Why emby

[kolbasz 20]

I'm not looking to start a flame war, just asking an honest question.

 

Where does emby differ from plex/plexbmc?

 

I have both installed, but barely use plex and just started with emby. I am really just wondering.

 

If I was to make 2 observations.

 

1. I like plexbmc not needing db sync

2. I like the path re-direction with emby, so I know I am playing directly.

 

Beyond that, I don't know much but the 2 do seem quite similar overall, so I wanted to ask, to learn what I might be missing.

[MndWrp 99]

Personally what won me over was the ease of use and the metadata editor.

 

In plex if episodes of a tv series is not in your preferred order it takes a different metadata agent to fetch the data and if that still is not the right order... you're out of luck... at least it's a lot more complicated to reorder. In Emby i found a very simple and versatile way to do exacly what i wanted fairly quickly.

 

Also.. In plex collections are not grouped together to make a single entry like it is in Emby.

 

And although i don't code stuff myself I'm around some programmers daily and fully appreciate and encourage the open source nature of Emby

 

That's my main reasons for using Emby over the competition.

 

It's not perfect (what is?) but it works much better for me than anything else i tried!

[kolbasz 20]

That makes good sense about the metadata. Having control to easily manipulate is good.

 

As for collections are you referring to boxed sets or something else?

 

I like that emby is native kodi for the most part, creating local dB, but I wonder if it can't be simplified. I used to use sql and headless kodi to manage the content, it was good, just less control of the media. If you could combine the 2, I wonder if it wouldn't function better, eliminate local dB all together, less syncs less moving parts.

 

Or am I way off with my thinking?

[Vidman 589]

that's what the old addon did but was slow as it had to parse the server database all the time and also required custom skins to browse content as if native

[MndWrp 99]

As for collections are you referring to boxed sets or something else?

Yes i do mean boxsets. I also use them for other purposes like grouping together versions of a movie.

Theatrical/extended/director's cuts etc..

Edited April 27, 2015 by MndWrp

[kolbasz 20]

that's what the old addon did but was slow as it had to parse the server database all the time and also required custom skins to browse content as if native

 

Ah, understood.  I know it is not likely something that could happen, but in my head, this is how I see it...

 

Emby server runs and does its thing and then through some "magic" (or plugin) it writes a native kodi mysql DB that I then connect to using the advanced settings file as I would normally using mysql.

 

I say this simply because last night I was using kodi/emby and it seemed a little sluggish on my rpi.  This could be because it just came out of sleep and was doing an update in the background, but I dont know, i didnt look at the processes.  it was simply an observation that got me thinking. 

 

Like I mentioned, I came form headless kodi and mysql, so all updates were behind the scenes.  sonarr completes its work, calls the update to the headless kodi and when I fire up the rpi, the files are there.  With this setup, there is a whole extra step which to me seems like a bunch of moving parts that are not needed.

 

I realize some of this discussion goes way off the topic, but if I look at plexbmc, it seems to do the remote library call, I guess like old MB/emby used to do?  I did not play much wiht plexbmc to see speed and function, literally just turned it on, saw it, turned it off.  I actually watched a show using the plex app/helper, using my phone to tell plex to play it on the kodi plexbmc.  But beyond that I did nothing.

 

So, with that said, as much as I like what I see from these early builds of emby, I also wonder if it is worth it.  I say that in the sense of function and use.  With the mysql if kodi blows up on me, I can recreate the SD card, boot, add the xml, reboot and be up and running fairly quickly.  With this, while I can install emby fairly quick, the DB sync kills me.  It almost forces me to use a backup (add-on), if I want to be able to get back up and watching after a failure/new install.

 

Point in all this is simple.  Put the idea out there to make a mysql DB that is essentially the same as the native kodi, but written from emby so we can take advantage of the rest of the emby functionality for media management. Either way, I am sticking with emby for now, but felt it was worth mentioning this idea, even if it was something that is not possible.