hansolo77 11 Posted September 26, 2015 Share Posted September 26, 2015 So I was browsing the Computer category of my local Craigslist last night half asleep. I saw a post where a guy was trying to see a homemade device that plugs into your TV through HDMI and allows complete online streaming of TV shows and movies, completely free. Basically it's that hole "cut the cable" deal. He's got it inside a very small box that looks like an external WD drive on the side. Anyway, I sent him an email asked if he would mind sharing some more technical details about it since I'm a tinkerer with this sort of thing. He never replied, but I noticed on his Facebook page that he had links to some discussions on the Kodi website about adding additional functionality to his device (namely, how to add Sports Channels). I found this intriguing and decided I want to know more. So the next day (today) I went to the Kodi website/forums and browsed around. I really like what I see, but I have no idea where to begin. Kodi looks like an OpenSource version of Emby basically. The thing I liked about the Craigslist posting was that it was all streaming, and didn't require setting up anything like a server, or downloading things. I still want to have these though, as I just upgraded my server to the Norco RPC-4224 case and really love it. Is Kodi the program I want to use to be able to do all the streaming, etc? Would the Kodi plugin for Emby just basically open up a Kodi interface while in Emby, or does it open the Emby interface inside Kodi? If I were to build my own box, it looks like I would need something like a Raspberry Pi and knowledge of Linux. Has anybody done this, and can help me with at least pointing me in the right direction (links, or whatever..)? Thanks guys! Here's some links: Craigslist post: http://columbus.craigslist.org/sys/5207829241.html Youtube video: Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pimediacenter?_rdr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 Kodi had been around for ages. ..it used to be called xbmc until a recent rebranding. It is a standalone media center software that can be installed onto just about anything and will play just about anything. ..the emby for kodi addon allows kodi to function as a client for Emby allowing all your media to keep in sync on all your devices. ..if this feature is not required for you then kodi is probably better suited to your usage than emby 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted September 27, 2015 Author Share Posted September 27, 2015 So this will present an Emby "program" in Kodi then? Sounds interesting. I just bought myself a Raspberry Pi and have been spending like the last 5 hours trying to get it running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 (edited) The addon will sync emby server with the local kodi db so you can access your media through the normal kodi library/menu structure or by browsing through the addon Or if using a custom skin you can define your own entry points Edited September 27, 2015 by Vidman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 I tried setting this up, but all I get are some menus like TV, Movie, Last Watched, Last Added, and it's all empty. Nothing is populated. I did "login" with my credentials, I think I'm doing something wrong. Is there a walkthrough or guide to setting it up? Also, just an FYI. I've decided not to really pursue the whole live streaming bit from the Youtube video above. My bandwith isn't good enough to make decent use of it, and I have know idea what I'm doing to get it set up.. So using it as an Emby client will work just fine, if I can get it to work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 (edited) Go to add-ons > find emby for Kodi and launch it. If you access any of the userviews, is there any content? Did a sync happen? Edit: @@hansolo77 Here is the simple guide, there's also a youtube video https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Kodi/wiki Edited September 28, 2015 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 (edited) It appeared to do some form a sync, although very briefly. I saw it pop up a window saying it was syncing Movies (1 of 50) and then the window disappeared. Nothing else happens. Edit: If I perform a manual sync, it throws up an error and to check the logs. I'm going to have to mess with this more tomorrow, I'm tired. Been at this all day lol! Edited September 28, 2015 by hansolo77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 ok, post your log when you get the chance. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 Yup, just grabbed it... this is the important bit from the "01_KODI.log" http://pastebin.com/PNZ5Cu4D Looks like it doesn't find any of the metadata perhaps? I know they exist in a /show/season/metadata folder structure and the /metadata folder is hidden in Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Looks like you still have Kodi sources.xml. You need to start fresh. You might have more success with the beta version since you are using Jarvis. It is not officially supported, this is why it's failing to sync at this moment. Either that, or use Kodi Isengard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 Not sure what you mean. I am actually using a beta version of OpenELEC because I wanted to use my seedbox's OpenVPN, and only the beta builds of OpenELEC for the Pi have the repositories for the binaries it requires. If you're talking about beta of Emby for Kodi, I just grabbed whatever was the most recent one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 (edited) The version of Kodi you are using is Jarvis alpha 3. We don't officially support Jarvis, therefore it's failing to sync. Is there a version for Kodi Isengard 15? You are currently using Emby for Kodi v1.1.39. The latest version is 1.1.43 which is available in the beta repository. Grab the beta repository from here and install it in Kodi (the reason I mention this, is beta might work with the Jarvis version you have... but since you posted a partial log, I can't say for sure) otherwise use Kodi Isengard: https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Kodi/wiki. Edited September 28, 2015 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 (edited) I uninstalled the previous Emby and installed the beta. It still gives me the same issues. I'm not sure if I'm using the right one though. You say the latest build is v1.1.43, yet the link in the wiki only goes to 1.0.4. Might be part of my problem. If not, I guess I'm going to have to use the latest stable build of Kodi. Kinda sucks because I was really hoping to use the OpenVPN for streaming. I'm really tired now lol.. past midnight and I have to work in the morning lol. I'll work on this more tomorrow for sure. It's a project I felt like tackling, so there's always bumps and headaches along the way. Thanks for helping me out! Edited September 28, 2015 by hansolo77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 Just a quick update before I head out.. I formatted my SD card and installed the latest "Candidate Release" of Isengard and it looked like everything was working. It went through and added all my Movies. It's adding TV shows now. The only problem I now have is that whenever I try to play a movie, it says something like "Direct Streaming Unavailble" and asks if I want to use HTTP or something. I read somewhere that I might need to install codecs, but these are .mkv files and the Raspberry Pi documentation says it can play those directly. What gives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 (edited) It's saying it's unable to direct play, because it's unable to locate your content. If you enable direct stream, content should play. You could also fix your library path in Emby, by adding path substitution in your emby dashboard to change your path to a proper network share (\\networkshare\movies) so Kodi is able to access your content directly over your network.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Edited September 28, 2015 by xnappo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 I'll take a look at it when I get home. I shouldn't need path substitution because my Emby library all points to the network path, not a local path. I probably need to enable the direct streaming option. Is there any thing I need to worry about with the purchasing of codecs I read about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 If thats the case, then post your kodi log so we can see the problem. You should not need to have to install any codecs. Kodi has everything built in with their own player. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 (edited) With the pi you need to purchase codecs licences to allow hardware decoding , this is to reduce the cost of the pi for those that do not require this functionality....I had to purchase the MPEG licence to make live TV watchable in Australia but I brought all of them anyway for a few bucks just so I wouldn't have to worry about it later Edited September 28, 2015 by Vidman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Only for Mpeg2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 http://www.raspberrypi.com/mpeg-2-license-key/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 http://www.raspberrypi.com/mpeg-2-license-key/ I brought the vc-1 licence also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 Oh wow, I learn something new every day ... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted September 29, 2015 Author Share Posted September 29, 2015 I just find it hard to believe that there would be a mandatory purchase for codecs. That's like the old DivX days where you had to buy (or pirate) their codec and player to watch movies, so XviD was created through open source (I believe) to be free. I thought things like LibLAV were open source too. I will say that I remember there being an option somewhere either in OpenELEC settings or Kodi settings to enable hardware acceleration. There were 2 options, but only 1 was enabled. Unless there is something "under the hood" that would need to be manually configured through SSH or something. Anyway.. I was thinking more about this playback issue while at work. When I installed Emby to the Pi, I had the repository zip in a shared folder on my computer. I had to provide a username and password to access that share (which doesn't sound right since it was shared with Everyone). But it got me thinking. Do I maybe need to at least try to access via File Browser the videos in the shared path, to at least configure a username/password that would be saved for that path as well? I don't see why that would cause an issue though since it auto detected the only user I have created in the Emby setup, and already log in with that (although it's not passworded). I'll take a look in the Pi settings and see if I can locate where the Direct Play option is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 The license is for the hardware acceleration. Anyway, just post a log and we will be able to see what is going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 I just find it hard to believe that there would be a mandatory purchase for codecs. That's like the old DivX days where you had to buy (or pirate) their codec and player to watch movies, so XviD was created through open source (I believe) to be free. I thought things like LibLAV were open source too. I will say that I remember there being an option somewhere either in OpenELEC settings or Kodi settings to enable hardware acceleration. There were 2 options, but only 1 was enabled. Unless there is something "under the hood" that would need to be manually configured through SSH or something. Anyway.. I was thinking more about this playback issue while at work. When I installed Emby to the Pi, I had the repository zip in a shared folder on my computer. I had to provide a username and password to access that share (which doesn't sound right since it was shared with Everyone). But it got me thinking. Do I maybe need to at least try to access via File Browser the videos in the shared path, to at least configure a username/password that would be saved for that path as well? I don't see why that would cause an issue though since it auto detected the only user I have created in the Emby setup, and already log in with that (although it's not passworded). I'll take a look in the Pi settings and see if I can locate where the Direct Play option is. Yes you receive a code that must be initiated at startup... It is only for hard ware decoding of codecs that require licences, rather than the pi foundation increasing the price of all PiS to cover this licence fee when not everyone requires it, it is not some scam it is to keep the price of the hardware as low as possible as that was the original idea of the device.... It was not developed to be a cheap media player Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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