Media player recommendations?

[alleycat]

Same here, Shield Pro with micro stutters, glad it's not just me. I wanna get one of those Ugoos AMB6+ players for sure. Always loved CoreElec

I've seen a lot of people on forums saying they are buying one or two spare Ugoos as backups. There are newer Ugoos models use a different chipset without the FEL vulnerability, so the worry is at some point they'll stop making the AMB6+ and move onto newer models. So basically, if you want the AMB6+ then maybe get one sooner than later. I got mine from Aliexpress. 

Oh and the micro stutter drove me crazy. My wife didn't notice it but every panning shot had it. So glad I don't have to deal with that anymore!

[Beber]

I got a Zappiti Neo with R_video installed, since Zappiti died and was reborn under the R_volution brand, and a Zidoo Z9X Pro. I don't really care about the full Dolby Vision compatibility as I watch on a HDR limited projector rather than a TV set anyway. I'm more interested in the 3D compatibility and both of my mediaplayers accept 3D Blu-ray .mkv remuxes.

[mlnl]

yeah youre not really off tbh.

all the new realtek boxes (zidoo / zappiti / dune) are pretty similar for actual playback. DV, HDR10+, HDR→SDR all work about the same. differences are mostly UI, software, and price.

zidoo is prob the best bang for buck right now. cheaper, decent firmware, and the VS10 tonemapping is solid for projectors/CRT. if money is tight, thats the easy pick.

zappiti’s big plus is the library / metadata tools. nice if you have lots of custom stuff, but youre paying extra for it. hardware-wise its not really better.

dune is better than the old 1080p days, but still kinda plain. if you didnt like dune back then, you might still not love it now.

so yeah:
cheap + capable → zidoo
pretty library → zappiti
boring but stable → dune