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Long Promised — Long Awaited — Finally Here! We are excited to announce the first release of our all-new range of Emby apps, starting today with Windows and Xbox. With a fully redeveloped native foundation, this update delivers improvements across the board: from remote control and gamepad support to background downloading (Windows), as well as refresh and HDR mode switching, and most importantly, enhanced video playback. The new app also comes with a name change from Emby Theater to simply Emby. The name is the only simplification though: On Windows it supersedes and replaces both current apps, "Emby Theater Desktop" and "Emby Theater" from the Windows store, combining the best of both in a single app. It provides enhanced video playback driven by MPV player under the hood, like and even better than "Emby Theater Desktop", and the Download features which were previously available in the Windows store app only. A primary design goal has been to ensure that users of either previous app encounter no drawbacks when moving to the new version. Video Playback (Windows) Video options in the previous ET Desktop app were not always straightforward. The new Emby app adopts a fundamentally different approach to video playback configuration, which accommodates to a range from least to most knowledgeable users by boiling quality options down to three simple and easy understandable presets alongside a custom mode which allows to control all the underlying options in detail. The main presets are: High Quality A no-compromise choice for the best possible quality, regardless of resource usage. Recommended for powerful PCs with high-end GPUs. Video decoding and filtering occur in software for optimal quality, and output scaling uses custom GPU shaders. Balanced The default and recommended choice for most users. Similar to ET Desktop and a standalone MPV player with default settings. Efficiency Mode MPV player is generally focused on quality rather than power saving, and even with the Balanced preset, you can get short of energy rather quickly when running on batteries. This mode is not built-in or available in the regular MPV player. All video operations are fully performed in hardware while scaling at the video output (no shaders/gpu kernels) gets disabled. Too simplistic for you? Enter the Customize mode where you can control all options in detail to find your perfect setup. Video Playback (Xbox) In the new Xbox app, we have a new playback implementation which is based on ffmpeg and takes place of the HTML video playbaback which which had limited codec and format support. By combining ffmpeg decoding with elements from Windows Media capabilities, it combines the best of both worlds: The rich format and codec support from ffmpeg and the built-in hardware acceleration of the Xbox for playing 4k and HDR videos in the best possible way Automatic Refresh and HDR Mode Switching (Windows & Xbox) Refresh rate switching is now as simple as enabling or disabling a single option. The new app can track its window position across multiple monitors and adapt the refresh rate accordingly. On both Windows and Xbox, it can also automatically toggle HDR mode based on the video content and the capabilities of your monitor and graphics hardware. Download Feature (Windows) With the download feature, you can transfer media from your Emby Server to your client device in a suitable format and size, so you can enjoy your media when you're on the road or without an online connection and even automatically synchronize items based on the watched status. The new Windows app implements this with a completely different approach. Instead of periodically polling and running in the background, it uses Windows Push Notifications for server-side activation and the Windows BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer) service for downloads. As a result, the app runs only briefly whenever the server notifies it about newly available items or when BITS reports a completed download. If you don't use this feature, nothing runs in the background at all. Enhanced Support for Remote Control and Gamepad Input (Windows & Xbox) Remote Control support has been extended to cover almost all functions defined in the Windows Media Center remote button schema. For game controllers, mapping has also been expanded to assign functions to all available controls. New options pages provide a reference for button assignments and allow you to test inputs to ensure everything works as intended. Windows Theme (Windows) As a visual highlight, the Windows app features a new and exclusive Windows theme with Mica material background (Win 11) and seamless integration with your Windows desktop appearance, matching theme colors and dark/light switching accordingly. High Contrast Themes (Windows) As part of the Windows theme, the new Emby app also supports the Windows High Contrast settings. Fonts adjust in size and weight for better visibility, and fewer — but thicker—lines are drawn to enhance readability for those who need it.

Xbox One Users: Please wait for the next update. Thanks. (1-2 days from our side plus unpredictable duration for store certification)

UPDATE Hello everybody! The release of our new Window & Xbox apps in December 2024 was overshadowed by the unexpected rejection of the HEVC Playback capability by the MS Store for Xbox (only - the Windows app was unaffected). As a temporary remedy for Xbox users, we had established the Emby Xbox Holiday Bonanza. which allowed to register for a private version of the app with HEVC playback enabled: The "Emby Plus" app. Today (March 25, 2025) we are glad to announce the following changes: The Emby Xbox Holiday Bonanza program is closed The Emby Plus app is discontinued Starting from version 2.222.0, HEVC playback is included and enabled in the regular app releases What does this mean for current users of the Emby Plus app? There is no action required Emby Plus users will automatically be updated to 2.222.0 (or later) There is no drawback in any direction Version from 2.222.0 on provide the exact same capabilities like the Emby Plus app had offered before already We apologize for all the inconvenience, questions, support interactions and uncertainties this has caused for our users. The Emby Team This topic is locked now. Please create new topics in case of any questions. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Original Message Xbox Users! Santa Softworkz has worked relentlessly to bring you a happy holiday with Emby and the Xbox. There are rules, though: Don't talk about it Don't speculate Don't ask questions about it If you don't follow, then there's no happy ending for you. Watch out for the "Santa Softworkz Holiday Lottery"

This is my experience too. Absolutely nothing in my library plays without stuttering. Sometimes it is a mild stutter that increases and other times the stutter is right there from the start. The green screen happens when I start a file too. Very similar to Kodi when hardware acceleration is turned on. Turning off hardware acceleration on Kodi helps bit I can't find the equivalent with Emby. I'm running a number of Xbox one s consoles over a hardwired cat 6 network. My whole setup is completely broken.

Are you all seeing the same king of stuttering like here? VID_20241220_123247.mp4.73a3138d829fede3794dc3eaad16f1e2.mp4

@visproductionthat would have the same effect a removing the library. With you metode the library would scan changes, and again when flipped back. Adding : The NAS is under reconstruction ie don't mess with it. Renaming shit when that's going on might led to data loss.

I tagged 11.1.10 now as stable. Still holding back next beta as I chase a serious http communication bug. It affects http communication in chunked transfer mode (not very common) and only in very special cases (even less common). However this bug affects all versions since 9.X or even earlier and will be fixed in next beta. Special thanks to user @reggifor countless tests and still ongoing.

Repeating what I posted in the beta forum before I discovered this thread ... Same video stuttering problem for me on Xbox One X. Since updating the Emby app on my Xbox One, video files are now unwatchable with the app on that device. I've only tried H.264 content and at various files and resolutions. Audio codec and device audio configuration changes make no difference. Same result in all cases which is a flash of green then juddering video rendering. A file with no audio track also exhibits the problem. The same content plays fine using the web client on the same xbox. Everything plays nicely with the new app on the Xbox Series X in another room. Comparing logs on the server doesn't show any significant difference although I do see out of sequence post & response from the One. Threading issue? I'll grab logs from the apps and compare when I get a chance.

We don't like that either! Please note that you DO NOT NEED a Microsoft Account! I've added this to the FAQ Post with a link to a more detailed explanation: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/134677-new-windows-xbox-app-faq/

Thanks for the explanation and the hard work. If I understand it correctly H264 should work but H264 files also stutters like crazy on my Xbox One S. So is that the same issue or seperate problem?

All about the new app here:

Looks like it's available again.

Still no reply from the Emby team? wow.

I'm afraid this is not yet possible in Emby AFAIK. Paul

Yes that is what I'm seeing on my Xbox One S. Added a video I did the other day. 20241219_065435.mp4

Agreed. I have a house full of Xbox ones that should be more than capable of direct playing 720p and 1080p files, along with my mpeg2 TV streams and they are a stuttering mess. @softworkzWould you like me to open up a new post with logs around this?

I am using a dedicated htpc just for emby. Could you please add run at start up please. Agree on the back button situation, prefer for when l look at info etc, i end up out the player. Apart from these two issues am liking the new app..... thanks

I think the first thing that should be fixed is the stuttering on Xbox One's which makes them utterly useless with the current Emby App.

Thank you! Sorry for the assumption.

1) Yes 2) Added together.

for anyone who stumbles across this thread and is looking for a solution using a linux os with ffmpeg, you can try ffmpeg -y -i x.mkv -c:v libx264 -profile:v baseline -c:a aac -ar 44100 -ac 2 -b:v 384k -movflags +faststart y.mp4 this worked for me

I'm still unclear why, once Microsoft refused permission for HEVC, that the new version _had_ to be published? The timing is particularly bad just before the holiday season where we normally get more use than normal from Emby.

I've just tested a H264 1080p file on the first updated Xbox and I got the green screen fir a few seconds and then it started playing but stuttering and unwatchable.

having same issues on Xbox One as everyone else with the stuttering and green screen. Completely unusable. How can I unroll the update? Can you at least release the previous version as a separate app in the Xbox store? Pretty bad QA, not happy at all

Thanks for your attention. I have solved this issue. I used Wireshark to capture the traffic from http://192.168.2.42:8096/web/index.html#!/home and upon comparing the HTTP headers, I found that the user-name field was a string of characters 'cefa80922459464484efxxxxxxxx14b8' instead of 'WIZ-LT'. When I used this string of characters as the username, the code worked. I don't understand why. emby_url = "http://192.168.2.42:8096" api_key = "850d6a3a78bc4ec6b584077b34b2a956" user_id = 'cefa80922459464484efxxxxxxxx14b8' # "WIZ-LT" not work item_info_endpoint = f'{emby_url}/users/{user_id}/items/{movie_id}

I want to thank you for forcing me to look up a simple word "arsed" as I had never, in my 77+ years, heard that word used the way you use it. For those that do not know but would like to it simply means "concerned" or "bothered." I pride myself on my ability to use words and i always welcome the opportunity to lean a new word or the usage thereof. My typing is pretty bad as I have a tendency to drop first and/or last letters of words as I type. That is not usually a problem but, sometimes, the missing letter(s) change the word into a completely different word when the firs or last letters are dropped. That problem has become worse as I have gotten into my upper 70s so I hope my posts usually at least rise to the level of understandable. Fortunately my ability to perform complex tasks is not compromised by my inability to type well. But "neatness" is a bit compromised so I always look a bit like a slob. But I like me, even if no one else does.

Yep all seems good now, thanks....

You can change the runtime group by adding an override to the emby-server unit. The command opens an editor then you can add the lines below it. Replace value with the existing group name you want to use. Old files will retain their ownership and new files created by emby will have the new group ownership. systemctl edit emby-server.service [Service] Group=value Save and restart the emby-server service.

Hi there, what have you tried so far?

It is evident that the application startup is much slower than the previous version and the web version. As I mentioned before, I am now sharing a video that demonstrates this situation. 19-12-2024_12-11-42.mp4

Awesome. Well-done on the new release. Please can you provide a direct exe/msi installer download?

Read here:

@LukeI have this same issue with Nvidia Shield Pro 2019 and a Nvidia Shield Pro 2017. Let us know if there is anything we can do to help!

I have solved it by deleting all libraries and adding them in again, its done a rescan and all is now showing, not sure what happened

It appears you have your domain pointed at two different IP addresses. You should make sure there is only one 'A' record, with your correct WAN IP.

Open Edge browser on the Xbox and load the web app as fallback. This shouild be equal or better than the legacy xbox app.

This app could possible fix your MP4 video and it works from command line: https://www.videohelp.com/software/MP4Box

Seems like such a strange time of year to have the app released, zero support to be able to address any issues. Now got a media system that is totally useless for the next unknown months and over the holiday season.

But why the old app was working? Can you please remove the new with the old app? It really is unusuable now. Or do you have any suggestions get hevc movies working on the xbox? Additionally, its displaying green at startup and while skipping.

Worked like a charm Carlos!!

Thank you. I'll make that move manually then.

Hi, we're looking into it. Thanks.

Hi, have you tried the emby server convert media feature? Convert Media

Going to test Jellyfin over christmas, It now supports hardware encoding, Dolby Vision, Atmos, AND Dolby Vision to SDR Tone mapping, (which Emby still cant do) The Two main issues are apparently the Clients aren't as good, and remote access can be a trickier. But Jellyfin does has far more useful plugins. I am frustrated that Smart Playlists for Emby has taken 10 YEARS, and it's still not ready, and this feature breaking bug has taken 9 Months, which should be fixed in days. I would be more lenient, even happy, if this was free software, but i am not getting any value from my subscription. If Jellyfin ticks all the boxes over the next month, i'm out, and glad i didn't pay for lifetime... Lifetime is how long you have to wait for something to be fixed.

@242Moviesyou were right it was in spam XD thanks!

Sorry it took me so long to reply. None of what was suggested worked at all. What finally did work was me completely deleting the existing "TV Shows" library and recreating it from the ground up. Now I no longer have the issue. Thanks to all who attempted to assist.

Okay, so removing my 4K library allows the series to merge. Thanks guys. I was hoping I'd be able to have a separate 4k television library like I do with 4k movies (just for easier access when using a 4k capable tv), but this is better than nothing

If Plex does it then it is probably less than ideal.

You should remove root \\10.0.0.7\EmbyMedia\TV from library folders as that one is likely breaking your setup.

I always use this naming. Folder : Andromeda (2000) [TvdbId=77544] This will tell Emby what show it is, and take away Embys guess work.