Still No Ebook Reader after YEARS

[Guest EmbyEbookReader]

Hi, I just wanted to take this opportunity to COMPLAIN about the TOTAL LACK of EMBY COMIC BOOK / EBOOK / MAGAZINE READER AFTER YEARS OF PEOPLE CLAMORING FOR THIS FEATURE !!!

 

No PDF, No CBR, TXT, EPUB, MOBI, AZW, and PDF, NADA !!!!

 

KEK AND LOLZ  AT THE UPDATES FOR TV GUIDE INSTEAD, WHEN MORE INTELLIGENT, ADVANCED USERS AND VAST  MAJORITY OF PEOPLE WOULD HAVE MUCH PREFERRED  EBOOK AND COMIC BOOK  FUNCTIONALITY INSTEAD

 

LOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLL

[GrimReaper 3308]

What's up with all the screaming? You can complain as much as you like, but do it in a normal, civilized manner - lower those capital letters or I'll delete your post.

[Guest EmbyEbookReader]

screaming cuz of the actual physical pain i feel due to not being able to read my beautiful meticulously curated comic book library within emby proper

not like it matters bc it will never get implemented

the only reason i posted is cuz emby for mac os app was crashing and i thought i would check out the release notes for latest server

i saw tv guide updates and my blood pressure shot through the ceiling as i feel who cares about this streaming crapola when a much better use case would be ebook reader

who wants to watch tv on their computer screen anyways - tv should be watched on a real tv, just sayin

yes i am somewhat of a troll-like mood today

sorry for the offense it is causing

only because of my deep passion for emby does it trigger these strong emotional response and hypertension in my veins

 

 

[Guest EmbyEbookReader]

i am willing to pay also for ebook functionality as i know time is money

 

[GrimReaper 3308]

3 minutes ago, EmbyEbookReader said:

not being able to read my beautiful meticulously curated comic book library within emby proper

AFAIK @VicMooreand @Cheesegeezerare cooking something up in that respect, so your wishes might be fulfilled in (near/foreseeable) future. 

[VicMoore 560]

@EmbyEbookReaderAs @GrimReapernoted an Ebook reader is underway.  I have already written and tested the code in JavaScript and need to transfer it to the @Cheesegeezerplugin that he created for Javascript programmers. Now you know that many people are working on this, but we all have other duties.  If you are a programmer, I would be more than happy to send you the javascript code.  I use it to read Ebooks in Emby via my Emby Tool. You can do the same. The tool is attached below. Just unzip it and click on tool2.html. Signon to your server, then navigate to your ebooks and click on an e-book to read.

Vic

Tool2.zip

[Guest EmbyEbookReader]

Yes, I am a programmer.  Will this let me read comic books in cbr/ cbz format ?

[VicMoore 560]

No, I just implemented epub.  The CBR format is trivial and easy to do. I didn't implement it because it uses RAR compression rather than zip.  I had good JS code for zip but not for rar.  I know that open source code is available, but I ran out of time.  You might give it a go yourself. It's easy to do.  At the moment @Cheesegeezerand myself are busy trying to finish the bulky plugin for bulk editing emby metadata. Look for it in the plugin library soon.

vic

[Guest EmbyEbookReader]

Ok I will take a look at this.  I was not aware that Emby was an open source project where individual contributors could create new source code for their own readers,  this is a total shocking surprise .  Thank you!

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

9 minutes ago, EmbyEbookReader said:

Yes, I am a programmer.  Will this let me read comic books in cbr/ cbz format ?

What languages do you program in… proficiently?

c# and JS are primarily Emby’s structures, however if youlook at the Emby Dev SDK I’m sure you can tap in somehow

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

1 minute ago, EmbyEbookReader said:

Ok I will take a look at this.  I was not aware that Emby was an open source project where individual contributors could create new source code for their own readers,  this is a total shocking surprise .  Thank you!

Its not open source anymore, but if plugin providers make their source open… it can help you.

i have a few open source projects on my github under the same avatar and username so please check them out and star as you feel fit

[VicMoore 560]

@EmbyEbookReaderTake a look at the tool, I gave you all of the source code.  Play with it and give me feedback.  I am always available for questions.

Vic

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

Realistically this will be built into my new Client UI (Audirium… search forum for progress) which will be available in tge near future. I’m travelling home from Germany today and made it to Amsterdam thus far so tomorrow will be a sleep in morning.

As Vic said… we want to get Bulky finished and then good things will happen for these kindda features!!

cheers all

[Guest EmbyEbookReader]

I have a bachelors degree in comp Sci, from 20 years ago.  Therefore I am strong on the theoretical fundamentals of software development But I am a little rusty when it comes to the newer fangled stuff like Rust or Objective C or perl/python/php.  (Rusty with Rust, get it?).  I haven’t programmed anything professionally in several years as my last software development job was offshore outsourced.  So most of my recent experiences is mostly with “hobbyist” types of projects involving Arduino SDK which I believe is some sort of variation on plain C.  I am most proficient in Java, Visual Basic, and C, and Unix shell scripting.  I can usually bang away at something long enough to get it to do what I want,  when properly motivated, and I’m pretty handy at debugging and testing.  Anyways I will take a look and see what I can do.  Thanks 

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

1 hour ago, EmbyEbookReader said:

I have a bachelors degree in comp Sci, from 20 years ago.  Therefore I am strong on the theoretical fundamentals of software development But I am a little rusty when it comes to the newer fangled stuff like Rust or Objective C or perl/python/php.  (Rusty with Rust, get it?).  I haven’t programmed anything professionally in several years as my last software development job was offshore outsourced.  So most of my recent experiences is mostly with “hobbyist” types of projects involving Arduino SDK which I believe is some sort of variation on plain C.  I am most proficient in Java, Visual Basic, and C, and Unix shell scripting.  I can usually bang away at something long enough to get it to do what I want,  when properly motivated, and I’m pretty handy at debugging and testing.  Anyways I will take a look and see what I can do.  Thanks 

Everything you mentioned is not relevant to Emby development directly but it can be translated… so i hope you can dig deep from 20yrsago. 
 

ive had no training, no courses or any base to work from … so it’s very doable. I am completely self taught!! The concepts you were taught will translate easily and if you want help reach out!!

 

[Guest EmbyEbookReader]

so, I tried it out.  and I see what you have done here... it's interesting and clever.  But I'm not sure if this will meet my requirements for an all-in-one solution.  Namely, to have CBR / CBZ handled by the same native client application & user interface as everything else.  Are there any plans to merge this ebook reader back into the main core codebase within Emby client?

[bravoland2 3]

Dear EmbyEbookReader,

have you tried https://www.kavitareader.com/#

 

that looks like it could be an alternative to use.

 

[Guest EmbyEbookReader]

On 5/14/2023 at 9:21 PM, bravoland@gmail.com said:

Dear EmbyEbookReader,

have you tried https://www.kavitareader.com/#

 

that looks like it could be an alternative to use.

 

Thanks I will check it out

[mtjj 31]

The core problem in my opinion is that there is no platform that handles ebook metadata properly for all common formats. Metadata is essential so you can browse by author, by series, etc. rather than just navigating a file structure. I've periodically raised this for emby over the years and got very little interest - although I do understand it's probably a lower priority for 90% of the user base than anything involving videos.

Kavita handles metadata quite well for epub and cbz (and I think cbr too but haven't tested it). So you can update your ebook files in Calibre, save to a Kavita-specific directory structure (the devs say this isn't necessary, but in my experience it is). Then it's a great interface for browsing, downloading, and reading remotely. If you only have epub and cbr/cbz I'd highly recommend it, particularly if you have more comics, since the data model is designed first and foremost for comics and extended to other ebooks.

BUT Kavita will not import PDF metadata (and the devs have said this is not something they plan to do). So unless you fancy going through each file one by one and re-entering metadata, it's pretty useless for PDFs. And even if you go and edit each one, the metadata is not saved in the file, only in the kavita database so it's unreadable by anything else and might be lost.

The other options I've looked at are ubooquiti (sp?) which is no longer supported and had limited functionality, another tool in beta that I forget the name that has *very* limited functionality, and the spin-off of emby that I'm not sure if we're meant to mention here that is pretty much the same as emby for ebooks. 

So the only option at the moment is calibre and its god-awful UX and its insistence on running on a local machine rather than a client-server architecture.

[GrimReaper 3308]

38 minutes ago, mtjj said:

So the only option at the moment is calibre and its god-awful UX and its insistence on running on a local machine rather than a client-server architecture.

I use Calibre-Web locally with calibre db, but it seems that that can be network share as well, therefore not being limited to local machine for running Calibre-Web server (or having a Calibre db on the same machine). Or you can have both on the same server machine and access from different client machines (setup I use). 

Edited May 28, 2023 by GrimReaper

[Lambtalk 43]

38 minutes ago, mtjj said:

the spin-off of emby that I'm not sure if we're meant to mention here 

 

It's not Voldemort you can say Jellyfin

[Guest EmbyEbookReader]

Yea.  I guess my preference would be to just get at least BASIC comic book, ebook, and PDF reader functionality up and running: browsing and opening the files within Emby Client, showing Cover thumbnails, allowing page flipping, etc.  Maybe pinch to zoom in on IPad client.  Thereby allowing the user to actually READ the document / file.  Nothing fancy.  And then with subsequent releases, gradually introduce the more advanced features with Metadata and Search and Filtering, connecting to online databases to identify and match your media library.  
 

So that way I could browse and view my entire media collection (movies, TV shows, music, music videos,  comic books, and ebooks) on a single app, with a single URL, and with a single server and having a consistent user interface across the board.  What people have been offering thus far are what I would consider “workarounds”, namely third-party apps or home brew apps or plugins, but nothing that is truly integrated and unified.  

Imagine for a moment, watching your Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie collection, or DC if you prefer Superman / Batman, and on the same page as the film, below the Actors and Actresses pictures, are links to the original comic book series from which the film is based, you click on the preview image and it just instantly opens right up within Emby.  So Superman movie from 1980 or whenever would have a picture of Action Comics from 1939 Or whenever.  That my friends would be something fun, exciting, enjoyable, and remarkable!   

but I feel that the only way to get there would be if Emby developer team prioritizes making this ebook reader feature a higher priority than other things on their To-Do list.

Anyways I Appreciate the continued interest and discussion on this topic.  I know they are probably busy with security issues and what not,  but continue to believe this subject deserves as much attention and exposure as possible , because it really opens so many exciting possibilities as I mentioned above. 
 

 

 

[vdrover 42]

Any update here?

[Luke 37094]

On 10/21/2023 at 12:29 AM, vdrover said:

Any update here?

Hi, not yet, sorry.

[bmanz 5]

would love to be able to read comics using emby