Z9X - SMB playback issues while streaming from NAS

http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?posts/142221

 

I also notice something like that with my Z10 pro, but using an internal HDD. From time to time, movies in DV with high bitrate (the hobbit, lord of the rings, ready player one) stutter, except the soundtrack which continues to play normally. If I use the 15sec jump function, video is ok for a while. Sometimes, the movie even freeze and I have to stop it and to restart the zidoo to be sure that I will be able to play it again. Some of the soundtracks are Dolby True HD, other ones DTS-HD MA. My first tests with movies in Dolby Vision were ok but it looks that the issue is random and does not occur every time or at the same moments of the movies. I was thinking to a cache issue but not sure about that.

All my movies in HDR 10 play fine. For the DV ones, I tried different sources, including mkv made by myself with makemkv from the original blu-ray UHD disk.

 

May I suggest not using NAS playback as the reference. I would suggest using file copy initiated from within Z9X MediaCenter from your 3 servers (NAS/W7/W10) as the reference.

Do open up task manager, performance window, and monitor the network transfer rate on the server side.

It will be interesting to see the graphs from your tests... any observable dips like mine?

My gut feel is that the problem could be coming from either:
a. the caching code (cache size need to scale with media bitrate to achieve a fixed number of seconds available inside the cache)
b. internal resource/bottleneck (eg. CPU super busy, or memory pressure causing swapping). seems that many reports are with high bitrate and/or DV processing.

I’m glad we now have some new clues, and the reported issue is reproducible. Hopefully this can be overcome in due course...

 

I'm using the NAS as a control because you need a benchmark so hopefully the difference between the debug logs will tell the engineers where to start looking for the problem. The reason I'm using playback is because that's the purpose of the box and the debug logs will give more information that way. I'll see what comes back from Zidoo.

The big issue with something like this are the many variables - my Windows 10 PC for example is an old HP workstation and - even copying PC to PC to that box is slow despite a gigabit card (and the switch confirms 1000base-T connection). The Windows 7 box is even older but again an HP workstation and yet works fine (just). The vagaries of Windows networking I guess.

 

Understood. I hope the R&D chaps are able to identify root cause and fix. Thank you.

 

I received a reply to my mail from Zidoo today. Unfortunately the problem is not reproducible for Zidoo. In the mail I am advised to check my netzwerkrouter and the cables....;-( It seems to me that Zidoo is not working on a solution here. Because the problem occurs with too few people? Nvidia Shield has just been ordered and the Z9X will go back on Monday. Very sad ;-(

 

The problem is reproducible without problem provided that the parameters are not constantly reset to factory values or any modification. If we watch continuously for example series, the third viewing (for example at the end of episode 3) the problem of stuttering will appear. On the other hand, it suffices to reset the parameters to zero or to touch the configuration and indeed the reading of the first one will pass without problem. In any case the problem comes from the caching, I have already indicated it in a post. There is a big problem in caching and in configuration resilience (parameter that jumps, etc.). We have to stabilize all that.

 

Want to test the jellyfish MKV files myself. However having issues getting them from the official source. Really slow and keeps failing.

Anyone else know of a better place to get these?

 

Hello Blenky,

I just checked, and this file (jellyfish-400-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv) takes about 1 minute to download it on the official website, I'm not sure that this problem comes from them.

 

How strange. My internet connection is just fine as checked on speednet. Yet when I use either my laptop (wireless) or desktop (ethernet) - I'm only getting about 150 KB/s!

Another site I tried with different UHD test files the d/l speed was on par as your test. Don't know why I'm struggling on this one site

 

Here are 2 files I just uploaded

jellyfish-300-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv
https://uptobox.com/b2e75ly6j40q


jellyfish-400-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mk
https://uptobox.com/9nuabmcz9qzx

I just checked them


See you

 

The problem has existed since the beginning! Zidoo had half a year (August 2020) to fix the problem. Unfortunately without success. Countless betas have not been able to improve anything. Perhaps the problem also lies with Realtek? Anyway, I have no more hope and now switch to the Nvidia Shield.

 

Thanks for that. I did eventually manage to get the 400mbs. So d/l your upload of the 300mbs now.

 

What problem are you talking about ?

 

Tried the following:
jellyfish-180-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv
jellyfish-300-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv
jellyfish-400-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv

from my Synology NAS playing both via HT4 (SMB) and direct from media centre - using SMB and NFS. I rebooted the Z9X before each set of tests. My results showed, for me at least, NFS having the best performance.

HT4 (SMB)
180 - no issues
300 - stutters for about first 5 secs and then OK
400 - massive stuttering and pausing

HT4 (NFS)
180 - no issues
300 - no issues
400 - not bad but not 100% perfect

Media Centre (SMB)
180 - no issues
300 - no issues
400 - stuttering and pausing but not as bad as via HT4

Media Centre (NFS)
180 - no issues
300 - no issues
400 - not perfect but not bad

 

I have less freezes (1 freeze in 3 movies) when using the VS10 engine to process everything in Dolby vision than if i let it play in standard HDR (multiple freezes per movie) obviously the network load is unchanged so why would that happen (Theory power saving/Buffering/Downclocking). If i play native Dolby Vision content i get many freezes just like with native HDR content.

I'm leaning towards the problem being to do with power saving on the Zidoo box, An issue with video buffering or an issue with Windows. Next I will disable all power saving ethernet settings on windows like green ethernet etc.

Current setup is ASus PN50 and Z9X connected over Cat6a cables to Netgear GS308E gigabit switch. Can stream all day to other devices on the switch with no issues.

 

I have a lot freezes all of films with samba on nas!!!

why zidoo cant solve this litte problems..

 

Tried the above files on my Shield using Kodi 19 connected via NFS. All three played super smooth

 

‘Jellyfish 300/400 mbps’ maybe shutters from time to time to some of you...

Ok, SO WHAT????

Until now I haven’t seen a single movie with so high bit rate..
Obviously SDK code needs fine tuning but it’s not the end of the world.
The only strange think is that, some of us have problems with smb server and many of us don’t.
Be cool, give engineers some time...

 

This isn't an issue with high bitrate the freezes are happening at 30 Mbps which is quite low. It's also not about network stability because I have already tested changing all cables reset all switches and PC's.

Just took the cable out of the Z9X connected it to PC and sent a 17GB file over network it was a rock steady 983 Mbps.