Preface

Due to the current chaos of the membership systems on domestic video platforms, some friends who like to tinker have been forced to start downloading movies themselves again (of course, some people have always downloaded movies themselves and have never changed, like me~). Putting aside the two basic difficulties of how to painstakingly find the download addresses of high-definition resources and how to download high-definition resources locally in the current network environment, playing them after downloading them locally is also an issue.

Currently, many friends install player software on Android TVs, then copy movies to a USB hard drive and plug it into the TV's USB port for playback. This is indeed a relatively affordable solution when there are few movie resources, suitable for general entry-level players (level 1). The advanced version of this method is to pair it with a soundbar system (or a complete home theater including an AV receiver), transmitting audio to the soundbar (or home theater system) via the TV's eARC/ARC to enhance the viewing experience (level 1.5).

However, some advanced players (level 1.9), especially those with a complete home theater, usually use a professional HD media player connected to an AV receiver, which is then connected to the TV for playback (with the USB hard drive connected to the HD media player). The advantage of this method is that it supports hardware decoding for a comprehensive range of video formats (playing through the TV is limited by the types of hardware decoding the TV supports), and the audio can be output as bitstream to the receiver (regarding bitstream output, current TV eARC provides up to 37Mbps bandwidth, so bandwidth is no longer an issue; the key is whether the TV supports bitstream output and whether the AV receiver or soundbar supports eARC).

Common deployment methods for home audio-visual centers

Currently, there are two main deployment methods, each with its own pros and cons:
Traditional deployment method centered on the AV receiver or soundbar

The advantage of this method is that there are basically no requirements for the TV itself (HDMI interface version, support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision is still needed, otherwise the TV itself is the bottleneck); it simply treats the TV as a display device. As long as the AV receiver's HDMI interface bandwidth does not become a bottleneck (for example, some old receivers' HDMI ports only support up to 1080p 60Hz, so 4K video through the receiver can only be viewed as 1080p), and the supported audio decoding functions can cover all played audio formats, there is no problem. The disadvantage is that if the receiver is old, the HDMI interface bandwidth will become a bottleneck for video playback, and if it is a soundbar, the number of HDMI in and HDMI out ports is hard to say.
Deployment method centered on the smart TV

This method is suitable for scenarios where the TV is relatively new but the AV receiver is old. This method allows the receiver to focus on audio decoding and amplification; the video signal no longer passes through the AV receiver but goes directly into the TV, and the audio is transmitted directly from the TV to the receiver via HDMI using eARC/ARC. The only issue with this method is whether the TV supports eARC and whether the audio can be output as bitstream, as well as whether the receiver supports eARC (ARC is of little use, and old receivers may not support eARC, which is another contradiction).

HD media player + NAS

However, all level 1.x players will encounter the same problem when they have a large amount of movie resources: the USB hard drive capacity is not large enough (except for players using a USB 3.5-inch hard drive enclosure + 16T ultra-large capacity hard drive, which is generally enough for novice players, though normal people usually don't do this), or they have to unplug the USB hard drive every time to copy new resources on a computer. In short, it's a hassle.

At this point, the NAS solution emerges. A multi-bay NAS paired with several large-capacity HDD hard drives directly relieves general players (really just general, not including me) of storage space worries (reaching level 2.0, finally upgraded). Movies are stored on the NAS, and the HD media player accesses the movies on the NAS via network sharing, finally eliminating the hassle of USB hard drives. But then a new trouble arises: every time you want to watch a movie, you have to search for it in the network folder of the HD media player:

To be fair, if the classification is reasonable, it won't take long to find (like mine); if it's unreasonable, for example, if all movies are in one folder and there are thousands or tens of thousands of movies, it's hard to say. In short, not only is this method inefficient, but it also has a very low cool factor (which is the key).

Therefore, various HD media player manufacturers have introduced their own poster wall features. After several years of development, they have become quite practical now. For example, the poster wall feature of the Dune HD media player I use:

Also supports direct control of the HD media player via mobile app:

Can search for movies in the HD media player's poster wall library on a mobile phone:

Can also control playback, pause, and modify movie information in the movie library via mobile phone:

To be fair, it is already very convenient (level 2.9). But the disadvantage is also very obvious. For people who have a large amount of resource updates every day (like me), they need to let the HD media player scan the network folder to update the movie library (manual scan) every time before watching. Each scan takes quite a while, which is completely unacceptable to me. So is there a way to make the HD media player ready to watch as soon as it is turned on, instead of scanning for a long time every time, and still have a high cool factor?

Yes. That is to use a professional software solution to build a personal media library independent of the HD media player, so that the HD media player only acts as a playback client to connect directly to the personal media library (level 3.0, my mouth is dry from talking, finally getting to the point).

HD media player + Emby server + bitstream output

The so-called professional software solutions are nothing more than Emby, Jellyfin (the free and open-source version of Emby), and Plex. I eventually chose Emby (the reason I have already explained in another article, see:Emby Series: Why I Eventually Chose Emby Over Plex）。

Actually, the local decoding player that supports Emby best is Apple TV (specifically Infuse on it). It's just a pity that Apple TV does not support audio bitstream output in terms of hardware, forcing audio to be re-encoded into multi-channel PCM output (if it weren't for this, basically all other HD media player manufacturers could close down). I don't care much about this for general drama-type movie resources, but for real blockbusters, this is unacceptable. So now it has become: using an HD media player (Dune HD Real Vision 4K) for blockbusters, and Apple TV 4K (2022 model) for general drama resources:

Since I organize Emby every day, I can watch directly by opening Infuse on Apple TV (syncing the library takes a little time, but if it's not resources currently being updated, you can watch directly). The key is the Dune HD media player. Actually, not just Dune, all current HD media players do not directly support connecting to Emby libraries (at least I haven't heard of it; I even specifically reported this to Dune's technical support, and the response I got was that they focus on local playback, which left me speechless. Is there any conflict between connecting to Emby and local playback? Look at how many people buy Apple TV just because Infuse can connect to Emby). So if it's not directly supported, is there an indirect way? Of course there is~ (I wrote this article just to talk about this, but to explain the causes and effects clearly, I wrote more and more...)

The method is actually very simple: by installing the Emby client on the HD media player. But the key is that our purpose in using an HD media player is for audio bitstream output, which the Emby client does not have an option for. Moreover, the Emby client may not have the permission to unleash the full performance of the player like the HD media player's built-in player does. Therefore, the prerequisite for using the Emby client for playback is that the audio can be output as bitstream and the video can be successfully hardware-decoded during final playback. What to do? Don't forget that the Emby client can be set to call an external player. If it can successfully call the HD media player's built-in player, all problems can be perfectly solved:

This should be the most perfect solution for HD media player + Emby server. However, it's a pity that not every HD media player will succeed with this operation. The key lies in whether you can select the HD media player's default player when playing videos (I have two Dune HD media players; an older one didn't succeed, but the new one did). You'll have to try this for yourselves, good luck to everyone. Once successful, it's a huge win, equivalent to having an Apple TV that supports audio bitstream output (saving you an Apple TV and the money to buy Infuse).

Overall, this is still an indirect implementation. If any HD media player brand could achieve the function of directly connecting to Emby, I believe it would definitely be a huge selling point: think about how many people are selling Emby libraries online now, all those buyers are potential users. This way, this HD media player brand would no longer be limited to local playback!