Still maintained?

[svdasein 8]

Hey - I'm just wondering if there will be any updates to the linux client - I've been trying to use it lately but the experience is just bizarre.  Like "can't change volume without pausing playback" and "back arrow opens a menu".  Remote control  from android app doesn't seem to work for (at least) volume.  Maybe most frustrating - it seems to steal keyboard focus globally - the only remedy I've found is to terminate the client.

Are there any updates in the making or should I just use the web client from now on?

I'm running the client on the latest mint 21.2 (Victoria)

[richt 86]

Running Linux Mint as well and have not encountered the problem you describe.  To answer your question about Emby being maintained, the answer is yes, but the latest beta cycle has been pretty long...

Question, are you seeing this problem with Emby Theater client for Linux.  If so someone else has reported a similar issue in the Emby Theater topic.

I have not seen this problem, but I'm also running the beta version of Emby Server, but I'm not sure that would make a difference with the client.  Note that my server and client are on different machines. I'd be more inclined to think about video drivers as a potential cause.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by richt

[Luke 40077]

Hi, the app is constantly seeing UI updates. Can you please describe these issues in a little more detail? Thanks !

[svdasein 8]

@LukeI just updated all the os packages to make sure I'm at the latest - I was behind on a few.  This testing happens after that:

The attached illustrates an inability to change volume.  Initially I was able to adjust it - after clicking around a bit the volume control becomes "elusive" - one can get the control to pop up, but once one moves the cursor towards it, it disappears.

I'll post another when I get something for the keyboard focus issue.

simplescreenrecorder-2023-12-27_16.31.20.mkv

[svdasein 8]

After a bit more experimentation - I believe having the mouse cursor cross into the domain of the time slider is the thing that triggers the "elusiveness". Further - I think you can get away with pause-the-vid-to-fix-it just once - after that it's not possible to get to the volume control 'til stopping and resuming the vid.

Edited December 27, 2023 by svdasein
more testing disproved the idea

[svdasein 8]

Here's another short vid showing the problem is not isolated to just the volume control.  As the mouse cursor moves around the problem also seems to "move".  When toggling full-screen one can see that the problem exists in that mode as well - sometimes it is as if it "persists" from fs to not-fs.  Just in general - the issue moves around.

embyscreenmapissue-2023-12-27_21.55.40.mkv

[svdasein 8]

Here's another set of vids illustrating issues with a multiple monitor setup.  The monitors are logically diagonal to each other in this configuration but the same sort of stuff happens if they're just side by side.

When the emby client is fullscreen (or thinks it's fullscreen) it steals keyboard focus from all windows regardless of which display they're on.  Note in the longer video my attempt to  select the terminal session to give it focus so I can type.

Note also that the emby app doesn't seem to really have a good idea about where it is; at one point it thinks it's on the screen in the upper right corner (there is no screen there).  When it's there I can't actually move the window any more other than that I can resize it a bit with the edges.

edit - I've not been able to replicate the situation where I can't control volume on a remote-controlled linux client.  Still trying to find that.

embylinuxtwoscreens-2023-12-27_22.10.26.mkv embylinuxtwoscreens-2023-12-27_22.09.59.mkv

Edited December 28, 2023 by svdasein

[svdasein 8]

One more for nulti-screen showing keyboard focus issue

embylinuxtwoscreens-2023-12-27_22.30.38.mkv

[vincen 35]

@svdaseinWhat you describe for the problem of Emby Theater stealing focus is exact problem I have on my 2 Linux Debian computers (for now I'm using Emby Web to avoid that issue).

[svdasein 8]

@vincenI've come up with a "workaround" for the focus issue - it's weird and awkward but (assuming you're on a system that has multiple monitors connected):

1. open a terminal on the display you do not wish emby theater to run on
2. start emby theater on the other monitor and make it full screen
3. back on the other monitor, maximize then de-maximize (or vis-versa) the terminal.
4. At this point you should be able to type something into the terminal.  Once you have that working, do not in any way interact with the emby theater session directly
5. Get a browser going on the screen that does not have emby theater on it and launch emby web..  set this to remote-control the emby theater session
6. As long as you don't touch the emby theater session, you can remote control it with the browser and you'll not see focus stealing
7. If you accidentally touch the theater client, just un/re-maximize the terminal to "fix" the focus issue.

[vincen 35]

9 hours ago, svdasein said:

I've come up with a "workaround" for the focus issue - it's weird and awkward but (assuming you're on a system that has multiple monitors connected):

@svdaseinthanks for the "workaround" that is quite crazy  and yeah I'm with dual screen on both computers where I have the problem !

[svdasein 8]

@Lukedo you need any more information on this?  I think there are probably two legitimate issues here (focus stealing on multiple display systems when app is fullscreen on one monitor, and strangeness with the mouse pointer not knowing where it is (or the underlying map getting corrupted (or some such)).

[Luke 40077]

Hi, yes we're looking into it. Thanks.

[Nestar 5]

I'm running into this as well.

default fedora package lacks any button options during playback and the mouse disappears, only keyboard input is accepted and it steals focus from all other windows. I can pause with space bar and escape 3 or 4 times to back out to the main menu but that's about it.
flatpak fixes the buttons and mouse, but any time the window is either maximized or full screen all keyboard input is directed to emby theater rather than the window that's focused.

Using KDE plasma I have been successful in getting emby to fill a single screen using the window snapping functions while still being considered a window (not maximized and not full screen) and it seems to function just fine in that state.

Edited January 26 by Nestar

[vincen 35]

@Nestara new player is in work and in beta test so we should get something usable soon

[Nestar 5]

On 1/26/2025 at 11:51 AM, vincen said:

@Nestara new player is in work and in beta test so we should get something usable soon

Yup, Though I actually ended up solving one of my own issues just now, Looks like the maximized keyboard input stealing was actually the result of some unexpected/poorly documented behaviour on the focus stealing prevention setting in KDE > Window Management > Window Behaviour. With it set to extreme it somehow considers any maximized or full screen window to be the focused window and directs all keyboard input towards it, even if I'm actively targetted into something else. None, Low, Medium or High all behave normally in this regard, So I just had to drop that down to High to fix it.

Based on that the only noticeable issue in the flatpak version for me currently is the inability to scroll the list of latest items on the home page and episode lists inside each season left and right, The buttons that would usually show up on hover near the ends do not do so. And there doesn't seem to be any click&drag functionality like there would be on a tablet (in either desktop or tablet mode). It does do that in "TV" mode, but that one has insane display scaling that makes my 4k display appear as if it were 720p.