Zidoo UHD8000

[David Vaughn]

Here's a link to my review which went live earlier today: UHD8000

[SRW1000]

Excellent review, extremely thorough and detailed.

Sounds like a great piece of equipment that should last for a long, long time. Glad you had a chance to review it, especially since you were able to compare it to your Kaleidescape experience.

[David Vaughn]

Excellent review, extremely thorough and detailed.

Sounds like a great piece of equipment that should last for a long, long time. Glad you had a chance to review it, especially since you were able to compare it to your Kaleidescape experience.

Compared to K-scape, the value is through the roof!

[bmoney]

Can you make it a hyper link to make it easily clickable?

[DLCPhoto]

Thanks for an excellent review David.

I have been attracted to, but reluctant to jump into, the KScape ecosystem for very similar reasons, with a largish disc collection (only half of yours!), and concerns about the high cost. I was actively considering going with the new Strato V, but my enthusiasm dampened after learning the UI is only 1080p (vs 4k on the Strato C).

I have not yet gone the route of ripping my discs, mainly because of the time required. But this device, and your review, do have me reconsidering.

On subtitles, you indicate you can change positions, which I would find extremely helpful. I assume this works with streaming content, as well as your ripped discs? I also assume this is a manual adjustment, as opposed to a KScape feature I would love to have, where you just tell it to keep subtitles within the content area, so no manual adjustments are needed.

My Panasonic disc players allow subtitle repositioning, but this is manual, and if I move them up into the content, the occasional subtitles at the top of the screen are also moved up and out of the content, making things actually worse at times. Does the Zidoo handle top subtitles differently (I imagine not)?

Roku and Apple TV lack any ability to change subtitle position, despite offering options to change font, color, background, etc., etc., an omission which I cannot comprehend.

Lastly, does it lack anything in the streaming arena, relative to a Roku Ultra, or Apple TV 4k (which I now use for streaming)?

Thanks!

[AVSCraig]

Sounds a lot like my Zappiti NEO. Currently I'm at around 885 movies ripped into my NAS.

[David Vaughn]

Thanks for an excellent review David.

I have been attracted to, but reluctant to jump into, the KScape ecosystem for very similar reasons, with a largish disc collection (only half of yours!), and concerns about the high cost. I was actively considering going with the new Strato V, but my enthusiasm dampened after learning the UI is only 1080p (vs 4k on the Strato C).

I have not yet gone the route of ripping my discs, mainly because of the time required. But this device, and your review, do have me reconsidering.

On subtitles, you indicate you can change positions, which I would find extremely helpful. I assume this works with streaming content, as well as your ripped discs? I also assume this is a manual adjustment, as opposed to a KScape feature I would love to have, where you just tell it to keep subtitles within the content area, so no manual adjustments are needed.

My Panasonic disc players allow subtitle repositioning, but this is manual, and if I move them up into the content, the occasional subtitles at the top of the screen are also moved up and out of the content, making things actually worse at times. Does the Zidoo handle top subtitles differently (I imagine not)?

Roku and Apple TV lack any ability to change subtitle position, despite offering options to change font, color, background, etc., etc., an omission which I cannot comprehend.

Lastly, does it lack anything in the streaming arena, relative to a Roku Ultra, or Apple TV 4k (which I now use for streaming)?

Thanks!

First, this isn't a streaming box like an Apple TV, so it doesn't have Netflix/Vudu etc. It's for local media only on the video side. On the audio side, it does support streaming services.

In regard to the subtitles, I'll have to see if it moves the "top" subtitles as well...do you have a title that I can check?

As for ripping the discs, it's like eating an elephant--you don't do it in one sitting. I just started to go through my collection alphabetically (and purged some titles along the way that I'd never watch again) and just burned them while I was doing other stuff. The nice thing about MakeMKV is you can walk away from it once the rip starts to happen. I was also fortunate enough to have two disc drives, so it was almost twice as fast. I say almost because my old Pioneer BD drive can't rip UHD discs and it's much slower on Blu-rays compared to the ASUS drive I had bought for K-scapes Disc-to-Digital review I did. The ASUS is about 40% faster on Blu-ray discs and can do UHDs....funny though, it's much slower on DVDs versus the Pioneer

I ended up ripping TV shows as well once all my movies were done. They take up a ton of space though with multiple seasons. DVDs rip fast and don't take a lot of space and while they don't look great on a front projector screen, they are watchable--especially for old shows like MASH, Seinfeld, and 3rd Rock from the Sun (which we are rewatching now). 

[DLCPhoto]

First, this isn't a streaming box like an Apple TV, so it doesn't have Netflix/Vudu etc. It's for local media only on the video side. On the audio side, it does support streaming services.

In regard to the subtitles, I'll have to see if it moves the "top" subtitles as well...do you have a title that I can check?

Gotcha - I was hoping for a possible 'one-stop shopping' approach!

On the top subtitles, I don't know off the top of my head. I do have a note that Gray Man on Netflix has them during the closing credits and music, but I don't have any specifics for content on Disc. I'll look out for that and let you know.

[bmoney]

Sounds a lot like my Zappiti NEO. Currently I'm at around 885 movies ripped into my NAS.

and at one time he was a naysayer.  proud of you haha

[bmoney]

great review.  it sounds awesome!  where was this before i went the route of DIY NAS lol

great option for those not wanting to bother with building their own

[David Vaughn]

great review.  it sounds awesome!  where was this before i went the route of DIY NAS lol

great option for those not wanting to bother with building their own

I'm using it with my NAS since it's purely a playback machine (that also has internal storage for those who don't want to go the NAS route). I like it better than Plex because of the Poster Wall and music player. Unfortunately with Plex, I've had issues with seamless branching discs and the only way around it was to use KODI (at least via the Shield Pro). Zidoo makes lower cost players that don't have onboard storage but with the same chipset. 

[Paul Heroy]

I'm using it with my NAS since it's purely a playback machine (that also has internal storage for those who don't want to go the NAS route). I like it better than Plex because of the Poster Wall and music player. Unfortunately with Plex, I've had issues with seamless branching discs and the only way around it was to use KODI (at least via the Shield Pro). Zidoo makes lower cost players that don't have onboard storage but with the same chipset.

Oh nice, now my attention is really perking up. I'm seeing it looks like the Z3000 Pro at less than half the price looks like it's one of those, though without the ESS DACs. (Not an issue if you're using HDMI out to a processor with a good DAC.)

[David Vaughn]

Oh nice, now my attention is really perking up. I'm seeing it looks like the Z3000 Pro at less than half the price looks like it's one of those, though without the ESS DACs. (Not an issue if you're using HDMI out to a processor with a good DAC.)

If you're using HDMI, then you definitely don't need to pay for the DACs. I like the onboard hard drives because I've pretty much run out of space on my server and don't want to buy another one. I've put TV shows and "B" movies onto the Zidoo and I have one more upgrade path for my server. Currently, I have three 22 TB drives and one 16 TB drive. In the Zidoo I have a 6 TB and 16 TB. Sometime in the next few months I'll add another 22 TB to the Synology and then take the 16 TB and replace the 6 TB one. This will give me about 16 TB extra space (about 6 on the server and 10 in the Synology)...that should be good for the next 5-10 years. If I ever need more, then it will be external drive time. 

[Paul Heroy]

Synology also makes 4 bay expansion drive units. Or you could just grab a newer 8 bay drive.

[bmoney]

I'm using it with my NAS since it's purely a playback machine (that also has internal storage for those who don't want to go the NAS route). I like it better than Plex because of the Poster Wall and music player. Unfortunately with Plex, I've had issues with seamless branching discs and the only way around it was to use KODI (at least via the Shield Pro). Zidoo makes lower cost players that don't have onboard storage but with the same chipset.

I use Emby. And have zero issues or complaint with it