Thought experiment - WMC replacements

[JTScribe]

I'm trying to understand why everyone is going to plex over emby. I have used both extensively and I must say emby is the clear front runner. Especially when it comes to live TV / recorded tv management. Not to mention emby already has its own solution that doesn't even require serverwmc. Granted I use serverwmc for now just because emby doesn't have support for ceton tuners without it but that will be fixed. Also I still plan to use WMC until its dead so emby with an amazon firetv acts like the extender that the ceton echo could never be. Still when WMC does eventually die... the clear replacement for it is Emby. It does an incredible job organizing media, it has a tv guide, can record shows, can be used on SO MANY platforms. Detects if you are on the home network or connecting via Wan to know if it needs to transcode or not. I have finally left mymovies and now use EMBY exclusively to organize my media and it was a little bumpy... however, now with it all setup it just out performs everything. Once the new emby theater is released with the newly designed tv guide then I may end up only using WMC as the backend for just my recordings.

I'm honestly using Plex as more of a replacement/offload for My Movies.

It manages TV show episodes in a much nicer format than My Movies does. Plus it's a LOT less work to set up once you get the naming convention down.

Now, I was kind of annoyed by the fact that I had to pay for the Plex client for Kindle, but it's free with my Roku's, so that's what I went with.

[bob_p]

I'm also paying a monthly Plex fee - and have Plex running on multiple systems. It's pretty good for providing access on both local network and internet.

However, it has some problems. Playback of WMC recordings can be slow - I've found that using something like Daum's Pot Player works much better on Windows 10 - especially when trying to skip forward/backward around commercials. Plex's transcoding seems to get in the way - and I haven't found a way to turn the transcoding off when going to a PC or a device that can playback the video without transcoding.

I agree with one of SD's goals - and that is to provide an easy-to-use DVR solution. Unless there's a way to extend Plex to support DRM along with live and recorded TV (as easy as WMC), it won't be a WMC replacement. It might be part of the solution - but would require integration with something else (and there's still the DRM issue).

[JTScribe]

WTV does seem problematic. I use MCEBuddy to recode the shows I want to keep and trim the commercials out. They play back on my Rokus just fine with Plex.

[bob_p]

We're using comskip to detect commercials - and, at least with our configuration, it doesn't always detect the commercials in the right places - and we end up having to disable the auto-skipping and manually skip around the commercials for some recordings. My concern about having the commercials automatically removed is that when this happens, we'd end up losing part of the programs.

[epayson85]

I can tell you that emby handles WMC recordings perfectly. In fact it does it better than another wmc PC does. Typically the shows end up unorganized on another PC and doesn't categorize them properly. They are great on EMBY and emby also downloads better meta data about the shows. Now when I go to watch a recording on my firetv it actually has meta data including poster art and the shows logo that displays on the screen when you bring up the OSD. Also emby allows you to manage your recordings remotely via the tv guide from any amazon fire tv / android device. It does transcode recordings however its a non issue as fastforward and rewind works perfectly. I have heard of people getting direct stream to work though as emby uses VLC player on most devices now including the firetv. I would imagine this requires a hardwired connection though. I use wireless with these devices so transcoding is a god send. In short... emby completely destroys plex when it comes live / recorded tv.

Then when it comes to replacing mymovies... it honestly displays the meta data / fan art even better than kodi let alone plex in my opinion. Plus it has an app that is built into wmc. Some of the movies even have video backgrounds instead of picture backgrounds that are taken from the dvds / blurays. Also if you are use to mymovies if the meta data is ever incorrect the metadata manager on emby is similar but in my opinion easier to use than mymovies. Plex is certainly the EASIEST but is also much more strict thus less customize able.

[epayson85]

I found Emby's Android app to be too buggy and crashy (maybe because they are using VLC to do the playback?), and guide to slow. Also, last I checked you couldn't even timeshift live TV yet. Kodi does a vastly superior job with Live TV/DVR on Android devices. Like I said though, I like where they are headed it's just not ready yet (for me at least).

I think you might have been using an older version because I can tell you the android app works GREAT. I have been using it since the begning and certainly know the bugs you are refering to which is why I waited so long before finally putting it on my main HTPC. The guide is slow I agree with you there especially when compared to kodi or wmc. However, Kodi can't play my tvguide remotely either, meaning I can't take my android device with me on vacation and have it transcode live / recorded tv for me. I have gotten past the slowness of the guide by limiting the tv channels that appear on the TVguide. Also emby remembers your most used stations and displays them on the first page so the speed is a non issue if you don't view more than 100 tv channels. Another thing to mention is it depends on what you are using for hardware. If you are using a roku or firetv stick... its not going to be as fast. I am using the 2nd version of the firetv now and man is it fast. I also don't understand what you mean by timeshift... I can pause rewind / fastforward on life tv just fine / record live tv... What is your definition of time shifting?

[epayson85]

I found Emby's Android app to be too buggy and crashy (maybe because they are using VLC to do the playback?), and guide to slow. Also, last I checked you couldn't even timeshift live TV yet. Kodi does a vastly superior job with Live TV/DVR on Android devices. Like I said though, I like where they are headed it's just not ready yet (for me at least).

I think you might have been using an older version because I can tell you the android app works GREAT. I have been using it since the begning and certainly know the bugs you are refering to which is why I waited so long before finally putting it on my main HTPC. The guide is slow I agree with you there especially when compared to kodi or WMC. However, Kodi can't play my tvguide remotely either, meaning I can't take my android device with me on vacation and have it transcode live / recorded tv for me. I have gotten past the slowness of the guide by limiting the tv channels that appear on the TVguide. Also emby remembers your most used stations and displays them on the first page so the speed is a non issue if you don't view more than 100 tv channels. Another thing to mention is it depends on what you are using for hardware. If you are using a roku or firetv stick... its not going to be as fast. I am using the 2nd version of the firetv now and man is it fast. I also don't understand what you mean by timeshift... I can pause rewind / fastforward on life tv just fine / record live tv... What is your definition of time shifting?

Also just a note the reason for the slow guide on android devices is because it is using a central guide that can also be viewed via the web. This design is on purpose to allow many devices to all be able to view this tv guide. This allows you to open a web browser from any where in the world, access your tv guide, change your recordings or even better watch live tv.

[3rob3]

I am well aware of all of Emby's features, like I said I do use it just not as my default. For everyday use Kodi is much faster (again, just my observation). Another niggle I have with Emby is no 30 second skip forward, 10 sec backward. As for timeshifting Live TV I mean being able to rewind/skip backward while viewing a live channel. I can pause on my setup but that is it. Maybe it's because you are transcoding (another thing I wouldn't accept with everyday use) that you are able to? This link seems to agree that timeshifting is not yet implemented:
http://emby.media/community/index.php?/ ... oad-speed/
And another bug that is unacceptable for everyday use:
http://emby.media/community/index.php?/ ... ng-stream/

I don't want to seem like I am bagging on Emby, I fully expect these to be worked out. It's just that you don't seem to believe it has any problems.

[RyC]

How are you adding wtv recordings in emby so it shows up with metadata?

[epayson85]

So Emby does do 30 second forwards and 10 seconds back. That's for all videos TV, recordings, and any media. You are correct that I am transcoding my live TV but of course that's because I can't possibly direct stream my live TV since its over the wireless connection. However you can direct stream and timeshift if you use server wmc. You just need to disable the tuners from being used by Emby so server wmc is embys only option. Then wmc is doing live TV for you.

Also Emby does the meta data automatically as long as it can see the recordings via server wmc.

[3rob3]

How are you adding wtv recordings in emby so it shows up with metadata?

ServerWMC does this automatically when installed on the server and enabled in Emby.

[3rob3]

So Emby does do 30 second forwards and 10 seconds back

I wonder if that is a Fire TV only thing, because it doesn't work on Android TV.

That is pretty impressive that it runs that well for you on the Fire TV Stick, and over wifi.