Server Version#: 1.14.1.5490 (nVidia Shield) and/or 1.15.4.993-bb4a2cb6c (Windows 10)
Player Version#: 3.94.1 (LG TV WebOS)
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV DualHD
I saw an old post (DVR playback on LG TV (WebOS 4.10.15)) but it didn’t seem to have a resolution. I’m getting the same thing as this old post…but this is a 2018 LG TV. Show’s that I’ve recorded via Plex Live TV play fine on other Plex players I have (phone, nVidia Shield, Windows 10) but do not play correctly on the LG TV. The first 5 seconds or so play fine but then the video speeds up and the audio is choppy. Turning off direct play fixes the issue with these files.
Steps to reproduce:
Install Plex on nVidia Shield (7.2.3) or Install Plex on Windows 10
Plug in Hauppauge WinTV DualHD TV tuner (default driver on the Shield or driver 5.2018.1002.36278 on Windows 10)
Set up DVR for OTA antenna in USA
Record a program
Play back the recorded program with default settings (via direct play) on LG TV Plex app
This bug is reproducible using two different OSes so it’s not limited to a specific device. Playback issues only occur for me on the LG TV. They work fine on every other client I’ve tried…Android/Android TV, Windows 10 (web and app).
The issue isn’t every recorded program (some play back fine), but is consistent. For example, every episode of Jeopardy plays back fine. Entertainment tonight always plays back fast/skips…every single day/new episode.
I can’t figure out the common denominator, but more 720p shows work fine and more 1080i shows do not work ok…but I’ve had some 720p shows which did not work. MPEG2VIDEO is unwatchable…but a show converted automatically while recorded to H.264 also has issues.
I’m not aware of any resolution. There was a request from Plex in that thread for my logs, which I provided, but they didn’t follow up.
I tried buying the third party player XPlay for LG, but it does the same thing. Interestingly turning off direct play doesn’t fix it, and the developer didn’t reply to my e-mail—so there is $10 wasted.
I have the exact same thing happening. Seen it mostly with DVR’d 1080i recordings while direct playing. I too have to turn off direct play in order for it to play normally. Only happens on LG TV, plays fine on PMP & android mobile.
After a little more digging, it only happens to me with 1080i recordings as well when using direct play. 720p recording seem to work ok. That being said, I still get buffering/play stopping/crashing issues with the LG plex app even with direct play turned off. No issues with any other PMP cliant…and the TV has a solid network connection.
The plot thickens a bit. I tried to “optimize” one of the videos I had recorded and the optimized version (now a MP4) plays back choppy on all plex players. The exact same choppy…if that makes sense.
The original still plays fine on my Shield PMP but I actually found it to play choppy on my windows PMP, but ok on my android phone.
All to say, it almost looks like it may be an issue with the server and the actual file that is recorded. Otherwise a trans-coded file wouldn’t have issues. Seems like whatever error it’s introducing is probably related to muxing the file somehow that doesn’t get uncovered in some players?
@eelton and @pbenzschawel. Could you both post your server info (version/platform)
I’m running latest PMS on Ubuntu Server 18.04.2 (64 bit). I played the same 1080i file on the LG TV via DLNA and had the same problem. audio/video severely out of sync, video playing fast etc…
I’m not sure. I lost the video yesterday because I re-installed Plex Server on my nVidia Shield due to instability. I recorded The Masters (4 hours long) the other day and the recording seemed to hang. i.e. it didn’t release the tuner and showed that it was still recording 5 hours after it should have been over. I restarted the Shield to see if that would release the tuner and fix the issue and then Plex showed the “this is your first time running plex intro”. I continued to do so every time I restarted the Shield and the only way I could get it to stop was to erase all app data and start from scratch.
I’ll try to re-record a similar video and test it out again when I have a chance.
One more strange thing. Another recording I made from OTA TV shows up in plex as 1080p. Not sure why it would ever do that since that’s not a thing. That show plays choppy/fast like the other 1080i ones.
I tired another 1080i trans code, and the “optimize” for TV has failed three times. The first time my nVIdia shield locked up and I had to power cycle. The next two times it just listed the transcode as failed.
One more data point…seems strange…when playing live TV via a plex server on windows on the LG TV plex app, it shows all channels as trans-coding the video and direct streaming the audio…even though the codec is the same as when using nVidia Shield as the server (MPEG2VIDEO). Hang on…a third bug…on the LG TV app, if you bring up the video info when it is playing…it says “can direct stream audio: false”
@markus101 The optimized copy is 1080p. After more testing, the optimized copy transcodes fine with hardware transcoding turned off. Seems to have significant issues with hardware transcoding turned on. The optimized copy also plays back great via direct play on the LG TV.
These are basic functionality bugs that need to be fixed. I shouldn’t need to tinker with a bunch of settings to make it work reliably.
@markus101, one more thing, the original .ts file that PMS creates from DVRing a 1080i show also shows the exact same behavior when played back on the LG TV via DLNA and when copied to a USB drive and plugged into the TV. So, it appears that the LG TV doesn’t play nice with something about the .ts file. So, at the very least, the LG plex app needs to recognize that the file plex creates is not capable with direct play on the device.
After looking at it more, it’s not just 1080i. I also recorded a show today where it was 720p that showed the same playback behavior of playing way to fast and audio out of sync with direct play. Anyone else seeing this?
Update: LG says it’s a problem with my TV. They are replacing the motherboard under warranty. I don’t think it’ll fix it…especially since I’m not the only one with this issue…but we’ll see. I’ll post an update when it’s replaced.
