Clarification about Emby addons for Kodi

[Arskin 0]

I've experimented with EmbyCon and Emby-Next-Gen 

The first, as I understand it, provides a simple connection to the Emby Server. Available media files are then browsed in the traditional table list manner. Correct?

In regard to the latter, I read that it adds the available Emby Server media files to the Kodi user  library data. This I would then expect to be presented in the usual Kodi manner; Videos, Movies, TV Shows, Music, along with the Album, fan art etc.. However, that's not happening. The behaviour of Emby-Next-Gen, other than taking a very long time to build the local Kodi library, is exactly the same as EmbyCon. What am i missing here?

Thanks

 

[TeamB 2352]

17 minutes ago, Arskin said:

The first, as I understand it, provides a simple connection to the Emby Server. Available media files are then browsed in the traditional table list manner. Correct?

EmbyCon allows you to view your media items via the plugin, it does not sync any data to the Kodi DB.
You can view the media items using any of the Kodi skin views, lists, wide lists, thumbnails etc
You can add recently added, in progress and other lists to the home screen by using a skin that supports custom widget content or by using the clone skin action in EmbyCon actions.
 

22 minutes ago, Arskin said:

The behaviour of Emby-Next-Gen, other than taking a very long time to build the local Kodi library, is exactly the same as EmbyCon. What am i missing here?

This should not be the case, if you used Emby-Next-Gen to sync your libraries to the local Kodi DB then your movies should show up in the default Kodi skin movies section.

[Arskin 0]

5 minutes ago, TeamB said:

This should not be the case, if you used Emby-Next-Gen to sync your libraries to the local Kodi DB then your movies should show up in the default Kodi skin movies section.

I'm not getting that. I did a fresh kodi install (Linux), added & configured Emby-Next-Gen.

I then checked the Dynamic libraries that were working OK.

Next I added the Libraries to Kodi. Scanning was a lot slower than I'd expected. That said, it eventually completed.

Once that completed there were no Movies, TV Shows or Music files displayed in the skin. I'm sensing I'm missing an important step somewhere...

One other question; I'm using the Confluence skin. Could that affect the result?

Thanks

 

 

[TeamB 2352]

I sounds like you are doping to correct thing, you could try the default skin to see if that helps.

Perhaps someone that has more experience using the Emby-Next-Gen addon can comment.

[Arskin 0]

Just an update; I've repeated the above steps to install kodi-next-gen on another Linux Kodi PC and  also an Android TV media box.

The results are the same. Libraries are  synced but Movies, TV  Shows and Music do not appear on the skin.

Emby files can only be accessed from the addon directly, which is essentially the same behaviour as EmbyCon.

 

Cheers

 

[quickmic 1336]

@Arskin

Hello

 

Are you using Kodi 17? Emby-Next-Gen is not tested on Kodi 17, and it's very likly it's not working. Emby-Next-Gen uses some unique API calls only available in Kodi 18 and higher.

 

 

[Arskin 0]

Using the latest stable, always. Leia or some other such silly name.

I mucked about for several hours again last night. NO joy,  so have decided to give up.

I see no advantage in using Emby with Kodi.    I'll go back to using a shared database, which I had previously configured.   https://kodi.wiki/view/MySQL - this was sort of OK but not perfect. 

Cheers

 

 

[TeamB 2352]

Just out of interest you were trying to use a MySQL DB or something like that in your testing where you?

Emby-Next-Gen can only use the local built in DB. It directly accesses the sqlite files to insert the media data.

[Arskin 0]

No. I was using stock standard Kodi clients on 3 Linux mythtv boxes and 2 android TV boxes around our house. My hope was that all would be served  content from a single emby-server, and that the media, others than playlists, would be presented in the Kodi skin on each client thru the emby-next-gen addon.

I'm ignoring the emby playlists because playlist creation is a glaring weakness in Emby (IMO).

 

Cheers

 

[TeamB 2352]

Well that is exactly how it should work.

I am the author/dev for EmbyCon and not Emby for Kodi or the new Next Gen addon so I can not really help with the other addons.

I have 5 clients in my setup using EmbyCon and the cloned Estuary skin that just work, no syncing, no stuffing about, yes it is a little slower than having locally synced DB info but for me the simplicity far outweighs the overhead and complexity of trying to sync all the media info to local DBs on my clients. I can have a new client up and running or rebuilt a client in minutes sometimes less.

However if you are a power user or tweaker and need your media info in local Kodi DB so other Kodi add-ons can do "things" for you then yes the only option is syncing the info locally and that leaves you with tying to get Emby For Kodi working or find some alternative like you originally has set up using a central MySql.

[quickmic 1336]

On 1/26/2021 at 2:33 AM, Arskin said:

One other question; I'm using the Confluence skin. Could that affect the result?

 

 

That's why I asked, if you use Kodi 17. I tried to install Confluence on Kodi 18.9 but seemed to be incompatible.

[Arskin 0]

Thanks for the feedback, people.

FYI, I tried the default Kodi skin (Estuary) but it didn't help.

I feel I've spent enough time on this now so will set up a shared mysql library DB under Kodi instead.

 

Cheers.

 

 

[feerlessleadr 154]

On 1/27/2021 at 8:11 AM, Arskin said:

Thanks for the feedback, people.

FYI, I tried the default Kodi skin (Estuary) but it didn't help.

I feel I've spent enough time on this now so will set up a shared mysql library DB under Kodi instead.

 

Cheers.

 

 

before giving up you'd be well served to post a log so the devs can see what is going wrong. I use the emby next gen addon as my daily driver and it works on every box I use, for exactly your scenario. 

[nyplayer 90]

I noticed that Emby-Next-Gen  the TVShows do not play when using Direct Paths the Movies do .. I have UNC paths for both Movies and TVShows. Comskip works great when Viewing movies etc ... but when I go to play a TVShow it says it is not available ?

Edited January 29, 2021 by nyplayer

[quickmic 1336]

@nyplayer

I assume you mean native pathes. Are the movies played from the same network share as the TV shows?

Please upload a log, otherwise I can only speculate.