I’ve obviously missed a step in setting up the BETA DVR on PMS and would appreciate guidance in how to correct it.
OK, so after purchasing a PlexPass because I was lead to believe it offered a working DVR, I now know better that I accepted a BETA.
If I’m in a Beta, I expect the company I paid to Beta test their product would listen to me and have a conversation with it’s Beta Testers.
I don’t know how to reach Plex, this seems to be a user forum, not a company sponsored support forum.
My SDHR tuner is recording, regardless of Plex, it can do that with VLC or other free programs.
The only thing Plex seems to offer is an EPG which conflicts with their own PMS scanners/agents, whatever Plex wishes to call them.
Plex DVR records a show and then PMS says that’s not matched because our (scanner/metadata agent) can’t match it.
I then follow Plex PMS rules/advice (and rename the file following advice which has been rammed down our throats to do so by naming the file “CORRECTLY” so it “matches” a metadata agent) and then the Beta DVR re-records the episode because it doesn’t think it recorded it due to the EPG data not matching the scanner/agent data. Endless loop. Frustration. No Answers. No acknowledgement of the issue, etc…
I have the same issue with the media scanner, NFL football, thinks its something completely different.
This is something that needs to be addressed immediately. Have some kind of tagging system where archived guide data is saved in the event I move the file, so that the content can be matted correctly by Plex because it is a known recording, and look into their archives of meta data, then piece it together correctly. Or put all of the necessary metadata into the file itself, so the Plex scanner can just use that instead.
The Plex DVR is setting the filename correctly as far as the episode title, who knows if the SeasonEpisode number is correct.
Since the Plex DVR gets the right metadata (episode description, episode title, etc) from the Gracenote EPG, then why is Plex overwriting this with invalid metadata after the recording finishes? SOOO FRUSTRATING!
Is there a PlexDVR/Gracenote/Zap2It metadata agent available for PMS? If not, there should be.
Appears the problem is even though PMS gets valid program metadata from Gracenote for its recordings that it then queries TheTVDB after the recording finishes and overwrites the Gracenote metadata with what it gets from TheTVDB.
This is happening with a lot of series recordings, not just the example I posted.
I agree, no EPG seems to get the S##E## correct, so why does PMS still rely on this info instead of using the OAD (Original Air date) and the epsidoe title? Plex really needs to lock the metadata from the source recording and allow us to override, if needed, which is such a small percentage of recordings where Gracenote/Zap2It got it wrong. Seems like nobody at Plex actually uses any of these new, attract more paying sponsors, features.
One suggestion would be to create a TheTVDB account and you can then edit these inaccuracies in the data. The problem is what list are you going to use as the actual official list? IMDB, Wikipedia, TheTVDB, TV Guide? None of which match what PBS website showed for the season episode you inquired about initially.
Agree, everyone more or less agrees on the episode title and episode description and most times the OAD, but Plex uses the S##E## to decide and overwrites it with whatever The TVDB says is correct for that S##E## instead of keeping the Gracenote/Zap2It info from its EPG used when recording. If I’m going to spend the time writing my own metadata, I would prefer to keep what the original recording had and edit that vs. doing it in the Cloud at TheTVDB where it could be changed at someones whim. I would also prefer that if I decide it’s incorrect and decide to edit it that Plex honors my choice and doesn’t allow it to be overwritten by someone elses choice. I don’t care what any site thinks is the S##E##, I just want the episode title and description to match what was recorded.
Most accurate = Program name, episode title and episode description of what you recorded.
Next, maybe the OAD (Original Air Date) if they got that correct.
Last and Least, S##E## which nobody seems to agree on , but that’s what Plex uses.
So was what was recorded Creatures of the Light as Gracenote showed, Iceman Reborn as PBS showed, or Animal Mummies as TheTVDB? I am going to guess that it was actually the PBS Iceman Reborn episode. Sounds like you might be manually altering Nova Episode data for recordings.
Creatures of the Light as Gracenote showed. It’s gotten to the point where I need to babysit my Plex DVR recordings and manually reload the EPG to keep it current and use the Zap2It site tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?aid=zap2it to see what’s playing and verify my Plex DVR recordings. That’s why I gave up on TiVo after so many years when Rovi bought them and totally screwed up the EPG. I had hopes for Plex, but am losing that hope quickly.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
Sounds like you might be manually altering Nova Episode data for recordings.
Not sure what that means, I use Plex DVR (A BETA product, as Plex calls it) to record from one of my HDHR Primes.
If you can tell me how to get the latest PMS version 1.7.x to record in the original .ts stream as sent by my HDHR Prime, I’m all ears, otherwise I’m sticking with the v1.6.1 that doesn’t adulterate the stream by chunking it into an MKV file that has multiple issues streaming/recoding/playing back.
I kept deleting this recording from my Plex DVR TV Recordings library and it kept re-recording it, thinking it hadn’t previously. Every time it did the same thing. I sat and watched it the last time as it finished the recording, moved it from the .grab folder and put it in the Plex DVR TV Recordings library using the correct metadata that Gracenote provided for the Plex DVR recording, then it went out to The TVDB and overwrote the metadata with what it found there. HOW CAN I STOP THE DVR FROM DOING THIS?
That was only one example of the many daily recording that get messed up. I’m currently manually moving all of my Plex DVR recording files daily (still .ts, not .mkv since I’m back on PMS v1.6.1) to other folders out of Plex PMS view so it quits messing with the metadata. We need the DVR to stop doing this or get a PlexDVR/Gracenote/Zap2It metadata scanner. The other issue is the corrupted DVR .mkv files with the new PMS v1.7.x
I figured this would get nowhere, but let it ride for awhile as plex doesn’t seem to respond to it’s paying customers who bought a lifetime plex pass. Just a warning to you newbies that you should expect this best in class service like we lifetime members do.
I think a partial workaround would be to create a separate DVR TV show library that uses Personal Media Shows as its agent (and then make sure all shows record into that library). That should prevent PMS from trying to find any other data than the original information given by the EPG.
Haven’t tried it personally but in the library settings there is a choice for agent to be used. Have you tried setting it to Personal Media Shows as @jonkv suggested. Sounds like it is more than Nova episodes you don’t want it changing.
FYI, what I meant by manually changing the Nova episode names is if Plex records Episode 23 but the name of the episode is actually 31 you would be changing the filename of the physical file on disk to match whatever source you are using for season/episode data. Remember there are at least 4 different sources from what I found in the past for Nova episodes each with different data so good luck with figuring out exactly what number the episode should be.
I’ve tried the Personal Media Shows and it looses all the metadata for all recordings in that programs folder when a new DVR recording hits it. I think it was explained elsewhere that the DVR uses the selected library agent to grab metadata info right after moving the finished recording from the .grab folder. Unfortunately I am no longer trusting PMS for metadata, just using it to schedule recordings from my hdhr prime and then manually moving the recorded .ts files to folders outside the reach of PMS where I can have complete control of the metadata, posters, etc.
