The Zappiti One SE 4K HDR
If my memory serves me right, my WD TV has been in my possession for over a decade, last upgrade I did was from the WD TV Live Plus to the WD TV,
and dito ko na yata nabili ang WD TV ko, up until mawala na sya sa market ng 2016. From then on, I have been trying my best to somehow find a player that can rival or even come close the simplicity and functionality of the WD TV, saan ka nga ba naman makakakita ng player na plug and play lang lahat ng media sa kanya and kaya nyang iplay.
The only reason why I would love to get a newer media player is para makasuod naman ako ng bahagya sa mga bagong format, both audio and video formats, nagsimula na din kasing dumami ang mga media files containing x265 encodes, HDR encodes etc etc, as well as mga Dolby Atmos audio tracks, somehow, and sad to say, hindi na kaya ng
WD TV na iplay ito, don't get me wrong, WD TV is one impressive player, as a matter of fact, bago nagkawalaan sa market yan, I have 4 players na naka-back up,
in which bago ko itinago sa storage ay pinalitan ko na ng stable OS, my favorite is the version 1.00.42
To give you an idea on how crazy my move library is, nakaipon ako ng halos 7 external hard drives through the years, started from 720p then to 1080p,
then ng makarating ako dito sa US, I ended up replacing all of my favorite movies ng remuxes, those hard drives are plugged in a USB Hub (powered), and that hub is plugged in sa back USB port ng WD TV, and for years, it worked really well, rarely crashes, never freezes, and the one thing I really liked about it, is its SIMPLICITY,
napaka-stable ng OS, and the album art is beautiful, perfect para sa isang maliit na home theatre.
Anyway, before I ended up with Zappiti, I ordered most of the Android boxes on Amazon, honestly, I'm just thankful at hindi ako napenalize ni Amazon sa kakaorder then soli ng mga ito, I think I tested 5 or 6 different players of different brands. Some of which are Generic brands of some sort, all android based, sadly, you really get what you pay for,
they are priced at $40 - $80, and from which lahat ay may problema, some player would play movie file, but without any sound, some would play but stuttering naman ang video,
and no matter good you are, hindi makuhang mabago ang settings. I even tested the Zidoo Z9S, but with 2 units being tested, upon initialization pa lang sablay na, considering this one was at $200, So basically, all the Android boxes and players na under $200 ay may problema talaga, and yan din mismo ang inamin ng mga sellers sa akin, coz everytime I post my review sa Amazon, a seller will try and convince me na baguhin ko ang one star rating na binigay ko sa kanila, hangang sa kung ano ano pa ang iooffer syo para lang baguhin ang rate nila.
I came upon Zappiti years ago, I ordered one years ago as well, but I ended up returning it dahil hindi ko sya napagana. With Zappiti, there's this so called TOKEN na dapat mong ilagay sa login mo sa Zappiti account mo, and that time, nagtataka naman ako, used na ang token na nakalagay sa player na nakuha ko, kaya hindi ko sya napagana, by the time na makasagot ang seller sa akin to release the token sa pagkaka-lock ay naisoli ko na ang player.
Kaya medyo hesitant ako to test this one out, sablay na sa unang impression pa lang.
But after reading plenty of nice reviews about Zappiti, took the plunge and ordered this one:
The Zappiti One SE 4K HDR ($350)
The player is well constructed, alam mong quality ang materials na ginamit, aluminum housing and maganda ang construction talaga.
Remote control is a bit heavy and bulky, but I always use my extra Android remote control, good thing parehas ng frequency ang 2...
Initialization is PAIN,..! Honestly, You'd expect na user friendly ito, considering its price, I was expecting na setup account, set network, then voila, saksak hard drive then play na.
I was mistaken, upon turning on, Firmware update agad ang gusto, wala namang ibang choice kundi mag-YES, if not, unit will be useless and turn OFF lang.
So, update was ok, took maybe 3-5 minutes, did not encounter any hiccups, oh and yes, naka-hardline sya sa router.
Boot up is really quick, it uses Android 6.1 (not used to Androids, hindi ko talaga alam ang OS na ito, been an Apple user eversince kasi)
Will prompt you sa 3 choices, Video - Explorer - Music, I said PAIN before right,
Once you click any of the 3, it will again ask you to update that said selection, to experience the best possible whatever daw,
again, walang ibang choice but to go forward, but once you do, hindi sya mag-update, may error daw sa update process or hindi mareach ang network.
Pambihira naman kako, sakit na ng ulo simula pa lang. Did this maybe like 5 times, kahit Explorer nya ay hindi ko mabuksan.
Seems this is an on-going problem ng Zappiti, and the workaround was to go directly sa SETTINGS app nya,
from there may menu duon kung saan nakalista ang lahat ng app na kailangan ng update,
oddly enough, once you update ALL the apps na kailangan mo duon, parang nagdahilan lang sya at automatic na ang lahat.
Honestly, kung hindi maalam ang gagamit nito, sa simula pa lang ay aayaw na talaga, sa dami ng tanong at hung ups.
You would expect ALOT sa price na binayaran mo...
Anyhow, moving forward, once maupdate lahat, it was fairly simple to use,
Simplest one is to use the Explorer app and access your external hard drive from there.
By using the Video app, its a bit technical, in the sense na you have to go to a process to be able to build your own compilation,
then the player will automatically build the album wall for you, which is really cool, not to mention may background pa ng soundtrack
ang bawat movie na naka-highlight, really nice lalo pag may demo ka...
In terms of video: AMAZING,..! Napakagaling ng player, I have tested basically every known file format na nasa collection ko,
lahat binasa, lahat nag-play ng walang stutter, walang slowmo, and I was really excited to play a couple of UHD Remux files sa kanya,
those x265 formats, it was FLAWLESS,..! Filesize is at 80-90 GB. Lumabas lalo ang ganda ng kulay ng QLED, every detail is crisp,..!
Its worth mentioning as well na perfect ang Bluray menu access nya, BD ISO files etc etc, lahat yan binasa nya.
That goes with the audio as well, it never missed a beat, known audio encodes were decoded, and walang dropout sa sound.
Been testing out Dolby Atmos and TrueHD, napakaganda ng sound quality...
Is it simple to use,.? Well, NO, it is not as simple as the WD TV,
like what I said, WD TV - plug and play, this one is a bit technical, and that's the only negative na masasabi ko sa kanya,
this player may have plenty of USB ports, but it will only confuse the player evenmore, why,..? Remember I said it automatically builds your library,
well, once I plugged in my USB Hub with those 6 hard drives, it did access them, but somehow, all 6 hard drives are in one folder,
kaya halo halo na lahat ng movies mo, I know may setting na pwede gawin for this, but its just too complicated for me today,
baka sa ibang araw naman,... LOL
I ended up plugging a single 10TB external drive sa kanya, and with this, everything was simple.
Adding a movie is a bit technical too, lalo na kung nakabuo na ang compilation mo, you'd have to delete the compilation first,
then build another one, again, I know may simple way silang sinasabi, but I still haven't tried that one out,
I tried to explore it on my own. And somehow, my way is a bit technical, but for me its easier and faster.
If you are planning on getting one, one huge requirement na nakikita ko is RELIANT sya sa internet,
it relies on Zappiti's cloud kung saan naka-store ang compilation ng mga movies/music collections mo,
I still haven't tried using the OFFLINE mode kung paano ito,..
Lastly, would I recommend it,..?
Hell YES, its an AMAZING player, RELIABLE and really fast,..!
Lalo pa siguro kung yung top of the line nila ang kinuha ko,....