Trying to switch from Plex - need help with these emby issues

[Spacefred 0]

I'm a long time Plex user (lifetime sub) and the state of LiveTV there is getting me to try emby again (this is prob the 3rd time in the same amount of years). I have in the past reverted to Plex quickly as emby was not there yet but this time it looks promising. I got a monthly sub to make sure emby works for me.

my setup: nvidia shield + Firestick and a FreeBSD emby server + HDHomerun (4 tuners) - all wired 1G

While there are a lot of good, these issues (some more annoyances) are keeping me on the fence and I'm hoping there is a solution:

- LiveTV: It takes way too long to switch channels. This is probably the only deal breaker for the switch. With the exact same setup, Plex switches between channels in half the time; 3-4 seconds when emby takes 7-8 seconds. I tried direct play (2seconds)  but that is useless because thne there is no pausing available.

- Having to confirm my action everytime I want to play a song or switch channels:

• Playing a song (from the album view): I click on the song , click again to choose play, play from there ..... , then click again to replace the queue. Can we have a one click option?
• Clicking on the grid to go to a show, I have to choose, play, record, record series. Same as above, can we have a 1 click option. Plex does it with long clicks for a menu vs short click to just go.

- too many clicks to navigate to the LiveTV grid - from the main menu - it would be nice to have a shortcut to the grid

- when listening to music, I can't get back to the main menu (no button for that) so I end up having to click back through all the songs/screens I played to get back to the main menu.

Thanks for the help

Edited November 7, 2021 by Spacefred
add my setup

[GrimReaper 4740]

4 minutes ago, Spacefred said:

I can't get back to the main menu (no button for that) so I end up having to click back through all the songs/screens I played to get back to the main menu.

Hold (long-click) Back button. 

[GrimReaper 4740]

10 minutes ago, Spacefred said:

- too many clicks to navigate to the LiveTV grid - from the main menu - it would be nice to have a shortcut to the grid

You can put "Live TV" as topmost Home Screen section, that'll put Guide a click or two away. 

Adfitionally, you can also opt for "Live TV" mode in App Settings>Startup tab. 

[ebr 16178]

1 hour ago, Spacefred said:

I tried direct play (2seconds)  but that is useless because thne there is no pausing available

Hi and welcome.  How often do you really pause?  You can take advantage of the fast channel tuning with direct play and then, when you really need to pause, the app will prompt you to switch to seek mode when you hit the pause button.

1 hour ago, Spacefred said:

Clicking on the grid to go to a show, I have to choose, play, record, record series. Same as above, can we have a 1 click option. 

By "go to a show" do you mean tune to that channel?  If so, then you can hit the "play" button on your remote to immediately tune to the focused channel.

1 hour ago, Spacefred said:

does it with long clicks for a menu vs short click to just go.

Not sure how long-pressing and then navigating a menu is reducing any clicks to get to those other options but the long-press is a possibility for the future.

[Spacefred 0]

Quote

Hi and welcome.  How often do you really pause?  You can take advantage of the fast channel tuning with direct play and then, when you really need to pause, the app will prompt you to switch to seek mode when you hit the pause button.

watching a movie, pretty much never - watching live TV, very often - I could explain why but at the end of the day I just need it. The minimum would be to have emby do as good as plex in that regard or what would be great is if emby would tune to directplay while in the background preparing the stream for pause (even if it uses another tuner while it does that).

Quote

Not sure how long-pressing and then navigating a menu is reducing any clicks to get to those other options but the long-press is a possibility for the future.

In my case, tuning vs recording, tuning is 99% of the time so:

plex: 1 click tuning, 1 long click then 1 click to record

emby: 2 clicks everytime

to be clear, I'm not trying to be difficult but these extra steps just pop when going from plex to emby

[ebr 16178]

13 minutes ago, Spacefred said:

emby: 2 clicks everytime

But it isn't...

1 hour ago, ebr said:

you can hit the "play" button on your remote to immediately tune to the focused channel

 

[Spacefred 0]

I'll try that - will report back

[pwhodges 2012]

8 hours ago, Spacefred said:

- too many clicks to navigate to the LiveTV grid - from the main menu - it would be nice to have a shortcut to the grid

In the home screen settings on each device you can choose which tab selecting Live TV will open in.  You can make that the guide, or the channel list if you want (I'm not sure which you meant by "the grid").

Paul

[Spacefred 0]

Thanks for all the help so far - many of my issues are resolved - I found a couple more:

Thanks to GrimReaper / erb/ pwhodges

Resolved:

- Having to confirm my action everytime I want to switch channels: Clicking on the grid to go to a show, I have to choose, play, record, record series. Same as above, can we have a 1 click option. Plex does it with long clicks for a menu vs short click to just go. -> use the play button instead of ok button

- too many clicks to navigate to the LiveTV grid - from the main menu - it would be nice to have a shortcut to the grid -> set the livetv to open the guide directly

- when listening to music, I can't get back to the main menu (no button for that) so I end up having to click back through all the songs/screens I played to get back to the main menu. -> long click back button

Not resolved and hoping for a solution or future enhancements:

- LiveTV: It takes way too long to switch channels. This is probably the only deal breaker for the switch. With the exact same setup, Plex switches between channels in half the time; 3-4     seconds when emby takes 7-8 seconds. I tried direct play (2seconds)  but that is useless because there there is no pausing available. -> I tried the directplay further but it's not a great solution and there is a small loss in the stream plus 5-6 seconds of wait when turning on the pause option. If you need to pause the stream for something urgent it's not great to have to answer the question to switch, then wait, then pause.

- Having to confirm my action everytime I want to play a song: from the album view: I click on the song , click again to choose play, play from there ..... , then click again to replace the queue. Can we have a one click option? -> this one is interesting, using the play button on the music tab (first one when clicking the library) skips the menu and plays the song. But the play button on the album view does not (same behaviour as the ok button there). So I'm hoping this can be changed so pressing play just plays (no ask play or play from there and no queue box). Please have an option to skip that 'queue box'.

New issues (looks like bugs)

-when watching a recording in progress (either from the library or starting from beginning if tuning on the channel) and going forward emby does not stop at the current time but keeps trying to seek forward (this is working correctly if you tune to a channel and try to seek forward past the current time). The picture then freezes. you can seek backward and manage to get it back but the progress bar shows the recording left and not the current time so you don't know if you are live.

- when recording a show and tuning to that channel, if you do not choose to start from beginning, emby starts a new directplay - if you try to pause, you switch to 'pause' mode but you cannot go backwards, emby does not use what was already recorded and behaves as if you just tuned in.

- the progress bar when watching tv does not show the time but the time left for the show - The web emby app (below) correctly shows the time and not the time left like the android app

- when the guide is displayed on livetv, pressing back brings to the first line of the guide and you need to press back a second time to remove the guide. (I would want to press back just once)

hopefully this makes sense - Again thanks for the feedback and help

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Spacefred
added details

[Luke 42078]

HI, we'll take a look at these. Thanks for reporting.

[ebr 16178]

11 hours ago, Spacefred said:

when watching a recording in progress (either from the library or starting from beginning if tuning on the channel) and going forward emby does not stop at the current time but keeps trying to seek forward (this is working correctly if you tune to a channel and try to seek forward past the current time). The picture then freezes. you can seek backward and manage to get it back but the progress bar shows the recording left and not the current time so you don't know if you are live.

- when recording a show and tuning to that channel, if you do not choose to start from beginning, emby starts a new directplay - if you try to pause, you switch to 'pause' mode but you cannot go backwards, emby does not use what was already recorded and behaves as if you just tuned in.

Hi.  At this time, the recording and the live channel are two separate things.  If you choose to "watch from the beginning" then you are watching the recording, if not, you are just watching the live channel and would only be able to seek back to the point where you started (in seek mode).

11 hours ago, Spacefred said:

the progress bar when watching tv does not show the time but the time left for the show - The web emby app (below) correctly shows the time and not the time left like the android app

Hi.  The time on the left is the current time in the program.  The time on the right is the time that is left in the program (shown as a negative number).  This is fairly common display in media players.  The full run time of the program is already shown above the progress bar.  I actually cannot make out what the example you showed is showing because it has what looks like random values for everything except the popup current time...

[ebr 16178]

11 hours ago, Spacefred said:

when the guide is displayed on livetv, pressing back brings to the first line of the guide and you need to press back a second time to remove the guide. (I would want to press back just once)

Imagine you've scrolled down to channel 250 in your guide and you want to change the tab to "Channels".  You would now have to scroll all the way back up to get to the tabs (or the toolbar to filter, etc.).  Instead, one back press gets you to the top and then you go up from there.

This is also fairly common in apps these days (using back to return you to the top of a long list).

[Spacefred 0]

Quote

Hi.  At this time, the recording and the live channel are two separate things.  If you choose to "watch from the beginning" then you are watching the recording, if not, you are just watching the live channel and would only be able to seek back to the point where you started (in seek mode).

Thanks for the explanation - makes sense now. Hopefully there is an enhancement in the wings

Quote

Hi.  The time on the left is the current time in the program.  The time on the right is the time that is left in the program (shown as a negative number).  This is fairly common display in media players.  The full run time of the program is already shown above the progress bar.  I actually cannot make out what the example you showed is showing because it has what looks like random values for everything except the popup current time...

The example is from the emby web app - this was last night's football game. It started at 8:20 and was scheduled to end at 11:30. My screenshot was doe at 9:45. The same view on the android app uses the time remaining - If you can let me know how to get a screenshot of the android app, It will make is easier to show what I mean.

[ebr 16178]

1 hour ago, Spacefred said:

The example is from the emby web app - this was last night's football game. It started at 8:20 and was scheduled to end at 11:30. My screenshot was doe at 9:45

Ah, okay now I see.

The TV app shows the progress bar just like any other item.  Start is at 0, current position is time from 0 and length is the length.