I think I have decided on using Roku as a cordcutting platform. Only issue is having a DVR for OTA programs. I had purchased a defective Tablo unit that I returned. Now I am glad because of all the complaints for load times.
Can someone comment on using Plex live TV and DVR with Roku?
A Roku alone is not enough for running Plex. It is merely one of several possible playback devices for the Plex system.
You need a computer (or a powerful NAS) to run the Plex Server on.
Particularly when you want to use the live TV and DVR feature.
Hi Otto,
Thanks for the reply. I do understand I need a server. No problem there. My question really is about performance. Tablo seems to suffer from lag loading up the video to be played. I have watched some videos and i am pretty confident Plex does not experience this problem.
I will ask another question about the various clients. It seems Plex has clients for virtually anything, but I thought I read some of them will not allow the DVR function. DVR and commercial cutting are the primary reasons for looking at Plex over other solutions. If I cannot operate the DVR function for scheduling and playing back shows it is no good to me.
Are there any clients that do not support the DVR function?
All clients can play back DVR files, so you’re good there. All you need to do is set them to record, and then play them back on any device Plex has an app for.
What you might be asking for is the ability to set DVR recordings, which not all clients have… yet. Slowly, the Live TV feature is being rolled out to client devices, and the feature of being able to set recordings isn’t far behind that.
Unfortunately I don’t know which ones do and do not support that at the moment, but if you’ve got any device with internet access nearby, you can log into the Plex web interface and set up any recordings you like.
@SJMaye said:
Tablo seems to suffer from lag loading up the video to be played. I have watched some videos and i am pretty confident Plex does not experience this problem.
This applies only if your server is not too slow. In my opinion, you need a full PC if you want to use the DVR feature and comskipping in particular.
Lesser hardware (like a regular NAS) might be just not “snappy” enough for you.
@AmazingRando24 said:
What you might be asking for is the ability to set DVR recordings, which not all clients have… yet. Slowly, the Live TV feature is being rolled out to client devices, and the feature of being able to set recordings isn’t far behind that.
That is definitely one of the question marks I have. The way you answered the question makes total sense.
@OttoKerner said:
This applies only if your server is not too slow. In my opinion, you need a full PC if you want to use the DVR feature and comskipping in particular.
Lesser hardware (like a regular NAS) might be just not “snappy” enough for you.
A PC is the plan. Plex’s DVR feature along with trimming commercials is the reason I am looking at Plex over Tablo. Plex also appears to respond much faster than Tablo. Certainly Plex’s ability to house and serve all the rest of my media is a big plus.
Can someone confirm something for me? I have two HDHomerun Extends coming. My understanding is they transcode to H.264 on the fly. In perusing the Roku forum they state the files off the HDHomerun’s must be transcoded in someway in order to work on the Roku. For best playback performance should I be leaning toward streaming platforms that do not require transcoding at all?
@SJMaye said:
For best playback performance should I be leaning toward streaming platforms that do not require transcoding at all?
I’ll have to test this when I get home. I have this exact setup, two HDHR Extends set to pretranscode and Roku playback devices. I believe transcoding happens anyway with a Roku and any HDHR option. I don’t pay much attention because my PC (specs below) handles everything fine.
Lots of people swear by the NVidia Shields. Next to a PC, I think they direct play the most file types.
Based upon what I am reading in the forums the later Rokus do accept H.264, but the stream from the HDHR extends is just slightly different and still needs some sort of transcode.
Like one said above. After I get my HDHR Extends in I will connect them to the antenna and to my plex server to start experimenting with recordings and live tv. I have a myriad of Smart TVs and Rokus that I can test for performance.
I don’t have my HDHR Extends yet, but I have been experimenting with files going to my Roku TV. The TV is connected via WiFi.
I have tried several file types, but was most interested in how well the Roku TV played back the .mkv files. Admittedly don’t know anything about containers and codecs, but this was a rip directly from a dvd to a mkv file. The file started up almost immediately.
If that works so well, is there any down side to using mkv to store my dvds?
Roku is a poor choice for DVR - particularly if Live TV or watching ‘unprocessed’ DVR recordings is the goal. Rokus don’t deal with MPEG-2 Video Streams so ALL of those will need to be converted by something (Handbrake/MCEBuddy/etc) or transcoded via Plex’s Goofy Transcoder.
FireTV will deal with MPEG-2, but the Plex App is a disaster movie and there is absolutely no happy ending in sight.
Everyone (but me) loves Shield, but reading through that forum reveals much pain and suffering there as well.
For well over a decade (nearing 2) I’ve been using MCEBuddy to automatically convert DVR material (for Direct Play), cut commercials, rename, match and place material into the Plexiverse and a Plex-DVR solution will NOT make that wheel any rounder. MCEBuddy will continue to serve well into the future:
Once material has been converted for Direct Play anything can deal with it so one device is just as good as another and at this time Roku is my go-to device. I have no plans to start watching Live Advertising so that isn’t a problem.
I have a strong Plex Server so wading through DVR conversions via MCEBuddy in a timely fashion isn’t a problem, but if you’re going to rely on Plex to do all your transcoding (good luck with that) a strong server is still a requirement. DVR material via a Roku will require much transcoder/encoder work - one way or another.
Plex-DVR is still a work in progress. You should know that before you dive in, because when/if you do you are absolutely joining the ranks of the Beta-Testers and by all indications there is still much work to be done and the speed at which it’s progressing could be described as ‘Glacial’.
I am using the HDHR Extend, so the resulting recording should be H.264 MP4. That should be good for the Roku, right?
I have no idea if ALL of that material being created by your capture device will be H.264. The device I’m using turns out MPEG-2 streams - 100%. MPEG-2 streams are great for editing/quality and such and at this time I actually prefer them.
Watch and Delete is handled by MCEBuddy, but if I want to add something permanently to the library I use VideoReDo TV Suite 5 for frame accurate editing of the MPEG-2 stream - and that is something you can NOT do with H.264.
I am not too concerned with perfection on tv recordings . We mostly watch and delete. I really do want to use the cut commercials feature on Plex.
That’s the same Comskip that MCEBuddy uses. Comskip is Comskip. It’s not perfect, but usually close enough.
How it works with H.264 I don’t know.
@JuiceWSA said:
That’s the same Comskip that MCEBuddy uses. Comskip is Comskip. It’s not perfect, but usually close enough.How it works with H.264 I don’t know.
Maybe some else will chime in on their experiences on H.264 and comskip
Well… you can’t do frame accurate editing with H.264 - it’s just the nature of the beast.
Comskip is a handy hand-grenade approach to the removal of advertising, but it can’t be described as frame accurate either - so it probably doesn’t make that much difference… H.264/MPEG-2 - same, same. Close is probably good enough.
It’s kinda like watch repair with a sledge hammer.
No matter what you do, in the end, it might still be ticking, but probably won’t keep very accurate time.
B)
I have both AppleTV and ROKU, both current versions. The Plex app on the AppleTV is “more advanced” and allows recording of active show. I’ve asked when that was coming to ROKU but receivedno response from the PLEX-verse.
The current release of PMS is riddled with problems with regard to liveTV, the guide, and missed recordings. Hopefully that will soon be resolved.
Face the fact that liveTV is recorded MPEG2 and must be delivered H.264 (except maybe on the Shield/FireTV). Plex allows an option to convert it in the background in storage or on the fly. I do it on the fly. Build your server with a HW accelerator and it helps in either case.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002178853-using-hardware-accelerated-streaming/
I use an old i7-4770 as my PMS and home built file share. A current i5 should be sufficient.
I have 2 of these cards for a total of 8 tuners to serve the house.
I’m slowly settling in on the ROKU as my device of choice. $100 for an Ultra vs $180+ for an Apple or Shield plus cheaper devices for lesser used bedrooms (I picked up a couple 3800 streaming sticks for $35 each when they were on sale). I hate the Apple remote and find the CiderTV remote on an android to be superior to the one provided by Apple. I got the Apple with the DTV free for 3 month promo.
For ROKU, the remote app for android devices is nice as well. It also provides a keyboard for those typing situations. I keep a cheapo tablet in each room for just that purpose (I used to use it for a DirecTV remote).
WARNING - liveTV and DVR is still a baby sitting job at times with Plex and I’ll bet other semi-free solutions. It’s the price you pay for now IMO. I used nextPVR for awhile to feed Plex for playback and it was much more stable/reliable for DVR (and had a grid guide) but no liveTV.
PS - this might help on your transcoding Q and device feature Q
https://support.plex.tv/articles/226074728-setting-up-recordings/
@Smokindog said:
I have both AppleTV and ROKU, both current versions. The Plex app on the AppleTV is “more advanced” and allows recording of active show. I’ve asked when that was coming to ROKU but received no response from the PLEX-verse.
Well, that sort of bites. I guess I was not thorough enough in my research. What good is an Live TV/DVR app that does not allow you to set a recording? In my case the only two platforms I was considering is Android TV and Roku. Admittedly, the bulk of the videos I saw on the Plex DVR were with the Nvidia Shield and Android TV. I assumed Roku being the dominant streaming player that its app would be at least as developed. You know about ASS-U- ME…
@Smokindog said:
The current release of PMS is riddled with problems with regard to liveTV, the guide, and missed recordings. Hopefully that will soon be resolved.
I have a rather unforgiving wife when it comes to TV and technology. It is supposed to “JUST WORK”. Anything short of that isn’t pleasant for me. Work any differently at your home?
@Smokindog said:
Face the fact that liveTV is recorded MPEG2 and must be delivered H.264 (except maybe on the Shield/FireTV). Plex allows an option to convert it in the background in storage or on the fly. I do it on the fly. Build your server with a HW accelerator and it helps in either case.
Actually this is why I chose the HDHR Extend as it transcodes the MPEG2 to H.264 as it is sent through my network to the hard drive. Does this solve this part of it? Or have I missed something else?
@Smokindog said:
I’m slowly settling in on the ROKU as my device of choice.
For ROKU, the remote app for android devices is nice as well. It also provides a keyboard for those typing situations. I keep a cheapo tablet in each room for just that purpose (I used to use it for a DirecTV remote).
I prefer the appearance of the Android TV interface of Android streamers, but many of these do not have TV volume and On/Off controls. I don’t like having to pick up a different remote for these functions. Roku has finally added these functions on many of their latest players. I like that Roku is sort of app-agnostic. I don’t see the infighting between companies as I do with Google and Amazon. Roku also does not push any particular content over another. My only wish for Roku would be the VOX being more expansive like Android TV.
I agree with you about the Roku Ultra. That will likely be on my main TV.
