After 14 years in operation, Zappiti is going out of business, leaving users of its media players with significant compromises. The staff is hoping to launch a new app.

The French company initially developed the software for indexing and managing movies on Dune HD media players and later launched its own line of Android-based Zappiti media players optimized for playback of local media stored on hard drives in the player or a network hard drive.

After 14 years, the company has announced its closure as it has been liquidated.

- "It's with the greatest sadness that I have to announce that Zappiti will be over soon," the company said in a statement to customers. "As you already know, we are fighting since January to keep our baby alive, but unfortunately Justice has refused to hear us."


What happens now
Users can create an offline movie collection and use it after the service is discontinued, but Zappiti's video software will stop working meaning that users' media players will no longer identify new movies added to collections.


 The Zappiti Pro 4K media player. Photo: Company

The former employees said that they are working on a new app to allow users to continue to use their Zappiti media players. The app will not be free and it will not be possible to transfer over an existing movie collection, so a new account and collection must be created.

It remains to be seen if the app arrives and if it provides users with some consolation, but it is likely that users will have to look for alternatives such as Dune, Zidoo, Nvidia Shield or Apple TV 4K (if you do not require lossless Dolby Atmos or DTS:X). Popular apps for these devices that can help identify your movies and add metadata and covers are Kodi, Emby, Plex and Infuse.

- Source: Stereonet, 4KFilme, Zappiti Deutschland