EmBook - Proper support for AudioBooks

[Baenwort 97]

I'm hopeful that this will finish or be integrated into Emby. 

 

I do wonder how that Audible metadata works. I know Emby has in the past refused to do scraping but will only integrate a data source if it provides an API.

[Luke 36991]

The next release of Emby Server will have improved support for audio books. Thanks !

[leram84 2]

The next release of Emby Server will have improved support for audio books. Thanks !

that... that can't possibly be all you give us! lol, Are you speaking in response to Beanwort's metadata comment? or do you mean actual playback controls (client)? Is this something that will compete with embook itself?? 

[Luke 36991]

At the very least, they will be organized by albums and have support for the same internet metadata providers as music libraries. Hopefully more new things as well if time allows. Thanks.

[CChris 58]

Hi, I am very new to Emby, and have now started to setup my media Libraries.
I have one AudioBook, in m4b Format (converted from Audible Original Format).

When I'm trying to play this book, I receive the following error message:

"Playback Error

No compatible streams are currently available. Please try again later or contact your system administrator for details."

 

I thought, Emby does support this File type?
I could use m4a or mp3 of course, but I would like to keep the chapter option available - therefore I've made the decision for m4b...

I am using Emby Server on my Synology NAS (DS216Play)
Any tipps & tricks for me?

thanks and with best regards,
Christoph

[Luke 36991]

@@CChris can you please attach the emby server log? Thanks.

[CChris 58]

Hi, pls find attached the Logs and some Screenshots

 

embyserver.log

Edited January 30, 2019 by CChris

[Luke 36991]

What browser are you trying to play from?

[CChris 58]

I am using Firefox right now.
But I can also try another one... let's see how this will work

Test-Results:
 

• Firefox: ERROR
• Chrome: OK
• IE: ERROR (no compatible stream...)
• Edge: OK
  
  btw: does emby support chapters in m4b files?

Edited January 30, 2019 by CChris

[CChris 58]

Any update on my issue above?
I still can't playback my AudioBooks on Firefox, while it's working perfectly fine on GoogleChrome.

If you need a new topic for this, or any additional information, pls. let me know

[Luke 36991]

Can you please supply a sample file for testing? Thanks.

[CChris 58]

Hi, sure.
I will provide you those samples soon.
I've just noticed one audio-book which is working - so I will share this and two not working books.
Just need to create a share on my synology. Send you everything per Private Message then.

[Luke 36991]

It's resolved for the next release. We'll just have them transcode in firefox.

[CChris 58]

top, thanks
I would also like to know, if it's possible that emby will support chapters in m4b files... ?
Will this be a feature request - or is it even already possible?

[Luke 36991]

It's possible for the future. Thanks.

[CChris 58]

top, Thanks

[mrfragger 39]

I have most of my audiobooks in m4b but after doing extensive research I'm considering also doing some audiobooks into:

 

opus one file with chapters (just like an m4b) ...I've done it with the free program fre:ac (free audio converter) 1.1 https://www.freac.org/

just choose a folder of mp3 files then convert them to opus 32kbps and VLC plays it back with chapter support with the name of chapters showing based on the filenames of the mp3s.  Evidently they even support images now too but for me it's not that important at all.

 

Sidenote: I should mention also fre:ac also lets you convert to m4b files just doesn't have cover (image) nor title and author support but still works well as it does embed the chapters.

 

You can view the opus metadata with -comment tagging using opus-tools (opusenc) starting at line #173

https://github.com/p2004a/opus-tools/blob/metadata-file/man/opusenc.1

 

this metadata-file was implemented 2 years ago into opus-tools

 

edit: forgot to add the link for opus and ogm (ogg) chapter support

https://wiki.xiph.org/index.php?title=Chapter_Extension&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop

 

Another is mka which is matroska mkv but audio.

From the FAQ on their website https://www.matroska.org/technical/guides/faq/index.html

 

 

 

Here are some reasons that placing audio in MKA is useful:
1. The tags will be the same no matter what audio format you use. That means that if you write a program to read back tags, it only has to read them from one type of tagging system, no matter what type of audio is being used.
2. All tracks to a CD can be in a single file. You have the option of dividing the tracks into seperate Tracks, or seperate Chapters. You could make your own compilation in a single file, even using different audio formats, such as MP3 and Vorbis.
3. If you write a program to read audio of of MKA, then you don't need to understand how the framing works in the different formats because it is already done for you in Matroska.
4. It is easy to delete portions of the audio without reencoding because you just throw away those blocks. You don't even have to be able to play that format back, you could edit by just knowing timecodes.
5. Detecting differences between two audio streams would be easy because you could store both in a single file, start playback, and then just switch between tracks.
6. If you intend to combine the audio with video, then having is in MKA means you can merge it with an MKV, even if the application doesn't support the audio type.
7. In the case of MP3, MP2 AC3 and even some AAC, using "compressed headers" the MKA file may even be smaller than the original "raw" file, without losing any bit of information.

 

Also chapter support is fairly straightforward evidently

 

 

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=Chapter 01
CHAPTER02=00:05:00.000
CHAPTER02NAME=Chapter 02
CHAPTER03=00:10:00.000
CHAPTER03NAME=Chapter 03
CHAPTER04=00:15:00.000
CHAPTER04NAME=Chapter 04

 

So I still need to play around with this mka as I've been using mkvtoolnix to batch remux tons of m4v to mkv which worked great.  So now have to play around with this mka audiobooks more.  I want to embed opus files if I can get a couple of app devs to support it in the iOS audiobook players and if that fails then resort to using HE-AAC 32kbps which I'm currently doing with m4b files.

 

I'm planning to either use ffmpeg to convert them or mkvtoolnix

This guy has quite a bunch of good examples of converting to audiobooks using ffmpeg

https://dbojan.github.io/howto_pc/media,%20How%20to%20add%20chapter%20marks%20to%20audio%20books,%20using%20opus%20codec.htm

 

Simple way to mux audiobooks using mkvtoolnix is found on a kodi wiki under the section Converting Audiobooks

https://kodi.wiki/view/Audiobooks

 

Another random option if wanting to use all cores and threads when converting is to just convert each individual mp3 to opus or aac or m4a but I think it's messy and not ideal long term although it's faster cuz when doing single containers it has to convert one mp3 file at a time due to the structure of the container.

 

So to sum it up please consider adding audiobook chapter support for opus container and mka container in addtion to m4b container.

Edited June 20, 2019 by mrfragger

[Inrego 76]

I recently checked back, and audiobook recognition and library support is much better in Emby backend now.

Also, the library I used for playing audio across platforms has become active again.

 

All in all, it means I've picked up this project again. Right now, I'm hoping that I can make the app completely without any server plugin. We'll see how that works out.

I'm also going to look into adding support for Plex server. So for now, the scope of my project is just making an app for smoother audiobook playback, with the features you'd expect from an audiobook player.

Therefore, I thought it was fitting to give the project a new name. You'll hear from me when I have more info to share. It's still very early in development.

 

I know I've been gone a long time. Lots of that time has been spent developing apps at work, so now I have much more experience in developing stable cross-platform apps.

[Dibbes 430]

I recently checked back, and audiobook recognition and library support is much better in Emby backend now.

Also, the library I used for playing audio across platforms has become active again.

 

All in all, it means I've picked up this project again. Right now, I'm hoping that I can make the app completely without any server plugin. We'll see how that works out.

I'm also going to look into adding support for Plex server. So for now, the scope of my project is just making an app for smoother audiobook playback, with the features you'd expect from an audiobook player.

Therefore, I thought it was fitting to give the project a new name. You'll hear from me when I have more info to share. It's still very early in development.

 

I know I've been gone a long time. Lots of that time has been spent developing apps at work, so now I have much more experience in developing stable cross-platform apps.

 

You serious about it? I mean, the last update I have is from before you mentioned you were in a new relationship... :-)

[Inrego 76]

You serious about it? I mean, the last update I have is from before you mentioned you were in a new relationship... :-)

As usual, I can't promise a timeline or even a finished product. Actually, I am again in a rather new relationship. But it's not as time consuming, and now the project on my hands is a lot more manageable.

 

So far, it looks like I'll do a few hours, a few days per week. I'll let you know when I have more to share.

 

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk

[leram84 2]

you, this guy https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/cffe27/prologue_an_audiobook_app_for_plex_ios_now/ and the booksonic dev should all team up and make the mother of all abook apps lol

[Chyron 221]

Any updates on this?

[Luke 36991]

Not yet but hopefully soon. Thanks.

[darkside40 91]

Any recent updates on this topic?

[Inrego 76]

22 minutes ago, darkside40 said:

Any recent updates on this topic?

I made a new app from scratch. It just started closed alpha testing. Currently it only supports Plex as backend, but Emby support is coming.

You can see more on reddit.com/r/AbooApp