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Plex client test build 9.5.49 — fixes the playback lockup

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@bob9 bob9 released this 01 Aug 12:30
· 11 commits to main since this release
v9.5.49-plex-test
2387a5c

🎬 Your movie library. Your private cinema. Your goggles.

This build turns HDZero goggles into a personal movie theater — and now backs up your flight recordings too. Lie back anywhere and watch your own movie collection on dual 1080p micro-OLED displays. Movies stream from your own media server over WiFi, decoded by the goggle's video hardware — the same silicon that handles 90 fps race footage barely breaks a sweat on a film.

✨ What it supports

  • 🎞️ Plex AND Jellyfin — both media servers, behind the same poster-wall interface
  • 📺 Movies AND TV shows — series open into an episode browser; everything streams the same way
  • 📸 NEW: Immich DVR backup — upload your flight recordings straight from the goggle to your self-hosted Immich photo server. Pick exactly which files, see which are already backed up, watch per-file progress.
  • 📼 Every video format your server can play — H.264, HEVC/H.265, MKV, AVI, 4K sources — the server converts anything automatically
  • 🔊 Any audio track — DTS, AC-3, TrueHD downmixed to clean stereo
  • 📶 Fully local — your movies and recordings never leave your home network
  • 🔑 Smart-TV-style sign-in — Plex: plex.tv/link code. Jellyfin: Quick Connect code. Immich: API key (SD-card file or typed once). No painful typing.
  • 🖼️ Instant browsing — poster artwork cached on the SD card
  • 🛩️ FPV untouched — everything racers use is exactly where it was

Requires your own Plex (plex.tv), Jellyfin (jellyfin.org), and/or Immich (immich.app) server on the same network — all free. Community test build (design docs).

🆕 What's new in 9.5.49

  • 🧊 Fixes the lockup when playback starts (Jellyfin) — 9.5.48's faster WiFi exposed a decoder bug: for compatible files the server was sending the original video bytes, and some (interlaced/older files especially) freeze the goggle's hardware decoder solid. The goggle now always asks the server for a clean re-encode, which the player is known to handle. If your goggle locked up on "Buffering…", this is the fix.
  • 📶 WiFi power-save fix from 9.5.48 (throughput was capped at ~0.2 MB/s before it).
  • 🎯 Auto quality fallback, TV shows, quality picker, poster prefetch — all included.

📖 User guide

Install

Copy the file for your goggle to the root of the SD card, then Menu → Version → Update Goggle:

After updating, the Firmware page should show version 9.5.49 — if it doesn't, the goggle is still on an older build. Every test build from now on gets its own number.

  • HDZERO_GOGGLE2-77-184-9.5.49.bin — Goggle 2
  • HDZERO_GOGGLE-77-206-9.5.49.bin — original Goggle (G1)
  • (HDZERO_BOXPRO here is a plain 9.5.45 build without these features.)

Movies (Plex / Jellyfin)

  1. Menu → WiFi → Client mode → join your home network (one-time).
  2. Menu → Plex — the goggle lists every Plex and Jellyfin server it finds, labeled [Plex] / [Jellyfin]. Click yours. (Manual entry: ip:8096 = Jellyfin, ip = Plex.)
  3. Sign in once: Plex shows a code for plex.tv/link; Jellyfin shows a Quick Connect code you approve in any signed-in Jellyfin app (enable Quick Connect once in its dashboard). SD-card token files (plextoken.txt / jellyfintoken.txt) and on-screen entry also work.
  4. Browse & play: scroll the poster wall, click for details, click again to play. During playback: click = pause, scroll = seek, long-press = back. Needs 2+ GB free on the SD card (the stream buffers there and is deleted after).

DVR backup (Immich)

  1. Menu → Immich (WiFi + SD card required).
  2. First time: create immich.txt on the SD card — line 1 your API key (Immich → Account Settings → API Keys), line 2 server-ip:2283 — it's picked up automatically. Or type both with the dial.
  3. Your recordings appear as a list; files already backed up are marked uploaded in green.
  4. Click to tick files, Func-click to upload the selection (or just the highlighted file). Progress shows per-file MB; click cancels after the current file.
  5. Already-on-server files are detected by Immich itself and marked — you can't double-upload.

Known limitations (test build)

  • Stuck on “Buffering…” with Jellyfin? The server sends video only as fast as it converts it. 4K/HEVC/HDR movies need a fast server or hardware transcoding (Jellyfin Dashboard → Playback → Transcoding → select your GPU). Quick check: play a normal 1080p movie — if that works, the goggle is fine and the server just can’t convert the 4K title in real time. The Dashboard home page shows the conversion speed while a stream runs; below ∼1.0x means it can’t keep up.
  • Seek works within the downloaded portion of the stream.
  • The media server does the remux/transcode — any PC/NAS-class server is fine.
  • Please report issues (grab hwlog.txt from the SD card if something misbehaves).

Source: plex-client branch @ 2387a5c

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