To complain about lacking TVnext progress

[pdclark 10]

42 minutes ago, arrbee99 said:

there's nothing that stands out

Though I look forward to an improved, more responsive, fault tolerant LiveTV - to say nothing stands out is extremely disingenuous. There quite literally is nothing out there that rivals or equals Emby, even on the LiveTV scheduling, EPG integration and recording front.

Dispatcharr helps, but when Emby implements TV Next, one stop shopping for the be all end all package would be complete.

 

 

[arrbee99 1815]

Plex is Plex. Everyone (who is interested in a media server) has heard of it, it stands out just because of the mass. Also because of the free channels and stuff (it must appeal to some people). Jellyfin is free. Free makes it stand out. Emby might be (well it is) the best, but not when it comes to something outstanding that draws someone in. An all in one needs absolutely nothing else to work properly TV solution might be (possibly) the thing for Emby, if it ever turns up.

[Jdiesel 1431]

I switched over a few of my users to Jellyfin today. Going to have them trial it for a few weeks and if all is good I'll be making the switch permanently.

I've been an MB user for over 10 years, a vocal supporter who recommended it to everyone I came across, and a huge fan overall. Lately I've lost trust in the dev team, broken promises, no transparency, and no direction. 

I will be making another post later on, but needless to say I'm pretty much done with Emby at this point.

[denz 501]

If they can do fast channel change I would be there in a heartbeat to install it. This is getting beyond a joke now something that should have been around the corner it is going to be 3 years since this thread has been created there is no end in sight of this beta. It seems they are actively pushing users away. Beta updates are just seems fixing regression after regression. So I agree with your sentiments for moving away

[arrbee99 1815]

How we can still be waiting for stuff written 5 years ago is beyond me. Was that part of the original roadmap (if any) - write 2020, implement 2026. I doubt it, or have we really had 5 years of unexpected tinkering and fixing bugs.

[Ronstang 293]

I love emby, use it every day but my fear is who ever is in charge is such a bad business person that someday I will try to load emby and it won't because their servers will be down for good and all my hard work for the last 5 years will have to be redone in some manner to be used elsewhere, but considering I don't need LiveTV anymore maybe Jellyfin will be fine.  It's unfortunate because emby is by far the best but the dev team just can't get above 5 mph.

[Ronstang 293]

5 hours ago, Jdiesel said:

I switched over a few of my users to Jellyfin today. Going to have them trial it for a few weeks and if all is good I'll be making the switch permanently.

How do you keep them connected?  That is one thing that makes emby so good with "emby connect" and the one reason I don't want to migrate to something else.  If Jellyfin has something similar it may just be time for me to dump emby since they won't even fix the little things they broke along the way.   I don't even care about LiveTV anymore.  I have switched to streaming TV and it works perfectly in emby for my recording needs I just want to be able to peruse the guide quickly but can't even do that anymore since it is broken since 4.7.

[Luke 42077]

6 minutes ago, Ronstang said:

How do you keep them connected?  That is one thing that makes emby so good with "emby connect" and the one reason I don't want to migrate to something else.  If Jellyfin has something similar it may just be time for me to dump emby since they won't even fix the little things they broke along the way.   I don't even care about LiveTV anymore.  I have switched to streaming TV and it works perfectly in emby for my recording needs I just want to be able to peruse the guide quickly but can't even do that anymore since it is broken since 4.7.

Hi, your issue is unrelated and is now resolved for the next set of app releases. Thanks.

[CharlesF 36]

11 hours ago, arrbee99 said:

Plex is Plex. Everyone (who is interested in a media server) has heard of it, it stands out just because of the mass. Also because of the free channels and stuff (it must appeal to some people). Jellyfin is free. Free makes it stand out. Emby might be (well it is) the best, but not when it comes to something outstanding that draws someone in. An all in one needs absolutely nothing else to work properly TV solution might be (possibly) the thing for Emby, if it ever turns up.

Emby is definitely not the best.  Emby glitches out, takes longer to load saved media, loads up slower than Plex.  I'm curious as to what you think Emby is the 'best' at.

[CharlesF 36]

5 hours ago, Ronstang said:

How do you keep them connected?  That is one thing that makes emby so good with "emby connect" and the one reason I don't want to migrate to something else.  If Jellyfin has something similar it may just be time for me to dump emby since they won't even fix the little things they broke along the way.   I don't even care about LiveTV anymore.  I have switched to streaming TV and it works perfectly in emby for my recording needs I just want to be able to peruse the guide quickly but can't even do that anymore since it is broken since 4.7.

the guide is so slow to load its super frustrating.

[CharlesF 36]

15 hours ago, ebr said:

It is not a non-answer.  It is simply an answer you do not like. 

This feature is not currently under any active development or testing.  When that changes, we will let you know.

We completely understand that this makes some of you very unhappy and that is unfortunate and not our goal but, instead of stringing you along, I'm giving you the real answer.  We have to have our priorities elsewhere at this time.

This is the last I will say on the matter until that situation changes.

and what are Emby's priorities at this time.  Maybe telling paid users what you guys are working on would help instead of the constant shroud of secrecy.

[unisoft 352]

1 hour ago, CharlesF said:

Emby is definitely not the best.  Emby glitches out, takes longer to load saved media, loads up slower than Plex.  I'm curious as to what you think Emby is the 'best' at.

That quite harsh in my opinion. Yes, there are some idiotic things going on, I agree (android UI changes in v3.4.91 that are clearly broken or badly thought out, anyone?).

I think most of us want Emby to succeed, and still appreciate work done and the fact that Luke and co engage on the community (even if we are being negative), but are frustrated at lack of progress on things that matter, or backwards steps making the app more difficult to use in name of alleged progress.

 

What gets me is things being ignored that have literally been requested for years, like:

1. No Ability to disable that ridiculous side menu that's always popping up when in horizontal view on a TV

2. No Ability to disable unwanted menu items in the top menu bar

3. No 2FA login

4. No ability to disable the web app from external access and just enable the apps access (easily within management console)

5. Re-instate an exit Emby dialogue if you press back to many times or navigate left past the side menu. On Fire TV, you just get dumped out to the home screen with no warning and if you enable the new configuration setting, you just get stuck in the app on Fire TV (but on LG TV's you get LG's prompt to exit).

6. No Ability to define how many items you want to appear under CONTINUE WATCHING and LATEST EPISODES so you don't get hundreds of items shown.

7. Release Notes for new versions constantly delayed for weeks or months despite customer protests, and often lacking detail of user impacting UI changes, or when Xtras/Shorts were changed for TV libraries. After agreeing SHORTS it was then changed again in quick succession and this has impact on way customers have their media named in libraries.

8. No ability to have concept of themes, where older GUI can be kept, but newer ones that look physically different and major changes, available as a "theme".

9. No Ability of Admin enforced app settings from server and optional user prefs. A little like Microsoft Group Policy / Group Policy Preferences. If it's ticked on a user settings on server page, it means the setting is enforced. Maybe there is a separate tick for "enforced", otherwise its a default setting that can be changed by end user in the app.

 

There are probably some more items that have been around for years, but with the exception of point 3 above (2 FA) and points 8 and 9, are relatively straight forward to implement.

Edited September 1, 2025 by unisoft

[justinrh 260]

On 8/31/2025 at 8:04 AM, ebr said:

We are not even looking at this until after 4.9 is completely finished.

18 hours ago, ebr said:

This feature is not currently under any active development or testing.

What this says is after 4.9 is released in the far future, it will likely be years more before live TV improvements might be made.   (given the current rate of releases ... )  No commitment, no target date.

So, to sum it up, "just foget 'bout it" and everyone go home.

Edited September 1, 2025 by justinrh

[Ronstang 293]

14 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, your issue is unrelated and is now resolved for the next set of app releases. Thanks.

If you are talking about the navigation issue in the guide when you select a single channel to see what is on for the next two weeks then THANK YOU and I will definitely let everyone know you delivered Luke.  I don't want to constantly be complaining and busting your chops Luke but I have been complaining about this for 18 MONTHS.  If it gets fixed now that is great but on the converse if it was that easy to fix why didn't you just fix it when I brought it to your attention 18 months ago?  Or any of the other times I have complained?

And this is relevant because it showcases a lack action from emby and the reason everyone is in this thread bitching 5 years after being promised something that was actually usable then scrapped then promised again and now it looks like Erik spilled the beans and we are NEVER getting NextTV.

Everyone here has legitimate gripes and you should be listening and you should be honest.  If NextTV is NEVER coming then just say so.  LiveTV is why people buy or subscribe to Premiere yet it is pretty much unusable.  Your team has been stringing us along for 5 years.  Believe me if I was a subscriber instead of purchasing Premiere I would have dumped it after 6 months and bought Premiere simply for the guide data but I would not pay monthly for something that does not work as it should.

The people that use LiveTV may be in the minority but we probably mostly make up your POWER users and you should be listening to us.  You have to be dedicated to put up with the crap we have for 5 years.  I am dumping Cable TV tomorrow with never even once be experiencing the joy NextTV promised me 5 years ago and why I purchased Premiere.  I will still use LiveTV with Channels because I have moved to streaming content.  Based on this I think NextTV is NEVER coming because you aren't stupid Luke so you have to realize that Cable TV is about to die a fiery death due to bloated costs.

But here is where you missed the boat.  Yes, I bought Premiere for the extra features and the guide data but if you would have approached us 5 years ago and said that in order to release NextTV you would need for us to pay a monthly, or yearly, fee for the guide to make it sustainable I would have gladly agreed and I would have been paying you for the last 5 years.  You threw all that money away, even if it wasn't a great amount it would have sustained LiveTV.  

I know that NextTV or TVNext...can't remember which at this point has been useable for years.  Softworkz made the mistake of telling us that.  He uses it.  Why could you have not let us who wanted it try it out even if it wouldn't work with the new architecture I am not totally sure why you had to adopt?  If you had done that you would not be dealing with this thread or people talking about migrating to something else. 

We all would have helped you.  You could have created a fork and a special beta release just for users of LiveTV to help you tweak and make the new version useable and stable without pushing it out to the general user base.  I can guarantee you we would have all worked with you daily to figure things out.  I have 5 Ceton tuner cards and I would have done anything you asked to help you test and tune.  Now I will be throwing them out.  I even bought the 4 extra cards because of your promise of supporting the cards natively.

If people have lost trust and confidence in the emby team it has been earned and that makes me feel bad because as much as I complain I truly love emby and have found nothing that compares.  I just wish it worked as promised because I still use it every singe day.

[Ronstang 293]

Thank you Luke for fixing that nagging issue.  You really delivered in not only a timely manner but at lightning speed.  I really appreciate it and this will make using emby so much more pleasurable again.  Not off topic, leave it here as no one will see it in the specific thread you created with my other post Luke.  

That is all I am going to say here, THANK YOU SO MUCH LUKE!!!

[softworkz 5066]

On 9/1/2025 at 1:29 PM, unisoft said:

1. No Ability to disable that ridiculous side menu that's always popping up when in horizontal view on a TV

2. No Ability to disable unwanted menu items in the top menu bar

5. Re-instate an exit Emby dialogue if you press back to many times or navigate left past the side menu. On Fire TV, you just get dumped out to the home screen with no warning and if you enable the new configuration setting, you just get stuck in the app on Fire TV (but on LG TV's you get LG's prompt to exit).

7. Release Notes for new versions constantly delayed for weeks or months despite customer protests, and often lacking detail of user impacting UI changes, 

8. No ability to have concept of themes, where older GUI can be kept, but newer ones that look physically different and major changes, available as a "theme".

IMO, your points are very valid and I specifically share the criticism on the quoted ones. I must admit that I had quite a few WTH moments, on some unexpected UI changes. 
I think it all burns down to the lack of a beta channel for the client UI for testing changes and receiving user feedback before pushing things out to the masses.

On 9/1/2025 at 1:29 PM, unisoft said:

8. No ability to have concept of themes, where older GUI can be kept, but newer ones that look physically different and major changes, available as a "theme".

Tastes are different and having multiple themes should have the purpose to accommodate for different user preferences. This doesn't work when all themese are permanently changing in the same ways and the only difference are colors and background. Personally, I find the light theme from about 4 years ago the best (light theme) we ever had. Others might disagree, but that's exactly the point: providing real choices that are substantially different instead of continuously forcing changes to all users, creating bad feelings.

BTW: That's entirely off-topic here...

[scb99 245]

And continuing on this o/t stuff briefly, I have a couple of Plex copies running, and a Jellyfin

If Emby disappeared

jellyfin would be for me unusable and imo is years behind Emby

plex i could make work, but doesnt have the flexibility of Emby but the core stuff it does very well

Edited September 2, 2025 by scb99

[denz 501]

This thread got sidetracked so question will it ever be released or was it all a pie in the sky

[unisoft 352]

8 hours ago, denz said:

This thread got sidetracked so question will it ever be released or was it all a pie in the sky

From what I gathered, Softworkz (maybe some others too) did a load of work, that would have greatly improved TV, and he did the Media Center theme which was great. Both of those pieces of work have been held up with no let-on of availability in a production release. The server betas are every few days with mainly "regression fixes" or "improve database performance" and the whole 4.9.x release has been dragging on for months, despite relatively little in new functionality and mainly bug fixes.

Something is holding it all back. It's probably agreement of team for a new MAJOR version so that people will have to pay for it, possibly. Unless the Emby team comment, which so far, only Softworkz has put their neck out to try and describe in a meaningful way, but you can tell they are constrained. The releases were said to be speeded up after 4.8 was released, but that hasn't happened either, unless it was 4.9.x as was quoted quite a time ago. We can ask as much as we like on here or protest even. but unless the Spokesperson gets to the lectern to give us all a speech, treat it as pie in the sky 

There's nothing that can replace Emby for me, the only competitor is Jellyfin, and I would rather stay with Emby unless the changes get too idiotic. I've been here since Media Browser days, so got no choice but to sit it out till they are ready as I can't see anything else that can replace it at this stage. 

Edited September 4, 2025 by unisoft

[Armageus 78]

2 hours ago, unisoft said:

The server betas are every few days with mainly "regression fixes" or "improve database performance" and the whole 4.9.x release has been dragging on for months, despite relatively little in new functionality and mainly bug fixes

And they will continue to have regression fixes until they implement a proper testing methodology. It boggles me the amount of time spent on fixing regressions and the amount of time spent constantly jumping on new .NET versions, instead of actually doing any real development.

[softworkz 5066]

Note. The posts about naming documentation have been moved there: 

[kikinjo 281]

3 hours ago, Armageus said:

And they will continue to have regression fixes until they implement a proper testing methodology. It boggles me the amount of time spent on fixing regressions and the amount of time spent constantly jumping on new .NET versions, instead of actually doing any real development.

Great comment, fully agree.

i cant live without smb fixes

[Luke 42077]

On 7/21/2025 at 12:39 PM, Jdiesel said:

There is hope! The ebook viewer addition came out of nowhere so it is possible for new features to be added. Not sure what the appetite for that feature was but the FR request was 10 years old. 

Let's hope that smart playlists is next.

It was chosen as a good first project to trial and onboard a new developer because it was mostly isolated work that wouldn't impose too much risk to the rest of the system. And it is something that is requested regularly all the time.  His second project, which you'll find out about soon, is not live tv related but is also heavily requested. It can be found on the first page of feature requests sorted by most reactions.

[denz 501]

Looking at the replies by the devs and great reply by unisoft we have our answer. Might as well lock this thread. Users have been teased for nothing 

[Ronstang 293]

2 hours ago, denz said:

Looking at the replies by the devs and great reply by unisoft we have our answer. Might as well lock this thread. Users have been teased for nothing 

There is no point in the full scope of what TVNext was supposed to be 5 years ago.  Simple fact is before too long there will be no cable card support at any cable company so the in computer cable tuner card is a relic at this point.  I went to Xfinity on Wednesday out of curiosity because I am dumping Optimum Cablet TV (Arguably the worst company on the planet) and since Xfinity is now available in my area with brand new infrastructure I inquired about Cable TV even thought they try to push everyone into streaming TV.  Yes, I can get cable TV at my house from Xfinity, but no cable card, so essentially there is no reason for me to have cable TV period since I will have more, although limited, recording options with streaming.

Yes I have two cable cards from Optimum but I bet if you go in tomorrow to Optimum and ask for a cable card when you don't already have one you will not be able to get one from them either.  So with no cable card support at all just around the corner TVNext in the form it was 5 years ago makes no sense.

That being said emby needs to fix the issues with the current LiveTV so it works as it should with streaming TV at least, that cannot be nearly as much of a hurdle.

The cable card is dead, so TVNext as it was is moot.

Now my issue is that the devs at emby probably figured this out a while back and abandoned TVNext but instead of being honest just keep giving non answers and being vague.  If they pay a price for this behavior it will be something they bought and paid for and brought upon themselves.

But if TVNext fixes the issues with the current LiveTV for streaming TV, which is the only future to us, then at least those parts need to be made available in the newer versions of emby.

Edited September 5, 2025 by Ronstang