Xbox One Usage Question/Issues

[trooper11 63]

Hey everyone, I wanted to jump on here and see if these are known issues being looked into or if there is something I can do to remedy it. Ive searched the forums, but didn't see this exact thing being talked about.

 

So first off, Im coming back to Emby after taking a sort of vacation from streaming media in my home lol.  The era of htpcs has passed for me personally (sadly, i really enjoyed building smaller and smaller pcs lol).  Now I still have my local media, but I do now use streaming services for most mainstream content.  That means amazon prime and jumping between netflix or disney+ (ugh, streaming servies are getting out of control, but thats another topic lol) for tv and movies, then spotify for music.  Those apps all seem to work well on my devices from phones to pcs and my xbox ones.  I have a roku in two bedrooms, but 3 xbox ones that get heavy media use.  Its nice to see app support being so good on xbox.  So what drove me to dust off my server and do a complete install of 10 and get Emby setup fresh, is content that isn't very main stream.  That includes alot of regional content that will never be on US streaming services and older content that wont either.  Music is by far the most annoying part.  I have a huge collection of music that isnt on spotify or any music streaming service, much less one that supports the xbox.

 

Luckily, I had painstakingly tagged all of it years ago, so setting up Emby was quick and easy.  I got right back into the groove and it was nice. Things have really evolved but its also still very familiar to me and I didnt feel like i was lost getting things going.  Emby handles regional content way better then any streaming service.

 

So I downloaded the Theater app on my xbox and then started testing music usage.  I really only need a couple features to make this work for me. One is playlist support, which is there.  The next is background playback, which leads me to me question.  Is it supposed to support that?  I ask because while I might play music on it full screen sometimes, 90% of my usage is playing music while playing a game.  When I start a playlist and switch out, it might play 1 or as many as 5 songs before the audio just drops, requiring me to go back to the app and restart it playing, which only sometimes works.  Most of the time, the app just crashes.  Even attempting to use the transport controls via the slide out menu of the xbox ui results in the app crashing. 

 

If the app isnt built with background audio support, then that's fine, I'm happy to add it to feature requests if its something that would be considered and is reasonable.  I'll just have to continue searching for an app/service that does work that way on the xbox.

[trooper11 63]

Oh and I should add that I tested Kodi and it doesnt support it.  I dont know about Plex, but I cant find any official post saying it does. It's really bizarre how I could do this so easily on Xbox in the past, but now I cant find any apps that work.  Most are old and unstable, then the few legit options like VLC, Emby, Kodi, and Plex, seem to not support it.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, unless things have changed, and i can look into it and see if they have...my understanding in the past was that Microsoft was only allowing certain applications to do this kind of background playback - partner applications, in other words, companies they've specifically chosen to be able to use that feature.

[trooper11 63]

Hm, I wasn't aware of that, but there are a number of 3rd party apps that claim to support it, but they are pretty old and just crash.

 

The only 3rd party app right now that works reliably with background audio support is the Simple Background Music Player.  I am successfully using it, but its big issue is that it only supports local music.  That means songs on a usb drive plugged into the xbox.  It has no dlna support, etc.  So I can confirm 3rd party apps can reliably support that feature. 

 

I have my doubts that the app was some kind of special partnership with Microsoft, so maybe apps can now take advantage of it.  If you can find out if that's true, that would be great.  Id love to just use Emby Theater.