Zidoo Z9X not parsing existing NFO for some movies.

New to the Zidoo and would like some advice on how to deal with Z9x not using existing NFO for some movies.
I have scraped all movie info with tinymm and have been using Shield/Kodi for many years without problems.
In HT 4.0 preferences have NFO parse set to priority and yet in many movies it uses TMDB info which I do not want to use since I have existing NFO in all movie folders. I have rescanned sources a number of times with same result.
How do I stop this happening and can I force HT4 to use existing NFO on the movies that it has sourced info from TMDB.
Thanks for any help.

 

Not at all. HT has a lot of bugs still. Just look at this thread here. On the last pages some problems and errors are named.

One possibility would be to switch to ZDMC. This is, with a few restrictions, a full Kodi for the Zidoo.

 

I use NFOs exclusively and they always work for me. It may be that in a few cases, the NFO file is not fully compliant.

If you want to post an example NFO that doesn't work, I'll take a look.

Depending on your workflow, it's also possible that the Zidoo was switched on when you added a movie. In that case, the NFO would not yet have been in the directory so the box would automatically source the info from TMDB first.

 

Thanks for your other posts you linked.
I can see that others have same issues. I prefer not to use Kodi because I already use it on shield and with HT 4 I can move subtitles, something have not been able to do with kodi.

 

It happens even with a complete rescan or even re adding source. I use TNMM for all NFO so should be compliant. I'll investigate the NFOs further and post.

 

My NFOs are produced by the Zidoo export rather than TMM.

I have a box that's switched on 24/7 (only because I'm too lazy to turn off) so my workflow is to add a movie, add a trailer, let HT4 scan using TMDB, change any posters etc I don't like and then export art and NFO.

My main viewing box is in the cinema and power is controlled by the room macros, so if the room is off, the box is off. When that gets fired up it will then scan and use the NFO/artwork I exported above.

I clear the library/factory reset and rescan my test boxes quite a lot but having local art and NFOs means the library comes back as it was. That doesn't keep any "viewed" information, but that's not important to me.

 

Aha, ok. then there seems to be a partial incompatibility between the created nfo files from TMM and those from Zidoo.

@Markswift2003 , do you have the nfo files of the two movies from the "Alien Prometheus movie collection"? With one of the two movies my HT had difficulties to read them. So you could compare the nfo files. Maybe you can find out the problem.

 

Yes, I have both those movies - if you attach the NFO that's causing you problems I'll have a look.

(rename to .txt to post on the forum)

 

@Markswift2003 , Looks like you were right about a compatibility issue. Some movies had old nfo format as in example provided and some that worked had new format as in example. I had TNMM rewrite all new nfo for the whole collection, rescanned source and the bulk of the movies are scraped using the new nfo.
Thanks for your help.

 

@Markswift2003 , do you use HT4 to access an offline movie collection ie movies that are not ripped to server?. Is it worth starting a new topic on this?

 

No I don't - I wouldn't want a poster wall full of movies I can't watch!

 

I can still watch everything, just a different workflow.
For me it's an easy way to show my full collection especially to wife and friends. Each off my offline movie folders has an avi or mp4 etc file that when I select it will show on the screen to load Bluray, HDDVD, UHD, etc. All I have to do is load the appropriate movie into the player.
I'll ask in other forums to see if I'm a bit strange with my workflow.
Thanks for feedback.

 

It was something @3DBuff and @Gramophone were talking about recently - maybe start a thread and see if it has any traction.

 

Hi Mark, thanks for taking up this topic.

I have another question. I’m still new to HT.
When you say, you usually work with the nfos, how do you do this?

I have two Orbsmarts equivalent to Z9x. What Would be the best way, to keep their libraries in sync?
I still don’t quite understand, what the different ways of scraping the hds mean. Should I change the standard options to different ones?
Many thanks and greets, Gregor.

 

I have one box on 24/7 and one box in the cinema which only comes on with the room.

When I add a movie, it gets scraped by the first box using online sources. I then export NFOs and artwork with that box so ongoing, all movies have an associated NFO, poster and fanart image.

At the same time I also add a trailer.

I have NFO precedence, artwork precedence and local trailers only selected on both boxes.

When I fire up the cinema, the second box comes on, scrapes, and because there are NFO and artwork along with the movie, it uses that with the result that the libraries on both boxes are the same.

 

Hi Marc, thanks for your help.
I get the idea, but I have two thing now, that I don’t understand.

When you do an export of the new movies, how can you reduce the export only to the new stuff, so it won’t take hours again.
Is that, under Export NFO, unclick "overwrite old data" which is the second box to click or unclick.
And just from understanding language, what is the meaning of this sentence:
“I have NFO precedence, artwork precedence and local trailers only selected on both boxes.”
Or lets say, where do I switch the precedence on?
Is that, when you do the scraping, the middle position in NFO Parse?
Sorry for my stupid questions. I am working with the German language version, and the translation is not so clear sometimes.

Again, many thanks for your help.

 

Yes - untick "overwrite old data" and it takes a very short time - to be fair, if you overwrite, I don't think it takes much longer if at all - it's a very fast process (depending on library size of course), but I always untick it.

Switch on in HT Settings/Preferences:

 

Hi Marc , thanks.
I changed the device to English now
On the nfo parse, I don’t have priority in German.
I also found an important translation error further down. In English it says Automatically scan devices.
In German it says Automatically save the scan! This means quite a difference.
I had that switched on. And I was wondering , why it as always scanning the devices. Got it now.

BTW the first nfo save took around 12 hours. I think my library is around 50tb.

Ok, thanks a lot. I will try with these new settings now.

Many greets, Gregor

 

Yes, I'm afraid the translations leave a lot to be desired!

 

Hello, I rejoin the thread. I have purchased a Neo Alpha and am moving my library to HT. I have each movie in a folder, with its poster, saga poster and its nfo file. HT I have it configured as indicated in the thread. File nfo priority, local images priority.

After finishing the scan, I check that HT has not respected the nfo files that I have saved locally, nor the poster and fanart files. For example, the genre of the movies has changed, those movies that put it in the nfo do not appear as views, etc...

Same thing with collections. It doesn't respect what you put in the nfo file. Nor the covers that I had for each collection, which are stored in the folders of each film, with the "name of the saga-poster.jpg".

Do I have to wait some time after the scan for this information to update?

I have also read in the thread about the possibility that the nfo file is not compatible. How can I know this? My nfo files are taken from TMM, using the compatibility option with Kodi 17 or higher.

Thank you very much and greetings!