PlexToZidoo : An external player for plex using native Zidoo player

Discussion in 'HDD Media player(RTD 1619DR)' started by gogo789, Nov 4, 2022.

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  1. gogo789

    gogo789 Active Member

    Mod edit - this project has now been taken on by @bowlingbeeg (original post at the bottom)

    PlexToZidoo
    An external player to make a link between the native Plex client or the ZidooPlexMod Kodi addon and the native Zidoo player
    NOTE: The Pro models do not work with the native Plex client so you must use the ZidooPlexMod Kodi addon

    Things this app will do:
    • Looks up video in your Plex library and does path substitution so that the file can be played directly over SMB in the native Zidoo player
    • Updates watched status when 90% of video has been watched
    • Fully supports resume points
      • Starts from resume point stored in Plex server
      • Updates resume point in Plex server when video stops
    • Allows you to play trailers and some direct play videos on remote Plex servers
    • Uses subtitle and audio streams selected in the Plex GUI
    • Has the ability to play the next video automatically in a TV series
      • This only supports playing the next video in the current season.

    For the latest version please see the github page:
    https://github.com/bowlingbeeg/PlexToZidoo/releases

    Instructions on how to install and other tips please visit the readme on github:
    https://github.com/bowlingbeeg/PlexToZidoo#readme


    ZidooPlexMod
    This addon to Kodi requires the PlexToZidoo(v2.0+) app and Kodi/ZDMC 20.1+ to work but will allow you to access your plex server and use the built in zidoo player.

    For the latest version please see the github page:
    https://github.com/bowlingbeeg/plex-for-kodi/releases

    Instructions on how to install and other tips please visit the readme on github:
    https://github.com/bowlingbeeg/plex-for-kodi#readme


    I would like to thank @gogo789 for the idea and initial POC


    Original post:

    Hi,
    I just published on github the first version of my application PlexToZidoo. For now it's more a Proof Of Concept but it is functionnal and allow users to use the plex app to navigate movies and playing those with the native Zidoo player.

    https://github.com/hpn789/PlexToZidoo

    If peoples are interesting I gonna post a complete guide later, shortly you need to :
    - Have an access in smb to the plex files
    - Install my app, released here : https://github.com/hpn789/PlexToZidoo/releases/tag/poc_fixed
    - Open the app, set the settings (plex libraries names, part of the path to replace to match smb)
    - Install the plex app from play store (+ switch to tv layout if you want in parameters)
    - Enable external player in plex parameters
    - Play a movie and choose the PlexToZidoo app when asked
    - Enjoy ;)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 2, 2023
    Azreil24, Enet, gyrene2083 and 5 others like this.
  2. lawdawg

    lawdawg Active Member

    I am absolutely interested, as I would love to use Plex's own app, but use the Zidoo player for all that DolbyVision goodness. I already shut down the projector for the night, but I'll give this a try in the morning.
     
    gogo789 likes this.
  3. lawdawg

    lawdawg Active Member

    Dusko likes this.
  4. lawdawg

    lawdawg Active Member

    I'm also not finding where you can change an option to allow plex to use an external player.
     
  5. gogo789

    gogo789 Active Member

  6. gogo789

    gogo789 Active Member

    This option is in plex parameters under "Advanced/Player" at the end.
     
  7. lawdawg

    lawdawg Active Member

    So... a funny thing happened when I was going to test your app.
    • I installed your apk.
    • I launched your APK but didn't change any of the settings you describe above.
    • I installed one of the Plex Betas I happened to have tried on the Zidoo in the past (it was from 7/28/2022), launched it and signed into Plex
    • Left it in mobile mode so I could turn on external player.
    • I then navigated to a show and hit play
    • It asked me what player I wanted to use
    • YOUR player was not an option, but the Zidoo Video Player was so I selected that and said to use always
    • The video played in the Zidoo player!
    • I went into the Plex options and selected TV mode
    • Now I have the TV experience for Plex and navigated to another movie, hit play and it loaded in the Zidoo Video player
    • AMAZING!!!
    I was wondering why it didn't select your app as the player, could it be that something in the plex beta or the latest Zidoo firmware that allows the native Plex client to use the Zidoo Video player?

    To eliminate your app from the equation, I uninstalled it. Tried playing a video from Plex again, and it STILL uses the Zidoo video player. I'm pretty shocked by this outcome, but I'm super excited to finally be able to use a full featured, plex native client with the Zidoo player.

    @mirror and @Markswift2003 can you guys explain why this is happening now? @Sledgehamma can you replicate my experience? I have attached the plex beta that I am using to see if that is part of some secret sauce. I'm almost afraid to try a newer one ;)
     

    Attached Files:

  8. gogo789

    gogo789 Active Member

    Hi, effectively you can use plex to launch zidoo player, I found it a while ago. But there are limitations. As it read the stream you can't resume content, it doesn't support external subtitles and the last time I checked it just detect one audio stream if you have multiple in your file.
    That's why a created my app.
     
    lawdawg likes this.
  9. lawdawg

    lawdawg Active Member

    Still trying to configure your app to see the benefit over the native plex using the zidoo player.

    Could you provide an example of what you mean by “part of the path to replace to match smb?”

    Thanks
     
  10. gogo789

    gogo789 Active Member

    Of course, for exemple on my plex server, files are under "/sharedfolders/Videos/..."
    In smb I access the same file from zidoo at the adresse "smb://192.168.1.×/Videos/..."
    So the part of the plex file path to replace is "/sharedfolders" and must be replaced by "smb://192.168.1.x"
     
  11. lawdawg

    lawdawg Active Member

    So in my case I have multiple folders per library and multiple libraries, but the root folder is /media

    upload_2022-11-5_6-28-31.png
    upload_2022-11-5_6-29-7.png


    Then I would replace /media with smb://192.168.1.110/media

    Thanks!
     
  12. gogo789

    gogo789 Active Member

    Exactly, and to tell in which plex library my app must search don't forget to specify their names in the parameters.
    Actually the app take several second to find the movie but I planned to improve it in a future release.

    Is PlexToZidoo proposed as player from plex now ?

    Once you have activate external player you can switch to tv layout (setting/experience)
     
  13. lawdawg

    lawdawg Active Member

    Configured the settings in your app, per your instructions. I am leaving the app running, not sure if that is required.

    I am turning on external player in Plex. However, I am unable to get Plex to prompt me for which player to use. It is remembering the first time I selected the Zidoo Video Player. I have cleared the app data, uninstalled the Plex app, rebooted and re-installed the Plex app. It still won't prompt me to select a different external player.

    I'd love to try your app to see if I feel there are any improvements using your app as a middleman between Plex and the Zidoo Video Player and compare that to Plex going directly to the Zidoo Video player directly. But I'm pretty darn happy just to have Plex use the Zidoo Video Player at the moment.

    Screenshot_20221105-080521.png
     
  14. gogo789

    gogo789 Active Member

    If you don't have any video with multi-audio or external subtitle for the moment there is no advantage between my app and direct play with zidoo player. In the future I want to add the resume from feature and register media as watched automatically
    If it doesn't promt you to select a player in plex it's because you select "Always" when you selected Zidoo Player the first time. To disable this you must go to the advanced parameters of Zidoo and clear this data in the Zidoo player, I think the name of the app is Gallery. Reinstall plex doesn't change this setting.
     
    lawdawg likes this.
  15. Anthony C.

    Anthony C. Member

    This sounds very promising!
     
  16. lawdawg

    lawdawg Active Member

    I was able to clear the fact that I set the Zidoo Video Player as the external player, and select your app. Seems to be working fine, and videos play quickly.

    When I was not using your app, I had a couple instances where the video player kicked me back into Plex, while I was watching something. It wasn't at the same place every time, and the same file played fine directly from HT4. I'll see if I get similar behavior with your app in the middle.
     
  17. lawdawg

    lawdawg Active Member

    Hey @gogo789 - You mention resume function being available at some point in the future. Would the intent be to allow a resume point to be saved for each file played? Currently there appears to be one resume point saved, and any subsequent file played uses that data. For instance, I played 15 minutes into a show, stopped, and when I play a different show, it starts 15 minutes in.

    To get around this for now, I have turned off resume in the Zidoo Video Player app.
     
  18. gogo789

    gogo789 Active Member

    Yes I intent to use the plex resume point system, I already know how to retrieve the info in plex and send it to Zidoo player but I also must retrieve the time you stopped the file from the Zidoo player. I didn't know there was a issue with resume point, I just thought it wouldn't resume.
     
    lawdawg likes this.
  19. lawdawg

    lawdawg Active Member

    Continuing my experiences on using a Native Plex client and gogo789's app.

    • I was able to track down why videos were abruptly stopping, and I was being kicked back to the Plex GUI.
      • Even though Plex is obviously involved in playback in some way (see screenshot below that indicates data being transmitted between Plex Server and the Zidoo) it apparently doesn't see the Zidoo as a "Full client"
      • upload_2022-11-6_9-2-4.png
      • Because of this the Plex server sees playback as paused and was terminating the session per this setting on my server
      • upload_2022-11-6_9-3-7.png
      • Easy enough to fix, you just make value null, or move it to something like 4 hours if you want to clean up orphaned playback sessions
      • Issue resolved
    • The next issue is a deal breaker for me
      • Frequent stutter/audio dropouts when playing high bitrate files
        • 90, 88, 87 MBps files had the issue with PlextoZidoo,
        • Those same files played fine in HT4 and Zidoo's Plex POC client
          • Plex isn't involved in the playback of those files at all, as they go straight to the NAS
          • My network and NAS can keep up, but Plex apparently can't :(
      • I tried playback without gogo789's app in between Plex and the Zidoo Video Player
        • Same issues occurred
      • I didn't do an exhaustive test of where bitrates became playable, but it appears under around 70 Mbps is fine
    • Don't suppose there is a way to allow your app/Zidoo Player to directly access the file via SMB and not involve Plex in playback?
     

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  20. gogo789

    gogo789 Active Member

    Hi, thank you for your tests. I checked on my plex server and the "Terminate sessions pause for longer than" is at 0, this is why I didn't had the issue. But apart the fact that my app use plex to search in the library the file, all what happend after is zidoo player playing file throught SMB with the direct path so it should work as with de native player. Maybe it is the parameters I use to launch the native player. I gonna investigate ;)
     
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