Cannot play back recording from HDHomerun tuner

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Server Version#:1.13.7.5369
Player Version#:Web-client, Sony TV
I made the DVR function work yesterday, quite straightforward, and I’ve done a few test recordings. A TV show and a movie, and they are both store nicely in the library.
The movie is stored with a .ts extension.

Mediainfo tells me this:

Video
ID : 256 (0x100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings : CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, RefFrames : 3 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=4, N=28
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 1 h 59 min
Bit rate : 8 228 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : Component
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : MBAFF
Scan type, store method : Interleaved fields
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.159
Stream size : 6.89 GiB (93%)
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

The NAS is a QNAP TS-853A, it has Plex pass of course, and also have hardware acceleration activated.

When I try to play back either the movie or the TV show, it starts, and then it stutters, and the window show ‘this server is not strong enough’ (paraphrazed).

I’m a bit stumped, as the TS-853A plays back all my nice movies without any problems.
The NAS is a busy little guy, it has 4 VM’s running, and QVR and some websites, but I don’t see the CPU peaking like crazy in any way.

What to do?

2

Is the recording from OTA or the HDHOMERUN Premium channels?

3

It’s from Cable (it’s a HDHR5-4DC)

4

Try disabling direct stream and direct play in the options for that video.

5

Hmm, I don’t see those options anywhere in the video on the plex?

6

I admit that I’m not super familiar with the Sony version of Plex… Those are options available on many of their other players. I assumed Sony’s would have it as well.

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Ah, ok, I’ll go to the tv, this was the webplayer.

06-09-2018 kl. 20:48 skrev AmazingRando24 plex@discoursemail.com i
meddelelsen topic/305385/1769661@forums.plex.tv:

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DEBUG log files please, collected after attempting to play the file ?

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Ok, I’ve tried experimenting a bit with quality settings.
It looks like if I set it to ‘original’, it will stream without breakups.

The debug log is here:
debug.txt (41.9 KB)

10

I think one factor influencing this is the subtitling.
The TV Show stutters a lot more than the movie.
The TV show has DVB subtitles, whereas the movie has burned in subtitles.

Some more logfiles.

debug.txt (60.1 KB)

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If this is the case, DEBUG Server logs are needed; captured when it first stutters.

  1. Start Playback
  2. Let it stutter
  3. Stop Playback
  4. Wait 30 seconds
  5. Settings - Server - Help - Download Logs
  6. Attach ZIP file
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Ahh, sorry I thought I did that :slight_smile:
I’ve played the ‘Ram Forbi’ (Pointless) show that stutters a lot.
During this playback, it stutters three times.
I’ve tried doing a conversion to ‘optimized for tv’ but that didn’t do anything.
If I set it to play back ‘original’ and no subtitles, it doesn’t stutter.

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-09-07_06-54-29.zip (2.2 MB)

13

I just tried doing a playback of “Pointless” on my Sony TV, and that worked without stutter (but it could be because of the ‘tv optimized version’. But on my Philips it didn’t play at all (both Android TV’s, the Sony is the newer of them).

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Tested a bit more. If the recordings have DVB-C or SRT subtitles, the playback stutters.
As soon as I disable the subtitles, the playback is smooth.
This is after the DNS rebind problem is solved, and it now plays back in original every time.

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I’ve now closed a lot of app’s on the QNAP, moved them to my second qnap, closed a VM, and it has released a lot of RAM and CPU.
When it plays back an episode of Pointless with DVC-C subtitles, it still stutters and rebuffers. The CPU runs at 40-60%, when it stutters it goes to ~73%, and I can see the Plex uses a few 100 MB extra during playback.
I’ve also tried adding a SSD cache disk, set to FIFO and sequential read-only, and only active for the volume where the PLEX has it’s media.
So far nothing has helped.

1 Like
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I’ve tried setting the tuner to do transcoding when recording. I’m not sure that it does it properly, and the problem is still present.

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