Hi Hi I am trying to decide between these 2 devices?They seem very similar.Which has less bugs/problems have watched about 20 hours of reviews on both.Has anyone else compared these players....what made you pick the Zidoo?Thanks for any help!!
Your support of these boxes is as important, if not more, than ZIDOO's continued firmware updates in my decision process.
since the last firmware update I haven't had any major problems that would make me buy something else or get angry...
As a guy anxiously awaiting his new Z9X 8K, this is what I love hearing...Less of me pestering Mark when it comes time for me to set it up..LOL
I've seen a couple of comparison videos on youtube for Dune vs Zidoo, or R_volution vs Zidoo. The videos always praise the more refined software experience with the Zidoo vs Dune/R_volution while not mentioning any loss in quality either. I have a Z9X 8K and I love it. Any actual headaches I've had are more related to CEC and/or EDID because I use a soundbar in my setup and they can be finicky about hdmi inputs. But otherwise I love my Zidoo a lot. It's not perfect, but it's pretty close. There will be an adjustment period, especially if you come from (like me) more than a decade of Plex or Kodi, but once you get used to it, it's totally fine. I can't recommend either the Kodi or Plex options for Zidoo. They are half baked and don't really work well, plus it's difficult to get them to use the Zidoo proprietary player. So you're better off just avoiding those and learning to appreciate the software that ships with the device.
I've also used Kodi since it came out on PC...very good by the way, but since Zidoo I really don't have anything else to look for...
I believe this information will be useful to you https://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?th...-version-for-z9x-8k.101367/page-6#post-265676
I've had one Dune player model, two Zapitti (now R_volution) player models and three Zidoo player models. The Dune HD Pro Vision 4K Solo player was very, VERY Russian-centric. It installed a number of apps that basically pirated movies and TV shows through Russian links and I was not able to uninstall them. The user interface was, in my opinion, pretty blah. It played video files OK but was pretty poor at handling audio files, especially multi-channel ones. I sent it back. The first Zapitti player (I forget the model) was nice, rather pricey and had a stunning user interface for playing videos but a very basic interface for audio files and a few problems with some audio files. When I started getting MKV and ISO files of 4K discs, there was an issue with my A/V receiver that required me to upgrade to a higher model (the Neo) to get a separate audio-only HDMI output. It worked great for a long time and had an increasingly sexy UI for video files (with some very nice animated wallpapers for a LOT of my film collection) but continued to have a blah File Manager-like UI for audio files. Then Zapitti went out of business and was replaced with R_volution. I was able to use the newer UI from R_volution on my Zapitti but it was now a roughly 60 USD per year subscription to do so and they had completely given up on handling audio files. Still, I kept it for video. My first Zidoo was a Z1000 Pro 4K. I thought the video UI was not nearly as cool as the Zapitti UI of the time and it had some issues with audio files so I sent it back. I later tried a Z9X Pro 4K and again, the video UI was a little basic and there were issues with multi-channel audio files and I sent it back. I finally ordered a Z9X 8K and set it up strictly as a music player, handling both audio files and music-centric video files (concert videos and DVD/HD BR/UHD BR versions of albums). Boy, this time they got the audio down just about perfect and I was delighted with it for how I was using it. Then, the annual subscription was about to run out on the R_volution software and I decided to give the video UI a whirl for handling my movie and TV show collection. Man, has it improved! It's sexiness level was nearly as high as the R_volution software and it was actually a better video player with chapter skipping and true fast forward and reverse, something the Zapitti/R_volution players lack. I liked it so much that I bought a second Z9X 8K for my man cave, pointed it at the same SAMBA server I have my music and video collections on and got the UIs to be identical on both players. I am in pig heaven. I pulled the Zapitti Neo out of the home theater and it is now collecting dust. Anybody want a gently used Zapitti Neo? Just don't concentrate on the fact that it cost nearly triple what the Z9X 8K cost and isn't as good a video player and doesn't touch audio files. Don't even think about that. Just buy it from me, OK? By the way, I also had an old Popcorn Media A-500 media player (which replaced a Popcorn Media A-410 I'd given a neighbor) that I've kept around to play 3D video files, both ISO images and MKV files. I feed it into a Royole Moon 3D personal video player (think "virtual reality viewer without the actual virtual reality") as none of my 4K TVs can play 3D video. I know that the Zapitti and Zidoo players can also play 3D videos but I thought I'd keep the system separate for, you know, reasons. Reasons I can't even remember anymore. Anyway, I fed the output of the Zidoo Z9X 8K into and HDMI switcher (one output to the A/V receiver and on to the TV and the other to the personal video player) and now I use it to handle my 3D videos as well. I've gone from three media players in my home theater (one for TV and movies, one for music and one for 3D) down to one, the Z9X 8K, that does it all. Oh, and I had a Western Digital media player at one time that up and died yonks ago. I can't even remember the model number. WD TV, maybe? It was cool at the time but probably peaked at non-3D 1080p files. Yeah, I've been into media players for a while. Now, it's certainly possible that the current Dune models have improved greatly since my HD Pro Vision 4K Solo experience. But if I ever have to replace either of my Zidoo Z9X 8Ks, I will look at Zidoo first. Your mileage may vary. Some conditions apply. Warranty not valid in some states. Good luck with your decision!
Old video players are fun to reminisce over. My first one was a Boxee Box. Not sure how many people will remember that one. It didn't last super long but it was a gateway drug to XBMC at the time for me. After it, I got a mini Beelink and ran Kodi on it for a long time. My next dedicated player was a 2015 Shield. Then a 2019 Shield Pro later, and now a Z9X 8K. Oh I also had a little WDTV at one point. Can't recall which model. Not a great device.
Thanks to all that replied so far!!A special thanks to Jerrylb very informative!!! I have pulled the trigger on a Z9X 8K....hope I did the correct purchase???
Hey videoguy99, you're more than welcome. Others on this forum have been really helpful to me and I'm glad to have been at least a little helpful to someone else!
no offense but this is the most useless thread i have read on the internet ever. it's probably more the op's fault for asking the question here. oddly there are so many effrctive resources or better ways to research about this question than this
