MediaLab TV for Emby — guide

Installation

You need Emby Server 4.10.1 or newer.

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).
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\
Open MediaLab TV 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, TVs see the neutral "Service unavailable" screen until it can check again.

License

Without a valid license the TV app shows only a neutral screen, without your name or logo; 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.

Branding

Open MediaLab TV in the Emby dashboard menu.

App name: the title on the TV (default "MediaLab TV").
Short name: shown in the server's device list and as the name of the app saved on the TV.
Line under the name and footer line: optional (for example your website and how to reach support). An empty footer shows "Unofficial app, compatible with Emby servers" in the TV's language.
Colors: the accent (buttons, focus) and the background, as #rrggbb. The text color is chosen automatically so it stays readable.
Language: automatic (the TV browser's language), English or Romanian.
Logo: PNG or SVG, at most 512 KB; a square image looks best. SVG files with scripts are refused.
Buttons: "Sign in with your phone" (shown when Quick Connect is installed and on) and "New account (from the phone)" (shown when Registration is installed and open for sign-ups).

The preview shows the result before you click Save.

After sign-in

"After sign-in, open": the MediaLab TV interface (the default: banner, rows, title pages, its own player and the skip buttons) or Emby Web.
"Remember the password on TVs" (off by default): the TV keeps only the server's sign-in token, not the password; turn this on only for TVs that keep losing the token. A password saved by version 1.1 is used once, if needed, then deleted.
On the TV, the profile menu switches the TV mode (chosen by itself on Tizen, webOS, Android TV, Google TV and Philips TVs) and signs out.

Address for TVs

The panel shows the addresses to open in the TV browser:

/emby/MediaLabTv/ on your server address: always works.
Your own path, for example /web/tv/index.html (the default path is tv). Emby serves only files under /web/, so the address ends in index.html. Tick Put the redirect in place and restore it by itself after Emby updates and click Apply.

The panel shows the state of the redirect. If Emby's web files belong to root (package installs on Linux), the plugin cannot write there: the panel then shows the exact command to run once on the server as administrator, and again after each Emby update. Changing the path removes the plugin's old redirect page; a page that does not belong to the plugin is never touched.

On each TV, open the address once in the browser and save it as the start page or a favorite.

Sign-in with the phone, new accounts, payment

Sign in with your phone needs the Quick Connect plugin. On the Quick Connect page, set "After sign-in, the screen opens" to /emby/MediaLabTv/, so the TV comes back to MediaLab TV after the phone approves.
New account (from the phone) needs Registration, open for sign-ups: the TV shows a QR code and waits; once the account is active, the TV signs in as the new user.
Payment needs Cashier: after sign-up the TV shows the payment QR code, and signs in once the payment is done.

Troubleshooting

The TV shows "Service unavailable": the license is not valid, or the server has not reached medialab.works for more than 7 days. Check the License page.
The short address gives an error after an Emby update: run the command shown in the panel (package installs), or click Apply again.
A video does not play in the TV browser: check the playback settings for that user in Emby (maximum streaming bitrate, transcoding allowed); the server transcodes what the browser cannot play.