JellyfinTv Zidoo-Edition support post

I am going to try this with my Jellyfin Unraid server tonight, but have a few questions:

1. My current libraries aren't setup with the "direct path" options stated on the github page. Are direct path options required, or is it to reduce using extra bandwidth transmitting over the net?

2. If direct paths aren't required, does either make a difference in regards to watched states/resume playback?

3. Does JF handle any of the watched state/resume playback, or is that handled from the Zidoo external player?

 

1. No, its there as a alternative if you encounter playback issues.
2. No
3. JF server handles all states, you can use the JF trakt plugin to import/backup watched states, but the server will sync the states to any client-device that you connect too.
   • thats because JF is multi-user aware, so all settings/states are stored per user not per device, on the server
     
   • so every JF user can resume there states from whatever device (browser, phone, Zidoo, TV-App)

 

Thanks for the feedback. Does JF pass a command line argument for resume to Zidoo's media player then? How does the external player know where to start the file? Or is JF on Zidoo using it's own OSD instead of Zidoo's?

 

On new FW we use a special android player API that implements interaction between the JF app and the zidoo player and on older FW we use the old http player API.
So playback pos, audio/sub selection, images are all set via those API's if supported and than the player reports back to the client, which than gets send to the JF server.

 

I've had Plex/Emby/JF on my Unraid server for quite awhile, but every time I've tried JF as a client I run into issues, but I haven't tried it much for the last few months. I wiped my server install and started over after having some issues again with clients testing this out. That turned out to be a waste of two days unfortunately. It's nothing on your end @andy22 just JF specifically. The resume play works fine, but just certain things are broken/unpolished in general. Like certain shows that should show up under Next Up don't show up, and latest movies/TV shows don't always appear on the home screen. Most of it is pretty random, some clients will show things other clients don't with the same user logged in. Clearing app settings/uninstalling-reinstalling the app doesn't seem to fix it. Had an issue last night on Zidoo where I scaled down the JF interface too small and it would instantly kick me out of the app with a crash. That took awhile to fix. Some of my TV shows I looked at last night, like Handmaid's Tale that the wife wanted to watch didn't show up under Next Up, even though S01->S04 are all marked played. Then I went into the season folder and the shows are in order of S02, S03, S04, S05, S01. So I had to manually put season orders in to fix that, even though they were all blank and show up correctly with Plex/Emby. Even after that, and her watching the first episode last night, the 2nd one isn't showing up under Next Up.

It's all just very frustrating. So I went back to using Emby for Android TV build on the Zidoo, as that works with no issues as long as you have it set to use the external (Zidoo) player in settings. The resume doesn't work though, which was the logic for this JF build test. If I turn on Zidoo's internal text resume function, and hit play (not resume) in Emby, it will play back the file correctly at the resume point, but it doesn't save it per file, it must be calling each file "stream" or something. I'm not sure if there is a way to get Emby to work better with resume, but I don't see the ability for direct file path in the server like JF has. I'm open to any suggestions.

 

@cwills75
Did not notice the "Next Up" issue myself, so without a testcase i cant fix it.
It might just be a refresh issue that i already fixed in the upcoming beta, where the home-row's would not refresh after you watched something.

In general the different clients use the server api in different ways, while there is a general "Next up" query call to the server, you include filters and sorting options. So those extra parameters can differ from client to client, which results in different final "Next Up" results.

The "too small" issue should be fixed in the new beta, since i did rework how the sizes are handled in general.

Plex/Emby do not use any of the new/old Zidoo API's and probably will never, so resume and position handling can't work correctly, fixing this was originally the main purpose if my JF version.

PS: Keep in mind that you have to pay for the Emby/Plex app's and if you want to use trakt.tv or hardware transcoding you also need a subscription.
That's just to say that Plex/Emby dev's are full-time employees that get payed, while all of the JF server/clients are done by volunteers in there free-time.
So bugs/issues and lack of polish is just a consequence of this.

 

What I'm seeing with The Handmaid's Tale in general, is there is no Next Up even in the show's folder, like I see in other folders where it is working. I'm going to completely remote the files, delete all images/metadata and start over on that one to see if it resolves it.

Plex/Emby both seem to have moved to the mpv player. I don't know if they use external players in any of their client builds, but doing so would break their playback OSD, so maybe not. I'm happy Emby at least allows the use of plugins and external players. With the Emby Theater Windows client, with the external player you can add command line arguments for resume support, but that option doesn't exist with the Android version.

I have lifetime licenses for both Plex/Emby and have no issues paying for commercial software, but I also support open-source and appreciate your efforts with this branch (I didn't see a "buy me a coffee" sort of support link on your Github, but I may have missed it. I know many devs allow contributions by way of paypal or crypto or whatever). There are too many issues in JF in general for me to open up my server to friends/family who are used to things just working with Plex/Emby, and they each have their UI preferences that keeps them on one or the other. I've kept JF on my server as I'd like to eventually move myself to it for a variety of reasons, but the WAF holds it back. That said, I'm going to continue to do whatever I can on my end to make it work right, and can try and provide constructive feedback.

 

Andy, does the new firmware just released have the necessary changes for the next release of your Jellyfin app?

 

I would guess so, need to test. Still having some open issues to fix, before a new beta.

 

Thanks Andy

 

Is there any way to set skip forward/back duration on the remote for JF on Zidoo with the external player? I'd prefer skip forward like 30s and skip back 10s if that's possible. I have in general Zidoo settings up arrow as 1 minute skip ahead, but the skip forward/back are really touchy as-is.

 

Skipping is handled by the Zidoo player, so you have to ask the Zidoo devs to improve/implement those settings.

 

OK, thanks. I emailed them, but I don't know how receptive they are with things like this. I didn't know if there was any sort of workaround with I wasn't aware of.

 

Is there a very newbie friendly guide to downloading and installing Jellyfin on the Zidoo player? I went through both threads here, Github and McBluna but I didn't see anything. How does a new user start from scratch with this?

If I already have Jellyfin installed on my Synology NAS (not via Docker), can I use that or do I need to start fresh?

By newbie I'm thinking talk your grandma through this.

 

New beta 0.15.0 is out. I hope not too many changes that affect your version. Too bad your changes don’t get merged into main branch
https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin/comments/ytj7mj/android_tv_v0150beta1/

 

On my server (SynoCommunity install direct on NAS) I have added custom CSS to hide Cast & Crew Photos and More Like This options from appearing. When I browse my collection on the server, it works.

Just installed on my Z9X and neither are hidden. Does the custom CSS not come through the Zidoo?

 

Additional feedback and questions. Server is 10.8.5, and I'm running 0.14.9 beta 11 client on the Zidoo downloaded yesterday. The positive is the speed and performance. I setup HT4 last night once I unboxed the Z9X, when browsing Movies the Jellyfin client loads images and scrolls much more smoothly and quickly.

I've never used Jellyfin previously other than setting up the Server and adding all my content etc, so apologies if some of these are general Jellyfin questions/feedback. I have been in their Matrix chat and using Twitter for general support but not having much luck with feedback there. I've managed to play around with the menus and solved a bunch of things myself like hiding the Rotten Tomato rating from the movie poster, but the things below & CSS display issue in my previous post I haven't worked out yet.

1. On the server when you go into Movies or Shows you get a menu banner across the top with Movies, Suggestions, Trailer, Favourites, Collections & Genres for Movies and in Shows you get Shows, Suggestions, Upcoming, Grenres, TV Networks & Episodes. Should these be available from the Zidoo? I would love to see TV Networks in Shows or Genres in both Movies and Shows as a quick select item.

2. On the Home screen in the server you can click the headings like Next Up or Latest Movies and see all the Next episodes. On Zidoo you can only scroll left to right to see them, not on a whole page. Can the Next Up and other headings function the same as they do via the server?

3. On the Home screen there are padding issues, if you select any field in My Media, it overlaps with whatever module you have below it, i.e. Next Up. Does this no matter what size settings you have enabled for the Home screen or how many posters you have on each row. Changing the Card-Spacing doesn't fix the issue either. I can take some photos if this helps.

4. When browsing movies with the Zidoo, the A-Z alphabet quick jump on the right side of the screen isn't available. Can it be added, similar exists within HT4? Similarly how do you quickly jump to the top menu to use filters or access the settings if you're not at the very top of the Movies page?

5. If there is no A-Z menu on the right side to display, can continually pressing Right on the remote wrap to the next line and continue scrolling rather than stopping at a dead end?

Thanks.

 

How do I access crash reports on the server? I was watching a show and playback just stopped, said the file was not supported after 35 minutes of playing a 42 minute episode. Did the same with another show earlier in the day. When I exit the show and go back to the Jellyfin home screen on the player, it only shows me Movies and all the TV Shows are missing.

When I check Reports on the server I can see VideoPlayback started but no errors or reason why it stopped. I don't see anything in the Playback Reporting plugin to indicate what's happening either. I had to reboot the Z9X to resume playback after it crashed on the first show, this time that didn't work. Ethernet says still connected, NAS is still running and I can playback the same file via the Jellyfin server no issue.

Trying to restart Jellyfin Zidoo it asks Who's Watching, I try to select the account or existing server and it basically doesn't connect. It's like the connection to the server dropped but it doesn't let me select Quick Connect either or the existing server from the list. 2nd reboot connection seems restored but the show I'm watching comes up as complete, doesn't let me resume from where we left off either.

Ultimately curious what's causing it to crash, where to access the crash report from to investigate more.

EDIT: In the Dashboard under Advanced I found Logs and pulled what I could relating to the crash and dumped it in Pastebin here - https://pastebin.com/UFiTQEwH

There seems to be a lot of "Slow HTTP Response" with Code 204 throughout the log regardless what file I'm playing. The log gets interesting around 18:21:43.843 and 18:30:09.919. When the episode failed I tried to go back to Up Next and resume the episode but the module disappeared, so I went into Shows but it was empty. Only Movies were displayed, and that's when I closed the app and tried to relaunch it. Rebooting the playing eventually brought it back but I confirmed the network was still connected and noticed no other faults with it. Gbit Asus switch Cat5e ethernet no more than 25m cable length between the Zidoo and the switch, the NAS is on a 1.5m cable from the switch on gbit as well.

EDIT 2: Turns out the Slow HTTP Response isn't part of the problem. Haven't had any playback issues with playback stopping abruptly since, but the slow response messages were a false flag - https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin/comments/tcgnmk/slow_http_response_from_https/

 

Found another issue, not sure if general Jellyfin or not. I created a Playlist tonight to see how I could sort the MCU and what the experience on the player would be like. When you go into the Playlist and either click Play or Play from here, Jellyfin crashes on the Zidoo player. If you click Open, it'll take you to the movie page and you can play it from there.

Once you stop the movie, it takes you back to the Playlist view but the movie you played isn't listed any more, instead the first title in the list is displayed twice as a duplicate (including duration). If you leave the Playlist then go back in, it displays the right titles.

[2022-12-24 22:15:26.817 +10:00] [INF] [33] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "sc-jellyfin". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2022-12-24 22:15:26.817 +10:00] [INF] [33] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: StreamBuilder.BuildVideoItem( Profile="AndroidTV-Zidoo-External", Path="/volume1/Media/Movies/The 5th Wave (2016).mkv", AudioStreamIndex=1, SubtitleStreamIndex=null ) => ( PlayMethod=DirectPlay, TranscodeReason=0 ) "media:/videos/47937613-afc2-d650-c586-3b26e5e29bb7/stream.mkv?MediaSourceId=47937613afc2d650c5863b26e5e29bb7&Static=true&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=ac3&AudioStreamIndex=1&api_key=<token>&Tag=07d6827d826ec6b82f520d8fa68c1c3b"
[2022-12-24 22:15:28.831 +10:00] [WRN] [58] Jellyfin.Server.Middleware.ResponseTimeMiddleware: Slow HTTP Response from "http://192.168.1.3:8096/Items/47937...maxHeight=1080&quality=90&format=Webp&blur=16" to "192.168.1.166" in 0:00:01.3044111 with Status Code 200
[2022-12-24 22:15:32.474 +10:00] [INF] [44] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionManager: Playback stopped reported by app "Android TV" "0.14.9-zidoo_edition.beta11" playing "The 5th Wave". Stopped at "0" ms
[2022-12-24 22:15:33.194 +10:00] [INF] [66] Jellyfin.Plugin.PlaybackReporting.EventMonitorEntryPoint: Playback stop did not have a tracker : "0e95a18cc32dde38a4e5e51335c07a17e703ef60-a5021a4aaa9c42a7a7c3879d51e87847-47937613afc2d650c5863b26e5e29bb7"
[2022-12-24 22:15:33.194 +10:00] [WRN] [44] Jellyfin.Server.Middleware.ResponseTimeMiddleware: Slow HTTP Response from "http://192.168.1.3:8096/Sessions/Playing/Stopped" to "192.168.1.166" in 0:00:00.7269386 with Status Code 204

As for Collections, I created a Christmas one and while the server gives you a wall of posters to select from, once you open the collection on the Zidoo you only get 1 row you have to navigate left/right on. 80% of the screen is empty and it's annoying to go left/right for everything when there's no need. Would love to see collections display a poster wall instead like the main Movies screen.

Finally, when I change the images on a movie poster and go back to the movie screen, it constantly jumps back to the top of the screen and you have to scroll back down to the title you last edited. I can select C and it'll jump to the top of C's, so at least it remembers that, but it's wildly annoying to edit a title then have the page refresh back to the very top instead of remembering your position. Though this happens on the server so I'm going to try and flag it with the Jellyfin team again even though I'm not getting very much joy from them on Twitter or Matrix.

 

Anyone know why this failed to play? Go to the show, select Play and virtually nothing happens and you're back at the episode screen almost immediately. I checked via Media Centre and it plays fine on the Z9X. Went back to the server to confirm file path & it plays on the Jellyfin server fine as well. Anyone have similar issues before or know what would be behind the playback issue?

[2022-12-26 09:54:18.937 +10:00] [INF] [61] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "sc-jellyfin". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2022-12-26 09:54:18.944 +10:00] [INF] [61] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: StreamBuilder.BuildVideoItem( Profile="AndroidTV-Zidoo-External", Path="/volume1/Media/TV/The Simpsons/Season 1 (DVD)/S01E01 - Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire.mkv", AudioStreamIndex=1, SubtitleStreamIndex=null ) => ( PlayMethod=DirectPlay, TranscodeReason=0 ) "media:/videos/67af1629-79b4-032b-001f-3992e205f0be/stream.mkv?MediaSourceId=67af162979b4032b001f3992e205f0be&Static=true&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=mp3&AudioStreamIndex=1&api_key=<token>&Tag=256f95e94f831f5fe9a4a259981d0409"
[2022-12-26 09:54:23.104 +10:00] [INF] [88] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "sc-jellyfin". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2022-12-26 09:54:23.104 +10:00] [INF] [88] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: StreamBuilder.BuildVideoItem( Profile="AndroidTV-Zidoo-External", Path="/volume1/Media/TV/The Simpsons/Season 1 (DVD)/S01E01 - Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire.mkv", AudioStreamIndex=1, SubtitleStreamIndex=null ) => ( PlayMethod=DirectPlay, TranscodeReason=0 ) "media:/videos/67af1629-79b4-032b-001f-3992e205f0be/stream.mkv?MediaSourceId=67af162979b4032b001f3992e205f0be&Static=true&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=mp3&AudioStreamIndex=1&api_key=<token>&Tag=256f95e94f831f5fe9a4a259981d0409"
[2022-12-26 09:54:25.410 +10:00] [INF] [92] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionManager: Playback stopped reported by app "Android TV" "0.14.9-zidoo_edition.beta11" playing "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Stopped at "0" ms
[2022-12-26 09:54:26.038 +10:00] [INF] [96] Jellyfin.Plugin.PlaybackReporting.EventMonitorEntryPoint: Playback stop did not have a tracker : "0e95a18cc32dde38a4e5e51335c07a17e703ef60-a5021a4aaa9c42a7a7c3879d51e87847-67af162979b4032b001f3992e205f0be"
[2022-12-26 09:54:27.018 +10:00] [INF] [33] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "sc-jellyfin". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2022-12-26 09:54:27.018 +10:00] [INF] [33] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: StreamBuilder.BuildVideoItem( Profile="AndroidTV-Zidoo-External", Path="/volume1/Media/TV/The Simpsons/Season 1 (DVD)/S01E01 - Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire.mkv", AudioStreamIndex=1, SubtitleStreamIndex=null ) => ( PlayMethod=DirectPlay, TranscodeReason=0 ) "media:/videos/67af1629-79b4-032b-001f-3992e205f0be/stream.mkv?MediaSourceId=67af162979b4032b001f3992e205f0be&Static=true&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=mp3&AudioStreamIndex=1&api_key=<token>&Tag=256f95e94f831f5fe9a4a259981d0409"
[2022-12-26 09:54:28.952 +10:00] [INF] [88] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionManager: Playback stopped reported by app "Android TV" "0.14.9-zidoo_edition.beta11" playing "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Stopped at "0" ms
[2022-12-26 09:54:29.537 +10:00] [INF] [98] Jellyfin.Plugin.PlaybackReporting.EventMonitorEntryPoint: Playback stop did not have a tracker : "0e95a18cc32dde38a4e5e51335c07a17e703ef60-a5021a4aaa9c42a7a7c3879d51e87847-67af162979b4032b001f3992e205f0be"