Emby app for Vizio TVs

[clarkss12 304]

Not sure where to post this request, but I am posing here anyway..

I purchased a Vizio TV ( P65Q9-H1) a couple of months ago, and now have been testing it.  So far, I am quite impressed with it.

It would be great is Emby was able to add it's client app to their OS.  They use their own OS, so not sure if it is possible.  Plex does have an app on their OS, but it did have issues with some of the media playback.

[Luke 42847]

Yup, more info here:

 

[clarkss12 304]

Thanks, will be bugging Vizio......

[clarkss12 304]

If Vizio would allow the Emby app, I could get rid of ALL my Android boxes.............. 

I have ALWAYS used these TV's, including the 4k "smart" TV's as monitors, never as a TV ( a TV has rabbit ears).  I replaced my 65" Sammy with this P65Q9-H1 about a month or two ago, and as usual, I connected all my devices to it and used it as a monitor only (only weird people actually have rabbit ears connected to their smart TVs) . 

 Anyway, three or four days ago, I started tinkering with it to see what it can do, I was blown away.  Besides the picture being fantastic, it has automatic frame rate switching on ALL of the apps that I tested.  It was fast and not sluggish at all, but the main thing that made me a believer was that it passed through ALL the audio codecs that I tested, amazing.  Of course it supports Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HDR 10+ and HLG and has HDMI 2.1.

The live TV function on this TV is almost none existent, no guide or station information at all........  Do they still print the TV guide in the local news papers???

And the remote is quite usable and comfortable to use.......

If it had the Emby app, it would almost be perfect...........

Here is my thoughts on this TV

 

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by clarkss12

[skidmarks 199]

8 minutes ago, clarkss12 said:

(only weird people actually have rabbit ears connected to their smart TVs)

Your telling me!  I've got a 40ft mast and a rotor... 

Think that makes me goofier than a pet racoon!

But i do own a couple vizios.

Edited March 15, 2021 by skidmarks

[clarkss12 304]

7 minutes ago, skidmarks said:

Your telling me!  I've got a 40ft mast and a rotor... 

Think that makes me goofier than a pet racoon!

But i do own a couple vizios.

Mast with ROTOR is old school...........   Are you still using the 300 ohm leadin cable??? 

Edited March 15, 2021 by clarkss12

[skidmarks 199]

13 minutes ago, clarkss12 said:

Are you still using the 300 ohm leadin cable???

Was a chief engineer...  Rectangular Waveguide

 

 

 

[clarkss12 304]

22 minutes ago, skidmarks said:

Was a chief engineer...  Rectangular Waveguide

 

 

 

That is an oil drilling rig...........

[skidmarks 199]

Well... falling off would probably have the same results...

[clarkss12 304]

1 hour ago, skidmarks said:

Well... falling off would probably have the same results...

Dam****........  

[tamodbx 0]

Yeah Emby are you reading this. Plex is already on VIZO. Emby on VIZO now! Thanks!

Edited May 28, 2022 by tamodbx

[Luke 42847]

16 minutes ago, tamodbx said:

Yeah Emby are you reading this. Plex is already on VIZO. Emby on VIZO now! Thanks!

 

[Jayge91 0]

Any word on this? 

[Luke 42847]

Quote

Sign up here https://www.vizio.com/en/content-partners

I think they look for established companies that will pay to be on their platform or share ad revenue with them.

We have submitted to this multiple times over the years and haven't heard back. We can try again though.

[gallemore 0]

Please try submitting it again or another route to contact someone to get this done. I have the newest Vizio TV and I just purchased Emby Premiere thinking it was a good idea to jump from Plex. I can't use my server and no one talked about that anywhere before I purchased this thing. I have never used Emby but this is a bad first impression.

[Luke 42847]

1 hour ago, gallemore said:

Please try submitting it again or another route to contact someone to get this done. I have the newest Vizio TV and I just purchased Emby Premiere thinking it was a good idea to jump from Plex. I can't use my server and no one talked about that anywhere before I purchased this thing. I have never used Emby but this is a bad first impression.

hi, we will try again. We do periodically. It's important to understand though that they don't have an open app store that any developer can submit. 

You have to be a Vizio streaming partner, and in order to become that, you need to be able to generate revenue for Vizio. Plex has it's ad-supported content which gives them a way of doing that, whereas we are your personal media server.

[gallemore 0]

Ok, I see. I ordered an Amazon Firestick because I read that it does support Emby. So far I do like the platform for the most part. I don't like that there aren't options to sort by duplicate movies/TV shows or to search specifically by an actor and to see their list of movies like Plex does. Those two integrations would probably help a lot. It is a very useful tool and a great transcoding server platform, so thank y'all for the work. Just trying to give feedback since I feel invested now. Haha.

[Luke 42847]

34 minutes ago, gallemore said:

Ok, I see. I ordered an Amazon Firestick because I read that it does support Emby. So far I do like the platform for the most part. I don't like that there aren't options to sort by duplicate movies/TV shows or to search specifically by an actor and to see their list of movies like Plex does. Those two integrations would probably help a lot. It is a very useful tool and a great transcoding server platform, so thank y'all for the work. Just trying to give feedback since I feel invested now. Haha.

HI, the search feature in the app will return actors. have you tried that?

[scott46953 33]

Bump vizio smart TVs are selling more and more. Need to compile the emby get it approved on Vizio and let it grow with Vizio.

If Vizio falls in the Future then discontinue.

Looks like we have to order more Roku devices. Cheep to get by. Would much rather just pay a fee to emby to get it done. Wink bump.

[KylJoy 3]

I have been experimenting with getting Emby to run directly on a VIZIO SmartCast/VIZIO OS television, and I have it working surprisingly well.

This is not Chromecast, screen mirroring, or an external streaming device. Emby is actually running in the web application environment built into the VIZIO TV.

The first important discovery was that VIZIO's old SmartCast Conjure/App Launcher still works with my television. I connected to the TV's SmartCast interface on port 7345 from my PC, paired with the PIN displayed on the TV, and was able to launch a URL directly on the television.

I initially launched:

http://tv.emby.media

and Emby Theater came up directly on the VIZIO. I was able to log in, browse my server, and play media.

I then changed this to use the web client served directly by my own Emby server:

http://<EMBY-SERVER-IP>:8096/web/index.html?vizio=1

Video playback works, navigation with the VIZIO remote works, and the interface is quite usable.

There was one significant remote-control problem: the VIZIO Back button did nothing in Emby.

I made a small JavaScript key-test application and launched that through the same VIZIO App Launcher. That showed exactly what the VIZIO remote sends:

Up       = ArrowUp / 38
Down     = ArrowDown / 40
Left     = ArrowLeft / 37
Right    = ArrowRight / 39
OK       = Enter / 13
Back     = Backspace / 8

The important part was:

Back = Backspace
keyCode = 8

Emby's web client wasn't treating that as its Back command.

I added a very small JavaScript compatibility shim to the locally served Emby web client. On a VIZIO/SmartCast user agent only, it translates:

Backspace / keyCode 8
        ->
Escape / keyCode 27

It deliberately leaves Backspace alone when the cursor is in a text-entry field.

After doing that, the physical VIZIO Back button works normally in Emby, including getting back out of Settings and navigating through the UI.

I then worked on eliminating the need to use a computer or phone to launch Emby.

My VIZIO remote has an old dedicated Redbox button. VIZIO has since reassigned that button to launch WatchFree+ On Demand.

Using the local SmartCast API, I captured what the TV reports when that button is pressed. On my TV it is:

APP_ID: 145
NAME_SPACE: 4
MESSAGE:
https://ui.sctv.prod.smartcasttv.com/watchfreeplus/avod/entry/entrypoint.html

When my locally hosted Emby application is running, the TV reports:

APP_ID: 17
NAME_SPACE: 4
MESSAGE:
http://<EMBY-SERVER-IP>:8096/web/index.html?vizio=1

I paired my Emby Linux server directly with the VIZIO and wrote a small systemd service using the Python vizaio library.

The service watches the TV's current application through the local SmartCast API. When it sees the exact WatchFree+ entry point generated by pressing the physical Redbox button, it immediately launches my local Emby URL instead.

So I now have:

Press REDBOX on VIZIO remote
        ↓
TV starts WatchFree+ On Demand
        ↓
Linux service detects that application
        ↓
SmartCast /app/launch
        ↓
Local Emby web client launches
        ↓
Physical VIZIO remote controls Emby

The switch happens very quickly.

So in practice, the old Redbox button is now my dedicated Emby button.

No Chromecast.

No Roku/Fire TV/Apple TV.

No phone.

No PC needed to launch it.

The only always-on component is my Emby server itself, which is already running anyway.

There are two modifications involved:

A small VIZIO-specific JavaScript shim in Emby's locally served web client to translate the VIZIO Back button.
A small Linux/systemd service that watches the VIZIO local API and redirects the obsolete Redbox button to Emby.

Obviously this isn't equivalent to having an officially published Emby tile in the VIZIO app catalog, but functionally I now have a native-feeling Emby client running directly on the television.

If anyone is interested, I can clean up and post the JavaScript Back-button shim, the VIZIO pairing procedure, and the Python/systemd launcher service.

I'm especially interested in whether the Emby developers still have the VIZIO-specific client/build that was mentioned in the past. Given that the underlying SmartCast web application environment is still perfectly capable of running Emby, it seems like there may still be a useful path here even without VIZIO catalog approval.

[Luke 42847]

4 hours ago, KylJoy said:

I have been experimenting with getting Emby to run directly on a VIZIO SmartCast/VIZIO OS television, and I have it working surprisingly well.

This is not Chromecast, screen mirroring, or an external streaming device. Emby is actually running in the web application environment built into the VIZIO TV.

The first important discovery was that VIZIO's old SmartCast Conjure/App Launcher still works with my television. I connected to the TV's SmartCast interface on port 7345 from my PC, paired with the PIN displayed on the TV, and was able to launch a URL directly on the television.

I initially launched:

http://tv.emby.media

and Emby Theater came up directly on the VIZIO. I was able to log in, browse my server, and play media.

I then changed this to use the web client served directly by my own Emby server:

http://<EMBY-SERVER-IP>:8096/web/index.html?vizio=1

Video playback works, navigation with the VIZIO remote works, and the interface is quite usable.

There was one significant remote-control problem: the VIZIO Back button did nothing in Emby.

I made a small JavaScript key-test application and launched that through the same VIZIO App Launcher. That showed exactly what the VIZIO remote sends:

Up       = ArrowUp / 38
Down     = ArrowDown / 40
Left     = ArrowLeft / 37
Right    = ArrowRight / 39
OK       = Enter / 13
Back     = Backspace / 8

The important part was:

Back = Backspace
keyCode = 8

Emby's web client wasn't treating that as its Back command.

I added a very small JavaScript compatibility shim to the locally served Emby web client. On a VIZIO/SmartCast user agent only, it translates:

Backspace / keyCode 8
        ->
Escape / keyCode 27

It deliberately leaves Backspace alone when the cursor is in a text-entry field.

After doing that, the physical VIZIO Back button works normally in Emby, including getting back out of Settings and navigating through the UI.

I then worked on eliminating the need to use a computer or phone to launch Emby.

My VIZIO remote has an old dedicated Redbox button. VIZIO has since reassigned that button to launch WatchFree+ On Demand.

Using the local SmartCast API, I captured what the TV reports when that button is pressed. On my TV it is:

APP_ID: 145
NAME_SPACE: 4
MESSAGE:
https://ui.sctv.prod.smartcasttv.com/watchfreeplus/avod/entry/entrypoint.html

When my locally hosted Emby application is running, the TV reports:

APP_ID: 17
NAME_SPACE: 4
MESSAGE:
http://<EMBY-SERVER-IP>:8096/web/index.html?vizio=1

I paired my Emby Linux server directly with the VIZIO and wrote a small systemd service using the Python vizaio library.

The service watches the TV's current application through the local SmartCast API. When it sees the exact WatchFree+ entry point generated by pressing the physical Redbox button, it immediately launches my local Emby URL instead.

So I now have:

Press REDBOX on VIZIO remote
        ↓
TV starts WatchFree+ On Demand
        ↓
Linux service detects that application
        ↓
SmartCast /app/launch
        ↓
Local Emby web client launches
        ↓
Physical VIZIO remote controls Emby

The switch happens very quickly.

So in practice, the old Redbox button is now my dedicated Emby button.

No Chromecast.

No Roku/Fire TV/Apple TV.

No phone.

No PC needed to launch it.

The only always-on component is my Emby server itself, which is already running anyway.

There are two modifications involved:

A small VIZIO-specific JavaScript shim in Emby's locally served web client to translate the VIZIO Back button.
A small Linux/systemd service that watches the VIZIO local API and redirects the obsolete Redbox button to Emby.

Obviously this isn't equivalent to having an officially published Emby tile in the VIZIO app catalog, but functionally I now have a native-feeling Emby client running directly on the television.

If anyone is interested, I can clean up and post the JavaScript Back-button shim, the VIZIO pairing procedure, and the Python/systemd launcher service.

I'm especially interested in whether the Emby developers still have the VIZIO-specific client/build that was mentioned in the past. Given that the underlying SmartCast web application environment is still perfectly capable of running Emby, it seems like there may still be a useful path here even without VIZIO catalog approval.

Aside from the back button thing, couldn’t you just bookmark the web app and pin that to your TV Home Screen?