I have and do use both Plex and Emby as well as Kodi.
Kodi is my tertiary system and only loaded presently on my ShieldTV. Like Elijah, I don’t care for the UI one bit. It’s very awkward. Setting up/modifying libraries is awkward as well. I would NOT want to have to maintain multiple systems using this on different devices. Of course it’s only good for local files so it’s useless for any type of sharing or remote applications. It’s a pretty awful UI if you use it on a computer with a mouse and keyboard attached. Not designed for this type of use.
I have both Emby and Plex installed on the same PC sharing the same libraries. Plex is my main playback system and Emby is my fall back system if Plex is having trouble due to an Internet outage or similar as I can still easily log in locally as any user. I can also share DVR privs with other users in Emby which I can’t do with Plex.
Emby is my current DVR system. I’ve used Emby for this before Plex had DVR and still find this part of the system better/more reliable than Plex which only makes sense since it’s been around longer. However Emby is quite basic in some DVR respects like it has no conflict resolution and will allow you to schedule more than you have tuners and you will never know this. I use two Primes, so this is actually not a problem for me at present. Emby also shares tuners very well with other apps. I have two Primes (6 tuners) so if one prime is busy it just rolls over to the next Prime. This allows me to use LiveChannels on the Shield which IMHO is the best UI for LiveTV if you don’t need timeshifting. PlutoTV can easily be added to LiveChannels which gives you even more channels then you get with your cable or OTA package. Some are really nothing more than YouTube channels but the implementation and EPG of the shows is done really well. If you like college sports you can get a lot more (PlutoTV) this way as well for free and it’s legal as well so no VPN is needed. Emby also support IPTV streams directly in it’s EPG and DVR system so not only can I have cable, OTA but also IPTV all mixed together and all record-able. I have several IPTV streams I use for content not available OTA or on my cable system.
Plex doesn’t share tuners with other apps well at all and assumes all tuners including network tuners are 100% under it’s control and not other app has access to it which is crazy in my opinion. So if Plex has two tuners in use off the 1st Prime and I use LiveChannels or the HDHomeRun app on a tablet to watch a different channel and it’s the 3rd tuner (1st Prime), Plex will error out on it’s next use since it can’t access the tuner it wants to use and it won’t use the 2nd Prime at all.
That almost alone makes it very difficult to use Plex’s DVR in my house since LiveChannels and HDHomeRun are used a lot plus the fact there is not an easy way to keep other computers or devices from directly accessing/using the network tuners. You would have to create a 2nd LAN that only the Plex server has access to and put the network tuners on it. But then, none of the computers or xbox clients could use HDHomeRun to watch DRM channels like HBO.
Maybe once Plex has the EPG grid style UI for TV I won’t feel compelled to use LiveChannels as much since it will then be much easier to change channels directly in Plex and just use the standalone Pluto TV app when needed.
For me the Plex clients are much better/reliable than the Emby clients at this point in time. Emby also uses horizontal lists vs vertical lists to show movies/shows (at least on Android they do) and I dislike this as well. When you need to transcode I find Plex uses less CPU on the same files as Emby and can support more simultaneous transcodes generally speaking both with or without HW assist. The Plex mobile clients also have a huge bonus over Emby clients as they are more feature rich especially with their adjustable bit rates which works really well on the Plex mobile apps.
Ironically even though I mostly only record at present in Emby I use Plex to play these recordings back, even recordings in progress. Trying to use Emby on sports recording is like going to the dentist for me. It can be a long process to FF in Emby on in progress recordings. So if 2 football games are on it’s very difficult to switch back and forth and Emby won’t remember where you were. So trying to FF to half time can be a painful experience. With Plex on the other hand it’s easy to do. Plex will also direct Play Emby’s TS recordings while Emby wants to direct stream them which uses the transcoder (why FF is painful).
I admit my setup is a bit goofy but it works quite well for me. I could live with Emby if needed, but not the other way around.
