I finally made the jump and purchased a network TV tuner. I went with the HDHomeRun Extend so it would transcode directly since my Synology NAS can’t do the transcoding. Live TV doesn’t work on on the web app, Apple TV 4, or Android phone with Oreo 8.0. The only device that works with Live TV is the Nexus Player with Oreo 8.0.
What settings are recommended to get the HDHR Extend to do the transcoding and to stop the Plex Server from doing the transcoding?
Where should the transcoding settings be set?
I can set the HDHR Extend using the url my.hdhomerun.com > Transcode Configuration > Default Transcode Profile
I can also set the Transcoding in the Plex DVR settings > Live TV & DVR > Transcoder Quality
My goal is to have the HDHR Extend do the transcoding so the size of the files is smaller and the plex server doesn’t do the transcoding. Live TV works fine using the HDHomeRun app on my android phone, on the Mac, and on the Apple TV (using InstaTV). It seems pretty clear the issue isn’t the HDHR Extend, it is the Plex DVR/Live TV that isn’t working.
Thanks for the suggestion. I added the channel and it works with the web app for me but still won’t run live TV on my android phone or the Apple TV 4.
I bought the Plex Pass with the hope of being able to watch Live TV and DVR.
Have you looked into the clients and their settings capability?
like android phone I have one not Oreo yet but same support:
Any LiveTV this is what I get since it doesnt support MPEG2VIDEO -
So even though you may think you may not need to transcode since you have the Extend you might still need to transcode since your client doesn’t support what is being sent to it.
Thanks for the suggestion. I checked the settings on both the android phone and the Apple TV 4, but they seem to be set correctly to not push the server to transcode. I am able to stream any recorded shows and the movies I have on the server without any issues. It’s just the Live TV that won’t work.
It does not matter what you set that option to, If the client does not natively support one or all of the codecs from the “stream” it WILL transcode to something that the client does support.
Android phones do not support mpeg2 so it will transcode no matter what you set that field to.
ATV4 is the same, so it will also transcode
Your NAS may be too under-powered to perform the transcode that is needed.
@awalkerz based on the 2 support pages listing supported specs below the DS414 looks like a very limited NAS. Basically no transcoding so it is not supported for live TV . the limitations for live TV is your server must be able to transcode.
*Live TV requires the ability to transcode the content, so you need to ensure you run Plex Media Server on a device capable of transcoding. (Some NAS devices may not be able to transcode.)
Thank you all for your replies.
I realized my NAS was too weak for transcoding so I went with the HDHR Extend. From my understanding, the Extend does the transcoding so the server doesn’t need to. If the Plex Live TV/DVR were using the Extend to do the transcoding, the NAS wouldn’t have to do anything with the format. The Plex server doesn’t seem to using the transcoding of the Extend correctly.
Am I wrong about how the Extend should work with the Plex server? I had hoped to have the recorded shows saved in H.264 format, ready to stream to any device.
I have tried setting the transcoding on the Plex but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. @BRBMan I can record a show and then play it to the web app and the android phone, so it seems that the recording is saving the video to the correct H.264 format. My server wouldn’t be able to transcode directly from an MPEG2 format. So if recorded shows work, why won’t live TV?
I have the Extend set in the Plex TV/DVR settings to High Quality (30fps) and this is what it shows on the web app when streaming.
I just can’t figure out what settings to use for the transcoder on Plex and/or the HDHR Extend directly.
@awalkerz I do know EVERYTHING starts a transcoder session when watching live tv. I can recreate it now. i have a Shield which can natively play the live tv stream and even it initiates a plex transcoding session (although not lots of CPU usage), Web browser even worse CPU usage, ROKU, and yes I have both the extend and the connect. Shield shows direct play and there will still be a transcode session. I cant answer your question about playback as I don’t know your system setup, I was simply pointing you to the stated limitation and requirements for live tv as listed by Plex.
@awalkerz The first thing I would do is change your transcoding profile as you are getting AC3 audio. Regardless of the said limitation even if the extend “should” get you past it the device is clearly trying to transcode because it is receiving AC3. I know both the Heavy and Mobile profile of the extend transcode to AC3 so even if the extend is doing the transcoding you still get AC3 which the server is having to transcode to AAC for your android mobile device because it cant play AC3. That device cant do AC3 or you haven’t told it in settings that it can. It is usually the first on mobile devices. The only way around would be to dumb down the quality of the Extends transode setting further. I would test at what setting you dont get ac3.
@BRBMan So I guess my next question is where the transcode setting should be set. I can set it directly on the HDHR Extend using the URL my.hdhomerun.com or I can set in the Plex DVR settings. I would think that setting one would update the other, but that’s not the case.
Do you think it lets the app that uses the tuner set the transcode setting? So the HDHR app could set it to one thing while the Plex DVR can have it set to something else?
OK. So I set the Transcode quality to the lowest in the Plex settings and it is clearly transcoding on the Extend now because the quality is terrible/fuzzy. It does play a little bit but it stalls a lot. The transcoder process is still running on the NAS even at this setting. I think like you said, the Live TV is requiring the transcoder to run on the NAS.
This feels like a bug to me still. It shouldn’t need that if the transcoding is being done by the Extend.
All, though the Extend takes a LOT of the stress off the Plex server depending on what transcode setting you have (In Plex server DVR area), H264 is just a format inside a container (livetv container = mpeg2ts).
Most android (all?) devices can’t understand the mpeg2ts container, so, must transcode to one it understands.
And yes, same with audio stream, ac-3 inside the mpeg2ts container. It will usually transcode to AAC.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a bug. It’s the way Live TV works…the Extend just makes it a compressed and usually more compatible format inside the TS (transport stream) container.
Which is why I have been saying on other threads that I think the settings should be on the Extend device itself.
If the Extend is set to transcode when Plex records it will receive a h264 format video file. When Plex plays Live TV the video will be formatted in h264 since the Extend is set on it’s settings to transcode. If any other software accesses the tuners they will receive a transcoded video file.
I just don’t have an extend to test with personally. Might have to buy one myself to play with configuring it though.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
Which is why I have been saying on other threads that I think the settings should be on the Extend device itself.
If the Extend is set to transcode when Plex records it will receive a h264 format video file. When Plex plays Live TV the video will be formatted in h264 since the Extend is set on it’s settings to transcode. If any other software accesses the tuners they will receive a transcoded video file.
I just don’t have an extend to test with personally. Might have to buy one myself to play with configuring it though.
I wish I could find a way to set the HDHR Extend so the Plex would just receive a h264 format. I tried messing with the 2 places I mentioned and it seems like the Plex setting overrides the HDHR setting in the Plex server.
@JamminR I’m hoping that the Plex team can find a solution for this still. Like I said before, Live TV works using other apps like the HDHomeRun app or InstaTV on the Apple TV.
@awalkerz - Plex apps depend on the server to do the transcoding - if the device the Plex client is running on can’t direct play whatever is being fed to it, it then tells server to transcode, hence your issue.
My bet is that your instaTV and AppleTV understand/can direct play the Mpeg2Video Transport stream container (that has the Extend’s transcoded H264 video format inside of it)
@JamminR I think that makes sense, It’s confusing still a bit to me.
My Nexus Player works like a champ. It plays the Live TV with no issues at all. I can even watch a show that is being recorded from the beginning (I didn’t think that was even supported yet) and skip commercials.
The Nexus Player doesn’t cause the Transcode Process to use more than 2-5% of the processor on my NAS. So it must support the TS format natively.
I can play movies I have on my Plex to all my devices, it’s just that TS format of Live TV that isn’t working on most devices.
@awalkerz - It’s sometimes still confusing to me to.
Simple things to remember for future though.
There are video containers (.ps, .ts, .mpg2ts, .mpg2ps, .mp4, .avi, to name but a few of many … )
Then inside those containers are contained a plethora of various video (and audio) formats ( h264, h265, avc, hvec, xvid …)
(Some containers can hold different formats)
LiveTV comes through in a container, and audio format, your Android device (apparently) doesn’t understand.
It likely understands the video format (h264 compliments from the HDHRExtend), just not the other two which must be converted.
When you think of all the above, I’m glad we have Plex to try to sort it all out for us and not matter.
Unfortunately it takes some CPU power for the sorting of non-compatible devices.
I followed nokdim’s suggestion to see what the devices are doing on the web app when watching live TV
Nexus Player: Direct Play
Android phone: Video: Transcoding H264 to H264, Audio: Transcoding AC3 to AAC
I have a really high bitrate rip H264 version of a movie that plays fine on Plex on my phone. For Video it shows Direct Play and audio is Transcoding AC3 to AAC.
It must be the TS container that is causing my devices to think they need to transcode the video, which my poor NAS can’t handle.
