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AppleTV 4K - how is it as a dedicated Emby client?


ShoutingMan

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Jdiesel

Honest question, what does Apple TV do better than the new Shield TV? As a whole, not specific to Emby.

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vdatanet

Honest question, what does Apple TV do better than the new Shield TV? As a whole, not specific to Emby.

 

 

1. HDR to SDR tonemap (not device itself, done by Plex and Infuse player)

2. Apple Music

3. iTunes content

4. iPhone Photo Gallery

 

I have an Nvidia Shield and an Apple TV 4k in my bedroom using a non HDR TV. When I play HDR content in my Apple TV looks like in an HDR display.

Edited by vdatanet
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vdatanet

So essentially the Apple services are what interest you

 

 

I can switch to Tidal (now I use both using Tidal trial). Some day Apple TV app may be available on Android TV, now it's available on Fire TV and I can cast my photos to Nvidia Shield chromecast.

 

I just need HDR to SDR tone map.

Edited by vdatanet
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vdatanet

Ah, I forgot to mention the user interface. I like the Apple TV user interface more. But this is personal and not objective.

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Jdiesel

I'm waiting for a hdr to sdr solution too. For both direct play on my Shield TV and for transcoding to other off network devices. Until both both of those are possible I will continue keeping a 1080p SDR version and a 4K HDR version of my movies.

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Everbrave

I'm waiting for a hdr to sdr solution too. For both direct play on my Shield TV and for transcoding to other off network devices. Until both both of those are possible I will continue keeping a 1080p SDR version and a 4K HDR version of my movies.

 

A quite expensive solution, however! I do that only for selected movies knowing that the 4K HDR media will be consumed locally exclusively or when the network bandwidth allows direct play. So, I don’t think that HDR to SDR tone mapping is so important in the near future unless you have SDR-only TV which I think will vanish in the coming years.

Edited by Everbrave
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Everbrave

Honest question, what does Apple TV do better than the new Shield TV? As a whole, not specific to Emby.

The ATV has a bigger storage capacity and Dolby Vision; Nvidia Shield 2019 has Dolby Vision capability but seems to not working properly according to reports in the forums.

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vdatanet

A quite expensive solution, however! I do that only for selected movies only knowing that the 4K HDR media will be consumed locally only or when the network bandwidth allows direct play. So, I don’t think that HDR to SDR tone mapping is so important in the near future unless you have SDR-only TV which I think will vanish in the coming years.

 

Small televisions for bedrooms, let say 32" 4k HDR, today are hard to find. If I can tone map HDR to SDR, I don't need a 32" 4K HDR TV for my bedroom. I don't want to keep both versions, 1080p and 4K. Maybe in a near future all new tvs will be 4K HDR, even small ones.

 

In this aspect both Plex and Infuse fit my needs.

Edited by vdatanet
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Everbrave

Small televisions for bedrooms, let say 32" 4k HDR, today are hard to find. If I can tone map HDR to SDR, I don't need a 32" 4K HDR TV for my bedroom. I don't want to keep both versions, 1080p and 4K. Maybe in a near future all new tvs will be 4K HDR, even small ones.

 

In this aspect both Plex and Infuse fit my needs.

 

True, small TVs are usually not HDR but I’m sure they will come; in the mean time you can get a bigger bedroom :D

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vdatanet

True, small TVs are usually not HDR but I’m sure they will come; in the mean time you can get a bigger bedroom :D

There is room for a 40" TV. Sooner or later there will be more 40" 4K HDR TVs :D . There are some but not many to choose from.

Edited by vdatanet
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It's still annoying that Emby on the Apple TV has an utter unusuable Live TV Guide.. really hoping for a new Guide soon, I prefer the Apple TV client except for the LiveTV..

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Dave3000

I have an Apple TV 4k and I did try the Emby app on it.  I'm having two issues with the app for the Apple TV 4k.  

 

1.  Even if I disable play default audio tracks, the best audio track of the MP4 file does not get selected automatically.  For example in an MP4 file that has AAC (stereo) and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks, it ignores the Dolby Digital 5.1 track and still automatically plays the AAC (stereo) track.  

 

2.  The Match Frame Rate feature of the Apple TV 4k does not work with this app.

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Hi.  Have you checked out the default audio settings?

 

We never choose an audio track based on its format as we have no idea what the content of the track is.  We look at the language, your default settings, and the default indicator on the tracks themselves.

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Dave3000

If a movie has the stereo track flagged as the default audio track but also has another audio track that is Dolby Digital 5.1 embedded in the file, turning off play default audio tracks in the app's audio settings has no effect, and I must manually select the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track if I want to play the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track instead of the default stereo audio track.  I thought turning off this setting would make it so that it would select the audio track with the better audio format automatically during playback.  If it's not suppose to do that then what does turning off that setting suppose to do?  Also many of my MP4 files have both a stereo (AAC) and a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, and the stereo audio track is the one that is flagged as default in those files, but that's not an Emby Theater issue, that's just the way the file was put together.

Edited by Dave3000
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vdatanet

If "Play default track" is enabled, regardless of the default language, the default track is played, otherwise the track is chosen according to the default language. I don't know what criteria are used to select the track if there are several tracks with the same language, I think it plays with the first one available.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some time has past and some things have changed in the Emby Apple TV app, since last post here, so it is time for an update...

So what can we say half a year later, since last post in this topic, for users planning to buy an Apple TV 4K, for using it as a dedicated Emby Client ?

 

If I speak for myself and probably also for A LOT of other Emby users, I can say "EMBY AND THE APPLE TV(4K) STILL DON'T MATCH".

Before I sum up current issues, my current advise WHEN you don't have an Apple TV 4K yet, is to stay away from Emby on the Apple TV platform and GO FOR for Emby on the Android TV platform (like on Smart TV/Shield etc).

 

The Apple TV platform is the one, getting the least Dev resource time, due to all sorts of reasons, because users see long outstanding basic playability issues on this platform not getting fixed.

 

A snippet of current issues with the Emby Apple TV app TO CONSIDER when purchasing an Apple TV 4K:

  • No 4K HDR playback

    So you think finally, I have the Apple TV 4K version now and I want to play my shiny HDR movies on my HDR supporting TV set with Emby in HDR...... You thought wrong, you CAN NOT do that now with the current Emby Apple TV app.

     

  • No Content matching to Frame Rate

    The Apple TV 4K is capable to automatically change your display refresh rate, to match the frame rate of the content you are playing..... Also this is NOT possible with the current Emby Apple TV app, which CAN cause judder/stuttering during playback. So if you have lots of different content in all sorts of frame rates and resolutions, you don't get OPTIMAL playback the way it should be, with the current Emby Apple TV app

     

  • No sound support for DTS

    This is a licensing issue by Emby, as discussed already in this and other topics.

     

  • No in app subtitle options regarding size, color and download

    If you are depended on subtitles, like most people where English is not their native tongue.... you CAN NOT change your subtitle size and color or download subtitles in the current Emby Apple TV app

     

  • I stop here, just to point out the most important outstanding issues with the current Emby Apple TV app, users want to see FIXED when possible.

    For a full list go here

Above issues are ONLY issues that EMBY has on the Apple TV platform. They are NOT present in other apps on the Apple TV platform, like Infuse, Plex, MrMC.

So if above issues are important to you and want to use Emby, I advise to buy a Shield, because no timeline is set to FIX above issues in the Apple TV Emby client.

 

*Will update this topic too, when items of list above are fixed.

 

Quarterly update:

From the date of previous post quoted above (17th of July 2019), from 34 items registered at that date, still 22 items remains to be fixed/implemented since last update of above quoted post and a lot of issues not registered in that Collection topic still has to be fixed/implemented. Open issues not mentioned in that Collection topic can be added on request by sending me a PM.

December update:

Since the Collection topic is deleted by our Admin Luke.... , let me state the changes from the last quarterly update from October:

The list went from 34 to 36 items, from which 23 items are still open issues... and latest issues weren't even added (because I didn't get requests for it)

 

Conclusion for now:

No real progress has been made, but on the bright side, the all familiar words are spread around different Apple TV topics "a new beta is coming", so lets wait and see WHEN it is coming... Christmas this year or Next year :) 

....And when it has finally come with most of the fixes, I will reinstate the Collection topic back, to see if real progress has been made :rolleyes:

 

 

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CBers

December update:

Since the Collection topic is deleted by our Admin Luke....

 

It's been hidden, not deleted - it can always be unhidden.

 

Not sure why @@Luke hid it though, as he hasn't put a reason why  :unsure:

 

Have all of the issues been fixed now ?

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Everbrave

Agreed I think @@Luke Deleting a list of valid problems with the tvOS app, presumably because it embarrasses him as it should, is pretty poor form

 

The last time I saw this thread, almost all posts were replaced by just "Ctrl Alt Delete" text (probably by the author) although @@vdatanet accepted to maintain the list which renders the whole thread useless; so it is not actually @@Luke to blame for deleting a useless thread!

Edited by Everbrave
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Spaceboy

The last time I saw this thread, almost all post were replaced by just "Ctrl Alt Delete" text by the author (although somebody else accepted to maintain the list) which renders the whole thread useless; so it is not actually @@Luke to blame for deleting a useless thread!

fair enough
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  • 1 month later...
vdatanet

Good news, Emby support for Infuse is currently in progress for the upcoming 6.4 release. 

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sfatula

Good news, Emby support for Infuse is currently in progress for the upcoming 6.4 release. [/size]

Do we know what all it will include though, I presume only playback, so, you'll still need Emby for managing recording schedules (timers), guide, etc. Wonder if Infuse will include live tv? Thinking not.

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vdatanet

Do we know what all it will include though, I presume only playback, so, you'll still need Emby for managing recording schedules (timers), guide, etc. Wonder if Infuse will include live tv? Thinking not.

 

I think it will be an integration similar to Plex, only video library playback. No music, no photos, no live tv.

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