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Emby vs Plex


junadlao

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junadlao

To begin, I have been a longtime Windows Media Center user ever since Microsoft put out WMC in Windows XP about 15 years ago. I set up a cable card tuner and watched TV and DVR recordings on it for a long time.

 

Then about 5 years ago, I discovered Plex and I loved that it had such a user-friendly interface on its client apps that even my wife and child was using them constantly. I think every tech savvy user feels an overwhelming pride when less tech-savvy people begin using whatever it was you've been spending so much time on. They just used it because of the nice and easy experience of being able to watch whatever they wanted to watch. With Plex's remote streaming, we were able to watch all our movies and TV DVR recordings anywhere in the world instead of just being able to watch them at home (with the old Windows Media Center).

 

Then about a week ago, I installed Emby. Before that, I have been joining discussion forums on different boards about other media streaming software. I just wanted to have an alternative to Plex not because I had any problem with Plex (it's still great!) but because I just wanted to future-proof my home media setup in case that something happens and I do have a problem with Plex. Enter Kodi and Emby. Kodi is very popular and do have all the Add-ons one could ever want but remote streaming personal media with it thru SSH tunneling is no easy task (it's not a built-in feature). Also, my family members for some reason just gravitate towards using our Apple products (iPad, iPhone and appleTV) instead of our other devices and Kodi is not supported by Apple. I have sideloaded Kodi to all our devices but the whole procedure was too clunky and I gave up after my Apple developer account expired.

 

So I am using Emby for about a week now and have been loving it. I love that it is open-source so that anybody could just make a fork of it if and when the developers get too greedy and try to become commercialized.

 

I'm hoping to start this topic so that anybody else who's evaluating Emby vs Plex could just add in with their thoughts on which is better...

 

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junadlao

I think the main feature I instantly got excited about with Emby was something I only knew about when I was installing it. It can be installed as a portable app!! This plus the fact that it has the option of saving metadata on the media folders, I began salivating. Plex is very server-centric that it doesn't have these options.

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CBers

Oh, sorry, didn't see that other thread. Would this new thread be too redundant?

No, as you might get more interest as it's a comparison, mine is more a FR :)

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paulsalter

For most things i find them fairly equal, had both installed for a number of years to keep swapping between them

 

A Lot of my content is recorded from over the air tv (external to plex/emby)and i just point a library at the location

 

My daily shows have no Season/Episode number, with Plex these files get totally ignored, Emby however picks them up and Next-Up works perfect for them

I have no interest in keeping these files long term, so dont want to do too much with them

I could rename them, but if something is recorded, i might want to watch straight away, so i dont want to have to remember to rename them immediately after recording 

Every few days i create nfo's for this type of show, which then show up with seconds in the library

 

For me, this is a big plus for Emby

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junadlao

For most things i find them fairly equal, had both installed for a number of years to keep swapping between them

 

A Lot of my content is recorded from over the air tv (external to plex/emby)and i just point a library at the location

 

My daily shows have no Season/Episode number, with Plex these files get totally ignored, Emby however picks them up and Next-Up works perfect for them

I have no interest in keeping these files long term, so dont want to do too much with them

I could rename them, but if something is recorded, i might want to watch straight away, so i dont want to have to remember to rename them immediately after recording 

Every few days i create nfo's for this type of show, which then show up with seconds in the library

 

For me, this is a big plus for Emby

Yes, I do find them fairly equal for most things too as far as user experience is concerned. Navigating through all our considerable media (4 TB, 2000+ movies/videos, 10000+ music, and photos), both Emby and Plex handle well and smooth. My Plex is on a Linux VM and my Emby is on a Win Server 2012 VM running a portable app that is on the network share where all my other media are. I'm very surprised at the speed and performance of the Emby portable app considering that the program cache files are being saved on the network share as well. 

As you've mentioned, big plus for Emby is the nfo support and all the other configurable options.

Edited by junadlao
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Swynol

i find that plex is almost a install and forget. you use their defaults, and they tell you what you can and cant do.

 

where as with emby, you can install it and forget and it works perfectly fine. then you can geek out on it, change it to the way you want it, mod it, change css, go crazy on security, anything you can think of and imagine you can probably do. 

 

i've been with emby since its early days when it was called mediabrowser v2. so i may be biased. however i do run both plex and emby side by side, but all my kit around the house uses emby.

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chef

i find that plex is almost a install and forget. you use their defaults, and they tell you what you can and cant do.

 

where as with emby, you can install it and forget and it works perfectly fine. then you can geek out on it, change it to the way you want it, mod it, change css, go crazy on security, anything you can think of and imagine you can probably do.

 

i've been with emby since its early days when it was called mediabrowser v2. so i may be biased. however i do run both plex and emby side by side, but all my kit around the house uses emby.

Amen brother!

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mellomade

One of the main reasons I never really used Plex was that they required you to login to their server to use it (and their apps) where Emby Connect is optional.  I try to stay away from cloud-based IoT models - because at the end of the day I absolutely despise using software forcing me to call home.  Makes me wonder what else they are collecting.

 

Live TV is also something where Emby has virtually no competition.  Plex can try to claim that - but they are still relying on Silicondust to do all the heavy lifting and it has been hilarious to watch SD trip all over itself in the past 2 years trying to accomplish something Emby had within a few months of the SD kickstarter.  It's kind of sad really - by the time they get all the DRM stuff figured out (if ever) people will have moved on.

 

But I understand why Plex has been more popular.  The mass majority of people are dumb sheep.  They would rather one-click install something than spend even one second thinking about the ramifications of not learning about the software they are using.  It's no wonder email phishing and other social engineering hacks work so well.

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CBers

i find that plex is almost a install and forget. you use their defaults, and they tell you what you can and cant do.

 

where as with emby, you can install it and forget and it works perfectly fine. then you can geek out on it, change it to the way you want it, mod it, change css, go crazy on security, anything you can think of and imagine you can probably do.

 

i've been with emby since its early days when it was called mediabrowser v2. so i may be biased. however i do run both plex and emby side by side, but all my kit around the house uses emby.

Totally agree.

 

Plex is very basic compared to Emby and has a lot missing that Emby has.

 

For example, Live TV and DVR has only just been added to Plex, but there is no proper guide like Emby has. It will come I guess.

 

Plex does have a few UI properties that might be useful in Emby, one being why something is transcoding and which Luke has just started to add.

 

Please continue to post anything that Plex might have that would make Emby better.

 

I started a separate Android TV enhancement thread.

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paulsalter

Totally agree.

 

Plex is very basic compared to Emby and has a lot missing that Emby has.

 

For example, Live TV and DVR has only just been added to Plex, but there is no proper guide like Emby has. It will come I guess.

 

Plex does have a few UI properties that might be useful in Emby, one being why something is transcoding and which Luke has just started to add.

 

Please continue to post anything that Plex might have that would make Emby better.

 

I started a separate Android TV enhancement thread.

 

Couple of big things (for me) is smart playlists and playlist sync from trakt

 

eg, when i add a christmas movie, it gets added to my collection on trakt, i then place it in a playlist for christmas movies in trakt, this playlist then syncs with plex, already for the christmas season, and similar with other themed movies

 

smart playlist i use for example for my favourite shows, i create playlist for my favourite shows (list of all episodes) and then have the playlist sorted by last played, so next up episode is always at the top (as i use trakt i do not want to mark as unwatched and remove the trakt history)

 

Since moving to Emby full time now, these are the only things i miss

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PrincessClevage

Totally agree.

 

Plex is very basic compared to Emby and has a lot missing that Emby has.

 

For example, Live TV and DVR has only just been added to Plex, but there is no proper guide like Emby has. It will come I guess.

 

Plex does have a few UI properties that might be useful in Emby, one being why something is transcoding and which Luke has just started to add.

 

Please continue to post anything that Plex might have that would make Emby better.

 

I started a separate Android TV enhancement thread.

How about WOL built into clients and better control /pre checks of schedule scan tasks for those of us that have NAS that is not always on.
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CBers

How about WOL built into clients and better control /pre checks of schedule scan tasks for those of us that have NAS that is not always on.

Plex has that already, or you just want it added to Emby?

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PrincessClevage

Plex has that already, or you just want it added to Emby?

Not sure of Plex but WOL was built into all WMC clients many years ago where every time they attempted to connect they would send a small WOL to server.

The second point raised is every time EMby server performs a scan when NAS is off Emby client look terrible all images are lost and some turn into banners etc until next successful scan.

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Happy2Play

Not sure of Plex but WOL was built into all WMC clients many years ago where every time they attempted to connect they would send a small WOL to server.

The second point raised is every time EMby server performs a scan when NAS is off Emby client look terrible all images are lost and some turn into banners etc until next successful scan.

 

So this has nothing to do with the topic.  These are feature requested discussed elsewhere. :)

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PrincessClevage

So this has nothing to do with the topic. These are feature requested discussed elsewhere. :)

not entirely true,

Plex has the option to setup scheduled tasks between a start window and a stop window

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Where as Emby is limited to every xyz interval (in hours) and does not have this hard start/stop window setting as Plex does I.e for library scan you only have options for every xx hours and upon application start etc.

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So do we, just configure the schedule for individual tasks. Yes you have to do it for each, but it would not be accurate to say there is no solution.

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PrincessClevage

So do we, just configure the schedule for individual tasks. Yes you have to do it for each, but it would not be accurate to say there is no solution.

Is the "enable real time monitoring" linked to "Scan media library" scheduled task? If it is and set to "every 15minutes" =enable realtime monitoring then there is no way to setup a window when this is not allowed to run (e.g when NAS is scheduled to power off) but Plex has this ability. Edited by PrincessClevage
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I'm not quite sure what you're asking, sorry. Best thing to do is open a new topic with your desires and questions for scheduled tasks. thanks.

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Happy2Play

Is the "enable real time monitoring" linked to "Scan media library" scheduled task? If it is and set to "every 15minutes" =enable realtime monitoring then there is no way to setup a window when this is not allowed to run (e.g when NAS is scheduled to power off) but Plex has this ability.

 

Yes and No, online if something new is found in Movies content type.  Are you saying Realtime Monitoring is scanning while your NAS is Offline? (Logs Please)

 

So your saying you need a specific start stop shedule?  How long do your scans take?  Setting Scan Library task at 3am wouldn't accomplish the same?

 

This really should be in a topic of its own.

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PrincessClevage

Yes and No, online if something new is found in Movies content type.  Are you saying Realtime Monitoring is scanning while your NAS is Offline? (Logs Please)

 

So your saying you need a specific start stop shedule?  How long do your scans take?  Setting Scan Library task at 3am wouldn't accomplish the same?

 

This really should be in a topic of its own.

Moved to original old thread here:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/38241-more-options-for-scheduled-libary-scan/

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