Plex/Emby as a Sky Q alternative - testing and thoughts

Armageus

Armageus

Armageus

Don
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Following on from some discussion in here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/sky-q-opinions.18832949/ I just wanted to collect some of my experiences of testing Plex/Emby and a few other bits and pieces as a Sky Q style alternative.

Background:
Currently have Sky Q and previously have had Sky HD etc for the last 10 years - based on the available content, and ease of use (e.g. Wife Acceptance Factor), I wanted to look into what alternatives were out there, even if only on a cost front.
Needs include: Access to Sky content e.g. Sky Atlantic (e.g. for Game of Thrones etc), multiple Freeview/Freesat tuners to record multiple programmes at the same time (recording live tv is a must, as our internet connection is relatively poor <30mbps so minimizing use of catch-up streaming is preferred)

Roku Express:
I picked up a Roku Express (primarily as my son hadn't got a smart TV and wanted youtube access), but it's also doubled as a test device, for a possible solution.
Roku offer Amazon Video/Netflix/Now TV, as well as Plex/Emby, and all the various catchup apps e.g. iPlayer etc. so is an ideal starting point for a solution (vs e.g. Freeview PVRs or SmartTV's that offer some but not all apps).

TV Tuners:
I've tried a Hauppauge Nova-T 500 PCI dual tuner - this works natively in Plex (with just Windows drivers), and in Emby (requires Hauppauge software to be installed) - this was an old card I had lying around.
Currently using an Xbox One Digital Tuner (this supports DVB-T2 HD), and a Sony PlayTV (Dual tuner DVB-T), both of which are supported under TVHeadend (that I'm currently running of a Raspberry Pi 3B, using Libreelec).
After testing with "portable" aerials, I decided to try with my main TV aerial (mounted in the loft) - I couldn't understand why I was getting a worse signal. However after some diagnosis with linux dvb tools (w_scan), turns out the best signal is actually coming from a different transmitter (Waltham vs Belmont), so likely my aerial is pointing the wrong way!

Plex:
The Good:
- Built in TV EPG service, so don't have to rely on over the air EPG or external service, tested with the Hauppauge card and worked decently.
- Search function works well (like sky hd), finding and listing all showings of a programme
- Media library is good, could see myself storing DVDs and Blurays, and the Actor/Genre linking is good, suggesting e.g. other movies you have with the same Actor's in.
The Bad:
- Traditional TV Guide EPG "Grid", not available on most of the Plex frontends e.g. PS4/Roku/Android - after finding this out, this is also a deal breaker as fails on the Ease of Use front.
- PS4 Client is terrible, likely due to being updated a lot less (and seems some of the other clients suffer from this)


Emby:
The Good:
- Roku TV has a proper "grid" guide
- TVHeadend plugin works well
- Media library seems to refresh better, e.g. to add new content
The Bad:
- Roku Express has a bug that means most interlaced streams (and e.g. DVD rips) don't play correctly, unless forcibly transcoded e.g. by turning on subtitles
- Switching between TV Channels takes "ages" ~5 seconds plus (which coming from Sky or even a freeview box/smart tv) is unacceptable.
- No Trial of the premium features (although to be fair was only ~£4 for a month subscription)
- No in built EPG, so you are relying on Over the Air EPG from TVheadend or have to subscribe elsewhere to an XML EPG.



So currently no further forward, but will update this thread if anything changes when I review this in the future.
 
RoyMi6 said:
You know, before the EPG Grid option was even available I thought the same thing "how can you even USE TV like this?!".

However, after being forced to use the "discovery" view I actually got used to it and now rarely use the gridview - if at all.

I honestly recommend giving it a chance. You'll be surprised how often shows you'd never notice are even on (because they're too far down the list of channels) bubble to the top and you find yourself watching random channels like "KixZTV!!!11"
Click to expand...

Less of an issue with me, but comes down to ease of use and reluctance to change for the wife.
I've only recently tried Netflix, and that seemed like a bit of a shock to me, but for people used to that (and now tv, amazon prime etc), I can see how the "discovery" view etc would be much less of an issue.

RoyMi6 said:
People are often snobs to only watching content from the BBC, ITV or Channel 4, but given how much older content from these broadcaster is being fed down to other channels you get some decent content elsewhere.
Click to expand...

No snobbishness in our household - my wife manages to find quality programs crap to watch on all kinds of channels on Sky :)
 
Just a quick update on this, but have revisited Emby again following some recent updates to it-

Emby now has it's own built in EPG service included with their Premiere subscription (so on par with Plex now, and avoids needing anything 3rd party - e.g. if you have a HDHomerun then you are good to go with nothing else required now)

Emby hardware acceleration seems to work much better (although I have swapped from a 1366 Xeon + Radeon, to an I3-4130, so can now use quicksync acceleration) - downside is that Premiere subscription is required.

Roku client seems better - not noticed as many issues

Have switched to NextPVR as a TV Backend, which worked reasonably well with Emby's plugin, however have now moved to trialling M3U streams from NextPVR to emby - this allows Emby's guide data to be used as simplifies what the backend has to do. Aside from some limitations which hopefully will be removed soon, seems to be quite a big improvement, and potential for faster channel change times is there.
 
jpaul said:
How does hardware acceleration help ? its's not transcoding is it, when saving streams from freeview ... did you get a specific mini pc brand with the new I3-4130, or changed a MB. ?


so that's plugged into the PC .... seems reasonable at amazon £14
Click to expand...


Hardware transcoding is needed as most clients (e.g. Roku stick, or Emby web client) don't natively support mpeg 2 (which is what Freeview uses), so it has to be transcoded to h264.
The 4130 I picked up cheap, and got a motherboard from the MM on here. Nothing special but the built in intel gpu can transcode multiple streams with no issue.

The Xbox tuner can be had for <£5 but the downside is there are no windows drivers, so you need to use Linux e.g. libreelec and tvheadend and share the stream to Emby that way.
 
@Rensin - Sounds interesting, have you got any more information on this.

Had a quick look through the manual and forum for DVBViewer but can't see any information regarding m3u export?
Will download the demo later and have a look, but reluctant to spend the 39 euro or whatever it is for both DVBViewer and the Streaming addon (assume that's probably needed) if it doesn't offer anything more than the other backends that are available (e.g. tvheadend, mediaportal, nextpvr)
 
I've all but given up on trying to use Emby as a replacement for "real" TV equipment. The best I could get was around 10 seconds to tune a channel (and that was with tvheadend locked tuner per mux), the experience just isn't good enough.

Likely the only way it will get improved is if/when Emby gets native tuner support so that the additional layer can be cut out - however given that they only really have 1 main developer, I'm not confident it will be done even in the next 10 years.


For the moment I've swapped my Phone/Broadband provider over and now taken out a Youview package with the couple of premium channels my wife watches, and going to pick up one of the new Freesat boxes that works with my SkyQ LNB, as that will cover a few extra channels and give us more options for recording.
The only thing we'll miss is being able to record something and then watch it in bed, but saving almost £80/month by cancelling SkyQ is a trade off I'm happy to make.
 
jpaul said:
Do you have any candidates ?
with the demise of some of the freeview HD channels this week, I'm more in the market for a multi-tuner freeview/sat recorder/dvr
and, not sure Humax provides a reliable upgrade for the ageing 1tuner T2 I have.
Click to expand...

I received the Plusnet Youview+ box a couple of days ago. It's a Humax T2120 500GB which basically dates from around 2013, so understandably performance is fairly lacking. Primarily we've got this just for access to MTV and TLC that my wife watches - which are premium channels delivered over the internet, and purely for that it will be fine.

I've just ordered the latest Freesat 4K TV box https://www.freesat.co.uk/4k-tv-box/ which by all accounts offers decent performance (as uses a modern quad core processor etc), but is still a bit rough around the edges software wise according to a thread over at AVForums https://www.avforums.com/threads/new-generation-freesat-stb-arris.2256339
I'll update in a couple of days once I've received it and had a play about with it.
I plan on using it as our "Main" box to record most things, leaving the Youview+ box just for the premium channel pack, and have a Roku Premiere to view our Emby or Plex library and any other streaming apps not available on the Freesat box.


If you're happy to be a bit more involved (e.g. installing firmware, spending time configuring/maintaining etc) and don't need inbuilt apps (e.g. iplayer,nowtv etc), then there are Linux based multi-tuner Satellite (and freeview combo) boxes:
https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/satellite-and-terrestrial/digital-receivers
https://www.world-of-satellite.com/
The user experience didn't sound good enough to be able to let my wife lose with it however.
 
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