Emby vs. Plex Disk Space Utilization and Question

[WBoweIII 7]

I am contemplating a move from Plex to Emby. With the recent Plex UI changes basically making the product unusable and all the recent enhancements to Emby it seems like an ideal time to switch. With that in mind I would like to get Emby going so it can generate the Thubnails and Bif files on my library. Plex uses a folder in the logged in users profile directory to store all its metadata. Mine is about 350gb big leaving only about 100gb left on my C: Volume. That brings me to my actual questions. 

 

If I set Emby to store images/bif/nfo with the media (which is on a separate NAS) will Emby require much additional space on C:?

 

Is there anything else I should move or other settings I should change in a scenario like this? 

 

Does anyone know what impact (if any) the .NFO  file being present in the folder with my media may have on the Plex side? I need to keep using it in conjunction until I switch all my family members over. 

 

 

Thanks

 

[ebr 16187]

Hi.  It is really hard to know exactly because there are so many possibilities in play here.  But, if you move the configurable paths that Emby has off of that drive, I would think that 100GB would be enough (YMMV).

 

Thanks.

[WBoweIII 7]

Thanks for the reply - Just for my own understanding is there an article or something I can reference to get a better handle on what Emby stores where? I poked around and didn't really come up with anything. 

 

If not no need to spend time on it. I will just tinker. 

 

Thanks.

[ebr 16187]

You can see most of it in the "Paths" display on the server.

 

Thanks.

[Carlo 4561]

Do you already have all the BIF files generated for Plex?

Do you run Windows?

 

I ask because I could share some scripts I wrote that allows both Emby and Plex to share the same BIF files so you only need one copy of them.  I've been doing this for a few years and it works great.

[WBoweIII 7]

Thanks, I appreciate the offer...

 

It had not occurred to me that the BIF file was a common format both Plex and Emby understand (duh). I don't need coexistence long as I am going to pull the trigger and convert everyone quick, I just assumed it would take a couple of weeks for all the files to generate on the Emby side (about 16TB of content). With that in mind I can whip together a script to just copy the BIF's into the media folders and accelerate my process. Is there anything else on the Emby side other than a library scan that would be needed for Emby to use the BIF once its there? I already know how to identify them on the Plex side so if that's it I am good to go... 

 

Thanks much - you saved me a lot of CPU Cycles. 

[dRuEFFECT 7]

On 1/18/2019 at 11:52 AM, cayars said:

Do you already have all the BIF files generated for Plex?

Do you run Windows?

 

I ask because I could share some scripts I wrote that allows both Emby and Plex to share the same BIF files so you only need one copy of them.  I've been doing this for a few years and it works great.

I'm running Emby and Plex on unraid (linux docker), could you share your windows scripts anyways and I can try to replicate? I assume it's more complicated than just mapping to the same path.

I just disabled preview thumbnails in Plex and cleared out it's folder of bif files (~300GB worth) and Emby manages to use only ~100GB of thumbnail and metadata storage for all the same media. For a 500GB SSD for metadata/cache/thumbnails I'd love for them to share bifs instead of having to choose.