Z9X Pro Stuttering (Solved)

All the 1619BPD models will perform that same.

 

I redid my Avatar Way of Water MKV file with MakeMKV but it's still stuttering for me. Are you using MKV or ISO for playback?

So, is the old Z9X free of playback bugs? I don't think I'll ever use Home Theater 4.0 as I am more of a Plex+Shield guy so I mainly want to know if the file playback with media player is perfect on the old Z9X?
I am only using MKVs, no ISOs.
If so, I might get a Z9X because even if I have a Dune Real Vision 4K Plus, which does not have the stuttering bugs, I prefer the Zidoo interface and remote.

 

I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but all of the Pixar 'Cars' movies are stutterfests from beginning to end, even with fresh rips of the discs. As always, switching audio tracks makes them play perfectly.

 

BDSM Complete format for that one
i tend to use those rather than iso for full disc images ..i just always felt having to unpack the iso on the fly must add more work for the processing

 

So maybe BDMV folder playback works correctly but not MKVs?

I don't like bluray menus though so I hope they fix the stuttering problem.

 

I never use the bluray menus ,i Always go straight to movie
Just save most that way incase

 

Yes, the Z9X playback is frame perfect. It's what I use in my cinema and nothing stays in there unless it's frame perfect.

Normally I'd say wait for a fix but at this late stage I'm not confident enough to say that I'm afraid.

(Of course I say that and a fix will turn up tomorrow...)

 

The stutter on that Cars clip you sent me in October was fixed (I think in .65) - I don't see stutter on that clip any more.

**EDIT**

Actually, scratch that.

Just checked that clip again and although the obvious stutter when the truck is waving the plane in is gone, if I watch the clip further, it starts stuttering again later.

So it wasn't fixed.

 

Yeah I'm afraid of getting a Z9X and then they fix the Pro a week or a month later.

Isn't the Z9X Pro out only since about july 2023? It's still early days no?

In any case I may get a Z9X anyway because I think I'll return my Apple TV Gen 3 which is not needed plus something else from amazon which will pretty much pay for the Z9X.

But I still would prefer the Pro being fixed.

What firmware are you using on your old Z9X? The latest FW seems to be "v6.4.65 beta". Are you using that one?

 

Yes it is early days and the devs have to fix this - it's a real box killer, but at the moment, despite all the clips I've sent, they say they can't replicate which I really don't understand.

I'm using a later test firmware and the issue persists in that too.

The thing to remember is that this seems to be isolated to specific THD files, presumably with an as yet to be determined common denominator.

So far I haven't seen this stutter with any of my own files, only ones that people have sent me, so I have no idea of the provenance of those files.

Usually I'd put something like this down to problem files, but the Z9X plays them fine as does a Dune HD so although there's something different about them, other players cope just fine.

Also, if you get a Z9X Pro, as a workaround you can use a soundtrack other than THD and it won't stutter - obviously not a long term solution, but a usable workaround nonetheless.

 

I hope you meant if I DON’T get a Z9X, use the workaround because I just ordered a Z9X

What is the method you use to produce your files that have no problems? Makemkv from disc? If so which makemkv version?

 

Yes of course, my mistake! - the Z9X has none of these problems at all!!

I've corrected the post to avoid confusion.

Yes, I use a combination of MakeMKV and MKVToolnix.

MakeMKV v1.17.5 at the moment, but I check every now and again and update, so I'm generally on the latest release.
MKVToolnix v64.0.0 which I never update because it works perfectly - I've no reason to think later versions have issues, it's just there's no point updating when it works perfectly for me.

 

You're right when video playback is affected but screen shouldn't be related when audio is reproduced by AVR.

 

No, it's not receiver or display related at all.

The receiver just passes the video signal through and the display just shows it - neither should affect how the source actually puts the frames out.

You can prove this by connecting the Zidoo directly to a TV, any TV, and selecting the THD track (even though a lot of TVs don't support THD so you'll just get silence).

Spoiler alert - it still stutters...

 

Decided it was about time this thread was stickied until it's resolved...

 

I am using MakeMKV v1.17.5 on disc and then MKVToolnix v77.0 to correct metadata of the tracks as a second pass. So I think our workflow is very similar.

I just tried to use mkvtoolnix v64.0.0 instead for the second pass and it still stutters on Avatar The Way of Water. Do you have that movie and was it done with MakeMKV 1.17.5 and Mkvtoolnix 64.0.0 as a second pass like I described?

 

Good call - yes I do, and that's the first of my own movies that I've seen stutter.

So it's not MakeMKV or MKVToolnix that's doing it, but I didn't think it was.

In fact it's more interesting than that - Way of Water is one that I encoded myself.

Once I've watched a movie I tend to encode them with Staxrip to save space - I use NVEnc to hardware encode with an NVidia card and the encode is virtually indistinguishable from the original, but usually about half the size.

So this means it's not the video encoding that's the problem - must be the audio track - obviously that remains untouched.

Not sure it helps us any, but it's interesting...

 

Any information at this point is good to have. The devs must concentrate on the TrueHD Atmos audio track, it really seems to be the only culprit.

Do you have stutters on standard TrueHD non Atmos audio tracks? I only tried one of these so far and there were no stutters. An old Bluray 1080p with TrueHD 5.1.

As an added information for me only, what firmware are you using on your old Z9X right now?

 

I've only seen it on THD Atmos tracks because that's what you tend to get on UHD BluRays and all the content I've seen it happen on is UHD.

Obviously it doesn't happen on all THD tracks - as I say, this is the first of my own content I've seen it happen with.

I'm using an internal beta, so a few up from the current public release - but the last couple of internals have been addressing the HDR Auto/VS10 issue so nothing changed from v1.0.65 as far as THD handling goes.

I think there's a common denominator somewhere in the BluRay product but just not sure where.

The movies I've personally seen this in so far are:

Elemental
Lord of the Rings Two Towers
The Martian
Avatar
The Flash
Cars

And a clip from Game of Thrones

 

I hope they will fix his soon !!!!!