Zidoo Neo Alpha Network Media Player Review & Comments

Another Highly Rated Product by ZIDOO albeit a little bit on the Expensive side .
 
Ive been watching these and other Chinese brands (Fiio ) for ages and they all seem to follow the same basic trend,
A stellar hardware spec , let down by truly awful software riddled with bugs.
These bugs never get sorted out.
The product gets abandoned and is rarely mentioned again on the company's , usually quite poor , website.

There are better streamers for a tenth of the price that are rock solid , stable , and supported long term.
No amount of ( "premium product") hype can save this particular company at this stage.
They have yet to make a device that isnt riddled with frustrating and annoying bugs.
 
This machine as with all the other highly priced, so called Zidoo "HiFi" models, use the same SOC. All we hear about these, in particular, is about their build and sound quality. As I've said over in the Zidoo Forum, we really need a comparison with one of the lower priced models: Z9X, Z10 Pro or Z1000 Pro coupled with an external DAC. I'm guessing that Sound quality will be improved over these expensive models and with exactly the same Picture Quality too.
 
Ive been watching these and other Chinese brands (Fiio ) for ages and they all seem to follow the same basic trend,
A stellar hardware spec , let down by truly awful software riddled with bugs.
These bugs never get sorted out.
The product gets abandoned and is rarely mentioned again on the company's , usually quite poor , website.

There are better streamers for a tenth of the price that are rock solid , stable , and supported long term.
No amount of ( "premium product") hype can save this particular company at this stage.
They have yet to make a device that isnt riddled with frustrating and annoying bugs.
.....and of course in the reviews software bugs are irrelevant, hardware is everything. This is so the wrong way around as your day to day interaction is with the software.
 
@andy1249 @larkone - to be fair the activity in the Zidoo Forum, advice and knowhow from members is exceptional and the Firmware count I'd say is very high - of course they fix things and software bugs, what they are, are monitored and mainly sorted, if the SOC permits. My Z1000 Pro purchased just after release has performed exceptionally and any navigational or connectivity issues I've experienced have been quickly resolved. Yes of course I'd buy Zidoo again - my above post is just about whether buying a UHD3000 or higher model is worth it in practice.
 
@andy1249 @larkone - to be fair the activity in the Zidoo Forum, advice and knowhow from members is exceptional and the Firmware count I'd say is very high - of course they fix things and software bugs, what they are, are monitored and mainly sorted, if the SOC permits. My Z1000 Pro purchased just after release has performed exceptionally and any navigational or connectivity issues I've experienced have been quickly resolved. Yes of course I'd buy Zidoo again - my above post is just about whether buying a UHD3000 or higher model is worth it in practice.

Totally agree - I have a Z1000 Pro too and find Zidoo’s support excellent.

To say it’s ‘riddled with bugs’ is just plain incorrect
 
Zidoo Products probably the most frequent release firmware i know.
on average one per month.
 
I own a Z1000 Pro and overall quite impressed with ongoing firmware updates and operation in general.

The cost of this unit for a chinese brand is ridiculous unless you have money to waste.

Also you have to remember when new players in the future are announced this will be forgotten.
All chinese brands work on the same pattern and who knows if company will be around in the future.

Does anyone remember popcorn hour? or Xtreamer?
 
I own a Z1000 Pro and overall quite impressed with ongoing firmware updates and operation in general.

The cost of this unit for a chinese brand is ridiculous unless you have money to waste.

Also you have to remember when new players in the future are announced this will be forgotten.
All chinese brands work on the same pattern and who knows if company will be around in the future.

Does anyone remember popcorn hour? or Xtreamer?
Have you tried it with an external DAC? I use UAPP installed on the Zidoo to stream TIDAL music - the quality with my DAC is quite superb. It is almost as good as playing my saved Hi-Def stuff too, which UAPP also facilitates - can't stand the Music Player v6. Hoping MP7 comes soon and that it will be available on our players and not just on the so called HiFi models.
 
Does the video stage support UHD and HDR and for the latter, what formats of HDR are covered?
 
Does the video stage support UHD and HDR and for the latter, what formats of HDR are covered?

Yes - supports HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision
 
Perfect, until I saw the price. Need a much cheaper option.
 
To say it’s ‘riddled with bugs’ is just plain incorrect

Its cheaper stablemate , the neo S currently has a bug list as long as your arm , some of em are basic , its getting positively slaughtered online ....

HDR doesnt work properly
DV doesnt work properly
no m3u support
networking issues , both upnp and DLNA
no gapless playback except in the onboard player software ,
the list goes on and on and on .....

Now if this was some cheap player , you'd probably brush it off and wait for fixes , but at 1000 quid , this is just not acceptable in any way shape or form , and dropping 2.5K on a similar player is just lunacy !

Frequency of firmware updates is nothing to brag about when there is a long list of broken features on the item from the outset.

There are better performing Raspberry pi kits out there , and most people into those are better qualified than Zidoo to fix things it would seem !
 
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@andy1249 Which is why I suggest you can use an external DAC with a cheaper model, which are proven imho
 
Its cheaper stablemate , the neo S currently has a bug list as long as your arm , some of em are basic , its getting positively slaughtered online ....

HDR doesnt work properly
DV doesnt work properly
no m3u support
networking issues , both upnp and DLNA
no gapless playback except in the onboard player software ,
the list goes on and on and on .....

Now if this was some cheap player , you'd probably brush it off and wait for fixes , but at 1000 quid , this is just not acceptable in any way shape or form , and dropping 2.5K on a similar player is just lunacy !

Frequency of firmware updates is nothing to brag about when there is a long list of broken features on the item from the outset.

There are better performing Raspberry pi kits out there , and most people into those are better qualified than Zidoo to fix things it would seem !

I can’t speak about the music side of it as I don’t use mine for that, but lack of M3U support, and gapless with third party apps, is frustrating. However - if you tell the mods what is wrong, or needs adding, as long as it’s within the capabilities of the system then they usually add it (see adding Trakt recently as an example)

However, on the video side, it’s the same chipset as all the other Zidoo’s in this round of models, and uses the same firmware - and HDR/DV work very well - what issues are you seeing being reported?
 
Zidoo Products probably the most frequent release firmware i know.
on average one per month.

+1. It's raining updates from Zidoo which is impressive.
 
+1. It's raining updates from Zidoo which is impressive.

And add another firmware update coming very soon poss this friday
fingers crossed.
 
Its cheaper stablemate , the neo S currently has a bug list as long as your arm , some of em are basic , its getting positively slaughtered online ....

HDR doesnt work properly
DV doesnt work properly
no m3u support
networking issues , both upnp and DLNA
no gapless playback except in the onboard player software ,
the list goes on and on and on .....

Now if this was some cheap player , you'd probably brush it off and wait for fixes , but at 1000 quid , this is just not acceptable in any way shape or form , and dropping 2.5K on a similar player is just lunacy !

Frequency of firmware updates is nothing to brag about when there is a long list of broken features on the item from the outset.

There are better performing Raspberry pi kits out there , and most people into those are better qualified than Zidoo to fix things it would seem !

Got the Zidoo Z9X and it is close to perfection but can't comment on other models. Understand it is not looking good to skimp on updates on higher end models.
 
Have you tried it with an external DAC? I use UAPP installed on the Zidoo to stream TIDAL music - the quality with my DAC is quite superb. It is almost as good as playing my saved Hi-Def stuff too, which UAPP also facilitates - can't stand the Music Player v6. Hoping MP7 comes soon and that it will be available on our players and not just on the so called HiFi models.

No i use a rasberry pi running picoreplayer which connects to my NAS running squeezebox then hooked up to a dac. Perfect system excellent software better then all the so called network streamers and cost next to nothing.

Never understood why people spend more then £300 or so on streaming.
 
No i use a rasberry pi running picoreplayer which connects to my NAS running squeezebox then hooked up to a dac. Perfect system excellent software better then all the so called network streamers and cost next to nothing.

Never understood why people spend more then £300 or so on streaming.

While your setup is great and works for you, the vast majority wouldn’t know how to do that and prefer a one box system
 
While your setup is great and works for you, the vast majority wouldn’t know how to do that and prefer a one box system

Maybe maybe not, detailed instructions on website i'm sure most people online are capable. The other option is audirvana on a laptop hooked up to a dac with USB. A tablet with the remote software on to control and bingo another streaming platform cheaper then most streamers.
 
I own a Z1000 Pro and overall quite impressed with ongoing firmware updates and operation in general.

The cost of this unit for a chinese brand is ridiculous unless you have money to waste.

Also you have to remember when new players in the future are announced this will be forgotten.
All chinese brands work on the same pattern and who knows if company will be around in the future.

Does anyone remember popcorn hour? or Xtreamer?

Note : The Zidoo Company has been going on 8 years plus maybe even longer …….

Firmware Support for Models 5 years plus and ive still got that product 5 years on With still firmware support but thinning out which i suspected any way.

But Even APPLE drop support on there Expensive products as well & there a Huge Company with $$$$ behind them compared to a smaller company like Zidoo.

So i cant argue there on that front .
 
Cost a ton of money to save the 10seconds of time it takes to pop a disc in the drive. That's not factoring in the amount of time it takes to turn the physical disc into a digital file.

Madness.

I like the idea in principle, dont get me wrong, but the time and expense to get it setup just dont add up.
 
I dont need the apps or audio playback, and I switched from Dune to Zidoo, 3 generations ago. For my purpose of playing back mkv's of various types, it has been flawless.
 

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