I just purchased an HDhomerun Connect and an QNAP TS253A so that I could watch live local channels through Plex and also be able to use the DVR function. Plex works wonderfully for my stored movie/video and music library. The CPU usage usually stays under 5% when playing. But when I watch live TV it stays at 97% or higher. Same goes for DVR recording. It doesn’t matter if I watch it through my Roku, my laptop, tablet or phone. I’ve spent almost $900 on everything and am very disappointed. I received the same results with transcoding turned on and off. Anyone have a solution or should I just take the HDhomerun back and not have local channels?
You would probably better off with an HDHomeRun Extend which encodes the streams on the fly instead of forcing the (underpowered) QNAP to do so…
or use a client that can Direct Play/Stream the Live TV video so no transcode is required. I use a Fire TV Stick and Shield TV as my primary clients and can direct Play or Direct Stream everything I am watching. Roku requires transcoding for any interlaced content, Web requires transcoding, phone will probably require transcoding depending on the device. Below is a screenshot of me streaming the same show on 5 different devices/platforms.
Top left - Firefox Web - Transcoding
Top Middle - Fire TV Stick - Direct Play
Top Right - Plex Media Player - Direct Play
Bottom Left - Shield TV - Direct Play
Bottom Middle - Roku Stick - Transcoding
Any time the Transcoder has to be used you will see CPU utilization increase.
Thanks for your suggestion. I read that somewhere as well. I also read that Plex will encode regardless because it does not recognize that HDHomeRun Extend is also encoding.
That depends on the client still and will also depend on the Transcoder setting for the Extend. If using a Roku you would need to use at least the High Quality setting as the Highest Quality while transcoding to h264 does not alter the frames so any interlaced content will require transcoding on the Plex Server as the Roku can not handle interlaced video.
I recently got a HDhomerun connect, testing it the other night, I found it does need a lot of CPU power to transcode, even on direct play clients. I tested with 4 streams running.
Yeah, at first I assumed it was the Roku, but then I tested it on my laptop, tablet, personal phone and work phone. No change. I may be better off returning the hdhomerun and do without recording live tv. No biggie. It would have been nice to be able to everything in Plex, but I rarely watch local channels. It’s more for guests.
I have both the extend and the connect. When playing to a client that can direct play neither use more than 5% cpu.
