Physical & Digital EST: The Future of Home Video Discussion Thread

[Wendell R. Breland]

For Zidoo Z9X owners, have you installed the latest beta firmware (here)? If so, thoughts. I have not done so myself. Did install latest FW on Zappiti Neo but have not done much with it yet. Has some features some will like, not much appeal for me. Video below.

Anyone following the rumor mill Denon UHD BD player thread (here)?

zappiti медиаплеер обновление 2022 обзор - YouTube

[cheez avenger]

Just scooped up Candyman (2021) 4K disc on GameFly for $9.49. For those interested they're selling Black Widow 4K disc for $7.59 on there, too.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

For Zidoo Z9X owners, have you installed the latest beta firmware (here)? If so, thoughts. I have not done so myself. Did install latest FW on Zappiti Neo but have not done much with it yet. Has some features some will like, not much appeal for me. Video below.

Anyone following the rumor mill Denon UHD BD player thread (here)?



zappiti медиаплеер обновление 2022 обзор - YouTube

As an NVIDIA SHIELD owner, I've learned my lesson and am staying away from updates until I can confirm that they can actually make my experience better.

I'm loving my ZIDOO so far. Your linked video had me excited for about 10 seconds before I realized that it was showing the ZAPPITI interface..
As a guy who likes to individually matte each movie, I would love to have proper aspect ratio listed in the movie info screen like I had under KODI. So far, HT4 doesn't have that feature... although, I often found it to be wrong in KODI..

This new firmware doesn't appear to be an official beta at any rate. It seems to have been leaked from a Chinese site.

[cheez avenger]

GameFly mailed me out the steelbook case for Heavy Metal and it had the BD for Part 2 and the digital copies. Not bad for the $23 spent last week.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

Your linked video had me excited for about 10 seconds before I realized that it was showing the ZAPPITI interface..

Zappiti is far from perfect in regards to content info. Has marked several titles of mine as 2.35 when they are really 1.85. I have the correct info in Movie Collector and will correct the Zappiti info over time.

This new firmware doesn't appear to be an official beta at any rate. It seems to have been leaked from a Chinese site.

Oh boy, that post has really changed since this morning. Will delete the ZIP file from my flash drive and PC.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

It's a good thing some of us are buying physical media, or else you streamers would have even more problems.

Mainly the people that have the Archaic Cable Company Architecture, where Load Balancing is essential for a stable ISP System. For todays Streaming demand Symmetrical Fiber is needed!

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Mainly the people that have the Archaic Cable Company Architecture, where Load Balancing is essential for a stable ISP System. For todays Streaming demand Symmetrical Fiber is needed!

Actually it isn't needed as streaming videos is almost entirely download.

Upload is barely involved and thus that is why no streaming service provider lists a minimum upload speed requirement like they do with download speeds. Streaming services specifically state what minimum download speeds you need, but they make no mention of needing any level of upload speed.

During my recent period of internet problems, streaming was unaffected as my download speed was not significantly impacted. I had trouble playing online video games and making video calls because both of those require upload speed.

[bhampton]

I haven't been to a commercial theater since Endgame.

I was very impressed with my local theater which was rebuild during the pandemic. There was a seam in the screen but it was hidden during most content. The seats were like couches that recline and you pick your seat before buying the ticket. The crowd was perfectly behaved which is down to luck.

Most important of all Where The Crawdads Sing was a great movie.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I haven't been to a commercial theater since Endgame.

I was very impressed with my local theater which was rebuild during the pandemic. There was a seam in the screen but it was hidden during most content. The seats were like couches that recline and you pick your seat before buying the ticket. The crowd was perfectly behaved which is down to luck.

Most important of all Where The Crawdads Sing was a great movie.

Seen quite a few films at the cinema over the last 15 months. My sister and I got quite emotional the first time we returned after the pandemic. It was special.

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by Vilya

What are you cooking in there exactly?

Please don't ever invite me over for a home cooked meal.

When I rub my finger across the top of the books on the bottom, the dust is dark and kind of thickly. My brother burns food thirty times as often as me. Woke me up at 3 AM with the smoke detector today.

[crutzulee]

Watched The Black Phone two days ago with my daughter on VOD. While there was much to like about the movie, I rated it a 3 out of 5 in it's thread. Ultimately, I found it to be "just OK", which, if I'm being honest, was a bit of a letdown as I was hyped to see this a little more than I should have been. I never watch trailers and try to go into each movie as cold as possible, but I was aware of the big name talent and that it was being fairly well received which is generally rare for the genre.

It will be an interesting comparison once the physical disc comes out. The 4K HDR stream was a bit dull and dark. Although I think that this may have been an aesthetic choice to achieve a certain feeling about it's late 70's, less than ideal family dynamic backdrop. The look and narrative certainly nailed this. Shadow detail was decent. I did not notice any black crush or compression issues. While there were some interesting surround effects and one or two notable uses of the height channels, I wouldn't be using this presentation to demonstrate what ATMOS can do. I'm not a person who needs whizz bangery from my soundtracks...but if it's horror (which my daughter says is debatable), and it says ATMOS on the tin...I expect a little more....

At any rate, it led us to watch SINISTER last night and we had a blast! It was new to her and just as good as for me as I did not recall a thing from my first viewing way back when I first got the bluray. We both agreed that it was a superior movie. Although not ATMOS, the DSU on my DENON effectively presented the DTS-MA track. It couldn't create the "bubble of sound" that a proper ATMOS track should (although most native mixes don't achieve this), but the overhead effects were not only plentiful but ACCURATE (not gimmicky). There are 2 instances in the film where the lead actor looks out and up into your theater at sounds from his attic. The sounds are reproduced by the DSU RIGHT ABOVE YOUR HEAD!!!!

Anyways...I have the second installment on order and will definitely hope that the first gets a UHD with a native ATMOS track...you know, to watch in another couple of years when I forget the story and it'll be new to me again..LOL

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

As an NVIDIA SHIELD owner, I've learned my lesson and am staying away from updates until I can confirm that they can actually make my experience better.

not about NVIDEA in particular But I 100% agree, I don't get why people are always in a rush to upgrade FW/SW.

IMHO stable and good beats bleeding edge with no benefit.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Posted a few years ago but will do again, below is two screen shots taken while streaming a Netflix movie via a Windows 10 PC. No attempt was made to stop Windows components* from using the internet during this stream.

Question: Does anyone else besides alchav21 have a problem understanding the Send and Receive data in the charts?

[Show spoiler]

*many Service Host items and others

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Mainly the people that have the Archaic Cable Company Architecture, where Load Balancing is essential for a stable ISP System. For todays Streaming demand Symmetrical Fiber is needed!

none of what you say makes any sense.

1) If you are watching Netflix, as an example, there is a lot of data being DL to your player (AKA what you are watching) and almost no data being uploaded to Netflix so symmetrical is no where near needed to stream

2) load balancing is done on any good network be it an ISP or a large enough company with multiple routes

2) Cable or fiber to your home is the last mile (i.e. what connects you to the ISP) after that the infrastructure is kind of the same and can be as good or as bad as the people managing the network want it to be.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

When I rub my finger across the top of the books on the bottom, the dust is dark and kind of thickly. My brother burns food thirty times as often as me. Woke me up at 3 AM with the smoke detector today.

Well, I hope that your brother never invites me over for dinner, either. "Blackened" foods never appealed to me.

Maybe using that exhaust fan above the stove more often and making sure that it is working properly would help? There is no "dark and kind of thickly" dust on anything in my kitchen or its vicinity, but I seldom incinerate my food.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Posted a few years ago but will do again, below is two screen shots taken while streaming a Netflix movie via a Windows 10 PC. No attempt was made to stop Windows components* from using the internet during this stream.

Question: Does anyone else besides alchav21 have a problem understanding the Send and Receive data in the charts?

[Show spoiler]

*many Service Host items and others

The data that you have presented can only mean one thing: I must uproot myself and move to a place that offers symmetrical internet no matter the cost or hardship involved!

How else may I rest easy knowing that my internet service will able to provide that 400 Kbps upload speed that streaming requires?

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

How else may I rest easy knowing that my internet service will able to provide that 400 Kbps upload speed that streaming requires?

I believe that anyone that knows virtually nothing about streaming understands the concept about the importance receiving data speeds while viewing content and very little speed needed in sending data to the provider. Not sure what alchav21 thinks is being sent back to the provider. It is a for him.

The Neflix server test and diagnostic screen makes no reference to upload speed, same for Apple HUD and Prime diagnostic screen. The Prime does have a lot of other info.

[Show spoiler]

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Posted a few years ago but will do again, below is two screen shots taken while streaming a Netflix movie via a Windows 10 PC. No attempt was made to stop Windows components* from using the internet during this stream.

Question: Does anyone else besides alchav21 have a problem understanding the Send and Receive data in the charts?

[Show spoiler]

*many Service Host items and others

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a dunce with your graphs...Are you illustrating that NETFLIX makes "calls" for packets in such a random sawtooth pattern so as to preclude it from displaying an adequate picture or how poor an internet connection can be?
In 2022, no one in a first world country is paying for internet that spotty...

I've never actually felt the need to test my internet connection for the purposes of NETFLIX. I generally use it on my phone for documentaries and stand up comedy. My family binges made for TV fare on an NVIDIA SHIELD in the living room and I watch maybe 3 or 4 movies a year on the SHIELD in my HT (usually NETFLIX original content).
I've stopped using the SHIELD in my HT for playback of locally stored content, specifically because microstutters and audio dropouts bug the hell out of me. With my limited usage, I can honestly say that it's been years since I've seen either. I have, from time to time had a red circle spin at the beginning of a presentation for a longer than usual time...very rarely, it will crap out and say that it can't play at this time only to work flawlessly when I reselect the item. There used to be this weird "ramping up" of quality for a few seconds after the start of a title similar to the way modems used to make different pitched sounds before negotiating the best connection.
I'm not sure when that stopped.. but it's been some time since I've seen it...
The last two movies I watched via NETFLIX in my HT were both Ryan Reynolds movies with high action sequences...I don't remember much about the movie except that I was impressed by both the 4K picture and ATMOS sound on both...

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

not about NVIDEA in particular But I 100% agree, I don't get why people are always in a rush to upgrade FW/SW.

IMHO stable and good beats bleeding edge with no benefit.

The update for the Sony 900s that came out last year causes my 900E to sometimes reboot. I've read Sony released a fix update in some European countries, but not here in America. Learned my lesson. Only updating future TVs when I need to for some feature or fix.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a dunce with your graphs...Are you illustrating that NETFLIX makes "calls" for packets in such a random sawtooth pattern so as to preclude it from displaying an adequate picture or how poor an internet connection can be?

But you can clearly see the the Send and Receive data rates and that was the whole point.

As to the graphs, data from a internet provider (web page, video, audio, etc.) does not come to you in a continuous data stream, it comes in burst of data (peaks & valleys) and hence the need for a buffer(s) for A/V. Think of a 1 liter water container (buffer) with a small aperture at the bottom (data stream). Now start filling the container with water till half full, the steam at the bottom will be flowing at a given rate and as it empties out dump in a .2 liter of water (burst) every so often and this will keep a nearly steady stream flowing.