[Brian Hampton]

Hi,

2 weeks ago now I bought a PC to use as HTPC and I setup MPC-BE with MadVR and that's all fine.

I have tried both Kodi and Emby Home Theater as front ends for use with MPC-BE.

Neither seems very good and I can't decide between the two.

Is there some other one that everyone prefers that I haven't even considered?

(My use is my own media, I don't watch cable and I don't stream internet video... Just saying this because it affects the use and choice of the interface a lot.)

-Brian

 

[steelman1991]

Are you running on Windows and do you have Windows Media Centre - if so you might want to try the WMC variant of Emby (Can't get my head round this name change, it's dreadful IMHO). It will work with MPC-BE, but you will lose the ability to resume. However if your not tied to MPC-BE and could use MPC-HC (which can be configured to use madVR), then you will get a far more integrated 'feel' with the added bonus of being able to 'resume'.

It is totally different in feel and appearance from Emby Theatre, but the two you mention are really the 'big' players, though MediaPortal and meedIOs are alternatives.

What is it about them that aren't very good?

 

[Brian Hampton]

Well,

I was loving Kodi when I used a chromebox with OpenElec but since moving over to HTPC with MPC it doesn't go as well.

I have MPC with MadVR and even use the 3DLUT calibration feature of MadVR and I adore that. So MadVR is one thing that I can't debate... that part is staying for sure.

I don't have preference between MPC HC and MPC BE... so I can easily switch that one back to HC... I didn't realize that HC had advantages.

Anyways, when going back and forth with external players that's where Emby seems to have an advantage over Kodi. And it looks better also.

Kodi has a MAJOR advantage with how the media is presented.

Now, strangely,... There is a paid app for Emby for windows with a much better interface... I mean it's strange because why offer the free one if the paid one is so far ahead? I guess I will try the paid app because as it stands I'm liking the Emby system better on HTPC.

Edit - Oh I see why there is a paid app now,... it's designed for tablets and it's in style to charge for stuff like that... Doesn't matter, I will forget that one. I guess having moved to HTPC with MPC I'm finding that MB3 works better for me than Kodi but I still have a few kinks in the interface to work out.


-Brian

 

[steelman1991]

They each have their strengths. The presentation of the media, is to my mind far less important than the quality of playback - but I still like it nice.

Ebr over at Emby has made great strides in how metadata is presented in WMC Emby. While I have a reasonably smooth transition between external players in both Kodi and Emby, I tend to agree that the Emby variant is much better, particularly when you factor in its ability to 'resume' - a feature which none of the other front-ends offer AFAIK.

Thank goodness you noticed that the Windows App is pitched at tablets and saved yourself a few coins.

 

[politby]

Are you running on Windows and do you have Windows Media Centre - if so you might want to try the WMC variant of Emby (Can't get my head round this name change, it's dreadful IMHO).

You Sir, are my friend. Everyone seems to like the new name but I hate it. Sounds like a child's rubber toy

 

[TornadoTJ]

Emby for WMC = Emby Classic.

MB3 went through a lot of growing pains at first, but recently has made some big improvements. I stayed on MB2 until only a few months ago.

 

[ikkuranus]

You Sir, are my friend. Everyone seems to like the new name but I hate it. Sounds like a child's rubber toy

I don't particularly care for the name either but I don't plan to stop using it. To me that is almost as ridiculous as uninstalling windows 8 to go back to 7 vs just getting used to it or installing a replacement.

 

[Brian Hampton]

I run Windows 10 which I don't think has WMC.

So I'm back and forth between Kodi and MB3 with MB HT as a front end.

And, still,... they both suck for now.

Kodi has a TON of advantages but it's buggy for me when going back and forth with an external player.

The Emby HT looks like Alpha software ... no where near finished product. And there are lots of aspects of the interface I would love to modify (specifically to dis-able.)

Maybe I do need to back to a version of WinDows that supports WMC.... maybe it would be worth it.

So far I don't have a good solution.

 

[Dark_Slayer]

Kodi with the new Emby for Kodi Beta add-on is a great combination I think

Have you tried the native Kodi player side by side a few times to see how they compare? If you modify your playercorefactory.xml and take out the rules section (just cut/paste it to some other notepad file for testing)

Without prepended rules, you can still launch MPC-HC or whichever external players you specify in your playercorefactory with the "C" context menu (and choose Play with "mpc" etc)

I did this a number of times when I had madvr setup, and I eventually just started using the native player instead after seeing (depending on the video) none to minuscule improvement

If you stick with MPC, something that may help a little is that Yatse can control MPC-HC http://yatse.tv/redmine/projects/yatse/wiki/MPCHC

 

[TornadoTJ]

I tried installing the Emby for Kodi add-on and never got anywhere. The repository showed up, but it is empty, so I can't get any further.

 

[Dark_Slayer]

That happens sometimes with all zip repos

Just go to add-ons -> get add-ons -> then right click or press "c" on the Mediabrowser Beta repo and select "Force Refresh"

 

[TornadoTJ]

Thanks, that worked. It's syncing now.

 

[Brian Hampton]

Kodi with the new Emby for Kodi Beta add-on is a great combination I think

Have you tried the native Kodi player side by side a few times to see how they compare? If you modify your playercorefactory.xml and take out the rules section (just cut/paste it to some other notepad file for testing)

Without prepended rules, you can still launch MPC-HC or whichever external players you specify in your playercorefactory with the "C" context menu (and choose Play with "mpc" etc)

I did this a number of times when I had madvr setup, and I eventually just started using the native player instead after seeing (depending on the video) none to minuscule improvement

If you stick with MPC, something that may help a little is that Yatse can control MPC-HC http://yatse.tv/redmine/projects/yatse/wiki/MPCHC

If I could live with the built in player I would be all set.

But, I think I'm hooked on MadVR completely. I made a 3D LUT calibration for my projector and MadVR looks so sharp, detailed and accurate.

The default player looks ok..... but I can tell something is missing. It kind of looks like the quick and dirty version. In a way, that can hide some of the limitations in the source material and kind of smooth things over.


I will look at it more ... if I could go back to the built in player I would be all set for sure. I had kodi running on the chromebox using the built in player and all was swell... so maybe I can go back that direction.... I can try.


=Brian

 

[Mfusick]

EMBY and KODI sitting in a tree...

 

[TornadoTJ]

^^

Didn't work. The system synced up, and all my movies and TV shows appeared in Kodi. Selecting any movie would result in the message that the file is no longer available and would I like to remove the entry from my library. This was on a brand new Kodi install that had not been pointed to my server.

I am not sure I understand why I need Emby on Kodi anyway, it didn't appear to do anything any differently than just adding the network share to Kodi.

Luckily reinstalling Kodi from scratch takes all of about a minute.

 

[Brian Hampton]

I think I'm going to go back to Kodi's built in player for a while.

Maybe I will forget how great MadVR is ...........eventually.

(Edit - That didn't work at all... I'm spoiled by MadVR now and can't put the Genie back in the bottle so to speak. I'll just have to resolve my issues with interface choices.)

 

[Dark_Slayer]

@TornadoTJ

Does emby work for you at all? Are your libraries network paths or do you use path substitution?

The difference between the emby add-on and adding a network share directly to kodi is that with the add-on emby will keep track of your watched status, resume points, and take care of all the artwork so you don't have to do silly stuff like run artwork downloader to get disc art and clear art to show up in kodi even when it's already in you're folder because their scraper code still doesn't acknowledge them

 

[TornadoTJ]

Emby works on all my HTPCs, and my Roku. I use \\ipaddress\sharename

Good point on the watched/resume. Did not think of that.

 

[nickrout]

There is no reason to use emby with kodi unless you need emby's other features like transcoding for mobile devices or to stream over internet.

 

[Dark_Slayer]

There is no reason to use emby with kodi unless you need emby's other features like transcoding for mobile devices or to stream over internet.

Emby doesn't actually support transcoding and streaming right now, only the old mediabrowser add-on does

-watched status
-resume points
-better metadata automated (actors/discart/clearart)
-auto update w/o the need for buggy add-ons like library watchdog or waiting for a kodi library update to process (this has high WAF when she's waiting for her new kardashian's episode to finish being added to the server)

The hopeful someday list will be
-streaming
-transcoding