Best hardware

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

3 minutes ago, sooty234 said:

Here's the bottom line. Disable all transcoding in the the server, launch the emby app, play all types of media and compare that with what I can play on my computer with the emby app.

Why does that need to be done? It does not matter if something transcodes or not as long as the hardware you have can handle it?

As long as I am happy with the final result then what I have is at least in the running for the "best" hardware for me and what others think or believe does not matter at all. Media playback is only meaningful to those that are watching it.

As with "beauty" "best" is in the eye of the beholder.

[clarkss12 295]

I my mind, the key question is >> What input device do you have to use?? <<  What kind of remotes??  

[jrwalte 17]

I started with HTPCs with Emby and MCE with cable cards 10+ years ago. I've long since ditched cable and had no more need for MCE and the WAF factor was not appealing and always hated. But they [tech lazy/unknowledgeable] enjoy using streaming devices and they'll watch at a lower quality and not give two shits about it. They just want what is easy to them. So even if a device has to transcode, they'd still prefer it. 

And for TVs I care about, I can buy a more expensive Shield that does everything I want and play everything natively, while never having to mess with a 'bulky' HTPC (they've gotten a lot smaller I know but still way bigger than a sheild) that is 3x + more expensive.

Everyone has their own choice and none of them are wrong, but one cannot really say a HTPC is way better anymore. Small devices, like the Shield, can do everything a HTPC can and, arguably, much easier.

[sooty234 266]

You guys make me smile. If one of your devices can't play something, you make excuses for it. But I suppose if you think 'best hardware' extends to the server, I guess I can't argue with that. 

As for the emby app on shield, it can't do everything the windows emby can do. I have a shield. I'm not making a random biased guess.

[CBers 6771]

35 minutes ago, sooty234 said:

As for the emby app on shield, it can't do everything the windows emby can do.

My Shields do everything I want them to do. 

Not arguing, just saying. 

Each to their own 

 

[FrostByte 5049]

My Shield will play everything I have also, my problem is Exoplayer 

[sooty234 266]

17 minutes ago, CBers said:

My Shields do everything I want them to do. 

Not arguing, just saying. 

Each to their own 

 

Is it possible that most of your stuff is fairly vanilla? I honestly can't think of a specific example that I know doesn't play. But possibly DVD rips that are interlaced and use picture subs? There are many people with libraries like that.

[sooty234 266]

Just now, FrostByte said:

My Shield will play everything I have also, my problem is Exoplayer 

Well yes, I was specific in saying the emby app.

[CBers 6771]

4 minutes ago, sooty234 said:

Is it possible that most of your stuff is fairly vanilla? I honestly can't think of a specific example that I know doesn't play. But possibly DVD rips that are interlaced and use picture subs? There are many people with libraries like that.

I don't have rips and I would say 99.9% are MKVs, but everything just Direct Plays (Streams), apart from the odd audio remux on my bedroom Shield. 

 

[sooty234 266]

I have a few DVDs at home. I'll throw one in the mix, after work. They can still be a matroska.

[vdatanet 1549]

I direct play everything with the Shield except old avis using xvid codec, the android mobile app direct play that. I have some DVDs rips 567i MPEG2VIDEO in MKV container that direct play.

Edited December 16, 2020 by vdatanet

[sooty234 266]

Pictographic subs?

[vdatanet 1549]

18 minutes ago, sooty234 said:

Pictographic subs?

I've found one DVD rip with DVDSUB subtitles, playing with Android TV app it transcodes, but playing with Android Mobile app it direct plays.It is what I have said before, it is not only about hardware, software also matters

Edited December 16, 2020 by vdatanet

[sooty234 266]

Yeah, that is actually relevant to me. I have some movies that I can only find on DVD and they have foreign language parts that I need forced subs for. I've tried converting them, but they turn into crap. Plus, I prefer them as they are. They have color and font. 

[vdatanet 1549]

44 minutes ago, sooty234 said:

Yeah, that is actually relevant to me. I have some movies that I can only find on DVD and they have foreign language parts that I need forced subs for. I've tried converting them, but they turn into crap. Plus, I prefer them as they are. They have color and font. 

Apple TV using MPV player can direct play those subtitles. If Emby ever decides to decode the audio using the Apple TV MPV player, this device would be capable of playing a variety of formats without transcoding. In fact, Infuse direct plays everything.

Edited December 16, 2020 by vdatanet

[aquatarkus 2]

Hi, not often (in fact very, very rarely) do i post but came across this thread while updating myself on a few things with Emby server and Emby theatre,  always use my HTPC and in fact have just rebuilt and upgraded it, have over 14tb of movies on my server and my HTPC plays everything i throw at it without issue.

Also have an Amazon 4k fire stick  which  gives better quality than my Virgin TV360 box, however the point of my post was that was reading a post on AVforums about media streaming devices and came across posts about Zidoo Android units, was quite impressed so brought one (Z10) for my daughter to have in her bedroom instead of me building her a small HTPC. must say am quite impressed with its playback capabilities have installed Emby for Android on it and it plays everything, in fact have been so impressed that have now just purchased a Z10 pro to go along side my HTPC, Amazon 4K fire stick, Virgin TV360 box, waiting for it to arrive tomorrow to have a play and set it up will install Emby on it to compare Emby to the inbuilt Home Theatre 4.0.

The Z10 pro has Dolby Vision, (except profiles 7&8, licencing issue but being worked on apparently) Dolby atmos, HDR10+ full Blu-ray menu support amongst other things. The Z10 runs on Android 7 the Z10pro runs Android 9 but there are a couple of posts on another forum where they are installing Android 10 on the Z10pro.

Point of my post don't think there is one device that does everything for everyone

Thanks for reading just thought someone might find it interesting, link to the AVforums posts 

ZIDOO Z10 PRO - Z9X - Z1000 PRO - UHD 3000 Dolby Vision VS10 Owners Thread | AVForums

Regards

KeithW

[lastwraith 4]

So far the only thing that has been proven here IMO is that an HTPC is the best device for sooty234. As has been mentioned, there is no one "best" device. There are different tools for different jobs. To argue that an HTPC is best for every use-case seems a little ridiculous to me but if that's the hill someone wants to die on I guess there are less provable viewpoints. Between another family member's house and my own, we have laptops-as-htpcs, PCs as media servers, and a fairly representative "normal" gamut of streaming devices (TVs with Roku, Fire devices with and without ethernet ports, Chromecast, RPIs, etc) and I can say that each sometimes has an advantage over the other. It is nice to have an array of devices.

To argue that everyone should be comfortable with setting up and maintaining an HTPC seems like a losing battle. While I will admit that streaming devices will fall out of support and then become somewhat more dangerous/useless to have on your network, they are comparatively easy to use and keep updated for those who are technology averse. There is no way some family members could handle setting up an OS on general purpose computing devices like an RPi, laptop, or desktop, figure out how to pair a remote (or what remote), and make sure things stay updated unless it was done for them and shipped to them. Beyond knowing your Amazon/Google/Roku credentials and figuring out the wireless if a device of that ecosystem has never connected before....there ain't much to do on a streaming device. They sip power, are small, cheap, and can generally get by well enough to satisfy the vast majority of people who don't care and have never heard about Emby/Kodi/Nvidia Shield and instead want to plug something in, use a remote in the box, and start playing that next episode of the Expanse (who am I kidding they watch Big Bang Theory). Unless you are going to send them a purpose-built ARM device with a remote and OS tailored to a specific media player that can somehow dangle from the back of their TV near an HDMI port, this is not an area where an HTPC can win that fight.

For the record, I'm with you on enjoying having at least one full-featured general purpose "PC" that can be your swiss army knife of streaming, but it is certainly not always the BEST choice, and morseo when you take other people's considerations into account.

If I had to choose just ONE device for the vast majority of people, I would probably say something like an old-school FireTV (with ethernet) or one of the newer Fire4k models. While I don't love the interface, you get excellent value for the price while still having to make compromises. They're relatively cheap, small, power efficient, easy to set up (they even come with the wireless info and your account credentials if you order while logged in to the same account), you can put it in your pocket and bring it to a friend, they come preloaded with most things you need, and you can sideload most other things if they aren't in the app store. That is about as close as I think it gets currently to a "perfect" device, though obviously for myself I would prefer an RPi or a traditional laptop/desktop.

*No first-hand experience with the new Chromecast so that may very well be better. Unified searching (except after a Netflix update) certainly sounds nice!

Edited December 18, 2020 by lastwraith
forgot about new-hotness Chromecast

[sooty234 266]

Who gives a s**t about comfort and convenience? You lazy couch potatoes! If all you care about is making things easy, you don't deserve anything nice. If perfection is being able to sit on your ass, remove your brain and press a button to get what you want, then you should be deprived of fulfilment and contentment. F**k off!

I'll be receiving hate mail at your leisure

[lastwraith 4]

@sooty234 Apparently you live alone in your house (probably with good reason). Comfort and convenience are necessarily evils for those of us who cohabitate with others, especially when we volunteer our free time as tech support for said persons. Enjoy your solitude though, I'm sure many of us are jealous! 

Beyond that, there are a number of situations where a small appliance (streaming device) is better than a general-purpose computer (HTPC) for the single task of providing content to your screen. Are they as flexible.......no, but you have to make compromises in all things.

Edited December 18, 2020 by lastwraith

[AndrewLe 3]

The same question here. I'm using Mi Box S, but it has broken picture scaling/zooming, so I need to use an external app (VLC) that allows me to fit the screen (get rid of the black bars) with hardware acceleration turned off. 

So what is the alternative w/o such an issue? Or how to use built-in player and turn off hardware rendering on Mi Box S? 

[clarkss12 295]

Yesterday, I was trying to watch the NFL games, and what a mess.  I always let the games start, then wait for awhile starting to watch them so I can FFW through the commercials........  I always have issues with doing that with Emby, so I use the HDHomeRun app running on Android, what a disaster that app has become under Android.

I have an assortment of tuners and media players and recording devices......

The frustration was horrible, with Emby running under Android, I could not FFW, or the app would lock up, EVERYTIME..  I tried on a couple of different Android boxes, including the Nvidia Shield ( of course it has never worked for me).

The HDHomeRun android app is even worse, the video was so pixelated, it was unwatchable.  It has been rock solid until the last few weeks, and now it is unusable.......

Sooo, I switched to one of my miniPC's connected to the same TV, running Emby Theater, and the games that would not  play under android, using either Emby or  HDHomeRun, played  perfectly..........

Bottom line, the Home Theater running under Windows WILL work perfectly when the Android apps fail......

[ebr 14910]

4 minutes ago, clarkss12 said:

Bottom line, the Home Theater running under Windows WILL work perfectly when the Android apps fail......

No one is debating the technical capabilities of an HTPC (when properly configured and maintained).  This whole "discussion" started when sooty claimed that the only drawback of an HTPC was price. That is simply not true so I pointed that out.  That's all.

That being said, I'm also pretty sure your issues could be overcome on the other devices with proper troubleshooting and configuration as well.

[clarkss12 295]

2 minutes ago, ebr said:

No one is debating the technical capabilities of an HTPC (when properly configured and maintained).  This whole "discussion" started when sooty claimed that the only drawback of an HTPC was price. That is simply not true so I pointed that out.  That's all.

That being said, I'm also pretty sure your issues could be overcome on the other devices with proper troubleshooting and configuration as well.

Yesterday, all I wanted to do was spend all day watching the NFL games, but was total frustration and did not want to spent time troubleshooting the issues.  If it was not for my miniPC running Emby Theater, I might have tossed everything out the window, and heaven forbid, go to Comcast for TV media.

Don't get me wrong, I rarely use the ET running on my Windows machine because it is too cumbersome to use.  But when I have issues with my Android devices, my miniPC's saves the day. 

For troubleshooting, it could be network issues, router, switches, etc. (most of my devices are hard wired with cat 6 ethernet).  I could be issues with my recoding devices, miniPC's for Emby recordings.  WD NAS for the HDHomeRun recording engine.

It could be issues with my HDHomeRun tuners (Extend, Connect Quatro, Connect Quatro 4k), or could be issues with my humongous roof mounted antenna, and the signal over powering my tuners when the atmospheric conditions are just right.

[CogyG 3]

Some of you guys using the Shield Tube?

Planning to buy one for upstairs, but not everyone is happy with it, due to the memory problem

i''m using the Shield Pro (client and server) in the living room, very very satisfied.

Runs everything with no transcoding

[ebr 14910]

5 minutes ago, CogyG said:

Some of you guys using the Shield Tube?

I use one as my daily driver.  I do not watch a ton of high-bitrate content so it does just fine.  That will be the key for you.  If you need to watch content over 30-40Mb then you probably want the pro.