Using Emby with Samsung Smart TV and Tailscale?

[Jadesage 1]

Hello,

I used to have Plex to share my movies remotely with my family at their house, and now I can't do that.

I have set up Emby media server on my computer, and I installed the Emby app on their Samsung smart TV, but it's not connecting to the server.

I was told to use tailscale, but I don't know how or if I can install this software on their TV. I can't find tailscale on the Samsung app store.

Can anyone please help me figure this out?

[TMCsw 180]

First note that Plex worked because everything goes thru there servers whether it can/can't make a direct connection and the sell this Info!

Emby doesn't collect or sell your (or your users) info. and your data does not go thru there servers.

Tailscale(and others) do give a fairly secure way (no open ports...) to get around access issues but require some setup that some may find to difficult (especially for their end users i.e.. Granma). But  Tailscale is not available on all devices as you have found.

You should start with looking at the following posts to set up remote access and then if you are still having problems get back here for further help.

 

 

 

https://support.emby.media/support/articles/Hosting-Settings.html

 

 

 

 

[Luke 40116]

@Jadesage please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[Jadesage 1]

Hello @Luke,

While I did set up Emby Connect, and changed my settings to allow remote connections, my ISP (tmobile) is using a CGNAT, so at my family's house I can't connect to my media server. I already spoke with a tmobile customer service rep,  and was told that they don't have any way to allow port forwarding or any changing of their gateway device settings.

 

I was asking for help on reddit and was told to look into tailscale, and while that allowed me to access my media server from my phone (since there is an android app for tailscale), that doesn't seem to be an option for my family's Samsung smart TV.

Edited May 9 by Jadesage

[yocker 301]

22 minutes ago, Jadesage said:

Hello @Luke,

While I did set up Emby Connect, and changed my settings to allow remote connections, my ISP (tmobile) is using a CGNAT, so at my family's house I can't connect to my media server. I already spoke with a tmobile customer service rep,  and was told that they don't have any way to allow port forwarding or any changing of their gateway device settings.

 

I was asking for help on reddit and was told to look into tailscale, and while that allowed me to access my media server from my phone (since there is an android app for tailscale), that doesn't seem to be an option for my family's Samsung smart TV.

You can get a Raspberry PI and use that as a VPN (Tailscale) node and have the TV connect to your server through that.
Should be able to find some guides with a quick Google search.

A TV Firestick, a travel router or a Nvidia shield and so on should be able to do it as well.

Edited May 9 by yocker

[Jadesage 1]

@yocker,thank you for the response.

I think I will go for a firestick-type device, I found this resource stating that the user was able to use a walmart brand device that sounds like it will fix my problem:

 

 

[Jadesage 1]

Hello,

I got a firestick, and installed emby and tailscale at my family's house.

The problem is sometimes the movies stop and play stop and play throughout the movie. 

And sometimes my family is logged out of emby, where they can click on my server, but it says it can't be reached. 

My computer is always on so the movies can be accessed, and as far as I know, my internet is stable. 

Does anyone know what the problem could be?

[Luke 40116]

3 hours ago, Jadesage said:

Hello,

I got a firestick, and installed emby and tailscale at my family's house.

The problem is sometimes the movies stop and play stop and play throughout the movie. 

And sometimes my family is logged out of emby, where they can click on my server, but it says it can't be reached. 

My computer is always on so the movies can be accessed, and as far as I know, my internet is stable. 

Does anyone know what the problem could be?

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[Jadesage 1]

Hello,

Thank you! I hope this helps.

My Sister said it happened with one movie on Wednesday,

and another movie yesterday, so I downloaded the logs for both days. 

embyserver-63885283200.txt embyserver-63885369600.txt hardware_detection-63885241603.txt hardware_detection-63885323553.txt

[Luke 40116]

3 hours ago, Jadesage said:

Hello,

Thank you! I hope this helps.

My Sister said it happened with one movie on Wednesday,

and another movie yesterday, so I downloaded the logs for both days. 

embyserver-63885283200.txt 359.72 kB · 1 download embyserver-63885369600.txt 340.22 kB · 1 download hardware_detection-63885241603.txt 174.42 kB · 1 download hardware_detection-63885323553.txt 174.42 kB · 1 download

Hi.  Can you try searching for our standard android app (Just "Emby" on Amazon and "Emby for Android on Google) on the same device's app store and see how that compares?

Thanks.

 

[Jadesage 1]

Hello,

 

I do have the Emby app for android.

I'm watching one of the movies that my Sister said was stopping and playing,

and so far (into the half hour mark), I only saw it stop and play once at the beginning of the movie.

I turned off my WiFi to make sure I was using both Emby and Tailscale.

I also played the movie from my computer to make sure the issue isn't with the file itself, and it so far is playing normally. 

[Luke 40116]

1 hour ago, Jadesage said:

Hello,

 

I do have the Emby app for android.

Hi, what version number is it?

[Jadesage 1]

It is version 3.4.70

[Luke 40116]

5 hours ago, Jadesage said:

It is version 3.4.70

 

OK then, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

 

[Jadesage 1]

Hello, 

Here are the logs from yesterday. 

I got this from my Emby page Settings > Logs, so I hope they are the correct files.

I tried to see if there were logs through the Android Emby app, but I didn't find a section for them. 

Otherwise, if there is something specific you are looking for, please let me know. 

 

embyserver-63885456000.txt hardware_detection-63885400922.txt

[Jadesage 1]

Also, I was visiting my family and was able to see the issue actually occur.

So at some point during the movie, the video portion freezes, but the audio continues. 

(This did not occur when I watched the same movie from the emby app on android.)

I did also try unplugging the firestick and then plugging it back in, but that didn't make a difference. 

It appears to just be occurring with two specific movies, so I'm going to see if I can download them again and add them to the server. Or maybe download them from a different source.

[Jadesage 1]

Downloaded the movies again.

At my sister's house, the movie plays fine on my emby android app, but on the firestick app the picture freezes while the audio continues to play.

[Jadesage 1]

I tried downloading one of the movies having an issue from a different website, and it seemed to play normally. 

So maybe this is like an encoding issue? Maybe however these particular videos were encoded in a way that is incompatible with the firestick?

[Luke 40116]

On 6/20/2025 at 9:23 AM, Jadesage said:

I tried downloading one of the movies having an issue from a different website, and it seemed to play normally. 

So maybe this is like an encoding issue? Maybe however these particular videos were encoded in a way that is incompatible with the firestick?

@Jadesageit could be. So you're saying it's limited to a few files?

[Jadesage 1]

Yes, that is correct.

I have not gone through my entire library at my Sister's house, so I don't know the full extent of this issue,

but that is probably something that I will have to discover over time.

I think at this point I will consider the issue resolved in that I don't think this is anything that can be fixed through Emby.

 

Thank you everyone for your assistance in this matter!