Move to Emby from Plex/SageTV?

[fresnoboy 0]

Hi everyone.  I am a longtime (and generally happy) Plex user, but because of their new focus on content etc... and issues with LiveTV, I am thinking about moving to Emby.  I also am a longtime SageTV user, and I have about 20000 recordings (made over about 10 years), and I'd like to transition that system to a nicer UI for the family (the SageTV recording system is top notch and works really well, but UI is just not modern anymore).  There is a plugin for SageTV that exports metadata to Plex for all those recordings, though Plex can generally figure out the episode from the filename (at least for more recent recordings).  Most of the TV clients are nvidia Shields, though there are a fair number of Apple devices used by family members, as well as well as android tablets, and we make extensive use of syncing.

 

I run Plex today in a VM with 6 xeon cores and a lot of RAM, so h/w resources are not really a gating issue for my config.  All the storage for the media is on a 10 gbps conncted FreeNas system, which can read and write at a multi-gigabit rates typically.

 

I have a few questions that I am having some problems finding the answers to.  I hope you all wouldn't mind helping me, so thanks in advance!

 

1) How speedy is the UI and navigation in the DVR, esp when you have a huge number of shows in the database?  

 

2) I would be switching over some TV shows in between seasons.  Can I have emby record the TV shows in a way that the already recorded shows would show up in an integrated way?  

 

3) How quickly does emby tune a show from selection in the EPG?  Plex takes several seconds using my hd homerun primes, but this is longer than SageTV takes with the same tuners.

 

4) If I wanted to do hardware transcoding, what would support the fastest transcode of a lot of 1080 or 720 MPEG2 shows to a format for syncing with my mobile devices?  We don't typically have a lot of shows being viewed at once, but when I am about to get on a long plane flight, I might select a few seasons of different shows for conversion and sync to my device for binge watching on the trip..  It would be awesome if using either quicksync from intel or a nvidia card where it could convert 8 at a time at 10X realtime or something like that.

 

5) Does emby run as a service on windows?  I really dislike having to do an autologin to windows and have to put the password in a registry entry.  I have seen conflicting posts on this subject.

 

6) Does emby process .edl files for commercial skip.  I have processed all those recordings with comskip and they have .edl files associated with them.  Can these be imported into emby?

 

Thanks everyone!

 

mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Carlo 4561]

On 2/3/2019 at 10:48 PM, fresnoboy said:

Hi everyone.  I am a longtime (and generally happy) Plex user, but because of their new focus on content etc... and issues with LiveTV, I am thinking about moving to Emby.  I also am a longtime SageTV user, and I have about 20000 recordings (made over about 10 years), and I'd like to transition that system to a nicer UI for the family (the SageTV recording system is top notch and works really well, but UI is just not modern anymore).  There is a plugin for SageTV that exports metadata to Plex for all those recordings, though Plex can generally figure out the episode from the filename (at least for more recent recordings).  Most of the TV clients are nvidia Shields, though there are a fair number of Apple devices used by family members, as well as well as android tablets, and we make extensive use of syncing.

 

I run Plex today in a VM with 6 xeon cores and a lot of RAM, so h/w resources are not really a gating issue for my config.  All the storage for the media is on a 10 gbps conncted FreeNas system, which can read and write at a multi-gigabit rates typically.

 

I have a few questions that I am having some problems finding the answers to.  I hope you all wouldn't mind helping me, so thanks in advance!

 

1) How speedy is the UI and navigation in the DVR, esp when you have a huge number of shows in the database?

I don't notice any slowdown on my system.  I've got 103,000 Shows, 16,500 movies plus lots of other content.

I have a few hundred series setup to record.

 

Quote

2) I would be switching over some TV shows in between seasons.  Can I have emby record the TV shows in a way that the already recorded shows would show up in an integrated way?

Depends on what you mean exactly so I'm afraid to answer.  I can tell you what I do and maybe this answers the question.

I have all recordings set to record to a folder outside of my normal Emby folders.  I have a Recording library pointed at this location as well as another location.

I run MCEBuddy on my server and have it setup to cut commercials (not conversion).  MCEBuddy, is setup to store the cut recordings in another folder (the other location Recordings is pointed to) and removes the original file (archives it).

 

I then have a set of scripts that will compress these already commercial free recordings.  I convert (repackage) anything recorded in H.264 (Comcast channels) to H.264 and convert all MPEG2 recordings to HEVC/H.265.  These scripts also pull out the CC data and write it as an SRT Subtitle, add a 2 channel AAC audio track if not present. Remove any non English subs and audio tracks.

 

This could be completely automated but I actually hand edit every recorded file.  I record with both pre & post padding. So I use Avidemux to quickly cut the pre and post padding and quickly scroll through the recording to make sure all commercials were cut.  Every once in a while a set of commercials are missed so I can cut them out manually.  Takes me about 1 minute per file to edit.  After I edit the files I save them back to the INPUT folder where the conversions scripts are located above and the process finishes automatically.

 

But by having both the original storage location where the files are recorded to as well as the location where the cut files are located my files (in either state) always show up in the recorded library (even when being processed).

 

Semi complicated but this is the way I like to do it and Emby is plenty flexible enough to allow me to do it this way.

Quote

3) How quickly does emby tune a show from selection in the EPG?  Plex takes several seconds using my hd homerun primes, but this is longer than SageTV takes with the same tuners.

Probably quicker to same as Plex.  Depends on the "mode" you have your clients setup and what client you are using.  If you play back on an Android mobile for example it can direct play the file (no transcode needed) so the startup is faster.  Play back an OTA broadcast (MPEG2) on a Roku3 that doesn't support MPEG2 video and it needs transcoding which will take longer to start.

 

I say roughly 7 seconds to change channels and get video playing give or take 2 seconds depending client and speed of your server, etc

Quote

4) If I wanted to do hardware transcoding, what would support the fastest transcode of a lot of 1080 or 720 MPEG2 shows to a format for syncing with my mobile devices?  We don't typically have a lot of shows being viewed at once, but when I am about to get on a long plane flight, I might select a few seasons of different shows for conversion and sync to my device for binge watching on the trip..  It would be awesome if using either quicksync from intel or a nvidia card where it could convert 8 at a time at 10X realtime or something like that.

I believe syncing right now still uses only CPU and not HW for this. Of course this depends on your media.  I can sync most of my library without the need to transcode it at all!

 

I have a 128 GB card in my phone which will hold a decent amount of content and all of my media is either H.264 or H.265 (with 2 channel audio as well as Dolby/DTS) so it will play back on any of my devices.

 

Of course if you know you're going to be taking a trip you could pick out your movies/shows ahead of time and get them converted/synced a day or two before you leave.

 

@@softworkz can you comment?

Quote

5) Does emby run as a service on windows?  I really dislike having to do an autologin to windows and have to put the password in a registry entry.  I have seen conflicting posts on this subject.

This article covers setting up Emby to run as a service.

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Running-Emby-Server-as-a-Windows-Service

Quote

6) Does emby process .edl files for commercial skip.  I have processed all those recordings with comskip and they have .edl files associated with them.  Can these be imported into emby?

 

Thanks everyone!

 

mike

Emby itself does not use .edl files like SageTV does.  Unlike SageTV which has only one real player, Emby supports multiple different players on multiple different platforms from TVs, to mobile phones to gaming consoles to Rokus, FireTV and Android TV as well as PCs, etc  Trying to get EDL support into all of them would be a challenge.

 

However, if you are comfortable with that your EDL files are marked well you could setup a script to use these EDL files and actually cut the commercial from the media files you already have OR you could use that info to create chapters which could be used to skip commercials.

 

These are both something of advanced subjects which I won't go into here but quite doable.

 

PS: The biggest challenge I think you'll have is getting Emby to recognize your movie and TV Shows.  SageTV doesn't use the best naming of it's files when you use other programs with them.

 

Check out the best practices for naming of movies and tv shows:

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Movie-naming

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/TV-naming

 

A 3rd party product like FileBot may come in real handy with renaming files.  It makes quick work out of renaming files if it can identify them.

 

Hope that helps,

Carlo

Edited October 21, 2020 by cayars

[fresnoboy 0]

Cayars, thanks!

 

Replies in line:

 

I don't notice any slowdown on my system.  I've got 40,000 Shows, 12,200 movies plus lots of other content.
I have a few hundred series setup to record.

 

>> Good to know it can scale like that!

 

 

Depends on what you mean exactly so I'm afraid to answer.  I can tell you what I do and maybe this answers the question.
I have all recordings set to record to a folder outside of my normal Emby folders.  I have a Recording library pointed at this location as well as another location.
I run MCEBuddy on my server and have it setup to cut commercials (not conversion).  MCEBuddy, is setup to store the cut recordings in another folder (the other location Recordings is pointed to) and removes the original file (archives it).

 
I then have a set of scripts that will compress these already commercial free recordings.  I convert (repackage) anything recorded in H.264 (Comcast channels) to H.264 and convert all MPEG2 recordings to HEVC/H.265.  These scripts also pull out the CC data and write it as an SRT Subtitle, add a 2 channel AAC audio track if not present. Remove any non English subs and audio tracks.
 
This could be completely automated but I actually hand edit every recorded file.  I record with both pre & post padding. So I use Avidemux to quickly cut the pre and post padding and quickly scroll through the recording to make sure all commercials were cut.  Every once in a while a set of commercials are missed so I can cut them out manually.  Takes me about 1 minute per file to edit.  After I edit the files I save them back to the INPUT folder where the conversions scripts are located above and the process finishes automatically.
 
But by having both the original storage location where the files are recorded to as well as the location where the cut files are located my files (in either state) always show up in the recorded library (even when being processed).

 

>> Sounds like the equivalent functionality would be to process the file and add chapter markings to the recording so that it can be skipped.  Cutting commercials can generally work well, but sometimes it doesn't cut in the right spot and I'd rather not have a chunk of program be excised automatically instead of a commercial.  

 

But the bottom line seems to be emby won't do this as part of the recording process, and it will have to be using another utility.  Does MCEBUDDY do chapter markings in an MPEG2 recording?  How does emby define a chapter marking?
 
Semi complicated but this is the way I like to do it and Emby is plenty flexible enough to allow me to do it this way.

Probably quicker to same as Plex.  Depends on the "mode" you have your clients setup and what client you are using.  If you play back on an Android mobile for example it can direct play the file (no transcode needed) so the startup is faster.  Play back an OTA broadcast (MPEG2) on a Roku3 that doesn't support MPEG2 video and it needs transcoding which will take longer to start.

 

>> I have heard about Roku's not decoding MPEG2 in hardware.  I have gotten the family comfortable with android TV, so shields are probably the right device to stick on every TV. and avoid transcoding and the associated delays.   IS there an emby config that tells it what network address space is "local"?  I use vlans to separate out some things so I need to have an explicit declaration of whats local.

 

 
I say roughly 7 seconds to change channels and get video playing give or take 2 seconds depending client and speed of your server, etc

I believe syncing right now still uses only CPU and not HW for this. Of course this depends on your media.  I can sync most of my library without the need to transcode it at all!

 

>> Again, I don't need HW transcode for normal playback - it's the just for these "bulk transcodes" to sync whole seasons.
 
I have a 128 GB card in my phone which will hold a decent amount of content and all of my media is either H.264 or H.265 (with 2 channel audio as well as Dolby/DTS) so it will play back on any of my devices.
 
Of course if you know you're going to be taking a trip you could pick out your movies/shows ahead of time and get them converted/synced a day or two before you leave. 

 

>> That's what I do now.  But I don't always have time to think about it, and why should I if there is adequate compute available to do it faster. 

 
@@softworkz can you comment?

This article covers setting up Emby to run as a service.
https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Running-Emby-Server-as-a-Windows-Service

 

 

>> Seems like a bit of a kludge, but if it works great.

 

Emby itself does not use .edl files like SageTV does.  Unlike SageTV which has only one real player, Emby supports multiple different players on multiple different platforms from TVs, to mobile phones to gaming consoles to Rokus, FireTV and Android TV as well as PCs, etc  Trying to get EDL support into all of them would be a challenge.

 

However, if you are comfortable with that your EDL files are marked well you could setup a script to use these EDL files and actually cut the commercial from the media files you already have OR you could use that info to create chapters which could be used to skip commercials.

 

These are both something of advanced subjects which I won't go into here but quite doable.

 

 

>> I'll look into MCEBUDDY being able to do this sort of thing.  At least it looks like with proper chapters embedded emby will skip appropriately.

 

PS: The biggest challenge I think you'll have is getting Emby to recognize your movie and TV Shows.  SageTV doesn't use the best naming of it's files when you use other programs with them.

 

Check out the best practices for naming of movies and tv shows:

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Movie-naming

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/TV-naming

 

A 3rd party product like FileBot may come in real handy with renaming files.  It makes quick work out of renaming files if it can identify them.

 

>>  Yes, this will be painful.  There is a plugin for Sage and Plex that reads the program metadata from the SageTV database and adds it correctly to plex.  But there a few scripts that could either move and rename the recordings, or generate links to the recordings in a way that's consistent with this file structure.  I think they were built for XBMC, but the Sage part hasn't changed much.  It might take awhile, but I had tried it in the past and it worked reasonably well.  I haven't had to use it because of the plex plugin, but will try and see if that works OK for Emby.

 

>> Is there a script or plugin that can copy all the metadata from Plex and import it into Emby?  If so, that might be the best way to do it.

 

 

 

Hope that helps,

Carlo

 

>> it does!  thanks for the help!

 

Mike

 

 

 

 

[Carlo 4561]

Cayars, thanks!

 

Replies in line:

 

>> Sounds like the equivalent functionality would be to process the file and add chapter markings to the recording so that it can be skipped.  Cutting commercials can generally work well, but sometimes it doesn't cut in the right spot and I'd rather not have a chunk of program be excised automatically instead of a commercial.  

 

But the bottom line seems to be emby won't do this as part of the recording process, and it will have to be using another utility.  Does MCEBUDDY do chapter markings in an MPEG2 recording?  How does emby define a chapter marking?

yes it can do this

>> I have heard about Roku's not decoding MPEG2 in hardware.  I have gotten the family comfortable with android TV, so shields are probably the right device to stick on every TV. and avoid transcoding and the associated delays.   IS there an emby config that tells it what network address space is "local"?  I use vlans to separate out some things so I need to have an explicit declaration of whats local.

Emby can handle multiple IP on the Emby Server.  With VLANs another option is to setup routing on your network to handle this.

When you get to this point, let us know and we can help.

 

>>  Yes, this will be painful.  There is a plugin for Sage and Plex that reads the program metadata from the SageTV database and adds it correctly to plex.  But there a few scripts that could either move and rename the recordings, or generate links to the recordings in a way that's consistent with this file structure.  I think they were built for XBMC, but the Sage part hasn't changed much.  It might take awhile, but I had tried it in the past and it worked reasonably well.  I haven't had to use it because of the plex plugin, but will try and see if that works OK for Emby.

>> Is there a script or plugin that can copy all the metadata from Plex and import it into Emby?  If so, that might be the best way to do it.

Not that I'm aware of. Even if there was, I would not use it.

What I would want to do is have my media named correctly so that Emby or Plex or any other server could scan the media and know what they are.  The only way to do that is to rename those files to what is in the Emby or Plex naming conventions (very, very similar).

 

Files setup to Emby or Plex naming conventions will work in either system.  Many of us run both systems pointed to the same files.

 

I was one of the SageTV UI devs and had a pretty large collection. I bit the bullet a while back and renamed everything so it work work with modern media servers.