Streaming to Android Fire Stick used to work, now it demands Premiere

[TheSteve 0]

Hello @ebr,

I ditched Plex when they went all weird on me, and kicked my Television off the approved lists of devices they allowed me to stream to.

So I went to this here fine Emby, and for ~9 months or so, smooth sailing, if a bit green.

 

But Alas, not even three days ago my TV demands premiere, which means my fire stick demands Premiere.

Now, I can understand if you add a new feature that locking it behind a paywall is viewed as semi-acceptable, but yeeting my Stick's ability to stream from my PC is kind of a poor move.

 

And no, this isn't a Live TV thing, I can't stand the stuff. This is streaming from my Blinkenboxen to my Firesticken and thus to my Tvsteinen.

 

Oh yes, I wanted to ask, is this a bug? A toggling of things that were not meant to be toggled?

Or is this a yanking of features to take my money?

 

Regards,

[ebr 16187]

Hi. We apologize for the confusion but this app has always required either Premiere or an app unlock for playback past its trial period.  There was an issue previously that was granting free access when it shouldn't but the app description and our feature matrix have always been clear about this.  This isn't a change we just decided to do.

Thanks for your support.

[TheSteve 0]

You have a nine month trial period?  Goodness me.

 

Well, that answers what I need to know, thank you.

 

[ebr 16187]

Hi.  No, something in the system was not working properly.

Thanks.

4 hours ago, ebr said:

There was an issue previously that was granting free access when it shouldn't

 

[TheSteve 0]

Well then, for the nine+ months it was 'broken' and letting my fire stick stream files from my computer like a tablet, I thank you.

So long Emby!

On to Jellyfin I guess. That lets you stream PC stored media to a firestick without needing to be broken.

*EDIT* Yep, Jellyfin does it without being broken, can now confirm.

Edited August 19, 2020 by TheSteve
Confirmed Jellyfin does it without needing to be broken.

[Carlo 4561]

You got 9 months of free use of a system you enjoy using (I assume) and were told upfront what the cost was in the app store.  That pretty generous, even if not intentional.

Feel free to, try to use JellyFin, but I'll save myself from saying it later, so "Welcome Back" .

Kidding aside, you should try other systems if price is a consideration to you. No one system is always going to meet every need or requirement of a user and we realize that. We do think we're worth the price of a Starbucks high end coffee for our apps or for a monthly Emby Premiere license.  The drink will be gone if 15 to 20 minutes but you're Emby app purchase will be good for a lifetime.

Honestly JellyFin Server isn't a bad option and we can say that honestly, after all it's based on a fork of Emby server from 2+ years ago before many of the code and database speed improvement were made to Emby.

We wish you the best and hope you find what you're look for,

Carlo

 

[nanohits 18]

One of the quesitons will be if the user has a premiere and the server has a premier license as well, will this be counted as a device used against the server since 2 people have paid for it?. 

[Carlo 4561]

If an app is paid for and is using a Premiere server but not premiere features (ie Live TV) it would not count against the Premiere license count.  It would only count against the license if using a Premiere feature such as Live TV, downloading/syncing offline, etc.

This link https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001173099-emby-premiere-feature-matrix should help you with questions like this. If something isn't clear, please ask for clarification.

As an example if you had 500 TV Series and 3000 movies and wanted to share you server with 5 friends and they used free to playback clients or purchased the apps they would not count against your Premiere license count. That would leave you with 25 client license all to yourself/family for things like Live TV or offline syncing which require Premiere.

On the other hand if your friends purchase an app such as Android TV and they also used Live TV off your server they WOULD use up one of your licenses since that is a premiere feature.

We try to keep it "fair and balanced" (not to rip off a news network) license wise but there will be overlap at times.  However as an admin of your server you can approve/deny users from using features that require an Emby Premiere license ,so you are in control of this.

If you have any questions about this or need clarification or even advise for how you plant to run your system, by all means ask!  We will try to help you best we can for what makes most sense for you.

[Carlo 4561]

50 minutes ago, nanohits said:

One of the quesitons will be if the user has a premiere and the server has a premier license as well, will this be counted as a device used against the server since 2 people have paid for it?. 

Unless the "user" has an Emby server, there is no point in them having a premiere license.  Does that make sense?

[nanohits 18]

 

29 minutes ago, cayars said:

Unless the "user" has an Emby server, there is no point in them having a premiere license.  Does that make sense?

Ok got it so they just have to pay for the app to unlock it then?

[Carlo 4561]

3 minutes ago, nanohits said:

 

Ok got it so they just have to pay for the app to unlock it then?

If you don't have premiere on your server then YES.

[nanohits 18]

Just now, cayars said:

If you don't have premiere on your server then YES.

I do but I notice some people to pay to unlock the app itself to have full playback or is that not necessary if the other end has premier?

[ebr 16187]

4 hours ago, nanohits said:

I do but I notice some people to pay to unlock the app itself to have full playback or is that not necessary if the other end has premier?

Not necessary if the server is Premiere and within its device limit.

[TheSteve 0]

This confusion was what caused me to leave.

I used Plex at first, then it got weird, and, when my "smart" TV updated at one point, Plex uninstalled itself off of the TV and refused to go back on. Getting a Fire Stick, a version of Plex was on it, but it was weird, and for some strange reason, refused to let me stream the files from my computer, which was the only thing I wanted it to do.

(╯°□°)╯︵ xǝʃԀ

 

Then I saw Emby, which was "Freemium" but the quite literally only item I needed was to take files I had on mah pewter and puts it on the TeeVee. I needed nothing else. No Live this, no special that.

[Take my shows]  --> [Put it on the Tee Vee]

That's it.

So, if the "free" version of Emby had things I was missing out on, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ eh, I'll somehow find it within me to live.

Emby ノ( ゜-゜ノ)

And it worked. Shows on my Emby Server were spat out on the TV, and then the Fire stick on said TV.

And while it was different than Plex, and moderately less useful, responsive, accurate, or efficient processor or bandwith-wise, and it pestered me once a week to get Emby premiere for all the fantastic features I was missing, it at least worked, which puts it above Plex.

And then, Saturday the fifteenth, it stopped.

It was pulling a Plex on me, and taking things that used to be there, and locking em' away.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(╯°□°)╯︵ ʎqɯƎ

Jellyfin ノ( ゜-゜ノ)

As for "Welcome Back" cayars, IF the single feature which I require it to do happens to come back, perhaps. But then Plex might also do a 540° (A 360° plus a half gainer to the noggin) and suddenly let me toss my stuff onto the screen.

So cayars, perhaps, but not today.

 

*ADDENDUM* As for the Device limit, there was one, technically two. The Smart TV, and the Fire Stick. So two, unless the Emby popping up on localhost counts to that, then three.

Edited August 19, 2020 by TheSteve
Response to cbr's statement about device limits. Also more ascii bits 'cause why not?