Zidoo Z10 / Z9S

[Travis Ballstadt]

Having ripped my entire media collection to a server, I had tried PLEX, Emby and Infuse, on both the AppleTV and the NVIDIA Shield. All combinations have distinct advantages, and all have specific drawbacks.

I had eventually settled into the Shield with PLEX, and was experimenting with Kodi as well. Kodi has other specific advantages that I really liked, like being able to scale down the overlay to fit within a CIH screen setup and not cutoff information and important buttons, made more important, considering the Shield's dismal remote control.

And speaking of the remote, the Shield 2017 remote was terrible, and bluetooth only. The new 2019 Shield has a new remote design, but I don't know if it's really any better, and it's still bluetooth only. Because of this fact, my Harmony Elite Hub had a lot of issues remaining paired with the Shield, making it unreliable. I also had frequent lockups and freezes with the Shield.

So this week, I put a Zidoo Z10 in the rack to replace the Shield. In all honesty, I could've gotten by with the ($100 cheaper) Z9S, and I would've preferred the form factor as well, but it wasn't going to ship until June, and the Z10 shipped immediately, so I went with it.

The Zidoo boxes are, like the Shield, built on Android. They are, unlike the Shield, built of actual aluminum. They feel very well built. And they have an IR input for more remote flexibility, and no more worrying about trying to get it to pair via bluetooth.

The Zidoo boxes also come with a custom media navigation app called Movie Poster. It's a decent solution, it has nice info screens, but it will only allow for one big media library. I like to have separate libraries for Movies, TV Shows, and Concert Films. So I chose to install ZDMC, a custom installation of Kodi that is capable of calling out the Zidoo Media Player when you hit that play button.

And when you hit the Play button, that's where the real power is evident. Seeking through a UHD HDR MKV file is nearly instantaneous. This thing is fast. It's powered by the Realtek 1296 Quad-core 64 A53 processor, and 2G memory, 16GB eMMC.

It even has a SATA drive bay on the side for those who don't want to run a separate server. It will accept drives up to 12TB. Additionally, it has several USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, and a SATA port for yet ANOTHER external drive.

So, after a couple movies and some configuration, I believe I'm locked in on my media player. Zidoo for the server, and AppleTV 4K for the rest (I still adore the AppleTV interface, and how well the TV app integrates with the vast majority of content provider apps, bringing all your queues, sans Netflix, into a single list).

I'm still running PLEX on the server, as it's my OTA DVR, and it still runs all the other TVs in the house via AppleTV 4Ks.

I'll report more as things go along, but the remote is connected solidly, playback is flawless, and the box is just responsive as all get out. There's no waiting when you click a button.

A couple other things to note:

• Its output is measured at closer to the native 23.976 than any other player, and it shows no stuttering or repeat frame as some devices can
• DTS-HiRes 5.1 tracks that caused the Shield to stutter video, and the AppleTV to downsample (John Mayer Where the Light Is, Pink Floyd Delicate Sound of Thunder, etc.) play smoothly with no problems.
• While ISO playback is advertised, it struggles with playlist obfuscation when present - not an issue for me as my library is all MKV
• New models are rumored to be release in the not too distant future, but I wasn't going to wait
• The custom install of Kodi does not have all the features as the current Kodi version, but is very close

Overall, very happy with this one, finally.

 

[mechman]

I missed this somehow when you put this up here. Does it support Atmos? Looks like they're out of stock on the Z10 on amazon. What's the difference between the two?

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I missed this somehow when you put this up here. Does it support Atmos? Looks like they're out of stock on the Z10 on amazon. What's the difference between the two?

the Z10 has a lot more connectivity for drives, which makes no difference for me because I have a server. The Z9S wouldve worked fine but it was out of stock when I was ordering.
It supports Atmos and DTS:X, HDR and everything I’ve thrown at it.

it lost AV sync once while watching Gemini Man at 60fps UHD, but pausing and playing fixed it.

 

[mechman]

So does it have all the same apps that the Shield does or would I have to run a Roku or ATV for apps?

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

So does it have all the same apps that the Shield does or would I have to run a Roku or ATV for apps?

oddly enough you have to side load the Play Store, but then you can install whatever. I do believe, however, that it’s running a mobile version of Android, so you’ll get more of a tablet experience, but the remote interprets well.