Z-Keeper.com - Master your Zidoo media library

Hello fellow Zidoo lovers!

As a long-time Zidoo owner with a movie catalog of about 2,000 titles, I decided to write a Windows app that interfaces directly with the Zidoo via API to help me manage my files and Zidoo data. The Zidoo is awesome but there are issues that I wanted to address with this new Z-Keeper.exe application. It turned out to be a substantial application - fun to use, fast, and it has found and helped me fix quite a few problems in my library that I wasn't even aware I had.

So I just made Z-Keeper available to those who want to participate in beta testing before I release it into the wild.
This is not a business venture for me - it's a passion project. So it doesn't do anything nefarious and the only reason you need to create an account on Z-Keeper.com is for the beta program. No account is needed once it's in production (though there will be some significant benefits to having an account - which you will see when you run it).

All this is free. I'm a retired software engineer with too much time on my hands, apparently.

If you want to join the beta program, simply go to z-keeper.com and apply. All you need is a Windows PC and a Zidoo media player. Visit the website and you will see many screenshots and blurbs on what it does. Look it over before making an account.

And have fun!

- Chris

 

Very interesting! Stickied!

Might be an idea to change the thread title so people know what it does.

I've also added a URL to your link.

Attempting to apply for the beta results in "email rate limit exceeded"

 

Thanks! Not entirely sure how to explain it in a short blurb, but this is a stab (I stole it from my own website). Certainly open to suggestions!

 

Maybe "Z-Keeper - Zidoo Library Manager" ?

Yeah - new one looks better - I'd drop the .com - it makes it look spammy (but that might be the moderator in me )

 

Well, ain't that something! My testing worked and I just checked the email server and I didn't get anywhere near a limit. I'll keep kicking the tires. Thanks for the feedback.

Did you get the email this time? I don't see any record of it failing and it's working fine for me. I just approved multiple testers (man, that was fast!) so hopefully the Welcome emails went out ok.

 

Ah - might have been me Didn't put the confirmation password in...

Submitted correctly this time...

Got the email address conf too..

 

The flood gates have opened. Many testers have been approved and are downloading and installing it. Have fun!

 

Testing this against some test libraries (I have libraries of various sizes up to 4000 titles with small 80KB video files all correctly named - more or less!) and so far I'm impressed.

I'm right in saying this cannot be used to create a library from scratch right? For example if you've reset HT. You need to have a library already loaded into the Zidoo?

 

I am curious how well it manages your 4000 titles, particularly scrolling the poster wall and the several different kinds of lists (list view and tree view of the Library, the Filesystem view and the Create NFO screen). It handles my 2k titles surprisingly peppy.

As for creating a library from scratch - I would need to create a batch-match tool that essentially tries to mimic what the Zidoo does by doing TMDb and TVDb lookups for every filename and auto-matching them (assigning the TMDb or TVDb ID), then create an NFO file alongside each of your video files. This would feed the Zidoo when it does its next scan (assuming you have it prioritizing NFO files).
But... why take that path?
Why not let the Zidoo do what it does - create it's best guess at your library of files then Z-Keeper can do what it does best... help you curate a perfect catalog. Then once you have made all the matching corrections using Z-Keeper, you will have a "Local Truth" that persists even after you get a Zidoo HT that's reset, new or damaged (like when suddenly many of your video files can't be seen by your Zidoo so it drops them from the catalog). Then Z-Keeper's "Create NFO" tool can easily create NFO files that are accurate (from your curated Local Truth) for all of your video files.

 

Hi all, just curious and would like to know, when you add your collection to the Z-Keeper program is it secure or can people then gain access to your library? thanks.

 

Hey Stel,
That's a good question. Z-Keeper.exe stores your catalog in a local SQL data base. It never leaves your PC, although there is a tool in Z-Keeper that lets you upload just a small set of metadata about your catalog to the Z-Keeper server. No video files or any personal information is sent, but the data is linked to you which allows you (and only you) to retrieve it as a backup of the backup that Z-Keeper keeps in the local DB. Plus, if you share your list of titles and runtimes, you are permitted to get statistical (anonymous) data back from everyone else's catalog which can help find problems in your matching. The best example is probably getting the episode number right when ripping a TV series. Sometimes it's tricky, so if 500 people have their catalog in the Z-Keeper server that happen to have that same series you have, it will compare your episode runtimes with everyone else's and determine if there's something worth checking.

In short, I am big on privacy and security. What's yours is yours and if you want to share your catalog metadata, it still remains anonymous to those getting statistical analysis from the full group of contributors.
And while the Beta versions require a Z-Keeper account, that's only because I need to control access to each beta very carefully. Once the full production version is released, users won't need to create an account - but they can if they want to take advantage of the shared catalog analysis tool I mentioned above (plus some other community benefits).

I hope this answers your question.

 

Thanks Chris,
I think I understand how it works. Just hope the system is secure and that only the metadata is accessible and not the video files etc.

 

I certainly wouldn't want my video files made public either. I purchased all these movies in my collection and I don't take any from anyone else and won't share with anyone. Besides, they are so big, you would certainly notice if your PC was uploading them somewhere.
But I agree that users of Z-Keeper (or anyone's software) have reason to be concerned about such things. I don't take it for granted that people are putting their trust in me.

 

Yeah it seems perfectly happy with 4000 titles.

Ah ok - I think my expectation was that this was similar to say Tiny Media Manager where you create, scrape, correct and maintain a library offline, uploading NFOs and artwork to the Zidoo as needed.

 

So I'm not discounting the fact I could be missing something here, but a couple of issues I've run into:

1. The NFOs are very basic with just the movie title and year and nothing else:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><movie>
<title>22 Jump Street</title>
<year>2014</year>
<playcount>0</playcount>
<lastplayed>1969-12-31</lastplayed>
<uniqueid type="tmdb" default="true">187017</uniqueid>
<uniqueid type="imdb" default="false">tt2294449</uniqueid>
<id>tt2294449</id>
</movie>

Compared to an NFO produced by the player itself:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><movie>
<title>22 Jump Street</title>
<originaltitle>22 Jump Street</originaltitle>
<ratings>
<rating name="tmdb" max="10" default="true">
<value>6.842</value>
<votes>7402</votes>
</rating>
</ratings>
<plot>After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college. But when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team, and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art major scene, they begin to question their partnership. Now they don't have to just crack the case - they have to figure out if they can have a mature relationship. If these two overgrown adolescents can grow from freshmen into real men, college might be the best thing that ever happened to them.</plot>
<tagline>They're not 21 anymore</tagline>
<runtime>112</runtime>
<thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w92/850chzYHYbT3IISl6Q7dbBuFP2B.jpg">http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/850chzYHYbT3IISl6Q7dbBuFP2B.jpg</thumb>
<fanart>
<thumb preview="http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w300/kdyYOwpKvvD2fSbwfnMM2YPAzfq.jpg">http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/kdyYOwpKvvD2fSbwfnMM2YPAzfq.jpg</thumb>
</fanart>
<mpaa>R</mpaa>
<playcount>0</playcount>
<lastplayed>1970-01-01</lastplayed>
<path>/22 Jump Street/22 Jump Street.mkv</path>
<filenameandpath>/22 Jump Street/22 Jump Street.nfo</filenameandpath>
<basepath>/22 Jump Street/22 Jump Street.mkv</basepath>
<id>tt2294449</id>
<uniqueid type="tmdb" default="true">187017</uniqueid>
<uniqueid type="imdb" default="false">tt2294449</uniqueid>
<genre>Crime</genre>
<genre>Comedy</genre>
<genre>Action</genre>
<country>United States</country>
<set>
<uniqueid type="tmdb" default="true">212562</uniqueid>
<name>Jump Street Collection</name>
<overview>A series of films based on the lives of the Jump Street program, an undercover police unit in which young-looking detectives infiltrate schools and similar settings attended by minors to investigate crimes.</overview>
</set>
<thumb aspect="set.poster" preview="http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/of42UiM2j4MJQqso9To2ULM7hIP.jpg">http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/of42UiM2j4MJQqso9To2ULM7hIP.jpg</thumb>
<thumb aspect="set.fanart" preview="http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/iiAbTNYXpMadPDH4MkjUoJzcGn4.jpg">http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/iiAbTNYXpMadPDH4MkjUoJzcGn4.jpg</thumb>
<premiered>2014-06-05</premiered>
<year>2014</year>
<studio>Columbia Pictures</studio>
<studio>Original Film</studio>
<studio>MRC</studio>
<studio>LStar Capital</studio>
<studio>Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer</studio>
<studio>Stephen J. Cannell Productions</studio>
<studio>75 Year Plan Productions</studio>
<studio>Storyville Films</studio>
<studio>JHF Productions</studio>
<resume>
<position>0</position>
<total>30000</total>
</resume>
<art>
<poster>http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/850chzYHYbT3IISl6Q7dbBuFP2B.jpg</poster>
<fanart>http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/kdyYOwpKvvD2fSbwfnMM2YPAzfq.jpg</fanart>
</art>
</movie>

Leading to a details page with no description.

2. When a movie is rematched and an NFO produced and scraped, no coverart is downloaded - coverart will be picked up if you reset HT completely and rescan but not if you simply clean the source and rescan - this is a bug with HT5, but easily mitigated with local art which arguably should be included if you use NFOs.



3. Creation of collections doesn't seem to be supported - for example the Zidoo incorrectly matched both 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street to A/B versions of 21 Jump Street (because the Zidoo is rubbish with numbers!). After correcting this in Z-Keeper, the NFO produced didn't include <set>..</set> so a collection has to be manually created on the Zidoo. As far as I can tell.




Overall it's an interesting approach to library management - one I haven't seen before, but I think the biggest issue is the lack of a rich NFO file and lack of local art download - I've always used NFOs and local art for my entire library and it's a great way to keep everything accurate and artwork as you want it (and also be able to rest HT as much as you like and always return to the same point).

But as I say, I'm not precluding the possibility I missed something here..

 

By the way, is there an easy way to reset Z-Keeper completely other than simply deleting the database manually?

 

Indeed: Sync / Clear local data

 

First off, let me say Thank you for your efforts here. I truly appreciate it, especially from someone who really knows a lot about this area.

Correct. This was by design. The NFO file is generated with just enough info to tell the Zidoo how to match the video file, then the Zidoo downloads all the stuff you're talking about that's missing, including the images. I let the Zidoo do what it does best - no need to reinvent the wheel. So the workflow is (and I failed at really explaining anything about HOW to use the app - which I'm working on now):
1. Make any changes to your catalog that you see need some tweaking (creating NFO's, doing a Zidoo rematch, renaming files).
2. Have the Zidoo do a scan on the sources to injest all the changes you just made.
3. Run a new SYNC in Z-Keeper. This will walk you through seeing and approving (or fixing) changes the Zidoo just made based on our changes in step 1.
All that said, my personal approach has been to let the Zidoo manage my collection (best it can) and I didn't mess with NFO files at all. But with HT5 having this unfortunate behavior of simply ignoring some video files even though they are named properly, and not even putting them in Unmatched so I can use the Zidoo to rematch them, I decided it was time to build something to assist. But my way of doing things may not be the right way... from feedback I'm seeing, many people do it like you're saying... you create the NFO's and artwork file and the Zidoo merely is a slave to that. But then I don't understand how we track what movies we watched and when and Favorites and any changes, like adding to categories, that we do in the Zidoo because all that is kept in the Zidoo DB. The NFO files are not updated until you tell it to rebuild them all. This is why my approach was to have the Zidoo be the source of truth and Z-Keeper is a tool to help find problems and convince it to fix them. Plus, every change the Zidoo does between Sync runs is put before my eyes so I can validate it.
I'm curious if this explanation makes any sense to you or if I'm missing a better approach.

This is certainly intriguing... I am using the latest HT5 (as of a month ago) and my experience is the Zidoo does download the cover art anytime it does a rematch. There are some rare cases where it doesn't and I have not found a pattern or anyway to tell it to fetch the images. I can certainly have Z-Keeper download the art files. In fact, it used to do that for any image that was missing in the Zidoo, but I wanted the Z-Keeper poster wall to exactly mimic the Zidoo one so I turned that behavior off. I wanted to see missing images when the Zidoo had missing images.

I am not familiar with how HT5 takes poster art files as sidecar files (like the nfo sidecar file) and copies them to it's private location for actual use. I know nfo files are simple... the same filename and folder as the video file. But there are poster images, backdrop images and that other one I don't know the name of (title image?), so there must be a naming convention. Your input is most welcome, and appreciated.

 

Actually, you found a bug. The ability to create new collections was there, but the textbox to type it in was drawn below the window so it was cropped off. This is now fixed, as is the ability to add a movie to categories and create new custom categories. This is all done via API calls to the Zidoo, so again, this is a Zidoo-centric approach.
This is part of the right-click context sensitive menu.




Similar approach for Categories:

What do you mean by...

?

You really have me pondering having a significant MODE switch in the settings where users can choose to:
1. have their filesystem be the source of truth (thus, the comprehensive Kodi NFO files and images) and just pray that that Zidoo reads all that in as expected, or
2. have the Zidoo be the source of truth. Actually the Local Truth DB becomes the user-curated (expected) accurate catalog data. This is the current approach.
And since the Zidoo can export comprehensive NFO files, we can still get them built, even if they do become stale after we use the Zidoo to make changes.

I'm hoping to get your thoughts on this further now that I have, hopefully, explained my approach. I'm starting to lean into have Z-Keeper generate complete NFO's and art files, but this becomes rather tricky since a core principle of Z-Keeper is that it talks to the Zidoo directly to make changes.

 

Doh! Must have had a brain fart yesterday - I just didn't clock the expander for Sync!