Being nagged to purchase Emby Premiere

[kjp4756 41]

I have a couple of questions I want someone to confirm for me. I tested out playback of a handful of movies on a non-Premiere server (v 3.2.1) using the web client and I have yet to run across what the guys are calling a "nag" screen. I'm sure it will take time and several playbacks for this thing to appear, but the questions that have yet to be addressed in this thread are:

 

1. How frequently does this message appear? Is there a gradual progression or is it predictable? The OP mentioned that they have to wait "constantly" now for the timer to count down before they can play their media.

2. What exact information is presented in the message that is so appalling?

3. Does this message also appear within mobile or TV apps (Android, iOS, FireTV, etc.) that have been unlocked for playback without an Emby Premiere subscription?

 

Can we examine it for a bit to see what's in the actual message? I don't get this screen yet, so thanks to @@shermanp for providing the screenshot.

 

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1487783052.801639.jpg

 

I'm married, so I'm a bit of an authority on what nagging is [emoji6]. This ain't it.

 

It's gentle. It's informative. It calls attention to a great product (Emby Premiere) that has benefits far beyond what's listed in the example features. But it's obvious with the timer that the Emby team wants this information to be seen by non-Premiere users in hopes they will actually become customers. It is NOT begging for anything. It's NOT requiring a payment for you to continue. It does NOT prevent you from playing your media if you don't pay up. So there is no hard "pay wall" locking your own personal content as some have suggested.

 

This issue isn't black and white. It's not fair to classify everyone using the product for free as "freeloaders". That's insulting. Some folks are truly evaluating the product to determine if a Premiere subscription is worth their hard earned money. So anything that muddies their experience can affect their decision. That is actually a thing.

 

Of course, there are those that desire a completely unobstructed free experience. To those folks, this pop-up should be expected in one form or another. The practice has been in place for decades as evident in freeware and shareware products so I'm not sure why they are angry this was introduced. I suppose when you've gone so long without seeing a message of this kind in this product, to have it gradually pop up during your day, and to suddenly get a captive message with a timer can be a bit of a jolt. But it kind of goes with the territory with a free software as functional as this.

 

For those that opted to "pay to play" on their device, it is my belief this captive screen should NOT be displayed on those respective apps. But is this even happening in any of the mobile apps? I'm not referring to when you complete an Android or iOS in-app, purchase and then use the Emby web client to playback instead. If you paid for playback on the Android platform, IT ONLY APPLIES TO THAT MOBILE APP, not Chrome or any other browser. You can't expect that to carry over to other clients. Only a Premiere license can do that.

 

So hopefully someone can answer some of these questions with some degree of certainty so we can get a better understanding of all the pain and angst and upset feelings this has caused.

I get the 'nag' for every video I try to play using the web interface.  I don't get nagged when using the android app or ios app.  I also don't get the nag screen when casting from the web client to kodi or chromecast.

 

At first I didn't get any sort of a nag when playing from the web interface then after the last update it started.  Maybe it starts after a while?

[NoEmbyAnymore 0]

Just registered to tell the developers this.

I wanted to buy emby premium until you shove the damn popup upon our @sses.

Removed emby, and bought plex suggesting others do the same until devs see in the dump move they made.

 

Also, making an extension to disable the popup completely. Feel free to sue me devs.

Edited February 22, 2017 by NoEmbyAnymore

[Jdiesel 1114]

Just registered to tell the developers this.

I wanted to buy emby premium until you shove the damn popup upon our @sses.

Removed emby, and bought plex suggesting others do the same until devs see in the dump move they made.

 

Also, making an extension to disable the popup completely. Feel free to sue me devs.

 

Just so I'm clear, you were going to buy a product that you were currently using and enjoyed but because the product suggested you buy it you are no longer going to buy it but instead bought another product out of spite. Now you are going to spend all the time you were wasting waiting for a 15 second countdown trying to write a browser extension to block the countdown on software you no longer want to use.

[NoEmbyAnymore 0]

Just so I'm clear, you were going to buy a product that you were currently using and enjoyed but because the product suggested you buy it you are no longer going to buy it but instead bought another product out of spite. Now you are going to spend all the time you were wasting waiting for a 15 second countdown trying to write a browser extension to block the countdown on software you no longer want to use.

Correct, pushing me to paid products has an opposite effect on me.

 

Writing the extension was 15 seconds work...

Edited February 22, 2017 by NoEmbyAnymore

[mastrmind11 717]

Just registered to tell the developers this.

I wanted to buy emby premium until you shove the damn popup upon our @sses.

Removed emby, and bought plex suggesting others do the same until devs see in the dump move they made.

 

Also, making an extension to disable the popup completely. Feel free to sue me devs.

Wait.  You were going to buy a premiere sub, thus removing the nag screen, but decided not to because of the nag screen you were about to remove by paying for a premiere sub?  That's a new one...

[Spaceboy 2494]

Just registered to tell the developers this.

I wanted to buy emby premium until you shove the damn popup upon our @sses.

Removed emby, and bought plex suggesting others do the same until devs see in the dump move they made.

 

Also, making an extension to disable the popup completely. Feel free to sue me devs.

cough, bull shit, cough. I bet if someone checked his ip you would find it crops up before in this thread Edited February 22, 2017 by Spaceboy

[Spaceboy 2494]

I have a couple of questions I want someone to confirm for me. I tested out playback of a handful of movies on a non-Premiere server (v 3.2.1) using the web client and I have yet to run across what the guys are calling a "nag" screen. I'm sure it will take time and several playbacks for this thing to appear, but the questions that have yet to be addressed in this thread are:

 

1. How frequently does this message appear? Is there a gradual progression or is it predictable? The OP mentioned that they have to wait "constantly" now for the timer to count down before they can play their media.

2. What exact information is presented in the message that is so appalling?

3. Does this message also appear within mobile or TV apps (Android, iOS, FireTV, etc.) that have been unlocked for playback without an Emby Premiere subscription?

 

Can we examine it for a bit to see what's in the actual message? I don't get this screen yet, so thanks to @@shermanp for providing the screenshot.

 

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1487783052.801639.jpg

 

I'm married, so I'm a bit of an authority on what nagging is [emoji6]. This ain't it.

 

It's gentle. It's informative. It calls attention to a great product (Emby Premiere) that has benefits far beyond what's listed in the example features. But it's obvious with the timer that the Emby team wants this information to be seen by non-Premiere users in hopes they will actually become customers. It is NOT begging for anything. It's NOT requiring a payment for you to continue. It does NOT prevent you from playing your media if you don't pay up. So there is no hard "pay wall" locking your own personal content as some have suggested.

 

This issue isn't black and white. It's not fair to classify everyone using the product for free as "freeloaders". That's insulting. Some folks are truly evaluating the product to determine if a Premiere subscription is worth their hard earned money. So anything that muddies their experience can affect their decision. That is actually a thing.

 

Of course, there are those that desire a completely unobstructed free experience. To those folks, this pop-up should be expected in one form or another. The practice has been in place for decades as evident in freeware and shareware products so I'm not sure why they are angry this was introduced. I suppose when you've gone so long without seeing a message of this kind in this product, to have it gradually pop up during your day, and to suddenly get a captive message with a timer can be a bit of a jolt. But it kind of goes with the territory with a free software as functional as this.

 

For those that opted to "pay to play" on their device, it is my belief this captive screen should NOT be displayed on those respective apps. But is this even happening in any of the mobile apps? I'm not referring to when you complete an Android or iOS in-app, purchase and then use the Emby web client to playback instead. If you paid for playback on the Android platform, IT ONLY APPLIES TO THAT MOBILE APP, not Chrome or any other browser. You can't expect that to carry over to other clients. Only a Premiere license can do that.

 

So hopefully someone can answer some of these questions with some degree of certainty so we can get a better understanding of all the pain and angst and upset feelings this has caused.

You are far too kind. See above for the sort of people that are contributing here. They have zero intention of buying Emby premiere. They are the absolute definition of freeloaders

[overClocked! 63]

You are far too kind. See above for the sort of people that are contributing here. They have zero intention of buying Emby premiere. They are the absolute definition of freeloaders

 

I try to give the benefit of doubt. It's not always deserved.

 

Ai-yai-yai!

[overClocked! 63]

I get the 'nag' for every video I try to play using the web interface. I don't get nagged when using the android app or ios app. I also don't get the nag screen when casting from the web client to kodi or chromecast.

 

At first I didn't get any sort of a nag when playing from the web interface then after the last update it started. Maybe it starts after a while?

Thank you. Good feedback.

 

Seems like it either becomes more prevalent the longer you use the free web client without a Premiere sub on the more recent server versions (3.2.x)?

 

Maybe some of the other client apps haven't been updated to display this information (yet)?

 

Anybody seeing anything different?

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

Just registered to tell the developers this.

I wanted to buy emby premium until you shove the damn popup upon our @sses.

Removed emby, and bought plex suggesting others do the same until devs see in the dump move they made.

 

Also, making an extension to disable the popup completely. Feel free to sue me devs.

 

That is sticking it to the man... Eschew the little man and buy from the corporation.

[cptlores 23]

Correct, pushing me to paid products has an opposite effect on me.

 

Writing the extension was 15 seconds work...

 

I wasn't going to comment any more, since there is some obvious echo chamber mentality going on in here. But I'll leave it one a final note.

 

Many people in here does not seem to get the open-source mentality. Like it or not, Emby is open-source and has roots where everything was free for all. And yes, we all know that open-source can also be sold commercially. But many open source users have certain expectations when using such software. And there are many examples of great open-source projects being ruined by people trying to cash in after they have gotten popular. Latest example being CynogenMod..

So there will always be backlash when an open-source project starts pushing for money. And when the push starts affecting the already established free functionality the backlash gets proportionally much stronger.

 

And yes, while it took me 10 minuttes instead of 15 seconds. It was trivial to remove the nag screen..

Edited February 23, 2017 by cptlores

[NoEmbyAnymore 0]

 PM me for the plugin: http://i.imgur.com/1NIo5jP.png

Edited February 23, 2017 by NoEmbyAnymore

[NoEmbyAnymore 0]

I wasn't going to comment any more, since there is some obvious echo chamber mentality going on in here. But I'll leave it one a final note.

 

Many people in here does not seem to get the open-source mentality. Like it or not, Emby is open-source and has roots where everything was free for all. And yes, we all know that open-source can also be sold commercially. But many open source users have certain expectations when using such software. And there are many examples of great open-source projects being ruined by people trying to cash in after they have gotten popular. Latest example being CynogenMod..

So there will always be backlash when an open-source project starts pushing for money. And when the push starts affecting the already established free functionality the backlash gets proportionally much stronger.

 

And yes, while it took me 10 minuttes instead of 15 seconds. It was trivial to remove the nag screen..

I have my own open source project also, it's a password manager. But i don't beg my users for money. A small donate link is good enough.

Seems that the emby programmers are starting to get greedy.

Edited February 23, 2017 by NoEmbyAnymore

[mastrmind11 717]

Seems that the emby programmers are starting to get greedy.

Or have a desire to pay their bills, considering Emby development is their full time job....

[mellomade 140]

Ugg.....please do not feed the trolls.

[Letters 3]

I want Emby to be a successful commercial endeavor to ensure product development for a long time, if a nagware screen every once in a while is what it takes for Emby to be around in 10 years I'm all for it.

 

I'm also one of the "freeloader" plebeians. $100 is frankly just a lot of money for me.

[Amelanchier 0]

I just wanted to add another voice to this thread. I pay for a Plex membership, I've been meaning to get my Emby lifetime as well, but I have yet to commit. I really don't think the license is cost prohibitive but I do not appreciate this delay to media playback as a sales tactic. Honestly, if it were ads the devs could profit off of, I could understand, but not this. 

 

I use my media server quite extensively for DLNA playback to stereo equipment which does not work with Emby at this time. I've been keeping my server updated and watching the changes to DLNA in the release notes and I was extremely excited. Once DLNA playback is sorted out, I will be able to move off of plex completely, awesome! 

 

In all likelihood, I will still move forward and purchase a membership once my use case works. This ultimately won't change that, however, I would expect a much higher level of support, like I would from a larger corporation, if I am forced to upgrade just to mitigate a nag. If the devs have time for that, great! However, as it stands, feature requests are pretty slow moving, which is totally fine in an open source project, but not in a commercial application for which nagging would be appropriate. 

 

I do also want to thank everyone that contributes to this project. Its come a long way and that effort should not be overshadowed. 

[Happy2Play 8295]

 

I would expect a much higher level of support, like I would from a larger corporation

Good one, I guess there should be zero support for free users then correct.

[legallink 187]

In all likelihood, I will still move forward and purchase a membership once my use case works. This ultimately won't change that, however, I would expect a much higher level of support, like I would from a larger corporation, if I am forced to upgrade just to mitigate a nag. If the devs have time for that, great! However, as it stands, feature requests are pretty slow moving, which is totally fine in an open source project, but not in a commercial application for which nagging would be appropriate. 

 

I do also want to thank everyone that contributes to this project. Its come a long way and that effort should not be overshadowed. 

 

I'm just curious what corporation/commercial application do any single purchaser end users get a significant turnaround/say in feature development?

 

Don't get me wrong, I recognize that this isn't a perfect situation, and I've been a paying member for so long I've never experienced the nag screen, and didn't know it was an issue.

 

I'm just curious where this world is that paying members get such a say in the feature development.  I'm a single purchaser end user for Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft office, they sure do charge a lot more for their products, but they don't really care if I have an issue.  Granted I'm also using them as a staple for work.

 

But if you are planning on moving to Emby from Plex....there has to be a reason, and they are also charging a fee, a larger fee actually, so that's where the logic escapes me.

[Amelanchier 0]

Good one, I guess there should be zero support for free users then correct.

 

I would be perfectly ok with that. I work with both Centos and Redhat systems every day, I see the value in paying for support directly from the developers. I like this idea personally. I am even ok with putting documentation behind a paywall, the price for the software is cheap enough. Plus, I think we have a solid enough community here that end user generated documentation could work decently well; especially if it frees up time for the devs to work on other things. 

 

 

I'm just curious what corporation/commercial application do any single purchaser end users get a significant turnaround/say in feature development?

 

Don't get me wrong, I recognize that this isn't a perfect situation, and I've been a paying member for so long I've never experienced the nag screen, and didn't know it was an issue.

 

I'm just curious where this world is that paying members get such a say in the feature development.  I'm a single purchaser end user for Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft office, they sure do charge a lot more for their products, but they don't really care if I have an issue.  Granted I'm also using them as a staple for work.

 

But if you are planning on moving to Emby from Plex....there has to be a reason, and they are also charging a fee, a larger fee actually, so that's where the logic escapes me.

 

Sure, entrenched monolithic companies like Microsoft and Adobe don't allow users input for feature development. A lot of users prefer open source alternatives for just these reasons. As a positive example, look at a company like Sophos, my paid licenses there come with a handful of "votes" which can be cast for feature requests and when devs have time to add new things, they try to work off of the highest voted features. It's not perfect but it would be an additional value added for paid members. 

 

Honestly, I run both Plex and Emby in lock step. I like both of them for different reasons. I pay for one of them and not the other because, for me, Plex is feature complete. The initial reason I installed Emby was because of the restriction of not allowing user accounts without a paid Plexpass. If I'd installed Emby after this change was implemented, I'd have gone back to Plex without a second thought. 

[Aphid 212]

I stopped donating my time to developing for the Emby project when paywalls for previously free features started going up - in some cases for featured that I had spent time on.

 

When I used all my free evenings for months working on Emby, it was with the understanding that I was giving this time to the community, free for everyone. I was not impressed to find the server becoming increasingly useless to free users as all clients became paid only and more server features were locked away.

 

I came back here to check on how the project has been going, as I have been away for over a year and was excited to contribute, but it seems things have only gotten worse.

 

I am most likely not the only FOSS developer who has been scared away from the project, and that is a great shame.

[Luke 37093]

There was a point in time in which it became our full time job. We would love to make as many features free as possible but it is a delicate balance between that and having enough income to be able to cover costs and keep us going. The advertisements for which this topic was created have been toned down in the latest release though.

[clarkss12 296]

My 2 cents.  If I use a service, I always feel I should show my appreciation, and the best way is to donate.  I only paid for the 1 year subscription, because I was not sure if I will still be using this awesome software at the end of the year, also, felt it better for the devs to have income next year.  Even if I had purchased the lifetime, I still would donate occasionally, depending upon how much I use their program.

 

Just having their availability to solve problems and enhance their already great software on almost an hourly basis is worth a whole lot more than they are asking for the subscription. 

[overClocked! 63]

There was a point in time in which it became our full time job. We would love to make as many features free as possible but it is a delicate balance between that and having enough income to be able to cover costs and keep us going. The advertisements for which this topic was created have been toned down in the latest release though.

Thanks @@Luke.

 

Anybody notice any discernible difference in the frequency of the messages they are seeing with this most recent server version (3.2.5) just released?

[powersurge360 2]

There was a point in time in which it became our full time job. We would love to make as many features free as possible but it is a delicate balance between that and having enough income to be able to cover costs and keep us going. The advertisements for which this topic was created have been toned down in the latest release though.

 

Glad to hear this. I really appreciate you folks intaking feedback and executing appropriately. This kind of user-friendliness is exactly the reason why I originally chose emby over plex and I look forward to recommending emby in the future and pointing to this exact scenario as an example of the humility of its dev team and their commitment to a quality product at all levels.

 

EDIT: Apparently toning it down is just reducing it by three seconds? That totally misses the point imo. I'm very disappointed.

Edited March 1, 2017 by powersurge360