Zidoo & Control4

[BY96]

I am a Zappiti user, who has loved Chowmain's C4 driver, but am coming to terms with reality that the future for Zappiti is bleak (but not all hope is lost). I am looking to switch to the Zidoo UHD5000 but am most concerned about its Control4 driver and would love to get feedback from anyone here who has used it. From the link on Zidoo, it appears rather impressive, including displaying the movie collection on the C4 navigator, but I am hoping for more specific feedback.  

I know many will suggest K-Scape, and I do believe it is the optimum choice, but there are other things I would much rather put that much money into. 

Thank you. 

[Kaas Mayer]

i am in the same boat. i will receive a zidoo player for testing today. 

[BY96]

i am in the same boat. i will receive a zidoo player for testing today. 

Please let me know how it all works for you!


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[Kaas Mayer]

it works, but its kinda strange.

The driver has 2 hdmi outputs. but the device has just 1 output. so you need to connect to any hdmi input, but it won´t be used. 

There are two "view devices". one is for the player and the other one for the database. (videos, music or explorer files)
You can browse through the device datebase through the control4 app or the remote. (content is managed by the device, not c4)
But if you start a movie with the database button, you also need to switch to the "player" device. othwerwise there is no remote control of the actual video nor the tv will turn on / switch to the right device.

not very smart, but it works. 

 

btw. the control functions of the player are very slightly delayed

 

[BY96]

it works, but its kinda strange.
The driver has 2 hdmi outputs. but the device has just 1 output. so you need to connect to any hdmi input, but it won´t be used. 

There are two "view devices". one is for the player and the other one for the database. (videos, music or explorer files)
You can browse through the device datebase through the control4 app or the remote. (content is managed by the device, not c4)
But if you start a movie with the database button, you also need to switch to the "player" device. othwerwise there is no remote control of the actual video nor the tv will turn on / switch to the right device.
not very smart, but it works. 
http://content.invisioncic.com/r242699/monthly_2023_10/image.png.3ec120d98e263db99b51af9ba03b64ee.png
http://content.invisioncic.com/r242699/monthly_2023_10/image.thumb.png.33316da6da94d9ce0fac881f839d23f8.png
 
btw. the control functions of the player are very slightly delayed
 

Thank you!! That is extremely helpful.

I wonder if the two HDMI outputs are because some models, like the UHD5000, have separate audio and video HDMI outputs. That would make sense. I know not all the Zidoo devices have two but some do.


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[Kaas Mayer]

39 minutes ago, BY96 said:

I wonder if the two HDMI outputs are because some models, like the UHD5000, have separate audio and video HDMI outputs. That would make sense. I know not all the Zidoo devices have two but some do.

as far as i understand, there is always just one video output from the zidoo devices. the other hdmi output from some other devices is just for audio use. 
So if i don´t connect both hdmi outputs, i can only see one button in the navigator or remote.
it seams to be a quirky workaround to get two buttons with different functions from one driver. 

3. Setup connections
Set the correct media connection to see the entrance of ZIDOO player in the Control4 display terminal. In order to see the poster wall (Media Service) and the button interface (Media Player) at the same time, there must be a display device with more than two display ports in the room, such as a TV with more than two HDMI input ports.

a. First connect the video output of the Media Player to the HDMI 1 input port of the TV in the room.
b. Then connect the video output port of Media Service to the HDMI 2 input port of the TV.

 

[BY96]

35 minutes ago, Kaas Mayer said:

as far as i understand, there is always just one video output from the zidoo devices. the other hdmi output from some other devices is just for audio use. 
So if i don´t connect both hdmi outputs, i can only see one button in the navigator or remote.
it seams to be a quirky workaround to get two buttons with different functions from one driver. 

3. Setup connections
Set the correct media connection to see the entrance of ZIDOO player in the Control4 display terminal. In order to see the poster wall (Media Service) and the button interface (Media Player) at the same time, there must be a display device with more than two display ports in the room, such as a TV with more than two HDMI input ports.

a. First connect the video output of the Media Player to the HDMI 1 input port of the TV in the room.
b. Then connect the video output port of Media Service to the HDMI 2 input port of the TV.

 

I did not realize the two HDMI outputs were both meant for video connections in the C4 driver. That is weird. I am sure my dealer will be able to figure it out. 

In your experience, while not the greatest, is the Zidoo driver stable? 

Thanks again!!

[Kaas Mayer]

no idea. just played 1 hour with it. feels good.
there are no mini apps at all, but i like the webinterface incl. remote control with text input and media organisation

the delay is maybe 100ms between every button push.
there is a driver which is without a delay, but this driver is for control only. no media library. 

https://github.com/zbaylin/c4-zidoox9s

 

 

[BY96]

6 minutes ago, Kaas Mayer said:

no idea. just played 1 hour with it. feels good.
there are no mini apps at all, but i like the webinterface incl. remote control with text input and media organisation

the delay is maybe 100ms between every button push.
there is a driver which is without a delay, but this driver is for control only. no media library. 

https://github.com/zbaylin/c4-zidoox9s

 

 

Thanks again for the input. And I assume the driver you played with is IP, right? I would assume it would have to be to include the collection information. 

[Kaas Mayer]

correct. all 3 driver i had testet are controlled by ip

[Kaas Mayer]

first feedback:

i have tried Zidoo Z9X Pro, Dune HD Boxy, Dune HD real Vision 4k plus

Zidoo has a nice Movie selection and a nice webinterface to control the movie Database. No need for Composer.
The original driver is very old and based of an old control protocol. Therefore the remote as a small delay on keypress. Also you need to select two hdmi outputs as mentioned before.
because of that the device wont switch the the source if you start a movie.
There is a new user-made driver but without the movie Database. 

Dune HD Boxy
failed to work with dune control4 driver. its just regular android with a movie app.

Dune HD real vision 4k+
works very well and has a nice app. you can use the "my movie" driver from control4. 

 

[BY96]

Thanks! I am curious about two things. First, I sent my dealer the C4 driver from Zidoo directly. It shows it is version 20. However, I have been messaging with someone over on AVSForums who showed me that his version is 23. Do I need my dealer to update the driver? Or do I need to get it from somewhere else to get the latest one? 

Also, when my dealer installed the driver, he was on his way out of town, and graciously did it late at night before he left the next morning. I noticed that the Zidoo Media Player and "My Movies" were added to the room, but the latter is empty. Your screenshot above shows "Database" in addition to the media player. Where did you get it that? I know my dealer said that there was a server also in the driver, but that it only seemed to show up if he made the connections to it instead of the player. When he gets back, I am sure we can tackle this issue, but thought maybe you had some insights that will speed up the process for him. 

Thanks again!!

[Kaas Mayer]

good to know. found driver 23 but didnt give it a test.

http://apidl.zidoo.tv/instruction/ZidooPlayer_v23.rar

there is no real changelog but it seams to be just a fix for "wake on lan".

the problem you mentioned is what i described as "quirky workaround":

Quote

Set the correct media connection to see the ZIDOO player entrance in the Control4 app. In order to see the poster wall (Media Service) and button interface (Media Player) at the same time, there must be a display device with more than two display ports in the room. In our example, the LG 43LG73CM TV is added (this TV does not Must be physically present in the room)

First connect the video output of the Media Player to the HDMI 1 input of the TV in the room.
Then connect the video output port of Media Service to the HDMI 2 input port of the TV.

 

[Kaas Mayer]

checked the driver. no differences found

 

[BY96]

That is strange. The file that downloaded does not have the typical suffix for a C4 driver. I have no idea what a ".rar" while is. I would like to have WOL access. 

I will make sure to give that "quirky workaround" to my dealer. I remember you mentioned it before, but hadn't wrapped my head around it until I encountered the problem myself.

Thanks!!! 

[BY96]

Just figured out the .rar is a zipped file. 

[BY96]

I think I am getting it... I thought the part about seeing them "at the same time" meant literally at the same time, like using two different screens (e.g., TVs) as opposed to being both in the Room on the app or remote at the same time. 

[Kaas Mayer]

yes, you are right. one output is physicall the other output is just virtuell. its unused but it needs to be connected to get it shown up inside the navigator. 

[EdC4Tx]

18 hours ago, Kaas Mayer said:

good to know. found driver 23 but didnt give it a test.

http://apidl.zidoo.tv/instruction/ZidooPlayer_v23.rar

there is no real changelog but it seams to be just a fix for "wake on lan".

the problem you mentioned is what i described as "quirky workaround":

 

 

5 hours ago, Kaas Mayer said:

yes, you are right. one output is physicall the other output is just virtuell. its unused but it needs to be connected to get it shown up inside the navigator. 

If one output needs to be connected to HdMI 1 and the other to HDMI 2. How would would that work if you are wanting to hookup the Zidoo to a video matrix or switch? 

[Kaas Mayer]

i explained that a several times above. 

[BY96]

As an update, and for anyone else in the future that wants to use a Zidoo with Control4, the directions with the driver and from @Kaas Mayer work perfectly to make the video library visible on a C4 remote or app. While I loved the same ability that the Chowmain driver had for Zappiti, there was a longstanding issue (that I know Alan tried to resolve with Zappiti many times) about only certain posters being displayed in the library view. I spent many hours trying to find collection posters that would all work. But the Zidoo library displayed 100% of my posters the first time. 

As opposed to the Chowmain Zappiti driver, the C4 driver provided by Zidoo (now in version 23) is very limited. In fact, it doesn't even work to send on and off commands. It is basically only for navigation and control buttons. After some experimenting I found a way to turn off the Zidoo using a few steps (e.g., assign the "red" button to "off" in the Zidoo OS and then triggering the "red" button using the Room Control driver), and had my dealer install the Chowmain Generic TCP driver for WOL. This driver is excellent and a wonderful addition to the Zidoo driver. Not only does it do WOL, but using HTTP GET commands provided to me on the Zidoo forum (and attached here), I can now do any command I need, such as opening audio or subtitle settings. This driver also allows for a command to turn off the player, which is simpler than my original workaround. So, for anyone who wants to use Zidoo with Control4, adding the Generic TCP driver will make up for the shortcomings of the Zidoo driver.

The only downside is that I have to use a Custom Button for these additional commands, as they are not imbedded within the Zidoo controls. 

Zidoo IP Protocol.pdf

[paulromi]

Using the TCP driver and WOL did the trick for me.  It was only the discrete power on/ off that was my initial issue. Not sure if I need the movie list on my remote.  I prefer the video wall to be honest. 

[BY96]

44 minutes ago, paulromi said:

Using the TCP driver and WOL did the trick for me.  It was only the discrete power on/ off that was my initial issue. Not sure if I need the movie list on my remote.  I prefer the video wall to be honest. 

The video wall is much more useful, and I honestly hardly ever reviewed the movie library for Zappiti on the app or remote, but it is just a cool extra feature. 

The Chowmain TCP driver is a must for the Zidoo! 

[stibone]

I'm using the Z1000 Pro in my theater room and generally finding it works well with C4 with 2 exceptions. I'm wondering if the Chowmain TCP driver might help. Issue one, I can't longpress on "Ok" on my Halo Touch remote to bring up the expanded menu for media files which allows you to rematch metadata, mark as watched etc. If I press "info" on the remote it just brings up the video info (i.e. resolution, HDR/SDR, etc). Is there a way to program web commands to simulate long pressing "Ok" on the original Zidoo"

 

The 2nd issue I have is triggering lighting scenes via "Play" on the Halo. Pressing "Play" does not launch a media file, only "Ok" will launch a media file. What I'm having to do is press "Ok" to launch the file and then press "Play" to trigger the lighting. Ideally, I'd want to just press "Play" to both play the media file but also trigger the lighting scene without a 2nd press. Would the TCP driver be able to send a command that would allow "Play" on the Halo to do that? 

 

Also open to any other creative ways to get around those 2 issues. Thanks! 

[TobyG]

21 hours ago, stibone said:

I'm using the Z1000 Pro in my theater room and generally finding it works well with C4 with 2 exceptions. I'm wondering if the Chowmain TCP driver might help. Issue one, I can't longpress on "Ok" on my Halo Touch remote to bring up the expanded menu for media files which allows you to rematch metadata, mark as watched etc. If I press "info" on the remote it just brings up the video info (i.e. resolution, HDR/SDR, etc). Is there a way to program web commands to simulate long pressing "Ok" on the original Zidoo"

 

The 2nd issue I have is triggering lighting scenes via "Play" on the Halo. Pressing "Play" does not launch a media file, only "Ok" will launch a media file. What I'm having to do is press "Ok" to launch the file and then press "Play" to trigger the lighting. Ideally, I'd want to just press "Play" to both play the media file but also trigger the lighting scene without a 2nd press. Would the TCP driver be able to send a command that would allow "Play" on the Halo to do that? 

 

Also open to any other creative ways to get around those 2 issues. Thanks! 

Have you tried using the "Menu" button when the file is highlighted in Home Theater? This works for me on my Z9X. Also the same for the "Play" button, it will instantly play the highlighted video in Home Theater and therefore turn down my programmed lights...