PMS: Version 1.8.1.4139
Shield TV: Plex for Android 6.4.1
Plex Web: Version 3.14.1
For @kinoCharlino or whoever deals with plex DVR and Live TV.
Like @DavidAndAndrea notes here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1498182/#Comment_1498182 , a UK stream can contain sources of varying framerate and audio (changing from 2.0 to 5.1, for example), and if plex has to transcode that recording it causes all sorted of trouble: for example, prior to a movie starting the previous show will be in at one framerate with 2.0 sound, but when the movie starts plex keeps sound at 2.0 and the wrong framerate. Further, if Plex transcodes (say, because I turn on DVB subtitles) the framerate for the movie following a previous show will be jittery and in slow-motion.
Watching in kodi, the audio output will switch from 2.0 to 5.1 happily and with correct framerate.
Here is a file that displays all of these issues:
Plex app on the Nvidia Shield cannot Direct stream the file without issue; audio proceeds but image stays frozen.
If Plex transcodes, it does this: the framerate for the movie following a previous show will be jittery and in slow-motion.
Audio preceding the recorded movie (recording captured tail-end of another show because of 30 second leeway before movie starts) is 2.0, and Plex doesn’t switch to the 5.1 audio that the movie has: Watching with Kodi on shield (Plex for Kodi add-on), the audio output will switch from 2.0 to 5.1 happily and with correct framerate.
Please PM me and i’ll give you the password. With reproduction of the issue I hope plex can have this fixed. Issues 2 & 3 are common to some other recordings I have.
No and I’ve seen very few responses from Plex on any issues reported in the UK. It’s very disappointing considering how much money and time people have spent on buying and setting up equipment, Plex passes, DVR and libraries. I’ve tried contacting them by PM on Twitter and received a very generic response.
They seem intent on launching and evangelising new features, but zero interest in making them work.
To me, it feels like they are in breach of the UK trade descriptions act since their DVR functionality fundamentally doesn’t work properly in the UK and they are marketing it to people in the UK without mentioning this.
It’s deeply frustrating as it’s so close to being a fantastic product.
@D-a-n-B said:
No and I’ve seen very few responses from Plex on any issues reported in the UK. It’s very disappointing considering how much money and time people have spent on buying and setting up equipment, Plex passes, DVR and libraries. I’ve tried contacting them by PM on Twitter and received a very generic response.
They seem intent on launching and evangelising new features, but zero interest in making them work.
To me, it feels like they are in breach of the UK trade descriptions act since their DVR functionality fundamentally doesn’t work properly in the UK and they are marketing it to people in the UK without mentioning this.
It’s deeply frustrating as it’s so close to being a fantastic product.
@Afullmark said: @kinoCharlino is anyhow aware of these issues? No one from Plex has responded yet.
@Afullmark, apologies for the delayed response, for whatever reason I wasn’t notified of this @-mention. We have an engineer looking into this. I’ll get back to you once I have more info, which should be soon.
@Afullmark said: @kinoCharlino is anyhow aware of these issues? No one from Plex has responded yet.
@Afullmark, apologies for the delayed response, for whatever reason I wasn’t notified of this @-mention. We have an engineer looking into this. I’ll get back to you once I have more info, which should be soon.
I am seeing the same issue. With HD recordings the sound starts, but usually the video does not then sometimes catches up. FF or RW causes the picture to freeze again or the playback stops altogether. Audio on my Yamaha amp keeps switching between Dolby Digital and Pro Logic. I saw this when DVR was in beta on my windows PMS and was then fixed. Strange the Shield still has the issue.
@Afullmark said: @kinoCharlino is anyhow aware of these issues? No one from Plex has responded yet.
@Afullmark, apologies for the delayed response, for whatever reason I wasn’t notified of this @-mention. We have an engineer looking into this. I’ll get back to you once I have more info, which should be soon.
@kinoCharlino could you give an update; you did say you’d have an update soon.
@Afullmark, we’ve filed an internal issue and it’s currently in triage. It’s possible we’re hitting a limitation with Exoplayer, but that is not conclusive yet. Sorry, no further updates at this time.
Engineering is expected to be doing additional testing. it might be solved by ExoPlayer v2 (which supports mp2 and aac latm). But it’s most likely an issue in the transcoder not supporting frame rate or audio channel switching - which we understand only seems to occur in the UK.
@Afullmark, testing on our end shows the sample you provided on Dropbox plays just fine with ExoPlayer v2. You can test this right now via Exo v2 with that sample by downloading it to an Android mobile device and then use Local Playback. If you don’t mind us enabling Alpha access of ExoPlayer v2 on your Plex account, you can test it on Shield (or any Android client) and have it as the video player for all playback, not just for Live TV and Local Playback. Let me know.
I’ll PM you additional info, if you’re interesting in testing.
@kinoCharlino said: @Afullmark, testing on our end shows the sample you provided on Dropbox plays just fine with ExoPlayer v2. You can test this right now via Exo v2 with that sample by downloading it to an Android mobile device and then use Local Playback. If you don’t mind us enabling Alpha access of ExoPlayer v2 on your Plex account, you can test it on Shield (or any Android client) and have it as the video player for all playback, not just for Live TV and Local Playback. Let me know.
I’ll PM you additional info, if you’re interesting in testing.
@kinoCharlino yes, please do. What about the channel change in audio and the frame rate changes? Does exoplayer 2 address those two issues?
Even if this problem is (partially) resolved with Exoplayer2, that will only be because it avoids the need to transcode (as it supports the audio codecs).
The transcoder problem will still be there unless it’s addressed, which means that any remote playback of UK HD DVR sources will still be effectively impossible.
