice to have it played correctly. My opinion here it is a matter that in sound routine, somehow, ZIDOO decides to transcode it to PCM2.0 stereo but not to pass it through. Some scenario like you have with Dolby Atmos sound which ZIDOO transcodes to PCM2.0 stereo if you do not have sound system which could play Dolby Atmos or Dolby TrueHD sound. Since AAC5.1 format is not so hard it could be passed through to our sound system as it is.

Another issue which I found is related to StandBy mode, when you wakes up your ZIDOO from StandBy it uses some different audio settings than I set it up, For instance, I used Audio settings, SPIDF audio to RAW (HDMI is set to OFF), but when I wake up ZIDOO from StandBy it uses HDMI RAW mode and sends audio to my television and no sound on SPIDF audio out at all although it is visible in settings, as I said, SPIDF audio to RAW and HDMI to Off in ZIDOO setings. Why this one is important? Who know what other settings ZIDOO changed or used by itself, does not matter what is used in settings, Display, Audio or whatever, since when you open settings, everything is setup as I want, but ZIDOO uses some its own settings. This is another issue, which could be solved easily by saving user settings into memory or to HDD and implement them when you wake up ZIDOO from StandBy.

Sorry for boring you here, I sent mail to ZIDOO couple of months ago, but nothing happened.

 

Unusual.

My Z9X has never had any issues with multi-channel AAC. My Yamaha outputs the correct channels as PCM.

Are you referring to the Zidoo on-screen info during playback or the device documentation?
Could the issue be with your AV receiver/soundbar? Can it actually process multi-channel AAC?
How is your Zidoo connected to your other devices (i.e. Zidoo>TV>AVR/soundbar, or Zidoo>AVR/sounbar>TV)?

Could this be an HDMI handshake issue? I know from past experience that audio issues can occur depending on the order in which devices are powered on.

I wish I could give you a definitive answer, but I can't. I'm just posing some questions. The real experts will hopefully give you some answers.

 

I am refering to ZIDOO's on-screen Info during playback, pressed Info button on remote, it says AAC 5.1 but output is PCM 2.0 stereo only. When I pressed button MORE, it is also said it is 5.1 audio, 6 channels, but as I said, output is PCM2.0 stereo only.

No, I do not think so. My ZIDOO connects to television via HDMI 2.1 cable and my sound system is connected via Digital Coaxial cable from ZIDOO directly to sound system. That is not HDMI handshake problem obviously. The thing becomes funnier since my television can handle AAC 5.1 sound (it says it on its Info during playback) and it can pass it through optical cable connected directly to the same sound system with AAC 5.1 audio, all 6 channels. I mean, when I use some videos from HDD connected to my television directly via USB, television plays sound correctly.

But, if I put ZIDOO to pass sound through HDMI, set to RAW, my television in Info says it is AAC 2.0 stereo, which means that ZIDOO transcoded it and sent such stereo signal to my television via HDMI also. That means, both ways, ZIDOO makes some transcoging in the handling of AAC 5.1 audio, but I can not figure out why or how.

I think that is not handshake issue, since I use direct connection SPIDF audio, Digital Coaxial Cable from ZIDOO to my sound system.

Thank you for your response.

 

Thanks a lot Anthony and cucnz for reminding me that one. I ordered and got that long time ago but never used it as I was not experiencing any issues with HDMI. I will install this and update if this took care of the problem. Thanks a lot to this great community.

 

whats your receiver ? and tv model ? are they atmos dts x HDMA capable? asking because ideally you should always go zidoo to amp to tv

ie zidoo hdmi raw to tv will just pass through ie is tv capable of recieving/processing more than stereo (or set to allow more ? )

 

Confirmed - S/PDIF doesn't passthrough AAC5.1 - but I'm not sure S/PDIF spec even allows AAC passthrough.

I think (and I stand to be corrected) the issue is that AAC is handled by conversion to PCM and S/PDIF can only support stereo PCM.

Over HDMI, 5.1 AAC soundtracks will transport as 5.1 PCM hence are accepted by the amp fine. Over S/PDIF this is not possible, so only stereo PCM is transported.

Reported by my Vertex with 5.1 AAC played over HDMI:



As for audio settings not persisting through standby, I can't replicate that one - all my settings remain good.

 

Let me say firstly I use Zidoo Z1000 Pro model with internal HDD, I installed, firmware v6.4.42. Connections: Ziddoo->TV directly over HDMI and Zidoo->Sound system directly over Digital Coaxial out.

Thank you Mark, but I am not sure you are right. I have used old Popcorn C200 for years and had AAC5.1 over SPIDF audio, through Optical cable out and through Digital Coaxial out, too. I just used Audio Pass through option. Without any problem. I also know that SPIDF or let me be more specific, optical and digital coaxial out have bandwidth limitation, but with samples I use it is so much lower than their limitations. I also tried and will try again to pass through AAC 5.1 over HDMI audio, setting Audio to HDMI-RAW, but as I told before it does not sends 5.1 sound to my television, since it shows in INFO it is AAC 2.0 and not AAC5.1. My Sony television can handle AAC5.1 sound and pass it through. If I used that scenario and tell to television to pick up audio from HDMI and then pass it through to optical out, I have same result., no 5.1 sound, only 2.0 stereo.

I do not think that conversion from AAC to PCM is necessary at all, since most of sound systems (by which I mean soundbars, home theater audio systems and similar) can handle it by its own. The only question remains if it is possible to make small update to the firmware to send AAC1.5 pass through to Optical or Digital Coaxial out, which ZIDOO calls SPIDF and than let sound system do the rest of job. At the same time, it could have a new button in settings, you know that one in AUDIO where you can use possibility to hear Dolby Atmos or DTS TrueHD if they have core AC3 or DTS sound integrated, which works good for now. The same can be done for AAC5.1, just to pass it through and if it is good, no problem, but if it is not good some button in Audio settings could send it to conversion to PCM stereo.

For StandBy mode, I tried once again, it did lose previous settings, although it stays written in settings as I set it up. More specifically, I use Audio settings like this: HDMI Audio OFF, SPIDF Audio RAW and have sound on Digital Coaxial out. But, after StandBy mode, I take a look to settings, they are the same: HDMI Audio Off, SPIDF Audio RAW, but audio goes through HDMI only and not through Digital Coaxial out although I set it up differently. Maybe it is related to Digital Coaxial out only, but I really do not thinks so, I think it is related to SPIDF Audio out handling completely in wrong way, possibly some priority flags or similar. Yes, I tried factory reset and was patient to reboot twice after every firmware upgrade with power off and unplugging scenario. Another one for StandBy wrong implementation is that in 3 of 5 cases, it forgets my internally connected HDD, completely. StandBy mode does not work properly.

 

I think the problem here is that AAC is just a codec and not a transport stream, so similar to MP3 etc, it can't be bitstreamed over either HDMI or S/PDIF - it needs to be converted to PCM to be transported.

In the case of your C200 I can only think that it was transcoded to AC3, something that's not possible with Zidoo due to licensing.

Yes, soundbars, amps etc can handle AAC etc, but only as a file format, not as a transport format.

As for the standby problem - again, I can't replicate it. S/PDIF output remains on and working after standby/reboot etc. You don't need to turn HDMI audio off to get S/PDIF output.

 

I've setup HT4 on my Z9X that arrived today and so far have 2 issues. I'm on v6.4.42.

Genres: Why are there so many duplicates, and why are most of them empty? When I go to Movies and select Genres, I see duplicates. When I try to configure the landing page of HT4 for Genres, I see a bunch of empty ones and again the same sort of repeats. I have no idea which one has content and which one doesn't. See the Genres attachment.

WebUI: When trying to rematch on the WebUI, it only shows you titles and no year. When you're dealing with a title like Alice in Wonderland with so many versions, how are you supposed to know which to match?

 

In the device setup there is a DSD Playback Strategy you have to check there: https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/audio-setup-basics#Accessing_Audio_Settings

If the device supports it you can choose native

 

Can someone please explain where this category 2 is supposed to be? I added stuff to a custom category 2 and it is nowhere to be found....... I thought category 2 would be exactly what it implies, a second category row.

 

Gentlemen, I bought myself second Z9X and sold my old trusted X9S. The benefits of scaling down 4K DV and HDR movies using VS10 engine to my old 3D HD projector with deep 10 bit color was too good to pass.

Now having both Z9X players on my Gigabit network I discovered a serious problem. The players cannot reliably send files to each other from attached drives. It takes at least 3 full minutes to start a movie, small single file about 20GB from second Zidoo Z9x. In case of larger UHD disk file structure 1000 files and 80GB size it just gets stuck forever.

After further research I discovered that copying files from Zidoo Z9X SATA or USB attached drives to PC computer it hangs for couple of minutes with the message "Time remaining: Calculating". Once this is passed it runs at about 60 MBps. It only happens on wired Gigabit network. Even checking on property of file takes a while. Switching both Zidoo's to wifi network eliminates this problem but of course it buffers on larger files. I tried to use different wires going through local switch without any difference. I'm going to get crossed CAT cable tomorrow to run between players with static address and no devices in between. Straight cable didn't work.

Can anybody check this? Just copy a file from Z9X to PC and check if you get this "calculating time remaining" message for couple of minutes. PC and Zidoo need to be on wired Gigabit network. Moving files to Zidoo is not too bad, trying to copy from is the problem.

Old X9S didn't have this problem and was connected to the same Gigabit LAN cable.

 

Salut Markswift2003 Une petite question j'ai un Apr X2400H Denon et je n'ai plus d'icones dans Facade 5.1 comme sur ton message #213 je viens de creuser DIG pourrais tu m'informer pourquoi merci

 

Check on the Denon in Settings/General/Front Display that it is set to "Output" and not "Input"

 

sorry man i have no output or input

 

when i tape info