Home Theatre Update

Discussion in 'ZIDOO Z9S' started by Markswift2003, Mar 21, 2020.

  1. 3DBuff

    3DBuff Well-Known Member

    HT vs ZDMC

    We are getting there with HT :)

    Here is what's left on my list before I go all the way with HT and forget ZDMC.
    At least some of the items ;)

    1. Scrolling function needs to have advance jump to a letter or something similar. Scrolling pages forever to get to the title you want is not working. @mirror promised to get it fixed here. We need it fixed in HT and Media Browser.

    2. Filter by source. Ability to select multiple sources as needed. Right now we can only select one source at the time. I have 3D titles and HDR titles across multiple network shares.

    3. Database of posters constantly disappears if the network source is not available. I have some older archived movies on drives that are not always powered on. Kodi keeps database of all scanned drives active even if disconnected and on unless updated.
    There is a function in sources to synchronize between drives that are removed. Maybe this would do the trick. I need to test it.

    4. Movie page screen. Trailer in small preview window is coming up too fast. We should be able to adjust timer before trailer is starting. We need OFF and 0 to 60s adjustment. While the trailers are playing in the loop in small preview window we need a stop button (movie stop would work) to go back to backdrop artwork page. To restart trailer you simply go back to poster wall and again select movie page, wait for trailer to start.

    5. Sweep the movie info off the backdrop artwork. This is really cool feature in ZDMC Black Glass Nova skin. Demo below. I can sweep the overlay movie info to expose full page artwork using right arrow key. Up arrow in HT would work great for that. Once the focus is on the top row icons Play, BD Menu Trailers... moving up should bring the overlay down. If the trailer is playing it should stop the trailer and pull overlay down showing background artwork.

    6. Local trailers. Trailers in HT are as bad if not worse compared to ZDMC. Quality is low and stuttering never ends. If we don't want to get into political issues using Apple trailers and full screen Zidoo player, there is a quick fix with local trailers. We could download our own high quality trailers for favourite movies and store them with movies or even better in Trailers separate location. HT will automatically scan by file name and add it to movie page as version A, B, C... 3D, HDR, 1080 etc. All we rally need to clean it up and make look neat is to get custom label like "Trailer" or "Preview" instead of 1080, or C. HT has to recognize file prefix like title.trailer.mkv or title.preview.mov. There are instructions on how to create custom label but I cannot make it work. @mirror this is good for us and good for Zidoo. You could add this to list of features “Custom Trailers” :)

    7. Badges on movie page get moved around and important audio badge gets pushed out of the row in ISO and file structures after movie playback. Not a show stopper but it would be nice to get it under control.

    Almost there :)




     
    Osmar likes this.
  2. OlivierQC

    OlivierQC Well-Known Member

    I just got a screenshot about the ''problem'' with TV shows

    It can be observed that there are TV shows with their title and other tv shows with the season number instead of the title of the tv show

    when you only have one season of a TV show, HT2 / 3.0 displays the number of the season instead of the title of the series on the wall of the TV shows


    [​IMG]

    -----------------

    HT2 / 3.0 should display the title of the TV show even when there is only one season and by clicking on the poster access to the season screen as for those who have several seasons.

    ----------------

    seriously it lacks finishing, zidoo should fix this little detail

    See you​
     
  3. 3DBuff

    3DBuff Well-Known Member

    Since the HT search function allows for direct keyboard input it is way better than Kodi search!
    I can type few letters, see what’s coming up, type couple more to narrow the result.

    Kodi takes the search string and runs it against database once you push search. If I don’t like results then I need to adjust search string and run it again.

    The dynamic search from HT is quicker and easier to find what you looking for now.
     
  4. 3DBuff

    3DBuff Well-Known Member

    One more item on my wish list above.

    8. Filter by country. There is filter by region but not very useful when Europe is one piece :(
     
  5. Ozzyoz

    Ozzyoz Member

    In which firmware has it been repacked?
     
  6. Markswift2003

    Markswift2003 Well-Known Member SUPER Administrator Beta test group Contributor

    It hasn't - HT3 updates are being seeded directly to beta testers' boxes at the moment.
     
  7. Ozzyoz

    Ozzyoz Member

    Here ?
    New firmvare v2.3.23 Beta version for ZIDOO UHD2000 release
     
  8. Markswift2003

    Markswift2003 Well-Known Member SUPER Administrator Beta test group Contributor

    No, a preliminary version, v3.0.10 is in that firmware
     
  9. Dan

    Dan Member

    As version 3.0.10 has been leaked can someone now upload the latest build in the understanding it’s beta and not finished? :)
     
  10. Markswift2003

    Markswift2003 Well-Known Member SUPER Administrator Beta test group Contributor

    HT3 updates are being seeded directly to beta testers' boxes at the moment, so they don't have the apk and I've been asked not to post it yet... I'm sure we'll get the nod soon...

    Or it'll appear on a Russian forum :rolleyes:
     
    Osmar and Dan like this.
  11. blenky

    blenky Well-Known Member

    I have never seen this with any of my TV series.
     
  12. OlivierQC

    OlivierQC Well-Known Member

    hello blenky,

    I checked on my side with my x20 pro (rtd1296) and the x8 (RTD1295) and there is the title of the tv show and the number of the season, everything's okay

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    i guess it's a problem with the title of his files ?

    See you
     
  13. blenky

    blenky Well-Known Member

    I wouldn't want them to add too many bells and whistles - as Kodi can be a little bit over the top. The direction HT3 is going is more along the lines of Plex and Infuse - which is elegant yet simple.

    There are still issues and my main complaint is over scraping inconsistencies. In settings you can set 'Scrap source' to Intelligent or TMDb. I set it to Intelligent. So how does this work? Using it I find that TV shows will not return director or cast or even plot. I have to go into the movie wall and re scan using TVDb as the scrape source. This will bring back cast plot details etc but often will not have poster and/or background. Using TMDb as source will bring back poster and backgroud OK but no cast director and often no plot.

    Adding this front screen - which I have been pressing Zidoo for since I got this box - has again made the Z9S my go to box above my Apple TV, Nvidia Shield 2019.
     
  14. 3DBuff

    3DBuff Well-Known Member

    The reason Kodi is over the top and beginners may find it confusing is because it is multi platform, open source, write your own driver and plugin type of Media Center. Zidoo is fraction of that with it's own hardware and software. Nobody is asking for ability to plug in TV tuner head and turn it into DVR like Kodi. Zidoo is small company with limited resources and we need to guide them to make improvements that matter to us end users.

    The idea here is to bring examples of best practices in the industry to improve the product. @blenky your complaint is TV series and this is ongoing issue since day 1 of HT. I'm not big on TV series but the few that I have are still in ZDMC side of Zidoo. Look around. Why is Kodi doing proper scraping of TV shows? One of the members suggested in the past Kodi approach. We are not talking turning it into Kodi but just look how it's done. Typically you would store your TV series is some separate location network share or at least folder "TV Series". In Kodi you declare this location before scarping as TV Shows, Movies, Music etc. Maybe that's what is missing in HT. It takes every file and treats it as it was anything and begins scraping just like ordinary movie.

    I agree with you on opening screen addition in HT3. Great idea. If I don't finish the movie it will be in my face the next day top left corner of HT :) There are great improvements in HT going on. Couple of ideas are already above Kodi. One is the recent fix to search function. Compared to Kodi it dynamical lists titles as you type letters. Great, fast and easy.

    Another one that I like a lot is grouping versions of the same movie under one Movie Page with A, B, C or 3D, HDR, 1080. Kodi treats every file as different movie and I have 3 separate pages with the same movie, poster and backdrop.

    Larger databases need advanced function for scrolling. Why would you want to watch jumping scrolling screen for couple of minutes holding page down or down arrow? Why not use industry standard letter P for movies or files starting with P?

    There are beautiful artwork pages for a lot of movies. HT movie posters and other info abstract those artwork backdrops covering good portions of it. There is no direct way to see it in HT at all.

    I can carry on ..... ;)
     
    Last edited: May 16, 2020
  15. blenky

    blenky Well-Known Member

    As an experiment I used Kodi on the Nvidia Shield to create an output of my film and TV collection - fanart, posters, .NFO files. Then on the Z9S I cleared the scan result and in settings set NFO preference to 'Precedence'. I did a clear and rescan and HT3 used the NFO and art craeted on my NAS by Kodi. However after this movie trailers will not work. To fix I deleted all the movie .nfo files (left the ones for TV), cleared and re scanned. This brought back the trailers.
     
  16. 3DBuff

    3DBuff Well-Known Member

    Maybe all we need for TV Series to work is a small check mark when you add source in HT setup screen "This source contains TV Series Yes/No".
     
  17. blenky

    blenky Well-Known Member

    @3DBuff I agree with what you say. However I understand Kodi as I've used it off and on from when it was XBMC on the original XBOX. What I mean is that I don't want to see lots of bells and whistles which can detract from core functionality. I also agree that it would be a great idea if , as in Kodi, you could designate a source as TV or Movie. This would take away the need to intelligently determine what type of file it is. This is something I first suggested to Zidoo in December 2018.
     
    3DBuff likes this.
  18. DELUCAS

    DELUCAS Well-Known Member

    Was there any Audio issues on trailers with H.T.v3.0.10
    As in no sound at all on auto trailers ?

    Obviously cant update to latest version .
     
  19. Markswift2003

    Markswift2003 Well-Known Member SUPER Administrator Beta test group Contributor

    No, I didn't have any audio issues on auto trailers on v3.0.10, and I always check auto trailers on new versions.

    Maybe try a cold reboot?
     
  20. Nejiro

    Nejiro Member

    Sorry guys but I'm not understanding anything more about these releases, it's getting too confusing in my opinion and it's even more difficult for those who don't know English like me, regarding the firmware I'm using the 2.3.15 beta, there is something next? The player instead I have 2.9.28, there is something later also about this? And then why the new versions because you do not make a fixed page and are released there? You never understand where they are .... . Sorry for the complaints but I hope someone updates me on the latest official and beta versions that are currently available for the Z9S .....
    Thanks
     

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