I’ve been noticing in a few recordings that I have Audio / Video glitches happening occasionally (very 30 seconds or so). The audio glitch is more of a drop out (not garbled audio). The video glitches are usually portions of the image pixelating / corrupting. I’m running v1.8.1 PlexPass in Docker, with and HDHomeRun Prime CC. I’ve tried multiple clients including an nVidia Shield and Roku 3. Seems to be the file itself. I am transcoding my recordings with FFMPEG, so it could be my transcoder settings. Just wondering if anyone else is seeing something similar. If not, I’ll keep plugging away at debugging my own settings.
I have an issue with audio dropping too. It’s completely random though. Not every 30 seconds, but periodically throughout the recording. I’m using a SiliconDust Prime, so I was thinking it might be the prime. The recordings I’ve tested are all mkv’s, and noticed that the newer recordings are ts. I haven’t tested on the ts recordings yet though. Are you using the prime too? And do you notice the drops on both mkv and ts?
@mbarylski - Yep, I’ve got the Prime as well. I’ve noticed that it seems to be only on my NBC affiliate that I see the glitching. The other channels don’t seem to have the same issue. I feel like it may also be related to the issue of DVR recordings stalling or failing (see this thread). It’s been happening with the TS files that I’ve manually transcoded to mkv.
My issues are appearing on CW, although I really haven’t tried any other channels yet. It seems to be getting worse though. Last night I watched a recorded show and it seems to be happening every 30 seconds like you mentioned. I can’t believe we’re the only ones experiencing this issue. I wonder if it’s related to a defect in the tuner. Might be time to contact SiliconDust.
I never had this issue with MythTV, so it leads me to believe that there is something wrong with Plex’s transcoder - at least with some channels.
this app (http://www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml) has helped me in the past identify the conditions in which dropoffs happen (I was using MediaPortal back then). For me it was a NIC with a very immature driver, switched to another NIC, magically the issue never surfaced again. I would use this to monitor the situation when you are playing back a show and you experience a dropoff.
The problem appears to be in the plex media server software as this doesn’t occur when I use the HD homerun connect DVR software, the Plex .ts file has the glitches before any other transcoding is performed (with MCEBuddy for example). The hd homerun DVR software creates a .mpg file that plays flawlessly. Come on Plex, get your act together ):
@sa2000 Looks like this is a common issue for folks. Any chance you could pass it on to the devs?
Hmmm, Looks like I will have to give Plex Dvr a miss altogether and use the HDhomerun software as this issue remains unresolved
So I discovered the glitching had nothing to do with Plex. The glitching was actually a result of my Cable, specifically the signal quality at 117MHz. The weak point in my system ended up being a cheap coax cable from the wall to my HDHomeRun. I replaced the cable with a quad-shielded RG6 cable and my signal quality went up more than 3db. Now everything is perfect. If you have an HDHomeRun Prime you can navigate to the web UI and look at the Tuner Status (if tuned) to see if all your stations are better than 34db signal strength. Any lower than that and you will likely see glitches/corruption. With that said, it still seems that Plex has issues with DVR and fault tolerance. That still needs to be fixed.
@nebhead Good tip. What’s the HDHomeRun web UI? Don’t believe I ever used that before. I can’t believe I would be less than 34db as I’ve got a straight cable run, but worth a look.
@johnm_ColaSC Awesome, thanks.
Just checked and my signal strength looks good. it’s at 100% and above 34db for the channel that doesn’t work on Plex. For me at least it seems like Plex is still causing the audio drops.
@mbarylski as @johnm_ColaSC mentioned you can navigate to http://my.hdhomerun.com in your browser. From there you have to click on the HDHomeRun ID in the white box on the left of the page. OR if you know your HDHomeRun’s IP address you can simply point your browser at that IP and you will be given the main menu.
To check your channel signal quality click on Tuner Status from the menu, click on Tuner 0 (if none are in use). Then tune to a station in another app (in Plex or in HDHomeRun’s native app), like the one that is giving you issues, to check the signal quality. Refresh the tuner status page in your browser to see the latest signal quality. If it’s greater than 34Db, you’re probably OK, but maybe right on the edge.
@nebhead Thanks. How many db do you get now after replacing the cable?
@mbarylski - Right around 37db or more even on the weakest channels. Really impressed with the new cable.
@nebhead Ok, thanks. That’s about where I’m at and I still have the issue with audio drops.
Plex, can we get a response on this issue please?
