When it comes to managing and streaming your personal media collection, Emby stands out as a favorite among home media enthusiasts. Whether you're a cord-cutter, a collector, or just someone who wants full control over your content, Emby delivers. But don’t just take our word for it — recently we took a look around the Emby Community Forums, Reddit, and other media server discussions to find out what users love most.
Here are the features Emby users say they can’t live without:
🧑‍💻 1.
If you’re new to the world of media servers, you might be wondering what they are, why people use them, and where Emby fits in. Whether you have a collection of movies, TV shows, music, personal videos, photos, or all of the above, a media server helps you take control of your entertainment.
Let’s break it down.
So, What Is a Media Server?
A media server is simply a system that allows you to store your media in one place and access it from anywhere — your TV, phone, tablet, comput
Version 2.0 of our popular Android TV and Fire TV apps are rolling out to stores now. This version brings many internal improvements for playback and also supports the new features in the upcoming 4.6 release of the server. Your device should update automatically when available.
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Improved Subtitle Support
These apps can now natively render most types of advanced subtitles (Dual Layer PGS/SSA etc.) with full formatting and multiple sub placements without requiring the serv
Your Emby server is the heart of your home entertainment system, the engine that delivers your vast media library to all your devices. But what kind of hardware does it take to run a smooth and powerful Emby server? Let's dive into the essentials, from basic requirements to advanced setups.
The Foundation: Operating Systems and Supported Platforms
Emby is designed to be versatile, running on a wide range of operating systems, including:
Windows: A popular choice for its ease of
Long Promised — Long Awaited — Finally Here!
We are excited to announce the first release of our all-new range of Emby apps, starting today with Windows and Xbox. With a fully redeveloped native foundation, this update delivers improvements across the board: from remote control and gamepad support to background downloading (Windows), as well as refresh and HDR mode switching, and most importantly, enhanced video playback.
The new app also comes with a name change from Emby Theater to s
WELCOME TO THE HISTORY OF EMBY!
A lot of our users are new to Emby and we thought it would be a good idea to share some of the backstory of how Emby came to be, where we started and where we are headed. We have grown significantly since our inception. Once a humble open-source project, Emby has evolved into a sophisticated platform that allows users to organize, stream, and enjoy their media libraries with ease. In this post, we'll take a look back at the history of Emby, explore its develo
A lot of people when watching movies or TV shows utilize subtitles. They can be for watching a movie in a foreign language or helpful for those with hearing difficulties to enjoy their favorite TV show. Whatever your reason for using subtitles, Emby has a few great options that individuals can set up at the user level to make subtitle usage easier for themselves every time they watch their favorite media.Â
Did you know that every user on your server can set up different subtitle settings th
Keeping Entertainment Family-Friendly: Setting Up Kid Accounts and Parental Controls in Emby
One of the most powerful features of Emby is the ability to create individual user accounts. This becomes especially useful for families as parents can give kids their own profiles while keeping control over what content they can access. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to set up kid accounts and enable parental controls in Emby, step by step.
Why Create Kid Accounts?
Age-
The Emby team hopes you and yours are enjoying a Happy Holiday Season. We would like to announce a couple of changes that will hopefully increase the value of Emby in all of your households.
First, to aid in the transition from our old TV-only Android TV app to the new Standard Android app on that platform, we will be eliminating the need for the app unlock by allowing free playback for up to five TV devices per Emby Server. Devices beyond that limit will require Emby Premiere. Previousl
If you’re looking to switch from Plex to Emby, you’re not alone. Many users are making the transition to Emby for its advanced customization options, better privacy controls, and flexibility. While moving your media library might seem daunting, this guide will walk you through the entire process, ensuring a smooth migration without losing your watch history and you'll be up and running before you know it!
Why Switch from Plex to Emby?
Before we dive into the migration process, let
Metadata is the backbone of any Emby server. Accurate metadata not only helps you organize your media but also enhances the browsing experience by providing details such as posters, cast information, and plot summaries. In our next how to guide, we’ll explore how to get the best metadata for your media library in Emby and customize metadata to suit your preferences.
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Why Metadata Matters
Metadata turns a bland file list into an engaging media library. Instead of scrolling through
EMBY HOW TO BLOGS
We will be releasing a variety of how to blogs over the next few weeks during the holidays. A lot of people will be home and have some time to "tinker" with their home servers and these little entries will be a great starting point to working more closely with your server. For more in depth knowledge that these blogs do not cover, or any questions that may pop up, please reach out to any of the staff members on the forums in the appropriate channels and we will be glad to
EmbyWatch - A brilliant app built by a community user!
One of the best things about the Emby community is the creativity that comes from it. Every so often, one of our users takes their love for media servers to the next level and builds something that makes life easier for the rest of us.
Today, we’re excited to share EmbyWatch, a brand-new Android app developed by community member @asgard25It is an an incredible example of what happens when passion and innovation meet.
A User-B
Today, we're glad to announce public availability of the new Emby WMC UI Beta.
It started out as a spare-time effort of Emby developer softworkz, assumed to target only a niche audience of nostalgia and WMC fans, and hasn't been an Emby roadmap project.
But over time, it has turned into something of its own kind, going far beyond just mixing-in some nostalgic visuals like a theme, but rather providing an authentic look and feel, the original modes of operation and behavior, or in short
Emby Server 4.9.3 has been released. Here are the highlights:
Update Intel drivers on Linux platforms
Add user option to set user's auto remote quality
Add library option to use legacy folder scanning method
Music transcoding fixes
Add landing tab option for book libraries
Support volume control with youtube trailer player
Update mixed content tabs to combine Movies & Shows
Fix maintenance mode blocking some settings screens
Fix
We wanted to share a quick review of Emby that was recently done by Sergio Ambrosio, a popular tech blogger in Spain. We are excited to see that people are taking note of the product that we pour a lot of effort in to here and look forward to more reviews in the future. Thank you Sergio for taking the time to review Emby!
You can read the article HERE
Later this week, we will be posting another blog focused on transcoding and some best practices to make sure your server is setup proper
Here is the next round of answers from our Emby Q&A session. The feedback from our previous blog post was exciting to see from all of you, and we are excited to share even more answers. The next round of questions and answers will be released next week as well!Â
1)Â What are some of the future goals of Emby?Â
Emby wants to continue to grow and be the best media server option available for our users. We hope to move to a quicker release schedule than in previous iterations that is bo
The Emby team wanted to say thank you again to everyone that took the time to ask various questions during our Q&A session. Here are a few more answers to questions that a lot of our users were asking about.Â
1) How is beta functionality success measured?Â
Often times people are curious about the process we use internally here at Emby as we go through the Beta process. We do rely heavily on the forum feedback and beta-tester feedback relating to open issues. It is also important th
Thank you to everyone who took the time to ask the Emby team questions across all of the different platforms including here on the forums. There were a lot of great questions that were thrown our way and we've been excited to get the answers out to you. While some of the questions we were not able to answer, we did our best to give you the most accurate and clear answers possible.
Now without further ado, here is the first series of questions and answers for you to look over! Please keep in
We announced a while back that Emby for WMC would not continue to be supported beyond server version 4.6. With the release of 4.7 getting closer, we just wanted to issue a gentle reminder.
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Emby for LG 1.0.50 has been released. Here are the highlights:
Resolve playback error on some 2018-2019 models
Merge Movies and Shows into a new Movies & Shows tab in mixed content libraries
Emby for Apple TV 2.0.3 has been released. Here are the highlights:
Improve performance of detail screens
Fix playback crash related to live tv subtitles
Add resume button for in-progress recordings
Support new auto remote quality option in 4.9.2 server
Emby for Android 3.1.60 is currently rolling out to the Google Play Store, and is also available for download on our website if apk's are needed.
Highlights
Revamp audio and video playback
Improve HDR video support
Add refresh rate switching option for video playback
Add speed control to video player
Added camera upload photo folder option
Improve voice search support with Android Auto
Support search with google assistant
Support subtit
In this installment of our Emby Community Spotlight series, we're highlighting three new users with completely different builds. One leverages serious archival storage and years of media curation; another keeps things lean and affordable; and a third takes a no-nonsense approach with hand-me-down hardware.
Each setup proves that no matter your budget or complexity, Emby can be tailored to fit your needs!
User 1: 3.3 Million Entries, 400TB of Storage, and a Custom-Tuned Library