Watch media on other devices
Discover how to access your Emby movies, music and photos from anywhere in your home.
“Your media can be accessed from other smart devices in your home”
Emby Media Server is now up and running, your media library is cataloged and now accessible in all its technicolour glory. You’re now in a position to look at how you can consume your content from other computers, mobiles and smart devices – and the good news is, pretty much anything you own can be configured to access your Emby server. Let’s start with your Windows 10 PC – the box on the next page reveals how you can use an official Emby Theater app to browse your media from the desktop. An alternative to using the official app – and one that also works on Mac and Linux too – is Kodi ( kodi.tv). This is a brilliant media centre application that’s completely free, looks gorgeous on the big screen and requires minimal effort to set up. All you need is the Emby add-on, which links Kodi to your media library, and the step-by-step guide reveals how to add this to all your Kodi devices, including Android and Raspberry Pi (running OSMC). Pi users should switch back to the Confluence skin before attempting to add it, and should ignore the final step about trying a different skin.
Other devices
Your media server can be accessed from other smart devices in your home too. There are official apps for Android, iOS, Apple TV (latest models only), Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Xbox (360 and One models) and Roku devices. Only the Android, iOS and Amazon apps require payment, either standalone or via Emby Premiere, a subscription-based service that opens up access to certain features (see https://emby.media/ premiere.html for details). Android users can bypass this cost by using the free Kodi app instead, which works the same way as its desktop counterpart.
If you own an older Apple TV device, you’ll need to either jailbreak it (not recommended) or use your iPhone or
iPad’s AirPlay streaming feature to stream content from your app to the Apple TV. VidOn Player HD supports AirPlay on pre-Lollipop Android devices via ‘Settings > AirPlay’. Choose ‘Compatibility Mode’ for best results. You can ‘cast’ from supported apps or your browser to a Google Chromecast device plugged into your TV.
Emby also supports the universal DLNA protocol, so any app or device you own that supports this will also give you access to your media for free, albeit without the slick user interface. Supported devices and apps include VLC for iOS (iPhone and iPad), Sony PS3 and PS4, and pretty much any smart Blu-ray player, TV or a wide range of other set-top boxes.