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IS there an Emby PS4 app??


Trippitaka

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Trippitaka

Hi All,

 

I'm new to Emby and new to the forum. I recently signed up to Emby as I've heard a few people say that it is as good a media server to use as Plex, which I have been using a year or two. Recently they overhauled Plex and it literally no longer works, plus the company aren't even interested in responding to me, hence it was time for a change.

 

When I signed up and tried to get onto Emby on the PS4, first of all I just really struggled, then a thing popped up saying I needed to pay $5 for "Emby Premiere" (still not sure if I needed that or if I was duped). There then followed a really sweary frustrating time when it kept advising me to visit links that I couldn't click so I needed to open up new windows, write down the URL then type it in. Then I was asked to type in a massively long code which there was no way to copy paste so I had to go back to the PC, sort that out and then come back to the PS4.

 

I'm on a tangent - I can get through the difficulties and annoyances and frustrations if it means I eventually work things out, but all this I was doing because Emby keeps on referring to a PS4 app, but when I search for it there's nothing and each time I chase after the links on the website it keeps just directing to me to a URL where I can get to my content.

 

It's seeming fairly certain to me now that there is no app, but please could someone let me know if I am understanding this wrong because surely they would not have references to a PS4 app all over the website and even a forum room for a Playstation App if one didn't exist?? I have no interest in using this software if I have to do so by opening up a browser window each time, navigating to the page and using a PS4 browser window which fills little more than half of the screen.

 

I won't jump to a conclusion completely, but I would appreciate any guidance that anyone can give. If there is no PS4 app I will seriously be asking for that $5 to be refunded.

 

On a side note, Emby has picked up less than half of my content after scanning (which is really weird) and what it has picked up I would say a good 5% or so needs to be re-identified with the correct titles. One way or another it will take me a lot of work to get everything showing properly on here and I'm not even going to try unless I can sort out the app situation.

 

Many thanks,

Paul

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KMBanana

There isn't a dedicated PS4 app, there is Emby Theater support for the PS4 web browser by connecting through tv.emby.media.  It requires Emby Premiere which is available for $120 for a lifetime license (applies to the server, not your PS4), or for a lesser monthly rate.   

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Trippitaka

Yeah that's what I was saying I just paid out for and it just got me into my content in a browser window.

 

Emby staff: if this is true why does your website claim there is an app? This is important to me and the first thing I checked before signing up. Again, if this is true, I would like you to arrange for the money i spent tonight to be refunded because I have been seriously misled.

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Once you bookmark it and have it running full screen, it runs very well. We would love to have a PS4 app in the store in the future. Unfortunately it is not a store that is open to all developers, and you can learn a little bit about that by reading some user comments here:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/24518-ps4ps4-app/?p=601599

 

We are constantly re-evaluating this to see what is possible. In the meantime, the fullscreen browser app performs quite well. Thanks.

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Trippitaka

You didn't explain why you claim that there is a PS4 app, but then I guess there isn't a good explanation for that. You also didn't tell me how I can go about being refunded.

 

You say that it works well full screen and once again you call it an app. Do you care to explain this at all? I have still seen no evidence for an app and it has been confirmed that there isn't one. I'm not even aware of how to make a PS4 browser full screen, but to put it simply - I am only really interested in this if there is an icon on my PS4 I can click that will take me straight to a full screen version of what I am seeing on the PC. I would also prefer not to see a mouse pointer, but I'm sure that isn't possible in a browser window and I'm not sure whether it will be too frustrating to push a mouse pointer around. 

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For refund information please send a private message to @@ebr. Our website page for the PS4 goes over how to use the web app:

https://emby.media/emby-ps4.html

 

I apologize for the frustration. We are doing our best to make the most of a difficult situation. We are constantly re-evaluating the PS4 app submission process, and in the event of any changes we will be immediately pursuing a PS4 app. Thanks.

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Trippitaka

I have just re-read that page, but it doesn't answer any of my queries.

 

I really want this to be workable for me because at the moment I'm not aware of other options, with Plex not working. I also appreciate your presence in responding, which they do not do at all.

 

However... and it's a really big however... to satisfy me this has got to work on the PS4 as if I am looking at Netflix. Plex did that. I feel like Emby has got the potential to do that, but if it means opening a browser, navigating to a web address, figuring out how to put it in full screen (if that's possible), all to get to the point of looking at my media, then that makes me feel like it may be worthwhile putting more time into fighting with Plex to see if we can get that working again. After all, remember one of my initial points that even if this ends up working as I would like it to I will still have to put a large amount of time into figuring out why half my content it doesn't even acknowledging that it exists and the rest is littered with titles that need re-matching (even though I have a clear and meticulous naming system).

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  • 2 weeks later...
notla49285

...to satisfy me this has got to work on the PS4 as if I am looking at Netflix. Plex did that.

 

Just a thought, you're not the only one on here with requirements, maybe you should stop talking to Emby staff like your individual satisfaction is their primary concern, there are many PS4 users on here who are just as annoyed about this as you are (myself included). The way Emby works on PS4 sucks compared to locally-installed "apps", we all know this, some people have been waiting months or even years for this feature. Sony is a pain in the arse and make developers' lives very difficult due to their greed and fussiness. Read the thread that @@Luke gave to you above, go and try to find a PS4 dev kit and you'll soon see the problems that Emby faces.

 

Plex can do it because they are a much bigger company that doesn't give a shit about the users other than making sure they're paying for subscriptions. If you had posted this on the Plex forum you'd still be waiting for a response.

 

Get your refund if you must, but I can't see anywhere on the Emby website that says there is a dedicated app for the PS4, there is a page for "Emby for Playstation 4" - https://emby.media/emby-ps4.html but this shows the Emby Theatre web interface, along with clear instructions on how to get started when browsing your library. Emby has a few issues to iron out but I'd rather be putting my money into an honest product supported by dedicated developers than a big corporation who don't care about the users or their problems.

 

By the way, in regard to your other issues, make sure your file-naming system can be interpreted accurately by Emby (see https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Movie-naming and https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/TV-naming), and press square to make a web page full screen on the PS4 browser.

Edited by notla49285
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Yea we are going to do everything that we can to have a PS4 app. Sony unfortunately creates some barriers to entry and makes it a difficult process.

 

@@Trippitaka I'm happy to go over and help resolve any file naming issues you're experiencing. Can  you go over some examples? Thanks !

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  • 3 weeks later...
Trippitaka

@notla49285 - Your post initially served to make me feel guilty. Perhaps I had been over the top, presumptuous and selfish, but the truth of the matter is that my point still stands. Emby absolutely does (or at least did at the time of posting, though I haven't been back to check for changes) describe it as an app for PS4. It is constant and consistent over the website and over these forums. I don't see that your insertion of the word "dedicated" makes any difference to this.

 

Nonetheless I accept that it is a system that the developers are trying hard to improve on and in many ways it is much more promising than other things on offer. However, the moment that I parted with money then I became a customer and as a customer I felt that I had been misled over use of the word 'app'. That was all and that remains true.

 

On a side note, many thanks for the PS4 full screen tip.

 

@@Luke - As mentioned before I do appreciate your willingness to help and to improve the system. The problems, however, are sadly not as simple as name mismatches. At this point I am not even able to use Emby anymore. I will take you through the reasons why and perhaps you have solutions for some of them.

 

  • Titles are not appearing at all. This applies to possibly around a quarter of my content so as you can imagine this is a pretty big deal. It is nothing to do with how the files are named as I am aware that if in doubt Emby just gives the name of the title with a screenshot. As these are not appearing at all it makes me think that there is perhaps a problem over Emby not understanding certain file types, codecs or something else technical. I have not spotted a pattern.
  • To add to this as well there is frustration over titles not being picked up. Even though I am regimented and consistent with file naming, it seems that it doesn't understand quite a lot. For example, if I have a collection and all of the titles are prefixed with a year, then it doesn't pick up the title at all and I will need to manually tell it. This one is frustrating, but not insurmountable.
  • No files playback correctly through Emby. This is one that I am guessing you may have a solution for as it must either not be happening to anyone else or otherwise there must be a fix. I believe this happens with every single file, but in playback there are very small, skips or judders in the video. It's almost as if a frame is being skipped once every 4 or 5 seconds. It can be ignored and doesn't cause any synching problems with the audio, but once aware that it's happening it doesn't make me keen to keep watching it.
  • Emby makes the browser and / or the entire PS4 freeze. I can visit the site within the browser, I can navigate to a title and I can start playing it. However, if I pause it and come back a few minutes later or, indeed, if I try to start a second title a few minutes later then I will find that the browser and/or the whole system has ground to a halt, either completely frozen or is moving so slowly as to be unusable. When in that situation I usually can't do anything except to manually hold down the reset button on the front of the PS4. This happens every time I use it.
  • Emby drops 2, 3, 4 extra files per title onto my hard drive. This is really annoying and I don't remember reading anywhere that this was going to happen. So presumably the system searches the internet for relevant metadata and then makes me host it. I am not so much worried about the file sizes on my hard drive, but it has turned my previously neatly organised drive into a chaotic mess.

 

If you are able to solve any of these then great, but without solving at least the first, third and fourth ones then I don't see myself trying to delve back into Emby, which is a real shame. None of these things occur on any other app, website, or any other situation. Perhaps it means that something on my PS4 is missing or needs updating, but as I say I have no problems with anything else and it has all its regular updates. This is all before I can even get back to the inconvenience of the browser / mouse pointer set up situation.

 

I am not going to request a refund as I am happy to have contributed to your cause, but right now it seems a long way off from being something I can reasonably use and I don't wish for any ongoing charges to be billed to me if that is what happens.

 

Paul

Edited by Trippitaka
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I'll go through all of those bullet points, but display of titles is configurable in list view options. They are on by default so you must have turned them off.

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Trippitaka

No you misunderstand. When I use the word title I am using it as a word to describe the file... i.e. this percentage of movies, etc, do not appear at all on Emby.

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Charlie117

I don't own a PS4, but I have to admit that I always assumed there was an actual Emby client app for the PS4 due to the way it is displayed on https://emby.media/download.html

This does explain why my Plex using brother was recently unable to find any Emby client app for his PS4 when I offered him access to my Emby server. I just assumed he was looking in the wrong places.

 

I definitely have to agree with Trippitaka on this one, it's very misleading. I suggest making some changes to make it more obvious that you're actually just connecting through a web browser.

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Oracle

I don't own a PS4, but I have to admit that I always assumed there was an actual Emby client app for the PS4 due to the way it is displayed on https://emby.media/download.html

 

This does explain why my Plex using brother was recently unable to find any Emby client app for his PS4 when I offered him access to my Emby server. I just assumed he was looking in the wrong places.

 

I definitely have to agree with Trippitaka on this one, it's very misleading. I suggest making some changes to make it more obvious that you're actually just connecting through a web browser.

No app. Just use tv.emby.app in the web browser on the Playstation and you essentially have a client app there. Works great for me!

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No you misunderstand. When I use the word title I am using it as a word to describe the file... i.e. this percentage of movies, etc, do not appear at all on Emby.

 

Sorry can you explain more? I'm happy to help, just don't quite understand what you're asking. Thanks.

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  • To add to this as well there is frustration over titles not being picked up. Even though I am regimented and consistent with file naming, it seems that it doesn't understand quite a lot. For example, if I have a collection and all of the titles are prefixed with a year, then it doesn't pick up the title at all and I will need to manually tell it. This one is frustrating, but not insurmountable.

 

The upcoming server release will do a much better job of this. If you can provide some specific examples, I'm happy to go over them with you and test them. Thanks !

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  • Emby drops 2, 3, 4 extra files per title onto my hard drive. This is really annoying and I don't remember reading anywhere that this was going to happen. So presumably the system searches the internet for relevant metadata and then makes me host it. I am not so much worried about the file sizes on my hard drive, but it has turned my previously neatly organised drive into a chaotic mess.

What files exactly are these?

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Trippitaka

No app. Just use tv.emby.app in the web browser on the Playstation and you essentially have a client app there. Works great for me!

Why do people keep repeating this? It makes me think that all the people defending the point are either working for Emby or are friends and family or something.

 

The point has nothing to do with how well it works in a browser. The point is the continual misdirection to make people think that there is a PS4 app... Just take a look at the top of this screen where it says Emby Apps --> Sony Playstation. Even the forum is set up to repeat the inaccuracy.

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Trippitaka

Sorry can you explain more? I'm happy to help, just don't quite understand what you're asking. Thanks.

I'm not sure how else to say it. When I open the software or the web address then only a certain proportion of the video files that are in those folders actually appear in Emby. I don't want to check the exact numbers, but when looking at TV shows then maybe 40% of them do not show up. It's as if they are all of a file type that Emby doesn't recognise. I don't know. We're talking about getting on for a thousand files that the software is not picking up.

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Trippitaka

What files exactly are these?

I'm surprised that you ask this. All my folders containing video files now all have up to four times the numbers of files because for each one there is now a .nfo file plus usually at least two .jpgs, one with the movie poster, one with a background image, etc, etc. Emby clearly picked all this up off the web when it analysed my hard drive and dumped all these files, which will ultimately take me a long long time to remove because there are a lot of individual folders.

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I'm surprised that you ask this. All my folders containing video files now all have up to four times the numbers of files because for each one there is now a .nfo file plus usually at least two .jpgs, one with the movie poster, one with a background image, etc, etc. Emby clearly picked all this up off the web when it analysed my hard drive and dumped all these files, which will ultimately take me a long long time to remove because there are a lot of individual folders.

 

But all of this is off by default, so you're only getting this because you asked for it, right?  There is a setting for each library to save artwork in original media folders. There is also a setting to save nfo files. All of this is off by default because we assume read-only access unless you indicate otherwise.

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I'm not sure how else to say it. When I open the software or the web address then only a certain proportion of the video files that are in those folders actually appear in Emby. I don't want to check the exact numbers, but when looking at TV shows then maybe 40% of them do not show up. It's as if they are all of a file type that Emby doesn't recognise. I don't know. We're talking about getting on for a thousand files that the software is not picking up.

 

Can we go over an example? There' a good chance that the same explanation will apply to a large number of them. Thanks.

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jachin99

Why do people keep repeating this? It makes me think that all the people defending the point are either working for Emby or are friends and family or something.

 

The point has nothing to do with how well it works in a browser. The point is the continual misdirection to make people think that there is a PS4 app... Just take a look at the top of this screen where it says Emby Apps --> Sony Playstation. Even the forum is set up to repeat the inaccuracy.

 

I'll try to explain this a little bit differently.  While I agree that saying there is an "App" for emby for the PS4 is a little misleading, many "Apps" run in a modified browser anyway.  You only have to go as far as a progressive web app to see what I mean.  The big difference between an App, and running something in a browser for you will probably be that native apps tend to be more permissive (Can read your files system, and make changes for example), and apps run fullscreen out of the box.  The server application is a native App that has sufficient permissions, and can handle things like file system changes, etc. You get nearly the same experience minus having to fullscreen either way. 

 

For the purpose of viewing content on your emby server, a web browser is all that is really needed.  I don't work for Emby but I can attest to the beta server channel being much faster.  Maybe you can install that, and see what issues your having afterwards.  PS4s are good for gaming but I think the XBox has taken the lead for applications like Emby. 

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Trippitaka

But all of this is off by default, so you're only getting this because you asked for it, right?  There is a setting for each library to save artwork in original media folders. There is also a setting to save nfo files. All of this is off by default because we assume read-only access unless you indicate otherwise.

If that's the case then I imagine that I was only aware that I was asking for artwork, etc, to be visible in Emby, as it is in other platforms that don't make me host all these files on my hard drives. Had I been aware then I might have either refused it or asked, if possible, for them all to be tidied away in a separate directory dedicated to them.

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