What is MetaTube?

MetaTube primarily refers to an open-source metadata scraper plugin designed for Jellyfin and Emby media servers. It scrapes information from the internet—such as posters, synopses, and cast lists—for movies, TV series, and adult content (e.g., FC2, amateur videos). It addresses the issue of low recognition rates for specific resources encountered with official scrapers, supports automatic background updates and translations, and enhances the management experience of personal media libraries. Essentially, MetaTube is a tool that augments the metadata scraping capabilities of media centers, proving especially beneficial for managing libraries containing specific types of resources.

Why Choose the Serverless Approach?

The serverless approach is chosen for deploying MetaTube primarily because MetaTube is a lightweight backend service. It can operate continuously even on Koyeb’s free tier; as long as Koyeb remains active, your MetaTube service will continue to run. Furthermore, deploying via a serverless architecture reduces costs and offers significant convenience in deployment.

Relevant Links

MetaTube GitHub: https://github.com/metatube-community/metatube-server-releases/releases

MetaTube Plugin GitHub: https://github.com/metatube-community/jellyfin-plugin-metatube/releases

MetaTube Docker Image: https://github.com/metatube-community/metatube-sdk-go/pkgs/container/metatube-server

Koyeb: https://www.koyeb.com

Backend Deployment

If you have not registered for a Koyeb account yet, please click here to register. Once registration is complete, you should see the following screen:

Click the “New Service” button on the left to enter the service creation page. Then, select “Deploy a Docker image” to access the service deployment page:

Enter ghcr.io/metatube-community/metatube-server:latest in the Docker image address field. There is no need to fill in the Registry section, as this is a public Docker image. Next, select the “Nano” plan under the CPU section and choose a suitable region. It is recommended to select a region based on the location of your Jellyfin/Emby server to ensure the best possible experience.

Next, proceed to the server parameter configuration. You need to add two environment variables under Environment variables and files: PORT and TOKEN. Set the value of PORT to 3000 and TOKEN to a token of your own setting. Please safeguard this Token, as it will be required when configuring MetaTube in Emby/Jellyfin. Afterwards, change the HTTP port to 3000 in the Ports section. Once the settings are complete, click the Create Service button and wait for the deployment to finish.

After deployment is complete, you can view your service on the Services page.

Click on the service name to enter the service details page. Then, click the Open URL button to access the MetaTube service page. If {"data":{"app":"metatube","version":"v1.3.2-f2bbaee"}} is displayed, the deployment is successful.

Plugin Installation

Download the plugin from https://github.com/metatube-community/jellyfin-plugin-metatube/releases. Extract the MetaTube.dll file, copy it to the Emby plugins directory, and restart the Emby service to complete the installation.

PS: Future updates for the Emby plugin are automatically handled by scheduled tasks in the background. On Linux systems, the Emby plugins directory is typically located at /var/lib/emby-server/plugins/ or /var/lib/emby/plugins/, depending on the installation method (e.g., direct installation or Docker). The plugin file is usually placed inside the plugins folder.

Plugin Configuration

Enter the MetaTube configuration interface, and fill in the Backend URL and Token to complete the configuration.

For subsequent use, simply set the metadata scraper source to MetaTube.