Native Kodi Access - jbinkley60/MezzmoKodiPlugin GitHub Wiki
Last updated January 15, 2025
Beginning with versions 1.1.5.5 and 2.1.5.5 the Mezzmo Kodi addon offers significant improvements accessing Mezzmo video content via the native Kodi skin interface. This is done via additional Kodi database updates for artwork and other metadata via the background sync process and adding many of the context menu options available via the normal Mezzmo GUI. Note that native mode is only available when accessing a Mezzmo server and not other UPnP servers. This is due to native mode requiring Kodi database updates which are only available via the sync process with Mezzmo servers. Other UPnP server content is accessible via the addon GUI mode.
Note that native mode is disabled by default. When enabling native mode in the addon settings you will need to initially wait for the daily sync process to update the format of Mezzmo data written to the Kodi database. You can speed up the process by clearing the Mezzmo data in the Kodi DB from the addon settings.
From the normal Kodi skins you can play your favorite video content and will see the normal bookmark and playcount indicators, if enabled in the Mezmmo Kodi addon settings.
You can right click on your video items to see an additional set of Mezzmo functions available under the Mezzmo menu. Use these instead of the normal Kodi context menu items (for watched flags and resume positions) to interact with your Mezzmo server content. Beginning with Mezzmo Kodi addon version 2.1.6.4 and higher along with Kodi 20 (Nexus) or higher the context menu feature is enabled when the Native Mode Sync Option is enabled. With Kodi 19 and lower the native mode context menu is always enabled.
Mezzmo Mark Watched - Sets Mezzmo and Kodi play counters to 1 for the selected item.
Mezzmo Mark Unwatched - Sets Mezzmo and Kodi play counters to 0 and clears the last played time and bookmark / resume position for the selected item.
Mezzmo Movie Trailers - Selects which movie trailer to view, if enabled in the Mezzmo Kodi Addon settings.
Mezzmo Movie Set - If the selected item is a member of a movieset this will access the Movieset Quick Access feature
Mezzmo Movie Collection - If the selected item is a member of a collection this will access the Mezzmo Movie Collection feature
Mezzmo Keywords - Allows quick access to library content with keywords without the need for smart playlists
Mezzmo Clear Bookmark - clears resume / bookmark position.
Mezzmo Logs & Stats - Opens the Mezzmo Kodi addon logs & statistics feature .
Mezzmo Search - Launches the Mezzmo search feature which allows searching of your Mezzmo content.
Mezzmo Addon GUI - Launches the Mezzmo addon GUI for browsing your Mezzmo library how it is presented by Mezzmo and the rich Mezzmo features.
Clear Kodi cache - Clears Kodi cache for Mezzmo Thumbnails. Needs to be enabled in the addon Content Control settings.
All other Kodi context menu items remain and operate normally except for Mark as Watched/Unwatched (handled by Mezzmo mark watched) and Reset Resume Position (handled by Mezzmo Clear Bookmark).
The Mezzmo Kodi addon offers selective synchronization of your Mezzmo library with Kodi. This capability allows you do define up to 4 additional totally customizable views of your Mezzmo library, in addition to the default entire video library. Example uses here could be different library content for one Kodi client vs. another or running multiple profiles on a single Kodi device where each profile has different Mezzmo library content in its Kodi database, all being centrally managed.
Here's how it works. First, in Mezzmo, you create a smart playlist for each unique sync profile you need with a special name tag that the Mezzmo Kodi Addon would tie to your Kodi profile and/or device. There are a couple of specific items that need to be in the smart playlist, specifically be located at the video level in your Mezzmo library (Library\Video), have a tag in the name of ###1, ###2, ###3 or ###4, and be sorted by most recently added. Everything else could leverage the full power of the Mezzmo smart playlists to customize the smart playlist. You can create up to 4 of these smart playlists with each being different, however you'd like.
The Mezzmo Kodi addon will not display these special playlists when you browse your Mezzmo library in GUI mode but they will be visible in the Mezzmo management console where you have full flexibility on changing their content.
In this example I chose to sync two folders with the smart playlist name of "Shared Folders ###1". The Shared Folders part of the name is irrelevant and can be anything you want. The ###1 is the important part. I chose to share a couple of library folders with the Smart Playlist criteria.
The second step is to select the associated tag in the Mezzmo Kodi addon native mode settings. The Mezzmo selective sync tag setting has 5 options: All, ###1, ###2, ###3 and ###4 which align to special tags in the smart playlists with the default setting being All. If you want to change what is shared via the sync process you simply update the smart playlist criteria on Mezzmo which is either then picked up automatically by the hourly / daily sync process on each Kodi instance or you can force an immediate resync between Kodi and Mezzmo in the recently added feature Immediate Full Sync.
The Mezzmo Selective Sync Tag setting is only be visible if Kodi Native Mode Sync is enabled, which controls the overall Mezzmo - Kodi sync process. When using the Mezzmo selective sync capability the Mezzmo Kodi addon checks to ensure the selected playlist tag (i.e. ###1, ###2, ###3 and ###4) is found. If it is not, it defaults to All, synchronizing your entire Mezzmo library. The sync logs will indicate whether a full sync or a selective sync occurs.
Mezzo Fast Sync is a feature for native mode operation in Kodi to speed up how often each Kodi client checks the Mezzmo server for new content and new bookmarks / resume points. This feature is available in versions 1.1.8.9 / 2.1.8.9 of the Mezzmo Kodi addon and requires Mezzmo version 6.0.7.14 or higher. A Mezzmo server patch can be downloaded here. The Fast Sync option is enabled in the Native section of the addon options.
The options are 0 to 5 minutes. 0 is the default setting / disabled. 1-5 sets the check frequency, in minutes, for how often the Mezzmo Kodi addon will check the Mezzmo server. If something is playing in Kodi or another sync process is running (i.e. hourly or daily) Fast Sync will skip checking the Mezzmo server until the video or sync process completes.
The Fast Sync process does not write full sync statistics to the Kodi logfile or the Mezzmo Kodi addon Performance & Stats database, like the hourly / daily processes do. This is to avoid cluttering the logs and database. Instead, when Fast Sync is enabled, it will write a log message once an hour similar to this:
info : Mezzmo Fast Sync normal. 30 syncs since last log message.
Note that Fast Sync and Selective Sync currently do not work together with the desired results. If both are enabled the Fast Sync process will sync things outside of your Selective Sync folder, since it syncs the full Mezzmo server library vs. a subset set of library items like Selective Sync. If there is a desire for a Fast Sync solution for Selective Sync uses, it can be looked at for a future release.
I've attempted to make as much Mezzmo functionality as possible available via the native Kodi interface but there are some limitations due to what Kodi supports and how some skins operate vs. browsing the Mezzmo library via the GUI mode. This is why the Mezzmo Addon GUI quick launch feature exists.
Here's a comparison of features available in GUI and Native mode:
| Mezzmo Feature | GUI Mode | Native Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Browse Mezzmo Library | Yes | See note 1 |
| Mezzmo Music | Yes | No |
| Mezzmo Pictures | Yes | No |
| Log viewing | Yes | Yes |
| Performance stats | Yes | No |
| Metadata & artwork | Yes | Yes |
| Mezzmo library search | Yes | Yes |
| Set / Clear playcount | Yes | Yes |
| Paused autopstop | Yes | Yes |
| Movie Trailers | Yes | Yes |
| Mezzmo Movie Previews | Yes | Yes |
| Movieset Quick View | Yes | Yes |
| Mezzmo Movie Collection | Yes | Yes |
| Share resume points | Yes | See note 2 |
| Automatic new content | Yes | See note 2 |
| Parental Controls | Yes | Yes |
| Kodi - Mezzmo DB sync | Yes | Yes |
| Mezzmo selective sync | N/A | Yes |
| Autostart playlist | Yes | N/A |
| Smart playlists | Yes | See note 1 |
| Active playlists | Yes | See note 1 |
| Slideshow viewer | Yes | No |
| Paused playback rewind | Yes | Yes |
| Auto software upgrades | Yes | Yes |
| Manage artwork caching | Yes | Time based only |
| Default view modes | Yes | N/A |
| CSV data export | Yes | Yes |
| Non-UPnP servers | Yes | No |
| Server autodiscovery | Yes | Yes |
| Mezzmo Channels | No | See note 1 |
Note 1 - Mezzmo playlists and channels (including Smart, Active and others) can be added to Kodi favourites.
Note 2 - In Kodi native mode bookmark sharing to Kodi clients and syncing of new library content from Mezzmo to Kodi are both handled via the sync process and can be delayed up to 60 minutes for the hourly sync. Leverage Mezzmo Fast Sync to speed up native mode bookmark / resume point sharing and new content addition to Kodi. GUI mode bookmark sharing and content additions are immediate since both read directly from the Mezzmo server.