Zidoo
Reddit take
AI summary of the Reddit excerpts below — not a quote
Zidoo is highly regarded in home theater communities as a premium, user-friendly alternative to the Nvidia Shield for playing high-quality local media rips. While praised for its "out-of-the-box" functionality and support for various file containers (including ISO and 3D), it faces criticism from enthusiasts for its inability to natively render the Full Enhancement Layer (FEL) of Dolby Vision Profile 7.
Pros
- Excellent out-of-the-box experience for local media playback
- Supports a wide range of formats including ISO and 3D Blu-ray
- User-friendly interface and dedicated Home Theater app compared to Kodi
- Dolby VS10 engine provides high-quality HDR to SDR conversion for projectors
- Polished hardware and OS compared to more technical DIY alternatives like Ugoos
Cons
- Incapable of rendering the Full Enhancement Layer (FEL) for Dolby Vision Profile 7
- Limited to Minimum Enhancement Layer (MEL) support for certain Dolby Vision files
Caveats
- While the lack of FEL support is a technical drawback, some users report the difference in picture quality is negligible in practical viewing
- Often discussed as a dedicated playback device for local files rather than a primary streaming app platform
Best for
- Home theater enthusiasts with large libraries of locally stored 4K and 1080p remuxes
- Users seeking a polished, 'it just works' media player experience
- Projector owners needing quality HDR-to-SDR conversion
Avoid if
- You are a purist who requires full native FEL Profile 7 Dolby Vision support
- You prefer a more technical, customizable DIY setup like Ugoos or memory-flashed devices
This summary uses balanced time weighting with about a 18-month half-life. The evidence is based on 16 mentions from r/hometheater and r/projectors with a median age of approximately 378 days, providing a consistent view of the brand's media player performance.
Sentiment
12 positive (75%) · 1 mixed (6%) · 3 negative (19%)
Trust + time weighted score: +56% · raw score 56%
What redditors said (10 of 16)
I love my Zidoo!
It looks like zidoo and they are great devices for home theater
Next upgrade wil be replacing the shield looking at something from zidoo
I don't notice the the lack of FEL support when playing back a title using my Zidoo versus using my Blu-ray player. I like the Home Theater app on the Zidoo better than Kodi.
I'm leaning towards Zidoo for my purchase just because of its easy of use.
As far as I’m aware, the Zidoo will not do FEL. Only MEL.
Zidoo can't even do real FEL 7, it does some processing to it, to make it appear DV but it won't render the FEL 7 layers.
For regular 1080p BluRays, Zidoo is a better alternative as it can do 3D / ISO etc.
Dune and Zidoo are better “out of the box” options for just having them work by default.
But they won’t play the Full Enhancement Layer from Dolby Vision files.
Compare
Zidoo vs Nvidia Shield ProZidoo vs Ugoos AM6B+Zidoo vs Apple TV 4K