Emby and Plex

[ng4ever 40]

Does anyone here use both ?

If so why ?

[MBSki 1114]

Yes, but mostly Emby. 5 things missing from Emby are: Watch together, play home videos on Xbox, watch 4k on Xbox, save recorded DVR shows to a specific library, and DVR a specific sports team.

[bandit8623 213]

how is the live tv playback?  i have had problems with plex since the beginning.  also does emby support the new atsc 3.0?  thinking about switching

[kaj 316]

I use Emby for all my movies/tv shows. Works better for me and my remote users, both for setup and transcoding, Never have down time because Plex's auth servers are down, devs/forum much more responsive, no junk/bloat included (ie podcasts, ad-sponsored tv, games etc).. Live TV (IPTV) is fab on Emby, as it can use m3u files....cannot use them on Plex

I do use Plexamp for my music..it's awesome...i don't want tp spend time curating playlists...Plexamp works fanatically well. Sadly Emby doesn't come anywhere near this for music (yet.....)

Edited October 10, 2021 by kaj

[bandit8623 213]

Just now, kaj said:

I use Emby for all my movies/tv shows. Works better for me and my remote users, both for setup and transcoding, Never have down time because Plex's auth servers are down, devs/forum much more responsive, no junk/bloat included (ie podcasts, ad-sponsored tv, games etc)..

I do use Plexamp for my music..it's awesome...i don't want tp spend time curating playlists...Plexamp works fanatically well. Sadly Emby doesn't come anywhere near this for music (yet.....)

thank you what i wanted to hear!  just will stink having to get my family all moved over

[kaj 316]

Just now, bandit8623 said:

thank you what i wanted to hear!  just will stink having to get my family all moved over

I've never once regretted moving over. You can run both systems at once, during the transition. i think you can still use trakit on Plex and Emby to move your users played/watched etc over to Emby. i did when I moved over...

[Happy2Play 9780]

4 minutes ago, bandit8623 said:

also does emby support the new atsc 3.0? 

Big discussion here

EMBY ATSC3 - Live TV - Emby Community

[ng4ever 40]

1 minute ago, kaj said:

I've never once regretted moving over. You can run both systems at once, during the transition. i think you can still use trakit on Plex and Emby to move your users played/watched etc over to Emby. i did when I moved over...

Me neither the only thing I miss from Plex is Adaptive streaming but I doubt it works on a NAS for Plex at least that is what the read me docs say. Where Emby it may work on a NAS once Emby gets Adaptive streaming! I just hope Emby gets it soon!

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

53 minutes ago, ng4ever said:

Does anyone here use both ?

If so why ?

Use both? Not really but I do have servers for both running. However it has been many months (maybe over a year) since I actually used Plex.

Plex does nothing that Emby does not that I need and I find using it generally feels "clumsy." In fact I have been really thinking about disabling the Plex server so it does not start with the computer it runs on and retasking or retiring that computer.

But another reason to have both is redundancy. I have a backup Emby server "just in case." But that does not cover for something going horribly wrong with the Emby ecosystem. I cannot figure anything that could happen that killed Emby on my network and allowed Plex to still work but this is the world of electronics and anything can and often does happen. I may still stop running my Plex server after a bit more time as the likelihood of Emby failing and making my Emby backup also fail is so low as to not really be possible.

Then on top of that there is the Plex forums. If I used Plex more then I would have to use their forums more and that is something that I kind of equate with using the "rack" or the "Iron Maiden" on myself. I am not really into pain that much.

[bandit8623 213]

i just installed the server.... and wow the server dashboard is so much better.  thx for the recommendation all 

[ebr 16184]

9 hours ago, bandit8623 said:

i just installed the server.... and wow the server dashboard is so much better.  thx for the recommendation all 

Welcome and let us know if we can help.

[bandit8623 213]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

Welcome and let us know if we can help.

Thank you!

[slyfox 48]

On 09/10/2021 at 21:11, kaj said:

I use Emby for all my movies/tv shows. Works better for me and my remote users, both for setup and transcoding, Never have down time because Plex's auth servers are down, devs/forum much more responsive, no junk/bloat included (ie podcasts, ad-sponsored tv, games etc).. Live TV (IPTV) is fab on Emby, as it can use m3u files....cannot use them on Plex

I do use Plexamp for my music..it's awesome...i don't want tp spend time curating playlists...Plexamp works fanatically well. Sadly Emby doesn't come anywhere near this for music (yet.....)

@kajDo you still use this setup? I use Emby for TV and Movies, but the Music experience is underwhelming in Emby.

[Luke 42079]

8 minutes ago, slyfox said:

@kajDo you still use this setup? I use Emby for TV and Movies, but the Music experience is underwhelming in Emby.

Hi, why do you think music is underwhelming?

[kaj 316]

29 minutes ago, slyfox said:

@kajDo you still use this setup? I use Emby for TV and Movies, but the Music experience is underwhelming in Emby.

Yes, I still use the same setup. 

@LukeI wish I could use Emby for music too, but Plexamp is so versatile at producing automated playlists:

 

 

The Stations, especially the Mood and Style, are fantastic. They do add extra tags to make this possible. If Emby could do this I'd drop Plex.

[slyfox 48]

13 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, why do you think music is underwhelming?

@LukeI would love to fully switch to Emby as the media server, but the Music experience is lacklustre for the following reasons.

No Smart Playlists

• I use smart playlists in Plex and Apple Music.
• I want to see only Unrated/Unplayed Tracks with Soundtracks genre.
• I have a playlist with tracks rated as one start, which I use to mark tracks for deletion. Once a week or so, I open this smart playlist and delete all tracks rated one start from my file system. Plex and Apple Music apps allow this.
• I have a smart playlist with albums that have "WWII" comments in the comments section of the meta tag. I play this playlist while playing certain board games.

No Keyboard Shortcuts

Both Plexamp and Apple Music support keyboard shortcuts that can be triggered while the app is in the background.

I have a keyboard shortcut to mark a track as one star/dislike and a shortcut to play the next track. This way, when I hear a track that I do not like, I do not have to open the music app and manually mark it. I can just press the keyboard shortcut and mark the track as one start or dislike and skip to the next track. Using the smart playlists mentioned earlier, I can delete these tracks from my file system.

Like/Dislike Shortcut 

Plexamp and Apple Music Mac, Server, and iOS apps all have a quick way to like and dislike a track. Plexamp, for example, has a star under the playing track that I can tap to like/dislike a track. It is easy to do on iOS and Carplay. Emby has only the Add to Favorite option, which is hidden under the menu option that I have to open by pressing three dots. This is limited and cumbersome. 

Automated Stations

Plexamp can create interesting library stations based on mood and genre. I tried Instant Mix in Emby, but the results sound like a bunch of random tracks shuffled with no particular relation. It was a missed experience.

No Dedicated App

Plexamp and Apple Music are just a much better experience overall on iOS and Mac compared to the Music section of the Emby Server/iOS app. A lot of this is related to the points mentioned earlier.