A well-designed and very capable media player

Verdict

The Zidoo Z3000 Pro is a fantastic media player that effortlessly handles any file format you throw at it, and even supports 8K for those with an eye on the future. An intuitive user interface combined with a well designed remote makes this classy addition to the Zidoo line-up a joy to use, while the HDD bay handles hard drives with capacities up to 16TB. Only the lack of 3D support disappoints, but otherwise this capable unit is the perfect solution for anyone who loves collecting physical media but fears running out of shelf space.

Introduction

The Zidoo Z3000 Pro forms part of the brand’s range of media players designed specifically for home cinema enthusiasts.

These models all have aluminium bodies, hidden HDD bays, front displays, backlit remote controls, and built-in wireless aerials. The Z3000 Pro sits above the 4K Z2000 Pro, and below the flagship UHD8000 with its full-width chassis, dual HDD bays and audiophile connectivity.

If you’re like me and still enjoy buying 4K discs and Blu-rays, you inevitably have to decide where to put all the box sets and special editions you accumulate. One solution is to rip the films as MKV files or even the entire disc as an ISO file, and then store them on hard drives or a NAS to help save space. This is where Zidoo comes in handy with its extensive line-up of extremely well-specified media players.

Availability

The Zidoo Z3000 Pro is widely available and retails for £579, although if you want 3D support and aren’t bothered about 8K you can go for the cheaper Z2000 Pro at £379. Conversely audiophiles may prefer buying the flagship UHD8000, which will set you back £1,099.

Design

• Well built aluminium alloy chassis
• Large and informative LED display
• Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antenna
• Hidden bay for 3.5-inch HDD
• High quality power supply

The Zidoo Z3000 Pro sports an attractive design, with a brushed aluminium alloy casing that’s finished in home cinema-friendly black. The player uses a high quality power supply that connects via a three-pin cable at the rear, where you’ll also find a hard on/off switch.

There’s a large and informative LED display on the left that can be turned off if necessary, an illuminated standby button in the middle, and a textured drop-down panel on the right, behind which is the 3.5-inch HDD bay. The overall build quality is excellent, and my only complaint is it’s not a full-width unit – if you want that you’ll have to stump up for the more expensive UHD8000.

All the connectivity is at the rear, where you’ll find dual HDMI outputs. The main output supports video up to 8K/60p, while the second is for audio only, with Zidoo employing digital separation technology to isolate interference between the two. This approach is very handy if your AV processor or receiver can’t pass 8K resolution content. There are also optical and coaxial digital outputs, plus a stereo analogue output using RCA connectors.

The rest of the physical connections are composed of two USB 3.0 ports, an IR extender and RS-232 connector for serial control, along with an extra USB 2.0 port behind the drop down flap at the front. There’s a gigabit LAN port for a wired connection or IP control, and thanks to its built-in antennas the Z3000 Pro also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 for effective wireless connectivity.

Operation

• 4K user interface
• Poster Wall 4.0
• Backlit remote
• Control app
• Smart control

The Zidoo Z3000 Pro is very easy to setup thanks to its handy wizard and sensibly laid out menu system. All you need to do is connect your display or AV receiver, depending on their capabilities, and then largely leave most of the menu options at their default settings. There are plenty of settings to keep tweakers happy, but the auto settings will detect the type of display you are using and adjust the all the video and audio outputs accordingly.

The extensive processing horsepower under the hood ensures the player’s interface and operation is silky smooth and highly responsive. The user interface is delivered at a resolution of 4K, and includes a Poster Wall for laying out all your films and TV shows in an easily accessible fashion. There are extensive options for customising the layout, and it also skims TMBD for poster art, images and info. If you’re like me and love categorising content, you can have hours of fun as you rip your favourite films and add them to the Z3000.

The built-in large capacity HDD bay ensures stable and high-speed bidirectional read and write capabilities, providing more convenient media storage. The Z3000 can handle hard drives with a capacity of up to 16TB, which should be enough storage to handle the largest of physical disc libraries. Fitting a hard drive couldn’t be easier, you literally just open the door, slot in the drive, and then close it again. The Z3000 will then automatically add it to the file manager for access.

The included remote control is an absolute joy to use thanks to an intuitive layout and a backlight that activates automatically when you pick it up. There’s also HDMI-CEC and a remote app (iOS and Android), if you’re looking for alternative forms of control, while an RS232 serial connector and support for Control 4 will keep custom installers happy.

Features

• Powerful five-core processor
• Android 11 operating system
• 8GB of RAM/64GB built-in storage

The Z3000 Pro uses Android 11 as its operating system, which ensures it remains smooth and responsive in operation. It also sports a powerful Amlogic S928X-K five-core processor, combined with 8GB of RAM and 64GB of built-in storage. As mentioned the 3.5-inch HDD bay supports compatible hard drives up to 16TB for onboard storage, although can also use the player to access content stored on a NAS on a local network.

All of this processing power ensures the Z3000 Pro is not only fast, responsive and robust in operation but also ensures it can handle a comprehensive range of video and audio file types, along with every resolution up to 8K, any frame rate up to 60p, every version of high dynamic range, including HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, and lossless audio up to and including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

Picture Performance

• HDR10+ and Dolby Vision
• Resolutions up to 8K/60p
• Frame rate switching
• 12-bit colour depth
• AI processing
• Subtitle shifting

The Zidoo Z3000 Pro offers near-comprehensive video support, making it an almost perfect media player. The only blot on its copy book is the lack of 3D support, which is no longer included for some reason. If you really want 3D playback you’ll need to buy the cheaper Z2000 Pro instead, although this player is limited to 4K.

Otherwise the Z3000 has you covered with support for 8K, 4K, and every version of HDR including HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. The level of file support is insane, and with the exception of 3D I wasn’t able to find any file type that the Zidoo couldn’t detect and immediately play, so from this perspective it has you covered.

This kind of comprehensive file support has been a feature of Zidoo’s media players for years, but the big new feature on the Z3000 Pro is its ability to scale all content up to 8K, which I was able to check using my reference JVC DLA-NZ900 projector. It can also output native 8K from suitably encoded video files, so for the first time I was able to enjoy the full capabilities of my 8K beamer, and unsurprisingly the results were incredible.

However, once I had satisfied my curiosity I ultimately chose to set the Z3000 Pro to output 4K, partly because there isn’t much native 8K content, but also because the upscaling to 8K didn’t appear to make any noticeable difference to perceived resolution. It also meant I could output directly to my AV processor, rather than splitting the audio off using the second HDMI output and sending the video directly to the JVC with the primary HDMI 2.1 output.

The other advantage of sticking with 4K is that it allowed me to take full advantage of the Z3000 Pro’s ability to handle up to 4:4:4 and 12-bit colour depth, while the AI-enhanced 4K upscaling proved highly effective with lower resolution content. In fact, I’d go as far as to say the Z3000 Pro is the most capable media player I’ve tested to date.

Zidoo has added an automatic frame switching feature to ensure smooth and accurate playback regardless of the frame rate. It proved very effective in testing and eliminated a few issues I had with the earlier Z1000 Pro. Another useful feature is the ability to move subtitles, which is handy if they’ve been placed in the black bars and like me you’re using a 2.35:1 aspect ratio projection screen.

To be honest I’m just scratching the surface of what the Z3000 Pro can do, but no matter what your requirements it’s a safe best this Zidoo media player has the solution. Most importantly it’s flawless in operation, playing all the files I tested without any issues, and delivering the video in exactly the resolution, frame rate and dynamic range in which it was encoded.

Audio Performance

• Dolby Atmos and DTS:X
• Lossless music playback
• Wireless music streaming
• Music library management

The Zidoo Z3000 Pro isn’t just a first-class video player, it’s also a superb music player if you fancy ripping CD, DVD-Audio or SACD discs and storing those on its hard drive. Along with lossless audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X for movies, there’s also high-resolution audio support for formats like DSF, DFF, DSD, ISO, AIFF, APE, ALAC, FLAC and WAV. So basically, whatever audio file format you’re using, the Z3000 Pro can play it!

The Z3000 Pro includes a music library that offers both local music playback and comprehensive local music management. You can add music files from local hard drives and network storage across platforms, and the Zidoo music library will automatically skim information, match artists, and add album covers. You can categorise by artist, album, genre or any other criteria that takes your fancy.

If you want to stream music that’s also a possibility, either using built-in Tidal Connect or via high-quality DLNA casting from music streaming apps installed on mobile devices within the same local network. As with the video side of things, the Z3000 Pro is a flawless performer that delivers audio exactly as encoded. Audiophiles may prefer some of the features on the more expensive UHD8000, but for most people the Z3000 is a top drawer music player.

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