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Confession from a Former Jellyfin User


dannymichel

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dannymichel

I confess I left emby for jellyfin for a few months, but all that did was make me appreciate how well written emby is. Jellyfin is an absolute alpha(beta at best) piece of software - it's a mess. 

Scanning on jellyfin was a mess. First it scanned too fast and missed things, then it scanned too slow and inaccurately trying to fix that. Not only that, but whenever you did scan, the rest of the app was rendered slow and useless... You couldnt even watch a video. Not to mention the random video stoping out of nowhere.

It was nice looking though.

While it's in my opinion that emby is one of the ugliest looking pieces of software out there, functionally emby does what they couldn't do effortlessly. It just works. It might not look great, but at least it works.

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Gilgamesh_48

I thought about installing Jellyfin a while back. More because of my love of trying new things than for any dissatisfaction with Emby but after research I decided not to. While I like experimenting and trying new things I dislike using software that seem to be nonfunctional, the way I need it to function, more often than than it functions correctly.

 

I resisted my urge to experiment and I am quite glad I did.

 

I do not really care much about appearance unless it effects the operation and my experience is the more "pretty" a piece of software is the more the "fluff" slows things down unless a LOT of care goes into the design. Emby seems, in most cases, to care a great deal about functionality and to place that first in almost all cases. That I like a lot.

 

I am quite glad I resisted the urge to spend time messing with Jellyfin and I am for the foreseeable future sticking with Emby as it is for me obviously the superior product.

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Can you actually give examples of what it is that you do not like about the appearance of Emby? Otherwise there's no way to improve on it. Personally I think it looks great on my ShieldTV's in the AndroidTV app.

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Gilgamesh_48

Can you actually give examples of what it is that you do not like about the appearance of Emby? Otherwise there's no way to improve on it. Personally I think it looks great on my ShieldTV's in the AndroidTV app.

I agree. Emby looks pretty good and it does not hide functionality behind fluff. I mostly use Emby on my Rokus but I have Fire TVs and a  Shield TVs and works and looks fine on all of those.

 

The one thing that I worry about is that Emby might try too hard to make itself "pretty" and lose speed and ease of functionality in the process of trying to beautifying what is already pretty enough. It's like the part of our culture where a pretty girl or handsome man has plastic surgery to look dubiously "better." Emby looks fine and, for me, I really do not need it to be prettier.

Edited by Gilgamesh_48
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dannymichel

Ive made some fixes in the screenshot bellow and posted the css here: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/82104-emby-clean-css-cleanup/

 

1. Glossy/glass reflections died when the term web 2.0 design went away in the early 2000s. I would get rid of this all-together by having the 'my media' be a dropdown menu where 'home' and 'favorites' is since there is more than  enough realestate there or just have it be a collage how it is without the shadow. Yes I'm aware that you can set it to 'my media small'

There is no need for what you see in the following image

5e35daef1d43a_ScreenShot20200201at30700P

 

2. No need for rounded corners for everything. Again, this is an outdated trend.

3. The logo is also something that looks like it was done in the early 2000s/90s.

4. The border on the play button looks better as just a color on hover and borderless otherwise.

5. The 'my media' boxes do not need to be smaller than other thumbnails. I've resized them for consistency(consistency is key)

6. Latest tv shows thumbnails should be backdrops and not posters.

7. Why the ugly fonts? Please just use system fonts as i did in my 'CSS fix'

8. The hover shadow over videos is some weird gradient(another outdated trend)

output.giffF7KQfL.png

Edited by dannymichel
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7. Why the ugly fonts? Please just use system fonts as i did in my 'CSS fix'

 

It's Roboto, used and well reviewed by millions of apps. 

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dannymichel

It's Roboto, used and well reviewed by millions of apps. 

 

Yes, I like roboto, but this is not where you use roboto. Roboto is for websites like blogs etc. It's a font for long articles, not for titles and GUI/UI

Edited by dannymichel
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Have you let Google know about this? Because it is the default font of their os and up until about a year ago all of their branded apps were using it.

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dannymichel

Have you let Google know about this? Because it is the default font of their os and up until about a year ago all of their branded apps were using it.

 

Lol i'm well aware it's what google did for android and others. Google products aren't necessarily known for their great design.

Edited by dannymichel
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2. No need for rounded corners for everything. Again, this is an outdated trend.

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of too much rounding either but I don't understand your assertion about it being an outdated trend.  Both Apple and Google have gotten more round lately - not less...

 

Please keep the feedback coming and welcome back!

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dannymichel

Personally, I'm not a fan of too much rounding either but I don't understand your assertion about it being an outdated trend.  Both Apple and Google have gotten more round lately - not less...

 

Please keep the feedback coming.

 

Rounded corners and circles are different. Yes, circles are trending, but rounded corners are an outdated trend.

I hate to appeal to authority in my arguments, but please keep in mind that.

 

1. I am an award winning designer of 15 years

2. I am willing to help emby free.

 

edit: Also mobile design is another world. Rounded corners for mobile design is perfectly fine right now.

Edited by dannymichel
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but rounded corners are an outdated trend.

 

Actually look at the apple TV app, apple music app, google movies app, the news app on both platforms. all of those have recent designs with lots of rounding.

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You can do a lot with the web app! I made mine look like this! ... ... for now.

 

5e35f3dbb3a81_example1.png

 

5e35f3f0a1d7a_example2.png

 

5e35f4a58dccc_example3.png

 

It's completely a different theme on the dashboard and login.  The other apps maneuver well and it's all about playback anyway. :)

 

But, the name jellyfin kinda makes my blood boil a bit.

Edited by chef
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dannymichel

Actually look at the apple TV app, apple music app, google movies app, the news app on both platforms. all of those have recent designs with lots of rounding.

 

and i think this is why emby has failed at web app design, because designers here see mobile and tv apps as the same thing as web app design.

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pir8radio

Ive made some fixes in the screenshot bellow and posted the css here: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/82104-emby-clean-css-cleanup/

 

1. Glossy/glass reflections died when the term web 2.0 design went away in the early 2000s. I would get rid of this all-together by having the 'my media' be a dropdown menu where 'home' and 'favorites' is since there is more than  enough realestate there or just have it be a collage how it is without the shadow. Yes I'm aware that you can set it to 'my media small'

There is no need for what you see in the following image

 

 

2. No need for rounded corners for everything. Again, this is an outdated trend.

3. The logo is also something that looks like it was done in the early 2000s/90s.

4. The border on the play button looks better as just a color on hover and borderless otherwise.

5. The 'my media' boxes do not need to be smaller than other thumbnails. I've resized them for consistency(consistency is key)

6. Latest tv shows thumbnails should be backdrops and not posters.

7. Why the ugly fonts? Please just use system fonts as i did in my 'CSS fix'

8. The hover shadow over videos is some weird gradient(another outdated trend)

 

 

Just goes to show you can't please everyone.. that's why the CSS function is there...  I thought jellyfin was a bad attempt at forking emby that really didn't get any improvements visually or functionally.   You love what you have done with your emby.. but I think it looks abnormally plain and a little old-school, and eeewww on the solid green play button talking about outdated web design..  I think emby is right up there with the top commercial media sites and following suit with their webdesign and looks across all of their interfaces, the look is why I wouldn't use anything else!    But to each their own glad the css option was included! 

Edited by pir8radio
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dannymichel

Just goes to show you can't please everyone.. that's why the CSS function is there...    You love what you have done with your emby.. but I think it looks abnormally plain and a little old-school, and eeewww on the solid green play button talking about outdated web design..  I think emby is right up there with the top commercial media sites and following suit with their webdesign and looks...      But to each their own glad the css option was included! 

 

while i understand where you are coming form,

that's the first misconception the consumer and/or coders make about my industry(to each their own).

it's a designer's job and responsibility to produce something that is 'objectively' aesthetically pleasing while keeping trends in mind.

it's our job to know what doesn't look good.

 

ive done this for fortune 500 companies and websites billions(not millions) of people use.

emby web does not look good.

Edited by dannymichel
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pir8radio

I mean....   I'm glad the emby team listens to our suggestions and approval/disapproval of the way emby looks rather than thinking they just know how it should look..   I mean a professional interior designer designed this room....  and I'm sure someone will like it.....   I'm not just going to say oh you are the professional Ill learn to like it. lol     Even in design there is not a one size fits all.   But its good to hear from the other side..

 

5e35fb217b6a1_UglyDesignManRepellerAugus

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pir8radio

If you are a good designer you have lots of people requesting your work, if you are not, you do not.   If emby's design sucks they wont be around long right?   I'm going to enjoy them while I can then, like i have for the last 12+ years... 

Edited by pir8radio
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and i think this is why emby has failed at web app design, because designers here see mobile and tv apps as the same thing as web app design.

 

Why do you feel they should be so different?

 

I mean, form factors and input methods have to be taken into account and we do do that - with different layouts for big screens vs. small ones and designing things for linear navigation in TV apps vs. point and click/tap in mobile ones.

 

However, from our perspective, our "web app" is just another app that is, very often, used on a mobile device of some sort (tablet or phone).  So other than the above, I'm not sure why the overall design or look of it should be all that different...

 

Now, if we were talking about a web site (which is a marketing or support vehicle) then maybe I'd see more difference but we're talking about an app used to display and play your media.

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and i think this is why emby has failed at web app design, because designers here see mobile and tv apps as the same thing as web app design.

 

Well that formula works for netflix, sling, spotify and countless others. I test their web apps regularly for comparison purposes and they all look basically the same as their android apps.

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dannymichel

Well that formula works for netflix, sling, spotify and countless others. I test their web apps regularly for comparison purposes and they all look basically the same as their android apps.

 

all of those listed look great...

this does not

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Happy2Play

All back to personal preferences, I personally don't really see any improvement in your css fix, but that is just me.  As mentioned in dozens of topics, there is zero chance of pleasing everyone.  

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