Current Plex user tempted to swap over. a few Questions:

[Karl Blixt 8]

So, after having learned that you can have video backdrops on some clients and theme songs on movies I quickly realized how much more flexible the emby server is in comparison to Plex.

 

I've been trying to look into emby earlier but I failed to get tempted because emby automatic trailer downloading was very spotty. only a few movies actually received a trailer. 

 

But I intend to give it another shot this weekend. But I have a few questions for those emby guys/gals that have some experience with the emby server. I'll be getting a premium subscription so that I can compare it directly against my plex experience.

 

- Q1: If I want emby to download trailers automatically so they appear as a "play trailer" button besides the "play movie" button. How do I do this so it appear on at least 90% of my movies?

 

- Q2: Is there any repositories to grab theme songs/ video backdrops or other extras That I can display by the movie. currently Plex use a source so that extras are streamed from the source on demand.

 

- Q3: Plex recently added sonos support with propper in app support. I can't find any emby support in the sonos app. is this something the emby team is working on?

 

- Q4: Plex don't support audio books or podcasts (podcasts was recently released to beta). How is these working in Emby?

 

- Q5: Plex can sync photos directly from the app to the server. does Emby have any similar feature? A big plus would be if you can choose what pictures to upload instead of automatically upload all the photos.

 

Now, I get that emby isn't plex and that some features that plex have emby dosen't. What I'm trying to do is lay out the pros and cons.

 

Any answers are highly welcomed. you don't need to answer very specifically. just point me in the right direction. a plug-in app to google or maybe a link to a forum answering the question more in detail.

 

Thank you!

[legallink 187]

For your questions, I'll try and answer as specifically as possible, but I'll caveat to the fact that there are always more experienced brains on this forum than mine.

 

1. For the "Trailer" to show up as the "Trailer" button, you have to follow the naming convention.  You can find that here: https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Trailers

 

2. I don't know of the repository used, but there used to be provided by a plugin by @@radeon which would download them for you.  It is currently not functioning, but he has indicated it will return soon(ish).  I believe he has had some personal issues to deal with.

 

3.  I don't know about Sonos support.  Maybe someone else can help on that question.

 

4. I'm not sure by what you mean how are these working.  I would give it a shot.  There is a plugin designed specifically for audiobooks called Embooks.  It's developed by @@Inrego.  The post says it isn't functioning currently. I've never used it, so I"m not sure.

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/50141-embook-proper-support-for-audiobooks/

 

There is also have a podcasts plugin.  I use it to access a few podcasts that I listen to. It requires some sort of RSS feed to access the podcasts and will play them in app.

 

5.  Yes this exists within the mobile apps.  I believe it uploads all pictures and not some of them. 

[Karl Blixt 8]

Brilliant, thank you for your answers. 

 

1. Yes, this is how I've set it up for the trailers that I own. but some of my movies I haven't bothered to look for a trailer so I wondered if there was any support or add-on that automatically downloaded or streamed the trailer from a source, Like Plex does.

 

2. Do you know which clients support video backdrops? And, wow, yeah. that's some pretty heavy personal issues. I really wish him the best of luck

 

4. Yeah, I found that one earlier. having to pay for it separately and having an completely separate app kind of defeats the purpose of "one app for all media" That I'm pursuing. The included podcast app seems to be good though. 

 

5. Aright, must have missed it last time then. it's to bad you can't choose what to share. really would be a nice feature.

[CBers 7451]

3. There is currently no Emby integration with the SONOS app.

[Karl Blixt 8]

3. There is currently no Emby integration with the SONOS app.

Thank you for confirming this. it's not a deal breaker by any stretch of the imagination. it just have to go into the calculation. 

[darkassassin07 652]

5. Embys' camera upload is far more thorough than plex. When I was using plex it would only ever upload DCIM. Emby however uploads DCIM, saved facebook images, screenshots, etc

[clarkss12 304]

5. Embys' camera upload is far more thorough than plex. When I was using plex it would only ever upload DCIM. Emby however uploads DCIM, saved facebook images, screenshots, etc

How does the camera upload work?  I have been curious about that, how does the photos get from the phone or camera to the Emby server?

[Carlo 4561]

 

So, after having learned that you can have video backdrops on some clients and theme songs on movies I quickly realized how much more flexible the emby server is in comparison to Plex.

 

I've been trying to look into emby earlier but I failed to get tempted because emby automatic trailer downloading was very spotty. only a few movies actually received a trailer. 

 

But I intend to give it another shot this weekend. But I have a few questions for those emby guys/gals that have some experience with the emby server. I'll be getting a premium subscription so that I can compare it directly against my plex experience.

 

- Q1: If I want emby to download trailers automatically so they appear as a "play trailer" button besides the "play movie" button. How do I do this so it appear on at least 90% of my movies?

 

- Q2: Is there any repositories to grab theme songs/ video backdrops or other extras That I can display by the movie. currently Plex use a source so that extras are streamed from the source on demand.

 

- Q3: Plex recently added sonos support with propper in app support. I can't find any emby support in the sonos app. is this something the emby team is working on?

 

- Q4: Plex don't support audio books or podcasts (podcasts was recently released to beta). How is these working in Emby?

 

- Q5: Plex can sync photos directly from the app to the server. does Emby have any similar feature? A big plus would be if you can choose what pictures to upload instead of automatically upload all the photos.

 

Now, I get that emby isn't plex and that some features that plex have emby dosen't. What I'm trying to do is lay out the pros and cons.

 

Any answers are highly welcomed. you don't need to answer very specifically. just point me in the right direction. a plug-in app to google or maybe a link to a forum answering the question more in detail.

 

Thank you!

 

I'll only comment on a couple of items.

Q1 & Q2

Neither Plex nor Emby will "download" the trailers.  They simply link to online sources.  Plex currently has much better Trailer support IF YOU ARE A PLEX PLASS user.  Plex pays for a service that supplies this info.  The downside is that it can go "poof" quickly just like some of the music services went "poof" because Plex didn't renew the contracts.  Emby on the other hand links to Youtube video or other places that have these videos. It's far more limiting what you get in Emby vs Plex.

 

While I don't do it, there are programs you can use to automate D/L of trailers for you.  One such program is https://mediacompanion.sourceforge.io/ .  It's been a long time since I played with it but a Google Search could help for this.  If you download and name the files correctly they will show up in both Plex and Emby.

 

My movie library is over 10K so I would not want trailers for every movie in my library.  I'd rather use the space for movies than trailers.  With the clients I use it's easy to quickly switch to Youtube and watch a trailer there if needed (e.g. Shield TV) using just my voice.

 

If space is a concern but yet you want trailers you could always setup a hybrid library.  By this I mean create a new additional library used for recently released films. You could then add trailers to this library.  Once a month or something move older releases to your normal archived movie library sans the trailers.  You can use your imagination how to do this based on date or number of films with trailers in this new library.  This also allows people to find new movie content quickly.

 

Q4. Plex's new Podcast support is better than Emby's for most people.  Emby's is very basic.  The admin adds the podcasts where Plex allows each user to configure their own podcasts.  HOWEVER WHY?

 

Why use podcasts from your media server since they don't exist there to begin with?  Do you really want to listen to podcasts on your Roku or ShieldTV (big screen)?  I'd venture to say people will use podcasts on a computer or smart phone and there are far, far, far better dedicated apps on each platform just for this.  This to me is like trying to solve a problem that frankly doesn't exists.  Arguably podcasts aren't as important as they once were.  Now people use video (not just audio) and much of this content is available on sites like YouTube which can be found using a simple search engine and don't require any special software.  That's not to say there is no value in having this functionality but is it really needed?  Or put another way, would you rather have development working on core media server features or fringe features like this?

 

Emby supports audio books and Plex does not and doesn't have any format that works decent with them. Audio books in Plex is an all manual process that quickly wears you down supporting it.

 

Q5. Syncing in general is usually a far better experience with Emby where it actually works compared to Plex which has struggled since day one with syncing reliably.  Photos are no different.  Emby also has more features in this regard.

 

Carlo

 

PS Unless you are running a low-end media server you can run both Emby and Plex on the same box and then use which ever client is best suited for what you want to do or what device you have.  I run and use both but Emby gets more love for local use.  I have "life time" on both and plan to support both platforms as I want both to get better with time and with each release.  At this point in time Emby is more inline with my needs (especially with DVR and Live TV) as well as basic use of libraries with Boxed Content, Favorites etc that make daily use easier.  I also like that Emby generally gives the admin more options to control the system where Plex is more about how they (not you) want the functions/features to work.

 

Again try and run both and your own habits will dictate which you use most.

[Karl Blixt 8]

@@cayars

 

While I don't do it, there are programs you can use to automate D/L of trailers for you.  One such program is https://mediacompanion.sourceforge.io/ .  It's been a long time since I played with it but a Google Search could help for this.  If you download and name the files correctly they will show up in both Plex and Emby.

 

 

yeah, I have a few trailer all ready which both plex and emby picks up on, but It's a bit of work. I'll check out the program that you linked. it could be really useful.

 

 

My movie library is over 10K so I would not want trailers for every movie in my library.  I'd rather use the space for movies than trailers.  With the clients I use it's easy to quickly switch to Youtube and watch a trailer there if needed (e.g. Shield TV) using just my voice.

 

 

​

Understandable. I aim to keep a more curated library. I don't think i'll be extending my library beyond 2000 movies. Not that I would know how to find 8000 more movies. And because I want to keep a mor curated movie library I can afford to store trailers and other extras by the movie. with 2000 movies the trailer space would be in the neighborhood of 50-100GB if I wanted to keep the highest quality (not beyond 1080) which would be the equivalence of 8 -15 movies. And I'm willing to sacrifice that for the added completeness. 

 

HOWEVER WHY?

 

 

good question. and While it's true that podcasts is very far from the main reason for having plex/emby. I've actually found the recently added podcasts beta kind of nice. yes, I wish they had focused on other things. but I have to admit that the podcast feature that they recently added is pretty nice. That said. there are better stand alone podcast apps out there that fills this need much better than plex or emby probably ever could. But I don't need all the functionality so just some basic podcasts integration would probably make do for me.

 

Emby supports audio books and Plex does not and doesn't have any format that works decent with them. Audio books in Plex is an all manual process that quickly wears you down supporting it.

 

 

Yeah, tell me about it. Is it just to add audio books under the "Book" category and it'll mostly work?

 

Syncing in general is usually a far better experience with Emby where it actually works compared to Plex which has struggled since day one with syncing reliably.  Photos are no different.  Emby also has more features in this regard.

 

 

Weird. I've run into a lot of issues trying to sync with emby. either it never moves beyond 0% or it only reaches "ready for transfer". only rarely does it complete the sync and when it does it never actually move the progress bar even though it's very clearly up/downloading data.

 

I have a pretty good cpu and I have lifetime on plex and intend to get lifetime on emby as well. so running both in parallel is very much intended until I find one of them not needed. but I doubt I'll ever completely remove plex since Sub-zero is an excellent tool and much more accurate and flexible than any standard opensubtitles integration that I've found.

 

Thank you for your answer! very helpful I think I've gotten all of the answers I need in this thread.

Edited June 7, 2018 by Karl Blixt

[Carlo 4561]

Few comments without quoting.  While I've got 10K+ movies these aren't all ripped.  Many have been recorded, commercials removed and then processes to H.264.  Many I may never watch.  But I like to do collections and similar.  For example it's easy to record all Tom Hanks movies so you have them.  Tom Cruise, etc.  Before you know it you are recording all Elvis movies with tons of actors in between. Same for producers and directors.

 

Another program you may want to check out is https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=hdtrailersdler which is much more focused on just trailers and they will be in HD I believe.  It's written in C# and can be set as a schedule to do the work for you.  I'd think this would have a lot of promise especially if you know C#.  If not maybe myself or others here could help if needs some tweeking for file names or so.

 

No idea what client you are using that you get sync issues but there are plenty of people here that can help. I sync to Android phones and tablets without issue (no apple products for me).  Just post in the proper spot in the forum for help with this. 

 

I'd suggest setting up a test library and play with a few books.  Nothing to loose by trying it.  That section of Emby doesn't get the love that video gets of course.

 

I agree on the Plex feature for Podcasts.  It's a good intro and may be just enough for basic use which might be plenty for most people.  However they wort of blew it by not supporting video podcasts (dumb) but that is coming they say.  My biggest concern with Plex news and podcasts isn't that they aren't core features but that they are 3rd party services (not running on your server) and that you loose all control over them.  By that I mean you can't grant or revoke access to those sections like you can your libraries.  It's semi-dumb IMHO to allow filtering of your media for kids but then give them easy access to adult podcasts.  That type of thing isn't well thought out but should have been I'd I've been a loud proponent of this.

[darkassassin07 652]

How does the camera upload work? I have been curious about that, how does the photos get from the phone or camera to the Emby server?

Not completely sure what you mean:

 

Within the android app at least, you open camera upload settings and select which server(s) to upload to, then whenever a video/image shows up on your file system it is uploaded to the selected servers.

 

In the servers camera upload settings you can set the path items are uploaded to which you can then add to a library. You also have the option to separate devices into sub-folders.

 

Emby does not display uploads as a library by default allowing you to add the whole folder, or just individual device sub-folders to your own libraries. This lets you make different users only able to view their own media.

Edited June 8, 2018 by darkassassin07

[jachin99 88]

I'll add something here about why I chose wmc & emby over Plex or Kodi especially when it comes to the way. Since I have been using this combo, nothing has ever gone "poof" like mentioned above. Between the two I get a user experience that is easy to navigate and understand with WMC and I get to view any media file in any device that has a web browser with emby. Emby TV even works on the Samsung fridge tablets, which I was really impressed by.

 

About the podcasts, I like media center that are good aggregators and combine anything I might need into a consistent interface that I can control with a regular remote. I don't really consume media in a desktop and I don't enjoy the experience of starting or stopping g apps or going to various web sites to find what I want. It's a lot less work to just hit a few remote presses or a touch screen and have it all right there. I think that is most of what a media center is, it's like a data aggregator with an easy to use inteface

[crizpynutz 1]

I just made my way here not having heard of Emby before.  I was poking around with Plex which I've messed around with before but was about to look into using a lot more.  Mostly I just us it for Movies and Music on my PC, FireTV, Laptop and Android phone to download/stream and play.  It sounds like Emby is worth it for me to give a try.  Plex has been a pain in the butt to get working consistently.  Thanks for he info here.

[Karl Blixt 8]

@@jachin99

 

What is wmc? Windows media center? What's the point of having that in combination with emby?

 

And do you think emby meet those goals regarding podcasts?

[jachin99 88]

I did mean Windows Media Center.  My family is used to the interface, and my remotes, and WMC still beats everything else out there hands down for Live TV.  It also has Netflix, Amazon, Pandora, Emulation, and Playon plugins that mostly still work, which is something Emby doesn't have.  I can't count how many times these kinds of plugins have come and gone for other platforms, and after almost ten years they still work on WMC (All but the Amazon Plugin have been abandoned).

 

I haven't tried the emby podcast plugin but as long it plays audio and video, and its stable, then I'm not sure how much more you can ask of it.  I would guess podcasts fit in like anything else so I would bet they do meet those goals.  I don't know if Plex has this but emby takes the aggregation concept a little further, and lets you group things into collections so you can define how you want your media to be presented to you.  I'll throw in a bit of cheesy use case here but I think it illustrates how collections work. 

 

Lets say you have a cataloge of books, and podcasts about any given subject like history for example.  In Emby instead of going through the various web pages like Podcasts, or Emby books, or the history channel (I said I was being corny so play along here) trying to find history related material, you can create a collection where you aggregate the History Channel, History related books, and History podcasts all into one.  Name your collection history, and your done.  Now when you start Emby, you can go straight to History, and all of your stuff will be there in one click.  I hope that helps you kind of visualize the concept. 

Edited June 8, 2018 by jachin99

[Karl Blixt 8]

@@jachin99

 

I see. 

 

And I think Plex have that category functionality as well. But maybe emby is doing it slightly smoother because in I find the emby UI to be better in general.

[Carlo 4561]

Emby collections are much more powerful in that you can make collections from different parts of the system (mixed content, not just movies, etc).  

[Inrego 76]

Just saw I was mentioned here regarding EmBook.

 

I'll give my 2 cents on Audio Book support in Emby. Currently, it's not working that well, and not very joyful to use. Yes, I am working on EmBook which will greatly improve the Audio Book experience. But due to a complete rewrite, it will probably be a while until a new, functional version is ready.

[Luke 42080]

@@Karl Blixt

 

New Sonos plugin in the Emby Plugin catalog:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/78020-new-sonos-plugin