Emby for Android

Phil Lembo

4 years ago

It just keeps crashing. I can recall the same thing happening a while ago. Back then I just took a long break from Emby and went back to Plex. This time I'll probably go in a different direction. In any event, it looks like Emby is done with _me_ for now. Sad, because the server really has been such a good product. But the whole point of Premium is connecting remotely. If I can't do that then it's time to move on.

A Google user

6 years ago

some good some not so good. i swapped to emby from plex about a month ago due to something's i was not liking about plex. i really like that there's native audiobook support. as far as the app goes its ok. i keep having to force stop it because i keep getting a blank page if i run it in the background and then try to reopen. I've noticed emby is also slower to load than plex but im still tinkering around with it.

A Google user

6 years ago

This app (& service) would be amazing, if not for two unbelievably annoying issues: 1) unlike any mobile video player I've ever used, it just ignores the rotation of the device - even when locked - & always forces itself into landscape, making it frustrating & disorienting if you ever need to multitask. 2) If you want any listing mode other than the default (ie list rather than giant images), you have to keep setting it over & over & over for every separate directory.

Real Talk

5 years ago

Wasted so much time and money on plex. Emby is the ideal alternative that is way, WAY easier to use and maintain. Had an issue with remote connectivity which was resolved in less than 10 seconds after my port was forwarded. Ty again for this GEM of system and software. 3 days left on my trial and ill be deciding which route to go to support your efforts.

A Google user

5 years ago

Emby is an excellent app,I have been using it for years. it is frequently updated and works very well on all different devices. The only reason I cannot give it five stars is because the emby player is lacking. When you pair it with an external player, all is well. The emby native player stutters and stops reguatdless of streaming settings. With MXplayer it plays great. Thank you for the great app and keep up the good work Emby!

A Google user

6 years ago

I made the switch from Plex to Emby and I doubt I'll go back. Emby is easy to customize, user friendly, and has yet to crash on me. The only issue I've had was configuring the remote access for devices outside my network. After doing some research and making tweaks to my router and firewall I've gotten it to work. Since then my server has been working like a dream. All in all I've been very pleased with the media server and would recommend it to anyone. 9/10

Shaun Kish

4 years ago

So the app has gotten much better over time, but now the only thing that's not working 100% is casting music. I have a chromecast music and I'm trying to use emby on my phone to control my music from my server to the chromecast at home and the app is buggy. Sometimes the gui controls disappear and all that shows is the album art, or if I want to switch from an album to shuffling all songs I have to restart the app to work right. So close to being perfect.

Steve Barcomb

4 years ago

I like this better than plex because it is less full of forced changes. I really wanted this to be my one stop shop for everything. However, music and podcasts need some work. Music: - If I am out running with my phone and listening to music via bluetooth, the audio will play slowly with a chop. This is reproduced by fast forwarding and going backwards a lot. The music is downloaded so we can probably rule out slow server. - The avrcp "back" command plays the previous track while a track is playing. All other music players restart the track with additional commands required to go back a song. - Emby does not gracefully handle switching between wifi and cellular networks. I often have to kill the app and restart it to get it working. - There does not appear to be any caching of the session. Loading on the cellular network can be very painful. Podcasts: - Plex is actually better here. You have to find and enable the plugin. - You have to dig up the RSS instead of having a list like plex does. For less common podcasts in plex you also have to use this process to be fair. Emby has zero podcast findability. - Some RSS feeds seem to do their cover art incorrectly, at least according to emby. Stuff you should know is an example where generic art is filled in. - There's no way to apply cover art to all podcasts, at least not that I could find. I'm not really interested in editing each one by hand. Again, plex actually does this better. Movies and TV Shows? No complaints. This works well and I find editing the data much easier in emby than plex. Audiobooks. I think you can hack something together for plex, but I have this set up and I like it quite a bit. I have this set to default to folder view because the regular view seems to be set up generically for music and m4b files do not have this data. I guess that's a quip for audiobooks.

A Google user

6 years ago

Great app and great media server. It works exactly as it should. I recently switched over from Plex which was non stop issues for me so finding Emby is such a huge relief. There's definitely room for improvement with regards to UI but the app is still great in it's current form. I would recommend a cleaner material UI for the app and emby server. And also the ability to see the upcoming videos in my playlist would be a great added feature.

Shane Young

4 years ago

Would love to give you guys 5 stars because I love Emby! But the "edit images" feature only allows you to delete the thumbnail and make it black. It doesn't allow you to change the image like it does on my PC version. If you guys fix this I will change my review to 5 stars and tell you what I love about this app. Thanks! Other than that, Emby rocks! I love it!

A Google user

6 years ago

EDIT: UPDATE: I'm updating my review. I've seen this app and the development of Emby itself come a long way. I was a diehard Plex user and would dabble occasionally with Emby due to some nitpicky things I had. Since the updates and my last review in 2017, a lot has changed. The app is solid and stable as is the software, auto adjustment of video playback works flawlessly now. My videos sync properly with all devices and accounts easily. Adding users and permissions works perfectly, and above all, I can do all of this management stuff from the app. Highly encourage all to get Emby premiere and support the dev team! Plex is still the most polished media server/player I've used and still use. However, Emby slays the competition with options. This app is miles ahead of when I tested it two years ago. The layouts are customizable, you can access the metadata manager directly from the app, and the options are plentiful. My only complaint is that auto adjustment of video playback based on available speed never works for me. I have to manually adjust or just deal with buffer, video, buffer, video, buffer. Still, I'm very excited for Emby and its future progress. Great app all in all.

A Google user

6 years ago

Customer service is great. I sent them an email, and got a prompt reply. They followed up to make sure all was well. All of my videos, even transcoded ones, play smoothy on chromecast, or on my Note 8. I have created playlists, and those have played for 12 plus hours without any problems, no stuttering, no visible loss in quality. Very pleased!

L. Gong

1 year ago

Installed it (v 4.7) on Synology NAS. It took me a while to figure out how to configure 8920 SSL port. It works just fine on multiple devices, such as Android phone, iPhone, android auto, fire TV and LG smart TV. I bought the premiere to unlock more features and support the future development. The interface is nice, on par with other media server like plex. Metadata downloading may not work on all media, e.g., mp3 without proper tags. I'm using it daily now. Overall very good.

Brian Gillman

1 year ago

I switched from Plex to Emby and was initially surprised at how much I liked it. I soon realized that much of it is paywalled and in such a crowded streaming space, this is just another app grasping for a service fee in sea of apps vying for the same thing. Disabling video playback remotely, I can understand but, locally? Seriously? They can fill their app with "free" channels that no one will ever watch and I'll continue my search for another streaming app. There are endless choices.

Quin Carter

1 year ago

Great app. I used to be a Plex user as many others here. I love how you can interconnect content and drill into different libraries from different actors or collections. (Plex keeps them separated). I have been an emby premier user for a few years now and I can say I won't go back to Plex (I was a lifetime user as well). Jellyfin is the only contender here. Since their server offers VideoToolbox support on bare metal apple silicon, it's super tempting to switch. But nonetheless I love emby!

Terrance Oliver

1 year ago

Would give a 5 out of 5. But for whatever reason the minimize picture mode works for live TV, but for watching movies in smaller picture mode, it does not work. Also it seems the app becomes unresponsive, forcing me to close and reopen the app when I traverse from Wi-Fi to cellular, or vice versa.

Jason G

11 months ago

every time i update this app it breaks something, most recently it deleted all of my downloaded videos. stop wasting user's time with faulty software. hours worth of downloading, many GBs of cell data and SSD write cycles, gone, in an instant. why on earth would you want your app to instruct the deletion of data within a user folder upon opening after an update? beyond that though it works pretty well as long as you avoid updating.