Media player recommendations?

[stwd4nder2]

Besides ads did they strip features?

AFAIK they've never removed any features.

The only other major problem added in an update is a feature that added a dolby encoder. Not a terrible feature if you're not equip for lossless multichannel audio, but enabling it broke passthrough in kodi and disabling it disables multichannel audio in streaming apps. Before the update both were working just fine.
Also it was enabled by default in the update that added it, causing me a few hours of f...ing around in kodi trying to figure out why things stopped working. 

I've also never looked into any custom ROMs for it. My old FireTV was greatly improved by that, but I've given up on the Android scene as it's turned into a clusterfuck I'd rather not deal with anymore.

[Hitcher]

Yeah, I will say that I'm sticking with v8.2.3 for awhile yet because of all the problems people are having.

I also use Wolf Launcher so I don't have to put up with ads.

So I assume lots of side loading? What the full suite of stuff (aka play MKVs) do you use, Hitcher?

Nope, not needed as you still have access to the app store just a different front end that you can tailor to your needs.

https://www.techdoctoruk.com/custom-laun...e-adverts/

Everything from old DVD rips to the latest hybrid UHD remuxes with injected Dolby Vision P5 layer converted to P8.

Plus the usual streaming apps - Netflix, Prime, Disney+, SmartTubeNext, etc.

[alleycat]

I use a Shield Pro and works fine for me, had a lot of problems with micro stutter when passthrough is on but ended up going back to Kodi 17.6 and that resolved it. Still get micro stutter using the Shield Netflix app though.

The spec on the Zidoo UHD3000 certainly looks impressive, hefty price tag though.

https://www.zidoo.tv/Product/index/model...3D%3D.html

[Hitcher]

We've done a lot of work on the micro stutter problem and it should be fixed if you run a nightly build or v19.3 with the patch. The Maven DV/MKV builds also include the micro stutter patch.

NOTE: Do not upgrade the Shield to Experience 9 though!

[alleycat]

We've done a lot of work on the micro stutter problem and it should be fixed if you run a nightly build or v19.3 with the patch. The Maven DV/MKV builds also include the micro stutter patch.

NOTE: Do not upgrade the Shield to Experience 9 though!

Thanks I'll give that a go. Do you you if you still have to manually select the frame rate? Seem to recall when I tried out kodi builds above 17.6 each time I played none 23.976 fps content I had to select what the frame rate was, whereas with 17.6 it does it automatically. Although I was just using the standard kodi not a custom build.

[Hitcher]

Standard Kodi has an 'match framerate' option as well as a whitelist for video resolutions if you want your TV to do the scaling.

[alexp2000]

Did you end up getting a Zidoo player PDB? I've finally got a TV capable of Dolby Vision and thinking of getting one of these to play rips muxed with LD/Cinema DTS audio.

[PDB]

No I haven’t got anything yet. After this conversation I did more research and it appears the zidoo has some issues with hdr or dv. Let me see if I can find the article but there was something about the levels being too bright.

[CSchmidlapp]

I grabbed the Zidoo X9s at one point and a Panasonic UHD UB320 with a hack firmware for discs (both fairly cheap off ebay), but to be honest Ive just end up using my PC most the time.
I'm still 1080p (projector and LCD screen) so require HDR to SDR conversion at times, and the combination of MPC and MAD VR works really well for me.
I'm on an old PC also, i7 3770k with a RX480 GPU.

I've got a ASUS BW-16D1HT with a hacked firmware as well, and use it in combination with DVDFab for discs through MPC.
I often get playback straight off the disc, but some recent Arrow releases are appearing to struggle a little on (what I suspect is) the layer changes.
But I always have the option to temporarily rip them to my hard drive.

Obviously this does not help if your in Dolby Vision land but thought Id put in my 2 cents

[alexp2000]

I ended up getting that ASUS drive as well, really good bit of kit.