Occasional jerky/choppy playback

So this is an issue I've seen a few times, but in my experience, non repeatable and not related to the content being played. It happens on 2K and 4K, AVC and HEVC, regardless of audio codec.

Occasionally, when starting a video and less often whilst in the middle of playing a video the playback becomes choppy, as if it's being played back at a slow frame rate. Audio is not affected.

This is completely different to the stutter issues we've been having with some TrueHD soundtracks which has now been fixed.

As I say, this occurs very occasionally for seemingly no reason and will continue until a simple pause and resume cures it and it's not repeatable.

Curious to know of anyone else who has seen this and see if we can find a reliable way of making it repeatable.

Comments welcome.

 

I've seen this many times - if its the same problem. For no reason on start playback is choppy - almost as if frames have been removed to provide a jerky animated feel to the playback. To fix I either skip back a few seconds or stop and restart. Will not happen again and appears completely random. I've never reported it as its completely random and easily fixed.

 

Ive had what some one else described ,which was like a micro pause every 3 secs or so ,thou not seen that since at least .65 f/w

 

I've definitely had this issue. There seems to be two flavours:

- Choppy playback after resuming a paused movie. This seems to be the more common of the two. Last happened a couple of days ago with my UHD rip of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (HEVC, DV, THD/Atmos)
- Choppy playback on starting a movie. This seems less common but it definitely happens. Last happened with my UHD rip of one of the Arrow LE Bruce Lee movies (can't remember which... probably Way of the Dragon) (HEVC, DV, DTS Mono)

In both cases I've found that jumping back a few seconds solves the issue and playback continues normally. At first I thought the issue was prevalent on x265 rips as I could reproduce the choppy playback easily with an x265 rip of the anime movie "Belle", but that doesn't seem to be the case and I just put that down to a bad rip of that particular movie (which I've since replaced with my own UHD HEVC rip).

Unfortunately there really doesn't seem to be a pattern to this and it can strike at any time without warning, but I'll post back if I find out more info.

Thanks again for tackling these issues relentlessly! If this issue gets fixed as well as the THD stutter, the new Zidoo will be perfect.

 

This happens every day for me for movies around 2 or 3 hours (did not notice on any files shorter than 1 hour) and it happens most of the time after 1 hour without having used the pause button. Sometimes even 2 or 3 times in a movie. I fix it by putting the movie on pause and then resume. It is not fixed on 1.0.70 and I had the issue on all alpha/beta firmware versions. I have not reported this because I thought it was the same issue as http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?threads/z9x-pro-stuttering-solved.97143/. I initially thought it is because the internal memeory clogs up or something like that (hardware issue). I am kind of happy that others have this issue also because I thought it was only my device.

Yesterday I had it 2 times during a movie:
1. Start ATMOS movie with length of 2:30 hours.
2. Change subtitle manualy to dutch because Zidoo can not change to dutch automatically
3. Issue appeared between 1:00 and 1:15
4. Movie paused and resumed
5. Issue appeared again between 1:45 and 2:00
6. Movie paused and resumed

 

This is a different issue.

 

@altcoinfanatic
2. Change subtitle manualy to dutch because Zidoo can not change to dutch automatically

It can: Instellingen > Geforceerde ondertitels > Nederlands

 

I've have this issue as well. Also to add when this low fps playback happens sometimes it also triggers complete audio lost for me. No matter what audio format and I would have to rewind back a few second for the audio to come back. It only ever happens at higher resolution when watching UHD content for me. Never seen it at 1080p.

 

This is just for forced subtitles. Does not work for me but thanks for trying to help. Not going to hijack this thread but we can discuss it further here: Zidoo Z9X PRO and Samsung 82q950r

 

Happens every once and a while to me but can't reproduce. Is like video goes to half frame rate, audio is fine. Pausing and waiting 5 seconds usually fixes.

Had same issues with standard Z9X

 

I thought I have seen it. But when I restart the movie it is gone. So I thought at first I was just tired or something..or the network to busy.
Wasn't a real deal breaker ( my wife didnt even notice it)...but I see it pop up randomly.

 

Happens to me as well. A simple pause and unpause fixes it. It happens on ALL my movies/regardless of audio codecs/regardless of video codecs.

Last night, watching Kingdom of heaven (3h movie) with the wife, must have happened 7 or 10 times. The wife asked me why i was doing that and when i explained she said she didnt notice anything I guess "we" the teckies are more sensitive to framerate fluctuations than normies.

Currently this is the most annoying bug of the zidoo box as it happens on absolutely EVERY movie.

The bug: Framerate slows down, audio is unaffected. Looks like zidoo starts dropping frames. A pause and unpause instantly fixes it. Happens randomly during movie playback, not at specific intervals.

 

Hi
Well if you believe or not, there has always been issue with framerate. When i keep 23.9 fps it always stutter and jerky. Once you factory reset zidoo player and leave framrate off. It is fine but minor glitch after few seconds and in info it shows 60 fps.

 

Nah, maybe you don't like 23.9 framerate but that is personal preference and that is not "the bug". And of course it is gonna skip a frame every few seconds (with framerate off) cause this is the normal behaviour.

Framerate matchin: ON , everything working as intended, the bug is that randomly the framerate either goes lower than 23.9 or frames start getting dropped. A pause+unpause instantly fixes it.

 

I have the same exact issue. It rarely happens when I start a video from scratch, but mostly when I resume. As you say, pausing and playing fixes it.
From what I experienced so far its way more likely to happen on DV content.

 

I have checked framerates thingy in my other devices Nvidia shield and UHD player via usb (same files i play zidoo) both works crisp and smooth in 23.9 or 24 . I got only that issue with zidoo. i believe its framerate issue or YUV color issue

 

same here i get choppy playback on my 2000pro here and there , sometimes i completely lose audio. have to stop/restart

 

This is surprising to hear as @Markswift2003 told me his old Z9X is flawless playback. He's on firmware v6.4.42. On which firmware are you with your old Z9X (not the pro)?

 

Yep - never ever seen an issue like this on the original Z9X...

 

same here
Z9X is pretty much perfect for playback here and Z9X Pro for playback has almost no issues for me ,(cept occassional EDID loss still and MCH USB audio broken still)

Raising the player off the shelf ,its now running around 40 Deg on the case during playback ,was easily 10 degrees hotter before that( thats with room temp at 29)

and i can honestly say i havent had any of the choppy jerky playback since .65 and now .70 f/ws playing back full 4k DV DA or tv epis ranging from 720 -1080p to 4k stuff