Looking into emby for family movie server on windows 11 pro.

[ssmokeyy 1]

Afternoon everyone,

   So I'm building a movie server from our family movie collection.  I was going to use plex but I don't really like the home page layout.   I have two things i would like to know before i pick any platform.

  Can emby play 4k dolby vision mkv files in our house to the nvidia shield pro?  If the shield isn't the best way to do it what's a better way.  My second question is remote use. Can emby be setup pretty easy like plex for remote use away from the house?     I have been doing a lot of reading but have not found what I'm looking for.   I also looked into jellyfin and that's not for me to much work.  Also i will be using windows 11 pro for many reasons. I had a unraid server and it had a lot more problems than people like to let on. Going to build a truenas box to play around with but do not want to use it for this at this time.  

system 

13600k

16gb ddr5 5600mhz

asus z790-h 

24tb nas drive  with ssd nvme 1tb gen 3 for emby/plex to run on   1 tb gen 4 for windows 11 pro.  every thing removed from the os that i don't need to use these apps.

[Abobader 3470]

Hello ssmokeyy,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[GrimReaper 4749]

12 minutes ago, ssmokeyy said:

Can emby play 4k dolby vision mkv files in our house to the nvidia shield pro?  If the shield isn't the best way to do it what's a better way.

You can play your 4K content on number of clients (generally depending on DV profile), but I'd say majority of power-users are having exactly that setup, with Shield Pro being the device of choice, IMHO there's hardly a better way to recommend. 

12 minutes ago, ssmokeyy said:

My second question is remote use. Can emby be setup pretty easy like plex for remote use away from the house?

That is somewhat ambiguous, as contrary to Team Orange, nothing is ever routed through external servers, all of your clients are yours alone and have to have route open to your server. Depending on one's setup, it can be (and usually is) just as smooth and easy as it'd be with Plex - but on certain setups it might require some user intervention. Not knowing your particular setup, it'd be guesswork only. 

[Happy2Play 9783]

31 minutes ago, ssmokeyy said:

Can emby be setup pretty easy like plex for remote use away from the house?

Most systems if PortMapper works on your setup nothing but accessing remotely should be needed.  Otherwise, manual port forwarding (recommended method).

Emby Server Remote Setup :

External Connections

ISPs can be a factor as if you are on a CGNAT provider you have to take a different route in getting remote access to work.  VPNs will affect remote access.  Home double NAT environment also create a minor issue due to additional port forwarding requirements.

[ssmokeyy 1]

So the parts i left out is  My network is a dream machine pro. I'm ok with setting up port forwarding.   Internet is comcast with giga pro plan. 50 mbps up. 1200 down.  So with using the shield pro Do i just not worry about it and install emby, point emby at my nas drives with movies and load emby client on my shield and push play? Dolby vision works that easy?

Edited February 21, 2023 by ssmokeyy

[Happy2Play 9783]

6 minutes ago, ssmokeyy said:

So with using the shield pro Do i just not worry about it and install emby, point emby at my nas drives with movies and load emby client on my shield and push play? Dolby vision works that easy?

In theory yes.  But there are profile issue with DV content and all profiles are not supported.

[ssmokeyy 1]

So is there a better way to set it up for home use to just work with out problems 

 

[rbjtech 5284]

For remote direct play, it will be no different to local play, but you need to have the bandwidth.  You only have 50 Mbps Up - and it's the 'Up' that you need to act as a server.  Therefore depending what you are trying to stream, you may hit your upload limit.   You can't for example attempt to play a 4K Remux remotely - you simply do not have the available bandwidth to do that.  I would say you can stream 35-40Mbit reliably - no more.

On a more positive note - your 13600K has an excellent transcode quick sync video chip in it that will transcode many streams to lower bandwidth without issue  - but the downside is they will be tonemapped to SDR.  DV profiles 7 and DV8 will also tonemap ok (using the HDR10 soure), but DV profile 5 will look very odd - but these tend to be lower bandwidth anyway - thus DirectPlay is an option.

Your best bet is to install Emby and have a play - having all the systems on a host pointing to the same media source is perfectly workable on that powerful cpu/igpu combo. 

btw - If you do plan running them concurrently - then JF uses the same port as Emby (as JF is a fork of the old v2 of emby - they never bothered to change it..) so make sure you remove JF - or use a different Port..

[ssmokeyy 1]

I hate to beat a dead cat here but i fill like something is being missed.     So maxx of 4-5 total but that's never going to be all at the same time and 3 of those people live in our house. theater room , living room, bedroom..  Remote would be 2 people my brother who probably doesn't have a Dolby screen just normal 4k with no hdr and one other friend.  Again, none of these will all happen at te same time. I do not plan to give his service out to random people.     Really I care about the media playing in dolby vision more than anything in our theater room in our house. So bandwidth isn't a problem there. I have my network setup with 10gb back 1gb to each item to switch in the theater.  movie server will have 10gb to router.    Does Dolby vision work on the free account or is that only for paid customers? Maybe i will try setting it out with a couple movies and see how it works out.  Also i do not plan to put a gpu in this system just want to use the 13600k. I want to use the least amount of power possible.

[rbjtech 5284]

If you want to retain DV - then you NEED to direct play.  So it really depends on the source.  Streaming a 4K remux (at 50-85 Mbit/sec typically) then your uplink is not good enough - but if it's non UHD disk (provider) streamed content (typicaly 20-25 Mbit/sec) then your upload is fine for direct play.

If there is no need to transcode, then no need for premier, but you may have one off costs for the clients.  

And yes, the qsv in the 13600K (UHD 770) is MORE than ample for 5-6 x 4K streams - it is very very good.

Let us know if we can help further - but your best bet is to have a play and fire questions if you hit issues.

[ssmokeyy 1]

Thank u for all the help. I might still pay for premier to get the cinema trailers before the movies. I kinda like that idea.