UHD3000: A major error with latest firmware?

SOLVED: I was reviewing some of my files and I looked at a few of my old 4:3 movies from King Kong (1933) to some older TV series. All ripped from original discs and flagged as 4:3.

They played full screen on previous firmware, that is the vertical filled top to bottom and there were black bars either side of the 4:3 image within the 16:9 screen.

The first image is from the Popcorn A-500 and the others from the UHD3000, same dreadful movie "Anchors Away" circa 1944.

I've now checked many of my 4:3 movies and they all display as postage stamp. ie black borders all around. It makes no difference if you change the aspect ratio via the menu button other than a horizontal stretch. Fill and 16:9 appear the same as does 4:3 settings. Full distorts the image dreadfully.

There have been no changes to my SONY 9500H.

The Popcorn A-500 plays the 4:3 files with the correct aspect ratio.

I experimented with a file, a MKV and forced the 4:3 flag - made no difference.

Hope there is a solution but as I have the fallback to the A-500 not a complete disaster

 

Just saw your latest post about this but replying here because I think the reply is more relevant in this thread.

So this is an issue I flagged very early on in firmware development. Originally the new boxes didn't honour DAR and would only display in SAR for both anamorphic and non anamorphic 4:3 material.

So for a 16:9 anamorphic presentation in 4:3 you'd still see the image presented in 4:3 but obviously material with a DAR of 4:3 would display fine.

Can't remember which revision, but this was fixed and now the boxes respect DAR.

I just tried a DVD copy of Cinderella (1950) which is presented in Academy ratio in a 4:3 file and this displayed correctly.

The Disney splash screen which is obviously a modern addition is presented 4:3 so we know the presentation is correct:



And the movie itself is encoded in a letterbox to preserve the original Academy Ratio of 1.37:1 (actually 1.375:1 but 1.37 by convention) so in a 16:9 screen this appears to have black borders all around:



I also tried a couple of 4:3 anamorphic movies with correct SAR and DAR flags and they presented correctly as 1.78:1.

So I wonder if what you're seeing are Academy Ratio movies being presented correctly?

 

@Markswift2003 - I have a feeling that's a Dalek bottom right of that last pic? If so let's have a full pic of it please

 

Just to add - I also created a quick and dirty 720x576 geometry test (MPEG2 MKV) and that showed no cropping and correct DAR:

 

Lol - that's Henry

 

This forum needs a special thread under the General -
Ask Henry!

pS. My day just became little bit brighter because of Henry.

 

Haha! Now that is a Dalek!!!!! and my middle name is Henry Hmmmmmmm. Intrigued where you got it and why?

 

@rozel Ask Henry!

 

@muha Lol - my day got better a couple of hours ago after getting my new Singxer C-1 USB Interface card to work in my DAC. If you read my updated thread you'll see the only option I had left, had it not worked, would have been to ask Henry! He might though have blown me away for being so kak-handed

 

sorry @rozel but all the questions about Singxer C-1 USB Interface card should be addressed to Ask @Nice Monkey
It was nice to read entire Zidoo Z1000 Pro – My High Definition Audio Experience (so far) thread, and I am glad to see there are others who like to built their own (music) time machine.
I just repaired old Unitra SP3015 amp (Polish) built with Tesla transistors (Czechoslovakia) and branded with Ei Niš Radio akustika (Yugoslavia) so I could connect old Sharp gramophone (that I restored) to Denon AVR X1200W so I could enjoy old LPs and sound that they produced in my primary school days - 80ies.

 

What I don’t understand is the previous firmware was ok playing these same video titles. Many were from off air capture from eons ago. I’ve also found any “packed” AVI files simply won’t play now. I can fix these by running the file through mpeg4modifier. Even then not all. Converting the avi to AVC fixes. So not sure what I can do for my fairly extensive collection of historical titles. Back to the Popcorn A-500 or Plex…. Could this be a unique problem for the UHD3000.

 

Not impossible of course, but as far as I know, unlikely, because the playback engines are ostensibly the same.

 

I'm convinced that F/W 6.3.40 has broken something in this iteration, because ever since I got the UHD3000 it has played all of my files flawlessly. It arrived with v6.1.07.
Earlier today I conducted another test this time playing both the "uncropped" version and the original directly on my SONY, no problems full vertical screen with the usual black bars either side. Attached are Mediainfo files of the 2 versions for anyone interested in analyzing it. A comment from a programmer thought the firmware may have been developed with a standard HDTV in mind rather than a 4k, I don't think that is valid as the same file. Via the network the Samsung 65" HDTVthe files play correctly.
The Zidoo looks better in terms of colour if only I could stretch the damn picture.... These screen shots are from my Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi collection

 

I just made a MKV of The Wizard Of Oz from the disc using MakeMKV and the same result, cropping at the top and bottom. Encoding details on attached image.

Also attached a screenshot from the film. I have changed the brightness and contrast of the still to make the cropping more obvious. Later I will measure the width and height to see what the aspect ratio of the cropped image is.

 

@Netmask Can you please share a smaller video or part of video that causes error? On google drive or any cloud share platform.

 

Basically all 4:3 videos display like the still ever since FW 6.3.40. Prevous FW's back to v6.1.07 were fine as far as respecting aspect ratio. But I will do a 1 minute extract of an example.

 

All 4:3 videos or just the SD ones? In HD, no problem with my old movies in 4:3 but I remember that there was an issue with the SD ones few months ago.

 

I measured the sides of the displayed image and worked out it's aspect ratio and is 1.72 This is consostent across all 4:3 movies. Also the height doesn't change if you use the Zidoo aspect ratio menu, only the width alters through the settings.

@Inikad All my 4:3 movies are circa 1920'2 to 1940's so definitely SD

This update 6.3.40 is the first time I've experienced it on my UHD3000

 

It would definitely be helpful to have a couple of samples to work out exactly what's going on here.