Topic: Emby - a Plex alternative and fantastic Kodi companion

[dazed]

There's a Kodi thread here, but flagging this as it could be useful for a lot of folks too


https://emby.media/

Emby's a client / server app that's similar to Plex, but offers much closer integration with Kodi
(comparison between the 3 here - http://cordcutting.com/plex-vs-emby/)

Been using this for a while now, and been quite happy with it. For those using only one Kodi client / player, this might not be as useful, but for those that are managing an increasingly growing media collection, and have multiple clients as well (i.e. media players in multiple rooms at home), this could tie everything together nicely

What it does is to let the Emby server app manage your library (including identifying all your media, downloading images and subtitles) and stream these to Emby clients

Easy enough to use a regular web browser to act as your Emby client, but there are ready-built clients for Samsung TV, PS4, Xbox One, Roku, Chromecast, Nvidia Shield, among others. But it's the integration with Kodi that stands out (via a Kodi addon), making it transparent, as the addon automatically populates your Kodi library

You do need a machine (preferably a NAS, or a low-power PC) that's on 24/7 (or at least when you want to stream your media) that will host the Emby server. If your internet connection at home is fast enough, you can actually stream externally as well

I've never used Plex, but it does look like Plex is simpler to install and set up. Emby's a bit more complicated, but once you have it running, you forget it's even there (since you're using Kodi as the front-end)

My real world use -
Automated/scheduled downloads managed by Sonarr (for tv shows) and CouchPotato (for film) - sent to Emby server to manage
Multiple internal and external Kodi clients accessing the Emby server
Have about 8 accounts set up (for friends and family), with each account able to have their own history and watched status

Using a QNAP 653A to host the server apps, and I've seen it stream to 4-5 clients concurrently with no real issues. Rather than use Exodus (where sources could be hit and miss), friends/family just stream from me directly

Happy to walk folks through the set up as best I can

[dazed]

Anybody else using Emby? Have had my setup running for almost 2 years now and serving about 30 users (although usually it's <10 concurrent users) spread out across the world. As long as they have decent internet connections, seems like I can serve media from my NAS that sits inside a 50Gbps PLDT Fibr Home connection. A few friends have cut their Netflix subscriptions and just rely on this now for media consumption. I should start charging, considering the tech support complaints I get on the few instances the server is down (and needs to be rebooted)

Anybody else serving their media across multiple clients? How do you do it? Or are majority of users here just connecting hard drives directly to NMT's / HTPC's, hence have no need to centrally stream media? Just curious, in case anybody has a different solution

[mhacman]

ok ito ah.. video on demand?  you have a good inventory now in 1080p or 4K, included -- both movies & TV series?

also, may we know how's your machine environment providing access to 10 concurrent users?  and yes, I think it may be fair to charge since you have the materials and keep a good maintenance of your internet access, servers/machine, storage media and up todate movie inventory.

[dazed]

ok ito ah.. video on demand?  you have a good inventory now in 1080p or 4K, included -- both movies & TV series?

also, may we know how's your machine environment providing access to 10 concurrent users?  and yes, I think it may be fair to charge since you have the materials and keep a good maintenance of your internet access, servers/machine, storage media and up todate movie inventory.

have about 10tb mostly 1080p movies and a mix of 720p/1080p tv shows. most of the series are configured to automatically download as soon as a source is available (via Sonarr), while movies are managed through Couch Potato which can also automatically download as soon as sources are available, although I usually prefer to pick and choose exactly which file (given the multitude of formats, etc). the fun thing is all these can be done remotely - so say you're having dinner out, somebody mentions a movie or tv show that's interesting, I can immediately add it to the queue using my mobile.

I was just kidding about charging though - definitely no plans. I'm doing it for myself anyway (as I need to stream to family members), so just opened it up to friends (who can be demanding though ).

Using a QNAP-653A NAS - 6-bay, 1.6Ghz quad core CPU, then I upgraded RAM to 16GB. I don't let it transcode though (although it can). Usually just letting it direct stream and letting client boxes play is a good enough user experience. From the NMTs I and my friends have used, I've found the NVidia Shield to be most reliable (of course). but given the price of the Shield, I usually just recommend my friends to get the Minix U1 as a cheaper option with same results. I've tried using the Amazon Fire Stick with Kodi, but it keeps on buffering, so looks like the hardware isn't up to par for this purpose. Other cheap NMTs also don't work so well.

The NAS is running 24x7, and can be remotely rebooted/configured, in case I need to reboot it or twiddle with Emby while I'm not home

[jnazareta]

Bookmarking for reference

[dazed]

another advantage of using Emby as the server in a multi-client setup is keeping your viewing history centrally stored, and in sync across all clients.

real world scenario - say you have multiple media boxes across the house, you can play something in one room, pause/stop it, and pick up where you left off in the next room. the stuff you've watched will also be marked watched across all clients. that's in contrast to a more common setup where you have your media in a NAS or connected harddrive/central storage, and run multiple Kodi clients to watch. it works, but every kodi client will have their own library / history, and your history won't be in sync across clients.

[agmjr]

have about 10tb mostly 1080p movies and a mix of 720p/1080p tv shows. most of the series are configured to automatically download as soon as a source is available (via Sonarr), while movies are managed through Couch Potato which can also automatically download as soon as sources are available, although I usually prefer to pick and choose exactly which file (given the multitude of formats, etc). the fun thing is all these can be done remotely - so say you're having dinner out, somebody mentions a movie or tv show that's interesting, I can immediately add it to the queue using my mobile.

sir, hindi ka ba nahirapan mag configure ng sonarr? any tips on how to do it? thanks

[GIJoe]

This is interesting im using synology as my NAS i might migrate soon to a 5 bay as im using 2 bay now. Do you have a tutorial to setup this on NAS and client for the player? Thanks

[dazed]

sir, hindi ka ba nahirapan mag configure ng sonarr? any tips on how to do it? thanks

not sure what machine/server you're running sonarr on, but for my QNAP NAS, it exists as a 3rd party QPKG. I just installed that, and the actual setup / tweaking of settings was pretty straightforward. although I have to say, I haven't used it with torrents - as I use newsgroup servers for my downloads (usually more reliable, and more importantly, anonymous and no need to open up my machine to share). from there, it's just a matter of tweaking which folders to save to, file naming conventions, etc.

should be lots of guides online if you stumble onto roadblocks. and a lot of trial and error as well. but once you have it up and running, that should be it. I haven't changed my setup in 3 yrs.

[dazed]

This is interesting im using synology as my NAS i might migrate soon to a 5 bay as im using 2 bay now. Do you have a tutorial to setup this on NAS and client for the player? Thanks

not really that familiar with synology, as I've been a QNAP user since the early 2000s, but I imagine they're relatively similar.

for the server, there's a package for synology already, so start from there - https://emby.media/nas-server.html

for the client, it depends on your preferences. there are native clients for a variety of devices (or even just your good old browser). personally, I prefer kodi as I'm just very used to it, and can change skins to my liking. if you opt for the kodi route, you basically outsource library duties to emby. you just need to install the emby for kodi addon, and point it to your server.

there's a tutorial here - https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/install-emby-kodi-addon/

takes a while to build the library initially, specially if you have a big collection, but after the first install, updates are just pushed out real-time

if you want your server accessible outside your home network, you'll have to do port forwarding on your router

good luck and let us know if it works!

[GIJoe]

not really that familiar with synology, as I've been a QNAP user since the early 2000s, but I imagine they're relatively similar.

for the server, there's a package for synology already, so start from there - https://emby.media/nas-server.html

for the client, it depends on your preferences. there are native clients for a variety of devices (or even just your good old browser). personally, I prefer kodi as I'm just very used to it, and can change skins to my liking. if you opt for the kodi route, you basically outsource library duties to emby. you just need to install the emby for kodi addon, and point it to your server.

there's a tutorial here - https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/install-emby-kodi-addon/

takes a while to build the library initially, specially if you have a big collection, but after the first install, updates are just pushed out real-time

if you want your server accessible outside your home network, you'll have to do port forwarding on your router

good luck and let us know if it works!

Thanks for the reply ill check this out.

[GIJoe]

Nagawa ko din first impression like plex din sa pag setup ng library but its better kasi nagcacategorize na siya according to the resolution like 1080p and 4k yung plex kasi hindi. Maganda din ung emby app pero need mo unlock to use the appl to play for lifetime around $5 which is ok pa din. Will check again pag may time ako. So far may trial period ung player ng app. Mas mabilis din siya mag play than plex. Parang plex+kodi siya. Ayaw ko din gamitin yung kodi add on kasi parang kodi din lang ung gui di kagaya ng gui ng emby app parang gui ng plex.


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[jnazareta]

Question on supported audio.. Plex kasi does not support DTS natively and it will transcode the audio or you have to allow passthrough to get it working kapag connected sa receiver. Does Emby support DTS natively without transcoding?

[mhacman]

^ what do you mean by transcoding DTS in Plex when it is not passed-through to receiver?  if the movie has DTS it is then become PCM 5.1 or Dolby Digital?  I used Plex in the past and if movie is DTS, it is displayed as "DTS" when being played on my TV -- it is not transcoded.  and when I use the receiver, the receiver also detects it as DTS.

my past Plex streaming connections:

Laptop with the movie library (as Plex Server) --> wi-fi --> LG TV (as Plex Player) --> toslink --> AVR.  not using the HDMI ARC that time coz I'm not sure why the LG TV and Pioneer AVR doesn't match using ARC even if the cable is HDMI v1.4b.

[GIJoe]

Question on supported audio.. Plex kasi does not support DTS natively and it will transcode the audio or you have to allow passthrough to get it working kapag connected sa receiver. Does Emby support DTS natively without transcoding?

Plex support on my experience it does not transcode even my dts-hd. True-hd, atmos and dts:x audio. With emby it do the same.


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[dazed]

I normally just direct stream from the Emby server (and don't let it transcode), and leave the heavy lifting to the clients (NVidia shield and Minix U1's) that can handle it easily. I see all the usual formats (DTS, DTS-HD, atmos, etc) show up in my receiver

[dazed]

Nagawa ko din first impression like plex din sa pag setup ng library but its better kasi nagcacategorize na siya according to the resolution like 1080p and 4k yung plex kasi hindi. Maganda din ung emby app pero need mo unlock to use the appl to play for lifetime around $5 which is ok pa din. Will check again pag may time ako. So far may trial period ung player ng app. Mas mabilis din siya mag play than plex. Parang plex+kodi siya. Ayaw ko din gamitin yung kodi add on kasi parang kodi din lang ung gui di kagaya ng gui ng emby app parang gui ng plex.

nice

no need to pay for emby premiere, in my experience, as I don't really use the emby app. although kanya kanya naman ng preference. if you still want the kodi functionalities but just don't like the kodi "look", skin lang katapat nyan. Embuary skin mimics the default Emby GUI to incorporate into Kodi. from my side, I actually prefer the other kodi skins

[GIJoe]

nice

no need to pay for emby premiere, in my experience, as I don't really use the emby app. although kanya kanya naman ng preference. if you still want the kodi functionalities but just don't like the kodi "look", skin lang katapat nyan. Embuary skin mimics the default Emby GUI to incorporate into Kodi. from my side, I actually prefer the other kodi skins

Actually hindi siya emby premiere parang 1 time payment to use the player with the amby app nakukulangan kasi ako sa kodi na add on can you post a gui of your emby kodi addon? One more did you do a port forward so you can access it outside your network? i Cant access kasi yung emby server kahit emby connect na ako.

Parang walang ganitong gui si kodi emby which nagustuhan ko din siya sa plex.

[GIJoe]

Eto ung sinasabi ko na one time payment para nakapagplay ka sa emby app.




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[jnazareta]

Sorry, Let me elaborate po. I use a laptop as a Plex server and has 2 DTS audio movies. When I played the movie using PLEX Client sa Mibox 3 it show na yung video is direct play then the audio show as DTS transcoded instead of direct play. I tried this with 2 movies that I downloaded and has the same result kaya I was thinking na baka may mali or baka hindi supported ng PLEX and DTS. But if most of you stated na working naman and it makes me think na may mali sa settings ko. I'm just stating this po para po incase I decided to switch with emby at least po I will not be sorry po. BTW, my connection is Laptop (server) connected via wifi, ---> Mibox 3 connected via Wifi 5ghz ----HDMI cable to non-smart TV.

[GIJoe]

Sorry, Let me elaborate po. I use a laptop as a Plex server and has 2 DTS audio movies. When I played the movie using PLEX Client sa Mibox 3 it show na yung video is direct play then the audio show as DTS transcoded instead of direct play. I tried this with 2 movies that I downloaded and has the same result kaya I was thinking na baka may mali or baka hindi supported ng PLEX and DTS. But if most of you stated na working naman and it makes me think na may mali sa settings ko. I'm just stating this po para po incase I decided to switch with emby at least po I will not be sorry po. BTW, my connection is Laptop (server) connected via wifi, ---> Mibox 3 connected via Wifi 5ghz ----HDMI cable to non-smart TV.

Naku dont use wifi use wired baka kaya nya transcode kasi di kaya ng connection mo na wifi. Nung unang testing ko ng plex laptop din ang plex server ko pero di naman natranscode and i use wired connection not wifi.


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[jnazareta]

Naku dont use wifi use wired baka kaya nya transcode kasi di kaya ng connection mo na wifi. Nung unang testing ko ng plex laptop din ang plex server ko pero di naman natranscode and i use wired connection not wifi.


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@GIJoe thanks for the advice. I think my network is fine naman and I forgot to mention na ni wired connection ko din sila using CAT 6 cables sa Mibox namn I use the Ugreen USB adapter na merong LAN port. the movie is a small bitrate lang namna I just downloaded a 720P movie ng transformer dark moon to test the DTS. I havent hook up mibox sa receiver as I have another dedicated media player connected to it so I cannot compare it as of now. I just want to make sure na I set it up correctly kasi nakalagay sa Plex client is yung audio DTS transcoded and when I turned on the pass-through option the audio goes off sa TV. That's why I concluded na baka hindi supported ni PLEX natively ang DTS. I would like to ask for an apology sa Thread starter as It looks like na nahi-jack ko po yung thread nyo po. I'm just asking this questions po just to be sure that when I move to emby everything will go smoothly. Thanks in Advance po sa mga sasagot...

EDIT:
Just read it the plex support page:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/203824396-what-media-formats-are-supported/

Does the app support DTS audio?
At present, there is no support for 3rd-party applications to play DTS audio. Content with DTS audio will have the audio automatically transcoded (using the standard DTS core track) by the Plex Media Server in order to preserve the surround sound audio channels.

We’re working with Microsoft to bring DTS playback support in the future.

[GIJoe]

@GIJoe thanks for the advice. I think my network is fine naman and I forgot to mention na ni wired connection ko din sila using CAT 6 cables sa Mibox namn I use the Ugreen USB adapter na merong LAN port. the movie is a small bitrate lang namna I just downloaded a 720P movie ng transformer dark moon to test the DTS. I havent hook up mibox sa receiver as I have another dedicated media player connected to it so I cannot compare it as of now. I just want to make sure na I set it up correctly kasi nakalagay sa Plex client is yung audio DTS transcoded and when I turned on the pass-through option the audio goes off sa TV. That's why I concluded na baka hindi supported ni PLEX natively ang DTS. I would like to ask for an apology sa Thread starter as It looks like na nahi-jack ko po yung thread nyo po. I'm just asking this questions po just to be sure that when I move to emby everything will go smoothly. Thanks in Advance po sa mga sasagot...

EDIT:
Just read it the plex support page:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/203824396-what-media-formats-are-supported/

Does the app support DTS audio?
At present, there is no support for 3rd-party applications to play DTS audio. Content with DTS audio will have the audio automatically transcoded (using the standard DTS core track) by the Plex Media Server in order to preserve the surround sound audio channels.

We’re working with Microsoft to bring DTS playback support in the future.

So yung mibox mo directly connected sa tv? Malamang nakita ng plex na wala support ang dts sa player and tv as per testing naman nvidia shield with my marantz receiver supported naman  ni plex ang dts no transcoding done with plex.












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[mhacman]

Sorry, Let me elaborate po. I use a laptop as a Plex server and has 2 DTS audio movies. When I played the movie using PLEX Client sa Mibox 3 it show na yung video is direct play then the audio show as DTS transcoded instead of direct play. I tried this with 2 movies that I downloaded and has the same result kaya I was thinking na baka may mali or baka hindi supported ng PLEX and DTS. But if most of you stated na working naman and it makes me think na may mali sa settings ko. I'm just stating this po para po incase I decided to switch with emby at least po I will not be sorry po. BTW, my connection is Laptop (server) connected via wifi, ---> Mibox 3 connected via Wifi 5ghz ----HDMI cable to non-smart TV.

I would think it's the TV.  (from MiBox to non-Smart TV), baka si TV ay walang DTS license, hence the transcoding.

but when the MiBox sends audio to the receiver, you have no issue with DTS, right?  might as well use an AVR all the time with DTS encoded movies =))

[jnazareta]

I would think it's the TV.  (from MiBox to non-Smart TV), baka si TV ay walang DTS license, hence the transcoding.

but when the MiBox sends audio to the receiver, you have no issue with DTS, right?  might as well use an AVR all the time with DTS encoded movies =))

You are correct sir, I connected the Mibox to my receiver and it can direct play both video and audio and it shows DTS sa denon receiver ko. I even tried to set the audio settings ng mibox to pcm and tried it again sa non-smart tv ko sa room and got the same result padin still it is transcoding the DTS audio. As a work around I use KODI to play videos streaming from my plex server. But I'm not sure talaga if sino ang may issue whenever the Mibox is connected directly sa TV. is it Mibox doesnt support DTS, PLEX app or the TV. When I connect it directly sa TV and allow passthrough sa PLEX app no sounds coming out of the TV speaker. same din if I set the Mibox sound setting to PCM rather than AUTO got the same result. pero if wheather naka AUTO or PCM and setting in Mibox still it transcode the audio when playing using the PLEX app. Thanks  to everyone who took time in checking this issue. I might transition to EMBY because of the looks and movies filtering feature nya..

[dazed]

Actually hindi siya emby premiere parang 1 time payment to use the player with the amby app nakukulangan kasi ako sa kodi na add on can you post a gui of your emby kodi addon? One more did you do a port forward so you can access it outside your network? i Cant access kasi yung emby server kahit emby connect na ako.

Parang walang ganitong gui si kodi emby which nagustuhan ko din siya sa plex.

understood. on my phone / tablet (which I rarely use anyway) - if I had to access my server, I just use a browser. works for me, so I never really had the need to use the emby app. although the cost isn't so high anyway, so if you do use it, then might be worth paying for it

to access your server from outside your home network, you definitely have to do port forwarding. just need to go to your router setup page, and enable port forwarding for port 8096 (emby's default port, unless you changed it), and point it to your server. I do the same for my other apps (couchpotato, sonarr, nzbget, etc) so I can access everything from outside. you can set up a dynamic dns server as well so you can just point to a constant URL, rather than keep track of your external IP address. I also had to get PLDT to enable bridge mode as well (didn't work without that)

for the aesthetics, have a look at the embuary skin for kodi that I mentioned (https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=320137)

looks like that's what you want. I personally don't use it so can't vouch for it. will try to have a look at what skin I'm using (I think it's an old one that's no longer being supported, as I'm still using Kodi Jarvis (haven't moved on to Krypton or Leia). my philosophy is if it's not broken and does what I need it to do, no need to change it

the other reason I didn't get to mention that I wanted to use Kodi was because of other functionalities, like the Philips Hue addon, where I sync my LED strips to whatever's playing on the screen. a bit gimmicky, but I've gotten used to watching like this

linked to it in a separate home automation post previously, but putting it here -

[GIJoe]

understood. on my phone / tablet (which I rarely use anyway) - if I had to access my server, I just use a browser. works for me, so I never really had the need to use the emby app. although the cost isn't so high anyway, so if you do use it, then might be worth paying for it

to access your server from outside your home network, you definitely have to do port forwarding. just need to go to your router setup page, and enable port forwarding for port 8096 (emby's default port, unless you changed it), and point it to your server. I do the same for my other apps (couchpotato, sonarr, nzbget, etc) so I can access everything from outside. you can set up a dynamic dns server as well so you can just point to a constant URL, rather than keep track of your external IP address. I also had to get PLDT to enable bridge mode as well (didn't work without that)

for the aesthetics, have a look at the embuary skin for kodi that I mentioned (https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=320137)

looks like that's what you want. I personally don't use it so can't vouch for it. will try to have a look at what skin I'm using (I think it's an old one that's no longer being supported, as I'm still using Kodi Jarvis (haven't moved on to Krypton or Leia). my philosophy is if it's not broken and does what I need it to do, no need to change it

the other reason I didn't get to mention that I wanted to use Kodi was because of other functionalities, like the Philips Hue addon, where I sync my LED strips to whatever's playing on the screen. a bit gimmicky, but I've gotten used to watching like this

linked to it in a separate home automation post previously, but putting it here -

Ok na nakita ko na ung sa port forwarding and mas like ko kasi gui nung native na emby app sa nvidia shield kesa sa addon ni kodi.

[GIJoe]

Ok na ako sa emby may nadownload ako apk file na di na need bayad oara sa unlock.














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[jackryan]

Did you guys had to sign-up and pay the ~ usd 120 one time charge to get this started for your set-up?

[dazed]

Did you guys had to sign-up and pay the ~ usd 120 one time charge to get this started for your set-up?

not for me. I'd be willing to pay that for Emby Premiere (Lifetime) if I needed, but Premiere doesn't really give me anything I need -

https://emby.media/premiere.html

it's mainly for those that want to use the native Emby app for their devices. I use mine with Kodi (I want the Kodi flexibility), and I can use the free version with on impact on my use case