Buggy DVR

[plex_matthopkins_me_uk]

Hi there,
Im trying out the live tv feature on a Plex monthly sub. Im trying to convince my partner that it is stable enough to switch from a set top box.
Unfortunately the DVR keeps overrunning her shows and often carries on recording endlessly over the 100% and stays in a state of recording in progress. It often happens when a series is shown back to back and episodes are to be recorded one after another. It ends up running out of tuners.
I get this issue with both the Haupagge card and the vBox ip TV so it can’t be the tuners fault.
I have tried with settings of 0 and 1 2 and 3 minutes pre and post record in the advanced settings but that is no different.
there needs to be a length sanity check added to say if the show is over 100% or if the time has passed the end time of the show, then stop recording!

here are the log entries showing the wayward process
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.771 [3944] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity cf5f7c49-72bb-42fe-8115-a3abdbfaae1c - Refreshing Sub
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.771 [3944] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity cf5f7c49-72bb-42fe-8115-a3abdbfaae1c - completed 0.0% - Refreshing Sub
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.771 [3944] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 2c5fe764-7d12-475a-888d-e19e3af3f13e - Processing subscriptions
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.771 [3944] DEBUG - Subscription: Scheduling subscriptions.
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.771 [3944] DEBUG - Subscription: Initialized 1 schedulers.
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.771 [3944] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Scheduled an operation ‘Hawaii Five-0 - E11 - Kahu (Guardian)’ on channel 011 on tuner 0 between 2019-11-27 19:00:00 and 2019-11-27 20:00:00
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.771 [3944] DEBUG - MediaRecorderVirtual: setting stop time to 2019-11-27 20:00:00
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.787 [3944] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Scheduled an operation ‘Without a Trace - E11 - Blood Out’ on channel 011 on tuner 0 between 2019-11-27 18:00:00 and 2019-11-27 19:00:00
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.787 [3944] DEBUG - Subscription: Starting with 55 grabs, scheduled 2 active ones preemptively.
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.881 [3944] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Partitioning, step one, let’s compute an absolute ordering.
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.881 [3944] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2019-11-27 19:08:33 and 2019-11-27 19:13:33 on channel 011: ‘Live TV - Session’
Nov 27, 2019 19:08:33.881 [3944] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2019-11-27 20:00:00 and 2019-11-27

its now 2030 and three recordings are taking place but there are only two tuners!

[philly4]

@plex_matthopkins_me_uk

Im trying to convince my partner that it is stable enough to switch from a set top box.

Plex DVR is and has been quite buggy. Your experience is unfortunately not a-typical.

[LmHome]

Hi

Yes the DVR is very buggy. Also in the UK we have accurate recording, this is where the recording is started and stopped at the correct time using data in the transmitted EPG. If a program starts late or early, it is still recorded correctly, however Plex doesn’t support that, so even if working 100%, it is still lacking in reliability compared to other options in the UK.

We wanted to move from an aging PVR to cord cut, but found Plex DVR was very unreliable, I believe it had been better but we joined after they changed EPG suppliers and now the EPG data is lacking and often wrong. It is hard to convince the family to move from a hardware PVR that works perfectly and never misses a program, to Plex that started missing programs from the moment we tried it.

There are other DVR solutions out there, one is NextPVR, you can simply have it drop recordings into a Plex library and still watch using Plex. NextPVR doesn’t seem to use the Freeview EPG data though for series linking and doesn’t do accurate recording from what I saw.

Being a programmer and wanting a challenge, I’m actually making my own DVR software, and it trumps anything Plex does already DVR wise, although I’ve not finished it, it already has a web EPG and series and programs can be set to record, these use the Freeview IDs, so no issues with accidentally picking up repeat airings or missing episodes. The EPG data is the standard Freeview one from over the air which is about as accurate and up to date as you’ll find, and best of all it supports accurate recording, so all recordings commence at the very start regardless of the actual time the program starts. So far, its proving as reliable as the hardware PVR. It’s not taken that long to do really, a team of one, and several weekends. Once finished if people are interested in trying it, I’ll see about making it available.