p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Feed back after two days use of Ziddo X9 : 1 – Unpacking : - device look is pretty small, but with two big antennas which cannot be hidden in the back of the device, due to connectors, - on the left side a slot is named TF card, As TF is a quite an obsolete designation, it would be better to write « Micro SD card », On the description of the device, a comment should be « select a card with the higher transfer rate », This to avoid bad recording quality, - no user's manual 2 – Installing : - connection to a receiver (Marantz NR1605) : First problem : the image on the TV screen is splitted by a diagonal thus making installation impossible, By direct connection to the TV the image is correct, - installation process is quite simple and does not need a user's manual, 3 – Settings (under french language): 3,1 – System : Some mistakes in translation may be confusing Under « Stockage » (Storage) : - « Stockage interne should be renamed « RAM » - « Carte SD » should be renamed « Mémoire interne » - a micro SD card being in the slot « TF Card », « Mémoire de stockage USB » should be renamed « Carte Micro SD », - an USB device being connected, « la carte SD » should be renamed « le dispositif USB » (for exemple « Désinstaller le dispositif USB » instead of « Désinstaller la carte USB ») 3,2 – Sécurité (Safety) : by default no apps from unknowned sources should be authorised, 3,3 – Sauvegarde et réinitialiser : Under the section « Données personnelles » (personal data), the sentence « Effacer toutes les données du téléphone » is confusing and should be deleted or replaced with « Effacer les données personnelles et la configuration », 3,4 - « A propos du téléphone » should be renamed « Informations sur le système » or « micrologiciel » or (better) « Firmware », 4 – Use as a « media Center » : - Navigator works well and quickly, - Copy/Paste function : tested with small files from and to internal flash, external micro SD card, and Synology servers (be carefull when granting access rights on the server), The system works well and this is essential when the HDMI Input recording function is used, - The possibility to create/delete directories on other devices is a plus, - Reading audio and video files is properly done 5 – HDMI Input 5,1 – The device may not always be used for recording, Thus the menu « recording » should not be automatically displayed but only when pressing the « Menu » button on the remote. When the menu button has been pressed, the "recording" windows disappears after less than 10 seconds. It should remain displayed until the "menu" button is pressed again. 5,2 - Use as recorder (connected to a satellite decoder): 5,2,1 – Path for recording : instead of creating automatically a folder named « HdmiRecorder », it should be more convenient to have the possibility to select a folder (through the navigator), and where necessary to create a new one, A recording has been done as a first test: - due to the fact that it was impossible to select the external micro SD card as the destination, the recording as been made on the internal card. and for size reason under .ts format. - quality of the record is rather good. - now Zidoo is uploading the file to a Synology server under Samba protocol : very very slow and curiously far slower than when the file to upload is on an external USB device (?)
bonsoir papiguy Merci pour votre retour, je vois que vous dites que la qualité est bonne. Effectivement j'ai fais un bon nombre de test, et la qualité en ts est vraiment pas mal, par contre je voudrais savoir si vous avez également à certains moments certains ralentissements sur certaines scènes ? Aussi j'ai essayé les enregistrements en mp4, et je me retrouve avec un décalage du son. Dernier point, n'ayant pas trouvé le moyen de découper mes fichiers afin d'enlever le "surplus" de mes enregistrements programmés, j'ai exporté mes fichiers sur mon pc afin de les traiter avec un logiciel (Videoredo 5), or en faisant celà, de gros problèmes de sons apparaissent, il semblerait qu'il y ait des micro-coupures. Que j'essaie de les lire sur mon pc, sur un boitier multimedia ou sur le ziddo, ce problème persiste. Merci pour vos réponses qui m'aideront sûrement à y voir plus clair.
Bonsoir Kevin, Merci pour m'avoir répondu dans ma langue maternelle, mais comme celle-ci n'est pas aussi universelle que l'anglais, je propose que nous continuions dans cette dernière langue. I performed only one recording test and did not read the entire file (film of 1.5 hour length - more than 3 hours have been necessary for uploading the file to my NAS). I focused on the ergonomy and working of different functions, having in mind my one year experience with two devices (Avermedia Game Capture HD2 and Popcorn Hour A410) the first being used for recording and modifying video files, and the second for uploading to the NAS and organizing the library. These two devices provide functions that are included in the Zidoo X9, which makes it interesting for me and could simplify my home cinema installation. Reading of the files is made using a Bluray reader, which have better performance than the Popcorn, specially with regard to audio (downmix multichannels to stereo). After several recording tests I will revert my findings here.
Thanks for your feedback in all aspects of x9. I will inform to zidoo developers to try our best to improve x9. And BTW, thanks for your correction about translation of French, we will correct our software ASAP!
Bad and good news : - the bad one : after a few minutes (see item 7 below) everything stopped (as if the power supply failed - Yesterday the same problem ocurred and was solved by unplugging the power adaptator) , Supposing that the power adaptor had failes I changed it for another one a little bit more powerfull from my « store », and the X9 worked again, After verification of the power adaptor with a voltmeter, no problem with this device, May be the power switch or more probably a bugg in the system? To be followed up,,,, - the good one : yesterday I wrote the X9 could not be connected to my receiver Marantz NR1605, Today I tested again and it works, I guess the problem was with the receiver,,, - another good one, which, combined with the one here above, made that the X9 has not been thrown to the garbage box : recording under MP4 format over than 1,9 Gb is now possible, Thanks to the Development Team (see item 6), Going on with the review 1 – Starting again the X9 : Willing to watch TV, I started my installation, but was obliged to power on the X9, Why not a « passthrough », more convenient and less energy consuming ? 2 – Already mentionned tests were performed while the audio configuration of my satellite decoder was set to « manual » without DTS or DTS+, Trying the « automatic » audio mode of the decoder which sets DTS, the audio ouput of the X9 disappeared, May be a problem caused by HDCP ? 3 - Playing audio files selected with the navigator : - the ergonomy of the audio player is well made, Possible improvement : when actionning the « pause » button a choice is given « Quit » or « Backplay », This last button should be renamed « Back » oe « Return », - problem : the audio signal is simple stereo where the bluray device shows multiple channels, Why ? 4 - Playing video files selected with the navigator: - the display is correct - It took me some hours to find out how the control is working (press the enter button to let appear the control « backward, play or pause, onwards), Another way to search a scene is to use the buttons right or left, The system is very convenient, A possible improvement : - as for the audio player, let appear a window « Stop / Back » when the button « Return » of the remote is pressed, or better - adding a button « Stop » to the control, 5 - App Manager : Applications : most of the applications were designed for smartphones and need adaptation to be used with Zidoo X9, As an exemple, Movie studio is useless as it is impossible to import video, 6 - Recording : - recording on an USB3 device having 60 Go free space, Format MP4, FHD, this after updating the firmware (v1,0,3,3), - results : Quality is acceptable, but lower than what is obtained when using Avermedia Game Capture HD2, The resolution is the same but while Avermedia records at 50 frames/second, X9 is at 25 f/s, This makes the size of the files lower but the displayis less fluid, Possible improvement : the size of the files being not critical due to the possibilities of storage that are now available, a changing to higher recording frame rate would be a huge improvement, In that respect, recording should not be allowed on the internal memory card, 7 - Explorer: As already mentionned the possibilities of this app are large, but performances are jeopardized by two problems: - After using video player or audio player or after recording, the explorer does not works properly, and may conduct to a freeze or a crash. This may be bypassed using "Clean Up" app. - Copying of video files is abnormaly slow: uploading of a film of 3.3 Go on my NAS needed about 4 hours (less than 0.3 Mb/s) while doing the same with a video file of 10 Gb is needing less than 20 minutes with my Popcorn A410). This is not only boring but makes impossible to record directly on a NAS.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 1 – Freezes appear after use of HDMI In (playing or recording files), Only solution : to reboot, 2 - A micro SD card being in the slot and being recognized by the Explorer, it is impossible to select it for recording, 3 – Very low speed (less than 1 Mb/s) for uploading files, either from USB device or from the Internal memory card (on wired network or using WIFI), 4 – Recording frame rate (25f/s) insufficient, making the playing not fluid for action scenes, 5 – After deleting a planned record, the recording window is not refreshed, SUGGESTIONS 1 – Add a pass-through avoiding to power on the X9 when willing to watch TV, (HDMI In) 2 - Recording : - to make impossible the recording on the internal memory card (too limited in size) - to add a second frame rate (for example 50 f/s) and to give the choice 25 or 50 f/s, - to give the choice : one single file or several ones each one of 1,9 Gb, - wording (Recording window): « bespoke » and « bespeak time » should be replaced by « recording start », - a blinking symbol on the screen should remind that a record has been planned, 3 – Movie Studio : cannot be used as it is, Add the possibility to import files from external devices,
In addition, last but not least, the management of the external memory devices is a jam : - either an USB device, in the slot before booting, is not recognized - or the same device is shown two times : for example under USB and USB1 detail : on the top right corner of the « Device list » a number is supposed to give the number of items, but as there is no refreshing, it shows the number of items in the previous screen, Whatever I do, it has been impossible to see the micro SD memory card (in the slot) when trying to record, even it is possible to copy files on it. Therefore I stop my review for a while. I hope that Development Team will have the possibility to improve the X9 which has a great potential indeed.
Back for comments Explorer : 1 - deleting one or several files : - confirmation pop-up window : « Confirm deletion of » should be better than « Confirm delete these », Note : after deletion a pop-up window appears « Operate complete» : as the main window is refreshed, it is obvious that the deletion has been made and there is no need for further confirmation, 2 - copy of one or several files ; - for the same reason as above, the pop-up window « Copy Success » is useless NOTE: after copy, the file(s) is(are) still remaining in the clipboard (even if it does not appear in the left bottom corner of the displayed window, This clipboard should be cleaned for a better management of the system's memory, This could be a possible reason for the freeze of the system ?
Back for comments Explorer : 1 - deleting one or several files : - confirmation pop-up window : « Confirm deletion of » should be better than « Confirm delete these », Note : after deletion a pop-up window appears « Operate complete» : as the main window is refreshed, it is obvious that the deletion has been made and there is no need for further confirmation, 2 - copy of one or several files ; - for the same reason as above, the pop-up window « Copy Success » is useless NOTE: after copy, the file(s) is(are) still remaining in the clipboard (even if it does not appear in the left bottom corner of the displayed window, This clipboard should be cleaned for a better management of the system's memory, This could be a possible reason for the freeze of the system ?
The "external" micro SD card being useless (Suitable only for playing photos), I uninstalled it. It seems that most of the problems I met, are related to this card, as the behaviour of the Zidoo is now quite normal: less freezes, displays of "Explorer" now correct. But uploading from USB3 stick drive to NAS still remains incredibly slow (less than 0.5 MB/s)....
Questions related to my last remark: I discovered that uploading files was possible as a background task. while watching HDMI input: - in this respect, is uploadong considered as a low priority task and thus relevant allocated resources have been limited ? - no DMA implemented to limit the workload of the chip, and thus authorizing higher transfer rates ?
Mea Culpa Please forget all previous comments I made with regards to the additionnal micro SD card. Zidoo X9 is not responsible for the problems I met. I discoverd that this card was causing quite all the problems. The cause was an initial improper insertion of the card in two times: a first one during which contcts was made, but without lock, and then a second one. This made the mounting of the card impossible. After deletion and recreation of a partition (NTFS) on this card, it is possible to record on it. No freeze now, display of the explorer is working fine. Sorry again, as except the questions of uploading rate, recording frame rate and some minor ergonomy comments, everything is working well.
