My Gripe with Emby

[howzz1854 18]

i just gave emby a try based on my online research. i was between Plex and Emby, and Kodi, but decided to give it a try based on the various playback support of media types, include HDR. i think that's what really sold me. i purchased a full year subscription. and i have to say, for the most part, it's a pretty good software.

 

but i gotta say, i am really disappointed to find out after going through all the trouble, and buying a full year of subscription, along with a new HD Homerun tuner, and then found out that the TV Program guide is an extra cost that's not included in the premium subscription. i gotta say, this is very disappointing. and frankly almost shady. no where on the product page this was stated clearly. and this is an essential feature of the TV function, you should REALLY state it on the product page so people know it. 

 

yes, i've heard the excuses that it's cheap, only $25 a year, or there're other XML DB options that you can configure. here is the problem. #1, $25 a year is peanuts sure. but that's not the point. the point is, TV Programming guide function, as many have pointed out, is and has always been a free function for any media center program. many users have pointed out that all the other services manage to off-load the cost of that function elsewhere, while Emby somehow can't find a way to off-load that cost. #2. the XML DB option you provided is barely an option. i tried signing for TV Guide, and the other service, and took me 6 hours eventually to find out that you need to manually map all the channels (this was not mentioned in the HELP section, only through various forum threads that i found out that you need to manually map the channels ). not only that, some channels are not on the list for you to map. for example, Emby doesn't provide Cozi TV network as an option for me to map to channel 5.2. and there're plenty of other channels that i watch that are not on the mapping list. eventually i gave in, and just purchased the one year Schedule Direct subscription. 

 

but i gotta say, this has really annoyed me. and come the end of the year next year, this might just be the reason for me to let Emby expire and go over to Plex. ditching $60 of cable, just to find out that you have to pay $25 for a stupid TV Programming Guide is just a backward concept to me. 

 

call me cheap if you want, but i am not going to pay for something that's free everywhere elsewhere. But mostly i wouldn't be writing this suggestion here if you put this warning on the product front page and warn people that TV programming guide requires 3rd party paid subscription service, or an XML DB option that doesn't fully integrate itself. 

[CBers 6780]

With the release of the next Stable version of Emby server, "Emby Guide Data" (sourced via GraceNote), will be part of Emby Premiere.

 

You can install the Emby server beta if you'd like to test it out.

[Happy2Play 8340]

Have you seen what is coming in the 3.6 release?

[howzz1854 18]

Thanks. I am happy to see that there is a solution coming. Look forward to the new integration. If it works as intended. I might just purchase the life time subscription.

[samuelqwe 313]

Thanks. I am happy to see that there is a solution coming. Look forward to the new integration. If it works as intended. I might just purchase the life time subscription.

If you would like, you can install the beta and start messing with it right away. However, it may still be a little buggy, but it’s being worked on.

[douglashughey 0]

This is great to see that free Guide Data is coming for members. I am sill using a 5 or 6 year old Windows 7-based HTPC for two reasons- free live TV, recording and guide data that is simple to set up and just works, and support for all of the audio formats, which is important to me when I watch movies on my server. I use Fire TVs for most other things. I saw that paid Plex includes free guide data, and thought about pulling the trigger for that reason alone, but I prefer Emby. Seeing that Emby will be including Guide data may just be that “killer feature” that gets me to buy a membership. It looks like I should be able to pair that on the server-side with an Nvidia Shield TV (which I don’t have yet) on the client side to finally replace my aging HTPC. A lifetime membership to Emby plus a Shield TV would be about the cost of a mobo/cpu/ram upgrade for the old box anyway.

 

Now if Emby would just consider offering a special 25% discount on lifetime membership like Plex has been doing lately, I’ll pull the trigger today!

 

Keep up the good work.

-Doug

[CBers 6780]

Now if Emby would just consider offering a special 25% discount on lifetime membership like Plex has been doing lately, I’ll pull the trigger today!

 

 

So do all the people who have already paid the full price get a refund as well

[howzz1854 18]

This is great to see that free Guide Data is coming for members. I am sill using a 5 or 6 year old Windows 7-based HTPC for two reasons- free live TV, recording and guide data that is simple to set up and just works, and support for all of the audio formats, which is important to me when I watch movies on my server. I use Fire TVs for most other things. I saw that paid Plex includes free guide data, and thought about pulling the trigger for that reason alone, but I prefer Emby. Seeing that Emby will be including Guide data may just be that “killer feature” that gets me to buy a membership. It looks like I should be able to pair that on the server-side with an Nvidia Shield TV (which I don’t have yet) on the client side to finally replace my aging HTPC. A lifetime membership to Emby plus a Shield TV would be about the cost of a mobo/cpu/ram upgrade for the old box anyway.

 

Now if Emby would just consider offering a special 25% discount on lifetime membership like Plex has been doing lately, I’ll pull the trigger today!

 

Keep up the good work.

-Doug

 

my reason was similar to yours. 

 

i was on a 10 year old HTPC with windows 7 for the same reason. but i switched because i was having some hardware acceleration issues with HEVC in windows 7. some materials would do hardware aceleration while others refused to do it. Windows 10 definitely fixed that. 

 

however a few things to watch out for. Emby's MPV based player is still imo quite a way to catch up with LAV/MadVR based playback, which i assume you probably setup with your Windows Media Center. MadVR currently can handle HDR content and properly tone map it to SDR. i double checked this with i1Display colormeter using HEVC calibration material. and MadVR's tone mapping algorithm does indeed able to map the highlights and shadows properly without clipping; while MPV's current HDR ton mapping is rather broken. even after some tweaking to tell it to manually map it to your display's peak brightness, the peak highlight data is still missing. 

 

BUT, you can setup MPC-HC and LAV/MadVR as external player solution with Emby. i have just set this up over the weekend after i couldn't get past all the shortcomings i mentioned above with HDR. now my materials play through MPC-HC, remote buttons work too. and when you close them, it bounces back to Emby where you left off. 

 

i was thinking about leaving emby for Plex because of the guide data thing. but seeing that i already paid for a one year premium membership, on top of that, literately just paid for a one year tv guide data with Schedule Direct. which really annoyed me. 

 

having a 25% discount for lifetime would be good for those of use who paid, and paid again for the Schedule Direct. honestly i wouldn't have paid for the premium had i known ahead of time that i would need to pay for schedule direct. so a discount for lifetime membership would be a good gesture. 

Edited January 1, 2019 by howzz1854

[Luke 37189]

Thanks for the feedback !

[KarlDag 25]

Now if Emby would just consider offering a special 25% discount on lifetime membership like Plex has been doing lately, I’ll pull the trigger today!

 

Keep up the good work.

-Doug

having a 25% discount for lifetime would be good for those of use who paid, and paid again for the Schedule Direct. honestly i wouldn't have paid for the premium had i known ahead of time that i would need to pay for schedule direct. so a discount for lifetime membership would be a good gesture.

There was a sale a few weeks ago - black Friday I believe. I took advantage of it. You might get lucky next year, but I know they skipped it last year, but had it 2 years ago. Too.

Edited January 1, 2019 by KarlDag

[douglashughey 0]

 

 

So do all the people who have already paid the full price get a refund as well   

 

IMO, the market just doesn't work that way, and people for the most part are used to it.  Plex is offering the occasional 25% discount, and they're not giving a refund to people who already paid.  Another example: I pre-ordered a Fire TV Cube at $90.  Some people paid $120 if they didn't pre-order.  About 2 months in, Amazon realized via negative feedback that the included remote was not nearly sufficient, so they switched it out with a new remote that was actually capable of controlling volume and power of other devices (saying "Alexa, volume down" isn't nearly as fun or efficient as Amazon makes it out to be), and then they dropped the price to $60 on black Friday.  So I paid an extra $30 and got an inferior remote compared to someone who waited a bit.  And some people were out an additional $60 and got an inferior remote.  It sucks, but I don't expect a refund.  That's just the market.  You buy something knowing full well that the price could drop at any time.  I'm very much interested in Emby, including Emby Premium. But I've got a couple of young kids, a mortgage payment for a house in a good school district, preschool, before and after school care, etc.  My kids come first, and there's not a lot left over for fun.  That makes me pretty price-conscious.   

 

 

i was on a 10 year old HTPC with windows 7 for the same reason. but i switched because i was having some hardware acceleration issues with HEVC in windows 7. some materials would do hardware aceleration while others refused to do it. Windows 10 definitely fixed that. 

 

however a few things to watch out for. Emby's MPV based player is still imo quite a way to catch up with LAV/MadVR based playback, which i assume you probably setup with your Windows Media Center

 

I am using MPC-HC/MadVR.  But I'm also using old hardware, a weak GPU, and an old 1080p Panasonic plasma TV.  So I'm not even coming close to getting the benefits I could get out of MadVR, and I'm also not as skilled and knowledgeable as you when it comes to image quality.  What I know is that the default image quality on my blu-ray player is (surprisingly to me) quite superior to the image quality on my HTPC using anything but MPC-HC/MadVR.  Whatever scalers and filters that blu-ray player is using are pretty solid.  At any rate, my older TV and receiver hardware is why I figure I can probably replace my HTPC with a Shield TV for now.  When I do eventually go to 4K HDR (and OLED if the prices drop to under $1k in a few years), I'll figure out the best image quality option for me at that time.

 

 

 

There was a sale a few weeks ago - black Friday I believe. I took advantage of it. You might get lucky next year, but I know they skipped it last year, but had it 2 years ago. Too. 

 

Oh man- how did I miss that?  I wish I had known about the sale! D'oh!