earthtorob 5 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 Good evening Gents, I'm a long time HTPC user. My first truely beautiful system was a modded Xbox with XBMP. Later I upgraded to XBMC and I never went back. I've gone through many upgrades to my HTPCs and servers. Currently I am running 3 rasperry Pi's and an ATV. 2 of the Pi's are running XBIAN and one Pi is running OSMC and the ATV is running Crystalbuntu. My server is a windows system with lots of drives running Media Center Master to gather MetaData. The server is using simple SMB shares to share media and MetaData. I'm pretty happy with my system. I've been thinking about a media server for a while now. Mostly about Plex and MCB3. What I'm confused about is what they are supposed to do for me that a simple file server can do. I understand that they use UPNP and DLNA but I don't understand the benifits of using it. And I don't understand why I would want to transcode and video when all my players are fully capable of playing the video as is. Emby creates MetaData differently than Kodi does. So I'm a little worried about that. So why should I use Emby? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koleckai Silvestri 1150 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 Actually with a default installation, Emby will follow Kodi's metadata format exactly. The only thing you have to change is the storage location so it stores the metadata in the media folder like Kodi. The big advantage to Plex and Media Center is device support. Android, iOS, Kindle, and Roku are popular. Emby will transcode your lossless bluray rip so it can be streamed to any device on the fly. So your devices like the HTPC and PIs that are connected via ethernet can use the full video, 5.1 sound, etc... For your wireless devices you can stream the latest over local wifi or cellular whether you're at home or at the beach. I enjoy it because instead of Raspberry Pi machines, I have Rokus. Kodi isn't available on the Roku. However you can keep Kodi and still use Emby as there is a plugin that adds Emby capabilities to Kodi. The integration is pretty seamless. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamstercat 63 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 I use Kodi on my HTPC, there's a great Emby plugin for it. Emby has superior metadata management and supports a wide range of devices with transcoding, and Kodi has that great interface for my TV and plays anything I throw at it. Plus watch status are synced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yardameus 220 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 One added thought to the previous comments, you only transcode if you have to. If your devices can handle the media without transcoding, than it won't. Only when you have media that your device can't handle natively will it transcode. From my experience, Emby Server is worth trying out if for no other reason than the hands free metadata. (The Kodi plugin being an added bonus.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) Good evening Gents, I'm a long time HTPC user. My first truely beautiful system was a modded Xbox with XBMP. Later I upgraded to XBMC and I never went back. I've gone through many upgrades to my HTPCs and servers. Currently I am running 3 rasperry Pi's and an ATV. 2 of the Pi's are running XBIAN and one Pi is running OSMC and the ATV is running Crystalbuntu. My server is a windows system with lots of drives running Media Center Master to gather MetaData. The server is using simple SMB shares to share media and MetaData. I'm pretty happy with my system. I've been thinking about a media server for a while now. Mostly about Plex and MCB3. What I'm confused about is what they are supposed to do for me that a simple file server can do. I understand that they use UPNP and DLNA but I don't understand the benifits of using it. And I don't understand why I would want to transcode and video when all my players are fully capable of playing the video as is. Emby creates MetaData differently than Kodi does. So I'm a little worried about that. So why should I use Emby? What I don't understand is where you got all of your misinformation? Upnp/DLNA is an additional means to share you media... But not used exclusively... If you set your library's up using UNC paths most clients will directly play the files from your smb shares if possible, and only if not possible or you choose to will it transcode to a suitable format or to decrease bandwidth . Also emby automatically downloads metadata that all clients can use... including kodi devices and syncs watched and resumes points between uses and devices without needing to mess around with mysql databases and whatever other kludge is required for kodi Edited July 18, 2015 by Vidman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthtorob 5 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Thanks guys, I didn't know Emby and Kodi used the same meta data format. That's good to know. I use Media Center Master to gather MetaData and place it in the folders neatly. I also use "Export video library" on Kodi to clean up any mistakes in the library. Which I have to do from time to time because Media Center Master does not automatically setup Box sets like "Back to the Future" and "Star Wars". Will Emby do this better? I don't need "device support" right now. All my players run Kodi. I like the idea of streaming to my cellphone. Emby might be worth it just for that. From most of the comments it seems Emby mostly centralizes what I already have now. I like having a separate database for each kodi installation. Different people watch different things in each room. So separate databases make sense. I understand Emby can setup different users. What would be great is a way for Kodi or Emby to automatically used different profiles based on the device used to control it. I use XBMC remote to control my Kodi systems. I'm thinking that if I switch things to Emby the user settings and database would follow each user around if the go from one Tv to another. Will it work like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthtorob 5 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Oh, I tried that Kodi plug in for Emby. The plugin took over and my Kodi library. Emby didn't send any artwork to Kodi, probably something set wrong. I installed a couple plugins, they don't show up on Kodi. Instead I can launch them though the web interface on Emby. Not awesome. I suppose I'll have to play around but to be honest, I like the Kodi the way it is. I might use Emby for streaming to non-Kodi and Non-local devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 You just need to enter the corresponding user login for each kodi device on the first run of the emby for kodi plugin for each device to use that users profile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthtorob 5 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Good news.....The Emby plugin did not remove my library from my Kodi. I can still access the library from the Android remote. The plugin does remove the local library from the main screen though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 The plugin replaces your local library so if you don't reset your kodi database when first running the plugin you may end up with duplicate items out other unexpected behaviour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 Correct. Do not try to use Emby for Kodi and the Kodi scraper/libary at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trusselo 220 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 why emby over a simple SMB? it looks better having a browsable menu with metadata, rather than just folder and movie icons... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) Keeps multiple Kodi installs in sync, better metadata management. Playback is still SMB. Edited July 18, 2015 by xnappo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deihmos 147 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 This addon eliminates the need to use mysql and you say you have multiple of them setup for different users. This is a far better solution for multi users than mysql. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthtorob 5 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 why emby over a simple SMB? it looks better having a browsable menu with metadata, rather than just folder and movie icons... I do have all the meta data. I use MCM to scrap it but I can also scrap it with Kodi and then export the data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthtorob 5 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Keeps multiple Kodi installs in sync, better metadata management. Playback is still SMB. I don't want the watched status and play counts in sync. I have different people watching different things on each Kodi. The meta data I have in my folders shows each item as never watched. After Kodi collects all the data from the SMB shares then that database can change it's own play counts and such. With Emby I think I can add a new user and that new user will have zero play counts. Am I correct here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamstercat 63 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 Yep, watch status is kept in Emby per user, and not in nfo (although there is an option to write it to the nfo for one user, but I keep that unchecked). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 And if you are watching together you can add users to the session. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthtorob 5 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Yep, watch status is kept in Emby per user, and not in nfo (although there is an option to write it to the nfo for one user, but I keep that unchecked). Well that sounds nice. I have no interest in "resuming" a movie where I left off in a different room. I know how to work the fast forward button. I rent rooms out of my home. So I like to keep my Metadata unchanged on the server. I do a fresh install of Kodi every time I get a new tenant. If I used Emby I wouldn't need to do an install, I could just add a user to the server. So.....correct me if i'm wrong.....Instead of connecting to the Kodi with an iphone, the user would connect to the emby server with their phone and then when they select a movie they would decide which kodi to send the movie to. Is that how I want to go? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthtorob 5 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 And if you are watching together you can add users to the session. Thats a neat trick. I wondered about that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swhitmore 781 Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 (edited) So.....correct me if i'm wrong.....Instead of connecting to the Kodi with an iphone, the user would connect to the emby server with their phone and then when they select a movie they would decide which kodi to send the movie to. Is that how I want to go? I'm not 100% sure, since I only have 1 user, but I believe it could be set up so that a user can only remotely play something on a device that they are logged in to. From what you're saying though, if you rent out rooms and want multiple users accessing the same library, Emby is exactly what you want. You can invite your tenants by asking for their email address, add them to your server with Emby connect, and they can download the Emby app to whatever mobile device they use (or use the web client) to play on or use as a remote. As for the Kodi HTPCs, once the tenants has a user, they can login to Kodi and use your media server. After they leave, all you have to do is remove them or log them out. Edited July 19, 2015 by swhitmore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthtorob 5 Posted July 19, 2015 Author Share Posted July 19, 2015 I'm not 100% sure, since I only have 1 user, but I believe it could be set up so that a user can only remotely play something on a device that they are logged in to. From what you're saying though, if you rent out rooms and want multiple users accessing the same library, Emby is exactly what you want. You can invite your tenants by asking for their email address, add them to your server with Emby connect, and they can download the Emby app to whatever mobile device they use (or use the web client) to play on or use as a remote. As for the Kodi HTPCs, once the tenants has a user, they can login to Kodi and use your media server. After they leave, all you have to do is remove them or log them out. Yeah......The idea is that they have TV. I wasn't really interested in providing mobile entertainment to them. I just have to give them something on the TV to watch because I don't have cable. My last cable bill was in 2001. A fresh install of Kodi for each new tenant has worked out great so far. But I think I'll try the Emby method to see if there is something extra I can get out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Another bonus of Emby for Kodi: the initial import of your content into Kodi is wayyyyyyyyy faster than the native Kodi scraping. So if you have to recreate profiles constantly, this will save you a lot of time with the initial setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthtorob 5 Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 why emby over a simple SMB? it looks better having a browsable menu with metadata, rather than just folder and movie icons... Kodi has had that Meta Data since forever. SMB is just how Kodi (XBMC) finds the media. Kodi uses scrapers to get all the same metadata that you are talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthtorob 5 Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 Another bonus of Emby for Kodi: the initial import of your content into Kodi is wayyyyyyyyy faster than the native Kodi scraping. So if you have to recreate profiles constantly, this will save you a lot of time with the initial setup. I think I'm doing something wrong. I'm using Raspberry Pi's. I know they are very low end but they are quiet and draw very little power. If I do a fresh install on a Pi and point it at my SMB shares it takes 3 or 4 hours to build my library. All the meta data is already in the folders so there is no scraping. Using a Pi with the emby plugin "syncing" my library has been going on for almost two days now. When I synced a smaller folder, just for testing, I didn't get the episode info that I usually get. From what I see the plugin just slows the whole thing down. I had much better results with a vanilla Kodi install and just casting video from my phone. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. Is there a guide out there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now