This is the $180 Homerun question for me. I’m running PLEX Transcode Beta 1.2.1.4140 on QNAP TS-453 Pro Ver. 4.3.3.0262. Only marginal results with Live TV. Haven’t even tried the DVR. Maybe I jumped in too soon here as I thought it was already out of Beta. If it’s not fully baked yet for the QNAP and other NAS devices maybe I should return the Homerun while I still can and try it again a year from now.
I"m using it with a QNAP TVS-871 and a Silicon Dust HD Homerun Extend. Everything is working smoothly, including DVR and Live TV both at home and away from home.
I have it working as well. Which transcoding version are you on 1.21? Make sure you have HDHomerun Transcoding and DVR NOT. Make sure your clients support direct play.
What is your cpu load during playback? Are you WiFi or hard wired?
As they say, config matters.
@mwc_trexx said:
I have it working as well. Which transcoding version are you on 1.21? Make sure you have HDHomerun Transcoding and DVR NOT. Make sure your clients support direct play.What is your cpu load during playback? Are you WiFi or hard wired?
As they say, config matters.
CPU varies 36-52%. Hardwired (Always). Yes, Ver 1.21. There isn’t an option for Direct Play in IOS. I’ve read different things. Some say it tries Direct Play by default and Transcodes if it needs to. I’ve read others saying reducing the quality will force Direct Play. I’ve tried that, not much difference. The longest I’ve had it running without studdering (freeze then continue) is about an hour. When I look at the Status in PMS, it shows Transcoding: Video Transcoding Video H264 to H264 Audio Transcoding AC3 to AC3.
How long have you watched Live TV? A few hours (3-6) or more without any dropout or stuttering or freezing? I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this. If there’s a simple setting that I’m missing I’m all ears but I haven’t found it. There’s a lot of variable here including the HomeRun Tuner. I currently have my antenna split between the HDHomeRun and my Tivo OTA Roameo. The Tivo is solid. I’ve had it for about a year now after exhausting myself with the TABLO for months only to find it doesn’t work as expected, not to mention every time Roku or other Clients would come out with an Update it would break it.
@aaron.media@madduxplaza.com said:
I"m using it with a QNAP TVS-871 and a Silicon Dust HD Homerun Extend. Everything is working smoothly, including DVR and Live TV both at home and away from home.
Never a freeze or studder? For how long? Can you run it for 6 hours without a freeze or stutter?
It should be noted that the CPU on the TS-453 Pro isn’t very powerful. I assume you have the transcoder running on the Extend.
I have the TVS-471 with an i7 processor and the live TV works pretty well. Not perfect but it does work. If I was running it on my older TS-251+ I would expect to see the same results you’re experiencing. The H264 file made for a better chance at direct playing on my devices.
You may want to try out the hardware transcoding beta. I’ve had pretty good results running things on the 251+ that didn’t do well with the normal transcoding.
All in all I would keep the Extend and keep messing with it. I don’t think anyone on these forums thinks the product is finished yet and we should expect to see improvements down the road.
@chargerdan said:
It should be noted that the CPU on the TS-453 Pro isn’t very powerful. I assume you have the transcoder running on the Extend.I have the TVS-471 with an i7 processor and the live TV works pretty well. Not perfect but it does work. If I was running it on my older TS-251+ I would expect to see the same results you’re experiencing. The H264 file made for a better chance at direct playing on my devices.
You may want to try out the hardware transcoding beta. I’ve had pretty good results running things on the 251+ that didn’t do well with the normal transcoding.
All in all I would keep the Extend and keep messing with it. I don’t think anyone on these forums thinks the product is finished yet and we should expect to see improvements down the road.
That pretty well sums it up for me. Yes, the TS-453 Pro isn’t the most powerful QNAP but I’ve had 0 issues with multiple streams using PMS on ripped media doing mostly direct play and a little transcoding. The QNAP itself does a pretty awesome job with transcoding that’s built in.
I have a high level of confidence that the people here at PLEX will see this through a successful integration but no telling on the timeline when it will be completely out of Beta and what the absolute minimum hardware requirements will be to use it as intended.
As much as I would like to stick around and see this through, I’m going to bail. As I said, I got frustrated to no end with throwing hardware and everything else at the Tablo not to mention my time to no avail. When TIVO offered the OTA Roameo for $259 with Lifetime Sub it was a no brainer. All I can say about the TIVO experience is, it just works. Like the iPhone. Nothing to mess with, no complaints. I managed to unload the Tablo to someone in the Community once I was up and running and never looked back.
Tivo is releasing a new 4k Mini product this fall. I believe what I read was that it would have whole home capability and hopefully stream as well. As much as I would like to have All Things Plex, I think I will stick with what works and TIVO does just that. I’d rather return the HDHomerun Extend and put the money towards the new 4k Mini when it’s released.
@chargerdan said:
It should be noted that the CPU on the TS-453 Pro isn’t very powerful. I assume you have the transcoder running on the Extend.I have the TVS-471 with an i7 processor and the live TV works pretty well. Not perfect but it does work. If I was running it on my older TS-251+ I would expect to see the same results you’re experiencing. The H264 file made for a better chance at direct playing on my devices.
You may want to try out the hardware transcoding beta. I’ve had pretty good results running things on the 251+ that didn’t do well with the normal transcoding.
All in all I would keep the Extend and keep messing with it. I don’t think anyone on these forums thinks the product is finished yet and we should expect to see improvements down the road.
Not sure if it was procrastination or the Geek in me wanting this to work or maybe a combination of the both but hung on to the Extend. After reading this last Friday https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/12/plex-launches-its-live-tv-streaming-service-on-roku/ I updated PMS and Extend to the latest release and was pleasantly surprised it is now working! I haven’t seen an official press release from PLEX on this but the HDHR Channel seems to be stable as I have streamed a live channel for about 4 hours without a glitch. I’ve also tested the live TV stream on iOS which also appears to be stable. Still waiting for Cast functionality on the iOS App and look forward to the updated Plex App for Roku and testing the live TV.
I have it running on a TS-251+ at a remote location with a Prime. Overall it works well but far from excellent. The NAS handles it fine. I use the software transcoding and everything is set to AUTOMATIC with a 3Mbps 720p cap for remote viewing. It can handle 2 clients without any buffering issues.
There are a few bugs in PMS that cause me to have to reboot every couple of days.
I have it running on a TS-251+ at a remote location with a Prime. Overall it works well but far from excellent. The NAS handles it fine. I use the software transcoding and everything is set to AUTOMATIC with a 3Mbps 720p cap for remote viewing. It can handle 2 clients without any buffering issues.
There are a few bugs in PMS that cause me to have to reboot every couple of days.
