I can say I already use Plex for audio books. I started a premium audio section (they have author metadata for audiobooks and of course you edit the MP3 tags and the server reads those (be sure to enable the reading of tag data in section settings for your audiobook section, and also I would set the scanner settings to have localdata at the top of the list for whichever Agent you wish to use with your section if you use local images and of course tag data.
Here is the mp3 tag translation list I have come to use:
Album = NAME of BOOK
AlbumArtist = ORIGINAL AUTHOR of BOOK
Artist = PERSON READING BOOK A LOUD
Year = Year of Publishing for the book
Publisher = PUBLISHER
Title = CHAPTER TITLE
Track = CHAPTER NUMBER (or order number of the MP3 file in question)
Genre = Audiobook (or get specific and use Sci-Fi or whatever you wish, but I find this the easiest way to find all my books without having to manually edit the other collection tags Plex offers. If you wish to do it your way let me know how it turns out.)
If you use PuddleTag (Linux and I think Mac OSX) or MP3Tag (Windows) you can also edit the Extended Tag settings in bulk or one by one (again personal pref) you can then add the book cover image directly to your tag (and yes Plex will use it).
I canât help you with the remember position piece, but if you break your audiobooks up in to an MP3 per chapter you can usually just remember the last MP3 and then it is easy to scrobble around shorter files to find your last position.
Reopening this thread, I played with the save position, but it only works with the web client, i have two Apple TV clients and it does not pick up the position, worse if you open the audio-book with the appleTV client, it resets the saved position back to zero.
I would settle for an audio version of the TV episodes library, Im using SoundConverter to convert everything into single file per book mp3 files
Since 4 weeks I must drive with train to work and want to hear audiobooks on my way.
I realized again, how bad the Plex Android app work with storing the playback position in multitrack audiobooks. After arrival I write everytime a note to myself, because the app canât tell me what the last heard position was. But I donât want to do this.
At the moment I test Booksonic, Plex and Emby.
Emby have a audiobook library and it works very well, Booksonic ist my favorite for audiobooks. I can surely install every single software on my homeserver and use different apps on my mobile, but I have a lifetime subscription of Plex and I want to use ONE Software and ONE app for all mediafiles.
I think PLEX and Audiobooks are two worlds they will never fit together
@Motlem said:
+1 on this. Considering how long this has been a widely requested feature, Iâm not totally sure why it has not been implemented yet.
It is not implemented because Plex is not interested in audiobook support. What little they have given is like throwing crumbs to a starving man.
I have totally given up on this ever being implemented. I have configured my system to use MediaMonkey for my audiobooks. It is a little inconvenient but it is better than anything in Plex either the workarounds or the plugin with a extra server. I even have a completely separate computer that does nothing but play audiobooks on my whole house system.
For use outside my house I use an android phone or an Android tablet with the portable version of MediaMonkey or âSmart Audiobook Playerâ to handle playback.
For my audiobooks I miss Plex very little if at all.
Totally have to agree this isnât going to be implemented because Plex doesnât want to add it which is kind of sad since they really donât add much of anything anymore what was the last really big feature VR which I donât have any interest in. I mean donât get me wrong Plex does what it does great but it just seems like the requests of the users are ignored and that it has grown stagnant. Sure they keep adding more and more platforms but Iâd like to see some new features.
Another vote for this. If Plex did real audio book support in the Plex Pass feature set, I would buy it. Second the Apple TV worthless resume functionality.
Actually audiobooks are one of few areas when Plex is clearly better than Emby at this time. Plexâs resume/ff/rw for audio files works pretty well but Embyâs does not work at all. They say it does but it really does not. All the other stuff, like metadata, is just fluff, the proper playing and file handling is the only thing that really matters.
I use Plex, with my Shield as a server and a Fire TV as a client feeding a whole house audio system, for all my audiobook playback. I use playlists to make it all seamless and it will allow pausing and resuming from all over my house using Alexia and/or remotes and it will run for days and even weeks without any input from me except for the pause/play functions.
Plex is the goto choice for my audiobook playback. It just works.
If I felt that way, I would use Audible exclusively for audiobooks.
Proper tagging, good looking covers, et al., are important to me. Yes, playback controls are of paramount importance, but arenât of sole importance.
I really like that Emby allows Audiobook and Music Libraries to have collections. I really like that there actually are legit online metadata sources which Emby can use to identify audiobook albums.
Yes, Embyâs music/audiobook player UI is lackluster to say the very least, and the lack of a proper track resume feature is a real hindrance to using the Emby app itself for audiobook playback (I find myself using Emby to store/organize my audiobooks, sync a few to my phone, and use Voice Audiobook Player to play them). But I donât foresee Plex making further improvements to their audiobook experience (including not having the Plex app crash, and subsequently forgetting where I was on a given track.)
While the Emby devs are indeed putting a low priority on audiobook playback, they are actually working on it. It wasnât too long ago that I asked them to include album collections in audio libraries, and now we have them.
+1 I listen to audiobooks more than any other media type (movies, tv, etc.) and would love to have real audiobook capabilities.
After all these posts and 5 years of asking, are audiobooks in the works for Plex? I would like to know if it is even being considered by the developersâŠ
