Welcome

[adrianwi 237]

Thought I'd just pop along and say hello!

 

I've had an emby server running in a FreeNAS jail for some time, but as a long time Plex user have always found that to be an easier solution for my needs.  Until the day Plex Inc. decided that I no longer have control over my server and thought it was acceptable to collect information about it from any of the users and client devices I share it with 

 

Anyway, that's why I'm here, and will be trying to replicate everything I could do with Plex in my newly update emby server.  I suspect some of it will require a Premiere account, although having been burnt with a Plexpass you'll forgive me for holding out on that for the time being.  I'd actually like to configure things so I, and any friends and family, can access securely from outside my local network without needing to log into an emby.media account first, but I'll need to do some further investigation on that one.

 

Any hints and tips from users who moved across from Plex would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks

 

 

[Luke 37064]

Hi and welcome !

[PhilWhite 64]

Geez, that's one I don't actually recall.  I think you need a Premiere account to make outside access available, but I've had a premiere account for so long I just don't remember.  Getting outside access is easy and I've found it more stable than dealing with Plex personally.  I established outside access with Plex when I initially used it, but I didn't like Plex for other reasons.  I moved to Emby years ago and only looked at Plex briefly again earlier this year when Freenas had some issues with the GUI for the jails and I didn't know enough about using the command line at that time (I have since learned enough to make my way through). I had terrible issues establishing and maintaining an outside port for my oldest daughter to access Plex, so I found other solutions so that I could continue using Emby on Freenas.  Some of my Plex problems at the time, however, may have originated in using the Plex server on my Shield TV, so I can't directly compare Emby and Plex on Freenas, at least recently.

 

I've seen plenty of folks complain about Plex on the Freenas forum lately, so I understand your position. To echo Luke, who actually counts here, welcome.

 

One thing I would mention is that I've also seen one person on the Freenas forum report problems with Emby with the latest version of Freenas (I assume 11.0-U3).  I have avoided that upgrade and suggest doing the same until 11.1 is available.  I'm a bit worried about Freenas support for the current jail structure since they are planning to move to iocage with 11.1.  I have had no problems with Emby using 11.0-U2 with both a plugin and iocage jail.

[adrianwi 237]

Thanks, guys!

 

One of the things I liked and disliked about Plex was the ease of adding guest users (family and friends) to share content with.  Plex made this really easy, and secure with an SSL connection, but with the downside that users and the server always had to be logged into a plex.tv account.  It's this connection that Plex is now leveraging to collect data about my server through the connected client devices over which I have absolutely no control

 

I made some good progress with this last night (I was a man on a mission!) as I wanted to take down my Plex server today before the privacy changes come into effect, which I've just done  I already had emby running in a jail with libraries set up for the stuff I share externally.  I also have a few domains, so setting up a subdomain emby.domain.com and accessing the emby server was pretty simple.  I wanted to make it secure though, so created a letsencrypt certificate, and after a few small issues resolved with the help of this thread - https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/42315-creating-a-letsencrypt-ssl-certificate-for-emby/ - I think I've got it working as I wanted.  Haven't given access to any of my family and friends yet, but will try and test with a few this week.

 

So far, I'm liking emby for the level of control it provides without the need to be permanently connected to their online account, but it will take a little time to get used to the differences.  So far, it seems much slower to do the basic navigation and play stuff than Plex, and the interface isn't quite as polished.  All the basic stuff seems to work though, with the added benefit of not being connected to emby or having them collect anything I have no control over.  Hopefully, they won't follow down the same path as Plex?

 

I'm always miles behind the curve with FreeNAS, so that shouldn't be a problem.  Currently running 9.10-U4, which is the last version to support VirtualBox.  Can't see me upgrading until FreeBSD 10.3 is EOL and I start having problems updating jails, by which time 11 will probably be 12 

[ebr 14913]

I think you need a Premiere account to make outside access available, but I've had a premiere account for so long I just don't remember.  

 

Just FYI - this is definitely not the case.  Remote access is not restricted to Premiere.