Recommend a UHD player / usb content player?

[Ben_UK]

I am looking for a non disc based UHD and HD player that can just play content via usb.

What are generally the better ones to go for in terms of features? I was looking at the NV Shield but wondered if there was anything better or cheaper?

[Naiera]

Zidoo

[Wendell R. Breland]

^^
Dune, Zappiti, Zidoo. These will be ≥ to ≫ in cost than the Shield Pro.

[Angry Virginian]

If you want Dolby Vision FEL then a used jailbroken Oppo 203 (or 205) and its clones are the only choice. I have a Chinoppo M9201 (203 clone). No fancy UI on these players though.

I also have a Zidoo Z10 Pro which I use for all non-DV FEL disc images & mkv files. Blu-ray menu support on Zidoo is hit or miss. Heard that Dune & Zappiti are better with BR menus but also not perfect.

[Keungy]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

^^
Dune, Zappiti, Zidoo. These will be ≥ to ≫ in cost than the Shield Pro.

Curious what are the pros/cons to these players vs the Shield?

[Ben_UK]

Originally Posted by Angry Virginian

If you want Dolby Vision FEL then a used jailbroken Oppo 203 (or 205) and its clones are the only choice. I have a Chinoppo M9201 (203 clone). No fancy UI on these players though.

I also have a Zidoo Z10 Pro which I use for all non-DV FEL disc images & mkv files. Blu-ray menu support on Zidoo is hit or miss. Heard that Dune & Zappiti are better with BR menus but also not perfect.

Do any of the players mentioned output Dolby Vision from MKV files?

[Gretiem]

Originally Posted by Ben_UK

Do any of the players mentioned output Dolby Vision from MKV files?

They all do

[Gretiem]

Originally Posted by Keungy

Curious what are the pros/cons to these players vs the Shield?

The only difference is the other players can play full disc backups with menus and the shield cant but the shield is an amazing player and the ui is way smoother and faster than the more expensive players.

[Angry Virginian]

Originally Posted by Ben_UK

Do any of the players mentioned output Dolby Vision from MKV files?

Oppo cannot do Dolby Vision from MKV file. ISO/BDMV only. The other ones can.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Ben_UK

Do any of the players mentioned output Dolby Vision from MKV files?

Originally Posted by Gretiem

They all do

Not all Zidoo players do.

[chen lung]

I wish there was an authoritative, up-to-date, and clean reference (sticky topic or website) devoted to players with these capabilities, ranking them in terms of features so people can decide what's important to them and what they're willing to pay.

Does such a thing exist?

[Talal86]

My Samsung tv plays any format I throw at it, but unfortunately LG doesn’t. so now I’m in need of a media player for local files (SSD). I used to have a Western Digital player but that was 1080p only and it’s discontinued, so they’re no new models

I’ve read about the Zidoo and Nvidia Shield TV Pro. might go with the later because I don’t play back up discs, I just want to play video files (4k/olby vision/hdr)

[Naiera]

Your Sony has decent file support.

[Talal86]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Your Sony has decent file support.

doesn't play mkv

[Naiera]

Really? Feels like it did when I had one. Making an MKV file into a TS file isn’t too time-consuming though.

[Talal86]

I'm giving Plex another chance before losing an hdmi port for a media player. hopefully it's better now than it was when I tried it years ago

[b_squared]

Originally Posted by Talal86

doesn't play mkv

The Sony UBP-X800M2 should definitely play mkv via usb, I played quite a few without issue when I had one. However, like the Panasonic players, they don't support Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, or Dolby Atmos audio formats when playing files via usb. If I remember correctly, the Sony will just refuse to play the file at all if it has one of those audio formats.

Sony's manual for the player, which can easily be found online if you don't have yours, should have a large table breaking down every video and audio format supported for file playback.

[Talal86]

Originally Posted by b_squared

The Sony UBP-X800M2 should definitely play mkv via usb, I played quite a few without issue when I had one. However, like the Panasonic players, they don't support Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, or Dolby Atmos audio formats when playing files via usb. If I remember correctly, the Sony will just refuse to play the file at all if it has one of those audio formats.

that's probably it. it's either the file format or audio format.

anyway, I'd rather not to worry about formats tbh, so I'll give Plex a chance for a couple of weeks. seems fine now

[eddievanhalen]

One thing that makes me mad at Sony's X-800 and X-800 M2 is the lack of gapless audio files playing. It shouldn't be too hard to implement via firmware update, if my inexpensive and tiny Hidizs AP80 Pro DAP can do gapless playing even with DSD 256, I'm sure that both Sony players that must have more powerful SOC's than the AP80 Pro.
I've been told that both the Sony X-800 and X-800 M2 can play audio files gapless playing if these files are burn onto a disc, either a CD-R, DVD-R or BD-R. This is a feature I haven't tried but nakes no sense to me, why implement this feature if files are played from a disc and not doing it from USB? I think data access is faster from and SSD than from a let's say a BD-R.
But we all know that this is Sony being Sony.

[Talal86]

Originally Posted by Talal86

anyway, I'd rather not to worry about formats tbh, so I'll give Plex a chance for a couple of weeks. seems fine now

An update on this. I've been using Plex for a month now, and it's a great so far. turned out my tv not supporting all files was a blessing in disguise

I'm using my laptop + portable hard drives now, but I'll move on to a dedicated device