It's Official: The new Emby app for Windows & Xbox is there!

[softworkz 4456]

All about the new app here:

[BigAl66 6]

It works well on my HTPC. Nice work!

What I hate is, that App can be closed with the back key. This means I have to find the mouse to restart the App. This should be deactivated in TV mode at least. I usually never close the app on the TV (HTPC). Even on other computers I do not like this "double function" of the key. When I like to close the app I want to click "close"...

So please: Give us the option to deactiavte "closing the app with back key".

Edited December 20, 2024 by BigAl66

[softworkz 4456]

28 minutes ago, BigAl66 said:

So please: Give us the option to deactiavte "closing the app with back key"

@Luke

[dredd1963 16]

I am using a dedicated htpc just for emby. Could you please add run at start up please. Agree on the back button situation, prefer for when l look at info etc, i end up out the player. Apart from these two issues am liking the new app..... thanks

 

 

[softworkz 4456]

16 minutes ago, dredd1963 said:

Could you please add run at start up please.

This is not an application feature, more a Windows feature.

Just drag the icon from the start menu into this folder: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

I think you need to go to the app via "All Apps", the ones on the first page are not draggable.

[dredd1963 16]

OK thanks, it was a option in emby theater 

Edited December 20, 2024 by dredd1963

[softworkz 4456]

26 minutes ago, dredd1963 said:

OK thanks, it was a option in emby theater 

The new app has less privileges. It could only declare running on startup in its definition, but then it would be for everybody.

[dredd1963 16]

Sorted thanks for the help softworkz.

[sweetmslily 2]

This update seems to have broken Xbox playback for me. Playing back H.264 I get rubber banding and pixelating (but the audio is fine) and AV1 playback is a black screen with audio. Streaming over a browser or on iOS apps works fine. Everything worked prior to the update (H264 direct play and AV1 via transcoding). Have restarted the server and installed a fresh copy of the server app (running on an iMac running Sequoia if that matters). 

Edited December 21, 2024 by sweetmslily

[softworkz 4456]

1 minute ago, sweetmslily said:

This update seems to have broken Xbox playback for me. Playing back H.264 I get rubber banding and pixelating (but the audio is fine) and AV1 playback is a black screen with audio. Streaming over a browser or on iOS apps works fine. 

The next version will fix H264 playback hopefully. You have Xbox One, riight?

[sweetmslily 2]

11 minutes ago, softworkz said:

The next version will fix H264 playback hopefully. You have Xbox One, riight?

I have a One S and a Series X, the black screen for AV1 happens on both, the rubber banding and pixelation for H264 only happens on the One S. 

[softworkz 4456]

Xboxes cannot play AV1. It needs to be transcoded at the server. There was no case in the beta, so this has slipped through. Thanks for reporting!

[aspdend 177]

18 hours ago, BigAl66 said:

It works well on my HTPC. Nice work!

What I hate is, that App can be closed with the back key. This means I have to find the mouse to restart the App. This should be deactivated in TV mode at least. I usually never close the app on the TV (HTPC). Even on other computers I do not like this "double function" of the key. When I like to close the app I want to click "close"...

So please: Give us the option to deactiavte "closing the app with back key".

Totally agree on this one this needs a deactivate option to stop annoyingly closing the app by pressing the back key

[aspdend 177]

Not to just post a moan, loving the new app (apart from the back key closing), especially the windows theme, it's snappy and is working well for me so far good work!

[darkassassin07 585]

3 hours ago, aspdend said:

Totally agree on this one this needs a deactivate option to stop annoyingly closing the app by pressing the back key

I'm actually going to say the opposite (at least for Xbox). As this was functionality I requested.

 

When using a regular universal IR remote to control an xbone as I do, there is no other way to close an app. The xbox home button isn't mapped to a standard button, so you can't open that menu to close the app unless you fire up a standard xbox controller as well.

 

Pressing back from the home page of Emby should close the app, but with a confirmation prompt first: 'Are you sure you want to exit Emby? Yes/No'

[sweetmslily 2]

12 hours ago, softworkz said:

Xboxes cannot play AV1. It needs to be transcoded at the server. There was no case in the beta, so this has slipped through. Thanks for reporting!

No problem! Yeah I had AV1 being transcoded on server and played back in the Xbox app before the update. Haven't changed any settings on the server and now it's not giving me video. Hope that helps! If there's anything else you need testing wise just let me know. 

[softworkz 4456]

19 hours ago, darkassassin07 said:

I'm actually going to say the opposite (at least for Xbox). As this was functionality I requested.

When using a regular universal IR remote to control an xbone as I do, there is no other way to close an app. The xbox home button isn't mapped to a standard button, so you can't open that menu to close the app unless you fire up a standard xbox controller as well.

That's not a contradiction as the other users were not talking about Xbox.

For Xbox, the behavior is reasonable, because closing the app by navigating back provides a natural and familiar integrated flow as it returns you to the Xbox Dashboard from where you can easily enter the app again. 

The other users though, were talking about Windows, and when you're on Windows and you accidentally close the app, you are landing on the desktop and there's no natural way to get into the app again with a remote control. This means that each time when it happens, you need to stand up from your sofa, and go for using another input method (keyboard/mous) just to start the app again.

@Luke

Edited December 22, 2024 by softworkz

[softworkz 4456]

5 hours ago, sweetmslily said:

No problem! Yeah I had AV1 being transcoded on server and played back in the Xbox app before the update. Haven't changed any settings on the server and now it's not giving me video. Hope that helps! If there's anything else you need testing wise just let me know. 

It should be fixed in the next update.

Thanks

[revengineer 136]

WOW, the new Windows app is fantastic, thank you so much for your hard work @softworkz. The holidays are well deserved!

I agree with others that the exiting via back space key is odd. I use it on a desktop so it does not bother me but it should be addressed. On Android TV, if I hit back button, then I at least get the query of whether I want to exit, which I usually don't. Making this optional in the future would be great.

Also,I found a cosmetic issue on Windows 10 in the window has a dark task bar, yet there is a one-pixel-wide white strip at the very top. I am including a screenshot to make this clear. Would e nice to fix that too.

Cheers!

[Chillout 101]

Is there a timeline when the live tv FF/RW and recording issues will be addressed?   (Fixing play bar, preventing FF past realtime, etc)

 

[Steven 144]

Really loving the new app. It is much snappier and with HDR support now working well I can finally integrate my 4K media rather than using MPC/MadVR.

Also noticed performance with playback is improved over theatre and runs well playing 4K on my lighter desktops.

My crusty plasma does miss the screensaver option to avoid burn in though; if it’s possible to bring that back at some point, unless it is there and I missed it?
 

Thanks again for your hard work emby team, and merry Christmas!

[darkassassin07 585]

Finally got a chance to take a look at the new app on xbone.

 

I like the fancy new splash screen on startup; someone definitely out some love into that

It does seem odd that the old splash screen then shows for quite a while after that though. Images for reference:

New (after it's animation)

Old (this displays after and longer than the new one, sometimes with a loading wheel)

 

 

It's great to see the profile pin is now hidden by asterisks instead of displayed in plain text to the whole room. Thank you!

 

I've got the same playback issues as everyone else, though I was expecting it at this point. Even SD ~1mbps HEVC transcoded to H264 stutters. Music plays fine though. There is also around a second or two of solid green screen at the beginning of playback; regardless of whether you are starting from the beginning of the file, selecting a chapter, or resuming a previous spot. All I've got to test with ATM are HEVC files, so I'm not sure if it happens on direct played content or just the transcoded stuff.

 

I'm also really happy to see resuming paused playback seems to be fixed. I hadn't made a thread on this as I knew there was a whole new app in the pipeline: But for a few months now, I've been experiencing an issue with the previous app where pausing playback on xbox without exiting the player, then resuming caused the entire app to freeze. The server dash showed playback progressing, and the logs showed the client sending playback progress; but the user just saw a frozen screen, heard no audio, and got no response to any input. The only way to fix this was to close the app via the xbox home menu and restart it. (or restart the entire console) This appears to no longer happen with this update.

 

It's a shame we're at the mercy of Microsoft, but I'm looking forward to a release MS hasn't screwed over . I can be patient. Fantastic work guys, and Happy Holidays!

 

[softworkz 4456]

6 hours ago, darkassassin07 said:

I like the fancy new splash screen on startup; someone definitely out some love into that

You have no idea...  

There are also some composed sounds to accompany, but we feared that users might object or find it too aggressive, so it wasn't included.

6 hours ago, darkassassin07 said:

It does seem odd that the old splash screen then shows for quite a while after that though. Images for reference:

There were  concerns that users might complain about the startup animation, assuming it would be the cause for the somewhat slow startup.
In order for being able to provide proof that it's the other way round (the animation is rather meant to cover up the slow startup), we added the "Hide" button (Windows) which allows you to see what's going on behind, so it was kept to show something instead of just a black screen.

The most common case where this happens is when the client cannot  connect to the last used server and it has to do network discovery.
There's a plan to run our network discovery right at the launch  of the application , so that the result is already there when the app needs it. 
, but 0This didn't make it into tthid release.

7 hours ago, darkassassin07 said:

It's a shame we're at the mercy of Microsoft, but I'm looking forward to a release MS hasn't screwed over

For everything else, please see this: 

Thanks

[SikSlayer 238]

17 hours ago, softworkz said:

You have no idea...  

There are also some composed sounds to accompany, but we feared that users might object or find it too aggressive, so it wasn't included.

This is why we can't have nice things...

[softworkz 4456]

On 12/22/2024 at 4:34 PM, darkassassin07 said:

I like the fancy new splash screen on startup; someone definitely out some love into that

22 hours ago, softworkz said:

There are also some composed sounds to accompany, but we feared that users might object or find it too aggressive, so it wasn't included.

 

SOUND 1

 

SOUND 2

 

SOUND 3

 

 

Edited December 23, 2024 by softworkz