Plex vs Emby

[bobhays]

I ran Plex a while ago when I was first getting into media servers but it was terrible at scraping the correct metadata. Eventually I got into Emby and it's been pretty good so far but it's still not completely polished and it has random bugs here an there. In the mean time it looks like Plex has updated it's UI a bit and gotten better at scraping info.

 

The big issue I have is getting 4k HEVC video to transcode and stream to my client devices. The Plex solution is to transcode and save a 1080p h264 copy, the Emby solution is to run it on a system that supports hardware decoding/encoding (or buy premium and do the same as Plex).

 

The main differences I can think of right now are as follows:

 

Plex you can save versions for free, Emby you have to pay. (I would use this)

Emby you have multiple users for free, Plex you have to pay. (I would use this)

Emby supports NVENC and QSV, Plex only supports QSV.

Plex is more polished but Emby has developers that actually listen and are active.

 

Are there any other major differences I'm missing? What do you guys use and why?

 

EDIT: I've seen Plex working with NVENC but can't find any actual documentation that it officially supports it.

[brwainer]

No experience with Emby, but I can say that Plex scrapes things properly if you make sure your movies/TV Shows have the correct name and year according to whatever sources your Agents are set up to use. I don't have any 4K or high color depth source media, so I haven't had to deal with that type of issue yet. I also don't have any servers that have NVENC or QSV capability, so I can't comment on that capability. Overall, I use Plex because I like it, and had already paid for Plex Pass before I heard of Emby.

[bobhays]

6 minutes ago, brwainer said:

No experience with Emby, but I can say that Plex scrapes things properly if you make sure your movies/TV Shows have the correct name and year according to whatever sources your Agents are set up to use. I don't have any 4K or high color depth source media, so I haven't had to deal with that type of issue yet. I also don't have any servers that have NVENC or QSV capability, so I can't comment on that capability. Overall, I use Plex because I like it, and had already paid for Plex Pass before I heard of Emby.

If Plex does happen to get something wrong or not find something, is it easy to manually identify the media? For example in Emby I can just use the IMDB ID for movies or TVDB ID for tv shows and then it will scrape the metadata from the respective sources.

[brwainer]

26 minutes ago, bobhays said:

If Plex does happen to get something wrong or not find something, is it easy to manually identify the media? For example in Emby I can just use the IMDB ID for movies or TVDB ID for tv shows and then it will scrape the metadata from the respective sources.

it's not quite as easy as "use this exact ID" but you can manually match it - meaning that it brings up a search window where you can enter terms and choose various sources, and then select the search result that is the correct one.

 

EDIT: Also, if you make any manual changes to any metadata field in Plex, that will take precedence over anything from an outside source.

[bobhays]

3 minutes ago, brwainer said:

it's not quite as easy as "use this exact ID" but you can manually match it - meaning that it brings up a search window where you can enter terms and choose various sources, and then select the search result that is the correct one.

Thanks for the info. I looked it up to see how the process works and and according to this page

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201018497-Fix-Incorrect-Match-Match

At the very bottom it mentions you can just type in the id's into the title box and you can search for specific ID's like in Emby

[brwainer]

41 minutes ago, bobhays said:

Thanks for the info. I looked it up to see how the process works and and according to this page

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201018497-Fix-Incorrect-Match-Match

At the very bottom it mentions you can just type in the id's into the title box and you can search for specific ID's like in Emby

Somehow I never noticed this. Thanks for the tip!

[CaptainRedHat]

I tried emby, but I couldn't get any of the mobile apps to work correctly (even with the emby premiere subscription). The one advantage Emby has for me (and the only thing I currently use it for) is streaming live TV from a tuner via ServerWMC. So I continue to use Plex for all saved media and I use Emby for live TV.

[brwainer]

21 minutes ago, CaptainRedHat said:

I tried emby, but I couldn't get any of the mobile apps to work correctly (even with the emby premiere subscription). The one advantage Emby has for me (and the only thing I currently use it for) is streaming live TV from a tuner via ServerWMC. So I continue to use Plex for all saved media and I use Emby for live TV.

Have you read about Plex DVR? If you have an HDHomeRun tuner on your network (which you can watch live tv directly through) then you can set up Plex to use that tuner for recording shows. The only downside is that it's a Plex Pass feature, because access to channel guide data isn't free

[Mikensan]

I'd use filebot to rename the files properly to help plex out. That way you don't have to fix incorrect matches en mass. In terms of matching, it hasn't failed me yet except for a handful of anime.

 

Plex will stream 4k if you have it in the right codec/container. Transcoding on the fly is going to butcher performance. Support 4k direct streaming:

Container: MP4

Resolution: 3840x2160 or smaller

Video Encoding: HEVC (H.265)

Video Frame Rate: 30fps

Video Bit Depth: 8

 

I haven't had any real issues with plex, so I've never tried anything else. Very happy with it.

[bobhays]

6 hours ago, CaptainRedHat said:

I tried emby, but I couldn't get any of the mobile apps to work correctly (even with the emby premiere subscription). The one advantage Emby has for me (and the only thing I currently use it for) is streaming live TV from a tuner via ServerWMC. So I continue to use Plex for all saved media and I use Emby for live TV.

Oh thats weird, I've used the mobile app and mobile web version just fine, but personally don't really care about live TV.

28 minutes ago, Mikensan said:

I'd use filebot to rename the files properly to help plex out. That way you don't have to fix incorrect matches en mass. In terms of matching, it hasn't failed me yet except for a handful of anime.

 

Plex will stream 4k if you have it in the right codec/container. Transcoding on the fly is going to butcher performance. Support 4k direct streaming:

Container: MP4

Resolution: 3840x2160 or smaller

Video Encoding: HEVC (H.265)

Video Frame Rate: 30fps

Video Bit Depth: 8

 

I haven't had any real issues with plex, so I've never tried anything else. Very happy with it.

One of the big use cases is going to be remote streaming and there's no way my upload can handle a 4k video so I'll either have to make smaller 1080p versions or find a way to transcode (hopefully through hw transcoders).

 

I'll have to try out plex again, but if I remember correctly and it hasn't changed much, Plex libraries dont have as many customization options as Emby. That being said the feature that's most important to me is being able to use HW transcoding so whichever platform supports it better will get my money. I guess I'll just have to try each one and see what works.

[desertcomputer]

21 hours ago, bobhays said:

If Plex does happen to get something wrong or not find something, is it easy to manually identify the media? For example in Emby I can just use the IMDB ID for movies or TVDB ID for tv shows and then it will scrape the metadata from the respective sources.

They a option to re fetch meta data by fixing incorrect finds and searching manually, As long as your file is name correctly you shouldn't have any problems. I prefer plex as it allow me to share my plex to my friend and family and allow me to use it when I am outside. 

[bobhays]

3 hours ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

They a option to re fetch meta data by fixing incorrect finds and searching manually, As long as your file is name correctly you shouldn't have any problems. I prefer plex as it allow me to share my plex to my friend and family and allow me to use it when I am outside. 

Emby does that too. The main differences as far as I can tell are mentioned in the OP

[desertcomputer]

1 hour ago, bobhays said:

Emby does that too. The main differences as far as I can tell are mentioned in the OP

from what i remember sharing/ accessing your media from outside require you pay as plex is free. 

[jj9987]

I have used both and ended up using Emby due to the need for multiple user support in the free version.

 

Both ran in Docker containers on my unRAID server (running a Xeon E5-2675 v3). Emby has had a few files, that did not play, but I can't remember if it was issue with the file or the application. I was able to use both on my laptop, PC, phone (via Chrome), Chromecast - no issues at all. 

[Mikensan]

16 hours ago, bobhays said:

Oh thats weird, I've used the mobile app and mobile web version just fine, but personally don't really care about live TV.

One of the big use cases is going to be remote streaming and there's no way my upload can handle a 4k video so I'll either have to make smaller 1080p versions or find a way to transcode (hopefully through hw transcoders).

 

I'll have to try out plex again, but if I remember correctly and it hasn't changed much, Plex libraries dont have as many customization options as Emby. That being said the feature that's most important to me is being able to use HW transcoding so whichever platform supports it better will get my money. I guess I'll just have to try each one and see what works.

Plex has a feature to "optimize" videos, which will pre-transcode them. So you can specify if somebody is playing remotely from a phone / tv to stream it in xyz quality. Leaving the 4k intact.

[bobhays]

14 hours ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

from what i remember sharing/ accessing your media from outside require you pay as plex is free. 

Emby has that for free as well. I actually use the remote streaming more than local.

12 hours ago, jj9987 said:

I have used both and ended up using Emby due to the need for multiple user support in the free version.

 

Both ran in Docker containers on my unRAID server (running a Xeon E5-2675 v3). Emby has had a few files, that did not play, but I can't remember if it was issue with the file or the application. I was able to use both on my laptop, PC, phone (via Chrome), Chromecast - no issues at all. 

Yea multiple user support for free is good, but it doesn't have the "optimize" video feature for free, which Plex does. (note: quote below).

11 hours ago, Mikensan said:

Plex has a feature to "optimize" videos, which will pre-transcode them. So you can specify if somebody is playing remotely from a phone / tv to stream it in xyz quality. Leaving the 4k intact.

Ahh thanks for this, I forgot to add it to the OP.

EDIT: seems I already had it in OP haha.

 

What I'm going to do is try to use NVENC with Emby and Plex, if both of them work then I'll have to make a decision, if only one of the two works, then I'll go with that one.

 

Emby has users accounts for free, Plex you have to pay

Plex has optimization for free, Emby you have to pay

[desertcomputer]

45 minutes ago, bobhays said:

Emby has that for free as well. I actually use the remote streaming more than local.

Yea multiple user support for free is good, but it doesn't have the "optimize" video feature for free, which Plex does. (note: quote below).

Ahh thanks for this, I forgot to add it to the OP.

EDIT: seems I already had it in OP haha.

 

What I'm going to do is try to use NVENC with Emby and Plex, if both of them work then I'll have to make a decision, if only one of the two works, then I'll go with that one.

 

Emby has users accounts for free, Plex you have to pay

Plex has optimization for free, Emby you have to pay

You don't have to pay for plex? Plex work quite well, my friend and family is able to watch it on their computer or chrome cast it to TV the only lacking is app support on mobile which cost money but i just brought a licence key on spare google play account and share that info to people who need to watch it on their android phones. I prefer plex UI and auto metadata fetching. Plex account are free and optimisation and auto down scaling on quite useful for many of my friends with ADSL connection.

 

I main reason plex i think is for remote streaming as that only reason I have it because it easy for less tech savy people to use. Just make an account, go install the app, login and tell me username/email and they are invited without any hassle from their end apart from signing up. 

[Scheer]

1 hour ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

You don't have to pay for plex? Plex work quite well, my friend and family is able to watch it on their computer or chrome cast it to TV the only lacking is app support on mobile which cost money but i just brought a licence key on spare google play account and share that info to people who need to watch it on their android phones. I prefer plex UI and auto metadata fetching. Plex account are free and optimisation and auto down scaling on quite useful for many of my friends with ADSL connection.

 

I main reason plex i think is for remote streaming as that only reason I have it because it easy for less tech savy people to use. Just make an account, go install the app, login and tell me username/email and they are invited without any hassle from their end apart from signing up. 

If you want multiple users via Plex Home you have to pay for the Plex pass. You could still share the library with everyone in your home to their own Plex accounts without paying for Pass, but then you need to sign in and out on each device rather than a quick user switch with Plex Home..

[desertcomputer]

4 hours ago, Scheer said:

If you want multiple users via Plex Home you have to pay for the Plex pass. You could still share the library with everyone in your home to their own Plex accounts without paying for Pass, but then you need to sign in and out on each device rather than a quick user switch with Plex Home..

Why sign in and out why? I never needed to sign in or out, nor my friends. No point paying for pass unless you want to do mobile sync and download offline media but that what my nextcloud is for which is essentially share file from plex media, that on share account which only rarely anyone uses anyways. 

[Scheer]

5 hours ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

Why sign in and out why? I never needed to sign in or out, nor my friends. No point paying for pass unless you want to do mobile sync and download offline media but that what my nextcloud is for which is essentially share file from plex media, that on share account which only rarely anyone uses anyways. 

 

If you wanted to restrict content from your kids, or have individual watch lists. 

 

Say you have a living room TV and you are on the fifth season of a TV show, and your wife just started the first season. Each time one another would watch it, Plex would be confused as hell where you were left off and show the episode after, plus all the first Five seasons would show as already watched for your wife. With Home each person has an account you just select in the top right and it can properly track the watched content. Without home you'd have to go into settings and sign out, then re-link your account to the app which would take a minute or two rather than seconds.

 

If you don't need that very specific use case, then I can't think of a reason to buy Plex Pass other than supporting them for what they do.

[CaptainRedHat]

On 3/9/2017 at 10:37 AM, brwainer said:

Have you read about Plex DVR? If you have an HDHomeRun tuner on your network (which you can watch live tv directly through) then you can set up Plex to use that tuner for recording shows. The only downside is that it's a Plex Pass feature, because access to channel guide data isn't free

Yeah, I have. I've also got plex pass, so that's not an issue. The problem is that I'd have to buy an HDHomeRun, but I've already got a TV Tuner card in my desktop. The other issue is that PlexDVR doesn't currently support streaming live TV. In order for it to work, you have to wait for it to completely finish recording before you can watch it. I want live streaming TV for local news, the SuperBowl, and stuff like that.

[brwainer]

8 hours ago, CaptainRedHat said:

Yeah, I have. I've also got plex pass, so that's not an issue. The problem is that I'd have to buy an HDHomeRun, but I've already got a TV Tuner card in my desktop. The other issue is that PlexDVR doesn't currently support streaming live TV. In order for it to work, you have to wait for it to completely finish recording before you can watch it. I want live streaming TV for local news, the SuperBowl, and stuff like that.

true, that is a downside of PlexDVR, but you can still stream live from the HDHomeRun using their software, or VLC, or other tools (it's a DLNA complaint video stream). The limitation is that each HDHomeRun only has a specific number of tuners in each one, so if you are recording 2 or 3 shows you may not be able to watch live - but in that case you just add mode HDHomeRuns to your network But in terms of having to buy new hardware... yeah that is a bummer when you have something already that you want to use.