What kind of Media Player do you use?

[AVSCraig]

I am starting to evaluate this as I'm about to attempt getting going on ripping discs. Not quite as big a collection as many here but still nearly 500 total. I have a Synology NAS that I have recently upgraded with larger drives and plan to rip to that.

Big question for me - I've been using the Panny 820 for discs to help the HDR work better on my JVS RS-500. Do the Zappiti or other players do this? I looked up the spec sheet for the Neo and didn't see any mention of that as a feature.

No. Not that I know of. I have a Lumagen. You would need MadVR on a HTPC or a Lumagen or a new JVC with DTM built in. 

[bmoney]

I am starting to evaluate this as I'm about to attempt getting going on ripping discs. Not quite as big a collection as many here but still nearly 500 total. I have a Synology NAS that I have recently upgraded with larger drives and plan to rip to that.

Big question for me - I've been using the Panny 820 for discs to help the HDR work better on my JVS RS-500. Do the Zappiti or other players do this? I looked up the spec sheet for the Neo and didn't see any mention of that as a feature.

They do not. You would need an external VP. I was able to change over to a NAS w my rs600 soley because I already had a lumagen in the chain 

[JohnG]

This topic seems to be dormant, but for those of us with large collections of movies, tv shows, et al stored digitally on hard drives (NAS), there are darn good reasons to use a Media Player.  I've used Zappiti and enjoyed it, but after kicking the tires on several others (many sourced from the same factory), I settled on the Zidoo.  I'm running their Z9x Pro right now, but previously used their z9s.  The image produced by the Zappiti is sharper to my eyes than what I see from any other player (on a 136" cinemascope screen).  The poster wall works well, but it was more work to set up than the Zidoo.  One other thing I like: it does not require an active internet connection to access and play movies from a server.  When I last owned a Zappiti, the active internet connection was required.    What are you folks using in your systems?

[David Vaughn]

This topic seems to be dormant, but for those of us with large collections of movies, tv shows, et al stored digitally on hard drives (NAS), there are darn good reasons to use a Media Player.  I've used Zappiti and enjoyed it, but after kicking the tires on several others (many sourced from the same factory), I settled on the Zidoo.  I'm running their Z9x Pro right now, but previously used their z9s.  The image produced by the Zappiti is sharper to my eyes than what I see from any other player (on a 136" cinemascope screen).  The poster wall works well, but it was more work to set up than the Zidoo.  One other thing I like: it does not require an active internet connection to access and play movies from a server.  When I last owned a Zappiti, the active internet connection was required.    What are you folks using in your systems?

After test driving a K-scape for a year on a review agreement, I just couldn't justify the cost of buying it (even with a good discount). While the ecosystem is fantastic, it's definitely for the well-healed among us (of which I aspire to be, but am falling short of flying on private planes and living the country club life). So for the past two months I've been going the MKV route and have close to 500 movies ripped (I tend to do a few each day and more if I'm working from my home office because I can do it in the background). 

Currently, I'm using a Synology 518+ NAS with 35TB of storage, but I'm thinking of upgrading one of my 6TB drives to a 22TB one and I'll end up with about 45TB of storage space (500 movies is about 18TB and is a mix of UHDs and BDs). As my player I'm using a Shield Pro and Plex, which has worked out quite well. My only gripe is it loses audio synch when pausing the movie, which means a 5 second delay because of my Trinnov processor. I was at Ralph Potts house last week for a few days and he's using the Zidoo and I liked how it worked and am tempted to get one from Amazon to try out at some point. 

Has anyone here gone from Plex to Zidoo? If so, how did that transition go and does it treat the library the same way? I set my library up per the directions from Plex (individual folders for each movie and after the title of the film I put the year it was made. For example, Star Wars - A New Hope (1977)/Star Wars A New Hope (1977).mkv. I'm curious what other's are doing.

[JohnG]

With any of the media players with a NAS as media server, the key to happiness file naming. The players software is trying to identify and sort the various files on your NAS. Understanding how each player wants files to be named, such as Title.Year.mkv. or Castle 1997.S03EP17.mkv, helps the software to identify your content.  Sorry I haven't used Plex or other player, but I have used the Zapitti.  It's poster wall is excellent, and the software does a great job of identifying and sorting the titles.  I'm running 2 NAS Synology boxes over a LAN and accessing it all with a Zidoo Z9x media player.  The poster wall is very good, but like all of them, there a little learning curve.  As far as file-naming, since all the content is on my LAN, I can modify the files names easily on a pc.  Moving from one player to another is physically a simple matter, but getting the software to play nicely with your file system can take a bit of time. Once it's sorted out, it is an impressive set up.
...haven't posted in a while. A lot of system changes now listed in my sig line.

[AVSCraig]

I'm still using my Zappiti NEO with the R_volution firmware and my Zappiti NAS w 80TB of storage. The R_volution firmware works better than the older Zappiti firmware in my experience. No complaints. 

[JohnG]

Regarding moving from Plex (KODI-based) to the Zidoo media players, this tutorial may help:   http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?threads/posterwall-ht4-0.87599/   Pay attention to the section that discussed file naming protocols.  I hope this helps.

[NBPk402]

I moved on to the Zappiti Reference about a year before they went belly up. Currently I am still using the Reference with R_Video software. I am still debating on moving on to another player. I have been looking at the Zidoo and Dune models on the lower end.