Feature requests for HT4.0

We've had conversations about this - I'm absolutely not saying it will happen, but it's on the table.

 

That’s a start!

 

Add automatically play the next episode of a TV show like Netflix does.

 

Can you explain it? Do you want the pop up like Netflix?
Right now you can just skip chapter at the end of the episode and in case you are at the last chapter (which you are in 99% of cases) the next episode will be played automatically.

 

Yes sometime like that, with a delay before auto starting the next episode without having to jump next next chapter.

 

Could we have the ability to disable the creation of collections for Movies, when scrapping? I realize that Zidoo is leveraging collections for multi-season TV shows, and that makes sense. But for Movies I don't like rolling up my movies into collections, I like to see them all available in the Posterwall.

It can be pretty tedious having to go through a large movie library and "disband" each collection manually. I have also seen a collection created when you have 2 versions of the same movie (720p and 4k) rather than collapse the two into movie with A/B versions you can play.

 

Aspect ratio tags? I saw a thread from almost two years ago with someone asking for this. It should be relatively easy to implement.

 

Aspect ratio is not in MediaInfo, I think. All my MKVs reported 3840 x 2160 regardless of the content aspect ratio (21:9, 16:9, 4:3, etc). So, the info will have to come from TMDB/TVDB.

 

So how do all the other media suites like Kodi, Plex, etc do it?

 

In the case of Plex, the aspect ratio of a movie is determined through “media analysis.” https://support.plex.tv/articles/200289336-analyze-media/

Odds are very high that plex is using FFmpeg to detect the aspect ratio, it’s what a lot of media managers use.

But in many cases what is determined to be the aspect ratio of the file does not equal the theatrical aspect ratio of the movie. Many times a 2.35:1 movie is reported as 1.78.

IMO it would be best if a scraper could info from IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/technical?ref_=tt_spec_sm

It might list multiple, but I’d rather see that than something interpolated from the file.

 

I'm with you lawdawg, if they can scrape the aspect ratio info from IMDB that would be fantastic!

 

Will need same intelligent algorithm to know what to choose if imdb Aspect Ratio are report like this:
1.78 : 1
1.85 : 1 (IMAX)
16 : 9 (Full Frame)
2.39 : 1 (theatrical ratio)

 

I noticed that trailers toped working again on latest HT .65.

1. Maybe Zidoo can implement personal YouTube account setting for trailers. It looks like YouTube is locking out Home Theater app from accessing trailers.

2. My second request is to keep movie database alive when one of the NAS systems is down. There should be an option on each source to keep database alive when drive is disconnected.

 

Though many cant understand that Auto Trailers are not working or the big deal about it .
Its a function that should .

On older Z10 model it works no issues
So a software glitch it seems .

 

@3DBuff
Google add more restriction for YouTube API on end of December 2021, then many YouTube workaround stop working.
Let's hope Zidoo Team will get a new way to access YouTube trailers on HT 4.0
Enjoy media collection on Zidoo players.

 

Trailers are not supposed to come from IMDb?

 

Temearoo
Is was community request to add back YouTube trailers because foreign languages support, then Zidoo did on FW v6.3.60

 

And guess what..............Since then it all went south
Please bring it back to the v6.3.50 situation.

And those who want their own language, can use local trailers

 

Something (foreign languages) that still works on the older players as far as I know, and that worked on this generation not so long ago.

 

I agree with @pcristi. Trailers stop working afer a while is something on YouTube (Google) side. Once the HT version becomes popular with high number on installations YouTube will see increased number of video requests from this app. Since there are no adds and no user account information Google has no benefit or a reason to let that happen. It's possible that some older HT versions or installation on older players are still working as not too many people are using it and demand on videos is low.

Similar issue was observed few years back with Kodi. Trailers stopped working for no reason. Someone posted a workaround back then where you could insert encryption keys from your own Google account. It was from Google developer site and quite a few steps to follow but it did work at the end. Zidoo could build a similar solution where you need to use your own Google account for trailers content. It's easy enough to create new account for Zidoo device to use it for trailers and Google play store and keep it separate from your email and stuff.

@Mabon as far as local trailer it is a great option if your collection is small less than 100 titles. Once you are above 200 or more it becomes unmanageable in terms of manual adjustments to posters, collections and trailers. I have local trailers for my selected movies where automatic trailer was bad (low quality) or just wrong (interview with the director). I also have downloaded trailers in 2 different locations to allow those high quality to play using Zidoo main player full screen, proper framerate without stutter. It's OK for the selected movies but I need auto trailers for the rest of my collection. Posters, artwork and trailers is what makes a good media player. If all you need is to play a movie you could probably insert USB stick into the TV and selected it from the list of filenames.