Recommended Settings and other useful stuff for AML S928X Players (HT PDF updated Feb 26)

May be good enough is fine as far as audio enjoyment. I can live with reduced audio quality if I have to, I meant more like would the tv fail to play the file at all?

Also, do you believe that the x90j is particularly prone to these handshake issues? Sort of a vibe I get from reading stuff on the web. I would rather buy a new tv even than deal with this nonsense every time the tv restarts.

Yes, I am using earc because I thought that is what's required for my device chain.

 

There comes a time when you need to experiment and figure stuff out yourself. As @Markswift2003 says anyhow CEC is the work of the Devil. Suggest you search the forum rather than post endless AI crap

 

I appreciate that, but when I experiment with something that I don't really understand and want it to just work, I end up making it worse. So, I seek advice. Rather than hammer the forum with questions, I search and/or ask AI.

I was not posting "endless AI crap". It was like 3 maybe and then I stopped referencing it in my replies.

Did someone plant in your corn flakes today? You've been intentionally rude with me twice now.

 

"Did someone *** in your corn flakes today" - that's funny, but please, let's play nicely eh?

But I'll be using that one in real life

 

Really? Lol! Suggest that Media players are above your station - you'll probably count this as three

 

We've all been where you are or have been trust me. Just spend a bit of time searching / researching this forum and you'll be surprised what you find - that's all I'm saying

 

Ok, so I went into the audio settings and enabled both downmix for DTS and AC3. I then moved the Zidoo to HDM1 on the Bravia. I started a 4K remux file and the audio does come out the soundbar and is downgraded to DD 5.1 I think I can live with that vs dealing with the nightmare reboot scenarios that I have been facing. Hopefully moving the Zidoo out of the device chain will make reboots less of a hellscape. Sure I am completely sacrificing lossless audio on the altar of device chain stability, but for me that is acceptable.

 

So then I experimented a bit and changed output to RAW and removed the downmixing. When playing a truehd file the audio still comes out of the soundbar and the soundbar reports Dolby on its LED, but not Atmos. But Atmos can be scene dependent? When I bring up the on screen overlay on the Zidoo, it says audio is TrueHD. A little confused as I thought the only way to get Truehd to my soundbar was not through the tv, but only from the Zidoo via the soundbar. Perhaps I was mistaken that the X90J cannot passthrough lossless codecs? It seems that it can?

So far, it seems like switching to RAW vs trying to downmix everything gives me the best of both worlds. I can still play lossless codecs but they get passed through to the soundbar from the Bravia. At least thats how I am currently understanding it. Which is great. I remove one device from the chain and I sacrifice nothing. Win, win?

DolbyVision is working as well. I was a little curious about that one as the only available hdmi port for this move was hdmi 1 which does not explicity offer an Enhanced (DolbyVision) mode, but only Standard and Enhanced. And that port is hdmi 2.0 But from my understanding hdmi 2.0 is enough bandwidth for dolbyvision 4k. I tested it with a DV remux and it seems to work fine and, again, the zidoo overlay says DolbyVision and when the file started the DolbyVison logo flashed on the tv screen.

So, it seems that maybe I have significantly (hopefully) improved my device chain stability and sacrificed nothing. Sweet.

 

Great!

I must admit I dislike soundbars immensely - not for what they are, they're a great idea, but for the way they're generally implemented.

A traditional amp and speakers are simple - you plug sources into the amp and the amp into the display. The sources provide audio to the amp on the basis of the amp's abilities and pictures to the display on the basis of the display's abilities. Those abilities are passed from the display to the amp and then to the source by way of the EDID (a tiny 256 byte file). Never fails.

Soundbars generally require a source to be plugged into a display and that display has to pass the audio to the soundbar but on the basis of how the display can process audio (despite it not doing that!) and not the soundbar. Also soundbars, for whatever reason, seem to mangle EDIDs - I've never seen an amp mess an EDID up but I've seen many occasions where a soundbar simple truncates it so features are just ignored.

That can only be due to poor programming - trying to shoehorn additional features into an already tight space of 256 bytes can be tricky, but not impossible. Why this only seems to happen with soundbars is beyond me!

Also TV manufacturers are notorious for labelling HDMI ports as "enhanced" without explaining what that does - sometimes it means HDMI 2 vs HDMI 1.4. Sometimes it means reduced bandwidth without reducing HDMI 2 functionality. Sometimes it's something else.

(And I like your reasons for deleting posts )

 

I really like my Soundbar - when watching TV it comes on with it, no fuss, no nothing. And one button press turn's it off when watching serious stuff via my AVR and Zidoo

 

I, too, like the idea of soundbars. And in my case it's really my only option for improving the sound of my viewing experience. My wife would not be happy if I started dumping thousands into the rabbit hole of a decent speaker setup. So this is really the only thing above tv speakers that I can even try. But in my experience they have been problematic.

I think I managed to get things to a decent state. DTS is getting passed through properly as well, which we'll see how that pans out. I read a few reddit, etc kind of posts that say although the x90j says it can pass all those codecs on paper, the reality reported is quite different. That is why I tested a DTS track last night, but it seems to be working for me--at least in my limited testing. Day to day usage going forward will see how that plays out longer term.

 

Pleased you got it sorted

 

Thank you. I am happy to pull the zidoo out of the chain and disable cec on it, especially since it seems that I didn't have to sacrifice any lossless audio. I have yet to try the ultimate test, however--rebooting the TV.

 

I have a general question that likely has a quick answer and I don't think needs a whole thread, so I will ask here. If the Zidoo upscales 1080p content, but my tv also does (Sony Bravia), does that create any sort of a upscaling clash or anything? Should I not use the Zidoo for 1080p?

Ah, nm. I think I know the answer. I have match frame rate and resolution set on my Zidoo, so the Sony would be doing the upscaling?

 

If a 4K upscaled signal comes to the TV, the TV does not upscale it again - it accepts this as real 4K.
The question should rather be where to do the upscaling to a higher resolution on the TV or on the Zidoo!
I do it on the TV for the old Zidoo models and on the Zidoo 3000 pro when I watch from it. I think it depends on what the processor of the TV is, whether it handles upscaling better compared to the one from the Zidoo, so it may be different for everyone.

 

Thank you. I rather like the Sony upscaling on the X90J. I recall feeling that it looked better than what my Nvidia Shield would produce. At least to me, as you say, it's quite subjective.

 

Just my 2 cents - to my eyes, the AI SR on the 8k Zidoo's hands down beats what my Sony can do.

 

Hello, I really need help from Zidoo's experts. Im new to Zidoo brand. Just bought a Z9X 8K media player last January 2026 from Amazon. I have 2 major issues with the player, so far I dont know how to fix, but pretty sure it is just setting and firmware related. Please give me some ideals of what I should do...
1. I bought the Z9X 8K in January and it worked perfect (except the 2nd issue, which will state later). Few weeks ago, the player automatically updated (online) to the latest firmware V1.3.05. Since then, during play back movies (download), the player randomly froze then restarted. It has done that randomly on different movies. I have disconnected the power, restarted multiple times... which didnt fix the issue. Yesterday, I emailed zidoo technical support. They suggested I reset the player to factory setting, which I did. Strangely, even after reset the player to original factory setting, it still shows firmware version 1.3.05. I wanted to revert, reinstall the previous firmware version that came with the player ( I dont know which version came with the player!), Can some one post the link to download the previous fw version?
2. My setup is included: a brand new Samsung 86 inches 4K TV. I also have an older 2K Epson projector (Home Cinema 3010). Both of these displays are connected to an older Denon AVR 3311 (supported 2K only). Source was a Zappity HDR 4K player which connected to the AVR. Everything was working perfect. Since I bought the Zidoo 8K player, it replaced the Zappity. Same connection: Zidoo - Denon AVR - Samsung TV + Epson projector. While the Tv working normal as it should, the projector was cut in and out: screen worked for couple minutes, then black out for couple minutes. I wasnt able to get a stable/constant signal to the projector? Maybe it has something to do with Display setting? I have tried some setting without success.... anybody have any ideal what setting I should try to fix this issue?

Thanks in advance

 

When you say froze and restarted, do you mean playback stopped and then resume, or do you mean the device actually rebooted?

 

The playback stopped, then the player rebooted. I disconnected the power, waited couple minutes, restarted... few minutes later, exactly same thing happened again...