@@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.
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.
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 CZcams!!!!
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!
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.
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 CZcams 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 :)
@@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 CZcams. It's a fork of Google's official CZcams 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.
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)
Another great video Tony. We are currently in the process of ripping many hundreds of discs so feel the pain. We will grab a zappiti in the future once all ripped.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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..
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...
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 freakn love my Zappiti Pro HDR (very similar to this model)….my only complaint is- If you have a “rack mounted” system within your theater room (like I do), the drives are SO LOUD!! I absolutely could not use in the “built in” drives. I needed to move all my hard drives out of the Zappiti into a completely separate room…
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.
It seams like is a good idea this Zappity is was on my radar or install a NAS but I’m using Plex with a 2 year old MacBook Pro and using my Apple TV 4K and I haven’t have any problems at all and sometimes I even use my oppo 203 to stream Plex the only thing I don’t like about the oppo is that it doesn’t show the movie picture only a list. I always enjoy your videos!
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.
This is beautiful and I have to say your theater room is even more impressive. Adding a sub to your channel to stay up to date with all of your videos. If I may ask, what type of recliners do you have in this video in your theater room (they look so gorgeous and comfy).
Thanks for watching! That video is coming soon - I need to finish off some other videos first! The recliners are Valencia Tuscany Ultimates and Oslo Ultimates - I do have links to those in the description of the video where you can check them out :)
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hello USA watcher here! It would be great if you had a contact in Zappiti and could tell us what’s going on with the company all the device are Sold out and there rumors of them shutting down
I do have a contact at Zappiti - there is a high demand for their players which means they sell out fast. The issues were with the French arm of the company, not the US or global company which is separate.
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.
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.
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
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 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.
Enjoyed the video ! On recent amplifiers with HDMI 2.1 connectivity, is there any point in separating the audio from the video? Or is it better to let the amplifier decode the image with the sound?
This is a great question :) I actually have the HDFury VRRoom which is 8K 2.1 HDMI and I split the audio from the video so only the audio goes into the Trinnov, and the HDFury takes care of the video output.
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
@@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.
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 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 )
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 :)
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. :)
@@dr3wzt162 I will get started on that video very soon. I have Zidoo and Zappiti now and can use both interchangebly as required. I need to do a full comparison breakdown of features - and that will be a lot of work to do... so can't guarantee a time it will be ready but it is on my shortlist!
Greatly enjoy your videos. Can you please do a comparison of best high end players that can do Plex? I’m tired of how many issues Plex has with the implementation on the latest Shield Pro.
These players, or any players using the Realtek RTD1619DR SOC are not good Android boxes. They don't actually run Android natively or run full Android TV. They run a native Linux OS and then run Android as a VM on top of the native Linux OS so I really, really wouldn't recommend these for streaming apps or local video playback Android apps like Plex. You would want to use the internal player which is what this is good at, not Plex. While Plex has a better movie/TV scraper I've found Android apps to be laggy and lacking features as these do not run the official Android TV and run the same form of Android as your phone. For example, Netflix is limited to 1080p, no HDR, no Atmos. While Amazon Prime is limited to 480p. This is set by the individual streaming providers so outside audio apps I would not recommend the Zappiti, Ziidoo, or Dune media players to run Android outside possibly the new Dune streaming box which is just a Homeatics box with a Dune app. The difference there is it runs official Android TV and runs the Dune app as a VM but has some limitations on the audio side like only vanilla DTS. It will decode DTS:X or DTS MA HD and send it out as LPCM but it won't bitstream it. I'm not sure if this is a licensing issue but I believe it also does Dolby Atmos in MAT (similar to the ATV4K) I haven't done much research on it because it actually has a weaker SOC than the Realtek RTD1619DR.based in my brief research on it as it's not for me personally. What these players excel at is local media playback and playback of full Blu-ray ISO's or BDMV directories with full menus. I own the Dune 4K solo which uses the same chip. I have not personally seen a Zapitti player but they all use the same chip and all have similar capabilities like the Dolby Vision VS10 engine which will allow you to playback anything in HDR or Dolby Vision and properly remap the color tones but I still send everything out as native as it still looks a bit "off" to me and the video menus in my Dune look 100 percent the same as on this player as Zappiti and Dune use the same firmware. These players also support more Dolby Vision profiles, the main one being profile 7 which is what UHD disks use while streaming services use profile 5 and 8. Dolby Vision is really, really confusing the more the dive into it but that's an entirely different tooic. That's why you can't get Dolby Vision from an Nvidia shield or ATV4K when playing back an ISO file of UHD disks regardless of the app used which is really the main selling point of these players IMO. I'm not sure I'm buying the entire better power supply equals better video as from my understanding the power supply is really for the audio side of things when using the XLR outputs for stereo sound which really benefits music more than a surround sound as the high end models also have ESS DACs in them. When your bitstreaming audio you are just sending the signal to a rededicated receiver or soundbar to decode. With that said I have not personally seen this player in action but I would guess video playback is very close, if not just as good as the cheapest model Zappiti, Ziidoo, or Dune player that uses the Realtek RTD1619DR SOC. You don't get internal hard drive bays or XLR outputs but you still get all the same HDR options as this player does and USB inputs for external drives or a 1GB network jack for streaming from a NAS. I personally chose the Dune as it has better support for full Blu-ray/UHD menu support. Simply put, these are not the Android boxes you are looking for. If you really want to learn more I highly recommend avsforums or other forums as they have dedicated threads for all these players and will let you know their limitations.
Hi. I also have a server and would like to link to it rather than use Zappiti cloud but am missing a key piece of information. I have set up my movie and TV folders on my NAS and installed Docker and setup according to the instructions on the Zappiti website, but can’t see how to “link” up to it so that it uses my NAS as the server rather than the Zappiti cloud. Can you help?
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.
Hi Tony, recent subscriber and great video. I am considering getting the Zappiti. I am currently using Apple TV 4k with Infuse for my Bluray ISO rips stored on a Synology NAS. Are you able to compare the 4k upscaling capabilities on the Apple TV vs. the Zappiti for 1080p rips?
You will get better performance from the Zappiti over the Apple TV moreso with the audio than the video due to bitstream limitations on the Apple TV. Video wise, it's close - I have Infuse7 and use it a lot for my blueray rips - and its perfectly fine for that. The Zap/Zidoo are better overall for the "cinematic" experience though in my preference.
Hi there I know very little about Network Media Players I am looking for a media player that I can playback on my tv my home videos that I have on a hard drive. Does any of these media players have a slow motion function on their remote control? As I would like to play some things in slow motion. Thank you for your time
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.
Since you have experienced UHD3000 as well, is the Zapitti OS more stable? I find my Zidoo Poster Wall crashes frequently (even after updating to the latest firmware)
I’ve never had a single crash on my Zidoo players which I have had and use daily for over a year now. So it could be your source creating the issue maybe a networking issue. Do you have your disks internally stored or on a NAS?
💬JOIN ME FOR A CHAT ON DISCORD - discord.com/invite/wvtvkaP
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 ).
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.
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.
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.
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.
The best beard on CZcams 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!
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 CZcams!!!!
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
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.
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!)
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 CZcams 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!
Comparison video? YES, YES, YES, YES
Done!
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 CZcams. It's a fork of Google's official CZcams 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.
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)
Another great video Tony.
We are currently in the process of ripping many hundreds of discs so feel the pain.
We will grab a zappiti in the future once all ripped.
Sounds great - ripping does take a while and some dedication!
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.
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.
So basically a newer 4k version of the popcorn hour? Not sure if anyone remembers those.
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. 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.
Got the Neo very happy for movies with it but if your into music the reference makes a lot of sense
Great video and sneak peak of all those upgrades 😍
Hehe... yeah had to do a sneaky soft reveal.. full video coming very soon!
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.
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.
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
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!
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..
I enjoy watching the video clip it looks like a great product .
Thanks Gary
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...
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.
I freakn love my Zappiti Pro HDR (very similar to this model)….my only complaint is- If you have a “rack mounted” system within your theater room (like I do), the drives are SO LOUD!! I absolutely could not use in the “built in” drives. I needed to move all my hard drives out of the Zappiti into a completely separate room…
This is why I use a NAS outside of the room.
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 :)
It seams like is a good idea this Zappity is was on my radar or install a NAS but I’m using Plex with a 2 year old MacBook Pro and using my Apple TV 4K and I haven’t have any problems at all and sometimes I even use my oppo 203 to stream Plex the only thing I don’t like about the oppo is that it doesn’t show the movie picture only a list.
I always enjoy your videos!
Appreciate you watching :)
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.
This is beautiful and I have to say your theater room is even more impressive. Adding a sub to your channel to stay up to date with all of your videos. If I may ask, what type of recliners do you have in this video in your theater room (they look so gorgeous and comfy).
Thanks for watching! That video is coming soon - I need to finish off some other videos first! The recliners are Valencia Tuscany Ultimates and Oslo Ultimates - I do have links to those in the description of the video where you can check them out :)
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?
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 🙏🏾
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Great informative review!
Thanks mate..
Hello USA watcher here! It would be great if you had a contact in Zappiti and could tell us what’s going on with the company all the device are Sold out and there rumors of them shutting down
I do have a contact at Zappiti - there is a high demand for their players which means they sell out fast. The issues were with the French arm of the company, not the US or global company which is separate.
@@BuildMontage thanks I messaged they support and asked on social media but no one is responding to support questions or social
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 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.
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.
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!
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.
Yes please for a comparison video, as detailed as possible on video performance please. And Zidoo UHD3000 would be the best match?
Done!
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.
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 :)
I had the reference and it’s interface is so slow.
I havent noticed any slowness.
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
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?
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?
Nice review. Do you have a summary of your system configuration somewhere? I am currently using one Synology NAS and looking for expansion options.
I will be presenting it all in a room tour very soon!
Enjoyed the video !
On recent amplifiers with HDMI 2.1 connectivity, is there any point in separating the audio from the video? Or is it better to let the amplifier decode the image with the sound?
This is a great question :) I actually have the HDFury VRRoom which is 8K 2.1 HDMI and I split the audio from the video so only the audio goes into the Trinnov, and the HDFury takes care of the video output.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
Just can’t use it with madVR envy 😢
Can you make a video about archiving your movie libary how did it identify the normal blueray vs the 4k blueray
I don't know if I will have time to make that specific video, but the Zappiti will detect them and allow you to make a module to filter them.
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
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 review. I wonder how it would look on my Sony 65" Oled?
Sure it would look excellent with an oled
Definitely need a comparison video!
Done!
I’m in the process of getting a NAS sorted so a comparison vid to help with a decision on a media player would be super helpful!
@@dr3wzt162 I will get started on that video very soon. I have Zidoo and Zappiti now and can use both interchangebly as required. I need to do a full comparison breakdown of features - and that will be a lot of work to do... so can't guarantee a time it will be ready but it is on my shortlist!
Greatly enjoy your videos. Can you please do a comparison of best high end players that can do Plex? I’m tired of how many issues Plex has with the implementation on the latest Shield Pro.
Appreciate u watching. I will
These players, or any players using the Realtek RTD1619DR SOC are not good Android boxes. They don't actually run Android natively or run full Android TV. They run a native Linux OS and then run Android as a VM on top of the native Linux OS so I really, really wouldn't recommend these for streaming apps or local video playback Android apps like Plex.
You would want to use the internal player which is what this is good at, not Plex. While Plex has a better movie/TV scraper I've found Android apps to be laggy and lacking features as these do not run the official Android TV and run the same form of Android as your phone. For example, Netflix is limited to 1080p, no HDR, no Atmos. While Amazon Prime is limited to 480p. This is set by the individual streaming providers so outside audio apps I would not recommend the Zappiti, Ziidoo, or Dune media players to run Android outside possibly the new Dune streaming box which is just a Homeatics box with a Dune app. The difference there is it runs official Android TV and runs the Dune app as a VM but has some limitations on the audio side like only vanilla DTS. It will decode DTS:X or DTS MA HD and send it out as LPCM but it won't bitstream it. I'm not sure if this is a licensing issue but I believe it also does Dolby Atmos in MAT (similar to the ATV4K) I haven't done much research on it because it actually has a weaker SOC than the Realtek RTD1619DR.based in my brief research on it as it's not for me personally.
What these players excel at is local media playback and playback of full Blu-ray ISO's or BDMV directories with full menus. I own the Dune 4K solo which uses the same chip. I have not personally seen a Zapitti player but they all use the same chip and all have similar capabilities like the Dolby Vision VS10 engine which will allow you to playback anything in HDR or Dolby Vision and properly remap the color tones but I still send everything out as native as it still looks a bit "off" to me and the video menus in my Dune look 100 percent the same as on this player as Zappiti and Dune use the same firmware. These players also support more Dolby Vision profiles, the main one being profile 7 which is what UHD disks use while streaming services use profile 5 and 8. Dolby Vision is really, really confusing the more the dive into it but that's an entirely different tooic. That's why you can't get Dolby Vision from an Nvidia shield or ATV4K when playing back an ISO file of UHD disks regardless of the app used which is really the main selling point of these players IMO. I'm not sure I'm buying the entire better power supply equals better video as from my understanding the power supply is really for the audio side of things when using the XLR outputs for stereo sound which really benefits music more than a surround sound as the high end models also have ESS DACs in them. When your bitstreaming audio you are just sending the signal to a rededicated receiver or soundbar to decode.
With that said I have not personally seen this player in action but I would guess video playback is very close, if not just as good as the cheapest model Zappiti, Ziidoo, or Dune player that uses the Realtek RTD1619DR SOC. You don't get internal hard drive bays or XLR outputs but you still get all the same HDR options as this player does and USB inputs for external drives or a 1GB network jack for streaming from a NAS. I personally chose the Dune as it has better support for full Blu-ray/UHD menu support.
Simply put, these are not the Android boxes you are looking for. If you really want to learn more I highly recommend avsforums or other forums as they have dedicated threads for all these players and will let you know their limitations.
Hi. I also have a server and would like to link to it rather than use Zappiti cloud but am missing a key piece of information. I have set up my movie and TV folders on my NAS and installed Docker and setup according to the instructions on the Zappiti website, but can’t see how to “link” up to it so that it uses my NAS as the server rather than the Zappiti cloud. Can you help?
You have to sign out and back in choosing the new Zappiti NAS. That's how I did it anyway.
Thank you
can you add external subtitles to a rip movie on the zappiti?
Yes
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
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 :)
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
@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 😂
Hi Tony, recent subscriber and great video. I am considering getting the Zappiti. I am currently using Apple TV 4k with Infuse for my Bluray ISO rips stored on a Synology NAS. Are you able to compare the 4k upscaling capabilities on the Apple TV vs. the Zappiti for 1080p rips?
You will get better performance from the Zappiti over the Apple TV moreso with the audio than the video due to bitstream limitations on the Apple TV. Video wise, it's close - I have Infuse7 and use it a lot for my blueray rips - and its perfectly fine for that. The Zap/Zidoo are better overall for the "cinematic" experience though in my preference.
Where you get that movie catalog from
I buy the disks
Sale me a copy of your movies catalog.. where did you get all the movies from
I buy the disks and rip them.
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.
Hi there
I know very little about Network Media Players
I am looking for a media player that I can playback on my tv my home videos that I have on a hard drive.
Does any of these media players have a slow motion function on their remote control?
As I would like to play some things in slow motion.
Thank you for your time
I will check on my Zidoo tonight and let you know. I dont know about the Zappiti but I will not be firing up the main room until the weekend.
Thank you very much. That is very kind of you!
Great vid
What drive do you use to rip 4k discs please?
amzn.to/402hC0n
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 :)
I've got a Zappiti Reference. Nice player but the interface is ridiculously slow to operate.
I have not noticed any lag at all.
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.
Which drive do you use for your 4k rips. And does the firmware need to be downgrade
amzn.to/3nZfHw0 and yes you can download the firmware downgrader (just google the exact model when you recieve it) takes 2 seconds to do.
It's better to build a MadVR machine for your home theater If you have $3000 to spend on this box.
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
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 !!!
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.
Which one can rip and store movies?
Zappiti NAS
Since you have experienced UHD3000 as well, is the Zapitti OS more stable? I find my Zidoo Poster Wall crashes frequently (even after updating to the latest firmware)
I’ve never had a single crash on my Zidoo players which I have had and use daily for over a year now. So it could be your source creating the issue maybe a networking issue. Do you have your disks internally stored or on a NAS?
@@BuildMontage NAS. I initially tried SMB but found that NFS works better in my setup
Thats how I roll as well with NFS. Not sure why your OS would crash though... I am working on a Zidoo vs Zappiti video for release soon.
@@BuildMontage ok. FYI, it’s just the Poster Wall app that crashes every so often. Once a film is selected, flawless playback
Very strange - I’ve never experienced that.
Reference quality audio
Zidoo ftw.
Im curious how this would handle organizing TV shows.
It does a fine job - I use it to watch TV shows.