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Introducing the new Emby Theater for Windows and the Web


Luke

31178 views

Download for Windows: https://emby.media/emby-theater.html
Try the online web app: http://tv.emby.media and https://tv.emby.media - supports the latest versions of Chrome, Opera, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

 

This app has been a long journey and we're finally pleased to announce availability for Emby Premiere subscribers.

 

On Windows, the Same Great Video Player in a Brand New App

 

The app retains the same great Direct Show audio and video player that you're accustomed to, including all of it's bells and whistles with Madvr and other perks. Andrew Van Til from Missing Remote has been helping us and we can't thank him enough. This app has been truly a massive team effort.

 

You might be wondering what took you guys so long? This is essentially our third major design of the app. You're all familiar with the original. We then began an overhaul built with C# and WPF, and by overhaul, we mean a re-write from the ground up. Then in early 2015, I began scheming about the idea of a full-featured HTPC app built with HTML. It is my belief that Web API's have evolved to the point where they are now truly the best option, and that led to another fresh start building the app from the ground up. Make no mistake, this is not a Smart TV app ported to the HTPC, this is a new app designed to support all the bells and whistles you've come to expect.

 

So what's different about this new app? Read on!

 

A Modern App for Modern Times

 

The interface for this app has been built with HTML, but this is nothing like the web apps you're accustomed to. This has been built purely with modern features that bring a level of performance that wasn't even possible a year ago at this time. For the nerds out there, that means WebAnimations, WebComponents, Service Workers, Polymer, and on and on.

 

To run this app on Windows, we've utilized Chromium, Electron, and NodeJS. Then we replaced the web audio and video player with a player built specifically for Windows (mentioned above). With HTML and JavaScript as the basis, the possibilities are going to be endless.

 

To release the app on other platforms such as Linux, Mac or Android, we would follow the same process and provide you with the best audio and video players that the platforms have to offer.

 

Pretty soon we'll have additional announcements on how you can build skins with HTML, and we can't wait to unveil that.
561bc276520b9_1.png

 

Designed for 10ft, but Works Great With a Mouse and Touch Input

 

We've put a lot of effort into all three input mechanisms. We want this app to work well however you'd like to use it. We think the best way is a remote, but if you'd like to scroll with the mouse or swipe with your finger, that works great too.

 

Note: Although the app supports touch input, it does not currently have any mobile designs, therefore it is not ideal for small screens.

 

Sharper and Crisper Than Ever Before

 

The first thing you'll notice when playing with the new app is just how much crisper it is. How has this been achieved? Unlike the previous version of the app (and Emby for WMC), the new Emby Theater renders at resolution without any form of UI scaling. This will create more work for the theme developer to design for different resolutions (720p, 1080p, 4k, etc), but the results are worth it.

 

We love the old Emby Theater, but this is going to make it look like an old tube TV.

 

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Silky Smooth Animation

 

The next thing you'll notice is just how fluidly the interface navigates. Dramatic performance improvements have been made over the previous app. Almost everything on-screen is animated and it really helps make the app more pleasant to use.

 

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Emby Theater Going Multi-Platform

 

We want to bring this app to as many platforms as we can, including Smart TV's, Android, and others. With HTML as the basis we have a foundation that will allow this app to run on just about anything.

 

6-Button Control

 

There will be no more fumbling around trying to figure out what button does what. The new app will be easy for anyone to pick up and use without any learning curve. All functions are being designed around 6 buttons - up, down, left, right, ok, and back. Your family members and guests will have no trouble controlling the new Emby Theater.

 

If You Can Do HTML and CSS, You can Build Themes for Emby Theater

 

Many of you have probably worked with HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Building themes and plugins is as simple as forking existing samples on Github and creating your own versions. We're excited to see what you come up with. We'll have more info on this coming soon.

 

Rediscover your Content with Recommendations

 

A popular feature from other Emby apps is finally making it's way to Emby Theater.

 

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New Music Interface

 

The app finally has a design that makes sense for music.

 

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Live TV

 

Watch Live TV, browse the guide, and manage your recordings.

 

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Details Gone Vertical

 

A common complaint over the detail screen of the current Emby Theater is that it's pretty but slow to navigate. We went back to the drawing board and decided to take a little inspiration from Android TV. It is now much, much faster to browse through detail screens.

 

561bc89cf3d3c_8.png

 

561bc98a1d3b0_9.png

 

Wait, if This is HTML...

 

Does that mean the built-in web app could be made to animate as smoothly as Emby Theater?

 

Yes! It can, and it will. But the built-in web app has to support older browsers such as Internet Explorer, so it will take a little longer to get there.

 

So Which Version Should I Use?

 

It really depends. For most users, we suggest that if you need HD Audio Bitsreaming, External Players, or MadVR, you'll want to use the native windows app. For everyone else, the web app with Chrome running in full-screen is a great option.

 

Download for Windows: https://emby.media/emby-theater.html
Try the online web app: http://tv.emby.media and https://tv.emby.media (supports the latest versions of Chrome, Opera, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge)

  • Like 18

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Loving the new player! Only issue I'm having is that when using the web version (tv.emby.media)...the file plays about 30 seconds to 1 minute and then just quits. Running the latest stable version on Docker and just wanted to know if others were having the same issue.

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Overseer

Posted

I am very impressed by the web interface.  Very, very fluid.

  • Like 1
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Even this 1.0 version runs amazing for me. Everything is super smooth and looks great.

 

One feature I really need, that shouldn't be too hard to implement, is an audio delay setting. My TV has input lag when I send it a 1080p24 signal, so I have to fix this by putting a 150ms delay into my MPC-HC audio renderer. If Emby theater could get this soon, I can finally use it 100% of the time!

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Excellent work to all involved. The new Emby Theater is an AWESOME client. Using it daily. Keep up the amazing work. Looking forward to new themes and plugins.

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Loving the new player! Only issue I'm having is that when using the web version (tv.emby.media)...the file plays about 30 seconds to 1 minute and then just quits. Running the latest stable version on Docker and just wanted to know if others were having the same issue.

 

Hi, this is what happens when it fails to validate your premiere status, although we should obviously show a friendly message. please post in the community with a server log and we can try to find out why this is happening. Thanks.

 

http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/739-how-to-report-a-problem/

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Question, does the app direct-play (without transcoding and DD/DTS audio passthrough) all files within a local network?  If it does, Emby Premiere is a must buy for me.

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Question, does the app direct-play (without transcoding and DD/DTS audio passthrough) all files within a local network?  If it does, Emby Premiere is a must buy for me.

 

Hi, the Windows app, yes. The web version, as of today, cannot do this, although Microsoft Edge does support AC3 pass-through. You can be sure that if and when the browsers support this feature, we will be right on top of it.

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dporter15

Posted

I see above that it's a possibility to run Emby Theater on other platforms such as OS X and linux because of HTML.  Do you have any plans to make native apps for these platforms as well?

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hi very nice, but for me i have like 1000+ movies, the default 2 row poster view is painful, i hope that we can have a diferent type of poster view, anyways congra and nice job

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dpendleton

Posted

Awesome! Sorry, perhaps I'm just missing it, but how do we configure External Players?

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Been looking forward to this as a replacement for Emby for MC!

 

1 issue, when I enter my password and hit return it opens the onscreen keyboard and not sign me in.

 

Is this expected?

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Koleckai Silvestri

Posted

Will be nice if the server detected the browser and automatically showed this new interface for browsers other than IE. Or there was an option to disable the ability to use IE for connecting to the local server.

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I hope that this will not mark the end for the (free) Web Client.

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Amazing work !! I'm actually excited about this!

could this eventually make it's way to, say.. a nexus player ?

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Amazing work !! I'm actually excited about this!

could this eventually make it's way to, say.. a nexus player ?

 

yup, definitely.

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The progress the devs have made with ET is amazing, so well done all. I'm just a little surprised though that it's gone full release, because there are still some glaring bugs and limitations, even in v2.0.0. Namely;

 

When backing out of a playing move using a remote control, all focus is lost to the UI. You have to use a keyboard to regain this.

Continual back screen's when playing back media using MadVR as the renderer (audio is ok though)

Refresh rate not switching back to the original setting after playback (leaves UI running at 24hz and *very* sluggish)

No external player support (yet)

No theme support (yet)

Poor support for 50hz PAL TV

 

It really is getting there, no question, but it's not quite ready for prime time.

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Jedi Master Rob

Posted

One thing i noticed is the new tv guide looks great, but only shows so many channels before it stops, cutting off my channel list at about 200-250 channels out of 350 or so with no way to move to the next page of channels like the old app on windows 10

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One thing i noticed is the new tv guide looks great, but only shows so many channels before it stops, cutting off my channel list at about 200-250 channels out of 350 or so with no way to move to the next page of channels like the old app on windows 10

 

how does it perform with the 200?

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e123enitan

Posted

This awesome, I have not had the chance to test drive the new ET, but I am impressed so far with all the good comments in this thread, that being said,

 

Any one have idea how to launch windows 7 straight to ET, so when the system power up it just load ET without displaying windows, that would be helpful

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I see above that it's a possibility to run Emby Theater on other platforms such as OS X and linux because of HTML.  Do you have any plans to make native apps for these platforms as well?

 

Yes, definitely.

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This awesome, I have not had the chance to test drive the new ET, but I am impressed so far with all the good comments in this thread, that being said,

 

Any one have idea how to launch windows 7 straight to ET, so when the system power up it just load ET without displaying windows, that would be helpful

 

There is a thread in the community about shell replacement, something to that effect.

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This is great. Anyway I can use it from my domain instead of tv.emby.media?

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Nice! Love the look. Now I'm jealous I don't have it on my Roku.

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KarterJK

Posted

Stunning ... Great piece of work

(my two cents worth review)

 

As others, my LiveTV channels cutoff also.  I have 365 available with Comcast 2-900 are SD and HD 900-1000 are music, but my list stops at 712.   *** ALREADY CORRECTED ***

 

But the ones the are available play instantly and great quality.  No problems.

The guide for me worked very smooth or reasonably smooth.  Compared to the WMC it works just about as fast.  The guide seemed accurate as did the logos and pictures.  I also love not having to select how many will be displayed, the whole thing is scrollable.

 

Note:  

1)  it would be nice to get rid of the extra Play function and when you select a channel it just instantly plays.  And maybe use the 'info' button to display other information.

2)  Another feature that would be nice (as in WMC ) if you hit the enter button it would switch to the last channel watched and back again.

3)  Color coding for Sports, Movies, News and Other *** ALREADY CORRECTED ***

4)  No DRM  :(

 

Movie wise, it appears that it supports playing .vob but has no real remote support other than play and stop and cant handle menu commands.  I really wish this was available, my entire collection is .vob and having to create .MKV is cumbersome, plus, you can't play any info stuff.  Seeing extra features is really nice in WMC.  But, it works well other wise and quality is great.

 

Music played well, though it has an area for playlist, i am uncertain how you can create one, if it is a manual process or some way else.  It would be nice to be able to add a song to a playlist (as Google Play has) with a right click drop down list.  The Music controls work better, but still a little cumbersome to get back to main menu.  I get easily lost in it.

 

I have channels installed and all of the trailers seem to play without a hitch.  

 

Photos displayed properly, though I wish there were an animated slide show of some sort.

 

Overall, the theater is really nice, and seems to work much better on my LAN.  Now if those nasty old bugs could just get stamped out. 

 

My biggest suggestion, is maybe have one button that could always be displayed, which would always take you to the home menu.

 

I really, really, really like this... good job

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