Does the HR Homerun have to be on the same LAN as the plex media server?

General Discussions Plex Features
1

Hi,

Does Plex live tv / dvr require that the HD Homerun (or whatever) be on the same LAN as the Plex Media Server?

Can I put the HD Homerun on a different network and still use it from my Plex media server elsewhere?

That is by knowing its IP address and telling PMS what it is?

Or do I have to make some sort of ethernet bridge between the two networks so that PMS can see the homerun?

Techie version of the question: is layer 2 required between the HD Homerun and PMS, or is layer 3 sufficient.

Problem is no reception where I am.

Thanks,
Steve

2

It will not work properly on a different subnet. The box intentionally will not respond with video to out of lan segment requests even though the web interface will. :frowning:

You’ll need to combine the networks in some fashion or just fake it out.

What kind of bandwidth do you have between the two locations?

2 Likes
3

Hi,

There is 50M or so available. Which should be enough for even a couple of mpeg2 stream off dvb-t.

Mpeg2 bitrates for the HD channels on freeview are <10mbit/s as far as I know.

I suppose i’ll need to do it with NAT to make it look like they are on the same lan, or bridge the networks over a tunnel.

Is there any place to find hints on how to go about it?

I suppose another option is to put a media server at the reception location and then transcode as I record and then we can make the bandwidth requirements back to home a bit less.

Thanks,
Steve

4

@elbow: I have an HDHR Quatro (Model: HDHR5-4US), it’s at my house in “City A” and my Plex primarily records off of it, and my brothers Plex server at his house in “City B” about 500KM away, is able to use my HDHR over a VPN tunnel that we have joining our home networks… The stream works fine as long as there’s about 20-25Mbps available bandwidth depending on the channel… My parents are in the same city as myself and also are able to stream from the same HDHR without issue, also over a VPN tunnel…

Proof:

5

Hi @gavinsplex,

Thanks for the reply.

Two things I just want to confirm from you:

  1. You have 192.168.0.0/24 at the one side and 192.168.224.0/24 at the other side, joined by ordinary layer 3 routing over a tunnel? You don’t do NAT at either end? So your brother’s Plex can happily record off the Quatro at your place on the other network? So that seem simple.

  2. Seems like more than one Plex can access and use the Quatro at the same time (presumably until all the tuners are used up)?

Thanks - that gives me confidence to buy a Quatro and give this a go.

Regards,
@elbow

6

As long as you are on the same LAN segment as the HDHM you are fine. You can do this numerous ways but a simple software VPN may be the easiest method as it doesn’t require dedicated hardware.

If you happen to have home routers that support VPN then you could use these as well without getting into “commercial class” hardware. Anything running Merlin, Tomato or similar software on the home router will do as they include OpenVPN (server & client). Probably won’t get easier than that.

7

I have my HDHR on a separate vlan than my plex server and it works fine. I have a layer 3 switch at the core of my home network and have multiple vlans.

With plex there’s no issue, but if I wanted to run the HDHR software from a workstation the HDHR has to be on the same vlan for it to work.

You’ll just need to make sure no NAT is involved, that could cause quite the headache in working around that. But for straight layer 3 to layer 3 it works fine.

8

Awesome, thanks everyone for the feedback.

1 Like
9
  1. Yes, pfSense routers at three sites, IPSec tunneling, no NAT involved, I can also VPN in via OpenVPN and stream off the HDHR using VLC (just tried it as a test) without issue.
  2. Yes, the quad tuners make that very handy. Got my brother an OTA + HDHR Quattro for Christmas, now he has it setup I can record broadcasts from his city also, kinda cool…
10

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.