Emby Theater for Linux

[adam.niescierowicz 6]

@@denz I will follow your lead and use kodi until the package Sir Luke mentioned is released. So, any tips you'd offer me. I have a Pi right here waiting for your assistance. It has nothing on it. So guide me, denz. And many thanks in advance. I got it when the light flashed that it could be used as a client as opposed to a setup box, which will limit my use. With a Pi lots of other things can be installed and used. Though I'm also eyeing a Roku, but now I'm leaning towards implementing the Pi. Anyway, denz, please lead me on. Thanks!

You can download OSMC and add emby addon. That configuration works great.

[morpheus1 2]

You can download OSMC and add emby addon. That configuration works great.

I assume it's the "kodi" app that I will add? As I don't see one for OSMC. Thanks a lot for your earlier response.

[morpheus1 2]

You can download OSMC and add emby addon. That configuration works great.

OSMC? Yes. emby client app; well, I could use some help. Please. How to get an install it.

[morpheus1 2]

 Then you can from the main emby.media download page download Emby for kodi links.

@@denz this is the part I don't understand, as I'm about to dump OSMC for librelec.tv that you suggested.

[denz 501]

Ignore that you install the addon once you install librelec. I haven't done the install from scratch in months so will do it tomorrow.

[morpheus1 2]

Ignore that you install the addon once you install librelec. I haven't done the install from scratch in months so will do it tomorrow.

@@denz, thanks a lot.

I found the instructions on emby's website, but I still can't figure it out. Perhaps Sir @@Luke might pitch in. But here's the link I found and can't understand, as I type LIbreELEC is installing to the card:

https://emby.media/emby-for-kodi.html

[morpheus1 2]

@@denz, thanks a lot.

I found the instructions on emby's website, but I still can't figure it out. Perhaps Sir @@Luke might pitch in. But here's the link I found and can't understand, as I type LIbreELEC is installing to the card:

https://emby.media/emby-for-kodi.html

Forget I asked @@denz and Sir @@Luke. EmbyCon was available through LibreELEC's "addon" options. I searched for it and there it was, along with the server. I installed EmbyCon and moved on. Why would they have the server, isn't Kodi itself a server; would it not be trouble installing one media server on top of another? Anyway, off to give this setup a try now.

[marcelhehle 1]

Has anybody ever installed Emby Theater f. Linux on Fedora? If so, I'd be interested in feedback or lessons learned.

 

I did try yesterday, but it didn't fully work:

- npm, mpv and git can be installed via dnf

- electron and node-mpv need to be installed via npm

- I didn't bother about nodejs-legacy ... there is no DNF package, but I could try to install via npm (didn't try that yesterday)

- git clone https://github.com/MediaBrowser/emby-theater-electron.git works fine

- cd emby-theater-linux; electron main.js ... I installed electron into /opt. Therefore my call looks different. Otherwise it works

 

 

The result is an application that starts and lets me browse my media. So far everything looks well.

 

Problem: Once I start a movie I get video but no audio and if I press a button on my remote during playback I only get a very basic OSD (probl. mpv default and not Emby). Also: I can't exit a running movie by pressing ESC or back. I have to manually kill the process.

 

So my questions would be:

- Do I need a specific version of electron? I took to latest.

- Do I need nodejs-legacy? I didn't find that package right away on Fedora but I also didn't really dig into it

- I wrote a mpv.conf file. After starting Emby I saw that most of those options can be set in the video settings. Do I need a mpv.conf file? Could it cause problems if there are different settings?

- Audio ... any special instructions for that? I had a look into pavucontrol while Emby was playing a movie without sound. No application was listed in the "playback" section

[Luke 42077]

What version of electron are you on?

[marcelhehle 1]

v1.7.10

 

Right off their webpage: https://github.com/electron/electron/releases

[marcelhehle 1]

I repeated the installation with Electron v1.4.16

 

Now, if I boot the HTPC I can browse, have sound and can start a movie. At first the movie plays fine. Only glitch: I don't get a proper OSD, but instead a white rectangle with a bar increasing left to right as I jump forward.

 

BUT ... if I leave the movie I get a messed up screen: it looks like the the old screen doesn't get wiped and the new screen get painted on top of the current one. I still can browse in that mode, but every screen gets painted on top of the previous ones ... which completely messes up the display.

 

If I try to play a movie in that state I get the rotating ring and nothing happens any more. Stuck.

 

So I suppose that my installation is mostly fine and that there is only a problem in the communication between Emby and mpv.

 

Also when I start Emby from the cmd-line there is no relevant output. After I exit from playing the first movie the output stays silent.

[Luke 42077]

Yea i think the latest 1.4.x electron version really is the ideal one. On newer versions we've seen window transparency issues.

 

However based on your comments I think a little new development is needed for Linux. 

[marcelhehle 1]

I've been playing around a bit yesterday. My experience was that after a fresh boot I get sound, but somehow the OSD is broken: within the movie its only the white bar. Once I press "Q" the movie screen disappears and I see the normal Emby OSD which I even can use! ... Press play and the movie with the white bar takes over. Press quit and I'm back on the metadata-screen.

 

Overall with 1.4.x electron the UI is stable and without problems. But if I forcefully quit Emby I can't get a movie to play on the second try. ... I kill Emby, restart it, ... than I'm able to browse the metadata, just when I want to start a movie I get the rotating ring. Looks like if there is still some old processes sitting in the background.

 

If it helps, that's how I installed:

 

Global Install:

su -
dnf install npm
dnf install git
dnf install mpv
npm -g install electron@1.4.16
cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/MediaBrowser/emby-theater-electron.git
npm install node-mpv

exit
cd /opt
electron ./main.js

Local Install:

su -
dnf install npm
dnf install git
dnf install mpv
npm -g install electron@1.4.16
exit 

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/MediaBrowser/emby-theater-electron.git
npm install node-mpv
electron ./main.js

Both installations show the same problems in the end.

[haraldov 10]

@@marcelhehle, make sure you install the local node-modules because ET is using a customized version. Use also the newest mpv release. Look here for my installation notes: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/42868-emby-theater-for-linux/?p=455189

# Make sure you install the local node-mpv package because ET is using a customized version 
# https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/42868-emby-theater-for-linux/?p=455028
#  Electron can be installed globally, but node-mpv must be installed locally.

# Listing the contents of the node_modules directory
pi@raspberrypi:~/emby-theater-electron $ ls node_modules
is-linux  is-osx  is-windows  long  node-mpv  power-off  sleep-mode

# Install the local node modules
# https://docs.npmjs.com/getting-started/installing-npm-packages-locally
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cd /home/pi/emby-theater-electron/
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ npm install

- I can't exit a running movie by pressing ESC

- Once I press "Q" the movie screen disappears and I see the normal Emby OSD

I have these problem as noted above on my pc with Ubuntu 16.04 with electron@1.4.16, electron@1.4.14, electron@1.7.10 and electron@1.3.4. The OSD is not broken for me. 

 

@@Luke, when I start playing a video and pause with the spacebar I get no OSD showing for 5 seconds. When I press "q" I get the OSD and when I then press Esc I am back on the metadata-screen. This is tested with the four electron version mention earlier and because of this I do not think this is a window transparency issue.

 

BUT ... if I leave the movie I get a messed up screen: it looks like the the old screen doesn't get wiped and the new screen get painted on top of the current one. I still can browse in that mode, but every screen gets painted on top of the previous ones ... which completely messes up the display.

 

If I try to play a movie in that state I get the rotating ring and nothing happens any more. Stuck.

With my Ubuntupc with Intel processor and i915 videocard I do not get these problem with ET as marcelhehle mention with the electron version tested below. But with my raspberry pi with arm processor and vc4 videocard on dietpi I experience the display get messed up as marcelhehle describes with electron@1.7.10, but not with electron@1.4.14-16. 

With electron@1.4.16, electron@1.4.15, electron@1.4.14 and electron@1.7.10 when I leave the movie and try to start a new movie nothing happens. I only get a rotating ring.

 

It looks like electron behaves different with Intel and arm processor.

Hope this helps.

Edited January 17, 2018 by haraldov

[haraldov 10]

@@marcelhehle, which hardware (cpu, videocard) do you have on your device? It looks like electron behaves different with Intel and arm processor.

[marcelhehle 1]

@haraldov: I tried your advice ... didn't work. 

 

I'm running on Intel. Its Fedora 25 on an i3-7300T and a Nvidia Quadro P400 graphics card with the proprietary Nvidia driver from rpmfusion.

[blue-wizard 2]

I just get a black screen when I launch.

This is after a fresh install of raspbian on a Pi3B.

 

EDIT:

 

Installed electron@1.4.16 and it seems to be working now... so far

 

EDIT 2:

 

I can navigate, and play music.

 

When I remote control it, play and then stop a song, the remote client thinks the song is still playing and continues to count the time.

 

Navigating the menu is very laggy, and loading an item takes forever.

 

When I play a video file I get audio but no video.

Edited February 10, 2018 by blue-wizard

[blue-wizard 2]

UPDATE:

 

I managed to get video playing after making the following changes:

 

1. I set gpu_mem_1024=320  in /boot/config.txt
2. I saw in the console that when I went to play a video it tried and failed to find it in the filesystem:
   
   
   fs access result for path: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, access '/TV/DARK/Season 01/SHOW - S01E01 - Episode WEBDL-1080p.mkv'
   Play URL : https://[my IP]:8920/emby/Videos/6e7fea0abd65a06970b6c4be51e71ab5/stream.mkv?Static=true&mediaSourceId=6e7fea0abd65a06970b6c4be51e71ab5&deviceId=raspberrypi&api_key=761b2678e63e44b9970f6e0bd70f850b&Tag=21952bbbd63cf18c660460a3b8346dde
   
   So I mounted the network fileshare folder where I am storing /TV/ to a local /TV/ mount, where it was looking.

 

However two problems remain:

1. The video stutters A LOT to the point where it's unwatchable, even at 720p.
2. The video launches in a separate window, not in the Emby window. So I have to manually minimize the Emby window to see the video playing.

[denz 501]

Do you have mpeg2 licence for rpi and check settings for video that it has rpi for hardware acceleration. As mpv doesnt deinterlace i use the rpi version of emby not this one.

Edited February 11, 2018 by denz

[BurntTech 6]

 

UPDATE:

 

I managed to get video playing after making the following changes:

 

1. I set gpu_mem_1024=320  in /boot/config.txt
2. I saw in the console that when I went to play a video it tried and failed to find it in the filesystem:

    

   fs access result for path: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, access '/TV/DARK/Season 01/SHOW - S01E01 - Episode WEBDL-1080p.mkv'
   Play URL : https://[my IP]:8920/emby/Videos/6e7fea0abd65a06970b6c4be51e71ab5/stream.mkv?Static=true&mediaSourceId=6e7fea0abd65a06970b6c4be51e71ab5&deviceId=raspberrypi&api_key=761b2678e63e44b9970f6e0bd70f850b&Tag=21952bbbd63cf18c660460a3b8346dde

   So I mounted the network fileshare folder where I am storing /TV/ to a local /TV/ mount, where it was looking.

 

However two problems remain:

1. The video stutters A LOT to the point where it's unwatchable, even at 720p.
2. The video launches in a separate window, not in the Emby window. So I have to manually minimize the Emby window to see the video playing.

 

To solve the separate window issue you need to make sure you install electron 1.4 by default it would install 1.8. I confirmed last night it fixed one of my HTPCs. Also it appears node-mpv didn't install correctly without being in that directory? I would second buying the mpeg2 license to fix the performance issues but i can't validate that would fix it though.

 

http://www.raspberrypi.com/mpeg-2-license-key/

 

1. npm -g install electron@1.4.16
2. cd emby-theater-electron
3. npm install node-mpv

[syralk 13]

is it possible to install it without any Ubuntu Desktop?

[denz 501]

I think you don't but you need to have x11 installed.

[syralk 13]

I think you don't but you need to have x11 installed.

 

that should do ?

apt-get install xserver-xorg-legacy dbus-x11 alsa-utils

[denz 501]

If it brings the window manager when you type startx it should work the only other thing is you need is to auto start emby theatre you need to put that in.xintrc

 

Useful info

 

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CustomXSession

[HarleyDude 0]

I recently acquired a Pi3 that I want to use to stream media to my tv's. I have read most of this thread and have a couple of questions before moving forward.

 

Does ET work on the Pi3?

 

What version of Rasbian do I use?

 

Thank You for your assistance.