DVR does not wake up PC for recordings

[madbrain]

So, I upgraded to lifetime PlexPass last week, and setup one of my HTPCs running Windows 10 with the Hauppauge WinTV quad HD.

Surprise - the HTPC did not wake up record the new NCIS and NCIS: Hawaii episodes yesterday.

Did some searches, and apparently Plex Media Server does not support waking up the PC automatically for recording. How can this be when we have a climate crisis !

My HTPC is a powerful, and consumes about 100W idle. That means if I ran it 24/7, it would consume 876 kWh a year. The marginal cost of electricity I pay is 27 cents/kWh in high tiers.
That’s $236 of worth of electricity per year, twice what the lifetime PlexPass costs ! In reality, it records and gets used for playback only a couple hours a day. So 90% of the electricity cost is wasted by Plex Media Server.

I’m mightily surprised and upset about this missing feature.

One, because I had to download NCIS from torrents.

Two, because I had to spend time reverting to NextPVR software, which is free (but does require a $24/year SchedulesDirect subscription…) and has supported wake-up for recording events for years.

Unfortunately, the NextPVR Android client (which is not free, and which I also bought and is just $6.99 lifetime) does not support subtitles, and it is fairly bare compared to Plex.

Could you please fix the server software to properly support wake up events for recordings ?

In the meantime, is there any workaround I could use ?

For example, do the recordings with NextPVR server, and then have Plex Media Server running on the same system scan the recordings and them to its video library, so that I could use the Plex client ? And if so, is there any chance that Plex would figure out the program names ? Would subtitles work ? What about commercial skip ?

[pshanew]

@madbrain

For example, do the recordings with NextPVR server, and then have Plex Media Server running on the same system scan the recordings and them to its video library, so that I could use the Plex client ?

I do this on one of my Plex servers to work around a different limitation (its inability to schedule recordings for programs not yet in the guide). It works very well.

@madbrain

And if so, is there any chance that Plex would figure out the program names ? Would subtitles work ? What about commercial skip ?

In my case, Plex is able to match both series and movies correctly. It detects the embedded closed captions and can play them fine. And I’ve got the libraries to which these items are added configured to detect ads and mark for skipping; it works fine.

Here are the recording settings I use in NextPVR so that the file names it creates are compatible with Plex:

[madbrain]

@pshanew

I do this on one of my Plex servers to work around a different limitation (its inability to schedule recordings for programs not yet in the guide). It works very well.

Great to see I’m not in uncharted territory.

How often does this problem happen ? Are you saying the Schedules Direct guide is more up to date than the Plex Pass program guide ?

@madbrain

In my case, Plex is able to match both series and movies correctly. It detects the embedded closed captions and can play them fine. And I’ve got the libraries to which these items are added configured to detect ads and mark for skipping; it works fine.

Great to hear !

Here are the recording settings I use in NextPVR so that the file names it creates are compatible with Plex:

Thank you very much, going to change this now !

[pshanew]

@madbrain

How often does this problem happen ? Are you saying the Schedules Direct guide is more up to date than the Plex Pass program guide ?

No, I’m referring to the case where a program doesn’t appear in the guide at all. This could be because it’s off-season or new and just isn’t in the guide currently. In the Plex DVR, you need to remember when it’s going to air and then schedule it once it appears in the guide. In NextPVR, you can set up a keyword schedule to record it.

For example, the new NBC series La Brea was announced months ago. However, since it wasn’t in the two weeks of guide data available in Plex (and most other guides, as far as I know), there was no way to schedule a recording for it. With keyword scheduling that’s not an issue.

[madbrain]

Ah, thanks, that makes sense !

I have never used keyword scheduling before. Maybe I should look into it.

I tried for the last hour, and couldn’t figure out how to make commercial skip work in Plex for existing recordings from NextPVR.

I followed the instructions at

Removing Commercials | Plex Support

under
Using Commercial Detection on Regular TV Libraries

But I just couldn’t get the “skip ads” button to show up in any Plex client (I tried Android and web). Not sure what I’m doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated. I have rescanned the library, deleted the program from the Plex library, re-added it, rescanned. To no avail, can’t get “Skip ads” to show up in Plex client.

What settings are you using in your Plex DVR device, and TV library, that might explain why you got it working and I didn’t ?

Are you running Comskip in NextPVR also ? I had that enabled too. Should I disable it, if I no longer intend to use the NextPVR client ? Are the existing EDL files perhaps what’s confusing Plex ?

On a separate note, I really wish I didn’t have to create a DVR device in Plex for this. Seems NextPVR and PlexDVR might step on each other’s toes when accessing the tuner device.
That’s a recipe for problems. And it’s not possible to create a Plex DVR without a device associated. Why not, if the purpose is just to get Plex to download the program guide over IP ? I may never use the OTA EPG guide.

Of course, to go back to the original topic, Plex Media Server really should wake up the machine for recordings, so none of these tedious workarounds would be needed.

[pshanew]

@madbrain

What settings are you using in your Plex DVR device, and TV library, that might explain why you got it working and I didn’t ?

For the library for my DVR recordings, I have ad detection enabled for all items:

And my DVR default is to detect and mark for skip:

Once everything is configured correctly, you may need to trigger an analysis to force the detection to take place (for already existing items). You can do this at the show, season, or episode levels (probably the library level as well, but I’ve not tested that). For example, to analyze an entire show:

You can check to see if ad detection is running by looking for Plex Commercial Skipper.exe in Task Manager. This process can take a bit of time, depending on the system. You can tell if ad detection has been performed for an item by looking at its XML info. If so, there will be commercial markers:

@madbrain

Are you running Comskip in NextPVR also ?

Nope.

[madbrain]

@pshanew

For the library for my DVR recordings, I have ad detection enabled for all items:

Yes, I have this set.

And my DVR default is to detect and mark for skip:

I have this set as well.

Once everything is configured correctly, you may need to trigger an analysis to force the detection to take place (for already existing items). You can do this at the show, season, or episode levels (probably the library level as well, but I’ve not tested that). For example, to analyze an entire show:

You can check to see if ad detection is running by looking for Plex Commercial Skipper.exe in Task Manager. This process can take a bit of time, depending on the system. You can tell if ad detection has been performed for an item by looking at its XML info. If so, there will be commercial markers:

I have tried the forced analysis. Unfortunately, it doesn’t run “Plex Commercial Skipper.exe” in task manager. It runs “Plex transcoder.exe” briefly. I have no idea why the transcoder ran, or where its output went.

I have looked at the XML file from a recording I just did in NextPVR. There is no trace of the commercial markers. Based on the timestamps, none of the files produced by NextPVR have been touched by Plex DVR after they were added to the Plex library.

When I used Plex DVR to record, commercial skip was working fine. The problem is only for separately recorded files from NextPVR …

Edit:

OTA files recorded directly by Plex DVR don’t have any corresponding XML file, just the .TS files. Yet the commercial skip feature works with them. So, Plex must be storing that information somewhere else in the library.

[madbrain]

@pshanew

Nope.

Do you have multiple folders in your library, or just one ? Not sure if it makes any difference as far as this problem is concerned, but it might help me narrow it down if there is a bug in Plex, as there appears to be.

[pshanew]

@madbrain

I have looked at the XML file from a recording I just did in NextPVR.

@madbrain

Based on the timestamps, none of the files produced by NextPVR have been touched by Plex DVR after they were added to the Plex library.

Plex doesn’t modify the recorded files or create new XML files. The XML info I’m referring to is pulled from the Plex database. The document I linked describes this, but if you “Get Info” for an item and then select “View XML” from the bottom-left of the dialog which opens, you can see its XML info (sorry for the repeated links, they’re created automatically by the forum). The XML file from your screenshot is the one created by NextPVR; Plex doesn’t utilize it in any way.

You may want try the Plex Dance on an item recorded with NextPVR to see if that triggers the detection (when it’s added back). If not, try a manual analysis afterward. I’ve not got anything particularly special going on on my system; but, for what it’s worth, it is a Linux-based server. It should behave identically on Windows however.

@madbrain

Do you have multiple folders in your library, or just one ?

My DVR library on this server currently has only one top-level directory. However, when I initially set it up, I had two directories (one for my Plex DVR stuff, and one for the thing recorded by NextPVR. It worked fine either way. I’ve tested beyond two directories, but have no reason to believe it would cause any issues.

[madbrain]

@pshanew

Plex doesn’t modify the recorded files or create new XML files. The XML info I’m referring to is pulled from the Plex database. The document I linked describes this, but if you “Get Info” for an item and then select “View XML” from the bottom-left of the dialog which opens, you can see its XML info (sorry for the repeated links, they’re created automatically by the forum). The XML file from your screenshot is the one created by NextPVR; Plex doesn’t utilize it in any way.

Thanks. Sorry I should have read the link . The XML info doesn’t show any markers at all on the files imported from NextPVR into the Plex library.

You may want try the Plex Dance on an item recorded with NextPVR to see if that triggers the detection (when it’s added back). If not, try a manual analysis afterward. I’ve not got anything particularly special going on on my system; but, for what it’s worth, it is a Linux-based server. It should behave identically on Windows however.

Now I have to google what the Plex Dance is.
I have been writing software for 3 decades. Linux vs Windows is a pretty big difference. Could easily be a bug snuck into one and not the other.

I have a Linux Plex Media Server as well on my NAS, but the OTA antenna doesn’t go to my home office, and the Hauppauge PCIe tuner card is in the Windows HTPC in my home theater.

My DVR library on this server currently has only one top-level directory. However, when I initially set it up, I had two directories (one for my Plex DVR stuff, and one for the thing recorded by NextPVR. It worked fine either way. I’ve tested beyond two directories, but have no reason to believe it would cause any issues.

You are right, I have ruled the 2 folders being the cause of the problem.
I just did an experiment : I deleted the library on my Plex server.

The library contained a bunch of Seinfeld episodes that were recorded with Plex DVR, and which were doing commercial skip just fine; and a couple of recordings I made with NextPVR, which were not working with commercial skip.

I re-created the Plex library, pointing it at the exact same same files, and now the commercial skip for those same Seinfeld episodes isn’t working. No markers of any kind. Same problem for the recordings from NextPVR. Plex definitely didn’t run the commercial skip processing any of the video files.

I’m really not sure what to do at this point. Commercial skip processing only appears to be triggered for Plex DVR recordings, not for anything else, despite the correct settings. It’s really maddening. 100% a bug …

[madbrain]

For those looking for the answer, the commercial processing runs in the scheduled task, which is normally only once every 24 hours. I was recording local channel news programs, which become obsolete in just a few hours. I need the commercial processing to run during the recording ideally, or immediately afterwards. Not up to 24 hours later.