Why is Emby not mentioned more when talking about Plex alternatives???

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

The title pretty much says what the question I am trying to understand is.

I have noticed that whenever alternatives to Plex gets discussed the vast majority of the discussion is centered around Jellyfin and Emby is rarely mentioned. I see articles that has a mention of "Plex alternatives" and most of those do not even mention Emby and the few that do have both Jellyfin and even Kodi discussed more that Emby.

I have also checked and, in the feature category, it seems that Emby, even though it is more advanced than Jellyfin in features, is usually not even mentioned.

I find it more than a little perplexing that Emby seems to be ignored in many/most of the articles that discuss video managers/players. Of course I "could" be totally misreading the pattern and Emby might be just as 'discussed" as the others but just not in the discussions that pop up when discussing alternatives.

I also think that this thread, should it actually become popular, deserves very limited moderation as it could be valuable, even if it gets VERY negative about any any service, but should be watched carefully for attacks as it could strike multiple very sensitive chords among people.

Of course all that is meaningless if nobody wants to discuss the issue.

[blgentry 49]

When I researched Emby I found several comparisons that included Jellyfin.  Most (all?) of the ones I read or watched seemed to conclude that Emby was more polished and more ready to go out of the box than Jellyfin.  So I skipped trying JF altogether and just installed Emby.  Frankly I wasn't expecting to be impressed with Emby.  But (as my prior post in this forum attests) I am!

 

Brian.

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

2 minutes ago, blgentry said:

When I researched Emby I found several comparisons that included Jellyfin.  Most (all?) of the ones I read or watched seemed to conclude that Emby was more polished and more ready to go out of the box than Jellyfin.  So I skipped trying JF altogether and just installed Emby.  Frankly I wasn't expecting to be impressed with Emby.  But (as my prior post in this forum attests) I am!

 

Brian.

That is pretty much my experience as well but a direct search for Plex alternatives often returns several sites that do not mention Emby. However it could be somehow just the luck of the draw. I just ran three searches, worded slightly differently, and two of them did not have any mention of Emby.

Maybe I need to get better at phrasing in my searches.

I could have been just over reacting to the fact that in my news feeds (Google, Yahoo, Al Jazeera, NPR, HuffPost and many others) nearly every story about Plex and their alternatives does not mention Emby.

I now wonder if it is really the news services I use that fail to mention Emby. I guess it could be that Emby is simply not controversial enough to warrant "news" about it being reported.

Also nearly every post on Plex's site that complains about Plex only mentions Jellyfin as an alternative. But maybe that is actually Plex's attempt to imply that every alternative is inferior. Plex is rather overly sensitive about their image and has been known to ban posters that talk about competition. Maybe, Plex considers Emby as real competition but does not think Jellyfin is any real danger at all.

[Q-Droid 651]

The "cool kids" gravitate to the new shiny things. JF is not as polished but all free all the time is also a big draw. Plex marketed their way to the top. I can't even remove it from some devices.

There are other new apps in this sphere that get all of the attention while older and superior ones just chug along.

 

 

[bakes82 90]

23 hours ago, Q-Droid said:

There are other new apps in this sphere that get all of the attention while older and superior ones just chug along.

What are these other cool apps?

Most will say jelly over emby because its free so it aligns more to plex in comparison.

[arrbee99 1560]

Think its as per that thread I started about USP, as in Unique Selling Proposition. Everyone interested in this type of thing has heard of the biggest one (Plex) and a lot are attracted to the free one (JF). Emby is stuck somewhat in the middle.

[Q-Droid 651]

1 hour ago, bakes82 said:

What are these other cool apps?

Most will say jelly over emby because its free so it aligns more to plex in comparison.

Not apps that compete with Emby. Prowlarr is one that comes to mind.

 

[bakes82 90]

Prowlarr is just a index manager.... not even close to a media server.

[Q-Droid 651]

39 minutes ago, bakes82 said:

Prowlarr is just a index manager.... not even close to a media server.

Yes. Which is why I said it doesn't compete with Emby but is in this sphere. Many who use JF, Plex and Emby also use those other apps.

 

[RanmaCanada 345]

It's not mentioned as the line is blurred between Jellyfin and Emby.  Most non technical people will state "why should I pay for Emby when I can get Jellyfin for free"  The problem created by this is that the experience with Jellyfin will leave most people with a horrible taste in their mouth and they will expect that Emby is just as bad, and thus move on to Plex.

[tedfroop 33]

Jellyfish is the free option?  That draws a lot of users who "don't want to pay" for server software. 

That and plex has been pretty thorough in scrubbing any mention of other server options anywhere they can.  

I never had the impression Jellyfin and Emby were alike.  One is free and community supported, the other is professionally developed.

I will admit that when I tried Jellyfin it worked but seemed piecemeal and was convoluted and complex to install.

Emby was the opposite and paying for future development and use was something I am familiar with.  Plus I came here to see what issues people had and really more than anything was surprised with the flexibility of Emby and the support for a huge number of devices.

I think the opposite of the OP,  Emby is a huge success among the serious media server community and doesn't need to be huge and loud to attract new users.

 

[Abobader 2947]

4 hours ago, tedfroop said:

Emby is a huge success among the serious media server community and doesn't need to be huge and loud to attract new users.

Exactly.

[tedfroop 33]

On 10/10/2023 at 15:04, Q-Droid said:

The "cool kids" gravitate to the new shiny things. JF is not as polished but all free all the time is also a big draw.

But free goes for support too.......

Free support is like free advice..........not necessarily useful or helpful.

[arrbee99 1560]

Was just browsing a thread in regard to playing 4Ks. Plex mentioned 17 times, Jellyfin 6 times, Emby once.

[Spaceboy 2494]

and that made you feel inferior because...?

sorry but i don't get the point of this thread unless you work for emby in marketing

[arrbee99 1560]

Not everything has to have a point, just look at D. Trump or B. Johnson...

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

2 hours ago, arrbee99 said:

Not everything has to have a point, just look at D. Trump or B. Johnson...

But everything does have a point except for things in "The Pointless forest" in "The Land of Point."

[arrbee99 1560]

Well, I think my other half would add me to The Land of Point, so there's another one for the list...

[speechles 1920]

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now 7-d&q=emby&hl=en

 

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now 7-d&q=jellyfin&hl=en

 

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now 7-d&q=plex&hl=en

Only showing a week to show up to the minute. You can use the Google Trends to align these bursts to when people start to get awareness of each. As you move back beyond a week the results for everything drops which is why I have shown it only as of this week. As people research more on Google it will influence this graph. Just because you do not see Emby mentioned as often does not mean users do not find it exists. The Google Experimental Bard where the AI helps you with your search will even suggest using Emby when searching the other two options.

 

Next you might ask, which countries are mostly searching for Emby? Well the Trends graph can even show you that.

 

Then you might ask where are the most people who look for Plex coming from?

 

An entirely different demographic. Emby has a huge community within China where we cannot see what they post. They are censored beyond belief with their Great Firewall leaving no question why they seek Emby in China. Plex for them would be useless in China since all the web based things inside Plex are blocked. Chinese cannot get enough of Emby.

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by speechles

[rbjtech 4283]

@speechlesinteresting info - thanks for taking the time to put it together

 

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

@speechlesIn looking at that info I notice that the only place in the world when Emby lead the others is China. I would have also expected Emby to lead in some other countries but I do not see that and it also seems that every major country except China Plex has a rather huge lead over everybody else. 

But I have tried all the competitors and still find Emby suits my needs very very well and I am unlikely to change but I did not expect the gap between Emby and Plex to be apparently so large. It is a bit concerning. I hope Emby's health is good enough to keep it around for at least 25-30 years. At that point I will be well north of 100 and unlikely to need any streaming system. But, when that comes about I will be unlikely to care much.

[Luke 37094]

5 minutes ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

@speechlesIn looking at that info I notice that the only place in the world when Emby lead the others is China. I would have also expected Emby to lead in some other countries but I do not see that and it also seems that every major country except China Plex has a rather huge lead over everybody else. 

But I have tried all the competitors and still find Emby suits my needs very very well and I am unlikely to change but I did not expect the gap between Emby and Plex to be apparently so large. It is a bit concerning. I hope Emby's health is good enough to keep it around for at least 25-30 years. At that point I will be well north of 100 and unlikely to need any streaming system. But, when that comes about I will be unlikely to care much.

Years ago they accepted several million in funding on more than one occasion and the aggressive marketing campaigns they have are a direct reflection of that. That helps get them pre-installed on some devices (among other things), hire more staff, etc, and all of those things contribute to the charts you are looking at. 

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

10 minutes ago, Luke said:

Years ago they accepted several million in funding on more than one occasion and the aggressive marketing campaigns they have are a direct reflection of that. That helps get them pre-installed on some devices (among other things), hire more staff, etc, and all of those things contribute to the charts you are looking at. 

I had mostly forgotten about the influx of cash that Plex has received over the years. I remember that, when it happened, I expressed dismay at how they were kind of giving away development control by taking such large donations/grants/gifts or whatever they called taking the cash. It does seem, from the crap that Plex has added to their system, that outside forces are controlling more of what Plex does than their development team. I have a friend that I visit from time to time that runs a Plex server (I eliminated mine some years ago) he has extensively customized the interface and what he has looks pretty clean. I asked him exactly what he had done and he handed me about 8-10 closely typed pages of the details. (He is one of those people that document everything.) I read through it and then decided that was more than I would ever do, Even with all the customizations he is thinking about jumping ships to Emby as it is becoming harder and harder to hide/override the crap Plex throws in.

I do, from time to time, get concerned about Emby's ongoing economic health but, from what I can tell, Emby is plenty healthy to last my lifetime with ease. 

[Luke 37094]

47 minutes ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

I had mostly forgotten about the influx of cash that Plex has received over the years. I remember that, when it happened, I expressed dismay at how they were kind of giving away development control by taking such large donations/grants/gifts or whatever they called taking the cash. It does seem, from the crap that Plex has added to their system, that outside forces are controlling more of what Plex does than their development team. I have a friend that I visit from time to time that runs a Plex server (I eliminated mine some years ago) he has extensively customized the interface and what he has looks pretty clean. I asked him exactly what he had done and he handed me about 8-10 closely typed pages of the details. (He is one of those people that document everything.) I read through it and then decided that was more than I would ever do, Even with all the customizations he is thinking about jumping ships to Emby as it is becoming harder and harder to hide/override the crap Plex throws in.

I do, from time to time, get concerned about Emby's ongoing economic health but, from what I can tell, Emby is plenty healthy to last my lifetime with ease. 

I think with them you see both the positives and negatives of accepting the money. It’s helped them expand, build relationships with other companies, etc. the downside of course is the obligation to provide a significant return on investment, which I think is partially why they’re expanded into so many different areas that users have had mixed feelings about.

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

I think with them you see both the positives and negatives of accepting the money. It’s helped them expand, build relationships with other companies, etc. the downside of course is the obligation to provide a significant return on investment, which I think is partially why they’re expanded into so many different areas that users have had mixed feelings about.

For the last few years there has been so little "good" out of Plex that I have, mostly, quit paying attention. 

In a lot of ways Plex is like Robocop in the second movie. They wanted to be everything to everyone and they have ended up being virtually nothing to nobody. 

I would even use Jellyfin over Plex if I had to make a choice but that choice is, hopefully, unneeded for the rest of my life.