Track current status of different MB clients

[nime5ter]

Media Browser Server and each of its clients are still in early, active development. This means they are regularly being updated, and in the process VoxCommando's ability to control them may change temporarily or permanently depending on the priorities of Media Browser's developers.

CLICK HERE to consult a table comparing current command capabilities for various MB clients. Feel free to let us know if you think there's an undocumented change of status.

[tobiastobindev]

Hi,
For clarification, at this point in time 4/23/2015, VoxCommando 2 does not work with Emby Theater, is the correct?  In my own testing, I can get it to work with Emby Classic, but I cannot get anywhere with Theater.  From the spreadsheet,  I could not exactly tell what the Theater column was conveying but I assume the status is 'no, not yet'?

Just wanted to make sure it is not something I am doing.

Thanks,
tobias.

[jitterjames]

It's not anything that you are doing, it's something that Emby is not doing which is fixing whatever they broke.  It was working with Emby Theater at one point but it is not any more.

In the Google Drive spreadsheet that we posted,  Theatre is all in red with the heading "MEDIA BROWSER THEATER (no longer controllabe via dev MBS)".  But we left the yes/no stuff in there in case they ever decide to fix it because presumably we will then be back to where we were before.

Actually the word "dev" is not correct, now it doesn't work with any version of Emby Server or Theater as far as we know.

I believe it is the same story with Kodi except that it was never as full featured.

This has nothing to do with VoxCommando. It is entirely due to the limitations of Emby Server and or Emby Theater.

Currently the only clients that can be (mostly) controlled by any remote application are Emby Classic and the Server's Web Dashboard.

Actually in theater I think you can play some items such as playing a movie, but that's about it.  No browsing etc.  I haven't tried other things like pause, play, volume, but maybe they work.

[nime5ter]

I have just reviewed the status of Theater and will update the spreadsheet.

Using Server 3.0.5582.4 & MBT 3.0.5587.18453, none of the browsing commands work.

However, as James suggests above, I can do all the basic navigation commands (go home, go back, left right etc.), select, pause, unpause, stop playback, volume control, and also any direct play X commands.

This means that you can't browse to TV shows or seasons of a particular TV show or to albums etc.

However, you should be able to successfully ask to play a movie title, album, artist, or song directly by name if you know it.

To get to your TV shows you'll have to pretend you're using a remote control and navigate manually through the menus. It's doable, but obviously the whole unique advantage of voice control is the opportunity to avoid the awkwardness of standard remote control navigation. Unfortunately, at the moment that is still not an option.

UPDATE: 1 hour after I finished testing this, it seems a new MBT was released that has fixed the browsing problem. So be sure you're using at least MBT 3.0.5591.19855.

[nime5ter]

Also of note: the Big Name Change means that some commands will need to be updated manually. For example, to use the voice command to set the client to MB Theater, you'll need to change the client name in that command to "Emby Theater" rather than "Media Browser Theater". There may be other cases like that.

In the next release of VoxCommando we will update commands for the preset MB configuration to adapt to the new Emby name change, but if you've already set up your config you can manually edit the commands as needed.

[tobiastobindev]

Hello,
Thank you both for the update.  You have confirmed what I am seeing.  Glad to know it is not me.  It does seem to work pretty good with MBC or Emby Classic but I just rebuilt some machines with SSDs and I don't want to go through the codec hell that comes with Classic.  So we will just use the remote and hopefully down the road things will settle and it will work.

Also, I will make sure to update the name to Emby.

Thank you,
tobias.

[nime5ter]

Just in case it isn't clear, if you update to the very latest MBT, which was released an hour or so ago, then you should no longer have problems with the browse commands in VC, as long as everything is configured correctly in VC. (i.e, you're connected to the right client and have generated your payload XML properly etc.).

[tobiastobindev]

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know that I updated Emby Theater after getting home and yes it is working.  I did not spend a tremendous amount of time with it confirming what all is working, but from what I can tell much better than before

[xzener]

That is good news. Hopefully they will release the revamped MBT soon.

[tobiastobindev]

It was good news.  I have not had much success with MBT.  A few things work but not enough to really enjoy it.  I hope they settle on something and VoxCommando can then just work with it.  I think Classic still works but I've been trying to get away from Classic.