SOLVED: Podcasts working properly on Emby

[karlic 4]

The problem:

1. You have podcasts that are no longer available online, so can't use the podcasts plugin
2. The Music content type has inappropriate nomenclature (albums, songs), doesn't remember the last played location, and isn't able to display podcasts appropriately
3. The Audio books content type has inappropriate nomenclature (books, authors) and isn't able to display podcasts appropriately
4. The TV Shows content type is unable to play (or even display) mp3 or m4a files

The solution:

1. Create a folder for Emby called Podcasts
2. For each podcast you have (or intend to download), create a folder with the podcast's name
3. In each podcast's folder add a file called poster.jpg (used like a DVD cover for the podcast). This file should be portrait in orientation (or square) and have a resolution of 500x500 or better
4. In each podcast's folder add a file called fanart.jpg (used as a backdrop for the podcast). This file should be landscape in orientation and have a resolution as close to 1920x1080 as possible
5. In each podcast's folder add season directories (Season 01; Season 02; Season .. or Season 2023; Season 2024; Season ....)
6. Add your files to the appropriate season folder
7. You now have this directory structure:

   Podcasts/
   ├── Fascinating Discussions
   │   ├── fanart.jpg
   │   ├── poster.jpg
   │   ├── Season 01
   │   │   ├── S01E01 - The Price of Fish.mp3
   │   │   └── S01E02 - The Inside of a Pingpong Ball.mp3
   │   └── Season 02
   └── Funny Stories
       ├── fanart.jpg
       ├── poster.jpg
       ├── Season 2023
       │   └── How to Catch a Dragon.m4a
       ├── Season 2024
       └── Season 2025

    

8. Copy every mp3 (or m4a) file (and its metadata) as-is into an mp4 container and add a 1 frame-per-second video created and scaled from the podcast's fanart.jpg

   for filename in "Podcasts/Fascinating Discussions/Season 01/"*.mp3; do ffmpeg -r 1 -loop 1 -i "Podcasts/Fascinating Discussions/fanart.jpg" -i "${filename}" -vf "fps=1,scale=1920:1080:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=1920:1080:-1:-1:color=black,setsar=1,format=yuv420p" -c:a copy -shortest -crf 51 -tune stillimage -preset ultrafast -map_metadata 1 "${filename%.*}.mp4"; done

    

9. You will now have mp4 files in the season folders with the same name (different extension) as your mp3 and/or m4a files. The original mp3/m4a files are unchanged and can be deleted once you've proved the mp4s work. The 'video' component of the mp4 is just the fanart.jpg refreshing every second, but allows the mp4 to be seen and played with the TV Show content type. The audio is copied into the mp4 unchanged. The mp4 is slightly bigger than the original mp3/m4a
10. In the Emby app/webpage, create a new library with TV Show content type and select your Podcasts directory as its Folder. Leave a tick in Metadata Readers: Nfo, but remove ticks from all the other  metadata downloaders (TheTVDB, TheMovieDb, etc.)
11. In the Emby app/webpage, refresh the metadata for your Podcasts. Podcasts should display and play in a sensible fashion (see caveats below)
12. Play a podcast. You will hear the audio as normal and see the picture in fanart.jpg on the screen

Caveats:

1. fanart.jpg replaces any artwork (thumbnail) from the original mp3/m4a. So every (mp4) episode will have the same thumbnail. This may not be desirable if, say, the original thumbnail in each episode is a picture of the person interviewed in that episode. If the original podcast files contain 1920x1080 artwork, that can be extracted and used instead of fanart.jpg. Exiftool is your friend:

   exiftool -b -ThumbnailImage "How to Catch a Dragon.m4a" > thumbnail.jpg

    

2. Most of my podcast episodes display in the correct order by default. However, a few files downloaded with incorrect filenames. This can usually be solved either by renaming the file with its embedded title or adding the Season/Episode number (SXXEXX - ) to the start of the filename. Renaming with the embedded title can be done with exiftool:

   exiftool '-filename<title' Dragon_how_to_catch.mp4

    

3. The new (mp4) episodes will lose the modification date of the original mp3/m4a file. Most episodes will have a (Content)CreateDate that can be used to re-date the mp4 file. Once re-dated, the modification date can be used to move files into seasons if required:

   exiftool -d 'Podcasts/Fascinating Discussions/Season %Y/%f' '-filename<fileModifyDate' "Podcasts/Fascinating Discussions/Unseasoned/"*.mp4

    

4. I have very little experience of using ffmpeg, so please feel free to comment how the expression in 8. above can be optimised/enhanced

 

Edited January 6, 2025 by karlic
Clarified original files are unchanged

[Luke 42078]

HI, thanks for sharing.