Xbox One - My Home Theater Device: Perks and Consequences

Good day,

Last year, after seriously contemplating the decision of Microsoft to discontinue Windows Media Center as a way to bring my digital Media Experience to my

family room. I decided that I too would leave the world of WMC and Xbox 360 and jump into the future of gaming and digital media.

I am in no way writing this to critique Xbox One. I have after all, found my experience with the "Black Box" to be quite enjoyable.

In many ways moving to a Home Media Server, streaming to different devices was inevitable.

Xbox One was the perfect choice for my Family Room. Or was it?

Could have choosing a console over a PC really been the right?

In my spare time I help develop code for an open source Media Management Server called "Emby" (formally known as Media Browser).

Lucky for me, Emby has been developed with many ways to stream media to different device. The team leaders of the project have created a rich API, to build

plugins and create applications, to pretty much consume emby in every way possible.

However, with Microsoft taking a very long time to make any public SDK/API for Xbox One, I find myself utilizing DLNA quite a bit.

This truly limits my Home Theater experience to what it use to be, with WMC/Media Browser and my Windows Seven PC.

I continue to hold out, with high hopes that within the next year, progress will be made towards allowing Emby the opportunity to strut its' (our) stuff in the Xbox App

Store.

At this point I would like to explain what it is I must do in order to watch one single movie I have ripped to my digital library (after buying it legitimately from the movie

section at the local "Big Box Store"...)

Also, some of what I am about to explain has to do with the development of Emby.

Before any Xbox Developer intervenes to remind me that any expectation belonging to the development of emby is out of their hands;

I would remind them that emby hasn't had the opportunity to truly bind itself with the Xbox One, because no ligit, legal, public SDK has been released for the XBox, and thus,

throwing the ball right back into their court.

I also have no interest in mentioning other apps which are currently available in the Xbox Store, which have to do with stream my digital media to my Xbox One in any sort of

Home CinePlex fashion.

There are currenly two ways to watch my Digital Media on my Xbox One.

Choice #1:

Emby will produce a link in the Xbox Media Player which I can then utilize to search through my media in a way that I am familiar with in Emby. Thank you Emby Developers!

[PLACE IMAGE HERE]

This is effective, but is in no way a true representation of how I would expect my media to be layout by Emby. It is just missing so much of what Emby has to offer.

Choice #2:

Using a Perpetual Device! Like my iPhone!

I can pull up the Emby Server on my iPhone, thanks to it's wonderful jQuery Mobile Interface, and choose the "Play To" feature (which sort of acts like the "Cast To"

functionality of that Google Chrome Dongle that streams media... You know that one I'm talking about...???)

At this point, Emby sends the "Play" command to my Xbox One! Thank you again Emby Development Team!... Except... that instead of opening the video stream in Xbox One Media

Player, it wants me to use ... "Xbox Video"?!?!

Well... I don't want Xbox Video... The Media items advertised on Xbox Video have nothing to do with my Digital Media Collection (except for the odd coincidental title

similarities.)

And to top it all off, in order to have my Xbox show up in the "Play to" options for Emby, I have to start up the Xbox Media Player and choose Emby to link the device.

Note: This second way is the only way to recieve playback events from the Emby Server, inorder to monitor what is being watched by my kids and when it is being watched.

So the most effective way to stream media to my Xbox One is choice #2.

Lets take a moment to count how many apps it takes to stream media to my Xbox One:

1. My iPhone with the Emby Server Web Client UI

2. Xbox One Media Player to start the connection and Enbale DLNA

3. Outta nowhere Xbox Video! To accutally play the media item.

and...

4. Smart Glass, just in case I want to lower the volume, or naviagte away from Xbox Video (I use the Emby Web remote to control all other Playback Option during Media

Playback).

Four application running to watch 1 movie title.

In conlusion, I would like to ask the Xbox One team leaders, to please consider the lengths that one family must endure to play the film "Paddington" for their four year old

son, and possibley re-consider their stance on who recives the ability to build apps from their SDK.

In the past, it was a pile of remote controls sitting on a coffe table; one for each device sitting under the TV.

You have successfully cleared the table, but you have also created a mess of apps to utilize.

I humbly request WE try to condese to one app... to rule it all.

Thank you,

Benjamin

:)

 

No audio with Xbox one

support.xbox.com/.../connect-console-to-home-theater

 

IR Blaster availability?

My home theater gear is in a cabinet. Does XBOX one support IR blaster cable hookup?

 

Sounds like you are trying to pitch something to MS that you have a stake in.....

-

If so, this is not the place to do it.

 

Nope! No stakes. Open source, no money to be made here! Only a person who wants the ability to use the 500 dollar Xbox one they bought to its utmost capabilities. Thank you for responding though.

 

@mgzin66 he is highlighting a feature set that is sorely lacking. If X1 supported it in-house, like it could have with WMC, people wouldn't look to third party apps. The hoops Chef outlined are major burden for something that could be easily solved.

 

Also, FWIW, I found myself going through hoop set #2 above tonight and said "there must be an easier way" and found this. So I would argue there are many people who "have a stake" in this, regardless of if the solution is emby or not (though I think emby
is the most natural fit at this point, if MS has given up on doing it in house).

 

Windows Media Player already installed in Windows 7 (or a free download if you have the N version). Xbox One Media Player to play that content. You can control all playback functions with Kinect.

Alternatively purchase NAS with built in media server. Use Xbox One's Media Player to playback content. Use Kinect to control playback.

Buy a media remote if you don't have Kinect.

You seem to be adding needlessly complex steps to your media playback.

 

Indeed Vaynel you are correct, and when I am searching through my server libraries for something to watch, I do it exactly as you describe. But, there are issues with my kids being able to control the Xbox one the same way and accessing movies (rated R)
on the server . One of the things I am able to do with emby, is stop any media items rated higher then "G" from being displayed in their library.

And if they do happen to hack their way into an open account and start a movie I don't want them watching, I can automatically know about it through embys playback events in their api (and a little app I wrote). Currently none of these events will fire if
Xbox ones media player is grabbing the media. They will however if the server is "playing to" the Xbox one through Xbox video. This leads me back to my original set of issues mentioned above.

 

Now that Chef I absolutely agree should be a playback option, locking age restricted content from media servers would be a great idea.

However at the same time there should be an option on the One for parental accounts to block specific media servers.

Just for example I have Windows Media Player and Universal Media Server installed on my PC. I should have the option as a parental account to block access to them from a adult account. Or allow only a specific one, so the kids couldn't install another media
server to access restricted content.

In short I am sure your software is great but I feel the controls you want would be better implemented on the console side than the media server side.

 

There really needs to be an emby app for XboxOne is the long and short of it. It's the only device I own that emby cannot interface with, which is silly.

 

Well, Z0mbi, wouldn't that be the fault of the emby devs then? I would take it up with them.

 

Plex has the feature to lock out age related material to users (blog.plex.tv/.../introducing-plex-home) and the app is available on the 360 and Xbox One.

Might be worth checking Plex out as an option if emby isn't available.

 

Hey Benjamin,

I am not looking to get rid of My xbox one, but I am looking at getting an HTPC (Home Theater PC).

I want to be able to connect a Hard drive that is in the HTPC to the Xbox one over a wireless connection.

We all know 500gb is far too small for having to continuously install the games before being able to play them, so it would be nice to be able to install them to a PC Hard Drive, and access these games via the xbox one (I recently purchased a 1tb external
HDD for my games)

I don't like wires as much as the next person, so with everything currently being wireless in the home, I want to be able to have everything (Including the kitchen sink) linked up to the HTPC.

I know with Windows 10 we can now stream direct to the PC, but I would rather be able to connect the xbox one to the PC and play the games direct from the HDD.

I don't want to use the HTPC as a media center as such, but would be good If you knew of a way to do this, as there doesn't seem to be anything on xbox support or forums about the integration.

thanks

Luke

 

OP you have tried to pitch this on this forum before like a year ago.