Smart Skip for Emby — guide

Installation

You need Emby Server 4.10.1 or newer.

1. Sign in to your MediaLab Works account, open Licenses and download the plugin DLL (available on an active subscription, a lifetime license within its update window, or during the free 30-day trial).
2. Copy the DLL into the Emby plugins folder and restart Emby Server:
   • Linux (package): /var/lib/emby/plugins/
   • Docker: the plugins folder inside your Emby config volume
   • Windows: %AppData%\Emby-Server\programdata\plugins\
3. Open Smart Skip in the Emby dashboard menu and click License. Paste your license key and activate it, or enter your e-mail to start the free 30-day trial or buy a license. The plugin contacts the license server, binds the key to this Emby server and shows the license as Active.

The license is checked once a day (and at every Emby start). Without internet the plugin keeps working for 7 days after the last successful check; after that it is stopped until it can check again.

License

Without a valid license the plugin is stopped; only the License page keeps working (there you can start the trial, buy, enter the key or update).

With a valid license, the same page can install an update or roll back to the previous version if an update causes trouble. Restart Emby after either.

Automatic analysis

There is nothing to install besides the plugin: Smart Skip uses your server's own ffmpeg (chromaprint, signalstats) and no graphics card.

• New episodes are analyzed automatically when they arrive.
• A nightly task analyzes the rest of the library.
• Intros are found per season, by comparing the audio fingerprints of the episodes, including episodes with a scene before the opening titles.
• Recaps ("Previously on…") are detected too. With recap detection on, a new season takes about twice as long to analyze; you can turn recap detection off.
• End credits are found for episodes and movies; movie epilogues are protected.

Reviewing the results

Open Smart Skip in the Emby dashboard menu (administrators only).

• Each title shows its confidence.
• The to review list gathers the titles where the analysis is not sure.
• The editor shows the exact frames at each boundary (start and end of the intro, recap and credits), so you can check and correct them.
• Manual corrections are kept: a later analysis never overwrites them.

In Emby

• Smart Skip writes Emby's native intro and credits markers, so the Emby apps show their own Skip button and offer the next episode when the credits start. An intro already found by Emby Premiere is not overwritten.
• Emby Web can also show "Skip recap" and "Skip credits" buttons; they are optional. The Emby apps do not show these two buttons; they use the native markers.

Limits

• "Next time on" previews are not detected.
• Remixed recaps are detected only sometimes; Smart Skip prefers marking nothing to marking the wrong part. Check such titles in the to review list.