My Expiriences with Emby as a Plex User

[xBotRaid 0]

Hello,

I just downloaded Emby to my DS118 Synology NAS. I usually use Plex, now I wanted to compare it to Emby and share my ideas, experience with Emby and comparison to Plex.

 

So I don't know why, but when using Emby on the DS118 it was a very slow and unresponsive experience, so that's why I switched to my MacBook as server and use it as comparison. For fairness, I also had problems with Plex on my DS118 at first also being unresponsive, but that was while being in alpha phase ;D.

 

When using it with Mac, I had no issues whatsoever. Now I my initial first impression was good, it's a nice friendly interface, modern and what I like most about it, you can customise the crap out of it! It's really nice the level of personalisation, Plex doesn't have that.

 

Then also nice is that you get trailers without having to buy the premium, is this really true or will it disable over time like a 14 day trial or something? Because the trailer plugin says that it only is available the first 14 days or is this something else? However, if this is true, it's a dealbreaker against Plex!

 

So now about the Interface...

 

I like the interface in the web very well and also the iOS app. But the Apple TV App should really be reworked... 

When using the Apple TV app it just feels old and sluggish.

- Sometimes the text is off (look at the "1080p" tag when looking at a movie page).

- When using the Apple TV 4K the movie posters in the home screen, they're in bad quality (not 4K like Plex or Infuse)

- no movie trailers button in the Apple TV app?!

- Emby Server on Mac: Very bad app logo quality and menu bar quality, pixelated in comparison to other apps like Plex (looks like it was designed on non-retina Macs...)

 

Nice is that you have trailers without Premium Subscriptions, but really sad is that you can't even play a movie in the iOS app without Pro, this works on Plex (even without 5$ in-app-purchase)!

 

Speaking of performance (when forgiving the performance issues on my DS118), Emby is pretty identical to Plex, wasn't able to handle 4K transcode on the DS118 but everything else no problemo.

 

So overall Emby really nice, but the Apple TV app really has to be reworked in the near-future...

 

If you want logs from my DS118, I'm sorry I just deinstalled Emby and I don't really wanna go through the setup process just for these issues again.

[samuelqwe 313]

Are you playing beyond a minute with Plex with no in-app purchase? Emby does allow you to play one minute of a video, just like Plex (at least it was last I checked).

 

Also, the Apple TV app is undergoing some heavy work, and will be receiving a new video player soon, after that the UI and other bugs will probably be looked at.

[xBotRaid 0]

Are you playing beyond a minute with Plex with no in-app purchase? Emby does allow you to play one minute of a video, just like Plex (at least it was last I checked).

 

Also, the Apple TV app is undergoing some heavy work, and will be receiving a new video player soon, after that the UI and other bugs will probably be looked at.

 

 

Yea, sry for that misinformation, Plex only allows video playback in the app below one minute without Pro.

 

I'm excited to hear that the app will soon get a heavy update, it would definitely improve the user experience. I'll check it out when it gets released!

 

Thanks for that quick response!

[Perplexed 25]

As a fellow Plex user I can truthfully say that quick responses got me addicted to Emby pretty quickly

[samuelqwe 313]

I only looked at Plex briefly, but the community and customizability of Emby was what made the decision very easy.

 

Seeing as where Plex is headed, I’m sure I’ll stick with Emby. While there may be some issues occasionally, my issues are always addressed quickly.

Edited January 3, 2019 by samuelqwe

[ebr 14903]

Hi.  The Apple TV app is free for playback of regular content.  Only Live TV requires Premiere.