I’m a current Z9X user. I purchased it because my main streaming device is an Apple TV 4K, which doesn’t support TrueHD/Atmos or DTS:X and its Dolby Vision support is middling at best. In addition to the Z9X I also have an Ugoos box with CoreELEC supporting Dolby Vision P7 FEL, which I love having support for, but the user experience of Kodi is frustratingly slow and buggy, so I recently went back to the Z9X as my primary player for BD rips. After loading Jellyfin for Android TV onto the Z9X, I am really enjoying it again, but it’s getting a little outdated. I went to the Zidoo site and looked through the boxes on offer, and I’m incredibly confused by the large collection of options with no clear way to understand why I would pick one over another. Given all of that, I would like to try and answer the following questions: (1) Is there a better option than my Z9X? If so, which Zidoo devices should I consider? (2) Do any of the Zidoo boxes support DV P7 FEL? If so, which ones? My priorities: snappy user experience, native support for Jellyfin or Plex or both, top-notch DV support, the ability to process SDR and HDR10 for Dolby Vision output like the Z9X with its VS10 engine. Any help would be much appreciated!
For a small form factor option, without room for internal HDD*, you'll want Z9X 8K. *The Z9X 8K ships with a SATA cable that lets you connect a SATA HDD/SSD externally. I don't even think that the full range of Zidoo players is on their website.
All my content is on my NAS, so I have no need for onboard or directly attached storage. The Z9X 8K appears to be one of the newer boxes, though I’m not clear if the feature set is the same or better with the Z9X 8K vs. my existing Z9X.
The Z9x 8K should be a nice upgrade... especially after the latest firmware update.. in speed, extensive HDR/SDR output options and picture quality. The new AMLogic chip does not support frame packed 3D, but you didn't mention that as a requirement for you anyway... It can not do P7 FEL, but that playback feature is overrated from much that I have read from those that can compare to the Zidoo's regular VS10 processing.
I have one of the few 4K projectors that still has support for frame packed 3D, but I’m pretty sure I could get by with FSBS if I can figure out how to convert my collection. Even then… I rarely use 3D in my theater anymore. I do like 3D content on my XR glasses but they don’t support MVC either. Just more incentive to convert the 30 or so MVC 3D rips I have to FSBS. Not surprised about the lack of P7 FEL support, but my Z9X doesn’t support it either, so no big deal. I have a CoreELEC Ugoos box that is one of the few ways to experience P7 FEL at home. But man, Kodi is such a bloated, slow experience. I can barely tolerate it. Ever since I sideloaded Jellyfin on my Z9X, I haven’t booted up the Ugoos as the Z9X delivers outstanding picture quality and Jellyfin works great for me. My understanding is that the PQ of my Z9X and the 8K will be essentially identical, so there isn’t an advantage to upgrading for that reason, unless I am missing something. That leaves the one thing: performance. The Z9X is many things, but snappy ain’t one of them. It’s tolerable, especially compared to my Ugoos, but the family Apple TV 4K is so much more responsive that it borders on ridiculous. If the 8K can match the Apple TV 4K, it may just be worth an upgrade… but at the price it’s pretty borderline…
Kodi must be really bad if you think Jellyfin is fast. After I started using the Z9X 8K, I tried setting up Jellyfin and found it a real resource hog and very sluggish to use. In comparison, the Z9X 8K with it's native software is nice and snappy. About the only thing where the Zidoo software is painfully slow at is manually rematching TV series, where an update can take as long as couple of minutes. Luckily, that is not something you'll need to do very often. The Z9X 8K is my first Zidoo box, so I don't know how much faster it is when compared to older models, but it's certainly acceptably fast with a 4K user interface. I believe the Z9X 8K has more RAM (6GB) than previous generations, which may be the real differentiator.
How has your experience been with the Ugoos device in terms of picture quality and support for external subtitles? Is it comparable to Zidoo in picture quality?
The Z9X 8K picture quality is a step up from the Z9X but it's not a paradigm shift. Improvements can be seen objectively using test patterns and subjectively with content. However, HDR handling is massively improved - you have full control of how all content is presented in terms of VS10/AML engine, SDR/HDR or DV which you don't get with the Z9X: As far as DV is concerned, the Z9X 8K converts Profile 7 to Profile 8 on the fly which none of the previous generations players do - this means that flags in the RPU header are set correctly for Profile 8 and polynomial remapping is correctly configured for BL+RPU instead of providing remapping info for BL+EL+RPU even though the enhancement layer is not present. This is important for FEL content, especially those titles that have fluctuating enhancement layers which are compensated for by the RPU - they now play correctly. Also, previous bugs in the Dolby SDK accounting for incorrect trim response are fixed, CMv4.0 is supported in both TV Led and Player Led DV (no other players do either of these things, even the Ugoos) and "true" TV Led mode is provided - in previous generations, Dolby trims were applied to the output in TV Led before HDMI transmission, the same as Player Led. There's other stuff too - but above are the technical highlights that immediately come to mind. Also has native Jellyfin, Emby and Plex apps, much nicer UI and much upgraded music app. It's a worthy upgrade in my opinion. Oh yeah - it has a 4K UI - no other player does that either.
Great response, Mark! Super helpful info. Nice. All of these flags/features were available in hardware on the first gen Z9X, as the same chipset is used in my Ugoos as in the O.G. Z9X, they just were not exposed in software. Happy to see Zidoo implementing it this time around, as it’s a game changer for fine-tuned control of the mess that is HDR “standards.” Another point for the “upgrade” column. That’s a creative way of handling P7, and it makes a ton of sense, Dolby Vision is, at its best, the undisputed king of HDR. I made my most recent projector decision with this in mind, so unlocking as much of that investment as I can is important to me. The native Jellyfin and Plex apps are potentially the game winning point for the “upgrade” column.
Kodi is dog slow unless you use the least featureful skins. It’s had incredible longevity, and the fact that it’s still being actively developed is impressive, but its age is really showing. On the Z9X, Jellyfin feels quicker to me. More importantly, I don’t have to maintain two separate libraries, with one Zidoo native and then Jellyfin and/or Plex. Both of the latter are significantly better at library management, matching, and collections, and have the benefit of being usable from the web, where you can much more quickly manage your library. All that said, if your experience is that Jellyfin feels sluggish compared to Zidoo-native, that’s a good signal that my experience would be much-improved with an upgrade. My wife won’t be delighted, but the internet may have convinced me yet again to buy more gear
