Home Video Backup/NFO Files Problems with Two Zidoo’s

I have home videos on a Z9X with custom posters & backdrops that took a long time to create. I backed up all files and exported an NFO into a "home video" file on the NAS. When I accessed and scanned the same file on my new Z1000 Pro, most of the video names/poster/backdrops reverted back to movie titles that Zidoo (somehow) matched. Also, when I tried loading the backup file on the Z1000 Pro and it crashed the player.

Part of the problem is a lack of understanding of how backup and NFO files work, especially with multiple Zidoo players. Any suggestions on how to resolve this mess?
Update: The home videos file is missing files, so this explains the problem. No idea why this happened. Lots of work to fix. I don’t know why the Z9X backup file crashes the Z1000 Pro, unless it is not compatible.

 

I have a Z9X and a Z1000Pro and do separate backups for each player, so each player has its own folder on my NAS with a backup folder in each which I back up too.

I too tried to match them up but they both seem to have their own ideas when it comes to scraping movie posters even though they both use the same movie location, so I gave up and
went the separate backup route once I have the posters etc as I want, I have never tried to backup one players setting to the other due to the time I spent setting up all my mis-matched tv series.

Even after adding a new movie to my collection both players will sometimes scrape a different poster or collection poster.

 

Not sure what you mean by "I backed up all files and exported an NFO into a "home video" file on the NAS".

When you make a backup that's basically a zipped copy of the database and associated files but without the artwork which it will then pull online from sources listed in the tables of the backup when it is restored. This is a zip file with a ztb extension and of course can be stored anywhere.

You have to be careful using backups between players, particularly if using different HT versions because stuff changes between versions - generally it's a bad idea.

When you export NFO and artwork this produces an NFO for each movie plus artwork (poster, backdrop, including collection art if applicable) in the movie folder - you can't choose where these go - they must be in the movie folder. This means that once you have exported NFO and artwork correctly you can completely wipe the HT4 database and if you rescrape using NFOs and local art, the result, including art is exactly the same as it was before. I do this a LOT during testing.

The only downside of using NFOs to scrape is that you lose the ability to see movies associated with cast and crew - for some reason the devs have not been able to figure out how to do that, but no biggie as far as I'm concerned although it would be a nice addition.

The way I use the database with multiple players is to have a master player that does the initial online scraping when I add a movie. Then I export NFOs (and don't overwrite old data) and then with the other players set to NFO precedence, when they get switched on, they scrape locally and all players have exactly the same details.

 

I must admit I stopped using backup a long time ago - firstly because it didn't backup the artwork, and secondly because of the issues introduced because of different versions. Also there was a time when TMDB used to change artwork URLs which made the artwork links in the database backup useless at times.

That's why I use local NFOs, local art, local trailers etc.

You wipe the HT4 database from HT4/settings/Library/Clear then select "I want to Reset" when prompted.

If I then re-add the old sources, because I have valid NFO and artwork in the movie folders, it all comes back as it was when I rescrape.

No reason not to overwrite to be fair - just a habit I got into and no reason to overwrite good data.

Set NFO/Art precedence in HT4/settings/preferences/NFO parse and Use local images first.