I am new to this so please bear with me. I tried Jellyfin but it didn't suit all my needs so I got a Z20 pro which does exactly what I want (in theory). I see a lot about using jellyfin and zidoo together. What I see for a combination is that jellyfin can map the hard drive on my zidoo and then serve it to remote clients. Is there more to it than this? Am I missing something?
Yes, you are correct. Remote Jellyfin server installed on another device like PC can map Zidoo attached drives available as SAMBA shares. You could install Jellyfin client and read those files that will be streamed back to Zidoo from local drives through the server. Using custom Jellyfin client for Zidoo and direct path is not working for local drives. Quick fix is to disable local path and use streaming through the server. Local files play very well from Home Theater app.
