Zappiti Powers Off – Announces Shutdown of Operations. Here's What We Know...

(October 4, 2023) As the old saying goes, "All good things must come to an end." In the case of Zappiti, that end comes now.

The company's 14-year run abruptly ended yesterday as it announced its closure for financial reasons. Zappiti, which cut its teeth by developing an indexing and management system for Dune HD, has spent the last decade manufacturing video management systems that give – or should I say, gave – enthusiasts the ability to access their entire movie library collection directly from onboard or attached storage, or from network-attached storage (NAS) drives. Zappiti's graphic interface is rather slick, not straying too far from what you experience with a streaming media solution like Netflix, or the digital movie download system Kaleidescape.

In an email to dealers, Zappit's Raphael Tabutini said, "It’s with the greatest sadness that I have to announce that Zappiti will be over soon. As you already know, we [have been] fighting since January to keep our baby alive, but unfortunately, Justice has refused to hear us… We have done everything we could; we have worked without being paid to [keep] customers happy waiting to have the Go to continue, but now the Cloud will be disconnected before the end of the year."

As a result of its closure, Zappiti's video software will no longer work with media players and NAS devices, and new movie identification will no longer be available. Customers can, however, continue to enjoy an offline collection.

The email stressed that Zappiti has been liquidated, but the staff is planning to install a new app that will allow current customers to use their Zappiti products. "There will be a small fee for that App," explains Raphael. "But at least they will [have access to] a solution. [Customers] will have to create a new account and a new collection, [but] it’s impossible to retrieve [a] customer’s collection unfortunately. It will be based on a new cloud."

Zappiti says that future parts and warranty service will be handled by Let's Get Physical. Parts will be exchanged at no cost to a customer, but labor and shipping will be charged. Out of warranty players will be serviced by Let's Get Physical for "the usual fees."

We'll update this story as more information becomes available.



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[NBPK402]

Interesting ... the remote was simply awful trying to maneuvre arounf Google Play.
I shall have to try reorganising my HDD as atm, I',m not getting anything like I get [displaywise] on my laptops..

You can now get the evolution software...

Subscription | R_volution

Enjoy the benefits of R_video Media Center on other media player brands such as Zappiti or Dune HD.

www.rvolution.com

 

[MoabUtah]

Thanks NBPK402 ... interesting indeed.

Strange that the Zappiti French Zappiti guys go under then miraculously another French mob introduce us to R_volution products and software. It appens to work on Zappiti products but you have to technically rent to use the software.Nice way to extract more wonga from us ... I feel rather cheated tbh.

It's a solution but rather expensive imho although many might disagree.

 

[NBPK402]

Thanks NBPK402 ... interesting indeed.

Strange that the Zappiti French Zappiti guys go under then miraculously another French mob introduce us to R_volution products and software. It appens to work on Zappiti products but you have to technically rent to use the software.Nice way to extract more wonga from us ... I feel rather cheated tbh.

It's a solution but rather expensive imho although many might disagree.

Well when a Company goes out of business...there is no expectation of service. I am glad they did come up with an option that allows us to continue close to we had. had. In January,, they are saying a PC version will be released and also you will have the option for cloud or local.You can always just use the file manager in Zappiti as it is still the same as it was before. Maybe in the future someone will come up with other free options...

 

[MoabUtah]

I understand NBPK402 but I really thought Zappiti was a keeper, only been with them 2-years ... been through company woes before with Mede8er but at least there were simple workarounds as they didn't have cloud based services. Didn't trust cloud services before this, even less now!

Not sure what I'll do yet ... shall try and persevere with Kode but not having a lot of joy there. Have set it up exactly as I have on a laptop but on the Zappiti I get very poor results and no video wall.

 

[NBPK402]

I understand NBPK402 but I really thought Zappiti was a keeper, only been with them 2-years ... been through company woes before with Mede8er but at least there were simple workarounds as they didn't have cloud based services. Didn't trust cloud services before this, even less now!

Not sure what I'll do yet ... shall try and persevere with Kode but not having a lot of joy there. Have set it up exactly as I have on a laptop but on the Zappiti I get very poor results and no video wall.

I am curious as to what will happen with the new software. Is you were to do the monthly fee with local instead of cloud, and then cancel the monthly fee. Would you still be able to add movies via local? I have movies clz for my collection and I can sign up for a month and then cancel and fully use the software except for adding movies. So I wait until I have a bunch of movies and then sign up for another month and add all the new movies and then cancel again. They told me this is perfectly OK, as there is no need to pay a yearly fee when you only add movies a few times a year.

 

[MoabUtah]

I am curious as to what will happen with the new software. Is you were to do the monthly fee with local instead of cloud, and then cancel the monthly fee. Would you still be able to add movies via local? I have movies clz for my collection and I can sign up for a month and then cancel and fully use the software except for adding movies. So I wait until I have a bunch of movies and then sign up for another month and add all the new movies and then cancel again. They told me this is perfectly OK, as there is no need to pay a yearly fee when you only add movies a few times a year.

That's good.

I'm totally unsure what subscribing to the software will provide. If it's similar to Movies CLZ I could well subscribe under the terms you describe. It's rare that I actually add many movies to my collection.
The Zappiti atm is locking me out for long periods stating No Internet Found. The unit locks and doesn't want to let me in. Switching off and letting it reboot sometimes cures it. I was considering resetting to Factory Values but a little afraid that I'll brick it.

If the new R_Evolution software allowed the unit to boot and display just my collection as it is, without cloud services, I'd buy it. Have to wait and see what it actually offers.

 

[MoabUtah]

Reading the blurb promoting the R_volution they are promoting:

Standalone mode​

Thanks to this mode, you can enjoy the application even if R_video cloud is no longer available. So, even if one day R_volution stops its services for one reason or another, the application will continue to work as long as the TMDB database is accessible.
(Soon available).

This will be worth purchasing if it means that the Zappiti can still be used as intended.

 

[NBPK402]

I installed the new software and played with it for a bit.I like it so far. I never liked the red background and this one gave me a nice black background. The display has 2 and 3 row only so far. Some things are a little bit different looking, bit to edit it seems the same (from what I am doing).

 

[MoabUtah]

I installed the new software and played with it for a bit.I like it so far. I never liked the red background and this one gave me a nice black background. The display has 2 and 3 row only so far. Some things are a little bit different looking, bit to edit it seems the same (from what I am doing).

That sounds promising.
|I did wrire to the R-volution peeps for info on how it might work with my Duo 4K but the reply ws a little odd. I tried to buy 1-month but it wouldn't let me. Kept failing at setting 'my password' stage ... invalid characters. Tried the one year option and exactly the same.

So how does it work? Is it just an app like Kode that you fire up after the Zappiti comes on, or does it replace the front end 'boot' and come on?

 

[NBPK402]

You go into the settings, and you can select Rev to start on boot and it will bypass the normal menu page. If you exit Rev it will take you back to the original Zappiti menu...then you need to go to apps to select it again...or if you saved it to your favorites, just select it from favorites. Of course you can just reboot. I find no reason to exit the Rev software and just turn off the Zappiti when I am done, and when I want to use it again power up and Rev starts

 

[MoabUtah]

I'm still unable to purchase the software ... just fails on setting a password. Thought it was my browser but it fails on Firefox, Edge and Chrome.
Perhaps the App in Europe is not live yet

 

[NBPK402]

Sorry, I do not know the answer.

 

[MoabUtah]

Under the settings on my Zappiti, there are no boot options ... also reading into the software, there are two different versions. One for your player and a different version for mine. I suspect that the Reference player has better boot options.

I've written to the R-volution people again outlining my problem and hope that they'll be able to help.

 

[NBPK402]

I am working on my database, but ai believe there is a settings for the app and that might be where it asks if you want it to start when powering up.

 

[MoabUtah]

Thanks again NBPK402.

 

[MoabUtah]

Now that the Zappiti servers have been switched off ... no connectivity at all, I took out a 1-month trial of R_Video.
there is a setting allowing the Zappiti to boot into the R_Video app.
Had a few issues with the app not scraping the movies on my external drives but we're getting there.

The app is promoted as featuring 'a modern and fast user interface to explore your movies and TV shows'. I'd hardly call it fast and it's clearly slower that the Zappiti software. Perhaps its the Zappiti Duo slowing it down but as that's all I've got, I'll never know for sure. The ability to use a standalone mode has not happened yet and it promised soon ... that I will be interested in. Perhaps I'll continue with the monthly fee for a few months to see what develops.

Kodi looked a better option but I cannot get it to scrape any of my drives ... I've used Kodi extensively on my laptops and I may just convert one of the laptops to just run my entertainment ... I just need to test whether the my TrueHD signal on some films can be passed from the lappy to the AV Receiver.