Skin and Library Question

[daniel.bmyer 11]

I just recently installed Emby for Kodi Next Gen on my Ugoos AM6b+ and coreelec. I am trying a few diff skins but having some issues.

I'm trying to figure out how the skins work with the libraries.  For example currently I'm using Arctic: Zephyr - Reloaded.

When I go to Skin Settings, Customize Home Menu, for Movies I can choose an item for the menu. I click that and I get a screen with option such as Video Library>, Music Library> etc. If I click Video Library I see a number of options such as

EMBY: Movies (movies)

EMBY Dynamic Movies (movies)

Emby: TV Shows (tvshows)

Emby Dynamiv TV Shows (tvshows)

I'm a little unclear what the differences are between dynamic and non dynamic and are these grabbing all tv shows that are on my emby server TV Shows library?

If I want to best replicate Emby that I use on my Nvidia Shield, should I be using Embuary or a diff skin and if so how do I install that one?  I'm really new to all this and struggling a bit. It was so easy on the Shield but I wanted to take advantage of my new tv and full dolby vision.

 

edti:  Two more questions came to mind.

1. Do I actually need to import my movies and tv shows or can I just point to the server? 

2. I see an Embuary skin the jamal repository. Is that the one I need to use?

Edited January 11 by daniel.bmyer
adding info

[js28194 36]

My understand is it depends on what you setup when you first installed "Kodi for Emby" service.  The very first prompt is either "Dynamic" or "Native mode"  So above you will always see both choices.  Also my understanding is Dynamic libraries utilizes "http streaming??"  vs. Native uses direct SMB access.

Been a while and my brain is a bit fried at the moment.  I personally have always used native mode but for general users I don't think it has much of difference and dynamic is preferred as it brings some other features (that I don't use) into the mix.  I don't recall what those are, nor is it stickied somewhere.

Also, to your other question.  You will always import the library metadata into the local video.db in Kodi.  You're data stays in the Emby Server and syncs to Kodi's local database (it seems in damn near real time) provided you have the "Kodi Companion" plugin installed on your Emby Server.

The other question I don't know.  I use AEON MQ 7.

Edited January 26 by js28194

[quickmic 1703]

Quote

Also my understanding is Dynamic libraries utilizes "http streaming??"  vs. Native uses direct SMB access.

That's two different things and all in the FAQ. Dynamic libraries used for unsynced content and could be native (file access) or addon (http stream).

Native does not necessarily mean smb, it simple means direct file access, and how you do that depends on you. There are several options but not the plugin's business..

[rotational467 43]

Add-on mode makes your Kodi behave like any other Emby client. In Native mode your Kodi will (attempt to) access the source media files directly from the Kodi client instead of being received as a stream from the Emby server. Personally I've always used Add-on mode, I figure Native is one of those "you'll know if you need it" type options.

FWIW, I had a lot of small issues and things I didn't even realize were problems with E4K + AZ Reloaded. At @quickmic's suggestion I tried the Estuary Mod V2 skin from the KodiNerds repo and found it a much better experience. I'd recommend at least installing it and having it available to validate whether a particular problem you are having is skin-related or it.

I really wanted to like Embuary but it's just too buggy and I don't think it's getting any real new dev (I could be wrong, I haven't paid attention in a while).

I've don't think I've messed with the Dynamic libraries. Again I figure if I end up trying to do something that needs them I'll know, so I must not have yet. 

As @js28194mentioned, be sure on the Emby server to install the Kodi Companion plugin.