new server install/questions

[justinrh 260]

I've been using Plex for years, but I've been wanting to try out Emby for a while, so I jumped into it today.  I found several issues, but I'll post some here and some in separate threads.  Plex is my reference point.

Installed Emby server today on my Plex box, W10 v2004 x64

1. I'm getting server crashes for the first time; twice today while using Emby (streaming or using web UI).  Not a good start.  Would Emby logs give me a clue here?
2. The last step of configuration asks about remote access.  From the wording, I couldn't tell if 'remote' meant outside of this server box or outside of the LAN.
3. How do you 'skip forward' on the Roku app?  (question came to mind during review of settings)
4. Settings -> Home Screen -> Hide watched content from latest media
       - Does this apply only for the library above this setting or for all libraries?
       - (there is little space from right under the 'default screen' drop list so looks like it is an option for the library)
5. Server Dashboard says "Please restart the server to finish applying updates."  Is that the Emby server or the computer server?
6. Server -> Settings -> Run server at startup
   - Does this require login to the computer?  The wording suggests not, but want to be sure.
   - How set up the service?  Is this an option somewhere in Emby?
7. Server -> Settings -> Cache path
   - What is the default location?
8. Server -> Library -> Metadata path
   - What is the default location?
9. why are
       Server -> Settings -> Conversions settings
   and
       Devices -> Downloads settings
   the same?  Downloads isn't a device.  Why duplicate this page?  So, this is really conversion settings and not downloads settings?
10. Population/rendering of a movie page (select a movie from a library) is incredibly slow.  Is there an Emby setting that would improve this?

 

Suggestions:

• Show the default folder locations in the UI, either on the settings page or in the browse dialog.
• Remove ambiguities with more precise wording.

[Happy2Play 9783]

6 minutes ago, justinrh said:

I'm getting server crashes for the first time; twice today while using Emby (streaming or using web UI).  Not a good start.  Would Emby logs give me a clue here?

Possibly but may need to see if there are errors in Windows event viewer also.

7 minutes ago, justinrh said:

The last step of configuration asks about remote access.  From the wording, I couldn't tell if 'remote' meant outside of this server box or outside of the LAN.

Remote is WAN connections.

8 minutes ago, justinrh said:

How do you 'skip forward' on the Roku app?  (question came to mind during review of settings)

Pretty sure this is a limitation of the Roku player itself.  Have you enabled interval images (bif files) on your libraries? Thumbnail Images (Show Advanced settings in each Library setup) @speechles @ebr maybe can elaborate more.

9 minutes ago, justinrh said:

Settings -> Home Screen -> Hide watched content from latest media
    - Does this apply only for the library above this setting or for all libraries?
    - (there is little space from right under the 'default screen' drop list so looks like it is an option for the library)

It  removes Played media from all latest Home Screen rows.

10 minutes ago, justinrh said:

Server Dashboard says "Please restart the server to finish applying updates."  Is that the Emby server or the computer server?

It means restart Emby server, not the OS.

11 minutes ago, justinrh said:

Server -> Settings -> Run server at startup
- Does this require login to the computer?  The wording suggests not, but want to be sure.
- How set up the service?  Is this an option somewhere in Emby?

Yes that is run on login.  Running Emby Server as a Windows Service

13 minutes ago, justinrh said:

Server -> Settings -> Cache path
- What is the default location?

Server -> Library -> Metadata path
- What is the default location?

You can see the default path on the Dashboard in path section.  C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\cache / C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\metadata

15 minutes ago, justinrh said:

why are
    Server -> Settings -> Conversions settings
and
    Devices -> Downloads settings
the same?  Downloads isn't a device.  Why duplicate this page?  So, this is really conversion settings and not downloads settings?

Downloads apply to downloading to a device where conversion is converting or creating another copy of your media.  But yes the wording on Conversions probably need updating.  @Luke

16 minutes ago, justinrh said:

Population/rendering of a movie page (select a movie from a library) is incredibly slow.  Is there an Emby setting that would improve this?

Not sure what you mean.  Unless there is still a lot of processing going on.

18 minutes ago, justinrh said:

Show the default folder locations in the UI, either on the settings page or in the browse dialog.

What do you mean?  Each movie/episode shows their path in media info.  But there are many users do not want this to be displayed at all as they don't want any user to see this.

[speechles 2055]

3 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Pretty sure this is a limitation of the Roku player itself.  Have you enabled interval images (bif files) on your libraries? Thumbnail Images (Show Advanced settings in each Library setup) @speechles @ebr maybe can elaborate more.

4 hours ago, justinrh said:

How do you 'skip forward' on the Roku app?  (question came to mind during review of settings)

 

You use either the D-pad and press left to rewind and right to fast-forward. This will put the player into manual seek mode where you can advance to the point you like manually. Or you can press the rewind or fast-forward keys directly. This will put the player into automatic seek mode where it will automatically advance. If you press the button multiple times it will increase the automatic seek time from 1x to 2x to 3x and back to 1x. This allows you to get where you want without needing to press or hold keys repeatedly.

Like @Happy2Play mentions if you enable BIF images this will allow you to see thumbnails of the seek points visually as you go. Without the BIF you will just see the last image on screen and a seek bar. There will be no thumbnails during seek without BIF generated.

Edited November 15, 2020 by speechles

[Luke 42083]

Quote

1. Population/rendering of a movie page (select a movie from a library) is incredibly slow.  Is there an Emby setting that would improve this?

Hi, this seems pretty fast to me. Are you referring to the single video detail screen in the web app?

[Carlo 4561]

On 11/14/2020 at 3:45 PM, justinrh said:

1. Population/rendering of a movie page (select a movie from a library) is incredibly slow.  Is there an Emby setting that would improve this?

Is your media local?

Is this just the first time you enter that movie page that you think it's slow?

[speechles 2055]

When Emby first creates the image for a device it takes into consideration the resolution both height and width the device has requested that image be sent. This is stored in the cache for that device on your Emby server in the /cache folder and sends the application that cached image. Once images have been cached for all items within a particular library that particular library will load substantially faster as the cache at the proper resolution has already been created and is immediately sent.

Emby does not send full size resolution images to the applications since that can be wasteful in both render time (what if it sends a full size image and you want a tiny one) and bandwidth (do you have awhile to wait?) and would introduce a huge delay as these populate. Emby sends pre-cached pre-sized images at the exact resolution the app requires. This is what eventually will make your browsing effortless.

Doing this allows Emby to use various sized resolutions and properly curate the bandwidth these takes to arrive at each application. All applications do not use the same sized images. They can all curate their sizes according to what is best. Without this you would be waiting substantially longer for images.

Allow Emby to first create this cache and populate images. Then on the second entry compare the speed. You will be happy. Things do get better.

On 11/14/2020 at 12:45 PM, justinrh said:

10. Population/rendering of a movie page (select a movie from a library) is incredibly slow.  Is there an Emby setting that would improve this

This could be due to the version/audio/subtitle information required on detail screens. This is required to show both the version/audio/subtitle drop down selectors and the media details rows beneath which show the stream cards. It is required on the detail screen to have this playback information.

Does your movie have lots of audio streams or subtitles/captions?

Edited November 16, 2020 by speechles

[Luke 42083]

@justinrh ?

[justinrh 260]

On 11/14/2020 at 3:14 PM, Happy2Play said:

Not sure what you mean.  Unless there is still a lot of processing going on.

What do you mean?  Each movie/episode shows their path in media info.  But there are many users do not want this to be displayed at all as they don't want any user to see this.

(Hmm, quote didn't capture the embedded quote, so bear with me.)

time to render movie page:  I mean the time it takes to render the video details page after selecting the movie in the library.  I'll see if it persists, based on other's comments.

show default folder paths:  I'm talking about configurable folders, like you see for cache, etc. in the server settings.  (Thanks for letting me know about Dashboard.)  While visiting the various pages that offer the changing of a folder location, you could put the default right there in the context of the page, or else in the browse dialog.  The idea is I might or might not like the default location, but I can't make a decision unless I know what default it.

 

[Carlo 4561]

Hi, all the key paths are shown on the dashboard page itself.  You may have to scroll to the bottom to see them.

[justinrh 260]

On 11/17/2020 at 6:37 AM, cayars said:

Hi, all the key paths are shown on the dashboard page itself.  You may have to scroll to the bottom to see them.

Thanks.  Yes, so I was told earlier in this thread.  My point is that in the context of a particular settings page, I don't see the default path.  Now that I know where the paths are listed, I know I can go to the Dashboard look, then go back to where ever I was before.

Edited November 19, 2020 by justinrh

[justinrh 260]

On 11/16/2020 at 1:10 PM, Luke said:

@justinrh ?

@Luke, I'm not sure of what in particular you wanted feedback on.  Let me know if you still need something.

Update on the movie detail page load time:  Initial view is much faster today, but can tell resources are lagging just a bit, like @speechles indicated.  After the initial hit, the page loads as expected.  Even the initial hit is not bad now, so maybe the disk or the OS or Emby was busy - don't know but no problem now.

Edited November 19, 2020 by justinrh

[Luke 42083]

Ok thanks for the feedback.

[justinrh 260]

Just wanted to follow-up:  So far I am liking this.  Emby is faster and more reliable than Plex.  Now I just need the Vizio TV app to fully make the switch!

[Luke 42083]

Glad to hear it! And yes we'd like to have a vizio app as well.