PlexToZidoo : An external player for plex using native Zidoo player

Plus, on the plex dashboard you see the global server network it doesn't show you if it comes from plex.
Edit : my bad it seems to display only plex network usage

 

I just tried my highest bitrate movie and have no stutter at all.
Maybe try in zidoo advanced parameters, developper option, number of application in background and set to 3 (plex, PlexToZidoo and Zidoo Player) to be sure no other app run in background.
Are you in the last beta version of the firmware ?

 

Happy to test, and thank you for your effort on this app!

Plex is involved in some way in playing the file, in some way. Here is bandwidth from the Plex server for using the Plex client and your app, HT4, and Zidoo's Plex POC client for comparison. Same file and same point in the movie. One is in Mbps and the other two are in Kbps.

 

Yes, latest beat firmware. I'll see how many background apps I have in the developer options. I think its set to 2 now.

Is there a log file for your app, that we can check to ensure mine is behaving correctly? Maybe its not accessing via SMB, and falling back to a plex stream?

 

I tested with plex client alone and I see the same behavior but when I use my app I see no network use at all (just Kbps), to be sure, do you select my app as above :

And when you play the video, what is the complete name of the file when you go in info, more ? Does it begin with /data/system/smb/ as here ?

 

I'm seeing different behavior, and I'm thinking Plex was never attempting to use PlexToZidoo at all. I went back in and cleared the defaults for the gallery app, then reselected PlexToZidoo when it asked what player I wanted to use.

Now I am getting this screen, and it opens the screen below, then I briefly see the Zidoo Video Player open on the Loading Video screen, and the Video Player closes, and the screen below appears again. So maybe I don't have the SMB information, correct?

 

I did some digging into SMB on my Zidoo and can confirm that HT4 and Media Center can access and play the files via SMB on my server.

I still have to think I have the Part of path to replace and Replaced with in my system settings incorrect. Can you share a screenshot of your settings and how they compare to your Plex Library folder paths?

 

Okay, I figured it out. Your app is using SMB2_02 to connect to the share. I had set my SMB server to use SM3_00 as the minimum protocol. So it couldn't connect.

192.168.1.157 is the Zidoo and 20990 is the PID your app used to access the file share, its using SMB2_02.



But if I have HT4 play that same :
PID for HT4 is 22357 and it is using SMB3_00


Don't suppose you could have your app use SMB3 for faster access?

 

@gogo789 - I'd like to thank you for creating this app. I might ask for a few things, like SMB3 to be used, and for a way to minimize/hide your app so you have a seamless transition between Plex and the Zidoo Video player, but what you have created is pretty awesome!

I just finished watching a show and it played flawlessly. I even turned the resume function in the Zidoo player back on and it is keeping per file resume points in place (vs what I was seeing when Plex directly called the Zidoo Video player.)

Great work, and with a little polish it will be sweet, transparent way bring Plex to the Zidoo Z9X.

 

Thank you for the time you spend to test my app, I'm working on it to add some functionnalities and a bit of polish, in the order :
- support for smb3 (I'm looking at the code of the Jellyfin Zidoo app to see how it's done)
- add support for resume to the plex viewing offset
- automatically set content watched with plex api
- add a system of cache to improve the speed to find media (I personnaly have more than 2000 items in my library and it takes several seconds to open)
- work on the ui, mostly to have a seamless transition from Plex to zidoo player.

 

That sounds very interesting. I will also test your app, as I am not really satisfied with my second client (LG TV with webos and jellyfin) in addition to the zidoo. The Plex client runs better on the LG TV. The only thing that kept me from switching to plex was the fact that there was no fully functional plex client for the Zidoo yet. That might have changed with their app.

Another question, is there a way that plex uses the nfo file?

 

That's exactly my problem too.
My server and my media are on a Windows machine:



and I'tried several settings:


I tried several settings but none worked.

Thanks for your work.

 

I'm not sure if it is related, but one of the things I did while troubleshooting was go into Media Center on the Zidoo and ensure I could access the SMB share via same exact same path as listed in PlextoZidoo app. I provided creds and they were saved in Media Center. You might give that a try,

 

Hello i cannot find External player in my Plex app

 

This setting is not enable in the TV UI. You need to stay in "Mobile mode" when you first install plex app, login, then go to Settings/Advanced/Player and enable external player. Then you can switch to "TV mode" in Settings/Experience if you want.

 

The problem is my the app , when i go in Mobile mode , i cannot move in between the app , i have to use an mouse?

 

Yes. I would recommend connecting a USB mouse and Keyboard, as you will need to logon to Plex with your credentials as well.

 

Bottom right of the Ziddoo remote is a button to go into mouse mode.

 

Hi all !

What a good idea

Do you think it could be possible to use NFS instead of SMB ?

Thank you

 

Thanks for your efforts with Plex. Your idea seems to be promising.
Just to be aware: Live TV works but trailers both kinds external (internet links in menu) and as well internal ones (local files in the same folder as movie) do not play. Sometimes Plex apk immediately crashing when I try to watch them.