Unified Media — an Android TV / Google TV client for Emby (beta, looking for testers)

Sunday at 07:11 PM

Unified Media

Hi all — following up on my teaser post from earlier this month. Unified Media is ready for a few more eyes, so I'm sharing a small beta here and inviting anyone who's interested to try it and tell me what breaks.

What it is

Unified Media is an Android TV / Google TV client for your Emby server, built by me (a one-person shop, DADavisDesigns) because I wanted a TV interface that behaves the way I actually watch: fast, remote-friendly browsing, a proper Live TV guide, and reminders for the things I record. It connects to your own Emby server with your own sign-in — no separate account, nothing hosted by me. It was built and tested on Google TV, and it runs on Android TV 6.0 and up.

What works today

A TV-first Home with eight sections: Live TV, Movies, TV Shows, Collections, Recorded TV, Music, Search, and Settings — backdrop art, latest-added rails, and a hide-watched option.
Movies, shows, and collections browsing built for the D-pad: hold to glide through a library, an A–Z jump bar, sorting, and detail screens with trailers.
Playback with resume you can trust — pick up a movie, episode, or recording where you left it — plus D-pad seek (left/right), an Up Next prompt, and a Next Episode button for series watching.
D-pad seek the way Emby does it: every left or right press moves 30 seconds, forward or back — so quick repeated presses add up evenly: 30 seconds after one press, a minute after two, 90 seconds after three.
Live TV with a full program guide (including search/jump to a program), tuning, and single or series recordings with editable timer settings.
Reminders: an on-screen card before a recording starts — and if you follow a team, you can set a team rule (Wizards, Capitals, whoever you follow) and get one reminder card per game, a few minutes before it starts (you pick how far ahead: 5, 10, or 15 minutes).
Music with a fullscreen Now Playing screen, background playback, and a queue.
Two themes (a dark one and a light one) and a full Settings screen to tune startup, playback, audio/subtitle preferences, and more.

A fuller feature list, install steps, and a reminders walkthrough are in the companion docs, all included in the download:

Install & first-time setup (02-install-and-setup)
What the app offers (03-features)
How reminders work (04-reminders-guide)
How to report a finding (05-feedback)

One thing to know before your first launch

The very first launch takes noticeably longer than you'd expect — the app is building your library view from your server and saving a copy on the device. Every launch after that opens fast from that saved copy and just checks for what's new. The same one-time build happens again if you change servers or users. There's a card on screen explaining it while it happens; after that first time, you won't see it again.

Honest limitations (it's a beta)

One small thing that surprises people: when a reminder or recording card is on screen, its buttons need a brief press-and-hold, not a quick click.
Emby only for now. (The "unified" in the name is the long-term idea.)
One user / one saved sign-in per device.
No skip-intro, sleep timer, playback-speed control, or parental controls yet.

How to try it

Download the beta bundle from this shared folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DbVYPlPZiiXFcyZTCfqNl2QPSf4f8paH?usp=sharing

The bundle has the app install file, an optional server plugin that syncs reminders across your devices (one DLL, copy it in and restart Emby — steps in the install doc), and the companion docs.

You'll need an Android TV or Google TV device and your own Emby server. The step-by-step install and first-time setup are in the install doc linked above — it's a sideload install, and the walkthrough takes you from the file to your Home screen.

Feedback that helps most

If you try it, I'd genuinely like to hear: your device (TV model or streaming box) and its Android TV version, your Emby server version, what you were doing when something went wrong, and whether it happens every time or just once. First impressions count too — if the first launch or the Home screen confused you, that's exactly what I need to hear before this goes any wider.

Please keep feedback in this thread — that's where I'm reading, and it keeps everything in one place for other testers too.

The feedback doc in the bundle has the short list of what makes a report easy to act on.

Thanks to everyone who asked about it after the teaser — this is the share I said I'd make, so here it is. Be gentle, but be honest.

hoopsdavis