Great detailed video Tony. Lately, I have been considering digitizing my blu ray collection. This looks like a fantastic option, but I think I will go with a Zidoo if I do decide to go this route. Thanks for the video brother...cheers.
You may want to hold off for the time being as it feels like a new model is forthcoming for Zidoo. The Z9X and its kind have been out for 2-3 years. Beta firmware support was regularly released and have now dried up, thus causing the new model speculations.
Thanks for watching brother. Zidoo is a great option. Look at the NEO Alpha - seriously, if I had the spare coin right now that's the one I'd be buying. Thing of beauty ;)
If you don't mind putting in the time, a raspberry pi 4 is a great option. A step up is the zidoo z9x. You can side load zdmc(kodi) and have complete customization while still using the zidoo player. The options for digital are growing and it's fantastic.
I'd love to do this with a Kaleidescape but I can't get on in Australia. I have done a comparison between Nvidia/Kodi and Zidoo - but I will have to see the best format to do that video next.
Thanks mate - I know you love your Zappiti - and I must say it's a fantastic unit - different to the Zidoo, both solve the problem slightly differently.
Great video, mate. I have the previous generation Zappiti, the Audiocom edition. I believe it produces the best picture and sound quality on my setup, more than any other device. Very happy with my Zappiti . Cheers mate
Thanks mate, and yes the Audiocom edition is pretty cool - I almost got one when they were being made. I just got the Reference direct from Zappiti for this video, and it doesnt disappoint.
I’m running out of space for my physical media so I’ve been looking into these as well as kaleidoscoape. This may work out better. I don’t know how I missed your curtains and the automation to open them!!!! Well done Tony!!!!! You still have my favorite theater on TH-cam!!!!
I want a K-scape BADLY - but we can't get them in Australia any more :( I only want it for new release videos, I would still keep my NAS and Zidoo/Zappiti combo.. And wow man, thank you for the compliment. I have been following your new room build and it looks fantastic - we should do another tour video and push it out there!
Great Video Sir!! I spotted the HD FURY!!! When are we going to get setup videos and how are you liking it for your projector? Thanks 😊 from your TH-cam community.
Thanks bud, yes HD Fury is game changer, and I love the JVC NP5 - best projector for it's price/class in my opinion... JVC black levels are insanely good. Appreciate your kind words :)
Thanks Adam. Yes, it's not the same thing, especially for Apple TV/PLEX due to bitstream limitations. I just don't enjoy the Shield Pro (I have done a comparison video on this which I link at the end of this video)
@@sdubvt Yes, these Realtek media players do full Blu-Ray or UHD Blu-Ray menus although it might vary between the 3 makers that use this particular Realtek SOC (Zappiti, Dune, and Zidoo). Their main advantage is being able to do Dolby Vision Profile 7 (FEL and MEL). Dolby Vision is actually more complicated than one would think. There are profiles 4, 5, 7 and 8. There might be a profile 6, I forget but if there is one, it isn't used often. Streaming services use profiles 5 and 8. There is also LLDV and STD. LLDV stands for low latency Dolby Vision. With LLDV then source, say and Nvidia Shield or ATV4K, does the dynamic tone mapping while with STD the display does the dynamic tone mapping. When Dolby Vision first came out STD was the only option because HDMI 1.4 couldn't handle dynamic metadata so they had to let the display do it. There is actually an option to force LLDV or STD in the picture settings or you can leave it on auto. Some people still prefer STD because the display knows its capabilities while when the source does it with LLDV it's up to the source to do this. I believe LLDV was first introduced in 2017/2018 with Dolby Labs working with Sony. Going forward LLDV is required but STD isn't. The big TV brands still allow both like LG and Sony. In the video he has an HDFury device which uses LLDV as an HDFury device will allow you to get Dolby Vision on a non Dolby Vision display or projector like a Samsung TV. There are only a handful of projectors that actually do Dolby Vision so HDFury devices are very popular with people who own projectors. Especially JVC projectors . You can find more info on HDFurys website on how this is accomplished but essentially it makes the source think your display supports Dolby Vision during the EDID handshake which basically tells the source what capabilities your display can do and will trick the source into thinking your display can do DV even when it can't and will send an LLDV signal. The HDfury also does some other magic to accomplish this also but that isn't really disclosed by HDFury to my knowledge. Streaming boxes only do LLDV and profile 5 and 8 so if you have ever tried to play a UHD ISO file in say, Kodi you will only get HDR. The reason is DV UHD disks have 2 layers. The base layer is UHD with the HDR static values and the second layer is a 1080p layer with the actual DV info so it's a bit more complicated than the other profiles. This way it can always fall back to HDR if your display doesn't support DV for UHD disks that have Dolby Vision. lLDV is software based while STD, at least when it first came out required additional hardware in the display. This may not be needed anymore but I believe it is..The downside is each display takes different amounts of time to do this which isn't an issue for video playback but is for games. This is how the Xbox was able to get an update to support Dolby Vision. It only does LLDV but you still can't playback DV UHD disks because the UHD drives can't read the second layer so it will always fall back to HDR when playing a physical disk. This is a hardware limitation on the Xbox side because the drive can't read the second layer. As previously mentioned LLDV is lower latency which is needed for games because a 100ms delay is very noticable for gaming if STD was used and it took the display 100ms to do the dynamic tone mapping. UHD disks are the best video and audio source currently available, at least to the general population. Dolby Atmos isn't technically an audio format. It's metadata for the Atmos effect embedded in either a DD+ (lossy) or Dolby TrueHD (lossless) format. Streaming services use DD+ while UHD disks use TrueHD for Atmos or DTS:X which works the same way, metadata embedded in a DTS MA HD signal. The higher bit rates over streaming services shows on a good display or projector on UHD disks like compression artifacts among many other things. If you have a large UHD disks collection and can rip it to a hard drive there is zero picture quality loss on these players as it is playing back the bit for bit ISO file and store it on a NAS or internal hard drive on these players or an external hard drive hooked up to one of the USB 3.0 ports on these players. Streaming services typically have bitrates between 20 to 30 Mbps (2 to 3 MB/s). UHD disks are typically 60 to 80 Mbps (6 to 8 MB/s). I can't overstate how much better the picture quality is. The LOTR trilogy looks and sounds amazing but due to their run time they are somewhere between 100GB to 120GB in size for the ISO file. Your typical movie is half that size. Another good example would be a Will Smith movie (can't remember the name off the top of my head) as it's one of the few movies shot at 60FPS while almost any other movie is 24FPS. It's the movie where he is a sniper and retires and the CIA clones him. Terrible movie but absolute eye candy. These players run a dual Linux and Android OS. With that said, the Android side is highly limited as they all run some form of AOSP Android 9. It's pretty much the phone version so you won't get UHD, HDR, DV, or Atmos from streaming services like Netflix. They do come with SmartTubeNext which allows UHD and HDR playback for TH-cam. It's a fork of Google's official TH-cam app. I personally own a Dune Real Vision 4K Solo as based on my research it has the best support for full menus on ISO files but I also bought it a year and a half ago so Zappiti may have caught up to Dune but Zidoo has not according to people who own both Zidoo and Dune players on Avsforums. Simply put, don't buy these players for Android. They excel when using the internal player which runs on the Linux OS. Android can also be laggy because it essentially runs as a VM or in a Docker on top of the Linux OS. Similar to running a VM on top of an existing OS so they take a performance hit. In my experience only music apps are really good on the Android side like Spotify. Also, some APK files simply won't install. If you aren't a hardcore audiophile then I would personally stick to a cheaper version without the XLR outputs. It adds a lot to the price. You can get a Zidoo or Dune player for sometimes under 200 dollars US, easily under 300 for the lowest end models. While the reviewer said the better power supply results in better picture quality (according to Zappiti) I'm not sure if that is accurate. With that said. I've never seen this player so I could easily be wrong. I would like to see a comparison video of this player vs a cheaper model without the analogue audio stuff because they all use the same chip and if your bitstreaming to a receiver I don't believe there will be any difference but that's just my gut feeling and I can't prove that. They have the same Realtek SOC's and if you are sending audio to a receiver they will bitstream any codec so you aren't really losing anything. My understanding is the better power supply in the higher end models is to isolate noise from the digital and analogue parts which helps with 2 channel audio playback and they also come with high end ESS DAC's similar to a lot of sdesktip DACs already in existence. This would be good if you have some 2 channel SACD ISO files as these players all support pretty much any audio codec but I own an external desktop DAC so if I want stereo audio I use USB from the player to my DAC to get the best audio experience. I have a few SACD ISO files that were remastered in 5.1 so for those I send it over HDMI to get the best experience. To use the XLR outputs you still need an AMP with XLR inputs to even use them also. These players also use the Dolby Vision VS10 engine which allows you to playback SDR content in HDR or DV while properly remaining the tone colors. Personally I think this makes the picture look over processed but I'm somewhat of a purist so that's just a personal preference. I send everything out in the resolution the file is in and framerate it is in as movies are almost always 24fps while TV is usually 60fps. Once again, a personal preference and my HDFury VRROOM does a better job upscaling IMO. That is until I got a Sony QD-OLED as Sony's image processing is probably the best out of any mainstream TV manufacturer. In fact their newest model (not the first gen model) has a pretty neat feature. If you playback a 480p DVD and have a UHD player do the upscaling to UHD, the Sony processor can determine this and will treat it as a 480p signal like it was never upscaled. If you rip UHD disks to ISO files without any compression or little compression then these are probably the best players you can buy to get outside a higher end UHD disks player like Oppo which tend to be very expensive. They excel at local media playback over LAN or a hard drive hooked up or in one of the internal bays. The model I own has an internal HD bay but if you have a lot of UHD ISO files then most people have a NAS like the reviewer in this video because UHD ISO files are large and will fill up a drive quickly. The movie scraper isn't as good as Plex but they allow you to manually fix this as the reviewer showed to correctly associate it with the correct movie. Personally I use the local file browser over the movie wall posters but that's also just a personal preference. If you're interested in one of these players then don't just take my word for it. I recommend looking at their individual websites and Avsforums so you know what their limitations.and benefits are and to determine which is the right player for you. There are dedicated threads for all these players and if you have a question someone will give you an answer. Do not buy these players for Android video apps as Android is severely limited on these players. That's pretty much universally agreed on as Android feels like an afterthought and they don't really list the Android limitations on their sites so avsforums will give you that info.
I have a zidoo z9x on review. It's still got the issues with subtitles showing on all content. It cannot handle Large libraries. 500 + movies. It plays ok but can judder intermittently. Comparing it to nvidia + plex or my oppo 203, it doesn't stream as smoothly. The Sound however is very good. I would like to see a comparison with the Zappidi.
That's interesting about the Ziddo not handling more than 500 titles. Currently I have a combination of NAS and direct attached storage to my Zappiti Neo. My collection statistics is showing I have 3163 movies and 240 TV series consisting of 816 seasons and 13,316 episodes. One thing mentioned in the video about media information and having to identify media info is my collection is only showing 577 4K yet I know I have 697 4K titles.
If you are having playback and library issues, you may consider a factory reset. I have the Z9X and the Z10 with about 1,500 movie titles and over 23,000 TV episodes ranging from DVD to 4K UHD. Both stream as well as my Oppo. Stopped using Plex as the Zidoo’s upscale everything much better than Plex. As for a Zappiti comparison, the SOC is the same for Zidoo, Zappiti, and Dune; therefore, the main difference will be the UI. I find Zidoo the better value. If Zappiti were half the price and easier to obtain, I likely would have given one a shot. Zappiti looks more like my rack gear.
I have a Z9X and a Z1000 Pro and never had ANY issue with my 2000+ library on either device. Both devices perform the same, but I have a NAS setup so that could have something to do with it..
This is where the Synology NAS comes into play and you can install your own "cloud" server to store all of the metadata and thumbnails. It's much faster.
Great review! I had a couple of questions about the Zappiti: 1. Do you know if the internal storage is tied together? Do I need to install both disks from the get go or are they independent and fill as you go? 2. Quick research on some forums have talked about the French arm of Zappiti is in liquidation. Have you heard anything about a buyer or if support for this product has slowed down? 3. Related to question #2, can you run the box offline? Is it required to log-in to their servers even if I have a Zappiti server setup on my Synology NAS? My concern is if I purchase this and they go under, I want to use it and not be stuck with an expensive brick because they require an on-line log-in service. It seems odd to tie the box to a log-in when non of the media actually belongs to them.
How do you get content on to this device. There is no where to get 4k movies on down loads. Do you have to rip each of your 4k Blu-ray disks, if so how do you do that?
Can I ask….let’s say you have an android tv player that streams movies, can you download a movie from there onto this and watch it with the audio and video amplified to its original?
No it doesn't work that way. Whatever format the movie is will dictate the output. So the rips coming from a disk into an ISO or MKV will retain the identical format to the disk, just changing the media it's stored on.
Not sure if you ever did the side by side with the zidoo as i cannot find that video, but what is your thoughts on the zidoo vs zappiti ? looking to upgrade my zappiti 4k hdr to a new player but i think these new zappitis are highly pricced, the lowest model zappiti is £800 where as the zidoo can be had for £200 huge difference in price albiet different machines but im only looking at pq and audio with all 4k formats playable
I never ended up doing it because right when I made this video, there was a bit of a cloud over Zappiti's future, so until it's all cleared up, I decided to put that video on pause.
If you type Twoguystech ripping guide, you will find an excellent video they made recently on this. I decided NOT to do a ripping guide as it is technically illegal here so I dont want to make a video on how to do it and get into trouble. I really really wanted to do it but I just cant now.
@@BuildMontage I also wouldn't mind a video comparison between lower end models vs this one if possible. While in this video you say the better power supply results in better picture quality (per Zappiti). My understanding has always been the better power supplies were to isolate noise between the digital and analogue sides for audio when using the XLR outputs for stereo audio as they also have high end ESS DAC's in them. That is if you don't have to send this back to Zappiti. I personally don't think there will be one but I haven't personally seen any of the higher end models either so this is pure speculation on my end and based on research. I personally own the Dune Real Vision 4K Solo and love it because I rip my UHD disks to ISO files and these players support Dolby Vision profile 7 (FEL and MEL) while streaming boxes don't support profile 7 as UHD disks have 2 layers. A UHD layer with the HDR info and a second 1080p layer with Dolby Vision info so they can always fall back to HDR if your display doesn't support DV. Dolby Vision is way more complicated than most people are aware of with there being at least 5 different profiles and LLDV and STD. Obviously you are using LLDV because that's how the HDFury devices trick the source into thinking your TV or projector into thinking it supports Dolby Vision when it doesn't. With STD the display does the dynamic tone mapping so the display has to support Dolby Vision to use STD. I would love to hear your take on this if you do test all 3 brands that use this Realtek SOC (Zappiti, Ziidoo and Dune) if you get to hold on to this model Zappiti.
Commented twice earlier. Not gonna bug ya. But Holy Crap a Commodore 64 shirt! How many people out there know what load "*",8,1 even means! I came here to lament one last time the loss of Zappiti. I'm gonna find the shirt. Have my 64 set up on an ancient TV in the room with my OG coin op cabinets and couple other old consoles. A 6400 and one if you know of itll blow me away. Odyssey 2?
I love my Zidoo UHD 3000 . I added 2 internal 4TB SSD ( 8TB of pure super fast and silent ) plus i have an external 16 TB Nas - I would love to see how it stacks up against this ...but based on your review.. i would say the Zidoo has a much better interface ..it is def smoother and slick..not to mention much less expensive too
Great vid! I ujse appleTV for streaming, and jriver+madVR for riped 4k content, madVR is so good for HDR tonemaping for projector, it makes my epson 9400 even more better... how is zappiti handeling HDR to SDR? Tried that? :)
No I haven't tried that - in what scenario do you want to take an HDR source and push to SDR ? I know that people with MadVR have it set up that way to push via an SDR signal bt Im unsure what you're asking me to try.
@@BuildMontage To the projector. HDR gets so dimm, SDR is to prefer in most projectors, at least in 3000 dollars projectors like my epson 9400, maybe more expesive ones does HDR tonemaping better, like toplines Sony and JVC. Thats why i wondered how Zappiti does that job, riped 4 HDR to sdr. :)
Great vid as always but must ask what about the Zidoo UHD 3000 which has the same spec and is half the price and the one I'm thinking of getting the Zidoo Z1000 for about 390 UK Pounds
I have made several videos on the Zidoo range :) I have two personally. This is my first video on Zappiti. Check out my Zidoo videos on my channel page :)
Now that Zappiti is gone, you should really do a follow up video of what an existing customer's options are that they may not know about. I'm assuming the player still works? What functionality is broken, if any? And if you do want to buy an existing player on the market, what to watch out for. I think way more of your viewers would appreciate that video than criticize you for not being able to tell the future. Just my 2 cents.
Long-time Zappiti owner. The only issue I found was the occasional rip that was bad, this ended up ruining the movie experience. Have moved on to K-scape!
I have a reavon 200 4 k blu ray player made by the same company as the zappiti ,could the zappiti Copy direct from it . I am not up to date with new technology and just want my dvds on hard drive . The reavon has a RS 232 control protocol output direct to connect to a computer, can someone give me advice please
That one I'm not sure on. I don't think it's designed that way as a ripper. You would need to buy the Zappiti ripper/NAS to do that without having to put too much work into it.
i dont see the plus value vs having a plex server or a pc directly connected to ours tv with powerdvd and rip ours movies in it (cost a lot less money (almost none ) so u have more to buy 4k bluray )
@@joshdimovski4483 oh you meant for the NAS? you said Player in your question - I do believe the NAS does need their remote assistance - I have no experience with the NAS - they were going to send me one but we ran out of time and the Dealer was still using it.
I own the 4K HDR Pro and the unit is very twitchy. BEWARE! A connection with Zappiti is required for using it and the company is in under bankruptcy protection. It will soon likely become a very expensive paper weight.
I have no evidence of this. We just had a brand new distributor in Australia take on support for Zappiti - and I was shipped a brand new Zappiti to make the video - I have asked my contact at Zappiti about this as I have not heard a single thing about this. Hopefully it's not true.
So what your saying is by default this is worse performance than a Nvidia Shield, a Nas and Plex, and only the same performance if you put the collection server on your nas by docker. Which is too much for most technical people. Nobody is going to use the internal dac either. What a waste of money. I mean it is pretty but who wants to spend thousands for something that just looks nice
It's a very simplistic way of looking at it. There is more nuance to the setup using a dedicated player than the way you've described it, but I try not to get into arguments with people over it. I'm a highly technical person, yet regardless of my ability to create a NAS setup with KODI on Shield, I still vastly prefer a Zidoo or Zappiti for the overall experience I get from the device. For me user experience and movie experience is really important - otherwise I wouldn't have the setup I have. If it's not important to you, it likely would be a waste of money for you to invest in it.
I still don't understand why people use this over a normal home server with Emby, Plex, Jellyfin. Digital is digital. There isn't some magic happening to the source.
It’s a choice like most things. People without technical knowledge would find this a far sight easier than setting up a PC with Kodi etc. not me- my channel was going to be about building PCs before I niched down into Home Theater but reverse could be said of your statement. Not everyone want to muck around with a keyboard and mouse with a HTPC… we are spoilt for choice.
You can - we are spoilt for choice. Personally I don't like PLEX any more, I use Infuze7 on my Apple TV - find it way better as you don't have to run a server like PLEX and I share the content from my NAS
I have both. Having a player like this is easier for a quick or partial watch, TV show binging, and back up as 4K players can get finnicky with disc imperfections.
HOLY SHIT. WHERE HAS THIS BEEN?? I WANT THIS NOW AND 2 Backup systems I keep in the box in case one breaks. Does this work without an internet connection? I mean like after I have completed setup with meta data??? I want to Truely own my media. With the original 4K discs in fireproof boxes. F KALEIDESCAPE!!
The lack of ability to purchase this in the USA is a bad look for them. They've been removed from Amazon, and their USA store website links go nowhere. Sounds like a scam to me.
Hi there - I don't rightly know what's going on. I recieved my unit without any issues and I think it was right when the whole situation started. I was making a Zappiti vs Zidoo video which I've halted production of due to the uncertainty. What I do know is there may be a possible rebranding situation - I have been contacted already by that company to review a new product, so I will wait and see how that goes before commenting further.
I’m sure it will….but at the same quality, bitrate, framerate, etc? That’s like saying “why would I buy a Porsche when my Dodge Neon gets me places just as easily”. There’s literally no comparison between the two and I don’t even have to own one to know that. But as my man said, if that works for you, then use it!
@@MichaelM-to4sg I'm not sure about prices where you are but in the UK Kaleidoscape works out a lot more expensive, which is why practically nobody uses it apart from the affluent.
Definitely keen for a comparison between Zappiti vs Zidoo. I’ve been after something to replace my Zidoo Z9X but not looking for any storage. Would that be the Neo?
Ironically, I still use my Z9X in my upstairs media room, and it performs every bit as good as my Z1000 Pro. The bonus for me is because of my NAS setup, I never needed to consider the internal storage that most people need to. For me the Z9X is working great.
@@dsellars I know their focus has been on the music side of late. I might reach out to my contact at Zidoo and see if there is any news... If it ain't broke don't fix it - my Zidoo's work perfectly well.
Ok so this player doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you are rich and just want to waste money. Especially when you factor in the fact that you need a nas at $1-2k plus the zappitti at $1.5k yikes. So here’s a better option. I use this in my entire home even my theater. I have a 6 bay synology nas with 30+ tb. I rip all my 4k movies in very high quality movies files then I run Plex on the synology and use nvidia shields in my theater and on all my tvs. I make sure all my movies are in a format that can direct play. This is a much cheaper and just as good solution. I love my synology Plex and shield tv. Oh and a full Blu-ray quality h.265 mkv hdr with Dolby atmos plays flawlessly even over Wi-Fi. So I can’t see spending the money on the zapitti take the money you save and invest in a bigger nas with more storage as these movies will eat through drive space like crazy. Oh one last thing. Not having a nas with the zappitti wouldn’t make much sense becuse the drive bays built into the zapitti won’t hold very many movies compared to a large nas.
I've covered this in a few other videos on my channel. I have your setup, but I expanded my horizons a little and a dedicated device is a much nicer experience than using a Shield - i have a Shield Pro and I hated the user experience..
@@BuildMontage The only thing I hate about the shield is that you turn it off using the power button on the remote. Then the next time you push the power button nothing happens as it's frozen. It then requires you to unplug it to reboot it which is annoying. they really need to fix this bug
If you can afford it, then its a pretty good option but I am kind of surprised a premium expense equivalent format of UHD blueray discs streaming service doesn't exist as to charge anywhere near the cost of regularly buying UHD blueray discs movies each month, it would have to be pretty high monthly fee depending how many movies on average you buy each month. Even if it cost $100 AUD per month, it would be worth it to get the best image and sound quality possible. Of course you would need pretty fast internet speeds but the bonus would be in time gained from not going out and purchasing and then uploading the movie to your system and such a service could automatically give you the option of watching a much broader selection of the latest movies possibly from around the world.
The other option for what you're describing is Kaleidescape - which is only available in certain regions and you still need to buy the player/NAS but it's the only "streaming" type of a service out there wityh disk level quality. I will say that this is the best possible option for most of us who want the flexibility of scrolling around the library but having the disk level performance.
Zidoo is great - I have both in my rack now - but using the Zappiti at the moment as it's been needed to make this video. I'll go back to the Zidoo next week and see how they work side by side.
I love my Zappiti one player video wall having all my content in one place is so convenient but slightly confused as on AVForums UK members are saying that apparently Zappiti has gone into liquidation?
@@markmes5890 I wouldn't really say "just their french arm". They are a French company. So the bigger question is if there will actually be any development in the future or you will be left with whatever you have now.
@@twoknife Exactly. And if it doesn’t find a buyer, considering how dependant the Zappiti are on the Cloud to operate you could find your player unusable should they shut it down as a worst scenario. And I say this as a Zappiti Neo owner. Just look at the recent outage when the cloud went down. As for future development the complaints with the lag in loading the poster artwork when scrolling through pages have been brought up years and not fixed so I wouldn’t hold my breath and just take it as it is.
@@spizzy7996 Oh definitely. Now is a really bad time to buy a Zappiti and definitely something that should be mentioned in a review IMO. I use a Zidoo myself, so I am not really impacted by it.
I will commence working on a comparison video very soon. Hopefully this was helpful - I told you I was working on the video :) It took two weeks to make this one...
Would definitely love a comparison video. I have setup a plex server but not liking the constant maintenance required and would love a solution like this.
What maintenance? Besides downloading / ripping and adding to my library I have rarely had to do anything with my plex server other than my own "...hmmm I think it's time for an upgrade" lol During that time I have lots of maintenance but the only pain is the time it takes to copy 60TB+ of movies over to the new server.
Please give your opinion, is the Zidoo UHD5000 inferior in image and sound quality to the Zappiti Reference? Or which Zidoo player is comparable to the Zappiti Reference?
The Zidoo in my opinion is a better experience than Zappiti - but Zappiti is done for anyway. You can't really use it any more in the same way as when it was being sold.
My VAVA videos were made on pre-production models so I present what is in front of me. I am not paid for any video reviews I do. The Chroma I had worked 100% perfectly well and never an issue - build quality was great. Once I do a review, I move on - I am not aware of any issues with the Chroma. Calling me a "shill" implys I am a dishonest person seeking to swindle people. Sorry you feel that way, but you don't know me, and you're wrong. God Bless.
Until I get clarity about the state of the Zappiti business, I won't be posting that comparison video unfortunately, I feel it would be wrong to do so. This video was posted before I knew there were any issues. Still a great product and would recommend but just need some clarity.
But does it handle animated SSA/ASS subtitles? I watch a lot of translated animated movies with such, and my old Zappiti Pro 4K HDR could not render them at all, which was disappointing for such an expensive unit; ended up going back to my HTPC for playing my SSA/ASS subtitled media.
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Great detailed video Tony. Lately, I have been considering digitizing my blu ray collection. This looks like a fantastic option, but I think I will go with a Zidoo if I do decide to go this route. Thanks for the video brother...cheers.
it really is. and if you can get your hands on the Zappiti Nas, it will be that much easier.
You may want to hold off for the time being as it feels like a new model is forthcoming for Zidoo. The Z9X and its kind have been out for 2-3 years. Beta firmware support was regularly released and have now dried up, thus causing the new model speculations.
Thanks for watching brother. Zidoo is a great option. Look at the NEO Alpha - seriously, if I had the spare coin right now that's the one I'd be buying. Thing of beauty ;)
If you don't mind putting in the time, a raspberry pi 4 is a great option. A step up is the zidoo z9x. You can side load zdmc(kodi) and have complete customization while still using the zidoo player.
The options for digital are growing and it's fantastic.
Comparison with this, Nvidia+Plex, and Kaleidescape please!
I'd love to do this with a Kaleidescape but I can't get on in Australia. I have done a comparison between Nvidia/Kodi and Zidoo - but I will have to see the best format to do that video next.
Man its looking smooth in there!! Zappiti is my baby! glad you like it!
Thanks mate - I know you love your Zappiti - and I must say it's a fantastic unit - different to the Zidoo, both solve the problem slightly differently.
I have all the Zidoo and this Zappiti, The ZIdoo hands down is 10x better and easier and cheaper.
Get the Zidoo
Not only that, Zidoo realised a few years before the Zappiti, but they both use the same chipset (Shows how powerful Zidoo is ).
Ooh....comparison video. Yes please.
Done!
Great video, mate. I have the previous generation Zappiti, the Audiocom edition.
I believe it produces the best picture and sound quality on my setup, more than any other device.
Very happy with my Zappiti .
Cheers mate
Thanks mate, and yes the Audiocom edition is pretty cool - I almost got one when they were being made. I just got the Reference direct from Zappiti for this video, and it doesnt disappoint.
I have the same Audiocom Cinema Edition, absolutely stunning performance.
I’m running out of space for my physical media so I’ve been looking into these as well as kaleidoscoape. This may work out better.
I don’t know how I missed your curtains and the automation to open them!!!! Well done Tony!!!!! You still have my favorite theater on TH-cam!!!!
I want a K-scape BADLY - but we can't get them in Australia any more :( I only want it for new release videos, I would still keep my NAS and Zidoo/Zappiti combo.. And wow man, thank you for the compliment. I have been following your new room build and it looks fantastic - we should do another tour video and push it out there!
@@BuildMontage absolutely brother let’s get together on that soon
Great Video Sir!! I spotted the HD FURY!!! When are we going to get setup videos and how are you liking it for your projector?
Thanks 😊 from your TH-cam community.
Thanks bud, yes HD Fury is game changer, and I love the JVC NP5 - best projector for it's price/class in my opinion... JVC black levels are insanely good. Appreciate your kind words :)
@@BuildMontage My Pleasure, Sir. Looking forward to your 2023 Home Theater Update.
+1 for a Zapitti & Zidoo comparison
Done!
Great review! Obvious question, do you see any differences vs. running Plex and say a Shield Pro?
Thanks Adam. Yes, it's not the same thing, especially for Apple TV/PLEX due to bitstream limitations. I just don't enjoy the Shield Pro (I have done a comparison video on this which I link at the end of this video)
I’d love a comparison to your NAS/Plex
Does it do menus? What is the advantage over Plex/Emby/Jellyfin?
Done!
@@sdubvt Yes, these Realtek media players do full Blu-Ray or UHD Blu-Ray menus although it might vary between the 3 makers that use this particular Realtek SOC (Zappiti, Dune, and Zidoo). Their main advantage is being able to do Dolby Vision Profile 7 (FEL and MEL). Dolby Vision is actually more complicated than one would think. There are profiles 4, 5, 7 and 8. There might be a profile 6, I forget but if there is one, it isn't used often. Streaming services use profiles 5 and 8. There is also LLDV and STD. LLDV stands for low latency Dolby Vision. With LLDV then source, say and Nvidia Shield or ATV4K, does the dynamic tone mapping while with STD the display does the dynamic tone mapping. When Dolby Vision first came out STD was the only option because HDMI 1.4 couldn't handle dynamic metadata so they had to let the display do it. There is actually an option to force LLDV or STD in the picture settings or you can leave it on auto.
Some people still prefer STD because the display knows its capabilities while when the source does it with LLDV it's up to the source to do this. I believe LLDV was first introduced in 2017/2018 with Dolby Labs working with Sony. Going forward LLDV is required but STD isn't. The big TV brands still allow both like LG and Sony. In the video he has an HDFury device which uses LLDV as an HDFury device will allow you to get Dolby Vision on a non Dolby Vision display or projector like a Samsung TV. There are only a handful of projectors that actually do Dolby Vision so HDFury devices are very popular with people who own projectors. Especially JVC projectors . You can find more info on HDFurys website on how this is accomplished but essentially it makes the source think your display supports Dolby Vision during the EDID handshake which basically tells the source what capabilities your display can do and will trick the source into thinking your display can do DV even when it can't and will send an LLDV signal. The HDfury also does some other magic to accomplish this also but that isn't really disclosed by HDFury to my knowledge.
Streaming boxes only do LLDV and profile 5 and 8 so if you have ever tried to play a UHD ISO file in say, Kodi you will only get HDR. The reason is DV UHD disks have 2 layers. The base layer is UHD with the HDR static values and the second layer is a 1080p layer with the actual DV info so it's a bit more complicated than the other profiles. This way it can always fall back to HDR if your display doesn't support DV for UHD disks that have Dolby Vision.
lLDV is software based while STD, at least when it first came out required additional hardware in the display. This may not be needed anymore but I believe it is..The downside is each display takes different amounts of time to do this which isn't an issue for video playback but is for games.
This is how the Xbox was able to get an update to support Dolby Vision. It only does LLDV but you still can't playback DV UHD disks because the UHD drives can't read the second layer so it will always fall back to HDR when playing a physical disk. This is a hardware limitation on the Xbox side because the drive can't read the second layer. As previously mentioned LLDV is lower latency which is needed for games because a 100ms delay is very noticable for gaming if STD was used and it took the display 100ms to do the dynamic tone mapping.
UHD disks are the best video and audio source currently available, at least to the general population. Dolby Atmos isn't technically an audio format. It's metadata for the Atmos effect embedded in either a DD+ (lossy) or Dolby TrueHD (lossless) format.
Streaming services use DD+ while UHD disks use TrueHD for Atmos or DTS:X which works the same way, metadata embedded in a DTS MA HD signal. The higher bit rates over streaming services shows on a good display or projector on UHD disks like compression artifacts among many other things. If you have a large UHD disks collection and can rip it to a hard drive there is zero picture quality loss on these players as it is playing back the bit for bit ISO file and store it on a NAS or internal hard drive on these players or an external hard drive hooked up to one of the USB 3.0 ports on these players.
Streaming services typically have bitrates between 20 to 30 Mbps (2 to 3 MB/s). UHD disks are typically 60 to 80 Mbps (6 to 8 MB/s). I can't overstate how much better the picture quality is. The LOTR trilogy looks and sounds amazing but due to their run time they are somewhere between 100GB to 120GB in size for the ISO file. Your typical movie is half that size. Another good example would be a Will Smith movie (can't remember the name off the top of my head) as it's one of the few movies shot at 60FPS while almost any other movie is 24FPS. It's the movie where he is a sniper and retires and the CIA clones him. Terrible movie but absolute eye candy.
These players run a dual Linux and Android OS. With that said, the Android side is highly limited as they all run some form of AOSP Android 9. It's pretty much the phone version so you won't get UHD, HDR, DV, or Atmos from streaming services like Netflix. They do come with SmartTubeNext which allows UHD and HDR playback for TH-cam. It's a fork of Google's official TH-cam app.
I personally own a Dune Real Vision 4K Solo as based on my research it has the best support for full menus on ISO files but I also bought it a year and a half ago so Zappiti may have caught up to Dune but Zidoo has not according to people who own both Zidoo and Dune players on Avsforums.
Simply put, don't buy these players for Android. They excel when using the internal player which runs on the Linux OS. Android can also be laggy because it essentially runs as a VM or in a Docker on top of the Linux OS. Similar to running a VM on top of an existing OS so they take a performance hit. In my experience only music apps are really good on the Android side like Spotify. Also, some APK files simply won't install.
If you aren't a hardcore audiophile then I would personally stick to a cheaper version without the XLR outputs. It adds a lot to the price. You can get a Zidoo or Dune player for sometimes under 200 dollars US, easily under 300 for the lowest end models. While the reviewer said the better power supply results in better picture quality (according to Zappiti) I'm not sure if that is accurate. With that said. I've never seen this player so I could easily be wrong. I would like to see a comparison video of this player vs a cheaper model without the analogue audio stuff because they all use the same chip and if your bitstreaming to a receiver I don't believe there will be any difference but that's just my gut feeling and I can't prove that.
They have the same Realtek SOC's and if you are sending audio to a receiver they will bitstream any codec so you aren't really losing anything. My understanding is the better power supply in the higher end models is to isolate noise from the digital and analogue parts which helps with 2 channel audio playback and they also come with high end ESS DAC's similar to a lot of sdesktip DACs already in existence. This would be good if you have some 2 channel SACD ISO files as these players all support pretty much any audio codec but I own an external desktop DAC so if I want stereo audio I use USB from the player to my DAC to get the best audio experience. I have a few SACD ISO files that were remastered in 5.1 so for those I send it over HDMI to get the best experience. To use the XLR outputs you still need an AMP with XLR inputs to even use them also.
These players also use the Dolby Vision VS10 engine which allows you to playback SDR content in HDR or DV while properly remaining the tone colors. Personally I think this makes the picture look over processed but I'm somewhat of a purist so that's just a personal preference. I send everything out in the resolution the file is in and framerate it is in as movies are almost always 24fps while TV is usually 60fps. Once again, a personal preference and my HDFury VRROOM does a better job upscaling IMO. That is until I got a Sony QD-OLED as Sony's image processing is probably the best out of any mainstream TV manufacturer. In fact their newest model (not the first gen model) has a pretty neat feature. If you playback a 480p DVD and have a UHD player do the upscaling to UHD, the Sony processor can determine this and will treat it as a 480p signal like it was never upscaled.
If you rip UHD disks to ISO files without any compression or little compression then these are probably the best players you can buy to get outside a higher end UHD disks player like Oppo which tend to be very expensive. They excel at local media playback over LAN or a hard drive hooked up or in one of the internal bays. The model I own has an internal HD bay but if you have a lot of UHD ISO files then most people have a NAS like the reviewer in this video because UHD ISO files are large and will fill up a drive quickly.
The movie scraper isn't as good as Plex but they allow you to manually fix this as the reviewer showed to correctly associate it with the correct movie. Personally I use the local file browser over the movie wall posters but that's also just a personal preference.
If you're interested in one of these players then don't just take my word for it. I recommend looking at their individual websites and Avsforums so you know what their limitations.and benefits are and to determine which is the right player for you. There are dedicated threads for all these players and if you have a question someone will give you an answer. Do not buy these players for Android video apps as Android is severely limited on these players. That's pretty much universally agreed on as Android feels like an afterthought and they don't really list the Android limitations on their sites so avsforums will give you that info.
Comparison video? YES, YES, YES, YES
Done!
Excited for an unpdated room tour! Your journey has come a long way.
Appreciate it - that is going to be one of my next videos - I have a LOT of footage to sort through... (Few sneaky peeks in this video though!)
Loving the C64 shirt
It's a bit big on me now I've dropped a few Kg's but I love it so I still wear it!
Great video and sneak peak of all those upgrades 😍
Hehe... yeah had to do a sneaky soft reveal.. full video coming very soon!
I have a zidoo z9x on review. It's still got the issues with subtitles showing on all content. It cannot handle Large libraries. 500 + movies. It plays ok but can judder intermittently. Comparing it to nvidia + plex or my oppo 203, it doesn't stream as smoothly. The Sound however is very good. I would like to see a comparison with the Zappidi.
That's interesting about the Ziddo not handling more than 500 titles. Currently I have a combination of NAS and direct attached storage to my Zappiti Neo. My collection statistics is showing I have 3163 movies and 240 TV series consisting of 816 seasons and 13,316 episodes. One thing mentioned in the video about media information and having to identify media info is my collection is only showing 577 4K yet I know I have 697 4K titles.
I have two zidoo and a nas whit 200tb and it has no problem whit more then 500 movies and the streaming is super never had a problem
If you are having playback and library issues, you may consider a factory reset. I have the Z9X and the Z10 with about 1,500 movie titles and over 23,000 TV episodes ranging from DVD to 4K UHD. Both stream as well as my Oppo. Stopped using Plex as the Zidoo’s upscale everything much better than Plex. As for a Zappiti comparison, the SOC is the same for Zidoo, Zappiti, and Dune; therefore, the main difference will be the UI. I find Zidoo the better value. If Zappiti were half the price and easier to obtain, I likely would have given one a shot. Zappiti looks more like my rack gear.
I have a Z9X and a Z1000 Pro and never had ANY issue with my 2000+ library on either device. Both devices perform the same, but I have a NAS setup so that could have something to do with it..
So basically a newer 4k version of the popcorn hour? Not sure if anyone remembers those.
Excellent product. I’ve had a reference for about a year now. Only downside is the cloud based media which needs to be a download for me
This is where the Synology NAS comes into play and you can install your own "cloud" server to store all of the metadata and thumbnails. It's much faster.
You can also create your own cloud with PC.
@@christophecherel do you know where there is a tutorial on how to do that?
Oh I also highly enjoyed your video and loved seeing your perspective and an alternative to what I use.
Got the Neo very happy for movies with it but if your into music the reference makes a lot of sense
Great video. Pros and cons. Went to check price. Everything but rack ears are sold out lol.
Yes I can see that now - in Australia you can still get them - I'll have to find some more links.
Great review! I had a couple of questions about the Zappiti:
1. Do you know if the internal storage is tied together? Do I need to install both disks from the get go or are they independent and fill as you go?
2. Quick research on some forums have talked about the French arm of Zappiti is in liquidation. Have you heard anything about a buyer or if support for this product has slowed down?
3. Related to question #2, can you run the box offline? Is it required to log-in to their servers even if I have a Zappiti server setup on my Synology NAS? My concern is if I purchase this and they go under, I want to use it and not be stuck with an expensive brick because they require an on-line log-in service. It seems odd to tie the box to a log-in when non of the media actually belongs to them.
How do you get content on to this device. There is no where to get 4k movies on down loads. Do you have to rip each of your 4k Blu-ray disks, if so how do you do that?
Can I ask….let’s say you have an android tv player that streams movies, can you download a movie from there onto this and watch it with the audio and video amplified to its original?
No it doesn't work that way. Whatever format the movie is will dictate the output. So the rips coming from a disk into an ISO or MKV will retain the identical format to the disk, just changing the media it's stored on.
Not sure if you ever did the side by side with the zidoo as i cannot find that video, but what is your thoughts on the zidoo vs zappiti ? looking to upgrade my zappiti 4k hdr to a new player but i think these new zappitis are highly pricced, the lowest model zappiti is £800 where as the zidoo can be had for £200 huge difference in price albiet different machines but im only looking at pq and audio with all 4k formats playable
I never ended up doing it because right when I made this video, there was a bit of a cloud over Zappiti's future, so until it's all cleared up, I decided to put that video on pause.
I enjoy watching the video clip it looks like a great product .
Thanks Gary
Great informative review!
Thanks mate..
I’m a novice, I need a video on the process of ripping my collection pretty please 🙏🏾🙏🏾
he has already done one.
If you type Twoguystech ripping guide, you will find an excellent video they made recently on this. I decided NOT to do a ripping guide as it is technically illegal here so I dont want to make a video on how to do it and get into trouble. I really really wanted to do it but I just cant now.
@@BuildMontage i appreciate your work and thank you 🙏🏾
Would you consider getting Dune HD to have all 3 players reviewed and opinion on?
Yes, certainly would consider that. I will see if they are interested...
@@BuildMontage I also wouldn't mind a video comparison between lower end models vs this one if possible. While in this video you say the better power supply results in better picture quality (per Zappiti). My understanding has always been the better power supplies were to isolate noise between the digital and analogue sides for audio when using the XLR outputs for stereo audio as they also have high end ESS DAC's in them.
That is if you don't have to send this back to Zappiti. I personally don't think there will be one but I haven't personally seen any of the higher end models either so this is pure speculation on my end and based on research.
I personally own the Dune Real Vision 4K Solo and love it because I rip my UHD disks to ISO files and these players support Dolby Vision profile 7 (FEL and MEL) while streaming boxes don't support profile 7 as UHD disks have 2 layers. A UHD layer with the HDR info and a second 1080p layer with Dolby Vision info so they can always fall back to HDR if your display doesn't support DV. Dolby Vision is way more complicated than most people are aware of with there being at least 5 different profiles and LLDV and STD. Obviously you are using LLDV because that's how the HDFury devices trick the source into thinking your TV or projector into thinking it supports Dolby Vision when it doesn't. With STD the display does the dynamic tone mapping so the display has to support Dolby Vision to use STD.
I would love to hear your take on this if you do test all 3 brands that use this Realtek SOC (Zappiti, Ziidoo and Dune) if you get to hold on to this model Zappiti.
@Build Montage When did you add the curtains to your theater? I don’t recall seeing those before.
My whole room has been rebuilt. I’ve kept it quiet but filmed everything. A new video on the setup is coming soon!
@@BuildMontage Oh wow. So this is the third version of your theater then if my count is right? Can’t wait to hear more.
Third and final 😂
Commented twice earlier. Not gonna bug ya. But Holy Crap a Commodore 64 shirt! How many people out there know what load "*",8,1 even means! I came here to lament one last time the loss of Zappiti. I'm gonna find the shirt. Have my 64 set up on an ancient TV in the room with my OG coin op cabinets and couple other old consoles. A 6400 and one if you know of itll blow me away. Odyssey 2?
Ha yep ol' school!
can you add external subtitles to a rip movie on the zappiti?
Yes
Which one I buy zeppitti reference or zidoo uhd 5000 please guide me
For now, I would go the UHD5000 as the Zappiti is out of business.
would love for you compare this and the Zidoo equivalent since I am looking into both but can't decide.
Will be doing a compare video soon
Can the Zapitti change Dolby Vision to HDR10+ format? (Like e.g. HDFury Vrroom can do)
You can force modes like LLDV and HDR but HDR10+ is something else because it relies on the meta data from the source.
What do you use to rip your blu-rays? What settings do you use? Awesome videos keep it up.
I use DVDFAB UHD COPY module and tick every box so I get every feature includinbg the menus.
So which one…zappiti reference or zidoo Neo alpha? Understanding musical features are not equal.
The Neo Alpha is my end game player when I can afford it.
You're basically paying $1600 for a three year old, entry level arm chip....why is this thing so expensive?
tvs like lg oled play all this files trough usb port, they are smoking crack asking for this price
I love my Zidoo UHD 3000 . I added 2 internal 4TB SSD ( 8TB of pure super fast and silent ) plus i have an external 16 TB Nas - I would love to see how it stacks up against this ...but based on your review.. i would say the Zidoo has a much better interface ..it is def smoother and slick..not to mention much less expensive too
I love my Zidoo players and will be doing a side by side video soon!
Sale me a copy of your movies catalog.. where did you get all the movies from
I buy the disks and rip them.
Great vid
What drive do you use to rip 4k discs please?
amzn.to/402hC0n
Can you link the drive and software you use for ripping content? I'm looking to get started and want to buy what works properly. Thank you.
Sure I use DVDFab to rip the disc usig the UHD Copy module.. And the disk can be bought here: amzn.to/40VSgCv
@@BuildMontage Thank you for responding.
Great vid! I ujse appleTV for streaming, and jriver+madVR for riped 4k content, madVR is so good for HDR tonemaping for projector, it makes my epson 9400 even more better... how is zappiti handeling HDR to SDR? Tried that? :)
No I haven't tried that - in what scenario do you want to take an HDR source and push to SDR ? I know that people with MadVR have it set up that way to push via an SDR signal bt Im unsure what you're asking me to try.
@@BuildMontage To the projector. HDR gets so dimm, SDR is to prefer in most projectors, at least in 3000 dollars projectors like my epson 9400, maybe more expesive ones does HDR tonemaping better, like toplines Sony and JVC. Thats why i wondered how Zappiti does that job, riped 4 HDR to sdr. :)
Great vid as always but must ask what about the Zidoo UHD 3000 which has the same spec and is half the price and the one I'm thinking of getting the Zidoo Z1000 for about 390 UK Pounds
I have made several videos on the Zidoo range :) I have two personally. This is my first video on Zappiti. Check out my Zidoo videos on my channel page :)
@@BuildMontage yeah I seen them that's why I want to buy a Z1000PRO but may still get the UHD 3000 still not sure
Now that Zappiti is gone, you should really do a follow up video of what an existing customer's options are that they may not know about. I'm assuming the player still works? What functionality is broken, if any? And if you do want to buy an existing player on the market, what to watch out for. I think way more of your viewers would appreciate that video than criticize you for not being able to tell the future. Just my 2 cents.
I have - it’s on my channel page :)
Long-time Zappiti owner. The only issue I found was the occasional rip that was bad, this ended up ruining the movie experience. Have moved on to K-scape!
I'd love a kscape but they aren't available here in Oz
Great review. I wonder how it would look on my Sony 65" Oled?
Sure it would look excellent with an oled
I have a reavon 200 4 k blu ray player made by the same company as the zappiti ,could the zappiti Copy direct from it . I am not up to date with new technology and just want my dvds on hard drive .
The reavon has a RS 232 control protocol output direct to connect to a computer, can someone give me advice please
That one I'm not sure on. I don't think it's designed that way as a ripper. You would need to buy the Zappiti ripper/NAS to do that without having to put too much work into it.
@@BuildMontage thank you
For 1/10th the cost, I'll keep my pis and zidoos.
For those who have the cash to burn and want absolute plug and play, zappiti will work.
i dont see the plus value vs having a plex server or a pc directly connected to ours tv with powerdvd and rip ours movies in it (cost a lot less money (almost none ) so u have more to buy 4k bluray )
Then likely you won't appreciate this setup. You could just watch Netflix too for cheaper.
Hi, what drive do you use to rip your UHD Discs?
amzn.to/3nZfHw0 this one :D
@@BuildMontage Thanks! 😉✌️
That 16tb limit for the price is a bummer. Especially when there are already 22tb hdd available.
I personally wouldn’t use it for anything other than storing the thumbnails. If the disk dies u lose everything. A NAS is a way better way to go.
Hi Tony, New subscriber. What's your room size and the projector screen size
Thanks for joining - my room is 3.6m x 4.6m x 3m (high) and my screen is 16:9 120" - new tour video coming very soon!
@@BuildMontage Thank you. Waiting for the new video. cheers
Do you have to buy the hard drives through zappiti for their player ?
No, you can use any good quality disk like WD or Seagate NAS disks are recommended though.
@@BuildMontage The reason I asked was I thought I heard you needed to get the HDD programmed by zappiti to work with there zappiti nas machine ?
@@joshdimovski4483 oh you meant for the NAS? you said Player in your question - I do believe the NAS does need their remote assistance - I have no experience with the NAS - they were going to send me one but we ran out of time and the Dealer was still using it.
@@BuildMontage sorry for the confusion , thanks for answering my question 🙂👍
You need to review the Dune HD Max Vision 4K. Then you should a review Zappiti,Zidoo ,and Dune.
Dune is on my list to get in for a review.
Great !!!
What UI (movie wall etc) do you prefer/ think is best? Zappiti or Zidoo?
I like the Zidoo poster wall, but I prefer the Movie screen with the animated posters from Zappiti.
I own the 4K HDR Pro and the unit is very twitchy. BEWARE! A connection with Zappiti is required for using it and the company is in under bankruptcy protection. It will soon likely become a very expensive paper weight.
I have no evidence of this. We just had a brand new distributor in Australia take on support for Zappiti - and I was shipped a brand new Zappiti to make the video - I have asked my contact at Zappiti about this as I have not heard a single thing about this. Hopefully it's not true.
does it support 3D?? 3D>4K all day long.
I would recommend Zidoo - Zappiti is out of business since I made this video sadly :(
So what your saying is by default this is worse performance than a Nvidia Shield, a Nas and Plex, and only the same performance if you put the collection server on your nas by docker. Which is too much for most technical people. Nobody is going to use the internal dac either. What a waste of money. I mean it is pretty but who wants to spend thousands for something that just looks nice
It's a very simplistic way of looking at it. There is more nuance to the setup using a dedicated player than the way you've described it, but I try not to get into arguments with people over it. I'm a highly technical person, yet regardless of my ability to create a NAS setup with KODI on Shield, I still vastly prefer a Zidoo or Zappiti for the overall experience I get from the device. For me user experience and movie experience is really important - otherwise I wouldn't have the setup I have. If it's not important to you, it likely would be a waste of money for you to invest in it.
I've got a Zappiti Reference. Nice player but the interface is ridiculously slow to operate.
I have not noticed any lag at all.
I still don't understand why people use this over a normal home server with Emby, Plex, Jellyfin. Digital is digital. There isn't some magic happening to the source.
Can Plex playback the full Blu-Ray/UltraHD Menus from a Full ISO?
@@spizzy7996 No, Kodi can if you really want menus.
It’s a choice like most things. People without technical knowledge would find this a far sight easier than setting up a PC with Kodi etc. not me- my channel was going to be about building PCs before I niched down into Home Theater but reverse could be said of your statement. Not everyone want to muck around with a keyboard and mouse with a HTPC… we are spoilt for choice.
Can those of those handle Dolby Vision FEL files?
Great review, but if you want one you will have to wait, they are all out of stock!
I know :( I have asked them why and if they can put a link somewhere!
Where to find MKV sources nowadays? in 2024.
When you rip the disc using MakeMKV.
I just bought a zappiti reference the other day and I swear the audio sounds better than the actual 4k UHD discs. I am blown away how good it sounds.
I believe it. I experienced this with both Zidoo and Zappiti.
You should proboboly post this product is done lol!!
I did a whole video on it
why not use plex?
You can - we are spoilt for choice. Personally I don't like PLEX any more, I use Infuze7 on my Apple TV - find it way better as you don't have to run a server like PLEX and I share the content from my NAS
So its a $2000 plex server, before hard drive costs? Sounds like an awful value proposition.
sorry for my is the panasonic the best
Android, it is to slow, lacks...
I personally chose blu ray 4k player instead of doing this
I have both. Having a player like this is easier for a quick or partial watch, TV show binging, and back up as 4K players can get finnicky with disc imperfections.
Nothing wrong with that :) Disks are the original source :)
Dude trim your beard really come on.
It is trimmed! I’m growing it longer!!!
First :)
Yes you were brother!
HOLY SHIT. WHERE HAS THIS BEEN?? I WANT THIS NOW AND 2 Backup systems I keep in the box in case one breaks. Does this work without an internet connection? I mean like after I have completed setup with meta data??? I want to Truely own my media. With the original 4K discs in fireproof boxes. F KALEIDESCAPE!!
Thus one does have a few limitations vs the Zidoo in terms of internet requirements.
The lack of ability to purchase this in the USA is a bad look for them. They've been removed from Amazon, and their USA store website links go nowhere. Sounds like a scam to me.
Hi there - I don't rightly know what's going on. I recieved my unit without any issues and I think it was right when the whole situation started. I was making a Zappiti vs Zidoo video which I've halted production of due to the uncertainty. What I do know is there may be a possible rebranding situation - I have been contacted already by that company to review a new product, so I will wait and see how that goes before commenting further.
3000$ for this? are they smoking crack? my old oled tv plays this files directly from the usb port on the back of the tv lol
This does slightly more than that...
I’m sure it will….but at the same quality, bitrate, framerate, etc? That’s like saying “why would I buy a Porsche when my Dodge Neon gets me places just as easily”. There’s literally no comparison between the two and I don’t even have to own one to know that. But as my man said, if that works for you, then use it!
I think a comparison video with the other players you’ve used would be awesome. Thanks!
Done!
Especially the Kaleidoscope. This appears similarly capable for a small fraction of the cost
@@BuildMontage Glad to hear it :)
@@MichaelM-to4sg I'm not sure about prices where you are but in the UK Kaleidoscape works out a lot more expensive, which is why practically nobody uses it apart from the affluent.
@@MichaelM-to4sg I'd love to own a K-scape but they don't sell down under any more :( wish they would.
Definitely keen for a comparison between Zappiti vs Zidoo. I’ve been after something to replace my Zidoo Z9X but not looking for any storage. Would that be the Neo?
Ironically, I still use my Z9X in my upstairs media room, and it performs every bit as good as my Z1000 Pro. The bonus for me is because of my NAS setup, I never needed to consider the internal storage that most people need to. For me the Z9X is working great.
@@BuildMontage Thanks, Zidoo just worries me, there has been no FW updates for a few months now, plus the interface on the Zappiti is much better.
@@dsellars I know their focus has been on the music side of late. I might reach out to my contact at Zidoo and see if there is any news... If it ain't broke don't fix it - my Zidoo's work perfectly well.
@@BuildMontage that would be great. Let us know about the future of current gen line-up as there are voices that it might be nearing its end of life.
@@BuildMontage Mine work fine also but the Zappiti looks a lot more polished.
Ok so this player doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you are rich and just want to waste money. Especially when you factor in the fact that you need a nas at $1-2k plus the zappitti at $1.5k yikes. So here’s a better option. I use this in my entire home even my theater. I have a 6 bay synology nas with 30+ tb. I rip all my 4k movies in very high quality movies files then I run Plex on the synology and use nvidia shields in my theater and on all my tvs. I make sure all my movies are in a format that can direct play. This is a much cheaper and just as good solution. I love my synology Plex and shield tv. Oh and a full Blu-ray quality h.265 mkv hdr with Dolby atmos plays flawlessly even over Wi-Fi. So I can’t see spending the money on the zapitti take the money you save and invest in a bigger nas with more storage as these movies will eat through drive space like crazy. Oh one last thing. Not having a nas with the zappitti wouldn’t make much sense becuse the drive bays built into the zapitti won’t hold very many movies compared to a large nas.
I've covered this in a few other videos on my channel. I have your setup, but I expanded my horizons a little and a dedicated device is a much nicer experience than using a Shield - i have a Shield Pro and I hated the user experience..
@@BuildMontage The only thing I hate about the shield is that you turn it off using the power button on the remote. Then the next time you push the power button nothing happens as it's frozen. It then requires you to unplug it to reboot it which is annoying. they really need to fix this bug
I had the reference and it’s interface is so slow.
I havent noticed any slowness.
If you can afford it, then its a pretty good option but I am kind of surprised a premium expense equivalent format of UHD blueray discs streaming service doesn't exist as to charge anywhere near the cost of regularly buying UHD blueray discs movies each month, it would have to be pretty high monthly fee depending how many movies on average you buy each month. Even if it cost $100 AUD per month, it would be worth it to get the best image and sound quality possible. Of course you would need pretty fast internet speeds but the bonus would be in time gained from not going out and purchasing and then uploading the movie to your system and such a service could automatically give you the option of watching a much broader selection of the latest movies possibly from around the world.
The other option for what you're describing is Kaleidescape - which is only available in certain regions and you still need to buy the player/NAS but it's the only "streaming" type of a service out there wityh disk level quality. I will say that this is the best possible option for most of us who want the flexibility of scrolling around the library but having the disk level performance.
Think I’ll stick with my physical media
Nothing wrong with that! As I said toward the end of the video - pick a solution that works for you and enjoy your home theater :)
The best beard on TH-cam is back. Great review buddy. Also enjoyed your review on the Ziddo as well. Look forward to the theater tour.
Thanks mate, appreciate the support! I have so many videos to make it ain't funny!
Great Video. Very informative. I have a Zidoo and It will help to see a comparison video.
Zidoo is great - I have both in my rack now - but using the Zappiti at the moment as it's been needed to make this video. I'll go back to the Zidoo next week and see how they work side by side.
Zappiti just filed for bankruptcy 😩
The French division only. Doesn’t affect anything as far as I’m aware with the brand or international sales
I love my Zappiti one player video wall
having all my content in one place is so convenient
but slightly confused as on AVForums UK members are saying that apparently Zappiti has gone into liquidation?
Just the French arm. It will not affect the cloud server or support. Sounds like a restructure to me based on what I’ve read
Read the same thing on US forums. Parent company looking for a buyer is what I saw.
@@markmes5890 I wouldn't really say "just their french arm". They are a French company. So the bigger question is if there will actually be any development in the future or you will be left with whatever you have now.
@@twoknife Exactly. And if it doesn’t find a buyer, considering how dependant the Zappiti are on the Cloud to operate you could find your player unusable should they shut it down as a worst scenario. And I say this as a Zappiti Neo owner. Just look at the recent outage when the cloud went down. As for future development the complaints with the lag in loading the poster artwork when scrolling through pages have been brought up years and not fixed so I wouldn’t hold my breath and just take it as it is.
@@spizzy7996 Oh definitely. Now is a really bad time to buy a Zappiti and definitely something that should be mentioned in a review IMO. I use a Zidoo myself, so I am not really impacted by it.
Physical Media is Where It’s At For I’ll Take My Oppo UDP-203 Over The Zappiti Any Day Hands Down
Nothing wrong with flipping disks... Oppo player is awesome :)
Great review! Still not sure what to buy though. Zappiti Reference or Zidoo UHD3000. A comparison video would be the bees knees.
I will commence working on a comparison video very soon. Hopefully this was helpful - I told you I was working on the video :) It took two weeks to make this one...
Everything is sold out! I have around 1700 films this would be perfect for me.
Yes I noticed that in the US store - I'll see if i can find some other places for you to buy one...
As a Zappiti Neo owner I would personally would hold off purchasing until a buyer is found for the company.
Would definitely love a comparison video. I have setup a plex server but not liking the constant maintenance required and would love a solution like this.
What maintenance? Besides downloading / ripping and adding to my library I have rarely had to do anything with my plex server other than my own "...hmmm I think it's time for an upgrade" lol During that time I have lots of maintenance but the only pain is the time it takes to copy 60TB+ of movies over to the new server.
Just can’t use it with madVR envy 😢
Reference quality audio
Please give your opinion, is the Zidoo UHD5000 inferior in image and sound quality to the Zappiti Reference? Or which Zidoo player is comparable to the Zappiti Reference?
The Zidoo in my opinion is a better experience than Zappiti - but Zappiti is done for anyway. You can't really use it any more in the same way as when it was being sold.
After shiling for the VAVA Chrome even after all the complaints and bad reviews from people who bought that garbage, I don't think I can trust you.
My VAVA videos were made on pre-production models so I present what is in front of me. I am not paid for any video reviews I do. The Chroma I had worked 100% perfectly well and never an issue - build quality was great. Once I do a review, I move on - I am not aware of any issues with the Chroma. Calling me a "shill" implys I am a dishonest person seeking to swindle people. Sorry you feel that way, but you don't know me, and you're wrong. God Bless.
Does it play movies and TV shows rip of 23fps to full speed at 60fps just like a blu-ray player do?
Yes it does allow variable frame rate options as shown in the video :)
I'm a bit confused. Is the Zappiti just a player or is it also a ripper?
Player - b ut Zappiti also have a ripper/NAS product
Pl
Post a comparison between zido VS Zapati
Until I get clarity about the state of the Zappiti business, I won't be posting that comparison video unfortunately, I feel it would be wrong to do so. This video was posted before I knew there were any issues. Still a great product and would recommend but just need some clarity.
But does it handle animated SSA/ASS subtitles? I watch a lot of translated animated movies with such, and my old Zappiti Pro 4K HDR could not render them at all, which was disappointing for such an expensive unit; ended up going back to my HTPC for playing my SSA/ASS subtitled media.
So this thing works like a pc but looks like an amplifier, and provides media that has been around for a long time, or am I missing something?
Where you get that movie catalog from
I buy the disks