PlexToZidoo : An external player for plex using native Zidoo player

I tried to get the Plex free streams to work but I couldn't get them to work. I did make changes to pass the stream onto the zidoo player but the zidoo player didn't seem to work with them. At least the ones I tried. Let me know if you have better luck. But really the zidoo is meant for local content so it doesn't surpise me that it doesn't handle these odd web streaming files.

 

I have the same problem with subtitles.
Please tell me how you replaced "//" to "\\".
Sorry for the stupid question. I'm just mastering Zidoo Z9x.

 

I'm using my Plex server on Windows,
and I had to set PTZ substitution from '//server/Videos' to '\\server\Videos' replaced to 'smb://server/Videos'
Thats all.
I hope, this will help.

 

Thank you for the effort,
but you're right - it doesn't work.

Just one try:
Is it possible to redirect these streams to an other player?
For example to VLC (is installed), or any other installed player?

 

I think your case then you'd be better off not selecting the "always" option when you selected PlexToZidoo as the external player during the setup instructions. If you select "just once" then it will always ask which external video player you want to use. For local content you can select PlexToZidoo and for the Plex free streams you can select VLC.

Personally I think you'd be much better off watching those on an ATV or shield TV, something where you can use the internal player. I don't think any external player you use will be able to keep track of your progress and watched status for those streams.

 

If you need more help we'll need more info on where your media collection is located and how it's shared on the network. For example my movie collection is on a widows box so the path is M:\My Movies\... and I've shared M: on the network so I have the "path to replace" set to M:\ and the "replaced with" set to smb://.

 

It seems to me that I am doing everything right. There are no problems with the playback of movies. There are also no problems with the choice of embedded audio tracks. I don't understand why the list of embedded subtitles is not displayed . In the Plex application there is a list of subtitles. In built-in ZidooPlayer there is a list of embedded subtitles.
It seems that somehow a list of embedded subtitles is not transmitted from Plex.
My Plex Server on Windows.
Movies are in the F:\Media\Video\Folder_1
Shared disk F:\ labeled "Disk-F"
path in SMB:
\\Server\Disk_F\Media\Video\Folder_1
Subtutution in PTZ:
"Path to replace" F:\
"Replaced with" smb://Server/Disk-F
replacement "//", "/" with "\\", "\" doesn't help
Moreover, even if you do not specify any substitutions in PTZ at all, there are no problems with playing movies, choosing audio tracks.

 

I see that version 1.4 is out and has import/export capabilities. Can't wait to test it.

 

The zidoo player doesn't handle the plex streams very well, it usually can play the movie but selecting subtitles and other functions don't work very well. That's where PlexToZidoo comes in. It's trying to give the direct path of the file to the zidoo player so that all of the normal functions in the zidoo player will work correctly. I'm guessing that PlexToZidoo isn't finding a substitution so it's just passing the plex stream off to the zidoo player and that's why you're having subtitle problems. On the debug screen you should see in the "Substitution Path" string something that looks like "smb://...". If you see "https://..." that means your substitution strings aren't working.

The data you gave for the paths are slightly different and I don't know if it's just a typo or if that's your issue but in some places you refer to it as Disk-F and others as Disk_F. My best guess at this point is that you should have these substitution strings

Path to replace: F:\
Replaced with: smb://<server_address>/Disk_F

The reason I say Disk_F is because that's what you have listed as the SMB path which is how the zidoo is going to be accessing the files

 

Sorry, of course, it's just a typo.
Thanks for such a detailed clarification. Now I better understand the principles of PTZ interaction with the Plex and Zidoo player.
Another stupid question is how to turn on the debug screen? Option "Debug data" in PTZ is "ON"

 

If the debug data option is on then you should be seeing the PlexToZidoo screen with the "play" button on the bottom. If you're not then there are likely two scenarios why that might be

1. You accidentally selected the zidoo player as the external player when android asked you which app to use to play the plex video. If you also selected the "always" option then you need to delete the default association. To do that do this:
   1. Quick settings->Other->About->Advanced Settings->Apps & Notifications and then click the app that was opened by default. Once in that menu select Advanced->Open by default->clear defaults. Now you can go back and select PlexToZidoo as the default
2. You didn't actually set Plex to use an external player. If this is the case you probably better just start from the beginning of the setup instructions on github, https://github.com/bowlingbeeg/PlexToZidoo#setup

 

Finally it works great. I had a wrong user privilege on the two libraries on my Synology that can't play. I haven't seen it before. Thanks a lot for all your help.

 

I uploaded a new version 1.5 to github.

I added include/exclude options for the plex libraries that are searched. Now if you leave the include field blank or use * then I will search all of the libraries on plex. Since version 1.1 I increased the speed of querying by looking for the exact movie/show on each library. So there shouldn't be any real issue with speed anymore and I figured it might be nice to just default to searching all libraries. This will help new people since they can just leave it as the default. If you wish to still narrow it down by providing the exact libraries you're interrested in that still works like it does today using the same include option. Or if you have lots of libraries but want to exclude only a couple of them you can use the * in the include list and then add those libraries you don't want into the exclude list.

https://github.com/bowlingbeeg/PlexToZidoo/releases/tag/v1.5

 

I just updated and it may be coincidence but my setup is no longer doing the substitution. I was watching a movie earlier today with everything working. I haven’t been able to get it to update my plex watch history, so I thought I’d make sure to update to the latest version of PlexToZidoo. I did so, noticed the export button, and exported. After exporting, it’s stopped doing any sort of path substitution. I’m hesitant to downgrade to a version prior to import/export as I don’t want to type everything in again but I’m not sure if 1.5 is bugged for me. Happy to provide any extra details

 

Please provide a screen shot of the debug page and of your settings in the PlexToZidoo app.

 

Sure, here’s the config that was working before I updated

 

As the error message said, you are trying to play a remote stream so it can't do the substitution since you don't have direct access to the file. So PlexToZidoo just passes on the stream to the zidoo player. In some cases it works and other cases it won't. Really depends on the stream. That also explains why the watched status and progress don't work. PlexToZidoo can't update those values because of the limitations of the Plex API.

 

I’m not sure why that error didn’t click for me when reading it. It does lead to more questions though.
The server is on my LAN so I’m not sure why it’s reading as remote. I set a url in the plex server settings, so could that be why? Again, I didn’t change anything from this setup this morning and it was all working.
I’m running plex through docker so maybe that’s Flipping the state between local and remote? I assume the determination of the file being local or remote is provided by plex

 

You must have been using version 1.3(or older) because in version 1.4 I started using the hint that Plex gives me in the intent(location=wan) to determine if it's a remote stream. When it is I don't attempt the substitution because you're not going to have direct access to the file. In your case it's not a true remote stream so I guess I'll need to add some other check for remote streams.

I'm not sure why plex is giving the location of wan, but my guess is it has to do with the fact that you're using a FQN.

 

Ahh that all definitely makes sense for the quirks in my setup. A development option to force the substitution would be great. I’m also curious if it would then allow a substitution to another FQN, though idk what implications that has.