Solution for Audiobooks - Alternative to Emby

[azoth 2]

If the files change... Then your saved position is invalid anyway, no? We can agree to differ on that point. Audiobooks and TV while having similarities are not the same. The issue being that the user largely does not care about the individual tracks other than for quick skipping and context. I just want to listen to the book from start to finish without losing my place along the way.

Another thing is that when you look at the resume listening, you see a track number and title. It's just kind of out of place for an audiobook from my perspective. Maybe that's just me, but I would rather just see the book I'm listening to. It's also really useful to see how much time is left in the whole book, something that doesn't happen in multi-file books at the moment.

If you have a chapter that's in progress it will skip to the latest when and then add the rest to the play queue in a nonsensical order because it's having a hard time understanding the actual position in the book. This was me just trying to listen to this book from Chapter 10, which is where I'm at. At the very least Emby needs to be smart enough to mark "Songs" as played if you have skipped past them. That would alleviate some of the issues with the per file approach, though it still doesn't make sense to me. You are never listening to a single track in isolation the way you do with TV, podcasts or music. It's always in the context of the larger book. If I play chapter ten, then I want to play from chapter 10 on and I don't care about the previous chapters anymore.

[Luke 37050]

Just now, azoth said:

If the files change... Then your saved position is invalid anyway, no? We can agree to differ on that point. Audiobooks and TV while having similarities are not the same. The issue being that the user largely does not care about the individual tracks other than for quick skipping and context. I just want to listen to the book from start to finish without losing my place along the way.

Another thing is that when you look at the resume listening, you see a track number and title. It's just kind of out of place for an audiobook from my perspective. Maybe that's just me, but I would rather just see the book I'm listening to. It's also really useful to see how much time is left in the whole book, something that doesn't happen in multi-file books at the moment.

If you have a chapter that's in progress it will skip to the latest when and then add the rest to the play queue in a nonsensical order because it's having a hard time understanding the actual position in the book. This was me just trying to listen to this book from Chapter 10, which is where I'm at. At the very least Emby needs to be smart enough to mark "Songs" as played if you have skipped past them. That would alleviate some of the issues with the per file approach, though it still doesn't make sense to me. You are never listening to a single track in isolation the way you do with TV, podcasts or music. It's always in the context of the larger book. If I play chapter ten, then I want to play from chapter 10 on and I don't care about the previous chapters anymore.

If you base it on the media and all of the files change, then yes, it's all invalidated, but usually that's not the case. For example if you delete the file containing the current position, you can still use the data from the next most recently played one after that.

The fact that we show the track number there is actually feedback that came from audiobook users.

[Happy2Play 8277]

2 hours ago, azoth said:

Narrators

• Narrator need to be a first party tag
• Audiobooks can have multiple narrators, it needs to work like authors but have the ability to be distinct

 

As Audiobooks have no universal standard, is the Narrator tagged?  As there is no correct answer.

Artist

Artists

Album Artist

Composer

The answer will be different everywhere you look. 

So in the end someone needs to decide what goes where.

[Chyron 221]

If you purchase an audiobook from Audible and decrypt it, the m4b contains the Narrator credit in the Composer tag. As I understand it, the metadata for that book is what the Publisher sent to Audible, since sometimes the embedded chapter mark names/locations in the embedded file don't match what is show on the app or from the CLI. If so, this means the publishers use the Composer tag to store the Narrator credit when they create the file.
Also, if you use audnexus as a metadata agent, it expects the Narrator credit to correspond to the Composer tag.

I get the feeling you guys don't actually listen to audiobooks yourselves.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Chyron

[Happy2Play 8277]

@Chyron Nope just test and try to figure out what everyone does as there appears to be no right answer anywhere as everywhere says something different.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Happy2Play

[Chyron 221]

Define "everyone." Whose audiobooks did you test? The fact that Musicbrainz does not, in general, store Composers or Narrators in a Composer field (myself having created several audiobook entries there) doesn't invalidate the use of it elsewhere.

I am telling you multiple competitor apps (Audible and Audiobookshelf) do this. I do not own any audiobooks from Apple or Google. You shouldn't just say "find out what everyone does." I am an avid audiobook listener and this is my experience of what apps and storefronts are doing. You want me to buy a book directly from a publisher without them selling it through Audible and tell you where the Narrator credit is?

If by "everyone" you mean the Emby community, I am aware that some Emby users swap the Composer and Artist tags because technically the author composed the written work. But that's not how it is typically used. The typical usage is for the Artist to receive top billing, and that top billing goes to the Author.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Chyron

[Happy2Play 8277]

Google search the answer and what do you get?  Everyone provides something different.  As there primary answer is there is no standard for audiobooks.  So if every program does something different than what is the expectation?

Or should Emby just say they have to be tagged this way to work the way Emby designs it? 

Should it be like this person?

the author's name in "Artist"

the narrator's name in "Album Artist"

the name of the book in "Title"

And the name of the book in "Album"

Or

Artist and Album Artist: Author
Title and track name: Book title
Composer: Narrator
Media Kind: audiobook
Genre: actual genre tags (Sci-Fi, Murder-Mystery, etc)
Description: Book synopsis
Release date: release date of audiobook (not original work)

include_narrator_in_artists: true # include author and narrator in artist tag

 

But suspect no matter how it is done it will not work for everyone.

[Chyron 221]

What "person"s are those? What sources are you citing? Album Artist and Artist usually only differ if there are different artists for each track.

I don't know why you are arguing with me about this. Maybe you should ask other audiobook app devs (like advplyr, dev of Audiobookshelf) why they use the Composer tag for Narrator, and what their reasoning is---rather than berating me as if there can be no clear answer because other people who develop audiobook player software seem to think there is.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Chyron

[Happy2Play 8277]

I am asking questions as Google does not have an answer either so Users have to answer to get it developed in a way that may work for your otherwise nothing will change.

Technically speaking isn't the Author the Composer?  As they wrote the material.

[azoth 2]

Would be cool if the scanner was configurable I guess... But aside from that, every media software gives guidelines on how you should organize your media to be indexed correctly. I don't see why a choice can't be made and communicated rather than saying that a choice can't be made because there are two options.

[Chyron 221]

6 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

I am asking questions as Google does not have an answer either so Users have to answer to get it developed in a way that may work for your otherwise nothing will change.

Technically speaking isn't the Author the Composer?  As they wrote the material.

I just said. Author gets top billing, not Narrator. The "Composer" tag is not top billing. If you buy an audiobook the Author name is bigger and more prominently displayed, therefore it goes in the Artist/Album Artist tag.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Chyron

[Chyron 221]

But back to my initial point: Emby does not work as it should for audiobooks. The tracks in Album View are presented as though they are podcast episodes; embedded chapters are in a different location than separate tracks; Continue Listening shows the track name rather than the book name; it is too easy to delete/rearrange audiobook tracks in the Play Queue; Collections don't pull metadata from a source that has audiobook series metadata; tagged Narrators don't populate correctly; no "Read/Unread/Unfinished" filter exists... among other reasons.

Arguing here doesn't change those things.

[mxmh 7]

das Sonos Plugin wäre genial, würde es funktionieren (Speichern der Position auf dem Server zum synchronisieren aller Geräte)

Harry Potter m4b hat bis zu 27h in einer m4b damit kommt emby nicht klar...

und ein Sleeptimer wäre genial

[Chyron 221]

1 hour ago, mxmh said:

the Sonos plugin would be awesome if it worked (save position on server to sync all devices)

Harry Potter m4b has up to 27h in an m4b emby can't handle that...

and a sleep timer would be awesome

Yep.

[Foot_Kaput 4]

Recent switcher from Plex due to privacy concerns.  I have a shiny new Emby lifetime now.

Plex + Prologue + carplay has been a very positive experience for me.

Emby's native client on Carplay is lacking some features, perhaps someday they can be included. Three biggest would be a section dedicated for audiobook usability, short rewind/fast forward buttons and a speed control.  I can use those functions on the emby client on IOS, but should be using just carplay while on the road.

I've included screenshots from Emby and Prologue.

[Aevaris 8]

I came back to Emby recently after having gone back to Plex for awhile. This time I'm throwing in the towel on Plex for good and came back with a lifetime subscription. Plex has gotten too bloated, buggy, crashed, had nothing but trouble.

The added audiobook support is huge and I really appreciated the help and discussion in this thread. 

I wanted to add my support that I'd love a way to auto-organize and filter by Series. Right now I make manual collections for Series which gets the job done, but an automated solution would be huge.

Appreciate all the great work and support you all do for Emby and the community. It's my all-in-one home media home now :)