@Plexer223 The use of MKV container is likely for compatiability over anything else. MKV is simply designed to handle allot more features. The underlying mpeg 2 video stream is the same in both. The problems are likely related to issues with the new transcode engine introduces in 1.7.0 and beyond that enables live tv. With the new engine every show recorded has to be remuxed(not transcoded) from many small files. The choice to put the video stream into a MKV was likely simply for compatiability. The same problem. Would likely occur if they kept it in a TS container.
The 1.7.x versions of PMS appears to have broken DVR functionality, downgrading back to 1.6.1 resolves the problem but it does not include Live TV.
See this thread for more information:
@nsantalu said:
The 1.7.x versions of PMS appears to have broken DVR functionality, downgrading back to 1.6.1 resolves the problem but it does not include Live TV.See this thread for more information:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/274585/issue-with-tuners-and-recordings#latest
This is not true across the board, although it may be for your config. Quite to the contrary, the updated 1.7.x versions combined with the updated firmware from silicondust FIXES the issue for me and many others.
@ssuess said:
@nsantalu said:
The 1.7.x versions of PMS appears to have broken DVR functionality, downgrading back to 1.6.1 resolves the problem but it does not include Live TV.See this thread for more information:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/274585/issue-with-tuners-and-recordings#latestThis is not true across the board, although it may be for your config. Quite to the contrary, the updated 1.7.x versions combined with the updated firmware from silicondust FIXES the issue for me and many others.
Itās not true for those of you it is working for but seems to be true for everyone reporting this behavior.
This is not a SiliconeDust or HDHomerun specific issueā¦ I had the same problem with my Haumpage QuadHD tuner and returned it think it was the problem and found I have the same problem with the 2 new HDHomeRun Extend tuners I purchased. My firmware is up to date on my Extend tuners and none of the 2.7.x versions work for me at all now, they all record to completion and then just hang. Downgrading to 1.6.1 fixes the problem.
@ssuess said:
@nsantalu said:
The 1.7.x versions of PMS appears to have broken DVR functionality, downgrading back to 1.6.1 resolves the problem but it does not include Live TV.See this thread for more information:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/274585/issue-with-tuners-and-recordings#latestThis is not true across the board, although it may be for your config. Quite to the contrary, the updated 1.7.x versions combined with the updated firmware from silicondust FIXES the issue for me and many others.
How does one come by this beta firmwareā¦ Would love to test on newest version and report back if it works
Great please do and report back. They just released the beta2 firmware a few days ago:
https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=20613
@abarbaccia said:
Great please do and report back. They just released the beta2 firmware a few days ago:
Okayā¦so as far as i can tell it has fixed the issue with the tuner dropping off. I canāt tell for sure because plex tv recording in the newer versions seems to be on fire. My tuner at one point said 2 tuners 6 in useā¦and stuff will say its recording and there will be no action on the tuner and nothing in the folderā¦once again rolled back to 1.6.1
So i think the tuner issue is no longer a problem but i need to wait until this newer version of dvr is stable to some degree
I tried the new hdhomerun release (2170707beta2) and still experiencing recordings ending in the middle.
I tried recording on an usb3 hard drive, the Shield internal hard drive and on a NAS. All the same. The only way I can get a full recording is when I record only 1 channel at a time on a perfect rf channel. On channel that has few minor impairments, the recording will end prematurely. If I try recording 2 channels at the same time even on perfect rf channels, the recordings will dropped.
I installed 1.6.1 on my windows server and all those issues went away.
@rouq said:
I tried the new hdhomerun release (2170707beta2) and still experiencing recordings ending in the middle.I tried recording on an usb3 hard drive, the Shield internal hard drive and on a NAS. All the same. The only way I can get a full recording is when I record only 1 channel at a time on a perfect rf channel. On channel that has few minor impairments, the recording will end prematurely. If I try recording 2 channels at the same time even on perfect rf channels, the recordings will dropped.
I installed 1.6.1 on my windows server and all those issues went away.
Yea updated hdhomerun Software/Firmware didnāt help me either and even using a Haumpage HDQuad tuner I had the same problem so the tuners are not the issue it is something with the 1.7.x releases.
As with you downgrading back to 1.6.1 fixes the DVR issues but of course you lose the new Live TV feature that came with the 1.7.x releases.
@nsantalu
I have a feeling there are several issues that you are referencing. You are extremely over simplifying the problem as just blaming 1.7.x release. I had a issues when I deployed 1.7.x and went through several steps to correct the issues. Ultimately i fixed it with a reload of my OS. I know that isnāt a solution most people want to hear, but what that shows is that the software does work. It was environmental with my OS install. The reason i chose to do a reinstall of the OS was for various personal reasons, one of which was largely based on the fact the install was several years old and the environment had changed allot over the years. I wanted to clean up the system. I did preserve my Plex data folder in that reload though so the plex environment was the same.
I am not going to say some folks arenāt having issues with 1.7.x, but i have a strong feeling it is environmental with the machine itself and not specific to Plex.
@mavrrick said:
@nsantalu
I have a feeling there are several issues that you are referencing. You are extremely over simplifying the problem as just blaming 1.7.x release. I had a issues when I deployed 1.7.x and went through several steps to correct the issues. Ultimately i fixed it with a reload of my OS. I know that isnāt a solution most people want to hear, but what that shows is that the software does work. It was environmental with my OS install. The reason i chose to do a reinstall of the OS was for various personal reasons, one of which was largely based on the fact the install was several years old and the environment had changed allot over the years. I wanted to clean up the system. I did preserve my Plex data folder in that reload though so the plex environment was the same.I am not going to say some folks arenāt having issues with 1.7.x, but i have a strong feeling it is environmental with the machine itself and not specific to Plex.
This really isnāt trueā¦even if someone gets 1.7x to workā¦there are issues all over the place on these releasesā¦would love to know what they changed beyond the mkv stuff
@mcrommert
Did you read the change log. They implemented a new transcoder engine to enable Live TV. The MKV container being used is simply one of the results of that change.
It is true to say my server is working fine with 1.7.5 and every version of 1.7.x release since a OS reload. It also shows that some folks are likely having similar issues and it isnāt plex, but something to do with the environment PMS is running on .
@mavrrick said:
The problems are likely related to issues with the new transcode engine introduces in 1.7.0 and beyond that enables live tv. With the new engine every show recorded has to be remuxed(not transcoded) from many small files. The choice to put the video stream into a MKV was likely simply for compatiability. The same problem. Would likely occur if they kept it in a TS container.
Pretty sure this is true. But I think, most likely, everyone keeps referring to the MKV change as the problem because thatās the most obvious thing we see. You look at the icon of a file that wonāt play, you know that those files used to have a .TS extension and now itās got an .MKV extension so we jump to conclusions. I donāt personally care about the file extension, it just drives me nuts that Iām stuck on an older version of the server because of this issue (which Iām thinking more and more has something to do with the new method of transcoding not being able to handle even a tiny bit of signal loss).
I noticed in an earlier post that there was another recent firmware update for the HDHomeRun (which Iāve since done) but Iām still hesitant to install the newest Plex Server version. I really like the DVR features and I donāt want to start losing all my recordings again. And I donāt know why these major changes were necessary just to accommodate live TVā¦Iāve already got live TV in Plex (and have for quite a while) using the HD GrandSlam plugin. And it works everywhereā¦not just on iOS devices. As Iāve said before thoughā¦Iām not a coder so I donāt understand the inner workings of such things so I guess there was probably a good reasonā¦just wish it had a more robust solution.
Iāve had much better luck using Extends than the connects- although I realize some people arenāt able to swap out. I was lucky enough to be able to return the Connect fairly quickly after realizing the Extend would do the transcoding itself 
After that last plex pass update, I was pretty bummed as well.
@mavrrick said:
@nsantalu
I have a feeling there are several issues that you are referencing. You are extremely over simplifying the problem as just blaming 1.7.x release. I had a issues when I deployed 1.7.x and went through several steps to correct the issues. Ultimately i fixed it with a reload of my OS. I know that isnāt a solution most people want to hear, but what that shows is that the software does work. It was environmental with my OS install. The reason i chose to do a reinstall of the OS was for various personal reasons, one of which was largely based on the fact the install was several years old and the environment had changed allot over the years. I wanted to clean up the system. I did preserve my Plex data folder in that reload though so the plex environment was the same.I am not going to say some folks arenāt having issues with 1.7.x, but i have a strong feeling it is environmental with the machine itself and not specific to Plex.
So, funny you should suggest it is environmentalā¦ I considered that and actually went so far as to install PMS 1.7.5 on another PC running Windows 7 and pretty much nothing else other than what Windows comes with. The PC is comparable to my normal Windows 10 computer in terms of specs but it (the win 7 PC) has double the RAM. Despite it being a very streamlined install with little more than Win7 on it I experienced the exact same issues I experience on my Win10 computer. I donāt think it is environmental and based on the fact that I had the same problem with a Hauppauge quadHD tuner card I donāt think it is a problem with the tuners either. Also considering I had the same problem with the tuner card that pretty much rules out my network being the problem as well. The next question is could it be poor signal causing the recordings to hangā¦ well I have a roof antenna which gets channels from nearly 100 miles away crystal clear with no loss of signal and I can sit and watch TV on my television as though it was cable TV so I donāt think the issue is the signal either. That leaves us with Plexā¦ works great with 1.6.1 and prior, doesnāt work with any 1.7.x versionā¦ kinda leads me to believe the issue is something with 1.7.xā¦ Iām sure it is working fine for some people but clearly it is not working others.
@abarbaccia said:
Great please do and report back. They just released the beta2 firmware a few days ago:
It appears folks here are confusing the difference between the HDHomeRun Software and the Firmware.
If you look at the firmware change log you will see there hasnāt been a new firmware update since 2016ā¦
What you are downloading is the latest software/driversā¦ but if you look at the status of your tuners you will see your firmware is still the 2016 version. Although some of the HDHomeRun software downloads do update the firmware version as well that is not always the case (look at the software change log to see what I mean). After installing the beta software version my tuner status still shows the same 2016 firmware and says it is up to date. Only the software version was updated.
The beta Software does install new (beta) firmware. As the HD Homerun software will include dvr features, the firmware ist also updated for this purpose apparently. But for my HD Homerun Expand the beta 2 software still installed beta 1 of the firmware. This seems to be the latest version.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
You might be downloading the latest software but it also installs the beta firmware.
Well I wish mine would updateā¦ mine updated the software version to the beta version but left the firmware version the same and it says āUp to Dateā under firmware.
Maybe Iām missing a stepā¦
@Agent_Cooper
Is that first paragraph something I wrote from another thread. It looks very familar
I would think you were right if it wasnāt for one thing. When I was experiencing my issue i actually tested the DVR in 3 places. My WHS 2011 server (this is my main plex server), a Nvidia Shield pro, and my HTPC with Windows 8.1 and MCE. Prior to experiencing the problems i had only installed the very first build of PMS with DVR on the HTPC and the Shield had it loaded for some time. When the PMS on my WHS install started failing i worked on it for some time trying to get reliable recordings. I changed physical connectivity for my HD HomeRun, I updated nic drivers various drivers in my server. Change storage configurations around for how the Plex data folder was stored. Followed directions to completely remove Plex from the server. Nothing worked. Much like this thread i thought it had to be either plex or tuner related. Finally installed 1.7.1 on my Shield and noticed it worked completely fine for a few days. I migrated my recordings to it until i could figure out what was happening with my server. Finally i installed PMS 1.7.1 on my HTPC to test it their for maybe a windows issue and it worked fine there as well. Finally as a last ditch effort to get it to work on my main server i reloaded the OS (i have bare metal backups for easy restore). Documented each software reload step and tested the install. So far everything has worked completely flawless on the new OS install.
So any assertion that the problem is effecting everyone is false. I personally experienced a 75% success rate on 4 different OS installs. That isnāt great, but it is a majority It has something to do with the environment. I do agree with you though it is likely something to do with the new transcoder and i have a feeling it is related to some sort of minor signal loss issue. I also believe it may involved with the transcoder leaning on something shared by many software packages that do transcoding. It could be a simple as something like a codec pack or dll that resides outside plex that should be updated, but for reason hasnāt been.
