May I know on what basis the DV playback is better in Ugoos compared to Zidoo?
ah, my bad, I was a bit lazy with my response, so I'll explain it in full.
before I begin, do note
all my considerations are from a proper DV playback perspective and that the player should be able to play Blu-Ray Discs or any media without weird issues like PGS subs causing issues, lossless audio not working etc, I don't care about any QoL or perf improvements that other players bring.
And. are you aware of the bullshit that comes with DV? different profiles and enhancement layers and stuff like needing two hardware decoders for a full DV experience? if not I'll first summarize how DV works and the issues with it
DV mainly comes in 3 profiles, P5, P7, P8. P7 & P8 have a HDR10 fallback for non DV displays. Most WEB-DLs come with P5 DV, thats why you get that weirdo purple thingy if you play a WEB-DL mkv on an unsupported display.
And DV mainly consists of three parts: BL (Base Layer), RPU (Reference Picture Unit) and EL (Enhancement Layer). BL+RPU is the first layer of DoVi, EL is the second layer. The EL (enhancement layer) can be Minimal (MEL) or Full (FEL): MEL is a very convoluted way to say that the EL (the second layer) is empty.
And basically
Profile 7 BL+MEL+RPU = Profile 8 BL+RPU
and quoting a thread
Only profile 7 and 8 have an HDR10 fallback BL. Profile 5 doesn't have an HDR10 BL, so this is the reason why P5 files will display purple and green on non DV screens (they can't fallback to HDR10). Since the BL is static, and Dolby Vision is dynamic, the dynamic part is given by the combination between the RPU (holding the dynamic data) and the BL.
All the other boxes (Dune HD and the likes, including the Shield), can't reproduce the FEL track correctly. They discard the extra information and just play BL+RPU, ignoring the EL. This makes the TV effectively display the Dolby Vision logo, fooling you into thinking you are indeed getting full DV.
You'll need a player featuring double HEVC hardware encoder to correctly play any profile without loss of quality.
basically Tl: Dr for proper UHD BD DV playback, you need a box with dual hardware encoder which can decode both the BL and EL properly which most of the boxes currently dont have,
Now coming back to Ugoos vs Zidoo, I am not suggesting the latest UGoos but rather
UGoos AM6B /AM6B Plus where
CoreElec have released a update which makes the UGoos have full compatibility with P7 DV
without additional bullshit that comes with additional players, like PGS subs not playing nice, not being able to play lossless audio
and it supports Atmos passthrough for those with proper speaker setups.
if you are on Private Trackers, or are into collecting remuxes, I can give you MediaInfo comparisons and if you are in the top ones, I can send you the relevant threads where peeps are discussing this.
this is a good sheet, that keeps track of different players (Shield, Ugoos, Zidoo etc) and their compatibility/issues with DV playback.
And this is the relevant
CoreElec forum
