I've sold my Zidoo Z3000 Pro

The months-long wait for updates and bug fixes is finally over.

After Mark suggested I look for a different media player, I took his advice seriously and did just that. My requirements for a media player are fairly straightforward: stable playback on the TV and a good poster app. I also use the TiViMate app and want it to work, but that’s usually not a problem on Android. Nothing more. I’m familiar with Zidoo and Dune; a Kodi-based player is out of the question for me. So, I ordered an R_volution PlayerMini to test, which was sold by a retailer as having been opened.

Why R_volution? I used to always hear or read that it was just an overpriced Dune. But I took a closer look and found that the company’s concept really suited what I’m looking for; they don’t bother with things I find unnecessary, like Tidal, Emby, weather forecasts and so on, but instead focus on the Poster app and playback – exactly what I need.

Having now finished getting to know the R_volution, I sent the PlayerMini back to the retailer and bought myself an R_volution PlayerOne 8K. The week I spent using the R_volution was quite relaxed; I was already quite familiar with most of the basic functions from the Dune Player. Old-fashioned and a bit confusing at times, but that’s what you’d expect from Dune, which has been providing updates for its media players for many years; naturally, they don’t want to put off their loyal customers with a more modern menu system

I really have no reason to stick with Zidoo any longer, so I’ve parted ways with the Zidoo Z3000Pro – for the second time, in fact, as I’d actually bought the player the first time round straight after its release (it was advertised as the best player ever and completely fault-free) and sent it back to the retailer as unusable after just a few days.

What has improved for me with R_volution:

R_volution doesn’t have the problem of a 2-second delay with AC3 and EAC3 audio tracks after a pause. That really annoyed me with the Zidoo Amlogic, and nobody was willing to do anything about it. I brought it up time and again over the course of a year – no response from Zidoo, even though it isn’t an SoC issue; Dune doesn’t have this problem. I’m really enjoying it now; I press play and the sound starts at the same time as playback, not two seconds later. That’s how it should be.

Random stuttering, stuttering after 10 seconds, or with certain codecs, isn’t an issue with Dune/R_Volution either. So I’m absolutely satisfied with the playback.

I have a 4xHDD USB enclosure and Zidoo never managed to switch off the hard drives after the set time (10 minutes); in fact, they only switched off when the player was turned off. R_volution does this very reliably after the set time.

The firmware can be uninstalled. Zidoo completely overestimated itself when it decided to take away the FW downgrade option.

The R_Video poster app has also won me over; the interface is completely different from Home Theatre, but once you get used to it, it’s perfectly fine. In terms of features, R_Video meets all my needs and expectations for a poster wall. I won’t claim that R_Video is better or worse than Home Theater overall; it always depends on the needs of individual users. Many people don’t need a poster wall at all, and as I said, it fully meets my expectations. It has a well-functioning, attractive web interface and full support for displaying audio tracks. I’ve got the hang of it now and have already scanned my collection.

What I found a bit of a let-down:

I could hear the fan on “Auto” mode from where I was sitting. I was surprised, because according to pictures online, the player is supposed to have a 120mm fan. What’s more, the fan sounds more like a small radial fan. I set it to 20% and that sorted the problem. The casing stays cool even after many hours of use.

I was familiar with the power-off/standby options from the Dune. Either powering off and on via a button or the remote, or ‘Video Output Off’ – which speaks for itself, as the player continues to run, including the fan.

I prefer the Zidoo approach – full standby, with the option to power on via WoL when needed to save data to the internal drive. But that’s not what would put me off the R_volution. I no longer have to wait 30–40 seconds for Zidoo to start; in just a few seconds (once the TV and AVR have booted up), I’m back where I left off on the R_volution.


At the moment, I have no issues with the R_volution PlayerOne 8K and don’t expect any firmware updates or solutions from the manufacturer. It’s a lovely feeling, one I last experienced with the Zidoo UHD3000, which I owned for over two years. I hope R_volution doesn’t go bust like its predecessor, Zapitti.

Translated with DeepL...

 

Thanks for the info and good luck with your new MP. I was owner of a Zappiti one 4k hdr but it's faraway from Zidoo level. Then I didn't expect that much from R_volution.

 

Good feedback. It's good to know there are more reliable alternatives.

 

Were those experiences with the miniplayer?

Those two points are enough of a reason for me to seriously consider moving on from Zidoo and research other brands.

Zidoo could fix both of the above problems quite easily. However, it seems that the company is just not willing to listen to users.

 

With both media players, with PlayerMini and PlayerOne 8K

I waited a long time because I thought Zidoo was my only option for a Home Theatre.

 

@Bill-Z9X I also returned the Z3000 pro back to the retailer after a few months as it was un-useable for me, they were kind enough to accept the return after so long. I reverted back to using my Z2000 Pro which thankfully remains stable.

I am in the market for a new player again as I have done a garage conversion and was looking to re-purchase the Z3000 pro for that room, but after trawling the forum it looks like long standing issues still remain especially the DTS lip sync issue! I can't believe this is still ongoing and other issues from almost a year ago still remain! Its clear to me the aml s928X is not the right one for a rock stable media player.

Anyway I've also decided to explore other players, so question for you, do the R_volution players have 4k poster walls? How snappy is the overall system compared to the Zidoos? I am guess there are'nt any lip sync issues or video playback issues to be aware of?

Thanks!

 

Yes, the R_volution also has a poster wall feature called R_Video. You can search for it on YouTube and have a look. I haven’t measured it, but the system is said to be just as fast as the Zidoo; the latest 8K models are based on the same SoC.

So far, I haven’t had any lip-sync issues, either on the Zidoo or the R_volution. I haven’t had any problems with playback on the R_volution so far.

 

@Bill-Z9X thank you so much for the erudite and well considered post - I know a lot of people think that if they cut me in half I'd have Zidoo stamped down the middle, but that's only because for my purposes, Zidoo fits the bill perfectly. If R_ZapVol did it, I'd be speaking French!

But there are so many considerations that are different for everyone - I have multiple Zidoo devices over many generations here and the same goes for Dune. I also have old Zappiti boxes but I never quite managed to justify the cost of an R_Zappitilution box given they are from the same OEM as Dune use and the same software contractor writes the firmware - I figure, I have the Dune so I have the R_zappitilution too, albeit with a slightly modified application layer.

But it's interesting to hear your views and maybe I should try an R_Zap player just to see how R_Video runs on AML these days - it used to run like an absolute dog on the old Realtek hardware.

On this business about AC-3 and E-AC3 shaving a couple of seconds off audio when starting from pause - I never quite got that - the Dune's solution is to trim a couple of video frames so although audio starts instantly, video stutters slightly - from my point of view I've never seen Zidoo's solution as an issue and I'd certainly take a moment's silence while everything syncs than have a missed frame - but I guess that's just me.

But yes - very interesting observations.

 

As I pointed out many times, neither of those compromises are necessary. I've come across this problem on the Broadcom platform when I was writing firmware for set top boxes, PVRs and media players. The solution is to always output a valid AC-3 or EAC-3 signal when you pause. It's as simple as sending silent audio frames with the same codec that's already in use, so that the receiver never loses the bitstream signal. It is no different to what you do with the video. When you pause you don't turn off the video signal, you keep on sending the same video frame over and over. The same needs to happen with audio, send a silence frame over and over when paused.

It's not hard, but it does require that the company listens to users & cares enough. I'm wondering whether you passed this suggestion on to the Zidoo engineering team and pointed out that a significant number of users have an issue with this. I know you are happy to live with this, but it's super annoying for many, many others.

 

I’m going to make a short video this evening showing how R_volution pauses and then plays; I don’t see anything particularly annoying about it – certainly not as annoying as when the playback runs for two seconds without sound.
The only thing missing is someone playing the piano during that time, like they used to do in silent films

 

I used to be a Zappiti user, and even if Zidoo is far from perfect, I don't think I'll ever go back to that brand. I hope at least now you can access your database offline, because back then, everything was on their servers, and you see it coming, sometimes the servers were down. Too often, actually.

However, they had one nice function : you could browse the poster view through digits, like you can already do with Zidoo during playback (0 for the beginning, 5 for 50% of the list etc.). I've been asking this to browse my thousand+ library regularly since 5 years, but it seems Zidoo doesn't care or doesn't know how to do. So I just go down, line after line, 10, 20, 40 times.

 

You're fully right about the common issue of Zappiti servers... out of service quite often.

 

I wouldn't have bought a Zapitti either; I had one for a few days years ago and returned it.

I’ve read that R_Video saves everything on the player, but I haven’t tried running R_Video without an internet connection yet. Good idea – I’ll give it a go this evening.

 

@Markswift2003 Here’s a video with a DD audio track, using the pause->play function on the R_volution; I can’t see any frame drops – everything’s working perfectly.



Over a year ago, I sent videos like this to Zidoo Support, showing the sound cutting out after pressing Pause -> “Play” on the Zidoo

To be honest, I don’t really care anymore whether Zidoo sorts this out or not. Zidoo has lost my trust, just like Dune did back then. I’m sticking with the R_Volution.

 

That should work for scanned films. A Zidoo or Dune won’t find new films or posters even offline. So, all’s well.

Offline Mode : R_volution

 

I might be wrong, but back then you could only trigger offline mode from online mode, so it works when you decide purposefully to disconnect and engage the offline mode. If the DB or your connexion isn't reachable for whatever reason, for example it's 8PM, you turn on your player, and find out your ISP is facing issues, or Zappiti servers are dead, you're screwed, because Zappiti / R_volution isn't building and saving an offline DB locally. At least, that's what I faced a handful of times before switching to Zidoo and it was one of the reasons I decided to move on to another more reliable system. But that was 5 years ago. Give it a try (for example turn off the box, turn off your wifi / disconnect your ethernet cable and then turn on your box) and see if you can switch to offline mode and browse your movie list.

 

It was years ago and I don’t see any problems now, so why should I worry about it now? If that happens, I’ll just play the film from the file browser.
But, as I’ve already pointed out, unlike with a Zidoo player, I’m not having any problems at the moment, and I don’t have to wait months or even years for a solution.

 

On Dune, this was also implemented in the latest alpha firmware in "my collection".

 

I’d like to give some feedback after a month. It took a bit of getting used to switching from Home Theatre to R_Video, but I quickly got to grips with the new and different features,
and I’ve been very happy with R_Volution so far – I haven’t had any problems at all.

And I see you’re still waiting for new firmware? - That's not normal...

 

Nothing on Zidoo is normal.

A complete and total failure, starting with the support we’re getting from the development team.