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Kodi vs Emby Android TV player


hifiaudio2

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hifiaudio2

So I have an Nvidia Shield scheduled to arrive today and I know it still has some issues with codec support, etc. I have tried Kodi a couple of times in the past and gave up pretty quickly, but given the thousands of people that love it there must be something inherently better about it than just using Emby server and the Emby Android TV app. I actually think the Emby ATV app looks great, and have never gotten Kodi to look very good, but based on what I see online many people get great looking Kodi setups. I must still not understand how to get the skins installed and working. Each time I have installed Kodi it gave me only a text list of the movies on the left, no coverflow style setup. I also had problems with it seeing my shares, etc. So I guess my question is what makes Kodi so much better and popular than Emby players or even Plex when both of those seem to offer easier to set up and prettier "out of the box" experiences? What am I obviously missing?

Edited by hifiaudio2
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Angelblue05

Hehe :) I personally think what makes Kodi so great is how you can customize pretty much everything. But it makes for a bigger learning curve.

 

Kodi also supports most of the formats for playback. This means with Emby for Kodi, you can direct play anything on your server (with very few exceptions).

 

It's also special because there's a lot of development towards plugins (It has the biggest collection of plugins I've seen, anyway) which gives a more complete experience overall without the need for multiple applications.

 

We will get around making a tutorial explaining how to work with skins and create your menus, we just haven't had the time yet. Feel free to ask questions, if you decide to give it another go. :)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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hifiaudio2

Thanks! I will definitely be giving it a go with the Shield since right now it needs all the codec help it can get. I am sure I will be back soon with specific questions!

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Angelblue05

The tedious aspect of Kodi is getting your content in properly. However, when combining Emby server(to manage your content) and Kodi to play your content, using Kodi ends up being way easier.

 

Emby for Kodi takes care of your content automatically (90% of the work) so all that's left is for you to set up Kodi to display your media the way you want. ;)

 

 

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badaas

Plex out of the box is very poor compared to Kodi + Emby.

Plex Home Theater is soooo cobbled, it is a locked down app with many many many bugs [the source is still XBMC Frodo].

But anyhoos, let's not get bogged down with who did what to who'm!

 

Try the Arctic Zephyr skin in the Kodi skins section, it might help you decide :D

http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/19594-arctic-zephyr-skin-custom-version/

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hifiaudio2

OK cool thanks.  I will start my messing around with Kodi on the Shield tonight or tomorrow.  To me it seemed  like I would get lots of errors before telling me a file couldnt be played or a database not accessed.  Or a random lower right hand side pop up telling me something wasnt working at any given time.  I didnt even know what app it was telling me was having issues.  I also didn't know how to get rid of all the extra tabs on he home screen that I didnt want.  In this case,  when I start it I just want an interface that shows me movies and TV.  No other add ons.  I will take a look and see what questions come up. 

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as an aside, if we're talking about format support, the android mobile app will be getting SMB network file support in the next release, meaning it can play your files directly over the network without streaming through the server. (playback only, not browse). if this turns out to be a popular addition, I am sure we'll look at adding it to the TV app.

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Angelblue05

OK cool thanks.  I will start my messing around with Kodi on the Shield tonight or tomorrow.  To me it seemed  like I would get lots of errors before telling me a file couldnt be played or a database not accessed.  Or a random lower right hand side pop up telling me something wasnt working at any given time.  I didnt even know what app it was telling me was having issues.  I also didn't know how to get rid of all the extra tabs on he home screen that I didnt want.  In this case,  when I start it I just want an interface that shows me movies and TV.  No other add ons.  I will take a look and see what questions come up. 

 

Ok let us know! You can also check our wiki: https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Kodi/wiki to help you set up tomorrow.

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c0m3r

I too had tried Kodi a number of times previously and had usually ended up removing it within a day or so as I just could not get on with it. However, when you use the Emby Beta add on it is way simpler and all that is left is setting up the UI. After getting to grips with this I now have Kodi on all my players with Emby providing the content. 

 

I use the Arctic Zephyr skin which is about as simple to set up as anything ive seen but if you would like any help, I would be happy to provide this.

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  • 2 weeks later...
hifiaudio2

Awesome, thanks guys.  So lets say I choose the stable Emby "repo" (still getting used to the Kodi terminology of where these files are located out in cyberspace), and the latest Isengard version of Kodi.  Then a new version of both Emby for Kodi and / or Isengard comes out.  Does that automatically update?  Or is it a manual install?  Or even uninstall / reinstall the new version?

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im85288

The new version of Emby for Kodi will update automatically...as for Kodi that really depends on what OS you have installed it on. For me (and many others) the best all in one Kodi experience is OpenElec. You install it and it boots directly into Kodi so great as a HTPC, it also has a few extras included such as setting static IP addresses etc if you need that. With openelec you can select to have it update automatically, currently I've installed Openelec 6.0 Beta 1 (which is isengard beta 1 Kodi).

 

Anyway have a play and it'll become second nature to you soon, and as for comparisons with ATV. In my opinion they cannot be compared fairly. The Emby ATV app plays you Emby media. With Emby for Kodi you can play all your media, choose from multiple skins, install multiple addons (bbc Iplayer, TV tunes etc etc), play true HD sound formats, 3d, browse movies/shows that are not in your library via tmdb...watch a trailer of that movie then if you like it press a button and send it to couch potato, have it dim your lights in the room on playback and brighten them when pausing etc etc etc etc

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hifiaudio2

Well trying a quick install on my Windows machine before I dive into installing on the Shield or possibly an Openelec Chromebox.  

 

I installed Beta 1 of Isengard.

 

The following part of the instructions Wiki seemed to be incorrect for me...

 

2.Once installed, navigate to Add-ons > Get Add-ons > Kodi Emby stable/beta add-ons.
3.The listing might not appear at first. Simply press "c" on your keyboard or open the context menu while your cursor is on Kodi Emby repository and select "Force Refresh".

4. Install Emby for Kodi by entering the Kodi Emby repo and selecting Video Add-ons > Emby.

 

 

I had no "get add ons"   -  it was just Add-ons --  install from repository  -  Kodi emby add ons  -  video add ons  -  Emby  -  Install

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hifiaudio2

So system, settings, add ons gives me this...

 

    By the way there must be a super easy way to get a small pic of the screen like you have that is not alt Prtsc.  what is it? 

post-1113-0-44638500-1433991417_thumb.png

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Angelblue05

Hehe :)

 

Use the Emby webclient > Select your Kodi device > remote control > Controls > Take screenshot

 

Edit: Adjusted the tutorial with your information for Isengard. Thanks

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hifiaudio2

Well after getting that installed things went super easily. It actually found the server and populated the database without a restart, but I restarted anyway. Took about 12 seconds for the whole collection. I have it running on a brand new Dell r220 server with a raid 5 SAS backend. I didn't get asked anything except to select the user and I am off browsing and playing. Confirmed in the dashboard that it was direct playing to Kodi so that was great. Gave a quick install of the Titan theme and will spend tomorrow making it look like it does in the "show me" thread. Good stuff so far. Thanks!

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hifiaudio2

I assume installing Kodi on Openelec on a raspPi or Chromebox or Shield is marginally more difficult than windows?  If not then this is a breeze.  Since I never got asked for any passwords or anything about setting up paths or shares, maybe that is because my Windows computer with Kodi is in a domain with my R220 that is the Emby server?  In any case,  it was much easier than I thought.  I know I have tried Kodi / XBMC from time to time in the past and got frustrated with not being able to see or play files, etc. 

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hifiaudio2

Ok I am now trying to get Kodi setup under OpenElec with a Rpi.   Everything is installed, but whereas on the windows install I was never even asked for a PW,  this time it keeps displaying my username and asking for a PW, which it keeps telling me is invalid.  I verified that I am entering the correct PW.  Is there something else I may be missing? 

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hifiaudio2

Nevermind... I had put in my Emby connect username when it asked for that on the new install,  whereas on the windows install it had just given the option of selecting "parents".  Now it is syncing.  

 

Well... still not working on Openelec.  It syncs to the library, but then when I click a movie and it tells me "opening stream",  it thinks for a minute then says one or more items failed to play.  See the log.  I have no idea where the log is.

 

It also does a full sync every time.  Its much faster than it was the first time, but seeing as it already has all the movies and info, I dont know why it keeps doing a full sync.  After Kodi starts I get  "Emby server is online" in about 45 seconds  and then it performs the sync. 

 

It then gets to the end of the sync,  and says compressing database,  and then Kodi crashes and reboots. 

 

Further EDIT.. got it to play.  I didn't have the domain username and PW in the Emby settings on Kodi so once I entered that it worked.  I guess I didnt need to on the Windows machine since that machine was already logged in to the network with that domain user and PW. 

 

Playback is horrible though.  I expect the Pi just cant do it well?  It paused a bunch at the beginning of the video, as if it were buffering.  But MB server says its direct playing. The pauses seem to go away as the video progresses.  

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hifiaudio2

Nope sure didnt.   I had actually forgotten what it was for.  Was it necessary for h.264 playback acceleration?

 

It has been such a long time since I touched the Rpi that I cant remember.

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hifiaudio2

OK,  with it in the official Google Play store now, I have installed Kodi on my Nvidia Shield.  Can I just put the repository on a USB drive and insert into the Shield?  Can I view files on that usb natively from Kodi or will I need to do something from ES file explorer to get the repository .zip to show up for Kodi to read?   I don't have access to the Shield to test right now so I am asking beforehand.  

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