futeko.com FORUM
Old Product Support => Zidoo Z9S, Z10 => Topic started by: DoctorWhat on October 12, 2018, 01:22:55 PM
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The Himedia Q5 that I've had for a few years has just croaked for good, so I began looking for a successor, and my obvious first choice was the Q5 Pro, but now I saw this Zidoo Z9S on Futeko, and I wonder how it compares? It looks very similar on the outside, but that's not unusual with the electronics from Chinese companies (my first thought at seeing it was actually: "is this a rebadged Himedia successor to Q5 Pro?").
Has anyone who knows Himedia's Q5 Pro had a chance to check this Z9S yet? If you did, could you describe them as far as their similarities and differences go? Is the build quality similar? Are their interfaces similar? How is their software and its performance in comparison to the Q5 Pro?
As far as what I'm looking for in a player, I was very happy with my Q5 as a player, I liked its speed, performance, USB connection, subtitle customization, the file browser, the remote - so anything that's just as good as it was in Q5 would be the right choice. The format compatibility is probably my top interest, software-wise - Q5 played practically anything, from old RealMedia files, to DIVX3, to XVID, to any Matroska container, to X265. Probably the only thing I missed in the file browser was the ability to display file sizes and dates, and/or sort by them.
(I've no use for that Kody software and its likes - I uninstalled it to free up space on my Q5, so anything related to it is not an issue. But connecting hard drives and playing their contents just as efficiently as on the Q5 is what I'm looking for).
How is Zidoo in general, quality-wise, compared to Himedia? I don't know Zidoo yet; I've had two Himedia players and liked them - one, the old, pre-Android one, is still alive and working well. As far as other offers, I had an older Egreat player, too, and I thought the quality was far worse than Himedia's, plus I couldn't stand its interface and remote.
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I can compare it to the Q10 Pro.
Overall, a better designed much faster interface and user experience.
I do miss Kodi though and unsure where the movie information is scrapped from now? Is the box reporting back to Zidoo the contents of ones library?
I ran Custom FW on the Q10 and it performed as a decent media player. I've not experienced many, if any of the issues people had reported over at the Q10 forum section.
Pleased with the purchase. The Q10 has gone upstairs and will drive my office TV now.
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You can install Kodi on Z9S/Z10/X20/X20 Pro. Just use the regular apk: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/releases/android/arm/kodi-17.6-Krypton-armeabi-v7a.apk
Or install Zidoo's Kodi fork, ZDMC. It is essentially the same as HiMedia Kodi+wrapper in that it uses Zidoo player for playback of local media from Kodi: https://www.zidoo.tv/Support/release_apk.html
Installing Kodi and other apps will be easier when firmware incorporates (or adds as an option) Google Play Services and Google Play Store. At the moment the package to install these is in beta, it needs Android 7.1 FW and is here: http://apidl.zidoo.tv/app/GappsInstaller-rtk-7.1_v1.2.1.apk
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"when firmware incorporates (or adds as an option) Google Play Services and Google Play Store. " When this comes? I find not simple tool without this.
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"when firmware incorporates (or adds as an option) Google Play Services and Google Play Store. " When this comes? I find not simple tool without this.
Just execute this file: http://apidl.zidoo.tv/app/GappsInstaller-rtk-7.1_v1.2.1.apk
So either navigate to it using web browser on Z9S/Z10 and select open when prompted, or copy it to USB stick and execute it in Z9S/Z10 file manager.
This is not difficult or requiring of any technical knowledge.
When the option comes in future firmware it will be an apk very similar to above but listed in pre-installed apps. I think this will happen in next firmware, which will be before end of this month.