emby as launcher

[unhooked 17]

So, after the huge storms we've been having I got really pissed at amazon as if the firetv can't phone home - it doesn't load the home screen, all your apps work you just have no desktop I assume because they want to be sure they can serve ads.

 

In any case I started playing with onboot and launcher hijack options and have found that emby makes a really good launcher except for 2 things:

 

We don't have the ability to launch apps, so that's where the feature request comes in.

Would it be possible to add the ability to launch android apps and list them as a library?

 

And emby doesn't seem to detect if it's already running so when you click the home button it has a tendency to spawn another

instance instead of just returning to the main screen.

 

Neither of these are pressing concerns, but it would be cool to never have to leave the emby ui on the fire 4k stick.

 

If anyone else wants to play, xda has threads for onboot and launcher hijack, no root needed. If you get stuck, the voice button still works and you can still tell it to "go home", or "open settings" to undo your changes.

 

cheers.

 

 

[Luke 42079]

It's always possible, it's just a little outside of our core focus area.

[Carlo 4561]

Just curious.  If the device can't phone home, won't this usually indicate a loss of Internet or Internet issues?

Won't most typical content apps (Emby the exception for local content) have issues as well since they typically pull content from the Internet?

 

How many apps do you have that would benefit from this launcher technique during such times like this?

 

Thanks,

Carlo

[unhooked 17]

Just curious.  If the device can't phone home, won't this usually indicate a loss of Internet or Internet issues?

Won't most typical content apps (Emby the exception for local content) have issues as well since they typically pull content from the Internet?

 

How many apps do you have that would benefit from this launcher technique during such times like this?

 

Thanks,

Carlo

Sure a full internet outage will cause the failure, but routing issues or a DOS attack can also cause them. And while streaming apps are generally useless during this time, I have a lot of apps that work without. Ebook readers, emby, plex, dlna clients, music apps, games. The main win here aside from not having to use a launcher designed to fail if it can't push ads is having a launcher that doesn't even try to push ads or track you. I also allows you to use the exact same UI on every device no matter who makes it.

[Carlo 4561]

Yep understood.  Really the only downside is the lack of consistent apps on all the platforms and if each platform is able to launch other apps.

For example can a Roku app launch other apps? How about Smart TVs? etc.

 

If it can't be done on all the platforms it may not get consideration due to consistency issues among the apps.

[laie_techie 16]

+1 for Emby recognizing that it's already running instead of launching a new instance

[unhooked 17]

 

 

 

If it can't be done on all the platforms it may not get consideration due to consistency issues among the apps.

 

 

If it can't be done on all the platforms it may not get consideration due to consistency issues among the apps.

Yeah, it's mostly an android thing. Kodi does this in it's android apps, but +1 for not having to use multiple UI's. Roku ain't gonna happen, and I'm ok with that. My only surviving roku device is just a glorified hdmi port these days.