MediaBrowser vs Emby

[delicac 2]

All, I am a long time user of MediaBrowser. I run a completely local setup - Windows 7 PC with all media stored locally using MB via MediaCentre, hooked up to a TV/Hi-Fi for playback. I would like to move to Emby but am totally confused by all the different applications and options. Can someone please advise what is the best Emby product to go for - all i need is local playback of movies/tv shows on a Windows 10 (or Windows 7 if preferred) PC hooked up to my TV? Many thanks

[bluemonkey07 590]

What your reason for wanting to change?

[delicac 2]

Mainly development - obviously the old MB has not been developed for some time, and as my collection of media grows the old MB is struggling to cope. I am not interested in the web streaming or mobile functionality, it isn't clear to me which is the best route forward with the new products on offer

[aspdend 177]

@@delicac To be honest, I am not confident that Emby Theatre is mature enough to handle my day to day needs, particularly as I use a htpc with PCI tuners onboard so my htpc is still running Windows 7. Which means I am using Emby for media centre. the htps has the emby server and emby for media centre on board and all my media is stored locally on a server. I don't stream to other devices and just use my htpc attached to my main tv to watch content although my setup can stream to various devices, we tend to watch the one TV for all content and my kids are too young to watch anything on tablets etc. I personally think this is the best solution for my needs and also for yours. 

 

TL:DR emby server and emby for media centre on your htpc - if running windows 7

[legallink 187]

@@delicac it depends on what your use case is, but generally speaking, the move from mediabrowser to emby is probably a very good move and I would be surprised if you weren't happy with the move.

 

You said a Windows 7/10 machine hooked up to a tv.  The real question is how are you interfacing with that machine (remote vs wireless mouse and keyboard) and what you are expecting out of it?  I use Emby Theater on my desktop PC, but for the TV in our living room I have found streaming specific devices to be the most efficient at their functionality (Apple TV 4 currently, previously used a Roku 3).  With a Windows pc hooked up to the TV, I never had the responsiveness I wanted and WAF factor went down.  Switching to streaming specific devices increased WAF factor tremendously.

 

Emby Server will be able to handle your growing library.  There are several users on here with huge libraries and are quite happy.  I'm running a fairly small library with about 15TB of media (Blu-rays predominantly with maybe 500GB of music and 2TB of photos).

 

Emby theater however is still fairly young, but I use it and like it.  However, I've never used it with a remote.  It directly plays everything, has live tv, so for me, it works well.

[Luke 42085]

Mainly development - obviously the old MB has not been developed for some time, and as my collection of media grows the old MB is struggling to cope. I am not interested in the web streaming or mobile functionality, it isn't clear to me which is the best route forward with the new products on offer

 

You can do a completely local setup. I think the combination of Emby Server and Emby Theater will be great for you. You can learn more about Emby Theater here:

 

http://emby.media/community/index.php?/blog/1/entry-290-introducing-the-new-emby-theater-for-windows-and-the-web/