Hi all, I currently have an old Himedia Android box from years ago that my more techy friend set up and did occasional updates for, and to be fair it still plays everything pretty well, from old files to images right through to 4k movies even HDR (although not dolby vision). I download stuff and send it to the hdd's and play it directly from the box. Now I've recently treated myself to a Sony A95L 65" TV, and wondered would I get an appreciable upgrade by going for the Z9X Pro? I don't just mean the DV playback, I mean general picture quality and ease of use. My use case is plain and simple plugging external drives in for local playback. Do these boxes come with the latest firmware on them or do I have to update them somehow? If I do, is that an easy process?! Just wondering whether I should stay with what I've got on the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' motto. I know some of these boxes aren't that stable as I tried several back in the day and they would crash, or only play some files, or have audio lags etc, before I found the Himedia box that, touch wood, still does everything bar DV. Thanks
this is what i do for 4k movies and use smb (lan) for 720 1080 2160p TV epis itll be a very noticable upgrade in image quality especially since you can use VS10 DV to add to all your older stuff Me personally ,i dont have any of the stutter issues some get but i dont use HT to play stuff and i dont use NAS type storage ( both the main areas of issues) The firmware is easy to update Just download from this forum when new versions come out (ie a new thread in main page area) Dont unzip the file ,place it on a usb stick and plug in to one the right side usbs or on a hdd if using smb go to About ,in quick settings scroll down to Update and point to usb and then to the file itll do the rest ,takes 3-5 mins say power down the box after update for 20 30 secs then restart Bobs ya uncle an example of the vs10 on older stuff 70s tv series Space 1999 ,in just normal playback the space around the moon is smoky grays ,with vs10 DV theyre inky blacks If you stick to MKVs you should have almost no issues with playback MP4s can have issues cos so many variables on them ie apple phone mp4s can playback very jerky as one user here,has found
Thanks very much for the reply and the information about the firmware, that all sounds good - is it the case that you don't use the inbuilt HT player for your material then? I do like the example you gave regarding older stuff - since getting my new TV (first OLED) I think I've spent as much time watching youtube oled demo's (with all the black backgrounds, bright colours and extreme closeups) as I have watching movies and playing games. Who knew true blacks could be so...black
correct about not using the HT i just use the inbuilt zidoo player HT is just too much bloatware for me ,same with using menus in movies and all the "features"in them If i want to watch something,thats all i want to watch Plus a lot of the forum for the differing model ranges is all about HT not scanning or sorting correctly ,or about bluray menus not all working cos theres not just one standard used in making them ,so some just never work Another example of the vs10 Theres 4k upgrades out there for the ST tv series They look great but say Voyager epis look awesome when VS10 DV is added
Yes I prefer to just browse to my file list and folders and play like that, most I usually ever do is download the subtitles from subscene if they're not included as I'm a bit hard of hearing especially with dialogue in modern mixes. Thanks for your help, I will do a little more research and then most likely give the Z9X Pro a try.
you could always grab a second hand z9x theyre 199 to 250 on ebay (usd) pretty much bullet proof cos several years of firmware dev in them ,i still use mine for bedroom stuff using same smb the thing about the pro series is its more a gap filler Covid and a fire that took out one of the owrlds main chip making plants meant a shortage of new media chips ,so realtek did some tinkering and come up with this range Eventually there will be new 8k chipsets with full DV FEL playback natively and more features like AI etc but those are prolly another yr or so till released ,with the couple yrs of beta firmware while sorting stability etc Z9X Pro is an improvement in graphics over the Z9x range ,but it does use android tv so lot less google apps will work on it
