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Promoting Emby


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jasonmcroy

Yeah, I have gone back and forth between Plex and Emby over the past few years, usually keeping two servers running side by side. 

 

However, as of 3 months ago I completely uninstalled everything Plex related from all my machines. I still kept the forum link for Plex but I actually deleted that link a month or two ago since their move to discord makes the forum completely unusable. I also had quite posting any issues because I never received any responses from the Devs. That by itself makes Emby miles beyond Plex for sure. It makes a big difference to me.

 

There are so many things that run better with Emby than Plex. I do like the look of some of the Plex apps better than Emby, but it doesn't mean I dislike the look in Emby overall.

 

Anyway, Emby has come a long way recently and I only see it getting better.

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CBers

I still kept the forum link for Plex but I actually deleted that link a month or two ago since their move to discord makes the forum completely unusable.

 

I didn't know they'd done that.

 

Just joined, just to be nosey :D

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The article states "Plex is more polished" but with out any specific examples and then almost all of the screen shots in the article are from Emby...

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adamstewiegreen

The article states "Plex is more polished" but with out any specific examples and then almost all of the screen shots in the article are from Emby...

 

The writer of the article generalizes a lot.  Plus it's hard to put it into words what 'polished' actually means, it's one of those "you know it when you see it" things.  But having used Plex before switching to Emby I'd have to generally agree that, aesthetically, Plex is more polished.

 

But that also depends which interface the author is talking about.  I love the Emby Theatre UX and UI and I wish that there was a (stable) version of it for FireTV or Kodi.  I really hate the Plex Media Player and Plex for Kodi UX.

 

But I think that the UI for FireTV on Plex is much more polished than Emby's.

 

The author doesn't mention any of this, and honestly, the review lacks depth, or any sense that the reviewer used the product in any meaningful way.

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But I think that the UI for FireTV on Plex is much more polished than Emby's.

 

Can you give us any specific examples of this?

 

Thanks.

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mgworek

I find it funny that they said Plex wins for Device Compatibility. A lot of us old plex users switched to Emby a few years ago because Plex started caring more about being on every device with a broken app then taking their time and giving people working apps. 

 

Which brings up something they didn't even bring up, support. Like @@jasonmcroy mentioned, they stopped responding to support in their forums and if they did, it was your fault and you're doing it wrong while here, you guys always respond and you are slowly bringing the app to more devices and work with us and listen to feedback to get the app working as good as you can. 

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adamstewiegreen

Can you give us any specific examples of this?

 

Thanks.

 

Sure.

 

Plex has consistent icons for their movie, ty, dvr, collection (etc etc) categories - while emby's are constantly changing (Plus one of mine is just a folder icon - which looks silly) - and I know I can change them myself to consistant icons but that requires more work than I wish to do.

 

Plex color palette is more 'neutral' with a lot of grey and (orange) highlights.  They strike a nice balance.  Emby's color palettes aren't well considered.  For instance Windows Media Centre is blue on blue - no real highlight, everything kind of blends together (the same is true for the AppleTV theme - grey on grey).  Plus the highlight color covers everything, not just the highlighted item, so the eye isn't easily drawn to a single poster.  Blue Radiance seems like it's light years ahead of all the themes - though I haven't seen it on FireTV yet.  Personally, I would ditch themes and focus on a single great color palette: 'THE' Emby Palette.

 

Plex has (very) blurred backgrounds - the emby background isn't blurred (and there is no option to do so) so the background (if background images is turned on) competes with the foreground making it seem less polished. (turning off the background image isn't really the point, because then I just have a stale background).  The default background is usually very dark (see above: color palette)

Plex posters are the same - everywhere: same size, same info, same everything.  Emby has different poster designs depending on the screen.  For instance, the sizes of the posters can change from screen to screen, whether there is a title/rating section at the bottom changes, and even the shape of the posters change.  It's inconsistent and seems less polished.

 

Plex displays more text for titles (partly due to their larger poster sizes).

 

The time and the server name run into the posters - looks messy.

 

I find the movie/tv/live tv etc... pages "difficult" to navigate (and my wife won't touch the app because of those pages) esp. with the top bar followed by that smaller menu off to the right (with the A-Z) followed by the actual posters.  Seems to me that those could be simplified greatly.

 

Anyways, I'm not a designer, I'm just telling you what I see and I realize that every example I gave has numerous reasons why it is the way it is.

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adamstewiegreen

I find it funny that they said Plex wins for Device Compatibility. A lot of us old plex users switched to Emby a few years ago because Plex started caring more about being on every device with a broken app then taking their time and giving people working apps.

 

Broken apps is exactly why I switched.  On top of the FireTV audio issues, Plex now has an embarrassing Android (Fire TV included) bug - TV shows will stop playing after a few seconds and go to the "play next episode screen" - that they have yet to kill and it's been 6 months.

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CBers

Plex has consistent icons for their movie, ty, dvr, collection (etc etc) categories - while emby's are constantly changing (Plus one of mine is just a folder icon - which looks silly) - and I know I can change them myself to consistant icons but that requires more work than I wish to do.

 

Plex color palette is more 'neutral' with a lot of grey and (orange) highlights.  They strike a nice balance.  Emby's color palettes aren't well considered.  For instance Windows Media Centre is blue on blue - no real highlight, everything kind of blends together (the same is true for the AppleTV theme - grey on grey).  Plus the highlight color covers everything, not just the highlighted item, so the eye isn't easily drawn to a single poster.  Blue Radiance seems like it's light years ahead of all the themes - though I haven't seen it on FireTV yet.  Personally, I would ditch themes and focus on a single great color palette: 'THE' Emby Palette.

 

Plex has (very) blurred backgrounds - the emby background isn't blurred (and there is no option to do so) so the background (if background images is turned on) competes with the foreground making it seem less polished. (turning off the background image isn't really the point, because then I just have a stale background).  The default background is usually very dark (see above: color palette)

Plex posters are the same - everywhere: same size, same info, same everything.  Emby has different poster designs depending on the screen.  For instance, the sizes of the posters can change from screen to screen, whether there is a title/rating section at the bottom changes, and even the shape of the posters change.  It's inconsistent and seems less polished.

 

All the reasons why I prefer Emby over Plex :D

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The posters and text inconsistencies that you mention are things we are actively looking at cleaning up. Thanks.

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Thanks.

 

Can you please explain exactly what you mean here:

 

 

 

 Plus the highlight color covers everything, not just the highlighted item

 

I don't know where that is the case.

 

 

 

I find the movie/tv/live tv etc... pages "difficult" to navigate (and my wife won't touch the app because of those pages) esp. with the top bar followed by that smaller menu off to the right (with the A-Z) followed by the actual posters.  Seems to me that those could be simplified greatly.

 

There you are talking about the "tabs" at the top and then the toolbar that lets you configure the grid - correct?  How would you suggest we "greatly simplify" that?

 

Thanks!

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jasonmcroy

I did notice that Plex updated their Android TV app interface to be like their Plex Media Player interface which, in my opinion, is similar to the Emby Theater interface. However, the way they laid it out I find hard to navigate down into my libraries. Plus they force you to have a tab/icon for "Videos" and "Music" even if you don't have anything in those libraries. I think they consider videos different from Movies because if you click on Videos it doesn't do anything. Weird.

 

I like the Emby Theater interface the most. I would like to see that same interface created in the Android TV app (as an option because I know some like the Android TV interface the way it is now). From what I understand though it isn't easy to create that same interface in the Android App? 

 

Anyway, I feel comfortable with this forum and the fact that I feel like if I say things like the above the Devs will consider it or say it can't be done or won't be done so at least you know where you stand! lol

 

I felt like I didn't know what the hell the Plex team was thinking or going to do next. 

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adamstewiegreen

All the reasons why I prefer Emby over Plex :D

 

As I was typing it I thought, "this is like a Plex request list" ;)

 

But there is a reason why Plex doesn't do those things: uniformity.  Plex looks like Plex on every device (if that makes sense?)

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adamstewiegreen

Thanks.

 

Can you please explain exactly what you mean here:

 

So, the highlight color (for example, blue in Blue Radiance) is present in all poster views (on the main page).  In nearly every media app the posters are highlighted by additional color - even if that color is white.  Netflix, Vimeo, YouTube, Kodi (plus embuary and grid) and fire tv (although it's much more discrete) all highlight the selected poster with (a different) color, even if the poster is enlarged (like Emby).

 

 

There you are talking about the "tabs" at the top and then the toolbar that lets you configure the grid - correct?  How would you suggest we "greatly simplify" that?

 

"Greatly simplify" is probably the wrong words, "more intuitive" is probably closer to what I meant to say.  This requires more thought, but my first reaction is that I think horizontal scrolling is causing more issues than it's solving - especially considering the amount of screen space it takes up.  My first though (if you want to keep horizontal) is moving the Tabs/Toolbar to the side as a popup menu and moving the a-z to the bottom of the screen.  That frees up the whole screen for posters and makes the A-Z option more visible.

 

As well, I would move view settings to the settings menu.

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As far as poster highlights go, we like the Apple tv design which typically doesn't use an extra border around the focused poster.

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This is also not standard in Android TV.  If you look at any of the Google apps for the platform, they just enlarge the current poster.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Hitsville

Well I'm another who has recently adopted Emby full time and I'm still learning my way around slowly.

 

Despite what @@adamstewiegreen says I actually find PMP & ET like chalk and cheese. PMP gets less user friendly with each release. (I'm mainly referring here to anyone with more than one server.)

 

I have always loved the way that Emby deals with collections and the way they are accessible with one click. Also as a recent purchaser of an Apple TV 4K I have actually grown to like using a white theme occasionally. So the fact that I can switch my Shield, Apple TV and HTPC running ET to a choice of colour schemes is pretty cool. I do really like Blue Radiance though.

 

So generally I'm pretty happy all round. That said if I had to pick up on two things they would be...

 

1. On the Shield. I have over 2000 movies. I find it weird that there is no vertical scrolling. It seems to be the only client without this (at least of the four I own.)

 

 

2. On the Apple TV 4K. I'm a .mkv only guy. So no matter what, in Emby the file  will always transcode. This means, at least for the time being, that my recently purchased Apple TV device is pretty much redundant. Plex would simply mux the container to .mp4 on the fly with the minimum of server resource usage and even retain HDR metadata on my 4K remuxes, which was pretty cool. As a side note the Apple TV UI in Plex is the last remaining UI that I could bear to look at.

That said, this particular issue is a moot point though for the moment and unless Apple give us Audio Passthru back, will remain an irrelevance.

 

I still run PMS alongside Emby for the people I share my server with (at least for the time being). But personally I'm done with Plex.  ;)

Edited by Hitsville
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adamstewiegreen

 

 

Despite what @@adamstewiegreen says I actually find PMP & ET like chalk and cheese. PMP gets less user friendly with each release. (I'm mainly referring here to anyone with more than one server.)

 

 

I didn't mean to imply (and I didn't think I did) that I thought they were at all similar (they are nothing a like), only that I preferred one over the other.

 

And the Emby style (fire tv & android mobile app in particular) has been slowly growing on me over the last few months.  There are a few things I'm not a huge fan of but it's really just nitpicking and I've been very impressed with everything I've seen from Emby in the relatively short time I've used the program.

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1. On the Shield. I have over 2000 movies. I find it weird that there is no vertical scrolling. It seems to be the only client without this (at least of the four I own.)

 

The reason for that is just because that is how the platform is designed to operate so that is how we implemented it.  We do plan to try to implement a vertical feature but I'm curious why scrolling vertically would provide you any faster access to your items than horizontally...

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adamstewiegreen

Its faster because when scrolling horizontally it takes 5 clicks to see the next 1 1/2 posters (2 poster view, 3 is too small on my screen). But when scrolling vertically those 5 clicks allow me to browse between 30-40 posters.

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Its faster because when scrolling horizontally it takes 5 clicks to see the next 1 1/2 posters (2 poster view, 3 is too small on my screen). But when scrolling vertically those 5 clicks allow me to browse between 30-40 posters.

 

Got it.  Thanks.

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arrbee99

The reason for that is just because that is how the platform is designed to operate so that is how we implemented it.  We do plan to try to implement a vertical feature but I'm curious why scrolling vertically would provide you any faster access to your items than horizontally...

 

So long as the horizontal doesn't disappear please...

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Hitsville

Yep I agree.

It's just a personal choice and would hate for other people's preferred way to navigate being taken away. [emoji3]

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

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