The French media player manufacturer Zappiti has announced it’s being forced to shut down its business operation after 14 years, and the decision will have serious implications for anyone who owns one of its products. But rather than leave those customers in the lurch, it’s working on a new, paid app that will allow them to continue using their devices.
Zappiti first came to prominence as the developer of software that helped Dune HD media players to index and manage their media content. Later, the company branched out to produce its own series of Android TV-based 4K media players. Its products are used to playback local media stored on networked and local hard drives.
Now, it has announced that it’s shutting down its business. According to Stereonet, which first reported the announcement, the company is shutting down due to disagreements relating to ownership. Its staff has apparently been working for some time without getting paid to keep the service it provides up and running. The issue is that its hardware relies on a cloud service to match content. With the closure of the company, that service will be discontinued.
“It's with the greatest sadness that I have to announce that Zappiti will be over soon," Zappiti announced in a German language press release. "As you already know, we are fighting since January to keep our baby alive, but unfortunately Justice has refused to hear us."
The discontinuation of the cloud service presents problems, because it means users will no longer be able to add new media to their collections. While users can still create offline collections and use Zappiti’s devices to play that content, it will not be able to recognise new content that’s added.
To remedy the problem, Zappiti’s former employees are developing an application that will enable customers to continue using their media players. Users will be required to pay for this app, and they’ll have to create a new account and new collections, as it won’t be possible to transfer existing collections, the company said.
Zappiti didn’t say when that app might become available. For alternatives, users may look at media players manufactured by Dune or Zidoo, or else invest in an Nvidia Shield or Apple TV 4K box. Those alternatives are compatible with applications such as Emby, Kodi, Infuse and Plex, which are able to identify media collections and add metadata and covers.
