Storing media for travel on a Mi Box

[mrmarkfr 8]

We are planning on renting a cottage in a few months, and would like to bring media with us to watch on the TV (no internet).  Has anyone had success with storing media externally on something like a MiBox, and playing back locally, the same way you would do it on an android tablet?

[Luke 42077]

Hi, I don't know about this particular question, but I do know there's a lot of Mibox users around here.

[horstepipe 422]

Couldn’t you just sideload the standard android app (non Android TV) and use the emby download feature?

[mrmarkfr 8]

30 minutes ago, horstepipe said:

Couldn’t you just sideload the standard android app (non Android TV) and use the emby download feature?

I'm not sure, I don't have the MiBox yet, am looking for confirmation before I buy one.

[rbjtech 5284]

The issue is, without an internet connection, even loading a local emby app with pre-downloaded movies is going to be risky as it may want to talk back to your emby 'server' which it can't do.  Also any media player is not going to have much local storage anyway.

It's probably safer to just use a standard media player app (vlc or something) and download/copy your media to a large usb stick - and playback directly from that via the miBox.

Edited June 2, 2023 by rbjtech

[mrmarkfr 8]

8 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

The issue is, without an internet connection, even loading a local emby app with pre-downloaded movies is going to be risky as it may want to talk back to your emby 'server' which it can't do.  Also any media player is not going to have much local storage anyway.

It's probably safer to just use a standard media player app (vlc or something) and download/copy your media to a large usb stick - and playback directly from that via the miBox.

I guess what I'm looking for is to see if there's a way to make a MiBox act like my S6 Tab Lite, download content, play from downloads.  I was planning on using an external drive for storage.

[rbjtech 5284]

8 minutes ago, mrmarkfr said:

I guess what I'm looking for is to see if there's a way to make a MiBox act like my S6 Tab Lite, download content, play from downloads.  I was planning on using an external drive for storage.

yes, absolutely - you would need to set the download location to your hard drive - but the 'App' on the Mi would be the same App as on your S6 - (use the Android App, not the AndroidTv App).

But my concern remains on the lack of internet.  Maybe turn off the internet on your S6 for a couple of hours and see if you can playback emby downloaded content .. ?

[mrmarkfr 8]

5 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

yes, absolutely - you would need to set the download location to your hard drive - but the 'App' on the Mi would be the same App as on your S6 - (use the Android App, not the AndroidTv App).

But my concern remains on the lack of internet.  Maybe turn off the internet on your S6 for a couple of hours and see if you can playback emby downloaded content .. ?

The S6 has never had an issue, it comes up with a choice of servers OR downloaded content.  I've used it quite a bit on flights.  The idea behind using Emby is that anything we watch on vaca will be flagged as watched on Emby.

 

[rbjtech 5284]

43 minutes ago, mrmarkfr said:

The S6 has never had an issue, it comes up with a choice of servers OR downloaded content.  I've used it quite a bit on flights.  The idea behind using Emby is that anything we watch on vaca will be flagged as watched on Emby.

 

ok - cool - so no reason why the Mi is not exactly the same then. 

[mrmarkfr 8]

I ended up buying a Mecool KM7, was able to sideload v7 of the Emby client, and download media to a microSD for playback offline.  Everything so far seems to be working as I want, and I now have a travel media solution to play on TV's!!  It will also be the box to stream local content on the patio.

Thanks for the help.

[mrmarkfr 8]

strange issue is now happening.  Downloaded content plays, but when I try playing from my server locally, , I get the message "no compatible streams currently available"  The test file is only a 7mpbs h264 file.  Is there another companion program I should be loading, or changing a setting in the server?

[mrmarkfr 8]

The box was acting strange, so I had to reset and reinstall the software.  The downside now is all the media I transferred over to the SD card is now not recognized.  Is there a way to have Emby scan the folder for previously downloaded content?

 

[mrmarkfr 8]

reviving an old thread.  Fired the box up after not using it for a year, and have a strange issue.  All my old media is not showing in the interface, but I am able to download new media.  Another strange fact is that the new media I'm downloading is saving in the same directories as the old media, ie, new seasons of a tv show are downloaded into the existing TV show folder, as a new season, but Emby won't recognize any of the old media.  

 

Any ideas for resolution short of re-downloading the media I want to watch?

[Luke 42077]

6 hours ago, mrmarkfr said:

reviving an old thread.  Fired the box up after not using it for a year, and have a strange issue.  All my old media is not showing in the interface, but I am able to download new media.  Another strange fact is that the new media I'm downloading is saving in the same directories as the old media, ie, new seasons of a tv show are downloaded into the existing TV show folder, as a new season, but Emby won't recognize any of the old media.  

 

Any ideas for resolution short of re-downloading the media I want to watch?

Hi, what are you running Emby Server on?

[mrmarkfr 8]

Server is running on Windows 11, up to date with auto updates.

[Luke 42077]

What old media are you referring to exactly?

[mrmarkfr 8]

The old media was the media I had loaded last summer.  I suspect it has to do with when I started loading on new media this summer, and flagged it to download unwatched media only (which I think used to work).  From what I've read on the forums, this can now cause old media to be lost, even though the files are still on the memory stick.  I suspect I'll have to wait for the next rev (4.8.9??) to have the issue resolved, and re-download the missing media back to the device

[Luke 42077]

HI, yes apologies but you might be right.