Just wondering. Does anyone actually have DVR & Live TV working reliably? I have 2 different HDHomerun tuners that work fine with the HDhomerun player and also work with the older software called SageTV.
HDhomerun costs $35 a year for the DVR service. SageTV costs $25 a year for episode guide listing service.
I bought PlexPass since I use Plex for movies and music so I figured I would use it for DVR and Live TV. Not so much. Just doesn’t work.
It actually works flawlessly for me. That hasn’t always been the case…early on it had some weird stuttering issues, there were times where the audio would get progressively out of sync to the point where it was unwatchable, it used to miss recordings pretty often. Eventually they seemed to get it all straightened out though. And I loved when they added the commercial removal thing. There have been a handful of times where it’s cut a show off a tad early but that seems to be about it.
Now, I will say that I rarely use live tv. However, when I do…the Channels app on Apple TV and the HDHomeRun Player both work much better. Or at least, they work pretty much the same but tune the channel much quicker.
If it makes any difference…I’m running the most recent version of the Plex server on an old iMac running MacOS 10.11.6.
Thanks for the reply. Out of curiosity what kind of tuner are you using? I have 2 HDhomerun network tuners but they are older. PLEX’s site says all models are supported but that was my thought on where to start.
Same as @Agent_Cooper … DVR works great, Live TV sucks. Android TV Live Channels is just a much smoother experience and more intuitive for non-expert Plex users to get to grips with.
I’m using the HD HomeRun Connect Duo.
What are the specific problems you’re experiencing?
My DVR works great. Have recorded four shows at the same time with my HDhomerun Quatro and Plex.
Thanks for the info. Problems I’ve had include Live TV doesn’t work but that seems to be common, the bigger issue is I can’t trust it to record. It seems the first program I set to record will work ok but after that it’s a crap shoot. Sometimes it will record the first 2 minutes other times half the show and other times it won’t record anything and will tie up all the tuners as being busy even though they aren’t recording anything.
My wife is a Dateline and 48 hours buff. Sometimes when there is a 2 hour Dateline it will stop after the first hour like it doesn’t realize the episode guide has it as a 2 hour program (Dateline is set as a favorite).
I was tempted to buy a newer model HDhomerun tuner since I have an older single and dual tuner on my network but I’m not sure if that will fix anything. They both work fine with the HDhomerun app and record without issue on my SageTV setup. I had bought Plex Pass since it was for life and I wouldn’t have to pay an episode guide subscription fee but it hasn’t paid off so far. Maybe I’ll try back in a few months as they keep updating the program.
BTW running Plex server on a Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 - Xeon E3-1225 - 16GB RAM - Windows 10 Pro.
Sounds very similar to the problems I had before I sorted out the signal issues on my HDHomeRun.
Plex is much more sensitive to signal drops from the HDHomeRun than you would be when watching it. I would suggest getting one of the mobile apps (there’s ones for Android and Apple - just search for “HD HomeRun Signal Meter” in the relevant store) and watching the results while having the HD HomeRun app display a channel.
You need Signal Quality to be in excess of 80% at all times (SiliconDust say 60%, but my experience is that 80% is much safer). Signal Strength doesn’t matter as much.
If you’re getting any dips in Signal Quality below that, you need to fix that problem first.
There are operational differences between the old and new HDHR’s.
Old ones:
Firmware updates are from a Windows app.
Channels are scanned and stored via the Window app.
Wants/works best when AVAHI is running on your network for discovery.
Works when internet is down.
Newer models:
Phone home for firmware updates/update via web.
Can go to sleep if not used for a while.
Get setup/tuning info from the web.
Don’t work well if they can’t reach the web.
With Plex, need +80% channel/quality to work well.
Work perfect for me. Live TV seems to have minor issues when playing over long periods of time. I suggest you reinstall the hdhomerun software and delete and readd the tuners. I had an issue recently where it didn’t record anything until I did that. Must have been a bug.
Mine works great. I did have to upgrade my computer. I have 2 HDhomerun Primes. 6 tuners. Watching live tv while recording has not been an issue.
So would you say older is better than newer?
Right on…I’ll check my signal quality.
Nothing so definitive, until the 5 Generation came out there was little reason to upgrade. Just pointing out the differences because they can have different symptoms in Plex. At least with the newer ones you aren’t forced to have a Windows box to be able to update the firmware and store the channels list.
I’m using an HDHomeRun Extend. It’s got a built in transcoder so I have Plex tell it to record at a lower quality than the original. I don’t notice much difference visually but I figure since most shows just get deleted after being watched anyway, this decreases storage size as well as decreasing bandwidth over my home network. And I have it connected to one of those “leaf” antennas but without the amplifier that came with the antenna…for whatever reason, the amplifier actually gave me worse signal strength.
I ended up ordering a refurb Connect from SiliconDust. It appears to be working correctly with the updated hardware. Live TV on my local LAN works OK but not at all using a web browser at work. Not a big deal. I’m just glad the DVR function is working like I hoped it would.
My older HDhomeruns are the HDHR-T1-US (single tuner) and HDHR-US (dual tuner). The latest firmware from SilconDust for both of those is 20170930.
The Connect (HDHR4-2US) has firmware 20180817.
The older models work, just apparently not with PLEX.
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