Media Servers: Jellyfin vs Emby Vs something else

[AGTDenton]

I'd been thinking about installing Jellyfin to manage my growing media collection.
Instead of Hijacking the QOTW: Do you still buy physical media topic I thought I'd start a new one as Saracen mentioned Emby that I'd not heard of.

So now there's quite a choice...

I found a useful comparrison of features between Emby, Jellyfin, Plex, Kodi ++. I believe it's up to date.
https://github.com/Protektor-Desura/...-Media-Servers


My primary function I'm looking for is to store Video files that I could access from my TV in a similar manner of Netflix/Prime.
I'm not bothered by the other features like Music, Broadcast TV or streaming. I'm happy to keep those as a separate entity.

I'm not too sure which one to get. My preference of platform for the server side is Windows simply because I'm familiar with the OS and can diagnose/fault find a lot quicker than the others.
I have a feeling I'm going to need some sort of additional hardware client as well. Panasonic is very unlikely to have the means to connect to either of these without some sort of Stick/Mini PC. Their App Shop is very behind the times.

What do you like about the Media server you use?
Are there any others I should consider (I'm definitely not going down the QNAP/Synology route).

[Saracen999]

Well, my opinion of the media server software is that they all do the same sort of thing, but in slighty different ways. For instance, it seemed to me that :-

• Plex - perhaps the most polished BUT ;-
  
  • Not as configurable as others
  • a number of options behind a paywall
  
  
• Emby - not far short of Plex in polish
  
  • More configurable than Plex, but a bit more complex to set up
  • Still has stuff behind a paywall, but not as much
  • Not as restrictive in layout
  • If Plex is Apple, Emby is Windows and Jellyfin is Linux
  
  
• Jellyfin
  
  • Open Source
  • No paywall (that I remember
  • A bit behind the other two in features, but good nonetheless
  
  

I got the distinct 'feel' that the choice was going to come partly down to exactly what you wanted out of it, and your approach to both a bit of extra config, and/or paying for some features.

Given what you sau about what you want, and don't want, I doubt any of the features behind a paywall will be an issue, so that discounts that. For most of the basic functionality, they'll all do. How 'configurable' do you want it?

I am NOT an expert on these packages, not by a country mile. I excluded Plex because it felt too Apple-mindset for me .... i,e, this is how we do stuff, and so will you. That has some advantages, but drawbacks too.

Emby is more able to set to store stuff, and display it, how YOU want, but .... you do need to do some reading and work out, for instance, folder structures. There are vatious ways of organising your media, and most structures will work in that they will pick up and play your files BUT ....

If you are loading up your own personal videos, it won't much matter how you store it but will impact how you can display it. If you're planning on digitised films, TV shows etc, then not complying with sructure requirements negatively impacts the ability of Emby to 'scrape' databases (IMDB, TVDB and so on) to fill in metadata for you and build cast prgiles, director details, episode lists, descriptions etc. Now you could, of course, do most of that manually and for home/personal videos you'll (obviously) have to, but for a large collection of flms and TV progs it's either going to take you a very, VERY long time and shedloads of work, or you wanna get the folder structures such that they comply with what IMDB / TVDB et.al. expect.

Which brings me to my main criticism of Emby. The sftware, IMHO, is damn good. The documentaion .... a bit less so. I mean, most stuff you need is there, but it shows signs of being written by someone that already knows how the software works, and not used in anger by someone trying to work out how the bleep to do this, or that. That bit me, a little. I got there, by careful reading and expeimentation. But instructions are not always cler or comprehensive, and a bit stingy with examples.

Then again, you 'buy' free software, you can't really complain.

Jellyfin? I didn't really spend much time on it. Some of the features I wanted, or at least wanted to be sure were available if I decided I wanted them, were in Emby/Plex but not Jellyfin. Behind a paywall in several cases, but there. So I ruled Jellyfin out, fairly early. After a few more generations, my guess is they'll all be about as capable as each other, but I don't plan on changing, so wanted maximum versatility right now.

Oh, and built in to my plans are a 'lifetime' paywall licence anyway, so I dont care what is behind it, and what isn't. I'm just spending some time making sure I can get Emby to do what I want (mostly, so far, yup) and that I like the way it works, before forking out for the licence. Once I do that, I'm pat the point of no return.

But if your needs are limited to what you said, and stay that way, my guess is any will do what you want so it comes down to easy of install, ease of use and degree of flexibility to get things how you want them, not you adapting to working how some packages insist you do.

[Saracen999]

...

Are there any others I should consider (I'm definitely not going down the QNAP/Synology route).

I did go that way, but I doubt it matters to your choice. Emby, for example, is available for a variety of server platforms, including (but not limited to) Win, Linux, NAS versions like QAP/Synology, but also TrueNAS, and a variety of others.

If you're planning on using a TV, you might want to check the availability of the client side for your set (LG WebOS, AndroidTV, etc) are all there, certainly fr Plex and Emby, as are Firestick, nVidia Shield/Pro (which was one of my must-have factoors), Roku, and so on. But if you need specific hardware, make sure.

You can probably also access them via a straight browser session - that's how I'm doing it on my Win machine. TV can too, I believe, but not tried it.

[[GSV]Trig]

I've used Plex forever, the issues Saracen mentioned are not an issue for me.
As you say, its Windows based to easier to manage, I run it on a VM and pretty much other than updates I leave it alone to do its thing.

[Unique]

i've been using kodi since it was xbmc on the first xbox and that let's me stream pretty much any media from a SMB share on my pc or from an ftp site or usb stick or HDD plugged directly into it. it's free and works on all sorts of platforms. i use mine on a 4k firestick in one room and nvidia sheild in another room

my setup is limited to playing stuff whilst at home, which is the only place i watch. i understand the different with plex is that can let you watch stuff elsewhere, but there is a fee involved

i don't have any fancy menus or anything, it just shows the filenames and let's me play them

i don't use any plugins on kodi, just vanilla setup with the old xbmc style interface

[AGTDenton]

Firstly thank you all for replying previously.


I've finally had a go with Jellyfin & Emby


I actually installed Jellyfin 3/4 months ago or so but the outcome was sadly a fail.

The only reason I could not continue with Jellyfin is that it relies heavily on all the files being on the server that you install the software on.
As soon as you add a networked drive which is where all mine would reside, it could not cope. I spent the better part of a week trying to get the library to detect networked content, and it just would not work. Looking up the issue many people have the same problem and really the only solution was to have the content on the computer you're using. This of course is completely impractical for network only drives and the way I have my storage configured.


So today I've installed Emby, and within 10mins I have installed the server, created my first library and connected to the library with my phone with no issues whatsoever.

After trying Jellyfin, believing that I might have similar or other problems with the next solution, I've only just been able to make some time for Emby which as it turns out it took no time at all.

So I may as well have a good go with Emby before trying something else. Sadly my Panasonic TV does not support an Emby app so if this turns out to be the final solution, I'll have to get some sort of Roku device. Not that it's bad idea in the long run anyway as the Panasonic App Store is dire! For now I'll just plug in a Laptop and see how it is with that.

[AGTDenton]

If you are loading up your own personal videos, it won't much matter how you store it but will impact how you can display it. If you're planning on digitised films, TV shows etc, then not complying with sructure requirements negatively impacts the ability of Emby to 'scrape' databases (IMDB, TVDB and so on) to fill in metadata for you and build cast prgiles, director details, episode lists, descriptions etc. Now you could, of course, do most of that manually and for home/personal videos you'll (obviously) have to, but for a large collection of flms and TV progs it's either going to take you a very, VERY long time and shedloads of work, or you wanna get the folder structures such that they comply with what IMDB / TVDB et.al. expect.

Which brings me to my main criticism of Emby. The sftware, IMHO, is damn good. The documentaion .... a bit less so. I mean, most stuff you need is there, but it shows signs of being written by someone that already knows how the software works, and not used in anger by someone trying to work out how the bleep to do this, or that. That bit me, a little. I got there, by careful reading and expeimentation. But instructions are not always cler or comprehensive, and a bit stingy with examples.

I'm now experiencing the Emby Folder structure requirements.

So far, with most of the films I have it's managed to cope with the metdata. There's only been a couple of anomalies.


FYI there's been a recent exploit discovered with Emby. This is only of concern if you allow incoming connections via the Internet.
https://emby.media/support/articles/advisory-23-05.html

Only beta has been patched at this time.

[Saracen999]

I find Emby gets the metadata right the large majority of the time. Where I had had .... issues .... is usually more with boxed sets of TV shows than films. Much of the same basic technique works, which means getting structures and especially naming conventions right. It's a good habit anyway, though.

Where it can get a bit trickier is, when digitising DVD/Bluray sets there's often 'specials'. One option is just don't bother with those but the pedant in me rebels at that. The second option is that the metadata databases (TVDB, et.al) know about quite a lot of those specials, but not all. Where they have the data, it'll get picked up and done automatically usually storing them at Series 0, though you often have you get naming right..

Where it has to be done manually, at least in my experience, is when specials relate directly to a specific series. For instance, Battlestar Galactica has sort-of 4 or 5 series. S1 to S4 are prety straightforward, but S5 is more of an S4.5, and extended version of S4 it seems, bringing the whole thing to an overall early end. Things like S4.5 do NOT fit neatly into Emby's naming conventions.

Also, one series (from memory, S3 but it could be S4) sort-of starts with a side-series consisting of 2 extended episodes, so the S3 E1 of the disk is more like S3 E3 in actual chronological order as the mini-series was shown after the end of one series and before the start of the other.

And of course, where 'specials' are series-specific, like actors or director etc cmmenting on aspects of that series, they really belong with that series, not all bunged into a 'specials' S0.

That's when it can get a bit tricky. It's not that it's hard to do .... once you've worked out how you want to handle it, where you want it displayed etc. And, how to "edit metadata" to do that. That's where I find the documentation a bit too brief, too vague, lacking in sufficient examples.

But it's genuinely not hard to do, once you get your head around how Emby works.

This is probably one of the biggest strengths but also a bit of a drawback with Emby.

Getting it installed, running and doing stuff? Dead easy. When you want to deviate a bit, its strength is that it really is possible to set things up with exceptions like the above, pretty much how YOU want them to show up, but it isn't great at showing you how. There is, therefore, a bit of a learning curve as soon as you step outside automatic handling.

Again, it's NOT hard, but takes a bit of noodling to work out what it does, in order to do what you want. I mean, once you've dug around in the menus a bit, looked at the metadata, tried this and tried that, it soon becomes clear how Emby uses which bits of metadata to do which bits of its layout, and from that point on, it's easy.

But at least you CAN do it the way you want it.

Oh, and I have no trouble running Emby on the NAS, network drives andor SMB shares,and connecting via browser on the PC, or an app on nVidia Shield Pro attached to the TV. The TV also detects it directly but I use the Shield Pro.

Thanks for the exploit warning. I have the entire NAS locked down (I think) to LAN-only, and all external services and potential servers turned off.

[AGTDenton]

So in adding Music based content, it is completely bamboozled!

It looks like I'm going to have to separate Music Videos vs Music DVDs vs Music Documentaries... otherwise it's completely lost based on the databases it's pulling the info from.

I'm quite enjoying it so far, I like the fact I can do my maintenance remotely (despite the recent exploit).

Next task will be to come up with some best practices which will take a bit of experimentation.
TV shows is next on the list to add which will probably teach me quite a lot by the sounds of it.

[Saracen999]

I must admit, I don't use it for music. I rarely use music on anything not a PC, so run MediaMonkey 5 for that (on the PC, music files on the NAS).