[BUG] PLEX LiveTV not releasing tuners for HDHomeRun Prime

Hey guys, this is my first post here - not sure if this is the right place so I’ll keep it short and sweet

this is the server I’m running PLEX on - my clients are Firefox on OSX, iOS and an AppleTV 4th Gen

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I installed my HDHomeRun Prime (Comcast) today - I got it after the success I had with the HDHomeRun Dual ATSC Tuner w/ PLEX LiveTV and decided to give the cable product a try! PLEX LiveTV is awesome man and it’s CRAZY to be getting my cable channels on any and every IP enabled device I own.

I have two distinct yet very similar problems which, summed out, I believe are race conditions manifested from the way PLEX terminates its usage of tuners from the HDHomeRun Prime device. I’m a software engineer and did troubleshooting to find the source of my problem.

Problem #1 – tuner prompt not killing streams

1. The HDHomeRun Prime has three tuners that view different channels
2. If all available tuners are in use, PLEX will send a prompt asking to kill a stream
   
3. Plex will not release the tuner you selected, it will still stay active
4. Lets say you choose to cancel CNN, the CNN tuner will still be active, but PLEX will lose it’s association with it, the stream never successfully gets killed and the queue piles up, showing more usage than actual available tuners
   
   

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This whole fiasco gave a whole bunch of weird issues from the EPG being messed up to the queue problem I just described where I can’t stream at all because all these “ghost” streams are occupying the tuner slots.

I thought I could fix this problem by simple doing a .deb reinstall on PLEX, and it seems I was right, concerning the EPG and just tuner setup with Plex

more screens

no tuner in settings

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program guide stuck on refresh

Problem #2 – PLEX only properly terminates streams one way

expounding from the first problem, I observed the lights on the HDHomeRun and also monitored the tuner status page

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When you click the (x) button , this is the only way PLEX will cleanly release the tuner. So let’s say if you close your web browser, background the iOS app, or anything that kills your client rendering and keeps your tuner connection open will create a ghost stream.

The HDHomeRun App and VLC on OSX and the Apple TV terminate their streams properly to free up tuners - so I know this is a PLEX problem

Please please please I will do anything I can to help you guys fix this - if this is done, then PLEX is ALL of my media

Thanks

Just confirmed the same behavior on Apple TV

So on the AppleTV, iOS, and the web client - if you do not properly terminate the PLEX stream, a race condition occurs where PLEX will not free up the HDHomeRun (PRIME) Tuners

I’ve learned that also clicking into the previously viewed live TV item will work a toggle of some sorts to free the Tuner

So right now I’m watching Teen Titans Go on Cartoon Network - I press the home button on the AppleTV remote and PLEX backgrounds and creates a ghost stream

UPDATE: It appears that PLEX for Apple TV, athough it keeps the ghost stream active, will retune it when changed after being back grounded

This is the exact behavior I am having on my Linux system through both the Web App and Roku

I’m seeing similar issues with my Android TV. It said 11 out of 3 tuners were in use before I just restarted it, so I think it’s adding show recordings (that are failing) to that list too and not releasing them…

I’m seeing the same thing with my WinTV Dual HD via the web app. It doesn’t seem to matter how I stop watching, the stream never stops. Going into Status > Now Playing, I can see it running. Most of the time, using the Stop Playback function does nothing.

I am running hd homerun extend, qnap 251+ nas, roku3, roku4, roku tv, ipad, iphone: i have tried for days to figure out why plex locks up and crashes with live tv. I tracked it down to the tuners are not releasing from the roku plex app. Tuners do release from ipad app. Fyi, roku plex has worked well in my house on all hardware for 2 years.

This is some sort of a plex roku app interface problem with server controls for tuners. It build to the point that it crashes the plex server and i have to reboot the nas to clear it.

Separately, the buffering from plex is terrible!! Downgrading to 480p fixes buffering but not the tuner release/crash problem. Separately, I can not get live tv to play on pc when launched from server. Yes, have tried all the settings on both plex server, hd homerun firmware, and ios and roku apps.

Anyone have a solution for this yet? Would be the perfect setup if live tv would be stable

I am having this issue, but I have not been able to figure out how to get the plex app to ever work.

I just came across this issue as well, has it been solved? I am in the latest general release, but not on any beta builds, recommendations? Seems like a fundamental feature to overtake a feed as channel is changed provided they aren’t being used up by a scheduled recording. Any insight is helpful as paying for a service and trying to use it on multiple devices basically makes it almost pointless with this issue. Thanks for any help or insights!

Yeah, I’ve seen this too. I mentioned it in another thread.

yeap this is easily reproducible at least on plex web. This does not seem to happen on my Shield TV. I think the root cause in the inherent nature of HTTP communication. When you close a browser, there is no way for Plex Web to communicate that to the server (the server does not know, if there was a connection hiccup and you will come back). On the Shield, I am sure it fires an event when the app is backgrounded or killed and the server releases the tuners. What I do see though is that EVENTUALLY (maybe 10 minutes later) the tuner did release. I also saw that within those 10 minutes, when logging in to Plex Web (new session), and clicking on the same program on the Guide, it asked me if I wanted to resume from where I left off on the live session (kudos to Plex). Think about your browser crashing after you being paused for a while and you lose all that buffer (you wouldn’t like that!).

Anyway, at least for me (HDHR Prime) the tuner was released after what seems like a live tv session timeout which seemed to be around the 10 min mark.

Just set up live TV and I see the same issue. Even selecting the “X” and properly closing out the stream in Safari I see that the tuner is still active. I guess this is a “feature” so, like @tachtevrenidis mentioned you can go back to that channel and start watching the buffered content but the issue is that if tuner is locked and the DVR wants to record something the recording will fail if no more tuners are available.

@hstamas, when I hit the ‘X’ I see the tuner released (maybe takes a couple of seconds). When you close the browser, do you eventually see the tuner released (the timeout on mine seems to be 10 mins)?

I tried it 3 times with Safari on a Mac. Twice, after hitting the X it did immediately release the tuner. One try it did not release immediately but the tuner did released itself after 20 minutes like you observed.

My guess at this point is that this is the intended behavior and that the few times it didnt release immediately was just a glitch on my end?

Thank you all for adding to this reply. I find with Tv the instinct is to just turn off the device or walk away. I personally would never remember to properly close out. It’s almost like asking people these days to properly eject a USB drive…anyway.

I think the quick fix is if there was a way too have a prompt asking if you’d like to cancel the current recording or live channel buffering (what I think is one main issue as I have zero recordings setup) to free a tuner so you can watch the live content. Similar to what the typical DVR does with regular cable service.

The problem for me is that when I watch on my TV I am told something to the affect that I need the admin to free something up or have the server side do something or be actioned there. Very user unfriendly and I also couldn’t find any setting or option to release when looking at the server. I don’t have any additional users and just use the Admin account. I have to admit I feel this is a base line feature and if you access on even a couple devices this becomes a big issue. I may have to cancel my subscription unless anyone has any ideas? Thanks all again for commenting on your experience. I hope this gets sorted shortly!

Experienced the same problem on WD PR4100 with 2 x HDHomerun Connect. under version 1.12.0.4829 reverted to 1.11.3.4803 to fix.

Thank you @Ratall That is greatly appreciated! I will look into that as a possible fix until they get it sorted. Is there a way to get the Plex support insight on threads like these too? Tricky when there is no basic support line. Would love their insight. Thanks again all!

I would say this is the only remaining problem I have with live tv - all the other stability issues are gone and this relatively new problem cropped up with the fixes.
I’ll almost always have a phantom “1 recording now” show up by the tuners after a day of usage even when nothing is DVRing and none of the tuners are actually activated (Hauppauge signal monitor tells you if there is a signal lock and I can see all four tuners with it) That I’ve seen grow as high as 2 before I took action and restarted PMS.

I have the Hauppauge QuadHD so with 4 tuners it affects me when I’m dvr’ing multiple shows and trying to watch a couple others at the same time and am expecting 4 tunes but can only use 3. I only use Roku players, no other client devices.

Who else started to and still has this problem?

Same issue here for the record, but I know it seems quiet, hopefully we aren’t alone or maybe it isn’t a hugely used feature? It’s the only thing stopping me from considering TiVo or other options.

Follow this post too: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/307775/unable-to-tune-channel-no-parts-and-failed-dvr-recordings

The issue has been reported to the devs. Hopefully they’ll fix soon. In the meantime I’ve stopped using LiveTV.

I experience the same issue with latest PMS on Windows 10. Tuners don’t release though, even after hours. Restarting PMS releases the tuners.