Emby Server 3.1.5 Web Client - external player missing

[Bloodred 12]

Hello, I've updated the Emby server on my Debian Jessie server today to 3.1.5 from 3.1.2 using the stable repo provided on the download page. After this update the external player option from the web client is gone on my system. The menu that used to pop up asking whether to use the external player doesn't appear anymore and I can't find anything about it in the options either.

 

I've read the changelog, but it doesn't mention any changes to external playback. Does anyone know if it was by chance removed with the new web player UI? It would be a shame, I've been using it extensively ever since I first installed Emby.

[Luke 42085]

It got lost in the shuffle with all the playback changes. If there's enough demand it can return in the future. How exactly were you using it?

[Bloodred 12]

I was using it to launch videos in MPC-HC from my Emby library and since I watch a fair bit of video on Windows PCs it got a lot of use from me.

 

I wrote a small launcher that registers itself as a handler for "vlc://" in Windows, parses the URL the external playback feature provided, queries the server in order to get the network share path for the video item and then simply launches MPC-HC to play it directly from the share. In practice I'd click the external playback button and the video would start in MPC-HC fullscreen, easy as can be.

 

Is there any place I could download a 3.1.2 Debian package, so I could cleanly revert to the older version? I've been looking around but haven't been able to find an older version.

[Luke 42085]

Ok yea, that's what I was afraid of. The problem is how many people would ever think to do that, almost zero therefore it's hard to justify the continued effort and maintenance on it. If there's really enough people that want it then obviously we can reconsider. Thanks !

[Bloodred 12]

Yeah, I didn't expect a lot of people to write their own launcher, but I only needed it because I wanted to use MPC-HC instead of VLC. I assume VLC would've worked straight-up (though I haven't tested it).

 

Anyway, is there an archive or some such where I can download a Debian package of an older Emby server version (3.1.2 or even older than that is fine)? I'd like to keep using external playback, at least until I can find a different solution for my use case.

[Happy2Play 9785]

Does Debian write a system.old file like Windows?  So the pervious version is maintained in system.old.  Current system folder is 3.1.5 and system.old should 3.1.2.

[Bloodred 12]

I can't find any folder like that, where would it be located on a Windows install? I don't think it would apply to Linux, since I assume that's something that the Emby auto-updater does while on the Linux side it's all handled by the OS package manager, but it's worth a shot. The package manager actually supports installing a specific version, but as far as I can tell the older 3.1.2 isn't available in the repository anymore, all I can see is 3.1.5. Worst case scenario I should still be able to do a manual install, but it would be cleaner and easier to maintain if installed using a standard package.

[bfir3 117]

I mean, I wouldn't really say this functionality is only useful for one person. There's a whole thread for a very similar external player app that many people have downloaded and use (including myself) https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/13199-media-player-classic-remote-control-for-media-browser-experimental/. Removing that functionality is too bad.

[Luke 42085]

I mean, I wouldn't really say this functionality is only useful for one person. There's a whole thread for a very similar external player app that many people have downloaded and use (including myself) https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/13199-media-player-classic-remote-control-for-media-browser-experimental/. Removing that functionality is too bad.

 

The difference is that for the end user they can download that app and just step through the menus. What he's doing here is much more advanced. We are not opposed to bringing it back if there is enough demand.

[Bloodred 12]

I assume external playback with VLC itself would've "just worked" with no extra launchers in the way, since I don't use VLC I haven't actually tried it. I only had to write a launcher in order to support MPC-HC.

 

Incidentally I also ran across the MPC remote mentioned and gave it a try, but all I'm getting with it is HTTP 401 Unauthorized errors in its log. It doesn't seem to be using an API key or anything, but that's an issue for its own topic though. After reading a bit more from the topic I noticed that a newer version was posted, which does take an API key.

Edited February 1, 2017 by Bloodred