Multi-Cast Support

[mihirrocks9999 1]

Hey I'm currently making a non-docker dependent version of this. It's currently in python with a gui, but would a different file format be better. Like a chrome extension or a .jar/.exe file.

[lastelement21 16]

On 1/16/2022 at 4:15 PM, mihirrocks9999 said:

Hey I'm currently making a non-docker dependent version of this. It's currently in python with a gui, but would a different file format be better. Like a chrome extension or a .jar/.exe file.

The ideal format would be a server plugin

[Painkiller8818 229]

On 8/16/2020 at 6:30 PM, chef said:

I think... in most cases ...  if a user post to the fourm with a "delevoper" or "administratior" tag under their name, then that user is part of the team.

So you are also part of the official emby team but you need to create plugins all by yourself without the rest of the emby team behind you?

Actually it's shameful that the best plugin of the year (your intro skip plugin) was not made by the official developers and you can watch feature requests go by for years and never get implemented.

Luke's answers when you ask for a status seem like they are pre-programmed sentences that he has bound to keys on his keyboard.

I'm surprised there are no memes about this yet.

Security related stuff is not done either.
User permission revamp should have been implemented long ago as he always announces.

As well as many other things that have been open for years, enough demand is there but no one seems to be interested.

You have to help yourself out with powershell scripts and the like (sometimes not even 20 lines) that solve the whole request.

It is not always as much work as we are led to believe here.

[sammyk77 1]

I purchased Emby many years ago on what looked like many great promises on improvements, such as this. But I'm beginning to regret paying for this when it seems like nothing new has been added. Updates are very sparse. 

[Luke 40104]

1 hour ago, sammyk77 said:

I purchased Emby many years ago on what looked like many great promises on improvements, such as this. But I'm beginning to regret paying for this when it seems like nothing new has been added. Updates are very sparse. 

Hi stay tuned for the upcoming 4.7 server release which will bring a number of new features. Thanks.

[yaksplat 63]

On 2/23/2022 at 12:08 PM, Luke said:

Hi stay tuned for the upcoming 4.7 server release which will bring a number of new features. Thanks.

I don't see anything relating to Multi Cast in 4.7.  Am I missing something?

[ebr 15670]

11 minutes ago, yaksplat said:

I don't see anything relating to Multi Cast in 4.7.  Am I missing something?

No.  Luke was responding to a general statement about new features (see the quote).

Thanks.

[yaksplat 63]

18 hours ago, ebr said:

No.  Luke was responding to a general statement about new features (see the quote).

Thanks.

Ah.  Gotcha.  I made the assumption that since it was in this thread, that there was a Multicast Support update related to 4.7.

[Carlo 4552]

Keep in mind a true Multi-Cast is only good for the network it's broadcast on short of having L2/L3 routers or multi-cast proxies.
So I'd doubt "Multicast" in the true sense of the word would be used to create a watch together type feature as we would want it to work with existing clients remote or local.

Personally, I'd envision this working probably different then many of you.  I'd envision a web chat type program with private channels and a lobby. You could have random anytime watch together where someone is in the lobby and another person drops by and decides to watch something with you.  You of course could also schedule a watch together event for the future and send out invitations to others using your private room.

In that room you're the moderator with control over playing the video, stop, pause, etc but could delegate or grant access to any others or everyone.  The video would play taking up most of the screen with a side panel for ongoing chat. Ideally you could cast to an Emby client or Chromecast as normal.  That would allow you to watch on any device you want while still being connected to the watch party chat.

Done this way none of the normal Emby clients would need to be "watch together" aware as all the control is web based which is far better suited for chat. When I say chat it could be just text based or audio or full blown audio and video. That would be up to the moderator to control assuming the admin has the feature available to use.

What would be cool as well would be queuing up little videos that play before the main event.  Like the 5 minutes to movie time. 2 minutes, grab your popcorn. Maybe have another for 2 or 3 minutes breaks that might be needed were you click the 2, 3, 4, 5 button after pausing which queues up the intermission video but starts immediately after resume where you were.

Would something like that work?
Of the different existing watch together type utils others have what you're favorite or what you would consider the gold standard?

[l4kr411 1]

7 years... absolutely insane for a program that's literally paid

Just implement the feature already. 

[BillOatman 575]

On 2/28/2024 at 6:43 AM, l4kr411 said:

7 years... absolutely insane for a program that's literally paid

Just implement the feature already. 

If you look here you can see the kinds of things the team feels is of more value to the most people than this feature.  Basically tweaks instead of new features.

[Carlo 4552]

On 3/3/2024 at 12:08 AM, BillOatman said:

If you look here you can see the kinds of things the team feels is of more value to the most people than this feature.  Basically tweaks instead of new features.

Not really sure what you are trying to say as the latest server release incorporates multiple features requests. The features added to the new server version would seem to appeal to a much larger Emby base then this particular feature request which seems far more narrow or limited in scope to Emby users in general.

In comparison to many adopted feature requests, I could point out this feature request is from 2015 and only has 5 pages of activity/content, some repeated. Looking at the request from that perspective could show it as a low priority addition with limited userbase interest. Don't read anything into what I just posted other than showing that perspective of a user request can be seen quite differently by a person not vested in the request. Emby has incorporated requests with literally no support behind it as a developer reads the initial post and thinks, it's a great addition, or wonders why they hadn't thought of it during development. Sometimes a feature request will get implemented regardless of overall popularity as a developer works on related code it could be incorporated into.  Sometimes this can happen when another semi-related feature is being implemented.  That could possibly happen here when "watch party" functionality is added which happens to be another user feature request.

Personal opinion here: I see this request as something of a niche request by a few power users.  I get it, would actually use it myself, but don't see it as something the general Emby userbase would need or use.  It's a bit strange is the sense that depending on need this can be done easily with the right hardware. Some of us have been doing this for 20+ years sending the same broadcast to multiple TVs in the house. Some use HDMI splitters and run cables to each TV. Others like myself use RF modulators to broadcast one or more channels over the local cable connection as our own channel. Channel 13 could be a delayed Eagles game that we started playing 30 minutes late while channel 18 has the Cowboys on. Channel 24 could have a Live or delayed Nascar or F1 race as well. Anyone could go from the basement to the living room, kitchen or patio/deck and never miss any of the action.

If you're not really needing this feature for video but just music a pretty easy solution already exists outside of Emby that it can use. A device sporting Chromecast functionality is all that's needed and makes this quite easy to do. You use Google Home to create Groups of Chromecast devices that meet your playback needs. You could have multiple groups with overlapping devices such as bedrooms, upstairs, downstairs, basement, patio and kitchen, etc.  In Emby, you simply cast to a group vs a device and it just works.

Google has commented in the dev forums it would expand this functionality to include video as well as audio in an upcoming release. If/when Google adds this functionality, it could be all the solution many people here need assuming you had devices that can "Chromecast" or willing to pick up a couple. That of course wouldn't help those using Theater, Rokus, Apple TV, iOS or consoles as many of them won't speak "chomecast". That would still lead back to this request, likely with a smaller userbase.

While not the same request it might be worth following this thread if you don't already as it may be what some of you really wanted or could use. It's also quite possible the functionality asked for here could be incorporated into Watch Together so two feature requests are done with one set of new code. This is something that can surely be looked at during design and development as it could appeal to a larger set of users than either request on it's own.

I could certainly think of ways to use this semi-daily around the house such as starting a movie that's made available on the Living Room TV and Master Bedroom TV. Your spouce starts watching it in bed while you finish up your work and join her 10 to 15 minutes later with a smooth as glass movie watching experience for both of you.  Something like this might be a combination of both requests or maybe could be done by either but I could see a lot of use for this more than say a typical watch together.

Carlo

 

[BillOatman 575]

On 3/7/2024 at 4:00 PM, Carlo said:

.

Personal opinion here: I see this request as something of a niche request by a few power users.  I get it, would actually use it myself, but don't see it as something the general Emby userbase would need or use.  It's a bit strange is the sense that depending on need this can be done easily with the right hardware.

 

The bolded I imagine is the main reason the team hasn't implemented this feature to date.

[Spaceboy 2565]

well Sonos (sold 6 million of its speakers in 2023) would disagree. and thats just one use case for multicast

[yaksplat 63]

On 3/7/2024 at 4:00 PM, Carlo said:

In comparison to many adopted feature requests, I could point out this feature request is from 2015 and only has 5 pages of activity/content, some repeated. Looking at the request from that perspective could show it as a low priority addition with limited userbase interest.

It's number 5 out of all user requests based on reactions, which is the voting method that was requested. I just think this is a difficult and more time-consuming request.

[noybman 9]

I'll throw my hat in here as finding this feature useful. Given Plex has "Watch Together" and is generally well received, while Plex can indeed be "considered" competition to Emby. I would use it, if it ever exists.

I'll go look for the vote so I can +1 it.

[Akirainbla 1]

I would also like to +1 this,especially as both plex and Jellyfin have it.

[rfporter 27]

Multicast audio streaming is now possible thanks to the Music Assistant project. Plex, Jellyfin, Subsonic (Navidrome, Gonic, LMS, airsonic, etc..) are supported. But not Emby though.

Players include snapcast, squeezebox, chromecast, and sonos.

Edited November 2, 2024 by rfporter

[Dullard 11]

This is one of the things I do miss from my old squeezeboxes. 

[Ray 4]

I was following this because I wanted the same concept of multicasting to many TVs at once.  I ended up doing it in hardware.  Sharing in case others wanted to do the same.  (The idea came from seeing how they did the same in the local electronics store for the display TVs.)

I also have Plex, but REALLY prefer Emby over Plex for usability of seeing what movies are out that I'd like to watch, rather than being buried in a mess of options.

When family comes over, it's possible that even if watching the same movie, some will want to go off for privacy while watching.  (Some want to watch the movie, some want to chat more than watch).  I got a 4k 1 in, 4 out splitter, and then 4 HDMI over Ethernet kits.  To multicast, I run from the basement system to the splitter, then put the input to second HDMI on the Basement TV, Living Room, Family Room and Den.  All four TVs are perfectly in sync for under $500 CAD thanks to cheap stuff from Amazon.  None of the parts I'm using are brand name, so I didn't bother to include links.  Seems like any of 100+ are the essentially the same price for the same specs (4k 60Hz).  Apparently you can also do Wifi, but I had the ethernet pre-wired and figured it would be less problematic on cheap components, so I have no idea how well that would work at scale, or price point.