Lifetime Premiere user on macOS: I feel ignored — we need a real plan, not silence

[hbunews 7]

Hi Emby team,

I paid for Lifetime Emby Premiere because I believed Emby would keep up. After years on Emby and now running a Mac mini (Apple Silicon), I’m honestly frustrated and disappointed — especially after spending just two days testing Jellyfin side-by-side.

This isn’t a rage post. It’s a reality check from a paying customer who feels left behind on macOS.

1) Hardware acceleration on macOS isn’t where it should be in 2025

On Emby (4.8.11.0), only H.264 hardware acceleration consistently engages for me. HEVC often falls back to software and hammers the CPU. Meanwhile, Jellyfin on the same machine uses Apple’s VideoToolbox reliably and — this was the gut punch — can hardware-accelerate HDR→SDR tone-mapping and even remap Dolby Vision Profile 5 to correct SDR colors on my library. A free competitor doing this while a paid product struggles is hard to swallow.

It’s been years since Apple Silicon launched. We’re still missing dependable HEVC HWA and modern, accurate HDR/Dolby Vision handling in Emby on macOS.

2) “Convert Media” appears stuck on software on macOS

Playback transcoding sometimes taps H.264 hardware, but server-side Convert Media does not (even when the target is H.264). My CPU pegs to 100% for long stretches. If there’s a way to offload these conversions with VideoToolbox on macOS, it’s either not implemented or not documented. Either way, that’s not acceptable for a paid, cross-platform server in 2025.

3) The ecosystem gap is widening (SSO, skip features, etc.)

• SSO/OIDC: This keeps coming up in Emby threads. Jellyfin already has a working plugin. I shouldn’t need workarounds for basic identity in a family server.

• Intro/credits/recap/ad skipping: Jellyfin’s plugins detect intros, credits, recaps, previews — even mid-roll ad segments — and can auto-skip from the server. In practice it’s more capable and less fiddly than what I get with Emby today.

• Music lyrics: Emby can display lyrics, yes, but the experience across clients is inconsistent and still feels behind competitors.

4) Why this matters now: the homelab shift from x86 to Apple Silicon

I’m one of many who have moved from x86/NAS to Mac mini for home self-hosting: lower idle power, quiet 24/7 operation, and strong integrated media engines. This shift is real — a growing slice of homelabbers are standardizing on macOS for exactly these reasons. Competitors (Jellyfin, Plex) have clearly invested in macOS paths and moved faster to meet this demand. Emby hasn’t kept pace. If macOS isn’t treated as a first-class server platform, paying users like me are going to drift away — not because we want to, but because we can’t wait forever.

5) Communication with Mac users has been poor

This is the part that stings: macOS requests sit for ages without a concrete answer. If there’s a roadmap, we don’t see it. If there’s progress, it isn’t communicated.

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What I expect as a paying customer

Give us specifics — dates and deliverables — not “we’ll look into it.”

• macOS hardware acceleration parity: Reliable HEVC encode/decode, hardware HDR→SDR tone-mapping, and correct Dolby Vision (P5) handling on Apple Silicon.

• Hardware-accelerated Convert Media on macOS: Not just playback transcoding — library conversions must use VideoToolbox where possible.

• Official SSO/OIDC: First-party, documented, maintained.

• Server-side skip segments: An endorsed, end-to-end solution for intro/credits/recap (plus guidance for DVR ad detection), with consistent client behavior.

• A transparent macOS roadmap: Public, mac-specific media-pipeline/HWA plan with milestones. No more guessing.

• Treat macOS as first-class: Assign ownership to the mac media pipeline, publish known issues/workarounds, and close the loop with actual releases.

I’m happy to provide logs, test builds, and real-world repro steps. But please don’t tell me to switch OS, “use software,” or wait indefinitely. I bought Lifetime because I wanted Emby to be my long-term home. Right now, on macOS, it isn’t.

Please meet your macOS users where we are — with a plan, not silence.

[DarS23 15]

Would love to see full hardware acceleration and sso impleted.

[Neminem 1516]

You people do realize that op is a AI Bot.