Server Version#: Version 1.28.0.5999
Player Version#: Version 4.43.4
Tuner Make/Model: HDHomerun Connect Quatro
Guide/Lineup name: "Local Channel ListX or something, I’m not deleting and recreating it AGAIN just to get the exact text
Using XMLTV?: Don’t know? Thats half the problem
Channel number/Name: Any
So, earlier today we had Plex 1.21, DVR and HDHomerun’s guide data downloading and uploading every 24 hours at 2am.
I upgraded, deleted the DVR, recreated it and it only allowed me to choose Freeview OTA or something called “Local Channels”, I chose that. I don’t know what it is and there’s no documentation.
I saw a screenshot of being able to add multiple sources.
Its not real, not there in the real version, it’s a lie.
I should be able to combine HDHomerun, Freeview OTA for by the minute updates and the forum post by the developers that we’d gone back to gracenote if you’re from this, this or this country Including UK)
I see nothing, I dunno if I’m even getting more that 7 days because for some reason you can’t go past a few days from the Guide dropdown. Or scroll right. Or hold down the right arrow key.
Somebody needs some HCI courses under their belt!
So where’s this Gracenote thing?
And if this is it, just the Freeview Local Listing thing, how do I go back to my script that downloads HDHomeRun and POSTs it to a Plex URL
The commands you quoted are the ones used to download XMLTV data from SiliconDust. If used correctly, the result will be an XML file which you can feed to Plex for guide data. Unfortunately, you’ll have to delete and recreate your Plex DVR to use it; Plex does not support mixing their guide data and XMLTV guide data.
There’s a lot of additional information on SiliconDust’s XMLTV guide data on their forums. The announcement and a lot of follow-up can be fount in this post:
But, no documentation, no details.
And here: Live TV & DVR (Set Up and Manage) | Plex Support
That shows what looks like using multiple guide data sources.
But none of those screenshots match what you actually see.
Reading down more of the thread, I’m really starting to lose confidence.
Several old recordings are still scheduled (aren’t these supposed to be gone??)
Many people saying their instructions have this effect, it hasn’t worked.
And that thread was posted 2 years ago, which probably means they’ve fixed none of these issues.
Seriously considering going back to what I had before, although really wishing the Delete DVR button could be trusted to ACTUALLY do it’s job.
Damnit, I really hoped it they’d got their act together on this DVR bit, they’ve been at this for years.
Gracenote is their provider for EPG data. When you choose to utilize the Plex-provided EPG, that data is sourced from Gracenote. It’s a binary choice; the only other option is XMLTV.
The “going back to” mentioned in that thread is referring to the fact that they started out with Gracenote data when the DVR functionality was initially offered. For a time, they used another provider and it was not a great experience for many. The move back to Gracenote was generally considered to be a positive one.
Multiple guide sources can be used, but guide source types cannot be mixed. That is, you cannot use the Plex EPG data and an XMLTV source at the same time. Also, multiple sources can only be selected at DVR creation time; you cannot currently go back and add an additional source after the DVR has been created. Steps 5 and 6 in the “Create a DVR” section of the document you linked show how to do this.
Expanding a bit on the case for why one might need to configure multiple Plex guide sources, it is at times useful to be able to use two of them at once. In the US at least, there are often cases where one lives in an area served by two OTA markets. Prior to Plex adding this functionality, you could only pick one guide source and hope that it had some overlap with neighboring markets. Now, you can configure Plex to use guide data from both for more complete coverage of what is available at your tuner.
Deleting a DVR doesn’t delete scheduled recordings by design. This allows one to delete their DVR for some purpose (troubleshooting, or perhaps upgrading tuners) and to have their recording schedule intact after recreating it. However, I believe that if you change guide data sources that you may need to manually delete your schedule recordings and re-add them. On the whole, I’m personally glad it was designed this way.
If your previous setup was working for you, moving back might be your best option. At any rate, you won’t be able to utilize both the HDHomeRun guide data (XMLTV) and Plex’s guide data together. I think there’s a feature request out there to implement such functionality, but don’t quote me on that.
OK, looks like attempt number 3 took.
Here’s what I learnt:
Use only the web interface build into the server (http://ipaddress:32400/)
If you’re deleting and recreating (or possibly just creating from scratch)
Choose ONLY default options.
DONT choose a region manually (don’t change Freeview to Local Channels, it’s just a channel set, not a channel source)
DONT try XMLTV first
Just delete, create, next next next finish
Finally, to test whether it’s taken do a (on windows) CTRL+F5 reload or shut down the browser first.
The actual web snippet that loads when you click on DVR config is different to the old one.
It looks like this now:
I bet I could set up a second, sort of fake, Plex just for the purposes of pulling down Plex guide data for UK Freeview.
Then, I’ll pull that data from their databases, transform it to XMLTV and write an XSLT file to merge the two.
Then, finally, dump the resultant XMLTV file onto the REAL server and trigger an import.
Maybe I can even wireshark the guide update process PMS executes.
Haven’t had a decent task for me professional skills for, wow, so many years.
It itches that I don’t get to do software engineering at the moment
I’m sure you could, based on personal experience. I wrote a C++ (for performance reasons) app which parses the Plex guide data from its database and writes an XMLTV-compliant file. Merging that file with a second XML file should be trivial; that could be done via simple scripting.
