After 5 days of usage I would like to share my experiences with the Zidoo X9 box. Please be patient with some potential mistakes in english ... I'm not a native speaker My setup: Yamaha AV receiver Panasonic Plasma 55" (Full HD) HDMI switch Windows Home Server 2011 (home made) for media files No WLAN only wired LAN with 100 Mbit/s Zidoo with 1.0.2.6 Unboxing and first usage Bought at a Chinese online shop, delivery in about 10 days (order --> delivery). After I unpacked the box I was disappointed, three visible scratches on the surface of the top cover (100% made by the factory and not by the shop). Got a European power supply (very positive), HDMI cable plus remote control (no batteries). Installation was pretty easy, LAN cable, HDMI cable and power supply plugged in. Working ! After 20 seconds got the information about an OTA firmware update. Went smooth and fine. Playing around with software and shares Well, it is a mess to type in the google account data to login into Google but it worked fine. Playstore is pre-installed and working. Output configuration, checking Youtube, weather gadget. No problems at all. Box is running fine and fast (very impressive). Remote control: The switch between Mouse Mode and keyboard mode needs some (hard) training. During the first two days (sometimes) I was up and running to throw the remote control into the trash can ... But how can I can play my media (movies, mkv files, MP3 etc) ? All they are located on a Windows Home Server box with CIFS (Samba) shares. Ahh, open the Explorer, uuuh there is a SMB browser. Scanning ... it finds 12 devices ... what ? 12 devices in my intranet. I'm getting nervous ... I only have 7 know devices with SMB servers running. The browser detects 2 Panasonic TVs, 2 set-top boxes, 1 mediaplayer as SMB devices too ... anyway but what about my Windows Home Server ? NOT .. NEVER SEEN ... NO CHANCE . Really sad. Then I tried to connect to one set-top box which really has a Samba server ... no success. It always rejected my valid user/password combi. So I installed ES Explorer from the playstore and tried to configure a samba mount manually. Clicked on "New Server" and got the receipt "Google Keyboard has stopped". WTF ? Tried several times (same result) then I rebooted the box and the problem did not appear again. Strange. So finally I was able to mount a samba share to my Zidoo box. Next try, use the samba browser inside ES Explor and et voila - my WHS is present and can be used immediately. User/password is always accepted with no problems. Summary: The built-in Explorer with the Samba browser is crap ! Unusable. Playing Media Files One of my major reasons to buy the Zidoo X9 - get the Kodi/XBMC player. I'm a total rookie in using XBMC so I was really curious about the thing. So I opend the UI - wow this looks great. Playing around, everything in the UI seems to work. So now lets go the the first video file. Lets start easy with 1080p / DD / avi Container / H264. Playback starts but after some seconds I got the first stuttering. Some kind of buffering. Playing forward the movie, restart the playback and now the audio is about 3 seconds behind the video ... STOP. Next files 1080p / DTS-HD / mkv Container. Same problems ... to shorten up the story the Kodi player is currently not robust enough to be used a video player on the Zidoo X9. Switch over to MP3: Totally different impression. Everything worked fine and smooth with Kodi. Cannot complain about it. Therefore I installed Archos Videoplayer and MX Player from the playstore. In opposite to Kodi no problems with HD files, even with high data rates about 50 or 70 Mbit/s (using LAN). (minor problem with Archos - it always crashes when I change the audio track at runtime, seems to be a special problem with the used Archos version) The only issue I noticed was a minor asynchronous playback between video and audio - with each file. I would estimate that the audio stream is about 100 ms behind the video. But due to some friends of mine who also own the Zidoo X9 were not able to confirm this it might be a local problem of my setup (video data go from Zidoo --> HDMI switch --> Plasma TV, raw audio data from Zidoo via S/PDIF to AV Receiver). Anyway I had no problems at all with any kind/type of audio track (DTS, DTS-HD, DD, PCM ...) So my final feedback here: Use the Archos player for video and maybe Kodi for Audio. Playback of 4K UHD files Well, currently I only have really a limited number of files to be evaluated. In sum 11 files which I downloaded for testing purposes. Some files with obviously easy data will be played with audio only e.g. Jurassic World trailer (H.264 3840 x 2160). Similar files playing fine like the Interstellar trailer (H.264 4096 x 1716) or the Panasonic Lumix demo. The funny Big Buck Bunny UHD edition delivers also only audio (H.264, 3840 x 2160). What a pity ! The more or less famous "Tears of Steel" movies plays with stuttering at scenes with high data rates (H.264 3840 x 1714). The only H.265 sample I found was the LG HEVC demo named "LG-HEVC-3840x2160-Sample.265.avi". Disappointing - only audio no video. My final summary This box has a high potential. The Archos player or the MX player demonstrate how the hardware is able to play videos fine and smoothly. One of the major selling arguments - the Kodi players - need strong improvement. The current version is NOT USABLE for video playback. The 4K support is so to speak - under development and needs improvement as well. The overall firmware is pretty reliable, stable and very fast. Except my strange initial problems with the keyboard I did not detect a major failure. Good work Zidoo. Not tested yet: Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad. I order one integrated device from Rapoo, will arrive later this week to be tested. Subtitles (PGS, VOB, Forced, graphical)
Sure it does - better than on wireless. I'm using my Zidoo only with LAN. You can do Kodi-inside Samba browsing to get your sources from a CIFS share and add files to your catalogue or play them immediately. But as I wrote above currently only with intermediate stuttering (Archos or MX Player are doing better). Coming back to my open test items. Yesterday evening my Bluetooth keyboard/touchpad arrived, a Rapoo E2700. And surprise suprise - it is working perfectly. I plugged in the provided USB adapter. It is detected automatically as external input device. Switched on the Rapoo and both, Keyboard and touchpad can be used immediately. When I move my fingers over the touchpad the Zidoo UI switches automatically to the mouse mode. Hitting any key on the Keyboard (e.g. cursour keys) the UI switches into the RC mode. Top.
The issue Kodi playback stutter is not Kodi's problem, it's cause by SAMBA. To improve SAMBA is our primary task from now on.
Hmm, why does it work like a charme with Archos or MX player ? I'm using the MX player with the app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.mori.androsamba and Archos with the built in SMB browser. This would imply that the built-in Samba mounter within Kodi has an issue. But when I select a file from the app "Network Places" and choose Kodi as player the same stuttering appears. Quiet a bit strange. PS: Is there a Kodi setting to increase the ringbuffer for the playback ? As far as I have noticed Archos has a buffer of at least 300 Mbit. I came to this conclusion when I pause a playback, wait for 5 minutes (HDD shutdown at my NAS) and continue the playback. Archos is playing properly and continues to read the data when the HDD is up and running again (10 second for HDD wakeup, 30 Mbit/s data --> 300 Mbit buffer)
Hehe, I also was evaluating several boxes before I bought the Zidoo. My final selection list contained Zidoo X9, Minix NEO X8-H Plus and the HiMedia Q10 Quad. Finally I excluded the Minix due to the reported issues with DTS and DTS-HD (very important for me). Zidoo and HiMedia seems to be on the same technical level of features and functions. Zidoo won because of 1. Zidoo employees are active user in several communities (e.g. on zidoo.tv or freaktab) and support their customers actively ! 2. A better looking housing 3. HDMI recording (nice feature) 4. Price (I used the Geekbuying promo for 99 US$) The Mele box your are referencing to is driven by an Intel chipset. As far as I know the Intel boxes with Bay trail CPUs do not support 4K. And hey, it is MS Windows with Bing license ... I don't like the Windows portable concept
Thx you brother for answer the best for me is support and update and i see the zidoo have nice support vs himedia q10 no support eng only china did you test 4k and 3d working 100% ? some one told me it is unsual chipset. what do this m thx you
Indeed, it is an unusual shipset, but it is ARM based, so most of the common Android apps from the playstore are working fine. Until now I only found 2 system benchmark apps which did not work. All relevant apps like MX Player, Archos Player etc. are working properly. I did not test something in 3D because my TV in the living room does not support 3D (I like Plasma TV but Plasma with shutter glasses is a pain in the ass ) Regarding 4K - take a look to my test page here in the forum http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?threads/uhd-4k-video-playback.207/ Some work (all the Samsung demo samples), some not.
Hi there, I cannot for the life of me get DD5.1 to output from this box via s/pdif direct to Yamaha AV receiver. The only setting is PCM/RAW. I've tried both with a multitude of apps. I have a sony GTV with s/pdif direct to receiver with no issues. Any assistance out there! No 5 channel audio is a show stopper for me and this thing will be sent back.
No problems here with 2 several Yamaha player. An older RX-V595a using S/PDIF and my newest piece of technology at home, a RX-A830 using HDMI. Dolby Digital 5.1 is not an issue (Dolby true HD is currently not working). I used the built-in Media player by Zidoo, the Archos Player, the MX Player and Kodi (here you have to set the digital output within the Kodi settings in addition to the system setting). So please describe the used player, the used files (may a test sample for download or at least a Mediainfo output.
Hey there, thanks so much for offering your assistance. If you can solve this you'll be forever my hero. I pride my self on being fairly knowledgeable on these things but this one has been hours of frustration. I've tried a several different files that I know work on my GTV box on several different players. On the Zidoo I've tried MX player, Archos, Plex, Netflix and Kodi (if you could tell me where this gets enabled in Kodi as well that would be great). I've also tried s/pdif from my TV into the receiver as it passes through the signal from HDMI to s/pdif with my other devices. This didn't work either. I've tried every combination of raw/pcm I can imagine. My receiver is a Yamaha HTR-6025. Some of the files I've tried are; xvid - DD5.1-2.4-DVD AVC1 - AAC 5.1 (AAC 6ch) - 2.4 Blue Ray H.264 - DD5.1 (AC3 6ch) - 2.35 DVD Would love to get this working and not need a HDMI in/out receiver.
I would start with the latest one h.264 with DD 5.1 (pretty common sample). I personally did not try AAC stuff until now. Please post the result of Mediainfo of this file (installation for PC and other platforms at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mediainfo/) For Kodi/XBMC please refer to chapter 2. Audio Output at http://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/System Enable Pass trough, Activate Dolby Digital receiver. (I'm currently not at home to verify, whether these settings are the same on the Android platform, tomorrow evening I' back where my Zidoo lives )
Hi there, I'm having some success. I went into advanced settings in Kodi and enabled the DD5.1 passthough and my receiver is now picking it up. However the sound is blinking in and out. When I tried MX player/Archos the sound is not coming through DD5.1 for some files and clean. Do you know why it is not working right in Kodi? I also had to see the main sound from pcm to raw.
To edit above, I am able to get some files to play DD5.1 when using MXplayer or Archos. Not sure why it's now working. Are you able to get Neflix to play with DD5.1?
I haven't been able to get any of the streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Google Play) to stream anything other than stereo sound.
I can't imagine the box doesn't have the hardware ability. This surely only has to be some kind of a software patch/codec issue? Can anyone tell us if there is an update coming to fix this? It's very disappointing.
Do you have a direct link to any (free-of-charge) stream with DD5.1 so that I could play with that ? I'm interested in that stuff as well because I'm considering to pick up a Netflix account in the near future.
Hi there, you can try this on Youtube. It's posted by Dolby. Also Netflix is free for 1 month for anyone. You could sign-up for free for testing and cancel prior to the month ending. A lot of people just change their email address each month and sign up for free every month.
