Emby Theater for Windows

Emby Theater for Windows is a Windows Modern app, built for Windows 7, 8 and 10 and Vista. Emby Theater can be download from here: Emby Theater. Since Emby Theater is an native Windows app, it allows support for a much wider support for codecs and formats, this enables direct play support for almost all of your video files.

To be able to take full advantage of all that Emby Theater for Windows has to offer you will need an valid Emby Premiere key, read more here: Emby Premiere
  • Emby Theater for Windows can be used alongside remote control from either your phone or web browser so that Emby Theater is ideal for an HTPC connected to your media center.
  • Emby Theater for Windows can play just about any type of media thanks to Emby Server transcoding, however since this is on a Windows platform chances are you will be using direct play most of the time. If you would like to learn how to prepare your media for Direct Play, read below.

Setup Guide

Install the app using one of the above methods, the app will then automatically find your local Emby Server(s). If it cannot find your server or you are attempting to connect to a remote server, the app will present you with options to connect manually or use Emby Connect.

Direct Play Media Formats

Emby Theater can direct play a wide range of media formats thanks to Windows broad codec support.

Best Practices for Direct Play

Leave the app's streaming bitrate setting on the default value of Auto, if possible. The app will perform bandwidth tests with your Emby Server to determine the maximum playable bitrate.

  • If you are customizing the bitrate setting, then you will need to compare the bitrate of your files to the bitrate setting in the app. You can find the bitrate of a file by checking the media info in the web interface. If the bitrate of a file is higher than the setting in the app, transcoding will be required. Increasing the bitrate setting in the app can help reduce transcoding, but may impact playback performance if your network connection is not fast enough to handle it.

Emby in Windows Store

Emby Theater is also available in the Windows Store:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/emby-theater/9nblggh4t70l

This app runs on:

  • Windows Desktop
  • Xbox One
  • Windows Tablets
  • Windows Phone