Every screen in Z-Keeper hangs off this one pane, and the separators split it into three runs:
the everyday work, shaping and looking after the catalog, and checking on things.
Look at your library as titles or as files, keep each player in step with it, decide what
each file is, and carry that answer into NFO files beside the videos.
Shape — Collections · Categories · Share & compare · Catalog health · Clear all approvals
How titles are grouped, and the tools that work on the Master Catalog
as a whole — across every player, not one.
Check — Zidoo Info · Audit Log · Settings
Reference and receipts: what the device is, what Z-Keeper has done, and how it's
configured.
A ⌄ means the item has children — but the parent is a page in its own right. Click the name, not just the chevron.
Z-Keeper · The menu — 2 of 11
Library: the wall, and the nine ways to narrow it
The poster wall — and the one item whose children aren't pages: nine filters you tick,
in three bands, and Sort, which doesn't filter anything.
▤Library⌃
☑Movies
☑Series
☑Collections
☑Favorites
☑Unapproved titles
☑Watched
☑Not watched
☑Unpack collections
☑Unpack episodes
⇅Sort
Library
Its source bar asks the same question of any layer — Current Zidoo,
Blueprint, Master Catalog, and the TMDB and NFO Catalogs once
they hold something. Print lays the wall out in newspaper columns.
Movies
Include standalone films and collections.
Series
Include TV series.
Collections
Only collection posters.
Favorites
Your Favorites on this device — not in the Master Catalog view.
Unapproved titles
Not yet cemented — walk the wall and approve as you go.
Watched
Already watched on this device.
Not watched
Not yet watched on this device.
Unpack collections
Every movie out of its collection; the collection posters hide.
Unpack episodes
Every episode on the wall, not inside its series.
Sort
Not a filter — how the wall is ordered.
The ⏻ under Current Zidoo turns the player off and back on — no remote needed.
Z-Keeper · The menu — 3 of 11
Compare: every source side by side
Your players, their Blueprints, the Master Catalog,
the TMDB Catalog and the NFO Catalog in columns — and only the rows where two of them disagree.
Fixing one is copying the right answer onto the wrong one.
▤Library
≠Compare
🗀Filesystem
⟳Sync
Five tabs
Matches, Artwork, Collections, Categories and Metadata —
each says how many rows disagree. Look by titles or by files; artwork is compared by the pictures
themselves, not their names.
Fixing is copying
Drag a cell onto another — or tick target on the columns to update and press a
cell's ★. Nothing is written yet: each change waits in its cell, framed in green.
Apply
Writes the queue, reads every change back from wherever it went, and reports what
landed. A drop that can't be made says why, in red, right on the cell.
Compare replaced Push fixes — it is where to fix things now.
Z-Keeper · The menu — 4 of 11
Filesystem: the same films, asked about as files
The poster wall shows which files belong to a title; Filesystem shows which title a
file is matched to — or that it isn't matched at all.
≠Compare
🗀Filesystem⌃
⧉Find duplicates
Find extras
✎Batch Rename
◌Ignored files
⟳Sync
Filesystem
Your movie folders and video files on the active Zidoo, as of its last Sync — and you
choose which fields each file shows.
Find duplicates
Files sharing a name, an identical byte size, or an identical runtime in one folder —
hints of a possible duplicate movie.
Find extras
A main feature with its extras, trailers or other cuts — find, preview and even delete them.
Batch Rename
Rename a set of files by your own rules: every Arkane.*.mkv becomes Arcane.*.mkv, subfolders included.
Ignored files
Files your Ignore files rules catch — trailers, samples — left out of every count.
Bring one back, or test a name.
Library: “what titles do I have?” Filesystem: “what is on the drive?”
Z-Keeper · The menu — 5 of 11
Sync: everything that talks to the player
The group where Z-Keeper and your Zidoo meet. The parent reads the device; its
one child keeps your players' flags in step.
🗀Filesystem
⟳Sync⌃
👁 Watched & Favorites
⛊TMDB Matching
Sync
Reads the device and compares three records: your files, the Zidoo's library, and
what Z-Keeper holds. The scan only reads — writes happen when you fix something.
Watched & Favorites
Reads every title on every Zidoo and sets the flag on each one if any Zidoo
has it set. Watch a movie in one room, and every player in the house knows.
No player configured? The whole Sync group greys out.
Z-Keeper · The menu — 6 of 11
TMDB Matching and NFO Files
Two tools that work on files, not on a player — so both work even if you never own a
Zidoo. The shield marks the one that feeds the Master Catalog.
⟳Sync
⛊TMDB Matching
🗎NFO Files
⊞Collections
TMDB Matching
Asks The Movie Database what each file is. A run fills the TMDB Catalog — its own
bucket, with its own pictures — and nothing reaches your Master Catalog
until you approve an answer. Search as… saves the words to search by, per file.
NFO Files
The NFO files and pictures beside your videos. Import them into the NFO Catalog —
for a collection managed that way, it's the truth the way a player is for others — or write them
from any catalog, player or Blueprint. Back them up and restore them, too.
A sidecar belongs to the file — every device that mounts the folder reads it.
Z-Keeper · The menu — 7 of 11
Collections and Categories
Tools to quickly group movies into collections and put movies and series on
categories.
🗎NFO Files
⊞Collections
⌂Categories
☁Share & compare
Collections
A set of films the Zidoo shows as one cover. Exclusive: a title may belong
to at most one collection, so adding it to another takes it out of the first.
Categories
Shelves you invent — “Christmas”, “4K demo discs”, “Kids”. Multi-membership:
a title can sit on as many as you like at once.
One collection per title. Any number of categories. That's the whole distinction.
Z-Keeper · The menu — 8 of 11
Three tools for the whole catalog
These work across your entire Master Catalog and every player —
which is why they sit at the top level rather than under any one of them.
⌂Categories
☁Share & compare
⛭Catalog health
⊘Clear all approvals
ⓘZidoo Info
Share & compare
Uploads your catalog's identity data to z-keeper.com: an off-site copy you can restore
from, and a runtime check against everyone else's catalogs to spot wrong matches.
Catalog health
Finds the structural problems — split series, duplicate or empty collections, titles with
no ID, and ID changes a player made when it renumbered — and fixes them.
Clear all approvals
Resets every file-to-movie approval so each match comes back for review. It undoes
rather than does, across every device — so it sits last.
Catalog tools look at everything you own — not at whichever player is active.
Z-Keeper · The menu — 9 of 11
The quiet end of the pane
The last items don't change anything. They tell you what the device is, what Z-Keeper
has done, and how it's set up.
ⓘZidoo Info
◷Audit Log
🗎Beta release notes
⚙Settings
Zidoo Info
Hardware, firmware, and every Android app installed on the player with its version — including, most importantly, the Home Theater app.
Audit Log
Every action Z-Keeper has taken, with its reasons. The first place to look when
something surprised you.
Settings
Your devices, your movie folders, your TMDB key, your Ignore files rules, and many
other settings and tools.
Beta release notes
What changed in the build you're running.
A green ★ on a window title: the player speaks Home Theater's newer, direct API.
Z-Keeper · The menu — 10 of 11
The other menu: right-click any title or filename
The pane navigates between screens. This one acts on one title — and it's on
nearly every screen you'll visit, Compare's columns included. Most single-film work happens here.
▷Play
Matching tools
⟳Update movie from Zidoo
⇄Copy bookmark to another player…
Change artwork
Edit movie data
Add to collection…
Categories…
nfoWrite NFO
⋯
The gold three cement
Matching tools, Change artwork and Edit movie data are the
third road to cement: what you decide here becomes the answer in your Master Catalog, this
device's Blueprint and the Zidoo — one title
at a time, no Sync required. Change artwork asks where to save: this player or all of them.
Update movie from Zidoo
Re-reads this title's details and artwork from the device. Changes nothing
on the device — a Sync on one title.
Copy bookmark to another player
Carries a resume point across — stop a film in the bedroom, finish it in the theater. For
a title, or a whole series.
Write NFO
Writes an .nfo beside the video naming exactly which film or episode it is —
showing every file it will create before it writes anything.
All of this changes what a title is, or how it looks. Next: the lower half.
Z-Keeper · The menu — 11 of 11
Lower down the same menu: undoing, and the file itself
Below the upper half come the items that settle or undo an answer, then the ones that act on
the file on disk itself.
⋯
✓Approve match
✕Clear my approval
⟲Rematch to myself
Clear match (move to Unmatched)
⊘Block from catalog
🗀Open folder in Explorer
✎Rename file
🗑Delete file
◌Flag this file as Ignored
⌕Search as…
Approve match · Clear my approval
Settle this title's match, or take the ruling back for review. Rematch to myself
has the player re-scrape the same title, repairing cast and crew links.
Clear match · Block from catalog
Clear match drops the file onto the player's Unmatched shelf, teed up to match
again. Block unregisters it for good — reversible only on the player, in HT Data Manager.
Rename file · Delete file
Rename puts the year (and the TMDB ID if needed) in the name the Zidoo matches on. When the
file is gone, Delete becomes Remove file from Master Catalog — a row
for an offline drive leaves only when you say so.
Ignored · Search as…
Flag one file for Z-Keeper to leave alone, or clear the flag. Search as… tells TMDB
what to search for when the filename says too little — saved with the file.
Items come and go with the title's state — nothing impossible is offered.