The new Emby app: remove the animations

[pdeliot 10]

Hi,

 

The new Emby app is adding startup and closing animations.

It is fun, but after a wile it is becoming painful to have to wait (or click close) at each startup or closing.

Is there any option somewhere to disable theses animations?

[softworkz 5065]

This is explained in the FAQ: 

 

[PJM 17]

Can I add my voice to say those slow startup times are deadly and the animations just rub salt in the wound?  Please fix the slow startup, and until then at least give us the option to kill the animation.

Otherwise great app and I've had no other issues.  But on a multi-use media PC on which I may load Emby Theatre multiple times/day a fast app start is a priority for me.

[softworkz 5065]

2 minutes ago, PJM said:

Can I add my voice to say those slow startup times are deadly and the animations just rub salt in the wound?

Would you prefer a spinner to be shown for the same amont of time?

3 minutes ago, PJM said:

Please fix the slow startup, and until then at least give us the option to kill the animation.

Please read the FAQ. Without animation it doesn't go any faster. The reason for the slower startup is explained in detail in the linked post.

I'm afraid, but the only option is to leave the app open instead of closing it, when you need it frequently.

[pdeliot 10]

On my slow PC... Animations taking 12 seconds.. 

App startup is is taking 7 seconds when clicking on "hide"..

And what about the 2 seconds web browser.."closing" animation...

Just "kill" the app, or hide the windows when shuting down in the backgroud...

 

And it is much faster using the  web brower.. 3 seconds to launch Edge and Emby... It can be intalled as an app.

The only drawback was some codec not supported.. But the regressions looks to remove this benefit from the App... 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2025 by pdeliot

[softworkz 5065]

6 minutes ago, pdeliot said:

On my slow PC... Animations taking 12 seconds.. 

8.5s and this doesn't depend on whether a PC is slow or fast, it's always the same duration.

7 minutes ago, pdeliot said:

App startup is is taking 7 seconds when clicking on "hide"..

Then your PC is not slow but very fast.

These two things do not fit together. I'm afraid, but I don't think what you are telling is true.

And the closing animation takes 1000 milliseconds exactly.

[pdeliot 10]

With objective measures.. I'm about 10 seconds with "hide"...12 without  ...

And 2 using WebApp  

Regarding closing... it is taking probably 1 seconds of animation.. and few more for interface reactivity.. 

 

On XBOX I do not really care, but I have a different usage on PC... And all this is very long.

Honestly I had removed the WebApp from my PC long time ago because the Emby Theater was equivalent, even faster and have better codec support.

But I have reinstalled it now... And I'm using using both depending of my needs  .

 

WebApp is clearly befitting of Edge caching... less than 2 seconds startup and half a seconds shutdown...

When I just need to setup a record or, or remove a duplicate recording.. I do no want to spend 15 seconds to start and stop the app...

 

I have probably not the most common usage of the app.

And I can live with this (HEVC support on low end system XBOX is much more important  )... but any regression is always disappointing.

Edited January 2, 2025 by pdeliot

[softworkz 5065]

Do you know why the Web App is starting fast?

Because it's already running (= the browser). As mentioned in the article, we're using a separate bundled browser engine which takes some time to initialize. I could give you the illusion of the app starting faster by just keeping the additional browser processes alive. But that's almost the same as if you would just leave the Emby app open - you just don't see it and think you would "close" it.

[pdeliot 10]

I do not deny the technical challenge...

I'm not sure about the architecture choice.. But I know it is never easy, and any choice includes benefits an drawbacks...

As I said it is not critical.. just a painful regression.

 

And unfortunately, this kind of apps, using a runtime instead of compiled app, will always face this kind of behavior... 

 

[softworkz 5065]

13 minutes ago, pdeliot said:

Regarding closing... it is taking probably 1 seconds of animation.. and few more for interface reactivity.. 

You also need to subtract 200ms for the built-in Windows closing animation, which all windows are subject to, except for the Emby app  

[softworkz 5065]

2 minutes ago, pdeliot said:

And unfortunately, this kind of apps, using a runtime instead of compiled app, will always face this kind of behavior... 

That's not it. It's not about JIT vs. native compilation. It's the WebView2 browser engine.

[pdeliot 10]

Quote

You also need to subtract 200ms for the built-in Windows closing animation, which all windows are subject to, except for the Emby app 

Edited January 2, 2025 by pdeliot

[Chillout 110]

6 hours ago, softworkz said:

Without animation it doesn't go any faster. The reason for the slower startup is explained in detail in the linked post.

Why would the developer add a "hide" intro if it didnt improve the load time?  It reminds me of the "skip intro" you see in video games to improve load time.

My suggestion is to remove the option to hide the intro and replace it with a loading bar or load percentage like you see in windows updates... or a spinning circle would indicate load time too. I think the hide option is throwing people off. 

[softworkz 5065]

11 minutes ago, Chillout said:

Why would the developer add a "hide" intro if it didnt improve the load time? 

We added it because we feared that people wouldn't believe us that it's not the animation which is delaying the startup.

[softworkz 5065]

We also knew that x * thousands of users will be okay with it, but that there will be a few who are going to complain and that those will do it very loudly. 

It's unfortunate and far from ideal - that's for sure, I've given a detailed explanation already which you can read by following the link in the FAQ. It's not been an easy decision but I think it's the right one.

Besides that, you should know that you are talking to the person who has seen the new app starting literally thousands of times. Way more than anybody else will ever get on score.
I'm notoriously impatient and easily annoyed by things getting into the workflow, but from all the annoyance I had encountered and suffered during all the time, the startup time didn't even make it to the top 5 on the list. I actually found it beneficial that the timing is constant and reliable and from the animation, you can see how far it is and know which other things you can or cannot do during the remaining seconds. I got very used to it - especially since the animation was there. During the first months, there was just a spinner and that was far more annoying, since the endlessness nature of a spinner doesn't give you any reference in time space.

Anyway, that's what it is right now. Don't expect any major changes soon, it doesn't make sense to make any false promises. But there a few detail changes at least which can bring some slight improvements.

Thanks

[Chillout 110]

54 minutes ago, softworkz said:

Besides that, you should know that you are talking to the person who has seen the new app starting literally thousands of times. Way more than anybody else will ever get on score.
I'm notoriously impatient and easily annoyed by things getting into the workflow, but from all the annoyance I had encountered and suffered during all the time, the startup time didn't even make it to the top 5 on the list. I actually found it beneficial that the timing is constant and reliable and from the animation, you can see how far it is and know which other things you can or cannot do during the remaining seconds. I got very used to it - especially since the animation was there.

 

The irony of it wasnt wasted on me... you are the creator.  Once I read the FAQ I  dont have any issue with the animations and control my reflex to skip the intro but when you need a FAQ to explain the startup sequence, that is a problem.  My opinion is the "hide option" is a self-inflicted headache and if you remove that, people will just accept it.

I didnt realize the animation was in-self an indicator of load time which I think is cool but to the regular's like me programmed to measure load time in bars, percentage, or spinning circles its not something I'd notice..

[softworkz 5065]

3 minutes ago, Chillout said:

The irony of it wasnt wasted on me... you are the creator

It's less an irony than an indication for the amount of conviction involved in the decision, to go this way, even though it was clear what it means.

5 minutes ago, Chillout said:

My opinion is the "hide option" is a self-inflicted headache and if you remove that, people will just accept it.

I tend to agree. Anyway I hate to expose the ugliness that gets revealed when clicking it. Maybe decrease the opacity from release to release to literally fade it out, to see whether anybody will complain  

8 minutes ago, Chillout said:

I didnt realize the animation was in-self an indicator of load time

It doesn't have a dynamic duration. That was planned, but it turned out that the WebView2 is similar slow on all systems, no matter strong or weak and the range is less than 2s. 
What I meant is that when you've seen it a view times, you know the progress in a similar way like when viewing a progress bar while it's more pleasont to look at it (for me at least)

[pdeliot 10]

One suggestion (or maybe I've missed an existing feature  )...

Is it possible to have a icon to reduce the Window to keep the application opened and avoid closing/opening too often  on PC... ?

[PJM 17]

On 02/01/2025 at 11:36, softworkz said:

Would you prefer a spinner to be shown for the same amont of time?

Please read the FAQ. Without animation it doesn't go any faster. The reason for the slower startup is explained in detail in the linked post.

I'm afraid, but the only option is to leave the app open instead of closing it, when you need it frequently.

I did read the FAQ.  Unacceptably slow is still unacceptably slow even if you explain your reasoning.  Having read the remainder of this thread I see that our feedback is not welcome so will drop out here. 

[softworkz 5065]

14 minutes ago, PJM said:

I did read the FAQ.  Unacceptably slow is still unacceptably slow even if you explain your reasoning.  Having read the remainder of this thread I see that our feedback is not welcome so will drop out here. 

Feeback is always welcome. I never meant to express the opposite.

But I also want to set expecations straight instead of making promises that won't be fulfilled.

[softworkz 5065]

  

9 hours ago, pdeliot said:

One suggestion (or maybe I've missed an existing feature  )...

Is it possible to have a icon to reduce the Window to keep the application opened and avoid closing/opening too often  on PC... ?

Yes, that's very possible and if others agree that it's a viable solution for them, then we can surely look into making this possible (by option).

[Darius 14]

I am not sure about this part where you say that it was taking the same amount of time before the animations was implemented. I tried an older build of emby-theater on arch which is based on a previous version and it opens up instantly.

The way I see it is that there were some changes to the code that made startup slower thus the need for an animation stronger?

Other than that when using the previous versions of emby it opens up much faster. As you said, the hide button does nothing, just makes the animation go but you still have to wait, I will try to post a video comparison with the older version or something to that effect when I'll be booting into arch.

In terms of performance it's bit hard to deny the regression. You can notice it visually.

[Neminem 1516]

@Dariusthe explanation is here

And here is the long version.

 

[SLMK 19]

On 1/3/2025 at 8:46 AM, softworkz said:

I could give you the illusion of the app starting faster by just keeping the additional browser processes alive. But that's almost the same as if you would just leave the Emby app open - you just don't see it and think you would "close" it.

I would actually like that option. I understand the slow launch, even if its a bit annoying.

On my media PC I only really ever use Firefox and Emby, an option for the app that will launch all the backend processes at startup, and keep it running when the interface is closed would work very well for me. Even if this is functionally doing the same as leaving Emby open, using it with a remote makes minimising the app difficult, so I am always closing and opening it again, multiple times a night.

I don't really care if it would only be the illusion of speed, in practice I would still save me a fair bit of time. And as the launch process frequently fails for me, requiring a second launch attempt, it would also presumably improve the reliability.

[softworkz 5065]

@SLMK- thanks for your sharing your opinion. 

We are indeed considering to implement this as a "fast-start" option in the next major update.