Emby As A Music Player

[tomx2 0]

Hello,

I'm having trouble understanding how to get started. After reading the wiki and a few web sites i still don't have a handle on how to get up and running. i'm using wmc at the moment, but it's limited (can't see my metadata, etc).

 

So the question is: Is there a step by step guide for setting up emby for music only? Or at least using it for a large offline music collection?

 

I read that there was a player, but can't seem to find it anywhere. I downloaded emby for wmc, but i'm not sharing a server with anyone. I also tried to install the server (is it nessessary?) and i got an error. I'm not, at least at this point, intrested in apps, just want a better option for my home entertainment unit (pc w/wide screen) and offline music collection.

 

Thanks,Tomx2

 

PS - ooops, I know there is a typo in the title, but can't find where to edit it!

Edited July 9, 2015 by tomx2

[Tolerant 70]

You do need the server installed, after that you can use a web browser or install clients like the Apps or Theater or WMC client, etc. Once you get the server installed you can then add your music location to it and proceed from there.

[tomx2 0]

Thanks Tolerant. I got the server installed and using the WMC plug-in it apperas to be working. However i'm still unable to see my meta data. i.e. the comments tag that includes song/band info. I suspect that this is due to the fact that i'm missing some setting or (i sure hope not) emby doesn't read the comments tag. I am going to be using emby offline (my system does not have an internet connection) so i would like emby to gather it's data from my tags. I was under the impression that is was able to do this (I Hope!).

 

Still trying,

Tomx2

[Tolerant 70]

It should read any info in your music metadata Tags, it does for me.  I use MP3Tag a free program to check / edit my mp3 tags, works pretty well.

[tomx2 0]

I use mp3tag as well. My info is in the standard "comments" tag. i'll revisit and see if i can find what i'm missing and report back....I also, after chosing an album, don't see any thing on the left side (sort list). i see that it is scrolling, a list? but no text at all. And don't see anywhere on the screen where the comments tag would display.

Edited July 10, 2015 by tomx2

[Tolerant 70]

I do not think there is a place to see comments for music albums, artists or tracks.. that seems like a strange place to put your info like Album, Artist (Track Artist), Disc #, Album Artist, etc. If you have all that in only the comment field then that would be the problem. At least that's my guess.  What Emby "wants" to do is to find your .mp3's correctly tagged with info/art etc.

I would suggest a folder structure like:

C:\Music\Artist\Album\01 - Track name.mp3  (or 01 - Album Name - Track name.mp3)

 

But the key thing is having those mp3 tags to make scraping so much easier. -- And if you need to re-scrape all of your music, the easiest way is to remove the path in the config then re-add it and let Emby update, at least that's what worked well for me.

[tomx2 0]

Good info thanks!

I have well over 10,000 records and have been at this for some time, but there is always room for improvement!

I have everything carefully tagged using (as an example):

MusicLibrary\13th Floor Elevators\Easter Everywhere\01-Slip Inside This House.

I also have  - band bio's/interesting* song info/history & reviews - attached in the standard "comments" tag (comments are the same for all songs on an album, in other words, only one comment per record, not different comments/tags for each song on a record. Each song is tagged, but with the exact same general info). Other tags i have are lyrics placed in the standard "unsyncedlyrics" tag.

 

Having said all that, i am only interested in displaying the comments tag, not lyrics, etc (at least at this point). On another note, i use poweramp as a music player on my android device. It does what i want beautifully, displays any desired tags info with a single click. What i want is much simpler on my home system, to be able to search, play, display artwork and read interesting band facts offline on my widescreen screen using a remote. I can do all this with wmc....except read the comments tag. That's why i'm here giving emby a try, simply in an effort to get the metadata to display. Most everything i've read tells me it is possible, even the screenshots on the emby web site show displayed metadata (for movies), if it's possible to read a synopsis/review for a movie, why not for a music album? i must be missing something.... 

 

 

 

 

* at least i think it's interesting (smile)

Edited July 10, 2015 by tomx2

[Raff 51]

It is certainly doable, here is a screencap from my 13th Floor Elevator entry:

 

Since I had the correct tags on my music files, all of the above was populated automatically by Emby. I didn't need to do anything extra in this case. This is from the web client, so depending on how you consume your media, YMMV. I primarily consume media on my XB1 by using its web browser to select stuff and then DNLA to play it.

 

It looks like you have exactly the right file structure, so much of your library will probably be picked up automatically. In some cases, the artist isn't found without a little help but most of those fall into two categories: either they don't have entries in the various music DBs or there are a couple of bands with similar names.

 

There is an overview for the album (similar to the overview/synopsis for movies) but I don't have any populated, so I don't know if it displays in the web client.

[kkhan 16]

Please be aware that Emby does not currently work well with large music libraries. The Web client is reasonably quick in opening music views but the WMC client can take 10s to 30s or so to open a view in particular the Artist or Album artist views. Depends on what theme you will use. I find the default theme to be the best. The Android client is currently lacking as it times out on the above views for a large collection. Thus it is very difficult to navigate to a particular album. As you will be using WMC I would recommend splitting your library into manageable chunks to enhance performance until the Dev team sort these problems.

[tomx2 0]

Raff, That is exactly what i would like to see. However even though i have the correct file structure i still am not seeing anything even close to what you have. Maybe it's a setting? any chance of pointing me in the direction of a step by step guide to the settings that result in something like your image?

 

Thanks

[Raff 51]

Okay, going off your post: MusicLibrary\13th Floor Elevators\Easter Everywhere\01-Slip Inside This House.

 

First, is MusicLibrary set up as the Music content type in your library?

 

Second, when you look at the Metadata manager, does 13th Floor Elevator show up under Music?

 

All I did was hit "Identify" - you may need to verify the id's that were found, but let's check these two things first.

[tomx2 0]

All Right, Let me say, i'm new to this so i may be asking simple questions at first!

 

So to begin with I'm not really sure where to find music content type (i'm using the WMC plug-in - offline). Under the settings 'gear' i have "General', "View Options" , Theme Options", etc, no music. Likewise i see no Metadata Manager as well. Seems with me we'll need to start from the very beginning, as assuming i know anything is giving me too much credit!

 

My guess is that i should be using another, for lack of a better term... "version". So to be clear, i'm starting WMC and then navigating to the Emby plug-in. Then i am asked choose a user profile "admin" . After which it loads. Then i have scroll of 14 13th floor elevators album covers.

 

Also, just so you know, when i first set things up (can't seem to find that screen again) i only setup the "13th floor elevators" folder as a test. In other words, i setup only - MusicLibrary\13th Floor Elevators (not my entire collection). So Emby should only be pointed to the 14 albums in the 13th floor Elevators folder. And as i can see the album art i 'think' it is.

[Raff 51]

Everybody starts as a beginner - no worries.

 

First, I primarily use the web client and that is what the screenshot is from. I won't be any help with WMC having used it once in my life after saying "hey what does this green button do on my PC remote?" However, I can try to get you down the right path.

 

First, I assumed you installed Emby Server on some computer. You made a comment about "off-line" so I am no longer sure that is true. Here is how you install Emby:

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Installation

 

Hopefully it started successfully and a browser window opened - that is the web client admin tool I am referring to above. It is typically listening on port 8096 of whatever server you installed it on.

 

Helpful hint (IMO): don't map libraries until you have set most of the options and settled on a folder structure for your media. For the former, if you change the advanced options to save metadata in a specific way. You can go back and change these settings (and probably will some time down the road) but you want to start simple and clean. For the latter point, there are guides for organizing each of the major media types under "Prepare Your Media" as part of "Library Setup". Emby automation and data presentation works best if you follow them.

 

As you go through there, you will hit the step where you set up your library and this is where you would find the Music type and map your MusicLibrary folder. In my experience, as soon as you do that, the Media Library scan kicks off and Emby starts grabbing the metadata. As I mentioned, I didn't have to do anything for Roky's band since they are in MusicBrainz - Emby looked them up and set that band image and wallpaper (called a Background in the tool) automatically.

 

Anyway - let me know if you have already done that and we can move on to more specific items.