Plex client for Zidoo devices - ZidooPlexMod

Overview:

The native android Plex app on a Zidoo device does not take advantage of the native hardware while playing media. So I've created a fork of the Kodi addon PM4K and called it ZidooPlexMod. This forked Kodi addon along with a secondary app, PlexToZidoo, will use the native Zidoo player to play your Plex Server media so that we can take advantage of the hardware on the Zidoo devices.

Basically the ZidooPlexMod is the client interface that accesses your plex media. It sends the plex stream to the PlexToZidoo which does the path substitution and then sends that to the native Zidoo player so it can access the media directly. That path substitution is key so that the native Zidoo player can access internal/external subtitles.
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Installation/Setup:

1. You'll need to install Kodi/ZDMC first. Here is the link to ZDMC:
   http://apidl.zidoo.tv/app/zdmc-20.2_rtk.apk
2. Add https://bowlingbeeg.github.io/bowlingbeeg.kodi/ to your Kodi/ZDMC installation as a file source
3. Go back to addons, choose zip file, choose the file source you just added and install the bowlingbeeg.kodi repository
4. Install ZidooPlexMod by going to Addons->Install from repository->bowlingbeeg.kodi->Video add-ons->ZidooPlexMod
5. Now you'll need to install the PlexToZidoo app which can be found here:
   https://github.com/bowlingbeeg/PlexToZidoo/releases
   
6. Open the PlexToZidoo app and fill in the following substitution settings for:
   - "Part of path to replace"
   - "Replaced with".
   The rest can be left as default. This step can be tricky because the path replacement all depends on how your media is shared over the network. One way to better understand what the path should look like after the substitution is to use the Media Center app on the Zidoo and navigate to your media. This will show you the path that the Zidoo player needs. Then use the PlexToZidoo debug screen to see what the final "Path Substitution" it used. Once you get this working you can toggle off the debug screen in the PlexToZidoo settings.
7. Open Kodi/ZDMC and navigate to the Addons section and start the ZidooPlexMod addon. If you would like the addon to always start when you start Kodi/ZDMC you will find that in the settings inside the addon under the "System" heading. You can also have Kodi/ZDMC start automatically on boot by highlighting the app and pressing the menu key and selecting "Launch on startup" in the apps section of the Zidoo menus. So on a reboot it should boot directly into Kodi/ZDMC and then automatically start ZidooPlexMod.

Custom library layout:

NOTE: If you're using ZDMC the <kodi_path> referenced below is:

/Storage/Android/data/com.zidoo.zdmc/files/.kodi​

1. Copy the file, customlayout.xml, from <kodi_path>/addons/script.zidooplexmod/ to <kodi_path>/userdata/addon_data/script.zidooplexmod/.
2. Edit the copied version(the one in /userdata/addon_data) of customlayout.xml with the layout you want. You can have unique layouts for each server and user, a default one that everyone shares, or a combination of both. See the customlayout.xml file for details.

Here is an example of what the Kodi addon looks like.



How to collect debug traces:

1. Turn on debug in the ZidooPlexMod settings
2. Exit out of ZidooPlexMod
3. Exit out of Kodi.
4. Start up Kodi
5. Start up ZidooPlexMod
6. Recreate the issue.
7. Collect the kodi.log file from:
   1. /Storage/Android/data/com.zidoo.zdmc/files/.kodi/temp/kodi.log
8. DM @bowlingbeeg and I'll give you a place to upload the file.

 

Pushed version 0.3.4 to the bowlingbeeg.kodi repo. This has some upstream fixes for performance issues with large libraries.

 

The look of this kodi plex addon is better than I thought!

Do you need the "_G" version of the Zidoo Z9X Pro firmware to use all this? I prefer not using the "_G" if possible.

Also, will it remember where you left off in a movie and all other standard Plex functionalities?

Thanks for this mod!

 

You do not need the "_G" version. And yes it acts like other Plex clients. This isn't really new, people have been using it for awhile now so is pretty stable.

 

After trial and error got it to work. Needed to be:

{
"auto_play": false,
"debug": true,
"exclude_libraries": "",
"libraries": "*",
"path_to_replace": "/volume1/data",
"replaced_with": "smb://192.168.0.202/data",
"showTitle": true,
"useZidooPlayer": true
}

Thanks for the guidance!

 

Appreciate all the help. Have gotten Plex up, working, and replaced my Shield Pro 2019! The VS10 chip makes all DV content look flawless. No red push issue like the Shield Pro; literally the best I've ever seen content. I have no streaming subs so getting Plex working was everything for me. Posting some information here for future users.

From a brand new Zidoo Z9X Pro I first needed to map the Unraid SMB share. The Zidoo will not find this share until "Enable NetBIOS" is enabled in Unraid settings (or TrueNAS). Once enabled, the Z9X Pro will appropriately find the SMB. I typed in every format of SMB address until I found the advice in another thread here.

I then installed the pre-requisite ZDMC 20.2 (the Zidoo version of Kodi). Once this was installed, I moved the ZidooPlexMod zip to a spot on my SMB, and installed it into the Kodi add-ons.

Afterwords, start PlexToZidoo. For a docker Plex install, the "path to replace" is the container path, in my case it's "/data". Type in the full SMB path as the replacement string, reference what is already in the "/data" path in docker. For instance on my Plex install, "/data" is mapped to "/mnt/user/Media/plex/media/". The SMB substitution path is then "smb://192.168.1.5/Media/plex/media". The IP address of the server replaces the "mnt/user" section of the filepath.

Using "Office Space" as an example. Get Info in Plex will show the following location: "data/movies/Office Space (1999)/...". The path substitution will transform that into:
"smb://192.168.1.5/Media/plex/media/movies/Office Space (1999)/..." and directly play that from the SMB path.

Sorry if this was obvious to some of the folks here, but hopefully this will help someone in the future. In retrospect it was obvious, but ZDMC = Kodi, that tripped me up a little.

 

Yes I know but I heard using the Plex app on the old Z9X showed the mobile version which looks bad and I never saw how the Kodi/ZDMC addon looked like.

Can you use search and do you see actors and can you browse their filmography on the page of movies etc.

Do you know of any videos on youtube or elsewhere that shows the different pages and functions of this addon?

 

Yes there is a search feature and yes you can click on the actors and it will show you other movies on your server with those actors in it but it doesn't have their bio. I don't know of any youtube videos on it. It's probably easiest to just try it out and ask questions if you can't figure out how to do something.

 

Ok thank you!

 

Is there a "Library" tab where you can browse the full contents of each Plex folder?

For instance in my "movies-4k" folder. I see "Continue Watching", "Recently Released", etc. But I don't see the "Library" tab to browse all of the films in that folder.

 

Once you've highlighted the library along the top row you just click the "OK" button and you'll be taken to the full list of media in that library. From that screen then you can filter/sort based on a whole bunch of options or you can switch to the collections or folder view. And currently there are three different ways to view your media in that screen, large poster, small poster, or list view.

 

Found a youtube video that shows some of the things. It's a little old but the interface is mostly the same.

 

How do you get the latest version? In ZDMC I have 'Auto-update' on but the add on is still showing 0.3.3 as the latest version.

 

Perfect. Really appreciate all the effort you've put in. Plex with the Zidoo VS10 powered internal player is seriously the GOAT method for 4K HDR remux playback.

One more question. When I start any Dolby Vision content, it plays 1 second of the video. Goes to a blank screen. Then continues again with the DV logos showing on the screen.

Do you know how to stop the initial 1 second playback? It can be very jarring with audio.

 

I think you need to install the addon from his repository and not as a zip file like you did:

1. Add https://bowlingbeeg.github.io/bowlingbeeg.kodi/ to your Kodi/ZDMC installation as a file source
2. Go back to addons, choose zip file, choose the file source you just added and install the bowlingbeeg.kodi repository
3. Install ZidooPlexMod by going to Addons->Install from repository->bowlingbeeg.kodi->Video add-ons->ZidooPlexMod

 

As @Creator44 said you need to install from the repo to get the auto update to work. If you did that I'm not sure how often Kodi checks for updates but you can force a manual refresh by going to the "install from repo" option in the addons section, selecting the bowlingbeeg.kodi repo, and then click to the left and select "Check for updates".

 

My guess is that 1 second blank is the HDMI resync with your TV. Can't really be avoided especially with HDR movies since the GUI isn't in HDR.

 

Thanks, I did install from repo but was not looking in correct place for update. Thanks again for all the effort put in for this!

 

I noticed using the standard file browser Media Center in the Z9X Pro that some videos start playing for 1 seconds and then the framerate and resolution switching occurs after that 1 second, causing the black screen while syncing with the TV.

It's kind of annoying but it happens only on smaller video files for me not on the big movie files.

It's quite possible that's a Zidoo Internal Player lag thing that I'm not sure ZDMC or your addon can fix at all.

 

Having a new year reshuffle...

Created dedicated Jellyfin & Plex forums.

Hope no-one gets lost