KODI - ZDMC - MATRIX 19.5 - NEXUS 20 - 21

I have been updating threads that it is out too.

I have turned of external player and am playing MP4 Dolby Vision (TV Led) and HDR + DD+ EA3 Dolby Atmos

Have locked to 23.976 and have switched the audio passthrough output device to

Video looks great, the If Zidoo was able to debug the audio engine the combination of these two below would be completely functional. Anyways, just thought I would play around with it a little bit. I did a clean install of ZDMC as well.


Tested with External Player OFF in ZDMC 19.4

AudioTrack (ICE), Kodi IEC packer (recommended)

Dolby Digital (AC3) Capable is on (Dolby 5.1 /YES)
Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) is not available (MISSING) . rebooted again and it was there, but still no Atmos.
DTS Capable is on (DTS OK)
DTS-HD Capable is on (DTS-X YES and in sync)
TRUE-HD Capable is on (TrueHD ATMOS YES, but out of sync )

AudioTrack (RAW), Android IEC packer

Dolby Digital (AC3) Capable is on (Dolby 5.1 OK in sync)
Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) (E-AC3 DD+ ATMOS YES, but out of sync I think)
DTS Capable is on (DTS OK in sync)
DTS-HD Capable is on (DTS-X NO)
TRUE-HD Capable is on (TrueHD ATMOS NO)

 

This bug has been around since 18.7 or 18.9. I cannot believe they have not fix it.

 

It is interesting because , ZDMC could almost be used without ZidooPlayer external calls if this was the case. I realize Zidoo's answer is be lucy we continue to delivery ZDMC updates but it is intersting DV is working pretty nicely as well in ZDMC without external player calls. You would think Realtek could make some minor adjustment in their code to account for the TrueHD bug. I am not complaining , just thinking if its that close , why not just polish it up a little and the answer for me has to be Zidoo doesn't see necessary to push back on Realtek hard enough for a working solution.

 

Better yet, they should fix the default/forced flag issues with MKV on the internal player. Kodi on the Zidoo honors both flags so it is NOT a Realtek issue but a coding issue on the HT4 player.

 

A few questions about ZDMC. Zdmc is a full Kodi adapted for the Zidoo. What are the optimal settings for Zdmc and how does it work with the external player? Do I necessarily need this to be able to play movies via ZDMC properly? Are there any restrictions compared to the HT? Which skin runs the fastest and most stable on the ZDMC?

What are the best settings when all media is offline on my NAS? I scrape my movies and series with TinyMediaManager.

 

Same as kodi,

can use UPNP, SMB, NTS, FTP USB etc. etc. You can even export all the kodi .nfo files and artwork to be scraped locally by HT 4.0 . Kodi does a great job with metadata and pulling in what is needed. I use Aura mod but there are many to choose from.

See Kodi Wiki, ZDMC is based on Kodi 19.4. and is simply external player to send all video / audio processing to ZidooPlayer used by HT 4.0 / Posterwall

 

My question is based off on a thread I recently opened: is it likely we can then use ZDMC Kodi to receive dolby digital signal on a sonos beam, by selecting "Allow Passthrough" and turning on "Dolby Digital (AC3) Capable Receiver" and "Enable Dolby Digital (AC3) Transcoding? Because through the native zidoo player, I am not able to get dolby digital 5.1 from for ex, dts-hd ma 5.1 tracks despite selecting raw in zidoo's audio settings. I was able to successfully get dolby digital 5.1 on the shield by turning on the above-mentioned settings in kodi in my shield.

Thank you

 

I could be wrong but since the external player is processing audio and video that likely will not work. If you toggle external off. You may have some luck with Kodi or Android Iec output but it's not going to solve all the issues. I would be shocked if Kodi donmixes and then sends the external player for output. Once the zidoo player takes over it just plays the stream.

Update: Tested this and selected that AVR only is AC3 compatible and it does not matter, The hard coded send to zidoo player in ZDMC just ignores it and takes a whats goes in goes out appoach. Ie. TrueHD Atmos or EAC3 Atmos from Source is what is played in Zidooplayer even if you check that you do not have TrueHD capable reciever etc. That ony applies when you are using Kodis internal media playback, (ie. turning off external player) option located in Settings/Player/ First Option on the top " Play video with eternal player"

 

Personally i doubt it’ll work coz in ZDMC the zidoo native player replaces Kodi’s built in player. Me suspect only the path to the media file is passed to zidoo native player. Even the watched status is not passed back to ZDMC. I would then expect the audio behaviour to be the same as HT4/native player.

 

Can you not choose to downmix TrueHD to ac3 and DTS to core in the Zidoo settings?
I’m sure you can.

 

I have to actually turn on the bypass audio setting in my sony tv, this resovled all issues, i can now use zidoo's native player and enjoy dd 5.1 or dts 5.1 sound on my beam. Thanks for the repply @DaMacFunkin and @boxerfan

I made the very wrong assumption that audio bypass was a default process...that it would happen regardless, I did not know my TV actually had an option for turning it on and off - so it's not a question of if the tv supports dts/dd 5.1 bypass but is it enabled on the tv...

 

Howdy Folks..
Have just got a Z9X, and pretty down about the HT4.0, as it seems it will not play any of my old AVI Files, which I have many.
So I downloaded ZDMC 19.4.. worked out to get to my files, and woohoo, they all work...

But I have a few hundred questions about ZDMC..

1. How do I add a library ? I went to "enter files Section" added a SHARE, ( which BTW would not save the U and P for next time ) but it still come up on the fort screen, "Your Library is currently Empty"... wht do I do ?
2. Does ZDMC, create a poster wall ?? and if so, how..
3. I saw a video on it, and it had a great Skin and simple menus etc.. how do I do that, I downloaded another skin, but nothing has changed ??

IS there some better instructions on setup or anything out there... sort of hoping ZDMC can save my arse on this Z9X, as my 12 YO PCH-200 and 300's still play everything, and have great YAMJ SKins and menus ]... just not 4K Playback etc..

Please Help !! Starting to get really down about the Zidoo purchase !

CHeers,

 

Hi Jasper,
since ZDMC is basically Kodi using Zidoo's internal player, you should find all answers in any of the many Kodi beginner's guides/videos. I suggest you start at the official Kodi wiki.

Kodi can of course do a poster wall (in lots of variants) and has many great skins and addons as you already saw for yourself. To use a skin, you need to activate and configure it in settings.

Enjoy it, Kodi is a world to discover; I'm very happy with Z9X+ZMDC

 

Thanks Gelto,
Will hit it again this evening, now I have some reference material, thank you.
I expect to annoy you guys a couple of times during this process, .. so please bear with me.

Looking forward to wrapping my mind around it all...

CHeers,

 

Agree totally! Kodi has had a lot of time to develop as a content library and after 5 years of use (with a HiMedia Q10 Pro) it was a very easy transistion to the Z1000 Pro + ZDMC.
I use the Video/Files route to find what I want to watch from various folders on multiple drives and NAS's (which are not all switched on at the same time), much easier than having every movie dumped on a single page.

The default settings in ZDMC use the Zidoo hardware Player well for Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and 720p/1080p rips (and then Kodi player is used for older standard 480p/576p grade rips).
Whilst I like the fresher look of HT4.0, it is slow to use and has a way to go before meeting my viewing needs and rather large library.
I certainly recommend trying ZDMC for those having niggling issues with HT4.0, as they can both be on the player at the same time.

 

Thanks Phil181,
This sounds like the exact pill I need to swallow...
Now its just a matter of wrapping my head around it.

I have a Windows Server 2022, sharing my collection, all in one place, with some of the videos dating back to mid 2000's...

Your comment ...
The default settings in ZDMC use the Zidoo hardware Player well for Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and 720p/1080p rips (and then Kodi player is used for older standard 480p/576p grade rips).
Surprises me, the files that won't play through HT4, do work through my basic install of ZDMC... I would have expected, if ZDMC is is using the Zidoo player it would have also failed.. strange.

Anyhoo, just starting this journey, I am sure I am missing something.

Cheers,

 

Sure thing. Feel free to ask, always glad to help

I'm happily using Kodi on several clients (one of them is the Z9X) with a centralised Maria-DB running on my router, which acts as a NAS as well.

 

SD movies played by Kodi can show up under "in progress movies" in the main menu.
Wheras PosterWall shows the ones played by Zidoo player under "watching" (they are not seen by Kodi but can be ticked as "watched" or "unwatched")
Both will resume play in ZDMC from where you left, as expected.

 

Yeah, I noticed that, too. In ZMDC "watched"/"unwatched" needs to be set manually. Probably the internal Zidoo player doesn't report the state back to ZMDC.

 

1) I am just curious, in Kodi/ZDMC, it's not necessary to turn on framerate/resolution matching if you already have it one in zidoo settings, correct?

2) the default player that's used by ZDMC is the default zidoo player right, we don't need to make any changes here?