Plex client for Zidoo devices - ZidooPlexMod

@bowlingbeeg ,
I think I found a bug or, at least, an omission of functionality in PlexToZidoo/ZidooPlexMod combo.

When I play a file from ZidooPlexMod to PlexToZidoo to Zidoo internal player and then change the audio track during playback and then quit the playback, when I replay that same video again the audio track comes back to the one before my change. In other words, it seems PlexToZidoo is not passing back the audio track change to ZidooPlexMod which should then update the current selected audio track back to the Plex server so that next time I playback the same video the new selected audio track plays.

I tested the same thing with subtitles and it works correctly and remembers that I changed the subtitle to another one when I start playback again so it seems to be a problem only with the audio track not remembering the selection.

Can you please fix that in PlexToZidoo/ZidooPlexMod ?

Thanks!

 

Sorry, but that's not the way it works. Once PlexToZidoo passes the audio/subtitle information to the zidoo player there is nothing that is "passed back". PlexToZidoo doesn't have any way to know that the user changed the audio/subtitle in the zidoo player so it can't update the Plex Server side. But, if you don't have any subtitle selected on the Plex Server then the zidoo player will default to it's internal logic to figure out what to do. Which will mean it will "remember" which subtitle you had picked last time or use the default preset for subtitle selection.

 

ah ok so it is the Zidoo internal player that remembers the last subtitle used but does not remember the last audio track used?

But the audio track that gets played in my example is my secondary french one that is (I think, need to double check) the one selected in the Plex server so why does the Zidoo internal player select that track #2 everytime if it does not come from Plex server information?

Also, how do you get back the correct resume time from zidoo internal player when you stop playback? Is that an information that is returned by the zidoo internal player?

 

When ZidooPlexMod calls off to PlexToZidoo it sends which audio/subtitle track are set from the Plex Server side. And PlexToZidoo will tell the zidoo palyer which audio/subtitle track to play. There will always be an audio track selected in the plex server so that will always be passed to the zidoo player. However ,as I mentioned if you don't have a default subtitle track defined in the Plex Server then the zidoo player will use it's default logic to pick/remember subtitle tracks.

I get back the correct resume time by monitoring the progress of the movie through the zidoo player API. That's done by polling in the background so that the timeline on the Plex Server can be updated on a regular basis.

 

Hello! I quite recently digitized my movies and TV shows...so I am new to Zidoo and new to Plex. So far, I only use Plex when away from my house...as the Zidoo plays everything without issue from my NAS.

But, I love to learn and to tinker...so is the Plex Mod simply for those that prefer Plex's scraping and UI? Or is there more to be gained by with this mod?

It has been fun reading through this thread!

 

Yes, using ZidooPlexMod allows you to use the scraping that Plex has already done instead of having HT4 do scraping as well. When you get large collections it can be a real chore to keep both of them up to date, especially if you're picky about which posters and metadata are associated with each movie. It also allows you to start watching a movie on your phone and then pick it up on the TV when you get home because the resume points are kept on the Plex server.

 

So happy I found this thread. Great work @bowlingbeeg to create this method of using a Plex server with our Zidoo boxes using the native player. My sizable library is in Plex, with over 1,000 movies, and having to rescrape my library (inaccurately, most of the time) within HT4 was a pretty lousy experience that I tolerated so that I could get the best quality in my home theater. Before this, I had hacked together a script that generated NFO files for every movie/show that was in my Plex library, downloaded the artwork, and made it indexable by HT4, but it was a bit spotty, and nearly impossible to get to work properly with TV shows. This method works perfectly, and while the UI isn't quite as good as the native Plex app, its a lot better than HT4 and now I only need to maintain a single media library. Thank you!!!

 

@bowlingbeeg ,
Do you think ZidooPlexMod + PlexToZidoo will work on the Z9X 8K? Are you planning on getting a Z9X 8K and testing this out? Maybe we will get the full Kodi 21 like on the Dune Pro One 8K instead of ZDMC this time around or maybe none but possibility of sideloading Kodi.

 

currently using zidooplex as well as plex using the built in zidoo player, kodi21 and zidoo. thanks for helping with these options.

question, if one were to sideload the latest plex, and use the plex player, how much is that giving up on video quality compared to the zidoo internal player ?? dv/hdr and other things...
thanks for your time

 

I would hope that Zidoo didn't break the current API that ZidooPlexMod/PlexToZidoo uses. If that's the case then it should still work. I don't plan on getting the Z9X 8K just because I already have too many devices. But who knows, maybe I'll change my mind if people start raving about it. They have mentioned that there is a new "native" plex client, so maybe some people will like that. My guess is that it won't support a lot of the features of ZidooPlexMod but setup will probably be easier. Or if we're really lucky maybe they fixed the native player and now fully support subtitles through HTTP streams. Then we wouldn't need to worry about doing any of the path substitution and setup would be much simpler.

 

It's been a long time since I even tried that but I seem to remember that using the internal video player of Plex would just flat out not work in some cases.

 

But the issue is that Plex itself doesn't allow you calling the external player and I believe that's because it blocks it on certain Android versions. The Z9X line uses Android 9 but the Z9X Pro line uses Android 11 and that's when the Plex app started blocking the use of external players.

 

old version allowed calling other external players, that's how I use stand alone plex now on the z9x, to use the internal player..
version 9.13 allows me to select versions and use internal zidoo player, latest 10.18 didn't select version properly, but used internal zidoo player, if i enabled that option, before selecting tv mode and updating..

was just playing with updating the stand alone plex, but since, lets say i have a 4k, and 4k hdr version of same movie, it wont change played version... so thats no good...
was wanting to skip intros, and such, that the internal player doesn't do...

have ways that are working perfectly, currently, thanks to your efforts and project.. this is just experimenting a bit... since I find myself using plex more and more, due to the way it syncs status...
(the 4 character link with plex, makes it quick and easy to try different versions uninstalling and installing from scratch)

 

doh !! confused internal, as plex internal, not plex using internal.... lol (brain struggling today...)
oops.... I'll delete to clean up my mess... heh

After playing around, went back to the version 9, with plextozidoo for zidoo internal player... For stand alone plex... Let's me select version, resume works...

Have an itch for a new box.... So playing with this one, might pull the trigger on the 8k

 

@bowlingbeeg ,
Did the 1.0.90 firmware break ZidooPlexMod + PlexToZidoo or is it safe to upgrade? Is there a new version of ZidooPlexMod or PlexToZidoo for 1.0.90?

 

I just loaded it and it seemed to work fine. But let me know if you hit any issues. No new version of ZidooPlexMod or PlexToZidoo needed at this point.

 

The latest 1.0.90 firmware works fine, it fixed some subtitle formatting issues I had before with the {\an8} header.

I do have a question though, is there a setting i need to check for how subtitles launch? For example, some times I watch anime and it will play for 15 seconds or so before the subtitles start appearing. It only happens on the Zidoo, not any other players

 

This is a bug of the media player. It happens when emby, jellyfin or plex calls for the "external player" and even with the Home Theathre app up to the latest version.

 

Ah gotcha, yeah i figured it was something like that after checking over everything I could.

Other than that, I’ve been enjoying this player over the ShieldTV for the past several months. Takes some initial configuration work but worth it.

 

sorry if i was a bit obtuse on my comment.

The home theatre app (or the native player of the zidoo hardware) is the culprit here, not ZDMC (nor jellyfin, plex or emby for that matter). I've had this problem ever since i bought my z9x pro on firmware 1.0.52 and now up to 1.0.95.