Device for media playback

MOOGLEYS said:
It’s connected to the TV then eARC to the AVR/Soundbar….
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Thanks.

I was hoping you'd say the opposite and I could give Apple TV a try instead of my Nvidia Shield. That's only a £170 outlay to see if it solves my audio sync problem.

Swapping my AVR, for one that has eARC would be significantly more expensive.

To be honest, I'm 99% sure it's the Exoplayer that Plex uses. Jellyfin also uses it by default, but you can use external players with Jellyfin and I've found one that works with audio sync issues.
 
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kidloco said:
Add the Zidoo Z9X to your list.

zidoo,mediaplayer,z9x

ZIDOO 4K UHD Media player Z9X
www.zidoo.tv www.zidoo.tv

Ive tried most of the box's out there (Shield, Apple TV, Vero + etc) and this one has been the best by far.
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I'd second that. Had the Z9X for a few years and it's been rock solid, although it has been superseded by the Z9X Pro now.

Have a Shield as well, but it hardly gets used now. I got fed up with framerate matching issues on streaming services. Have an Apple TV 4k for those purposes now.

Unfortunately there's not one device which covers all bases properly, i.e streaming and 4k rips with uncompressed sound etc.
 
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ALD said:
And the Z9x Pro has been superseded by the Z9X 8K.
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Wondered how long it would take them to bring a new version out, not too sure many people went for the small pro upgrade. Have had my original Z9X for a while now with no issues but have been looking for a device that also supports Tidal and Spotify connect than I can use over hdmi, so I may just have to upgrade. :)
 
After doing some research on the Zidoo range and subsequently the Dune equivalents. I've purchased a Dune HD Premier 4k Pro, in the hope it it does a better job than the Nvidia Shield running Plex and or Jellyfin.

It came yesterday and after some faffing around I've got it running to a point.

I think I now have to manually update the firmware via a USB stick to getting lossless audio to pass through my AVR. Because out of the box it's not doing it.

Edit.

Sending it back. I can't get lossless audio to pass through to my AVR at all. Even lossy formats are out of sync if I use the internal player. Switching to the Kodi player in the options sorts audio sync.

Audio pass through via the Nvidia Shield is working so I know my TV and AVR are setup correctly.

The Plex app on the Dune doesn't play anything at all. If I force Dolby Vision in the settings, I get a playback error. If turn that setting off, I just get a black screen.
 
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Shield Pro user here. I use it solely with Plex and it's been great. My intention was to find a device that could play back pretty much everything I could throw at it at the best quality possible and it ticked all my boxes. It's connected to a Denon AVR amp and LG OLED using HDMI 2.1. I think the only area I've noticed the Shield Pro lacking is with some HDR profiles (HDR10+) but I imagine that's a bit of a niche for most so on the whole it's great.

My UHD copy Lord of the Rings looks and sounds incredible (ripped to an MKV and played via Plex using direct play over ethernet to the Shield Pro).

Gien the device is basically 5-years old now with no sign of a replacement and is still one of (if not still the) best playback device says a lot
 
kidloco said:
Just order the Zidoo Z9X Pro
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I did.

Came yesterday and is far better than the Dune, as it works out of the box once it's updated, which happened automatically. Whereas the Dune required all sorts of faffing around and it still didn't work.

So far the Zidoo has passed through all audio formats I've tried (DTS X, Atmos and DTS HD MA) without any issues. I did try and ISO file and the audio was slightly out of sync. But my mkv rips were fine.

I've got the Diamond Luxe version of Chicago I imported from the USA to try a some point. That has a 96khz Atmos track that nothing has been able to play outside of a Blu-ray player.
 
I think you've made the right decision. Not sure if you are already aware, but there is a good thread about it over at avforums.
 
ISOs it seems are a less common format these days. Have you got the whole menu structure on the ISO or just the movie? If it's just the movie trying converting it using iso to mkv, it takes 30 secs and then it should play without issue.

The latest firmware has just dropped as well, so make sure you are on that, it gives you the new HT5 app which looks a little nicer and is a bit more snappy.
 
kidloco said:
ISOs it seems are a less common format these days. Have you got the whole menu structure on the ISO or just the movie? If it's just the movie trying converting it using iso to mkv, it takes 30 secs and then it should play without issue.

The latest firmware has just dropped as well, so make sure you are on that, it gives you the new HT5 app which looks a little nicer and is a bit more snappy.
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It's not an ISO as such, I ripped it using MakeMKV, so it's basically two folders, BDMV and whatever the other ones called. I've got a few Blu-ray's ripped in the same format and so far it's played them as expected and just as if you're using the original disk in a real player. Still not tested 96khz yet.

On another note, there's still a very slight audio sync problem and the audio offset setting seems to be missing. When I search on how to change it the answers that I get are from at least a year ago.

Not a fan of the included remote and the less said about the power brick the better.

BTW, I'm not the op, I just checked suggested the Nvidia Shield but added the caveat of the issues I had with it. After someone suggested the Zidoo, I just came back and posted about that and the Dune.
 
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Just in case anyone stumbles across this thread, regarding the slight audio sync. I managed to use the offset on my AVR to correct it. Normally this doesn't work because it only goes in one direction. Maybe if in a future firmware upgrade they'll add in a global audio offset option.

And to add that I had no issues playing back 96khz Dolby True HD tracks.
 
hornetstinger said:
I'm using a generic amlogic chinese box, with kodi/coreleac, works well for the £45 or so quid. Plus microsd card.

The stock remote IR blaster is rubbish though.

No issues with 4K, HDR, Atmos, DTS X, Dolby HD, DTS HD. Although for highest bitrate 4K, I'd stick with local USB files, not over wifi.
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Did you find a better remote? I've got one of those android boxes and it's surprising how bad the remote is!
 
robertgilbert86 said:
Did you find a better remote? I've got one of those android boxes and it's surprising how bad the remote is!
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The microsoft IR remote controls it, I'm not sure whether that's on Android mode or in Coreleac. I think the latter.

I bought a URC MX-850, I have several and the IR blaster in those are really powerful
ibb.co

91y7fqtkas-L-AC-SL1500 hosted at ImgBB

Image 91y7fqtkas-L-AC-SL1500 hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co
 
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i have a 2019 nvidia shield... i got it 2nd hand from the classifieds here as i could not justify its price new. happy with it so far!. Shame they stopped supporting the nvidia streaming.

other equivalents work but i do not think as good as the nvidia software did.
 
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