Plex client for Zidoo devices - ZidooPlexMod

Ok i spent about 3 hours troubleshooting early this morning:

Here is where I am at

I have one NAS running plex via docker
On that NAS i have an nfs mount to another NAS via fstab. It automounts at boot. I do this so that I can use those remote nfs shares in docker containers.
I also have a smb share on another tower with some media files
Finally, I have a seedbox with a Plex server on it.

As I see it, there is no way to disable Zidoo Player for certain servers.
I tried exclude on Movies and TVShows as they are named on my seedbox. No go, just errors out with lots of text.
Not excluding them direct plays them via https://

Everything is Direct Play via NFS mount 1, remote NFS mount 2, and SMB mount.

Nothing transcodes at all, no matter what settings I try.

I would like to transcode if possible on the seedbox. I dont want to direct play there.

Nothing seems to override the zidoo player for a particular server share. It seems to hijack everything.

It would be nice to be able to use the internal player on a particular server name or library name as long as the server can be specified.

If not feasible based on the project, I will just use the shield for the transcodes with official app, and the zidoo mod in kodi for direct play ( thus giving me a posterwall like experience with zidoo player doing the heavy lifting) I assume that is what many others are doing. Nothing wrong with Posterwall, its just klunky with more and more titles. Plex and ZDMC work well together, Its great when you exit the addon it shuts down KODI. I suppose you could change the icon to ZDMC to Plex, and some skinning and not be bothered by zdmc much launching.

One note: it seems to matter , having 2 nfs mounts seperated by comma, wasnt changing the ip address. In the end because the zidoo cannot see the nfs remote mount to another nas for some reason. Ive checked all the permissions i know how, it cannot see the movie directories. contents. They are empty. some recursive error, but i am not sure because all my other nfs mounts work correctly on the nas including the remote one. maybe something ont he fstab line is screwed up and only works on the local nas, not outside. To fix this issue, i just used path sub to the actual server since NFS works on it direct and can see the movies directory contents. Crazy, I know, but it was the most "direct" path . No pun intended.

 

Why would you want to do this? The default video players in Kodi do not work very well on the Zidoo machines.

This whole point of this project is for direct playing media in the Zidoo player. If you want to transcode things or use the default Kodi video player then you need to use an Nvidia Shield.

 

that all makes sense. will do. Player works great locally for sure. and is a great alternative to home theater. My nvidia or apple tv can handle the transcoding from afar. Great Plan. I forgot at the core this thing Is using zdmc a d you are right. it auchs for streaming compared to a shield through kodi. Th Realtek soc is where it's at with zidoo player. I look forward to staying up to date with this workaround.

 

So happy with this addon, I've got this working almost perfectly on my Z9X 8K However it always shows subtitles for any film, even when it shows None selected in the movie info page. The Zidoo movie player doesn't show them, nor does the native Plex app, it's only when using the addon for Kodi that they appear.
From the debig info before playing the movie I've seen that the selected subtitles track is always -1, could this be the issue?

 

A -1 for the subtitle index would indicate that you've set the subtitles for that movie to off/none in any of the Plex clients(including this add on). So when this app calls the internal zidoo player it won't specify a specific subtitle stream and the zidoo player will use it's internal logic for subtitles based on your settings on the zidoo device. If you go to quick settings -> Playback -> Default Language -> Default subtitles what do you have?

 

Default subtitles are set to Off at the moment
Forced subtitles set to Auto

Hmm changed Default subtitles to Auto and tried a film and it worked, no subtitles, then switched it back to off and still no subtitles.

Maybe it needed powering down and up again to sort itself from last night. Strange.

What should the Default and Forced subtitles be set to for the Zidoo player?

 

That's really up to you. If you have selected a subtitle in the plex/pms interface then that will be passed to the zidoo player and those settings won't do anything because ZidooPlexMod is telling the player exactly what to play. If you plex/pms settings are set to none/off then the zidoo player will use it's settings to determine what to do with any subtitles it finds. I personally have Default subtitles to External and Forced subtitle to Auto. But my movie collection only contains forced subtitles for the movies that need it. Otherwise I strip out all of the other subtitle streams so I basically always want the subtitle stream to play if it exists.

 

Thanks, I'll have a play and see what works best with my library. Thanks again

 

Hi can you help me does this work with external plex server.
Hi bowlingbee ive sent you a private message mate can you take a look when you have some time thanks

 

ok, going crazy here.... zidoo z9x, logitech harmony elite remote..
i have checked in the plex to zidoo, and the other app zidoo plex mod... why when i hit stop on the remote, sometimes it stops, other times it waits a bit, then restarts the same video, or starts playing something...
zidoo is set to single file..
not sure if i'm missing a setting, or its the remote, although the remote is fine for everything else... i can't tell whats happening, since the tv seems to be syncing after the video stops, normal, just the start of something next im chasing..
thanks so much for your time... just not sure if it is just me, my setup, my stop button.... (i could try the zidoo remote) or if others see a similar thing...
Happy holidays all

 

I was working with another user recently on this same issue. From the traces ZidooPlexMod was only sending the original video to the Zidoo player once. So that makes me think it's a Zidoo player issue. But after the initial debug was captured they weren't able to reproduce. Please make sure you're on the latest ZidooPlexMod and PlexToZidoo. If you want to debug futher please capture the debug logs(instructions are in the first post) and DM me. I would also try using the zidoo remote, just in case the harmony is sending an incorrect command. I've seen some weird things from my harmony over the years so it's not out of the realm of possibilities.

 

sure I can work on that, thanks !! (glad I'm not crazy... lol )
DM sent

Both remotes had the same response, latest versions
Saved 2 separate logs, they might show something

 

Got this setup, but getting stuck on how I setup:

- “Part of path to replace"
- "Replaced with"

I have 2 Plex servers. One locally running on my Unraid server, which I don’t really want to add as I just use Home Theatre for those files, and one that’s hosted via a dedicated server, which I would like to get setup on the Z9X Pro.

I would like to get this one setup as I’m trying to move away from my Apple TV as much as possible in favour for my Z9X Pro

is anyone able to help me get this setup ?

 

You say you have one version of Plex hosted in a dedicated server. I assume you mean that server isn't local but what about the media? Is that local or is the located on the remote server as well? If it's located on the remote server then the path substitution isn't going to work for you unless you have an SMB connection to that remote server. The whole point of the Zidoo devices is for playback of local content so it needs direct access to the media files. Otherwise you have to live with the limitations that some the Zidoo player doesn't handle HTTPS streams very well. The biggest issue is that it doesn't support internal nor external subs(downloading subs might work, but I can't say I've tried it). So in summary if the media can't be accessed over an SMB connection then just leave the substitution stuff blank and you can try out the HTTPS streams and see if it works for your situation.

 

Yeah, sounds like it’s not going to work the way I was hoping it would.

you’re correct, the 2nd plex server has the media hosted externally with no SMB connection. I thought I would be able to use the plex app to watch the media hosted offsite on the dedicated server, but if that’s not the case, then there’s no real issue, I’ll just continue to use the Apple TV.

 

Hi, I had everything working great when I had Plex hosted on my Synology NAS via Docker. I have since got a mini-pc which can handle more streams remotely, hence the change from running Plex on docker, but I am now struggling to get things to work on the Zidoo at home. My files are still on my Synology NAS, but Plex is now installed on the mini-pc with the library folders pointing to the Synology NAS (\\<IP Address>\Plex\Movies). This is an example of the library folder in Plex now.

I believe the issue is with the substitutions, but I'm struggling to work out what they should be. I have tried /<IP Address>/Plex/Movies

Part of the path to replace
It was '/volume1/Plex/Movies' but now I am not sure what this should be?

Replaced with
smb://<IP Address>/Plex/Movies. This was the same with Docker

Any help would be much appreciated. The movies appear when I load ZidooPlexMod but has no artwork. When I play a film I get the 'ERROR: No substitution found'

Thanks.

 

First step - enable debugging on the addon so you can see the path that plex is trying to reach
Second step - go into ZDMC (i.e. exit the plex add on) and map your paths to your new media location. This will then give you a view on the new path to the media
Third step - update your mapping to match the above

There are details on how to do this repeated through the threads here.

Good luck!

 

First step is enabling debugging in the PlexToZidoo app. This should give you a whole bunch of information that should help in figuring out the right substitution. To figure out what the "Part of the path to replace" should be you can look on your PMS for the folders you've assigned to each library. Those are the paths that the PlexToZidoo app are going to see and what it uses to match the "Part of the path to replace". It then needs to transform those into the direct smb location of that file(that's where the "Replaced with" value comes into play).

 

Thanks, all sorted, appreciate the help. Was my mistake, I had / the wrong way round.

Any idea on how to fix the thumbnails?

 

Shoot, forgot to answer your question. This sounds like a DNS rebind issue. Here is what is suggested to see if it solves your issue

https://forums.plex.tv/t/pm4k-plexmod-for-kodi-18-19-20-21-22/481208/3248
Either add plex.direct to your router’s DNS rebind protection exemption list, or go to PM4Ks AddonSettings (outside of PM4K, long press the icon, Settings, System, uncheck both “plex.direct: Honor …” settings, then start PM4K again; then it should prompt you that it has found plex.direct domains that it wants to add to your advancedsettings.xml confirm that, restart CE, happy camper).