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Switching to Emby from Plex, what to think about?


nmbrg

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So, im about to switch from Plex in favor of Emby. Just because im so good damn tired of all the crap Plex does with the software. And all the bugs they refuse to fix.

 

One of the biggest issues i have with Plex is that HW transcoding isnt working for me with 4K videos.

 

 

So my first question is, does HW transcoding work with Emby (or in some similar way) to stream/play (transcode) 4K videos?

(i have a Intel NUC with I7-7567U CPU and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650)

 

And my second question is just, is there anything i need to be aware of? Could be some feature that Emby doesnt have, that Plex has. Or something that is done differently that requires something else hardware-wise. Or something else you think i should know before doing (deciding to do) the switch? Like which Windows OS that is recommended, A server OS or a standard (windows 10)?

Edited by nmbrg
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legallink

Hardware wise, you shouldn't have any new requirements. 

 

Whether Emby will HW transcode 4k videos or not, I'm not entirely sure. I would do some forum searching on that issue as 4k videos are VERY CPU intensive and most HW transcoding technology was not made with the anticipation of 4k video.  Emby does stream/play 4k video.  Again, I would search the forums as there has been discussion on this.

 

As for differences between the two, I believe there are some.  You will see a fair amount of discussion as it relates to people switching from Plex to Emby. Not to beat a dead horse, but I think there are 2 very prominent threads on this that I would read.  One in general discussion, adn I think one here in the General/Windows.

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arrbee99

In general -

 

Probably best to wait till the new stable version comes out, see  https://emby.media/community/index.php?/blog/1/entry-443-exciting-additions-coming-soon-in-emby-server-36/ will actually be version 4.0.something not 3.6. Has database improvements which help with speed so you might as well have a nice new shiny setup, plus built in TV guide data (depending on country).

 

Check out the wiki in general, and especially naming conventions, and maybe where to store your metadata, I prefer mine in with the Media itself and not separate.

 

If you have collections, install Auto Box Sets, makes life a bit easier.

 

Maybe try stuff out with a months premiere to see how things go.

 

No idea about 4k stuff (I'm still upgrading to 1080...) but others will.

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I'm having no issues playing 4k movies (4k HEVC AAC 7.1) to my roku streaming stick +. Only 4k device I have at the moment.

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BAlGaInTl

Transcoding 4K is tough.

 

I would suggest trying it alongside Plex a bit.  You can start with the free server, and then you can always get a 1 mo. Emby Premiere membership to try all the features.

 

Personally, I'm a Linux server guy.  I run Emby in a Docker, so I can multiple versions as well as other apps.  You can do this in Windows too, but I'm not familiar with the process.

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timeslip1974

I had exactly the same issue with plex - all my 4k stuff would transcode. Same files with Emby (for the most) work  - One of two I`d had to transcode the audio - but the video - never

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Ok, thanks for all the answers. Coming from Plex forum im not used to all this attention. :)

 

One last question though.

Since i dont have an infinite amount of hardware, could i run the emby server on the same pc as the plex server.

just to try it out i mean.

 

dont feel like uninstalling plex until ive tried it. and my SO will not approve me buying another server. :)

and since the hardware that plex is installed on is the only hardware that has HW transcoding capabilites..

 

EDIT: not a great first impression. Not sure if its because its installed on the same hardware as plex server or not. but many of the things/tabs/pages i visit just ends up in a spinning circle. Like the profile selection, never gets there. just loads. And when trying to create a new user. enter the name and when the new page (settings) is loading i only get a spinning circle.

Edited by nmbrg
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Coxeroni

Emby can definitely live on the same machine as Plex. It is more a matter of ressources which obviously have to be split between Emby and Plex. If Plex is idle, there should be no problem running Emby next to it.

 

If you scan a library for the first time, my experience is that I cannot not do anything else with Emby during the scanning period. So I let it scan and when it's done, I can fiddle with it again. Maybe that also applies to you.

Edited by Coxeroni
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legallink

EDIT: not a great first impression. Not sure if its because its installed on the same hardware as plex server or not. but many of the things/tabs/pages i visit just ends up in a spinning circle. Like the profile selection, never gets there. just loads. And when trying to create a new user. enter the name and when the new page (settings) is loading i only get a spinning circle.

I would give this a day if you already have a huge library. The initial scan takes some time and the initial scan takes a lot of resources.

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notla49285

^^ Initial library scan is an arse, with both Plex and Emby. Check Library within the Emby Dashboard to see what stage it's at with which library (or you may have a notification on your main Dashboard if it's a full library scan).

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The library scan wasnt the issue. That one is complete. And it still is just loading when trying to visit "profile" and when i enter a user in the settings among other places the circle is spinning. Though it seems i can change things on user page anyway.

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The library scan wasnt the issue. That one is complete. And it still is just loading when trying to visit "profile" and when i enter a user in the settings among other places the circle is spinning. Though it seems i can change things on user page anyway.

 

Hi.  This sounds like there may be a problem with an add-in in your browser or other security item.  Can you please try this in Chrome and bring up the console (ctrl-shift-J) when you get the spinning circle.  Are there any errors in the console?

 

Also, did you install the beta of 4.0?  If starting fresh, I really recommend that as was suggested by others.

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No, since i dont have any add-ins or any other security related settings that could interfer. Thats not the issue.

Im not installing chrome on my PC, not a chance. :)

(using firefox)

 

Yes, i tried the beta. No change.

 

But i have uninstalled emby now. Too many (important) things that didnt work. So im staying with Plex until i hear those things works as intended, without issues.

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notla49285

Ok I understand that, but it would help iron out if it's a browser issue or something else, you can uninstall it again afterwards. Your system so your choice, but would be helpful to know. A lot of people use Firefox so if Emby isn't playing nice with it for some reason (and it is unique to Firefox) then I'm sure Emby developers will be keen to diagnose and fix it.

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I understand. But as I said. Emby is uninstalled so not much I can help with now. I will wait and hope that someone else makes the devs fix the issues. I have enough in my life as it is. I don't have time to help devs as well.

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But I look forward to the day when emby feels more complete and works better, so I can leave plex.

 

Like showing a colorful (yellow I think it was) box. Instead of the movie cover. Even when the movie had been matched. That aint a finiahed software in my point of view.

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if it showed a coloured box then either the movie wasn't matched correctly, or the source you set for movie posters doesn't have one for that particular movie.

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well thats not true. it did match. had all metadata (except movie poster on some places). at the "preplay" screen it had the movieposter. the movie poster was missing when browsing home screen, "all movies" and such.

so no. i dont believe for a second that it was incorrectly matched. and it was a blockbuster movie (or what you would call it). so that it would be missing i find very unlikely.

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Happy2Play

Everything you are describing sound like a browser cache issue.  Or Emby was still processing your media, as that is the only time your get colored placeholders.  But without more information all anyone can do is speculate.

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KarlDag

I understand. But as I said. Emby is uninstalled so not much I can help with now. I will wait and hope that someone else makes the devs fix the issues. I have enough in my life as it is. I don't have time to help devs as well.

If you won't post logs and won't let people help you fix your issues, there's not much Emby can do for you.

 

I can tell you I came from years of a Lifetime Plexpass and Emby much more stable for me.

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ThePaladinTech

For myself i learned 2 big things... Plex puts it's bif files in a database, and emby puts them alongside the media itself. I much prefer embys method, because if i reinstall emby the stuff is already there (all the metadata, and bif files) ... Doing this is super cpu intensive ... Which leads me to item 2...

 

Plex hogs 100% cpu ALOT ... This causes emby to work poorly. I recently discovered an app called cpu lasso, since installing this and restricting plex to just 2 cores (plex server, plex transcode, and plex scanner) ... Everything works better. Once you know this, if you look it is well documented that plex doesn't know how to play nice ... Emby does. Other suggestions i found where to run plex in a vm and restrict it's cpus or run it in docker and restrict it.

 

I still run both, but my house uses emby exclusively, plex is just for family members that I haven't transitioned to emby.

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ThePaladinTech

In other words ... IMHO Plex is poorly written causing other apps to suffer. I for a long time blamed emby, when it was plex causing emby to work poorly.

 

Don't get me emby does have issues ... But both do ... And emby for me works better, and feels like its headed in the right direction. Plex is headed in a different direction. The new plex Roku interface is just dreadful to me, for instance.

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