Z9X 8K - Freezeng during playback

No, but I am running out of options. But its not PSU, tryed with larger known good one but its the same. What about booting other OS on it. I am now realy suspecting zidoo media player app. I upgraded app to latest alpha version but it acts the same, only a bit lagier on scanning files...

 

Maybe to cut my losses and to buy some Dune HD player, do you have some experience with them?

Do anybody know how to boot corelec on this device?

 

It's not the app otherwise everybody else would have the same problem.

You cannot boot another OS since the bootloader is locked.

If you want to use CoreElec, the best player is the Ugoos AM6B+ (do not get the AM8 as it will not do FEL playback).

 

Tryed it at my friends setup and it acts the same. Device is not working for sure. Maybe its series that is not workink but its definetly not working. I am advising people to buy something else. It really seemed like a good device for a moment...

 

i will try new firmwares as they arrive but for now its drawer for this, paperweight that costed me arround 450 euros with return of first device and import again...

 

Another thing, USB playback is also having issues, after some time (10 minutes aprox) start glitching and loosing sync, so only SATA playback so far worked.

 

Last night I got OTA update that fixed USB playback, network issues remained the same. Another thing, I create different protocol connection to same network place (NFS and SMB) and when device stuck on playback thru one protocol, I open same location via different protocol and it continue playback until freezing again and by that time you can return to first protocol, but it's really annoying to watch movie like that

 

Just to keep you updated if somebody got same issue.
Last night I used direct connection to my NAS, so no switch in between but directly connected cable to one of ports, and one movie worked flawless. I did not have time to do more tryouts but so far it looks promising.
Now I have mind bending thing, there are no roles in network that would block client or protocol. Other devices, including other streaming clients work normally, so I only should find reason why Zidoo is keep being blocked and not leaving any marks in logs.
Anyhow, I will post findings if i manage to make any...

P.S. Found on line that some Zidoo devices got issues with speed auto negotiation on Ubiquiti equipment. That will be my next thing to try, to manually select port speed and see what will happen...

 

OK, got it. whenever Zidoo calls these two domains that are blocked it freezes for minutes waiting for something. If you disable blocking, or put this domains at allow list device is working as intended. What are those domains?

alog.umengcloud.com Other - Default Ad Blocking Block Today at 10:22:18.764
alog.umeng.com Other - Default Ad Blocking Block Today at 10:22:18.748


alog.umengcloud.com Other - Default Ad Blocking Block Today at 11:07:55.628
alog.umeng.com Other - Default Ad Blocking Block Today at 11:07:55.600

What device trying to reach and why it freezes when domains are blocked?

 

Ok - great - I'll shark it and see what's happening.

What do you use to block the domains?

 

It is blocked by Unifi AD Blocker, i thought so far that unifi is blocking device because of whatever, i did not suspect on device itself but I was wrong.
This is device behaviour when access to this domains are blocked. When you add them to allow list everything works.
It is a little bit sus behavior isn't it?

P.S. It took for so long to fin this, when I find some time i will Wireshark it to check all content in and out. For now its enough for me
Lost so much money for sendig device back and forth...

P.P.S. This freezes do not occure while its local (SATA connected HDD) only when accessing shares (NFS and SMB)

umeng.com - Registrar: Alibaba Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
umengcloud.com - Registrar: Alibaba Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

So some services that are running on Alibaba Cloud. Considering that is sending data when running through network shares its possible that this is some network data its sending... Beware what data you are entering in this device until its checked with Wireshark

 

Umeng+ is a Beijing-based startup providing mobile app analytics solutions for mobile development teams and individual developers.
​

Call home telemetry. You'd hope that shit like that would:

• be opt-in (or at least provide opt-out)
• run in non-blocking mode
• have no impact if it fails to call home

Not good...

 

I've sharked the hell out of these boxes in the past (mainly to compare to Dune because the Dune boxes make all sorts of suspicious calls) and I've never seen anything like alog.umengcloud.com before. It's an analytics company according to Google.

If it only happens when accessing network shares are you sure the call doesn't come from the NAS drive?

I've had Wireshark running on the box for about half an hour now and there's nothing unexpected. I've had videos running and again, no odd traffic. I'll keep the monitor running and come back with results - but I certainly am not seeing anything untoward here.

**EDIT**

Hang on - got it.

It's from HT and it only seems to call alog-default.umeng.com.gds.alibabadns.com on startup which I think means it's using alibabadns.com as a proxy.

I think it's innocuous - in fact I'm sure it is - but I'll check with the devs on Monday.

**EDIT 2**

If I block access I can see retransmissions in Wireshark, which can run into playback if you start a movie, but it DOES NOT affect playback or box operation in any way so I'm not sure why yours would freeze.

Then it seems to time out and give up until you exit HT and the same happens again - retries until a timeout occurs.

Again, not affecting operation of the box.

**EDIT 3**

I'm on a later version of HT with a restructured database so it may be that mine makes different calls and behaves differently.

 

Are you running the non-G firmware?
Have you installed any 3rd party stuff?

 

It get G firmware on device that was sent to me as replacement.

 

IMHO, that's unacceptable. It could be infested by malware from the previous user, for all you know.
Normally I would suggest to completely reflash with clean firmware from scratch, but Zidoo have decided to not give users that opportunity.

 

Forget what I said. It is not only blocking of domains issue.
There is something else, but I am tired of this. After several hours of playback i got freeze issue right now.
It took much longer but it happened again usually its on 15-30 minutes span, now it's on 3-4 hours. Maybe it's several things, not just one.
I will put it behind dummy switch and I am giving up for now. I will leave it like this until I got will and time to try something else...

 

Go and cast your vote here so that Zidoo can see that their customers need the ability to reflash firmware.

https://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?threads/reflash-factory-firmware.101341/