PlexToZidoo : An external player for plex using native Zidoo player

I Link the print screen in the precedent post. The path look correct but when i lunch the movie nothing happen and after 20 s it goes back To the Plex screen.

 

Do you see the spinning white wheel? The page you posted tells me what PlexToZidoo sent to the zidoo player which is why I asked you if that path looked correct. Once I send it to the zidoo player it's out of my control. Have you tried manually playing these files on the zidoo? Try going into the Media Center app and selecting the SMB option in the menu on the left side. From there scan for your NAS if it isn't already shown and walking to the file through that. Make sure the path you take through there matches exactly with the path that's displayed on the PlexToZidoo debug screen. If it fails to play through there then maybe the file just isn't compatible. Not sure if you tried other movies or just that one.

 

This is absolutely amazing. I vastly prefer plex over HT4, so this has been what I've been looking for, for my zidoo. There's a couple UI oddities, where the text labels for dropdowns don't render correctly for some reason, but seems like a plex issue (potentially scaling since I'm running mine on a scope screen and have the UI set to 2.35:1?)

 

Thanks to all those contributing to this project!

I recently picked up a Z9X and trying to decide between Plex, Emby and Jellyfin that I have on my server PC. Playing around with the solutions for all 3 and so far they each have their quirks, so trying to see which one I land on for the most part. Plex is most familiar to me from years of using it.

I tried the android version for Plex referenced earlier here and ran in to too many random issues.

I do like this one, but am I blind or is there no alphabet letter selection? Navigating my 3000+ movie selection in one of the libraries is the only deal breaker I've found with this one yet.

 

I have the letters on the right side of mine. Maybe a scaling / over scan issue with your display?

 

Did you make sure to switch back to TV mode, and did it stick? The newer versions of Plex have a bug where they don't actually switch to TV mode. You need to load the 9.13.0.37280 version during setup and then after you've switched to TV mode you can then update to newer versions(if you want to).

 

Thanks, that might have been it. I just decided to uninstall everything and started from scratch last night and seems to be fine now.

 

Does anyone else have the issue where if they set the Plex app to auto start when the device is powered on, that it’s empty? I’m just assuming that the network stack or smb hasn’t actually setup yet. Going back to the app window then opening Plex again works as it should. It’s almost as if I could just inject a sleep that it would work perfectly.

Relating to this, is there a way to execute startup scripts on the Zidoo or make external calls? Using my harmony remote or even home assistant, being able to change the developer setting for background processes (since that resets on reboot) and being able to inject the sleep myself and then launch the Plex app would be awesome. Maybe something with ADB if these boxes can be rooted?

 

@fnhanks Maybe something could be done with the android tasker app or similar.

@bowlingbeeg Would it be possible to add an export/import settings to text or something similar. Just wondering how to quickly restore after hardware reset or such. It would also allow for adding shares easier from a PC in the text file and then importing on Zidoo.

 

Hmm I’ll have to look into it to see. Thanks!

Also, to try and reduce resyncs, is there a way to get the Plex menu to be in HDR?

 

I don't auto start plex with the zidoo but I just tried it and it seemed to work fine for me so I don't know why your system isn't working. I also tried Tasker but it didn't seem to detect that the system had booted so you'd probably have to use the monitor start event and then check the uptime of the system since the monitor can restart at other times. Or you could maybe just create a task with a wait time followed by starting plex and then use the Tasker App Factory to make a new app based on that task. Then you could auto start that new app.

As far as I know there isn't a way to programatically change the background process limit in the developer options. I have seen some people say it's possible but they either require root or only worked on really old levels of Android. And there isn't a way to root this device, at least that anyone has found yet.

 

I guess I haven't found it necessary to restore things yet and if I do I have all of my media under one volume so it's pretty straight forward to type it in(I always keep a keyboard attached). I can look into it but as I've stated before I'm not an Android developer so we'll see if it's something I can figure out how to do.

 

Yes, I was just thinking about it last night when adding all my Windows shares. I use a Raspberry pi 4 SMB server for my TV series and short term movies and a Windows server for my long term storage so I have two plex servers many shares in lots of different locations and folders. The good thing is I was able to add them all to PlexToZidoo, but it did take quite a bit of time. I can always copy and paste it myself into a text file for backup. I am testing if I can use Plex instead of HT4 on the Zidoo, and so far I haven't found any reason why not. It even lets me play back my 3D MVC MKV files as long as Zidoo is set to automatically change resolution and refresh rate.

 

There is possible root support, but I don't think it's worth the risk, and people say it's not working properly. I haven't found the background process limit to be a big problem.
Magisk - Root Zidoo Media players(RTD1619DR) (futeko.com)

 

This project seems to be gaining some traction so I stickied it.

 

yay, this work like a charm.

 

Am I correct in understanding that this does not allow me to use a Plex share that is not on my local network? (I have a friend who shares his Plex library with me. If I could do this on the Zidoo then I would get rid of my Shield and use this instead...)

 

For the most part you are correct, this doesn't work with remote plex servers. The PlexToZidoo app just ignores remote streaming sessions and passes it off to the zidoo player. I have found that some movies will play this way but most won't. The PlexToZidoo app also can't update the watched status or the resume point for remote streams. I tried to get that to work but you need the remote plex server's credentials to update some of that info. So you can always give it a try and see if it works for you because I'd like to hear what other people have found, but for the most part PlexToZidoo won't work with remote streams.

 

I tested it and I have to say... good job!
But then I have a problem: the forced subs are gone.
Neither in the film nor in the menu (player) do they appear.

So unfortunately not usable for me yet.

Is there a way to fix this?

 

I didn’t have issues with subs here. Plex allows you to override what gets streamed. If you were relying on HT4 and the native Zidoo settings to display subs, you might need to update the flags/headers in your mkvs to ensure they are correct. Or check that you don’t have any overrides specified in Plex which negate the headers.