INTRODUCTION

   Black Friday is almost upon us and even though COVID-19 lockdowns will most probably result in reduced global sales numbers this year (probably since online orders have increased exponentially) but still i expect many people to get their brand new 4K and why not even 8K TV sets. Regardless of whether or not you'll be getting a new TV before the end of year there's but 1 undeniable fact, you need a good hardware media player for high-quality content playback. Current TV models do come with that function built-in but since keeping down the cost is what's expected by manufacturers these simply can't compete with aftermarket solutions. A great example of that is the Pro 4K II model by Dune HD i reviewed a few weeks back and since many of you asked today, I’ll be testing something quite similar, the Z9X 4K Media Player by Zidoo.

   ZIDOO is a Professional Android STB Manufacturer, an advanced ARM multi-core industrial product and consumer electronics developer. Although only founded in 2014, our founders are highly experienced and seasoned in the OTT field and are committed to deliver expert professional technical services to a well-known brand at home and abroad. We specialize in OTT, DVB and Streaming Players, providing Supply Chain Service and Solutions. We maintain good relationships through cooperation with Mstar, Rockchip, Allwinner, Amlogic, Realtek and other original chipset factories. We also provide numerous TV BOX Brands with exported technology. ZIDOO is a unique brand with vast strengths through technology and innovation.

   Unlike the Pro 4K II by Dune HD which came wearing the Realtek RTD1619DD SoC the Z9X by Zidoo wears the Realtek RTD1619DR SoC (hexa-core Cortex ARM A55 CPU with Mali G51 MP3 GPU) which fully supports the Dolby Vision VS10 standard/engine (12bit HDR with 68.7 billion colors). Zidoo has also equipped the Z9X with a total of 2GB of DDR4 RAM and 16GB of flash memory by Samsung (eMMC). This means that the Zidoo Z9X effectively has half the hardware resources the Pro 4K II gets shipped with so I’m very curious to see how it performs in comparison. Of course the Z9X is also based on the Android TV 9.0 OS and also supports 4Kp60 decoding/output, HDR/HDR10+, 3D, VP9/VP9 Profile 2, H264/H265, 10-bit HEVC and can playback pretty much all known video (MKV, MPEG-TS, TS, MPEG-PS, M2TS, VOB, FLV, 3GP, AVI, MOV, MP4, QT, ASF, WMV, BD ISO, BDMV, 3DMVC, DVD-ISO, VIDEO_TS) and audio (MP3, MPA, M4A, AAC, WAV, WMA, FLAC, CUE, DSD, OGG/VORBIS, WAVPACK, APE, ALAC, SACD, AC3, DTS, DTS-WAV) file formats. Moving to the connectivity part the Z9X comes ready with Bluetooth v4.2, RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11ac 2T2R dual-band WiFi, external SATA port, HDMI v2.0a output, HDMI v2.0 input, 2 USB 3.0 ports, USB 2.0 ports, Optical out (S/PDIF), A/V output and a RS232 port (for automation systems). So, time to see just how well the Zidoo Z9X does and whether or not it's a good alternative to the Pro 4K II model.