ebr 14910 Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 1 hour ago, Hxemby001 said: Right but I think they were talking about being out for several months, maybe even 9.. off-shore. We understand in this case - we just wanted to make it clear to the casual reader that, in the vast majority of situations, we have designed this to work fine. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 Elaborating on what ebr said, Emby is designed to use Internet sources and does expect to be "online" most of the time. It is also designed with some "play" in this so that it can handle internet blackouts for a few days but it's not designed to be ran specifically offline. I've had Emby installed in my RV, my sailboat and my offline cabin using a portable system for days at a time while on vacation and it never let me down. Using it offline for months at a time is a whole other things however and not what/how it's designed to work. With even a cell phone hooked up just for authentication purposes (doesn't use much bandwidth at all) it could be used almost indefinitely in a mostly offline environment. Emby tries to provide a happy medium for what 99.99% of user will need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimReaper 3289 Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 (edited) On 4/6/2021 at 11:14 PM, cayars said: Using it offline for months at a time is a whole other things however and not what/how it's designed to work. With even a cell phone hooked up just for authentication purposes (doesn't use much bandwidth at all) it could be used almost indefinitely in a mostly offline environment. Emby tries to provide a happy medium for what 99.99% of user will need. While that is mostly true, there are still some of those that fall outside of that percentage (myself being one of those "Using it offline for months at a time", as I assume few others could be found in the same line of business). Been throwing bits and pieces around the forum with how to best cope with that scenario, maybe to summarize it here and assist someone in the same/similar situation. As a preamble, I'm a seaman by profession (long - ocean - trade), with voyages between ports (or any land in sight, for that matter) usually spanning few weeks, often 30+days. Meaning cell-access is few-and-far-between and certainly not something one can count on. And it is so 6+ months out of every 12-months period, so I'm basically more offline than online. Up until few years ago there was absolutely no way to go online while on board (and there was no alternative, meaning being literally at the mercy of occasion, when/where you'll find yourself in some cell tower range) - nowdays there's satellite internet (which still does cost a pretty penny), and Premiere verification can be done every few weeks, as needed, although it does incure some extra costs, it is doable. Tbh Premiere ain't really required (though in my case it is, since I'm making use of Live TV engine, courtesy of VirtualTV plugin), bigger problem are the clients and current verification scheme. So, here's a quick rundown: 1) Browsers Can be fully used while offline (with or without Premiere), with no timeframe restrictions. Granted, that heavily depends on one's library and formats within, as (due to portability being primary condition for my own, vast majority of my content is HEVC) browsers are notorious for their HEVC (and some other audio formats) poor support, resulting in majority of sessions being transcodes (10-15ish in my case), which precludes having a server powerful enough to serve those. MS Edge (Chromium) did alleviate some of those issues when introduced, however was broken at some point, hence switched to Marmaduke's Chromium and that is the scheme I'm currently settled on, resulting in almost all content being DirectPlayed. Of course, there's still those nugging "Get/Discover Emby Premiere" popops/flags, but I reckon that's the price to pay for free playback. 2) Theater Desktop Won't even start while offline, useless for this usage case 3) Theater Store Will start offline, with or without server running on cache license. However, playback is possible only if the app was actually run and connected to the server at the same time Premiere verification was taking place, i.e. there was a live connection at that point, and it will run for few days (not weeks that cache lasts). To clarify, if one goes online, verifies license, goes offline and then starts Theater Store - no joy. It has to be run/online at the same time. This is a serious downer for Premiere-license owners. 4) Android TV app Unlocked app works offline with no issues whatsoever (tbh, that's from memory, as I've been running on Premiere cache for several years now which means that unlock is not required, but AFAIR there were no issues back in the day, can't really say for how long it would run before verification) save long initial loading time while offline, as mentioned in another thread. And, of course, as its usage is restricted to TVs/Boxes only. So, generally, even without Premiere, installation can be used being offline for longer periods of time with certain trade-offs, while for Premiere licensed ones it could use some adjustments from the Devs side, and does require some from Users side. Edited October 28, 2021 by GrimReaper Typos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 Thanks for that great post. I think you nailed this pretty well and actually know from running Emby offline for great periods of time. I agree with you on using a good web client if at all possible with HEVC and MKV support as that opens up a lot more possibilities then was available say 2 years ago. Being careful to have your media in a format that doesn't require transcoding is also a plus. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macdilbert 0 Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 On 12/5/2020 at 8:41 PM, Baja said: Is there some type of guide on how to configure the server/client to work offline? Has anyone ever answered this? I would love to see a guide. I would like to run my Emby server in a CABIN IN THE WOODS with no internet anywhere at all, at least for the week I am up there, to play movies from my MacBook Pro server to my Apple TVs over an Eero network (Eero doesn't require internet to form a local network). Has anyone posted a definitive guide into how to get this done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37057 Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 We are working on a brand new windows app that will have everything self-contained, so stay tuned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPILabs 2 Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Any update on this new solution? it’s been a couple years now saying we are working on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37057 Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 We have a new windows app that is just about ready, so stay tuned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPILabs 2 Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Any hints as to what offline pain points the new release may help alleviate? Just trying to gauge if it’s worth sticking around and waiting or need to move on. Will a Linux distro also be available? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37057 Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 Everything will be self contained in the windows app so it won't be pulling UI resources from the Internet anymore. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubleohwhatever 0 Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 Is there an ETA on the new windows app? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37057 Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 On 5/17/2022 at 10:15 PM, doubleohwhatever said: Is there an ETA on the new windows app? It's technically ready but there are some things with uploading it to the store that I'm fighting and trying to resolve. Anyway, once the 4.7 release is behind us I'll be coming back to this and spending more time on it to get it done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KellyEmby 10 Posted November 28, 2022 Share Posted November 28, 2022 I have Version 4.7.10.0 now... do we have perspective day for this app?? Hope, hope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HannibalRoG 1 Posted December 28, 2022 Share Posted December 28, 2022 Any news on this? this is very important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37057 Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 On 12/27/2022 at 11:57 PM, HannibalRoG said: Any news on this? this is very important. HI, we are working on a new Windows app, so stay tuned. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generiq 110 Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 This is unacceptable. Theater won't launch unless I have an active Internet connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kocane 5 Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 (edited) Is there a way to get a direct download/manual install for this new version so we don't have to sit and wait for some technicality on the Windows Store? I'm going on a long vacation and will oftentimes be without internet. I thought either the Emby Desktop app or Store app would just let me download things for offline usage but Desktop app doesn't start downloads at all (stuck on "Ready to transfer") and to my surprise, the Store app doesnt even let me sign in without internet?! If I'm understanding the new app was technically ready in MAY?! Edited January 29, 2023 by Kocane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 Emby Theater requires a server that has Emby Premiere installed. Premiere functionality does require Internet access in order to authenticate with the Emby Premiere authentication servers. This is the case with client that requires Premiere for full playback ability as well. In order to not require Internet access, you would need to run a "free" Emby Client such as Roku. You can view the different client and server features here that use Premiere. https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001173099-emby-premiere-feature-matrix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generiq 110 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 The server is on the same machine. It's licensed. Theater will not launch at all, unless the machine has internet access. This should not happen! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy2Play 8281 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 52 minutes ago, generiq said: The server is on the same machine. It's licensed. Theater will not launch at all, unless the machine has internet access. This should not happen! Unplugged ethernet cable, restarted machine, started Emby server and launched ET Desktop without issue. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 20 hours ago, Happy2Play said: Unplugged ethernet cable, restarted machine, started Emby server and launched ET Desktop without issue. Likely will depend on how long your offline for as Premier will need authentication from time to time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimReaper 3289 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 (edited) 21 hours ago, Happy2Play said: Unplugged ethernet cable, restarted machine, started Emby server and launched ET Desktop without issue. Unless there were some changes introduced recently, that was never the case - and I've been running offline Theaters (actually only Theater Store as Theater Desktop was useless offline) for a long time. As @generiq said: 22 hours ago, generiq said: Theater will not launch at all, unless the machine has internet access. is what I've been seeing for years, and stated in this very thread as well: On 10/28/2021 at 2:49 PM, GrimReaper said: 2) Theater Desktop Won't even start while offline Got out of habit of even checking Theater Desktop every now and then while offline and relying only on Theater Store. Edited January 30, 2023 by GrimReaper Typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generiq 110 Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 It's a laptop, and it's offline for a day or two at a time. Theater should still launch within this time period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generiq 110 Posted May 25, 2023 Share Posted May 25, 2023 OK, so I have to use my Hotspot to be able to get Theater to launch....and if I turn my Hotspot off while I'm watching, when the movie ends, emby has stopped working. No thumbnails and nothing else can be played. In a few days, I'm going to be in the desert for an extended period. This means that emby will be completely useless. You guys keep denying this happens ...but you're wrong! There is a major problem with this. I'm going to be touring deserts for months. So this is goodbye to emby. I will no longer be able to use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted May 25, 2023 Share Posted May 25, 2023 Are you testing this on or off lan? You could try and remove the existing server. Then setup 2 different servers. Try using the local IP and non-secured port for on lan use then setup the second server using your domain and secured port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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