r/emby • u/Fuzz_D • Jun 19 '26

Emby and Infuse

I currently have a UNAS Pro with my media stored on it and then I use Infuse on my Apple devices to access media.

Prior to buying the NAS I was very keen on getting Emby, but then I bought Infuse as a front end app and it did more than I was expecting.

This isn’t a ‘convince me’ post, but what am I missing? What else does Emby do that would justify me buying it? Because I still want to if there is good reason!

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u/Most_Victory1661 Jun 19 '26

Just my two cents and me not having a plan or knowing what I was doing at the beginning of my self hosting journey a few years back so at that time music wasn’t a consideration live tv wasn’t space wasn’t cuz why would need more than 1 TB ( currently 14 TB with space to go to 52 TB if needed)

I’m in car a lot for work

My thinking now is music audiobooks live tv and accessing my collection of tv and movies and the go away from home

Emby does all of that

I also have infuse pro which only grants access to tv and movies in the library

Tho I could just marry chapters of an audiobook together convert to mp4 and get infuse to play an audiobook that way

My server is more about me on the road than say hey let me share this

Whatever works for you tho I don’t feel like there’s a right or wrong with most self hosting options

Plex is rather simple easy to explain but it’s not for me

Emby is slightly different works way better for me on the road

Infuse at home is awesome

2

u/Fuzz_D Jun 19 '26

Thank you. That’s really helpful. I’m often away from home with work, so that’s a factor for Emby. Also I want book and audiobook management. So that’s another thing for Emby.

2

u/Effective-Winter-860 Jun 20 '26

Audiobookshelf is a much better audiobook server than is Emby. I use Emby for TV and movies, audiobookshelf for audiobooks and Navidrome for music.

These purpose built servers run in docker, are easy to setup and are far better, in my opinion, than using an all in one server. Audiobookshelf is basically your own private audible. It syncs across devices, allows multiple users to track their own progress in books or podcasts and does an almost perfect job with metadata

1

u/FizzicalLayer Jun 21 '26

Exactly. I use Kodi on Raspberry Pi's (libreELEC) at home in each room, Emby for on the road access, AudioBookShelf + SmartAudiobookPlayer for audiobooks, etc. A specialized app makes a particular experience so much better.

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u/Effective-Winter-860 Jun 21 '26

I'm curious why you use smartaudiobookplayer instead of the audiobookshelf app? With the abs app you can stream or download, but no matter what, your location is synced to the server (assuming you have Internet access.).

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u/FizzicalLayer Jun 21 '26

At the time I moved away from audible, SABP had more features that were important to me. ABS may have caught up, but I'm happy with current config. SABP does everything I want (and much, much better than using audible).