Need help / advice going from MB2.6 to Emby plugin on Freenas

[mgh333 0]

I really hope someone can tell me how to make this painless, I will be eternally grateful.

 

What I have now.  MediaBrowser 2.6 running on my home media PC running windows media center.  It connects to cifs shares on my freenas box for 2 media folders
\\nas\media\movies
\\nas\media\tv
 I have been using metabrowser for meta data saving into each movie/tv folder the backdrop/folder.jpg and movie.xml.  I use folder.jpg saver and MediaBrowser saver. People info gets saved to \\nas\media\MediaBrowser\ImagesByName\People\ , and the box is checked in metabrowser under locals MediaBrowser local config to "Enable people prefix sub folders (media browser 3) and there is a convert button next to that.
 

 

So everything has been working great, but with WMC going away and all the cool features of emby server plugin in freenas, it's probably time to switch over.

 

Is there a painless way to do this and if so how?  Currently running freenas 9.3

What app should I use on my HTPC now.  I probably want to move away from WMC so should I use emby theater?
I will probably continue to use metabrowser just because I like it and the control, will the same savers work?

I did try a test of this, but had mixed results.

I created a new dataset called testmedia and added a folder Movies with a couple of movies I copied over.  
Added a new cifs share to testmedia. 
Installed the emby plugin and added storage to the jail.

tested it from an andriod phone and my pc.  Problems were it didn't find the cast images, probably because I didn't copy them over to the new dataset.  It did find the cover art and xml info since that is in each folder.  but the biggest problem was when I went directly to the emby server in my pc web browser and played a movie, it was transcoding it and not using direct play.  I'm sure I dont understand enough yet, but after looking through some thing the plugin would start anymore, so I just removed it.  I see mention of path substitution but couldn't find that setting in the server settings.

 

So if anyone has some advise on this type of upgrade, I would appreciate it.  Also, when creating a dataset in freenas does it matter much if I choose windows or unix?  I actually prefer doing directory permissions using linux. 

 

Thanks,

 

[PhilWhite 64]

Not sure I can help with all of this since I'm a beginner myself.

 

But... I use Unix and not Windows for datasets.  IIRC that is what is generally recommended.

 

Path substitution is in the Library section of the server (there is a tab next to folders at the top of the page).  It should allow direct play -- just take the media from your jail  -- such as /media/Movies  To:\\nas\sharename\Movies (or whatever).

 

I don't think I can help much with what app to use on your HTPC.  I didn't like Emby Theater when I looked at it but that was a while ago and improvements in all of the apps come quickly 'round here.  If you like Metabrowser it's probably best to stick with it.  Might be worth asking folks in the Windows section, though.  I use android devices for display now, having chucked my HTPCs, including two Openelec boxes.

 

If you want live TV, Emby TV is now a part of the server -- though it is still in beta stage and not a part of the FreeNas plugin (yet).  You might want to wait until that is available for full implementation, but it isn't that hard to upgrade from one server version to the next (though I did have to eliminate one version and start fresh at one point).

 

Bottom line, though, just do it.  This is a terrific way to organize and present your media; and with Emby TV coming to the server it will soon be a complete set.  I used to use Kodi, then Emby for Kodi.  I'm moving toward a complete Emby solution with my FreeNAS server (also 9.3).

Edited August 25, 2015 by PhilWhite

[mgh333 0]

  I use android devices for display now, having chucked my HTPCs, including two Openelec boxes.

 

 

Just curious, are you playing to Chromecast?  I was wondering if it did direct play.  I'm just trying to keep freenas from transcoding everything. 

[PhilWhite 64]

Fire TVs and android phone.  Still thinking about getting a NVidia Shield.

[Diedrich 355]

I just learned the other day that the Core i3 version of a Chromebox will push 4k. Dell is currently the only one that has a AC Wi-Fi card.