PI Hardware Requirements

[mtk143089 1]

I apologize if this answer exists out there, but I can only seem to find server hardware requirements.

Is there a minimum hardware requirement to run Emby theater on a Raseberry PI?  I'm looking to replace 2 fire sticks in my house.

For example, will Emby theater run on a Pi Zero?  Or will I need something more substantial like a PI 3 or more?  If it helps, I'm not planning on streaming anything higher than 1080p

 

[Luke 37066]

Hi, for Emby Theater, we recommend RPI4 and up. There are users here running RPI3, so you might be fine with that, but our suggestion is still RPI4.

[mtk143089 1]

Thank you very much for the reply!

[RanmaCanada 345]

Pi's are not worth it IMO.  They are a waste of money for what they offer, specially for streaming.  At least with the firesticks you access paid for services with ease, and you can sideload the mainline Emby app if you don't like the firetv version.

[TeamB 2352]

22 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

Pi's are not worth it IMO.  They are a waste of money for what they offer, specially for streaming.  At least with the firesticks you access paid for services with ease, and you can sideload the mainline Emby app if you don't like the firetv version.

wow, based on this thread

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/106027-amazon-fire-tv-stick-4k-max-black-screen/page/3/

not sure fire stick is that good a choice, I guess when it works its ok?

Anyway my suggestion for Pi playback is Libreelec running either of the Kodi addons for Emby.

 

[RanmaCanada 345]

That is only an issue if you're dealing with pirated materials from release groups who have merged the metadata from a DV file and an HDR10 file to create a hybrid DV/HDR10+ file.  You can easily use the same tool they used to strip the fake layers, but most users apparently either lack the brain power to figure that out or are too lazy.

[TeamB 2352]

16 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

but most users apparently either lack the brain power

I am not sure calling people stupid is helping.

Anyway, to OP if you have a RPi already I suggest https://libreelec.tv/

[exanime 2]

I just bought a Pi5 precisely for this, I want to replace my FireTV sticks as I no longer use any Amazon product and only use them to run Emby (I figure that for future use cases, a Pi is an easier to modify platform).

I installed emby-theater with all dependencies without issues; however, any attempt to run it throws a "segmentation fault" error which I have not been able to overcome ATM.

Emby runs well under Firefox, interface runs a bit clunky but playback seems nice and smooth.. it can even run "creative" subs (when the subs have funny fonts and try to follow moving texts on the screen) which completely cripple the FireTV sticks.

I really would prefer to have emby-theater since it's a more no-mouse friendly interface and I can boot straight into it...

If anyone has a any tips/hints/advice I would very much appreciate it

[Luke 37066]

Quote

Emby runs well under Firefox, interface runs a bit clunky but playback seems nice and smooth.. it can even run "creative" subs (when the subs have funny fonts and try to follow moving texts on the screen) which completely cripple the FireTV sticks.

I really would prefer to have emby-theater since it's a more no-mouse friendly interface and I can boot straight into it...

hi, what makes you think it's clunky. 

Tip for the web app though: you can make it look like Theater by setting the display mode in app settings to TV.

[exanime 2]

Hi Luke,

Maybe clunky wasn't the right word, the interface looked like it normally does which is fine but as I scrolled or selected categories, it seemed to stutter (as if it was redrawing visibly slow). This was not a problem was playback of anything actually started.

In case it helps anyone, I created a new microsd card with full Ubuntu (for Raspberry Pi of course), updated everything and installed emby-theater from the downloads (not snap). It still failed first saying it needed libXss.so.1

It took me more than I care to admit to realize the package needed was just libxss1 (no capital X)... once installed, emby-theater seems just fine.

I will place this on my most used-for-casual-situations TV (i.e. the one in the kitchen) and see how it goes but it's looking good so far

[Baenwort 97]

6 hours ago, exanime said:

I just bought a Pi5 precisely for this, I want to replace my FireTV sticks as I no longer use any Amazon product and only use them to run Emby (I figure that for future use cases, a Pi is an easier to modify platform).

I installed emby-theater with all dependencies without issues; however, any attempt to run it throws a "segmentation fault" error which I have not been able to overcome ATM.

Emby runs well under Firefox, interface runs a bit clunky but playback seems nice and smooth.. it can even run "creative" subs (when the subs have funny fonts and try to follow moving texts on the screen) which completely cripple the FireTV sticks.

I really would prefer to have emby-theater since it's a more no-mouse friendly interface and I can boot straight into it...

If anyone has a any tips/hints/advice I would very much appreciate it

So on my Pi5 I still haven't gotten emby-theater to work as it depends on X11 and with the Pi5 you have to run the Bookworm OS which is built around Wayland instead of X11. There is a method to switch it back to using X11 but I haven't gotten that to work myself.

However, the Pi5 has been working well enough running the webgui in Chromium that I've left it that way until my next Holiday.

[exanime 2]

OK quick update.

So I could never get Emby Theater to work on Raspbian. I then installed full Ubuntu and got Emby installed with minimal effort (some unmet dependencies which were easily satisfied as soon as I realized libXsso is not listed with a capital X in the repos hehehe)

Application seemed responsive and looked well... playback was smooth.

After a long idle pause, I had a hard time getting the RPI5 to wake the TV but I am certain this is not really an Emby issue. However, I found myself having to restart the emby theater app since playback was very choppy and offset (audio vs video). Once the app was restarted (just the app, not the whole device) it worked just fine as before.

Some videos had a small audio offset (perhaps because I was connecting to a bluetooth speaker?) but there is a setting to adjust that which worked fine.

Overall, the experience was not better than on the FireTV sticks which is what I am trying to replace... I will continue with other options (a lighter OS, maybe Kodi with the Emby add on?)... just tinkering to see what can be done

[TeamB 2352]

My recommendation to try is https://libreelec.tv/

If you want to get up and running quickly and test a few things with emby then try the EmbyCon addon for Kodi, you can be up and running playing back content in under 2 minutes.

You can also try out the Emby for Kodi addon, this lets you do a full sync of your emby library to the local Kodi DB which allows any of the skins to just work but you have to do the sync and maintain the sync for this to work.

Have fun tinkering.