Can a Smart TV Plex app be used for TV Tuner Input?

Live TV & DVR
1

If I have the Plex app installed on my Smart TV (LG WebOS), can I use that as a Live TV Tuner?

2

You need to have a separate tuner (like HDHomerun or Hauppauge, etc…) then the app could be used to watch Live TV. Is this what you’re asking?

3

No. I would like to use the tuner in the TV instead of buying a separate tuner and thought it would be cool if the app did that.

I assumed it wouldn’t, but I had to ask.

4

I too have an LG 4k TV (Web OS 2.0) and wondered the same thing.

Since there is already a built-in tuner, why can’t Plex use it instead of having to have an external tuner? Makes no sense to have to add a tuner when one is already there.

5

I’m guessing that it’s not possible for a number of reasons

  • smart tv apps rarely get direct access to any of the actual tv hardware (pretty much everything is sandboxed for security)
  • the current plex tv/dvr leverages streams generated by the tv tuner boxes (basically the tv tuner performs as a web server that plex connects to and streams from)
  • no smart tvs that I am aware of have any type of network tv tuner streaming in the same manner as above
  • I’m sure that tv manufacturers do not want to expend any extra development time or software/hardware on devices that tend to be extremely narrow profit margins
  • there are probably licensing considerations that stand alone tuner boxes must pay in order to re-transmit/stream the tuner channels, that smart tv’s probably don’t want to pay extra for.
  • tv’s generally only have 1 channel tuner, they cannot tune to multiple channels as would be needed to be of much use beyond single channel watching/recording.

an hdhr quatro costs $150 and definitely worth if you have decent local stations reception.

6

Thanks for the info.

I think that cleared up something for me. Plex isn’t the tuner itself, it just can ‘control’ the existing tuner to access what you want to watch / record. Correct (basically)?

I was thinking that the Plex software directly accessed the signal. Huh.

Thanks again.

7

right, the hdhr tuner does the conversion of the OTA stream to a web stream, which plex hooks into.

if/when you get an HDHR, you can go directly to the tuner IP address and click the channel streams (though you may not be able to watch them in the browser)