idoprojects 0 Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 Excuse the complete lack of Emby knowledge, I've been attempting to use Plex in our admittedly over the top house on wheels. In a simple sense think of the RV no differently than a standard home in America. Nice wireless router, (3) Roku TV's and an Nvidia Shield TV as the server. The Shield has a 1tb SSD attached to it to store/serve media and is directly connected to the main TV in the living room. We basically want to watch our library on any of the TV's in the RV anytime but we don't always have internet (for us to have internet we need to be somewhere we have good cell coverage, my iPhone then acts as a bridge to the router and thus everything works just like a normal house would with my phone being the "modem"). That said Plex has been a real pain in the ass, I'm an IT guy and yet it's been horribly unreliable, more or less I have a ~40% success rate being able to even connect/see the media from the Shield let alone be able to stream it. We're not talking about over the top codecs or a lack of WiFi or connection strength. We're simply talking about an app (Plex) that appears to be purely based on having internet connectivity to even stream media locally. At the end of the day my basic question is this: Is Emby 'easily' configurable to work as a media solution for someone who "doesn't have internet often". I'm not asking if I can update things without internet, I'm just asking if I can take a fully configured Emby server/router/tv's out on the road and expect them to work? Honestly it seems trivial, one would think any of these apps/services would do so, but apparently that's incorrect thinking. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dranderson402 30 Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 Plex requires an internet connect to watch your content locally, emby does not. That being said, I have not setup emby server on android tv so I can't speak to that. But I have my emby server on a win10 box and I watch all my stuff locally with or without the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speechles 1932 Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 (edited) There will be zero issues. The Emby app on Roku only requires an internet connection periodically to verify LiveTV access as a premier feature (device limit). You need to occasionally have internet for the app to see when it starts up. This gives longevity to the LiveTV features in the Roku app. Other than that, you can have an internet outage last years and Emby on Roku functions normally. This will work in your situation with an RV with rare/infrequent internet access. When you get internet update Roku firmware/Emby apps, update Emby server. Similarly the premier features in the server also need periodic internet access. You didn't ask about those but those are the only issues. Q) Does the Emby server need an internet connection to function? A) No. It only needs to periodically verify your premier key to keep premier features. Q) Does the Emby for Roku app need internet to function? A) No. Edited February 14, 2019 by speechles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idoprojects 0 Posted February 14, 2019 Author Share Posted February 14, 2019 (edited) There will be zero issues. The Emby app on Roku only requires an internet connection periodically to verify LiveTV access as a premier feature (device limit). You need to occasionally have internet for the app to see when it starts up. This gives longevity to the LiveTV features in the Roku app. Other than that, you can have an internet outage last years and Emby on Roku functions normally. This will work in your situation with an RV with rare/infrequent internet access. When you get internet update Roku firmware/Emby apps, update Emby server. Similarly the premier features in the server also need periodic internet access. You didn't ask about those but those are the only issues. Q) Does the Emby server need an internet connection to function? A) No. It only needs to periodically verify your premier key to keep premier features. Q) Does the Emby for Roku app need internet to function? A) No. Great, thank you for your input, I'll get it configured and give it a shot, I'm sure sick of Plex seemingly just timing out doing a whole lot of "nothing" all the time! Edited February 14, 2019 by idoprojects Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4332 Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 You will find Emby just plain works for this type of thing while Plex fails miserably in this setting. I've setup Emby to work in an RV, bus, sailboat, airplane & cabin with no issues. You need Internet access of course for updates and the occasional phone home to verify premiere status. If you add media you might need access as well to pull down meta-data. But for general use in an RV, load the media, do a library refresh while you have internet and load each client to test a day or two before you trip and you'll be just fine. I like to do the load of each client with Internet a day or two before the trip then remove Internet and test again. This way in case some little thing pops up you have a day or two to investigate/fix before you need it. I just got back from a trip yesterday using a "traveling" system and had ZERO issues. Also worth noting, as a backup load up one of the versions of Kodi on the Shield TV so in the event of something failing like a wifi router or something you still have all your movies/shows on at least the main TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14981 Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 I will add that we have had reports of the Roku itself not working that well without an internet connection, so test that out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1294 Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 I will add that we have had reports of the Roku itself not working that well without an internet connection, so test that out. Yea My roku TV at work is not whitelisted on our outbound firewall and I cant even get to any apps on the roku home screen.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus Black 4 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 I will add that we have had reports of the Roku itself not working that well without an internet connection, so test that out. That's the problem I have had. I now use Raspberry Pi in my RV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4332 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Yea My roku TV at work is not whitelisted on our outbound firewall and I cant even get to any apps on the roku home screen.. That's a different issue than what ebr is referring to as your issue has to do with access rights caused by a firewall, not lack on Internet. I've not experienced the possible Roku issue ebr mentioned. I should have added however, that not all clients may work this way. Alexa, Google Home aren't going to like not having Internet access. Some of the "casting" devices may not work as well either. For example traditional Chromecast devices like to have WIFI which may or may not be present in an RV without Internet access. Maybe some Smart TVs won't like not being able to phone home either. These types of issue would be platform specific due to device architecture. Always best to test out thoroughly the clients you plan to use to make sure they will work in this type of environment! But overall Emby works so much better than Plex in this type of environment it's not even funny. With Plex you have to jump through hoops and often times reconfigure things a special way and then you have to be careful to not logout, etc. Plex can be painful even when you can get it to work like this. Emby on the other hand doesn't require any special setups or configuration ahead of time (besides testing the clients already mentioned). Curious for those who have had Roku issues like mentioned. What happens? Does your Roku just not like being offline? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14981 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Curious for those who have had Roku issues like mentioned. What happens? Does your Roku just not like being offline? People reported that playback took a very long time to start. I believe that the Roku itself sends statistics back on playback which may cause this. It may also only be with some firmware. That's a different issue than what ebr is referring to as your issue has to do with access rights caused by a firewall, not lack on Internet. To the device, the two situations would look the same - the inability to access the Roku (or any other) site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus Black 4 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) ...Curious for those who have had Roku issues like mentioned. What happens? Does your Roku just not like being offline? The Roku would hang at an error screen saying you had no Internet Connection. The only options were to Set up a Connection or Cancel. I just experimented with a Roku 3, I have in my office, by blacklisting Network Services for the Roku's IP in my router. It appears that newer versions of the Roku firmware have changed this behavior. You now get an error message, 016, but the options now are Set up a Connection or Proceed anyway. Mine is version: 9.0.0, build: 4114. This message appears every time you run Emby and Plex. It takes about 8 seconds to get the error, 8 more to proceed then 10 seconds for Emby to load. Typicaly Emby loads in 4-5 seconds for me. So, overall it adds ~20 seconds to the startup time. Once running though, Emby seemed to work as normal, no additional time to start playing. By the way, Plex works also. I did check to make sure Netflix and Youtube could not make a connection. Afterthought: Plex worked because my Plex server still had Internet access. Edited February 16, 2019 by Angus Black Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus Black 4 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Yea My roku TV at work is not whitelisted on our outbound firewall and I cant even get to any apps on the roku home screen.. In your case I assume your Emby server isn't on your LAN at work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1294 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 In your case I assume your Emby server isn't on your LAN at work? It is. internet access is not allowed for the roku client though.. so its treated as a lan with no internet. But the roku needs internet... or you get the connection error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus Black 4 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 ... I cant even get to any apps on the roku home screen.. ... But the roku needs internet... or you get the connection error. Did you set the Roku up before taking it to work? Are the apps loaded? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1294 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Did you set the Roku up before taking it to work? Are the apps loaded? lol yea... i whitelisted the roku tv in the firewall then blocked it again.. the rokutv then gives me the connection error when i try to access the roku features. I'm not worried about it or anything, i was just doing some testing and pointed out the issue.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus Black 4 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Just wondering why it works for me and not for you. Do you get an error message or just nothing happens? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1294 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Just wondering why it works for me and not for you. Do you get an error message or just nothing happens? Same error as you posted above, but i don't get "proceed anyway" option Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus Black 4 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) Same firmware and device? Roku 3 - 9.0.0 Old Roku Stick 8.1.0 Same error message but I don't have Emby on it so can't check that. Plex works if I manually enter the IP/port and turn off Server Discovery. Edited February 16, 2019 by Angus Black Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1294 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Same firmware and device? Roku 3 - 9.0.0 Old Roku Stick 8.1.0 Same error message but I don't have Emby on it so can't check that. Plex works if I manually enter the IP/port and turn off Server Discovery. That I don't know off hand... Ill check monday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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