Server Version#: 1.41.7.* (latest stable
Player Version#: roku
Tuner Make/Model: silicondust HDHomeRun FLEX 4K
Guide/Lineup name:
Using XMLTV?:
Channel number/Name: All
I’m unable to successfully dvr tv shows.
the servers specs are as follows:
win11 enterprise LTSC IoT
i9-9900
32gigs ram
this was a problem in the past as well.
whenever I’ve tried to dvr a tv show, the server only records the first minute or so of the show, then it cuts out. the resulting file size is about ~300MB’s and it plays for roughly a minute.
this ‘box’ is a dedicated plex tv server. pms is THE ONLY software installed.
the SSD is a 1TB samsung 980pro nvme.
as i said, it’s always been this way. if i watch live tv, all is fine. only when i’m dvr’ing any shows does this occur.
I work at a small tv station and i’m patched into one of the rooftop antennas so the signal quality is as good as one can assume.
I’d include logs but I’m not sure which ones would be relevant, so if that’s what you need, please advise.
I was unaware of the epg mismatch part, and it makes sense. However (and you can tell me if i’m correct or not). the show I attempted to DVR the other night (for example), was an episode of NOVA (geeky stuff). The show started all normally as if i had been watching the previous show and it were transitioning into the episode of nova (like any show going from one to the next). I DO have plex take out the commercials, i dunno if that matters or not.
my point is, it all started normally as it should. your suggestion about the timings possibly being incorrect with the epg data would lead to a mismatch in starting the show, i would think. correct me if i’m wrong..
as for stable network connection, this is a DEDICATED plex tv box. with 32gigs of ram, a 1TB nvme, an i9-9900 cpu, and win11 enterprise ltsc IoT, and windows is completely gutted to make sure the resource usage is as low as possible.
signal comes from the roof via coax (of course) directly to the hd homerun. the plex server and hdhomerun are connected to a small 5 port netgear gig switch, so the connection is as simple as possible.
also, the box has a large ramdrive which plex uses for transcoding, so all in all it’s very efficient.
my only thing i’m wondering about at this point is if the signal integrity from the antenna to the hdhomerun is crappy, or if the hdhomerun is the culprit. i was trying to watch tv last night and it cut out on me, saying to check my signal.. so i may be answering my own question.
Matters a lot, especially on PBS stations. Chances are it mis-identified past the intro and deleted it.
“Destructive” Removal of Commercials
While we recommend using the non-destructive detection of (and option to skip) commercials, it’s also possible to have Plex Media Server alter the recorded video file to simply remove the detected commercials altogether. Because the detection of where commercials occur is not always perfect, we generally do not recommend choosing this method.
Commercial removal in this case is a “destructive” process. That is to say, whatever is detected as a commercial will be removed forever from the recording and if an incorrect detection is made, it is not possible to restore the deleted sections.
I figured as much, which is why the ramdrive is 24GB.
total ram in the box is 32gigs. plex doesn’t take much ram at all, especially with WinX enterprise LTSC IoT… further it with a couple of the better scripts to completely gut it and even the Win11 variant can get lean (relative to any microsoft OS… i’m able to get win11 24h2 down to ~70 processes).
I’ve wiped out all the dvr recordings and after changing my settings from automatically deleting commercials to marking them to skip and I’m trying it all again.
Have you experienced a situation where just starting a live show (not even recording, just turning on the news (for example), and 10-20 seconds, maybe a minute, it kicks back to the beginning of when you first turned to the station?
That happens a lot.. only time will tell if changing that setting will matter.
I set the ‘detect and delete commercials’ to disabled and it didn’t matter. despite the signal quality and strength being 95-98%, it still doesn’t work well.
using the hdhomerun app however, yields perfect results.
So all seems to point to plex’s dvr implementation. I know it’s not a resource issue, as the box is dedicated to plex tv. no movies, no tv series, just streaming OTA content. Only other app on it is tailscale so i can remote into it.
win11 Enterprise ltsc IoT, further gutted so it’s very lean and quick
i9-9900 cpu
32Gigs ram
1TB nvme SSD
i’m certain switching to linux won’t make any difference.
I had similar issues with my Plex setup. I finally fixed it by repairing my database. I used the utility “https://github.com/ChuckPa/DBRepair” to fix my Plex. I just used the automatic option and it worked like a charm. All my scheduled recordings after that completed successfully. Your issue may be different, but it “shouldn’t” hurt to run this.
