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Jonathan LaCour

@siracusa @atpfm one nuance on the HT-A9 topic on this week’s show. The limitation on supporting object based lossless audio formats (DTS:X and Dolby Atmos) goes beyond a receiver.

Apple does not support even passing these formats through to receivers in tvOS. Even Infuse is unable to support without Apple making changes to tvOS.

This and other limitations led me to invest in a Zidoo Z9X box. It’s Android, clunky, and weird, but it supports literally everything!

@siracusa @atpfm That said, you are correct that most people probably shouldn’t care. If you don’t have height channels, it is irrelevant. If you don’t have high quality speakers, it is irrelevant. And, most critically, if you consume content exclusively through streaming, it literally doesn’t matter.

Those of us that have invested in high quality height channels and Synologies filled with Blu-Ray rips are the only people who should care.

@jonathan @siracusa @atpfm What made you choose this one over the Nvidia Shield TV? I currently have the latter and want to know if the extra 100 bucks are worth it.

@melgu @siracusa @atpfm I had the Shield TV first and sold it in favor the Zidoo. In my opinion, the Zidoo’s VS10 engine gives it a significant lead in picture quality, especially with Dolby Vision content. It is far more flexible with video settings, in general.

Downsides: spendy, sluggish, and pretty much only useful as a dedicated movie player for a local library of high-end Blu-Ray rips. But, I have an Apple TV 4K for everything but movies.

@siracusa @jonathan @atpfm Ah thanks. The Shield TV is a bit too slow for my taste, so I hope we’ll get a successor some time in the future.
Best case scenario would probably be if the Apple TV and/or macOS gained HD audio bitstream capabilities, but I’ve lost hope on that front.