Feedback from the new guy

[twhiting9275 11]

So, it's been a few weeks, and from what I've seen, this is far from a seamless transition from Plex , though, honestly it should be.

A few (noticable) things:

1: Media
This is (almost) always imported correctly, however, there are still pretty large issues. One that simply cannot be corrected properly as of now.
 - Deleting an item from Emby does not mean 'delete it from the server'. This needs to be corrected!  One should be able to remove the item from EMBY without having to worry that their data will be removed from the server itself. NEVER touch the server data unless explicitly instructed to do so.

- There have been countless times where Emby itself gets the series name wrong, despite having all of the proper pointers. A couple of examples of this (so far). There are many, many more, but right off the top of my head, these are the most recent. Respect proper labeling. 

•  Loki  - in the filesystem as Loki (2021) , Emby imported this as something entirely different . Like no clue where it got the name "family law" from this, at all
• Animaniacs . Oof. This one was entirely screwed up by Emby. Like unfixable, because Emby continues to insist that things are one way, when they aren't
  There are two individual Animaniacs series. Not one.  IMDB tt6951546 and tt0105941. TMDB 82-animaniacs and 107124-animaniacs.  Instead of respecting this and listing them separately (as they are in the filesystem, as Animaniacs (2020) and Animaniacs (1993) , and having the info updated, Emby STILL lumps these two together, despite being in two clearly different directories!

2: Browser
This is a browser. Respect the browser. it is not an "app". ctrl-click should literally open up a new tab. it should not open the link up in the same page. Right click should open up browser options. Not app options. I cannot stress this enough. Having to 'go back', then try to scroll down to where I was previously when dealing with mislabeled media is just ridiculous. Again, this is not an 'app', this is a browser. Treat it as such

3: Apps (on devices)
Handling of things should be universal, across the board. Every app, every device should handle, display, and process things the same way. Chapters should be shown in the media, while playing (otherwise, what's the point on chapters). Info, cast and crew not necessary, but good additions. Unfortunately, this is not done at all. The experience is so vastly different that not even subtitles are handled the same way. Some devices process {am} {/am} , others (Roku) display the raw code to the user, and this shouldn't be at all. This isn't a 'device' issue, this is an 'app' issue, I've verified this one 

4: File scanning 
This is just handled completely wrong here . Horribly wrong. 

• Latest media (typically TV shows) should never be cleared out when 'file scanning' starts. Append to it, never wipe it out entirely. This happens every single time a scan is started.
• Scanning should ONLY be processing info necessary to display new files. That's it . Everything else should be done as a separate process, away from the initial scan itself. I can't stress this enough. 
• If it takes more than 10 minutes to complete a basic scan of media, you're doing it wrong. It really is that simple. Get file info, add to the database, move on to the next. Right now, scans take days to complete (and half the time barely ever hit 95%).. This is an Emby issue, not a library issue, and prevents new media from showing up.

5: Logins
Displaying a list of users (by default) on the home screen is just an unprofessional and bad idea and asking for bad things all around. Provide the user/password screen and links to emby connect, and that's it. Yes, I'm aware that accounts can be 'hidden', but that is not on by default, and shouldn't be required for proper security. Drop the list of users, require a user/password entry for remote, or emby connect.

6: Multiple versions of movies
This one threw me, because, honestly, it shouldn't be this complicated to do. Requiring folders and file names to match exactly is , well, it's the wrong approach to this, entirely, and confusing , especially when it's not clearly documented . that's a whole different story though. Realistically, it should be as simple as using - Extended Edition , or - Extended Version , or even [Extended Version] , and taking just that info , as opposed to extensions and the like and displaying them (or not in this case) along with it.

 

 

 

 

 

[pwhodges 2012]

14 minutes ago, twhiting9275 said:

So, it's been a few weeks, and from what I've seen, this is far from a seamless transition from Plex , though, honestly it should be.

Emby doesn't aim to be a clone of Plex, so differences are to be expected.  As for recognition of movies or series, some problems have arisen recently because of changes in how TVDB and TMDB handle searches in their latest apis; searches which used to succeed started to fail, and adjustments have been made to improve this, but are not all there yet.  But it is not hard to force recognition by adding the database id to the folder name.

Quote

Right click should open up browser options. Not app options. I cannot stress this enough.

Browsers are often used as containers for apps, and those apps can use right-click for their own purposes.  This is not strange.

Quote

Handling of things should be universal, across the board. Every app, every device should handle, display, and process things the same way. [...] Some devices process {am} {/am} , others (Roku) display the raw code to the user, and this shouldn't be at all. This isn't a 'device' issue, this is an 'app' issue, 

Emby are working towards making the apps more uniform, but it's a big job.  As for the Roku and subtitles, this can happen if the Roku is asked to play directly - the Roku itself is limited in its built-in handling of ASS subtitles when files are direct-played (which is why there's a setting for you to force transcoding when those subtitles are required).

Paul

 

 

 

[Luke 42083]

Quote

Chapters should be shown in the media, while playing (otherwise, what's the point on chapters). Info, cast and crew not necessary, but good additions. Unfortunately, this is not done at all. 

Hi, why do you think this is not done at all?

[twhiting9275 11]

12 hours ago, pwhodges said:

Emby doesn't aim to be a clone of Plex

Good! Plex has become far too bloated and convoluted, it's a mess right now!

12 hours ago, pwhodges said:

it is not hard to force recognition by adding the database id to the folder name.

Do you really expect indivviduals to go through 1000s of folders and files, lookup TMDB/IMDB stuff and add them? That's just ridiculous. The title and year should be enough to get there, and if not, don't match the movie/show , show it as unidentified and let the owners manually do it. THIS, Emby gets points for, as it's not hard to add that after the fact.

BTW:
In at least one of the listed cases, this doesn't work. Or it does, partly, but pretty much just ignores  the other part. So, I'm left with Emby refusing to acknowledge, or identify a show properly, simply because they'd rather do things their way.

12 hours ago, pwhodges said:

This is not strange.

It is absolutely strange, when the user has to continually click 'back', be taken to the top of a page containing 100s of items just to get back to where they were. this is convoluted at best. Respect the browser.

12 hours ago, pwhodges said:

there's a setting for you to force transcoding

Which is pointless and useless. Been there, done that. Zero effect on this issue.
Again, this isn't a Roku issue. This is an Emby issue. If it was Roku, it would have done the exact same thing on Plex. 

6 hours ago, Luke said:

why do you think this is not done at all?

Because it doesn't.
There is, quite literally, no way, to pull chapters up while watching on   Roku, Apple TV, or many others, so, no, it's not done at all. While there is on Windows and Xbox, again, this gets back to uniformity.

 

[Luke 42083]

Ok for the apps where it is missing we are working on it.

[GrimReaper 4749]

2 hours ago, twhiting9275 said:

In at least one of the listed cases, this doesn't work. Or it does, partly, but pretty much just ignores  the other part. So, I'm left with Emby refusing to acknowledge, or identify a show properly

I'm quite positive if you open separate topic for the issues your facing with recognition, we'd be able to assist you once specifics are known and we can focus on troubleshooting that. 

[GrimReaper 4749]

18 hours ago, twhiting9275 said:

If it takes more than 10 minutes to complete a basic scan of media, you're doing it wrong. It really is that simple. Get file info, add to the database, move on to the next. Right now, scans take days to complete (and half the time barely ever hit 95%).. This is an Emby issue, not a library issue, and prevents new media from showing up.

That is largely dependant on your selected library options, options affecting that the most are Video preview thumbnails (10-second BIFs or 5-minute Chapter markers) and Intro Skip detection - if you have those configured as both When media is added and as a Scheduled task, then yes, it'll have significant impact on your scanning times, especially on large libraries. Configure both of those as Scheduled task only and your scanning times should improve considerably and those will run as a separate tasks on set intervals.