MiSTerEmby v1.2.5

MiSTerEmby v1.2.5

• A livelier "Downloading" badge: while an update downloads, the badge's dots are now white and hop one after another in a wave, instead of green dots that were hard to see on the green badge. (You'll see it from the next update on: this download still uses the old dots.)

Updating: press START on the update badge (Home or Pause on a keyboard), then OK (Enter), then restart MiSTerEmby. MiSTer Downloader users get it automatically.

By Chris Freeman (freemchr), based on MiSTerFin by Pudding Studio.

MiSTerEmby v1.2.4

MiSTerEmby v1.2.4

• 12-hour clock: the time in the top corner, and the big clock on the music player, now read like "1:58 PM" instead of "13:58".

Updating: press START on the update badge (Home or Pause on a keyboard), then OK (Enter), then restart MiSTerEmby. MiSTer Downloader users get it automatically.

By Chris Freeman (freemchr), based on MiSTerFin by Pudding Studio.

MiSTerEmby v1.2.3

MiSTerEmby v1.2.3

• A simpler exit dialog: it shows just the version, small under the buttons.
• The project link moves to the what's-new screen: github.com/freemchr/MiSTerEmby now ends the release notes shown when you press START on the update badge.

Updating: press START on the update badge (Home or Pause on a keyboard), then OK (Enter), then restart MiSTerEmby. MiSTer Downloader users get it automatically.

By Chris Freeman (freemchr), based on MiSTerFin by Pudding Studio.

MiSTerEmby v1.2.2

MiSTerEmby v1.2.2

A tidier home screen.

• Details centred under the cards: the focused title sits in the middle, with its running time and resume point in green on the line below. A library's count is centred too.
• Progress bars clear of the focus border: a card's resume bar now sits a little in from its edges on a grey track, so it no longer runs into the green outline of the highlighted card.

Updating: use the update badge (START, then OK), then restart MiSTerEmby. MiSTer Downloader users get it automatically.

By Chris Freeman (freemchr), based on MiSTerFin by Pudding Studio.

MiSTerEmby v1.2.1

MiSTerEmby v1.2.1

A small follow-up to v1.2.0.

• Version and project link in the exit dialog: the box you see when leaving shows the version and github.com/freemchr/MiSTerEmby along its bottom edge.
• README refreshed: new screenshots, smooth-film setup (MATCH_REFRESH, PAGEFLIP, the automatic 640x480 stream), and credits that say exactly what came from MiSTerFin and what's new, with the fonts' real authors.

Updating: use the update badge (START, then OK), then restart MiSTerEmby. MiSTer Downloader users get it automatically.

By Chris Freeman (freemchr), based on MiSTerFin by Pudding Studio.

MiSTerEmby v1.2.0

MiSTerEmby v1.2.0

Smooth films on a VGA CRT, and a tidier info screen.

• Smooth 24fps playback on a 480-line VGA display: with no profile set in emby.conf, MiSTerEmby now asks Emby for 640x480 at 8Mbps. The old 720x576 default had to be rescaled on the MiSTer every frame, which made it drop frames. Now motion is even, with every frame shown for the same time, and audio stays in sync. PAL and interlaced setups keep 720x576.
• PAGEFLIP (opt-in): shows each frame by switching between two pictures instead of drawing over the one on screen, so every frame lands on the right refresh. Pairs well with MATCH_REFRESH. The MiSTer's menu program is paused while a video plays.
• Resume or From start: LEFT/RIGHT (or Tab) lights one, OK plays it. The buttons sit centred between the synopsis and the hints.
• Episode screens are centred: the stills and the details under them sit in the middle of the screen instead of hugging the top.

Updating from v1.1.x: use the update badge (START, then OK), then restart MiSTerEmby. MiSTer Downloader users get it automatically.

By Chris Freeman (freemchr), based on MiSTerFin by Pudding Studio.

MiSTerEmby v1.1.1

MiSTerEmby v1.1.1

Polish on top of v1.1.0.

• Bigger home cards: three per row, centred on screen, with drawn icons for Live TV, Recordings and Collections. A library's details are now just its count ("510 movies", "736 trailers").
• OK and BACK: the on-screen hints name what the buttons do. The buttons themselves are unchanged.
• The exit box carries the MiSTerEmby logo, and its buttons are chosen with LEFT/RIGHT without the screen jittering.
• No more "Press any key to continue" after exiting: you go straight back to the MiSTer menu. To keep the prompt, create misteremby/keep-script-prompt.
• MATCH_REFRESH (opt-in): switches the display to suit each film, e.g. 71.93Hz for 23.976fps on a 75Hz CRT, then back. It needs a custom [Menu] video_mode in MiSTer.ini.
• A thorough README: quick start, every setting, Live TV setup, picture tips and troubleshooting.

Updating from v1.1.0: use the update badge (START, then OK). Also copy the new misteremby/MiSTerEmby.sh to /media/fat/Scripts/, which is what removes the prompt. MiSTer Downloader users get both automatically.

By Chris Freeman (freemchr), based on MiSTerFin by Pudding Studio.

MiSTerEmby v1.1.0

MiSTerEmby v1.1.0

A big update: a new home screen, a poster view, and Live TV.

New

• Home screen like Emby's TV apps: rows of artwork for My Media, Continue Watching (with progress bars and your recent channels) and Next Up, with the focused title's backdrop behind it.
• Poster view: Movies, TV and Collections as a wall of posters; a season's episodes as stills with the synopsis. SELECT swaps to the text list.
• Live TV and Recordings from your Emby server's TV sources (M3U/IPTV playlists work):
  • a menu of sources and categories, channel logos, and "Tuning in" feedback you can cancel
  • direct mode: a channel whose own stream comes in 640x360 or smaller plays straight on the MiSTer, with no work for the server; anything else is converted by Emby, at a lighter profile so a NAS keeps up. LIVE_TRANSCODE in emby.conf always converts.
• Collections for your Emby box sets.
• Skip intro and credits when Emby has detected them, and opt-in Cinema Mode trailers (CINEMA_MODE).
• Direct streaming of SD DivX/Xvid, MPEG-1 and progressive MPEG-2 files (TRANSCODE_ALWAYS turns it off).
• Choose a user from the sign-in screen (SELECT on the PIN screen).
• Its own look: the MiSTerEmby logo and section titles, a rounded display font (Fredoka), an Emby-green loading ring and a green update badge.
• MiSTer Downloader support: copy downloader_misteremby.ini to /media/fat and run the updater.

Changed

• The About screen is gone; when an update is out, the badge in the top bar says so and START opens its notes.
• The exit dialog's buttons can be chosen with LEFT/RIGHT.

Tested

On a MiSTer against Emby 4.10.1 on a Synology NAS, through an HDMI-to-VGA adapter into a CRT: sign-in, the home rows, poster view, browsing, playback and resume, and Live TV both direct and converted. Not yet tried on hardware: subtitles, audio-track switching, music, skip intro, Cinema Mode, choosing a user, and SD direct streaming.

Install

Copy the misteremby folder from the zip to /media/fat/ and MiSTerEmby.sh to /media/fat/Scripts/, or use the Downloader database. Your emby.conf and saved sign-in are kept.

By Chris Freeman (freemchr), based on MiSTerFin by Pudding Studio.

MiSTerEmby v1.0.0

MiSTerEmby is an Emby client for the MiSTer FPGA, by Chris Freeman (freemchr).

It's a port of MiSTerFin by Pudding Studio, customised for Emby. Browse your Movies, TV, Music and Music Video libraries and play them on a CRT or any other display your MiSTer drives.

What's in it

• Emby sign-in without typing on a gamepad. An Emby Connect PIN appears on screen; enter it at emby.media/pin. A username and password, an Emby Connect account or an API key in emby.conf work too. The sign-in is saved for next time.
• An Emby-styled interface. Charcoal and Emby green, library tiles, played badges and resume progress bars, and button hints along the bottom.
• Playback tuned for Emby. Emby transcodes to MPEG-4 (it has no MPEG-2 encoder), which the MiSTer decodes easily. The playback buffer is sized for servers without hardware transcoding, such as many NAS boxes.
• Everything else MiSTerFin does: Continue Watching and Next Up, resume and played state synced with Emby, track picker and picture modes, a music player with visualizers, remote control and admin messages from the Emby dashboard, screenshots, and the in-app updater.

Install

1. Unzip misteremby-v1.0.0.zip and copy the misteremby folder to /media/fat/ on your MiSTer.
2. Copy misteremby/MiSTerEmby.sh to /media/fat/Scripts/.
3. Rename emby.conf.example to emby.conf and set SERVER= to your Emby server's address.
4. Run MiSTerEmby from the Scripts menu.

See the README for sign-in options, controls and display tips. For a full-screen picture on a PC CRT, it suggests a [Menu] video mode for MiSTer.ini.

Tested

Emby Server 4.10.1 on a Synology NAS (no hardware transcoding), via an HDMI-to-VGA adapter into a 31kHz CRT monitor at 640x480@75Hz: PIN sign-in, browsing, full-screen playback, seek and pause, and resume sync.
Not yet tested on hardware: subtitles, audio-track switching, music and dashboard messages. Reports are welcome in Issues.

Credits and licence

Built on MiSTerFin by Pudding Studio and its contributors, under CC BY-NC 4.0. MiSTerEmby uses the same licence: free for non-commercial use, with attribution. The bundled mplayer-arm is MPlayer 1.5 (GPL-2.0-or-later), with its source in the repo. Not affiliated with Emby or Pudding Studio.