Plex client for Zidoo devices - ZidooPlexMod

I've found the difference in smoothness with this app on my Z9X and the Z9X 8K is significant.

I have a pretty large movie library at 4500 titles, and I assume that's in large part the issue, but just entering in to the movie section takes about 10 seconds to load. Same thing if I change sorting, which I do often to decide what to watch. It works okay once it loads, but it needs a good 7-10 seconds each time. Smaller libraries are quicker. One night with it was enough to push me to buy an 8K for that room and will reserve the old one for 3D only, but I'm curious if this is consistent with other people's experiences with a similar size library?

The Jellyfin app I used to use on my OG Z9X ran pretty smoothly so was a bit surprised, but I can see in clean up that ZDMC + PlexToZidoo uses more memory, so maybe that's the difference. For sure HT has no hope of keeping up with a library that size on the OG models.

 

There are a lot of factors that go into how long it's going to take to load a library and there are a number of settings that can affect it. The default behavior for collecting media items is to request 60 of them at a time, which is the smallest value. Have you adjusted that value up in the settings? There is also a setting that says "Always request all library media items at once". That will do exactly as it says and grab all 4500 movies as soon as you enter the library so make sure that's off. Something else that could affect that is the poster resolution scaling. If you have that higher it's going to take more processing power to grab those images and will be compounded if you use the small poster view in your library. All of these settings are in accessible by opening the context menu on the ZidooPlexMod app in the ZDMC Add-ons section. I have the same settings for all of those on my Z9X and Z9X Pro and I don't really notice a difference in speed bringing up my movie library, both do it in under 2 seconds. So the size of the library shouldn't matter unless you've changed the defaults of those settings I mentioned earlier.

 

Thanks for the reply and tips!

I was playing around with settings in the Zidoo menu and in the Plex add on to see if anything would help, which it did not, but stupidly I didn't think to look in to the Kodi menu settings. This is my first go with Kodi, so still getting used to the role the base kodi app plays and what your add on does. I cancelled the 8K I ordered this morning to see if I can play around with these settings to get it to a more usable state on my Z9X. What you describe would be just fine for me and the OG having 3D, while the 8K doesn't, means it's staying either way.

I shouldn't have been so quick to assume it's simply the different models, but the general experience on the 8k is so much smoother outside of this app that I just sort of ran with that assumption.

 

For the new Z9X 8k, can I just follow the steps on the first page of this thread to get the PlexMod up and running?

 

So I played around with this and I think it is my library size that's messing with it, at least the one specific movies library.

As mentioned earlier, I wasn't aware of those Kodi add on settings, so I hadn't adjusted any settings in there prior to tonight. I tried what I could tonight, including lowering poster resolution as low as it would go, and playing around with the other settings back and forth. Nothing helps my movie library load quicker and my stopwatch tells me it's 12-14 seconds to load that library initially, and any time you re-sort in a different way.

I have 18 different Plex Libraries set up for movies, TV, docs, kids shows, music, wife shows, etc. The movie library has 4500 movies, mostly full disc rips in 4k and 1080p, and is the only one that takes time to load. All my other libraries are under 500 posters to load, most way under other than some music, and they all load almost instantly, so the movie library is the only one that has issue. They're all fed from the same NAS source as well.

I tried setting up a quick dummy library of only one portion of movies (about 400) and it loaded quickly like the other libraries.

Poster Wall basically bogs down to an unusable state with a library like that on the Z9X, while it works fine on the 8K, which is similar behavior I'm seeing here with this Plex add on, so it makes me think it's a similar issue related to the hardware, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to say other than my user experience.

 

Yes

 

As I said earlier we don't query all 4500 movies so I don't see why size would matter. Does the 12-14 seconds happen the second time you go into that library? Meaning if you select some other library first and then go back into that large library does it result in the same 12-14 seconds? Which view are you using? Small movie poster, regular movie poster, or list view? Can you please provide a Kodi debug log(instructions are in the first post).

 

Ya you would know a lot better than I as to what could be happening behind the scenes, just a guess on my part really since its the only library loading slow and has given issues elsewhere for me in the past.

The 12-14 seconds happens every time I exit or enter the movies library. Whether I just pop out and back in, or if I go to another library in between. It happens every time I re-sort with the sorting menu that keeps all titles viewable, like going from date added to date viewed for example. If I sort using the categories that only then shows a reduced amount of titles, like decades for example, it loads a bit quicker for the 1000-1500 title decades I have, and instantly for a few hundred like the 70s or 80s.

I tried the smaller and larger poster sizes and the list view. All had similar long delays when entering the library or re-sorting, there might have been some difference, but if there was it wasn't noticeable and would have to time it to confirm. I also noticed that while switching those views, the posters themselves switched quickly and could be navigated, all the little options and such above the movie posters would disappear for a few moments.

I can send a debug. Didnt seem to save my first couple tries, but ill keep trying here.

 

Strange. I can't get a kodi debug log to save with the instructions. There's just never anything saved to the directory after many tries. I even tried a fresh install of everything and still same behavior all around. I'm not sure what else to do as I was following the instructions and must have tried a good 20 or so times. Open to any suggestions there.

My Movies library content is all on one NAS fed by 8 different folders, s0 I set up a new temp library in Plex and added them 1 at a time. It did get progressively slower for me. I wasn't writing down times, but the scrolling dots were increasing as I added the folders. The jump from ~2200 to ~3000 with one folder really made a noticeable jump and I would say at the point of not being reasonably usable at that point, for me at least. I tried upping the query to 120 and selecting that all option just to see what would happen and it only added more time to the wait, as expected. I hate to keep hammering the size possibility, but it really seems like that's what's causing it for me. I still have the temp library setup, so I can remove folder by folder and stopwatch time the navigation delays in to that library tonight to verify the above, for whatever that may be worth.

 

I'm not understanding what's not working. The kodi log is always there, you're just turning on the debug flag to log more data. Are you saying the log doesn't exist at all? How are you accessing the log? Easiest way is to enable samba and then access it through your computer. The .kodi folder may be hidden so make sure to enable showing hidden folders to see it.

 

I was just going to storage on the Zidoo, but ya the hidden file option brought it up now. Thanks, I didn't know that was a thing on the Zidoo. I have it now.

 

Nice, so this is working on the 8k now ?? (Was gone a few weeks, thought it wasn't working then with the internal player)

 

Yes it's working with the 8k. Just make sure you use the latest versions of ZidooPlexMod and PlexToZidoo.

 

Hi there, have been running this setup on a Z9X Pro and its been working perfectly.. until suddenly something seems to have broken in the integration with zidoo player - attempting to play anything results in "Failed to start Zidoo player".

I can still manually play media directly from the Zidoo, so it certainly has access to the media, and its happily showing the plex library - it just can't seem to get anything to play.

Running ZDMC 20.2, PlextoZidoo 3.0 and ZidooPlexMod 0.4.1

Have tried rolling back ZidooPlexMod several iterations and all give the same behaviour.

With debug enabled in the logs I can see it gets:

• script.plex: ZidooHandler: onAVStarted
• script.plex: ZidooPlayer: Monitor 1
• ... status 200
• .. bunch of GL_
• status 200
• script.plex: {'status': 806, 'msg': 'The resource does not exist'}
• script.plex: ZidooPlayer: Monitor 3
• script.plex: ZidooPlayer: STOPPED
• script.plex: ZidooHandler: onPlayBackStopped

Any tips most welcome.. I don't believe I changed anything so possibly something has updated and is causing a conflict?

Much appreciated!

 

That sort of sounds like the Zidoo has lost the SMB credentials. Have you accessed the media, through the SMB connection, using the Media Center app? It's also possible the zidoo player crashed hard at some point and you may need to reboot the Zidoo. I've seen that happen a couple of times on mine. I would shut it down and pull power for 30 seconds and then power it back up.

 

Using Media Center app it happily navigates the SMB paths (tried several) and all play fine.
Have tried switching it off with the remote, switching off the power on the back of the unit.. unplugging it.. nothing seems to change the behaviour

I get "Cant play video" for a brief moment then a window with "Error" and "Failed to start Zidoo player"

Remove everything and reinstall?

Open to ideas.. losing WAF

Cheers!

 

The "Can't play video" is the error from the Zidoo player meaning it can't access the media or the media is unplayable. Are you sure your path substitution is still correct? Turn on the debug page in the PlexToZidoo app and see if the final path is correct. Maybe your path substitution is based on an IP address and the IP address has changed.

 

My server has a fixed IP, has not changed. I was referencing it by name; if I manually add a path in ZDMC it uses the same smb path as my substitution. ZDMC can play media from these paths.

I tried changing from the name to the actual IP and getting the exact same result - "Can't play video" then "Failed to start Zidoo player"

Other ideas welcome..

 

I'll reiterate since you didn't mention doing this. Did you actually check the debug page of PlexToZidoo to make sure the path looks correct?

 

Yep - as mentioned in first post have debug on.

PlexToZidoo path: smb://ALPHA/TV
ZDMC maps the same location as: smb://ALPHA/TV
On the debug screen when playing I see path substitution: smb://ALPHA/TV/<tv show>/<season>/<episode file name.ext>

Every playing method other than PlexToZidoo I can think of works fine - hence my confusion!