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New here! Impressions from a former Plex user


mikkelnl

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CBers

My main player device (Shield Pro) plays direct fine. But I often use other devices that need transcoding (and I prefer to save my content in HEVC to save space).

iPhones, iPads, Chromecasts, Webbrowsers... stuff like that, sometimes away from home where internet speeds are slow and I need to downgrade the quality etc.

 

Fair enough.

 

What is it you find that Emby doesn't do that Plex does when it comes to transcoding ??

 

From what I've seen, Emby is on a par, if not in advance, of Plex.

 

Plex have only just rolled out GPU transcoding, which Emby has had for a year or two.

 

Just asking.

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mikkelnl

Fair enough.

 

What is it you find that Emby doesn't do that Plex does when it comes to transcoding ??

 

From what I've seen, Emby is on a par, if not in advance, of Plex.

 

Plex have only just rolled out GPU transcoding, which Emby has had for a year or two.

 

Just asking.

 

No problem!

 

I am actually pretty impressed with Emby's transcoding performance: my Synology NAS for example does pretty well, I think even better then PMS on the same NAS. But, logically a NAS can't transcode the more difficult stuff: HVEC content with profile 'Main 10'. I am not very technical but I believe this is called '10 bit HVEC' content. 

 

Plex / PMS on the Nvidia Shield Pro does transcode this! But Nvidia and Plex worked together to get PMS on that device, where Emby has to figure this all out by itself.

 

So I'm waiting and hoping that Emby Server will eventually be able to use the same transcoding power that PMS uses on the Shield. 

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CBers

@@mikkelnl - I don't think you're ever going to get '10 bit HVEC' content transcode with both speed and quality on a NAS, or even the Shield for that matter :)

 

I know in Plex, there is the optimizer option, whereby you can manually create separate files that are compatible with different devices and then when you select PLAY, Plex picks the more appropriate version of the file.

 

Now in the Android TV app, @@ebr has already added something similar, if you have multiple versions of the same video, so perhaps that could be added in general across other clients.

 

I don't spend a vast amount of time massaging my files, but I do strip out unwanted audio and subtitle tracks and as I said previously, 99.9% of my content, including 4K, direct streams (plays) with the odd remux.

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mikkelnl

@@mikkelnl - I don't think you're ever going to get '10 bit HVEC' content transcode with both speed and quality on a NAS, or even the Shield for that matter :)

 

I know in Plex, there is the optimizer option, whereby you can manually create separate files that are compatible with different devices and then when you select PLAY, Plex picks the more appropriate version of the file.

 

Now in the Android TV app, @@ebr has already added something similar, if you have multiple versions of the same video, so perhaps that could be added in general across other clients.

 

I don't spend a vast amount of time massaging my files, but I do strip out unwanted audio and subtitle tracks and as I said previously, 99.9% of my content, including 4K, direct streams (plays) with the odd remux.

 

Sure, the NAS is way underpowerd. But PMS on the Shield transcodes these 10bit hvec files fine, no problem at all, and I am not using the optimizer option (never used that actually) :) I have to admit: 10 bit hvec transcoding was a problem a few months back, but somehow they fixed it. If I remember correctly, it might have been a firmware/update from Nvidia that solved this. Nvidia and Plex worked together to fix that problem if I am not mistaken.

Edited by mikkelnl
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Plex have only just rolled out GPU transcoding, which Emby has had for a year or two.

 

 

I think Emby officially added GPU transcoding around Oct 2015 to the beta channel and Plex released it Dec 2016 and had it in beta previous to this for months.  So both systems have had it for quite a while at least for basic stuff.  Plex is just now adding mpeg2 decoding as a special test build so Emby is definitely further along to this day!

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jasonmcroy

Speaking of this feature, I was watching "Return to the Blue Lagoon" last night and knew I had seen the female lead previously but didn't know her name and couldn't place where else I've seen her.  Clicking on her name "Milla Jovovich" showed me a bunch of other movies I have that she was in of which I've recently seen 3 of them  I also found out she was in an episode of Married with Children that I had so I of course watched it. :)

 

This saved me a trip out to imdb and what's nice is that I can easily play any other media I have that she was in.  Same for any other actor.

 

It's this last part with the linking to TV Show episodes which makes it so nice to have!

Carlo

 

Wow, I had never thought of using this feature before! I am constantly seeing some actor or actress and my wife and almost argue about where we have seen them before. I then have to pull out my phone or tablet, go to imdb and look them up. Now I know I can do that within the app.

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mikkelnl

Something like this?

 

5aad14777979e_sw.png

Perfect!

 

I’d prefer without the blue HD top bar on the cover.

 

 

Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Tapatalk

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That picture was taken in a web browser in Emby.

The blue box on top of the picture is a configuration setting in Emby as well.

Edited by cayars
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If you don't gather logos for your media, then the poster will show on that screen.

 

Since the posters are everywhere else (you clicked on it to get to that page) we decided to make use of the logo art and also allow more of the backdrop to show through - instead of just repeating the same thing you just clicked on :).

 

But, if you don't like that, you can remove your logos.

 

In the future, there may be an option for it in the apps.

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Deathsquirrel

Plex looks and acts a lot like Kodi, broadly speaking.  That's not really surprising, given it'a roots.  If I wanted to use Kodi I would.  I REALLY freaking loathe that program though and will not appreciate efforts to make Emby more like it.  The Plex UI is why I don't use Plex.

 

edit--that's not bitching, just illustrating that there are REASONS why this app doesn't look like Plex.  Plenty of users would go fetch pitchforks and torches if it did.

Edited by Deathsquirrel
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If you don't gather logos for your media, then the poster will show on that screen.

 

Since the posters are everywhere else (you clicked on it to get to that page) we decided to make use of the logo art and also allow more of the backdrop to show through - instead of just repeating the same thing you just clicked on :).

 

But, if you don't like that, you can remove your logos.

 

In the future, there may be an option for it in the apps.

 

I like having both the poster and logo, ala the web app look.

 

My reasoning: I like to have the poster in the film's original language, but the logos are almost always the English translation version, so I get the best of both worlds.

 

Examples:

 

Bp3nFun.png

 

oHvfAVy.png

 

Sorry for being so particular, lol

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Those screens are designed for up-close computer use.  The same design won't work well with a 10' interface.  The fonts are way too small and there is too much information to take in.

 

As I said, the app may have an option to show posters instead of logos in the future but, for now, we have this as a standard look in the TV apps (Android TV, Fire TV, Roku and Apple TV).

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I just changed my desktop to 1080x720.  This is far smaller then a typical 1920x1080 TV screen.  Here's a screen shot from Chrome.

5aaef16b023a9_720.png

 

I set the notebook on a coffee table so the screen super imposed my TV screen so I got about the same perspective as watching TV.  Thought it looked fine.  Then I thought DOH just cast it to the Shield TV.

 

I prefer this look on the TV!

 

Still not a fan of having part of the actors showing.  Just doesn't look clean with most of the picture off the screen.  Anyone using Emby will quickly learn there is more information below the "fold" and you scroll down to see it, so having partial pictures showing isn't a good reason.  It would look far cleaner to have just "cast & crew" showing without the pictures until you scroll down.  On a webpage it's not a big deal since this is common.

Edited by cayars
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arrbee99

 

Still not a fan of having part of the actors showing.  Just doesn't look clean with mostly of the picture off the screen.  Anyone using Emby will quickly learn there is more information of most screens and you scroll down to see it so having partial pictures showing isn't a good reason.  It would look far cleaner to have just "cast & crew" showing without the pictures until you scroll down.  On a webpage it's not a big deal since this is common.

 

Good luck with that one  :)

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We will never make everyone happy but general design guidelines for TV interfaces require much larger fonts than that.

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Guess it depends on the size of your TV screen :)

 

Everything in the Emby Android app looks freaking huge to me.

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CBers

Guess it depends on the size of your TV screen :)

 

Everything in the Emby Android app looks freaking huge to me.

Looks fine on my 55" and 46" TV's :)

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Well, yes and no.  From the Android guidelines:

 

 

 

Note: Your app must meet specific design requirements to appear as an Android TV app on Google Play. 

 

 

 

A large screen UX

Due to the viewing distance of the TV, users may not be able to process as much information on TV as they would on a computer or mobile device. Limit the amount of text and reading on TV screens.

 

 

 

TV-TC

The app displays core text at 16sp or higher in size. (Learn how)

TV-TA

The app displays all text at 12sp or higher in size. (Learn how)

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All I'm saying is to keep in mind the different size TVs.  What looks fine on a 40" may not look good at far larger screen sizes.

Being able to adapt to the screen size like you can your desktop wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

I doubt many people run their computer screens at 720 or 1080 resolution even though that's the "proper" size.  We bump the resolution way up because we can still read everything just fine and prefer to have more content on the screen.

 

TV UIs aren't any different.  A person that sits 5' from a 75" or 8' from a 120" projector screen will not get the same experience as someone at 8' on a 40" or 55" for example.  Emby right now has "essentially" locked us into a 1080 UI size wise.

 

All I'm saying/asking is to start thinking of ways to make the UI more dynamic and adjustable so people who want to, can get more content on the screen.  We can already do this in part with the size of the pics shown for disc art (which is great).  TVs are getting bigger everyday but we aren't moving back from the screen.

 

This of course isn't a deal breaker, nor what I would consider a higher priority.  It's just something to think about and keep in mind for ways to give people with larger screens more content/info on the screen.

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Those screens are designed for up-close computer use.  The same design won't work well with a 10' interface.  The fonts are way too small and there is too much information to take in.

 

As I said, the app may have an option to show posters instead of logos in the future but, for now, we have this as a standard look in the TV apps (Android TV, Fire TV, Roku and Apple TV).

 

I'm aware the web interface with small text won't look good on a big TV. I'm only pointing out the use of a poster AND a logo.

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I'm aware the web interface with small text won't look good on a big TV. I'm only pointing out the use of a poster AND a logo.

 

As I said before, we chose to design this screen, since it is shown on the big screen, to be more centered on the backdrop image so it is laid out to allow that to really come through.  A big poster covering it up when every other part of the interface is already showing that poster just didn't make as much sense.

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