Emby on Ubuntu with multi-platform Clients

[bondfreak 14]

Hi guys,

 

I'd really like to upgrade my rather old Kodi HTPC setup by replacing the backend with Mediabrowser. I like the possibility to watch on multiple devices in my home network without keeping media databases in sync.

 

So what I did was installing Mediabrowser on my Ubuntu server (HP N36L) for testing before buying a faster server (for transcoding). I am running into the problem that I cannot playback any content without transcoding being in place. The library is set up using linux local paths ( /media/Storage/movies ). I configured path substitution so that the clients can access the files directly. This is the point where I am not sure why transcoding is still in place.

I tried the following configurations for substitution

 

 

/media/Storage/movies -> smb://server/movies

/media/Storage/movies -> \\server\movies

/media/Storage/movies -> nfs://server/Storage/movies

 

None of these worked for the web client on my Macbook (using Google Chrome), since I still see the bandwidth settings in the top right corner.

All the options also didn't work for a Windows 7 client using Firefox.

 

I did not test the following clients yet. Kodi, iPhone, iPad.

 

My server can provide access to the media files via NFS, AFP or SMB.

 

Can anyone help me troubleshoot the setup so I can playback with direct file access? Is it even possible that devices with different OS can playback with direct file access at the same time? 

 

Regards,

Bondfreak

Edited April 26, 2015 by bondfreak

[w31 0]

Your problem looks similar to mine with N54l here: http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/20706-emby-transcoding-on-hp-n54l-ubuntu/

Can't play anything without transcoding and can't define network shares path

Still in search for answers

[bondfreak 14]

I actually tried to hit me in the face pretty hard when I realized why my server wouldn't stop transcoding. In my case transcoding happens because no Browser can play MKV-Files directly This means it will always transcode when using Chrome or Firefox or ...

 

When I tried using Kodi with the Mediabrowser backend everything worked like a charm I did not try the "Emby for Kodi beta" AddOn since my Kodi skin does not support this addon.

 

I will try to answer to your questions about Linux and so on in your thread.

[Luke 38803]

actually chrome can direct stream mkv, but there are a number of other requirements that have to be met for direct stream to happen

[bondfreak 14]

and which requirements would that be? Is it only config-wise or more of a chrome issue?

...maybe even OS issue 

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

The more I think about that, the more questions come to my mind. Could even be a problem with included codecs in the MKV file ...

Edited April 28, 2015 by bondfreak