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for about a year now, probably since i updated to Kodi Matrix (and started using Add-on mode), i have been experiencing playback issues when first starting a movie/video file (mkv)....for the first 20-30 seconds of most files i would have brief 1-2 second periods of jerky playback/ stuttering, but then eventually the rest of the video would play fine it was annoying but i got somewhat used to it, but after updating to Emby 6.2.10, the jerkiness/stuttering seemed to get a little worse i had assumed it might be a hardware issue with my HTPC system, but now noticed the same mkvs played smoothly with players like VLC and MPC-HC i had been using Emby in Add-On mode, so then experimented with using Native mode, and was surprised to find that now the video files play smoothly from the very beginning, no more stuttering/jerkiness what could be the reason for this?

It seems I have complicated my life but my intention was to keep things simple... What is the best setup for my needs? Background: For years, I've had movies stored on a network share and have been using Serviio Pro (DLNA) for standalone Blu-ray players that do not play all video formats. Serviio also does a fairly decent job of streaming over the Internet via it's built-in web portal. I occasionally utilize this functionality when I'm away. Next, I added a WDTV device because the standalones sometimes freeze and have problems with fast forward and reverse. The WDTV device plays videos directly from the network share and was working great up till the last couple of firmware updates. The stupid device periodically looses track of the network share and cannot find it again unless I reboot my PC's and/or server, depending on which one is designated as the master browser. This is a known issue that will probably never be resolved. Anyway, I replaced the WDTV with an Android TV box because of that issue. I'm loving the Android box (MeMoBOX MX MAX) but it has complicated matters. For example: I can no longer use a single universal remote to control the TV, standalone and streaming box. Now I have to have two separate remotes. I had to purchase a separate air mouse remote with a keyboard to utilize the features of the Android box. I could not find an all-in-one that has air mouse, keyboard and that can be programmed to control the standalone and TV. This one (MX3) comes close and it works very, very well. I just hope it holds up. The Android box came with Kodi so now there's a great deal more menus and more steps involved to navigate to and play videos. More menus and options = confused wife. I don't know what is the most efficient way to set things up. My questions and dilemma: I want robustness and simplicity. I do not want to have a complicated setup that requires administration of redundant services or multiple libraries. I want the flexibility of being able to access a single library from the LAN or WAN and be able to select whether I want to watch a transcoded movie or a direct stream. I do not want to transcode everything. Only when needed. Money is tight so I don't want to purchase Emby Premiere Lifetime unless it's needed or very beneficial. It's just not clear to me if I need Kodi on all PC's, Kodi with Emby add-on, Emby Server, Emby Premiere or Emby at all because Kodi does scraping too. Do I need Kodi on any device or PC to play movies if I install Emby server? If so, does each PC maintain it's own library? In a nutshell, why would I need Emby Premiere? Is Emby Theater a replacement for Kodi on Windows? How does it differ from Kodi? Does it automatically transcode the video or is transcoding a selectable option? If I install Emby Server, do I have to pay for the Android app on each device? If so, is it a one time purchase and does that give me the same functionality as if I purchased Premiere? Do I have to pay a fee for each phone or does the one fee cover all phones on the same google account? I'm most confused about why I need Emby since Kodi scrapes. It appears to me that each product has a different purpose but there is some functionality overlap.

Hi, I am currently using Kodi 14.2 on Raspberry Pi 2. I have sorted all my files into categories onto Emby and used Emby for Kodi add-on. I would like to know if there is a way to add specific videos from Emby to the Kodi submenu [on any custom skins]? For example, I would like to put my English Series, Korean Series and Japanese Series under TV Shows in Kodi. Thus, when i click TV Shows, the drop down menu or selection menu should be those three. However, I am not sure on how to do this. Can anyone help me? Thank you.