Preface

Due to the various problems with the membership system of domestic film and television platforms, some friends who like to tinker have been forced to start downloading movies themselves (of course, some people have always downloaded movies themselves, like me~). Apart from the two basic problems of how to find the download address of high-definition resources in the current network environment and how to download high-definition resources to the local computer, playing them after downloading them to the local computer is also a problem.

At present, many friends install player software on Android TV, then copy movies with USB hard disk and insert them into the USB port of TV for playback. This is indeed a more affordable solution when there are few film and television resources, suitable for general beginners (level 1). The advanced method of this method is to use a sound bar system (or a complete home theater including AV amplifier), and transmit the audio to the sound bar (or home theater system) through the TV's EARC/ARC to improve the viewing effect (level 1.5).

Some advanced players (level 1.9), especially those who have a complete home theater, usually use a professional HD player to connect the AV amplifier, and then connect the AV amplifier to the TV for playback (USB hard drive connected to HD player). The advantage of this method is that it supports comprehensive video format hardware decoding (playback through TV will be limited to the types supported by TV hardware decoding), and the audio can be output to the amplifier in source code (from the perspective of source code output, the TV's EARC now provides a bandwidth of up to 37Mbps. Bandwidth is no longer a problem. The key lies in whether the TV supports source code output and whether the AV amplifier or sound bar supports EARC).

Common deployment methods for home audio and video centers

There are two main deployment methods, each with its own advantages and disadvantages:
1. Traditional deployment method centered on AV amplifier or sound bar

The advantage of this method is that there are basically no requirements for the TV itself (HDMI interface version, support for HDR10, Dolby Vision, etc. are still required, otherwise the TV itself is the bottleneck), and the TV is simply used as a display device. As long as the bandwidth of the HDMI interface of the power amplifier does not become a bottleneck (for example, some old power amplifiers only support 1080p 60hz at most, and the 4k video through the power amplifier can only be viewed as 1080p), and the supported audio decoding function can cover all the audio formats played, there will be no problem. The disadvantage is that if the power amplifier is older, the bandwidth of the HDMI interface will become a bottleneck for video playback, and if it is a sound bar, the number of HDMI in and HDMI out interfaces is hard to say.
2. Smart TV-centric deployment

This method is suitable for scenarios where the TV is newer and the AV amplifier is older. This method allows the amplifier to focus on audio decoding and amplification. The video signal no longer passes through the AV amplifier but directly enters the TV. The audio is directly transmitted from the TV to the amplifier through the HDMI interface via EARC/ARC. The only problem with this method is whether the TV supports EARC, whether the audio can be output in source code, and whether the amplifier supports EARC (ARC is not very useful, and old amplifiers may not support EARC, so there is another contradiction).

HD player + NAS

However, all level 1.x players will encounter the same problem when there are a lot of film and television resources: the USB hard drive capacity is not large enough (except for players who have a USB 3.5-inch hard drive box + a 16t ultra-large capacity hard drive. In this case, it should be enough for novice players, but normal people generally don’t do this), or they have to unplug the USB hard drive and copy new resources to the computer every time they play. In short, it’s a hassle.

At this time, NAS solutions emerged. Multi-slot NAS with several large-capacity HDD hard drives directly made ordinary players (really just ordinary players, not including me) no longer worry about storage space (directly reaching level 2.0, finally upgraded). Movies are stored on NAS, and high-definition players access movies on NAS through network sharing. Finally, there is no need to toss USB hard drives. But at this time, a new trouble arises: every time you watch a movie, you have to look for it in the network folder of the high-definition player:

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

Therefore, various high-definition player manufacturers have launched their own TV wall functions. After several years of development, they have now become quite practical. For example, the TV wall function of the Dune high-definition player I use:

Supported searches:

Detailed introduction:

It also supports mobile app to directly control the HD player:

You can search for movies in the HD player video wall library on your mobile phone:

You can also use your phone to control playback, pause, and modify movie information in the movie database:

It is quite convenient (level 2.9) to be honest. But the disadvantage is also very obvious. For people who update a lot of resources every day (like me), I need to let the HD player scan the network folder to update the film and television database (manual scan) before watching each time. Each scan takes a long time, which is totally unacceptable to me. Is there any way to let the HD player watch it as soon as it is turned on, instead of scanning for a long time every time, and still have a high level of quality?

Yes. That is to use professional software solutions to build a personal video library independent of the HD player, so that the HD player can be directly connected to the personal video library as a playback client (level 3.0, I've talked so much, I'm finally getting to the point).

HD player + emby server + source code output

The so-called professional software solutions are nothing more than emby, Jellyfin (the open source free version of emby), and plex. I finally chose emby (the reason I have already explained in another article, see:Why did I choose emby instead of plex?).

In fact, the player that supports the best local decoding of emby is Apple TV (Infuse on it), but it’s a pity that Apple TV hardware does not support audio source code output, and will force the audio to be re-encoded into multi-channel PCM output (if it weren’t for this, all other high-definition player manufacturers would basically be closed down). I don’t care much about general drama film and television resources, but for real big productions, this is unacceptable, so now it becomes a high-definition player for big productions (DuneHD Real Vision 4K), and general drama resources use Apple TV 4K (2022 model):

Top: Apple TV 4K Bottom: Dunn

Since I usually organize emby every day, I can watch it directly by opening infuse on Apple TV (it will take a little time to synchronize the database, but if the resource is not being updated, it can be watched directly). The key is the Dune HD player. In fact, not only Dune, but all current HD players do not directly support connecting to the emby library (at least I haven't heard of it. I also reported this to Dune's technical staff, and the answer I got was that they focus on local playback. I was speechless. Is there any conflict between being able to connect to emby and local playback? Look at how many people bought Apple TV because infuse can connect to emby.). If it is not directly supported, is there an indirect way? Of course there is~ (I wrote this article to talk about this, but in order to explain the cause and effect clearly, I wrote more and more..)

The method is actually very simple, by installing the emby client on the HD player. But the key is that the purpose of using the HD player is to output the audio source code, and the emby client does not have this option, and the emby client may not have the authority to play the full performance of the player like the built-in player of the HD player, so the premise of using the emby client for playback is that the audio can be output in source code and the video can be successfully hardware decoded when it is finally played. What to do? Don't forget here that the emby client can be set to call an external player. If you can successfully call the built-in player of the HD player, you can perfectly solve all problems:

At this time, we directly select the movie in emby and click play:

View through the amplifier:

The input signal is already source code.

This should be the most perfect solution for HD player + emby server, but it is a pity that not every HD player can be operated successfully. The key is whether the default player of the HD player can be selected when playing the video (I have 2 Dune HD players, the old one did not work, but the new one did). You can only try it yourself, I wish you good luck. Once it succeeds, you will make a fortune, which is equivalent to having an Apple TV that supports audio source code output (saving an Apple TV and the money to buy infuse).

Generally speaking, this is still an indirect implementation. If any HD player brand can realize the function of directly connecting to emby, I believe this must be a huge selling point: think about how many people are selling emby libraries online now, and all the people who buy the libraries are considered potential user groups. In this way, this HD player brand will no longer be limited to local playback!