Guide Works on iOS Devices but not Roku Ultra or Firestick

Live TV & DVR
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Server Version#: 4.87.2
Player Version#: ?? New 4k Firestick and 4k Roku Ultra
Tuner Make/Model: HDHomeRun FLEX DUO
Guide/Lineup name: Local Broadcast Listings
Using XMLTV?: No idea what this means
Channel number/Name: all

I have been using the HDHomeRun FLEX DUO now for two months and at no point has the EPG under the Guide tab been working on my 4k Roku Ultra. Instead I get this error message when I click on the “Guide” option in Live TV and DVR

There was an error loading the Guide…please try again later”.

I’ve been ‘trying again later’ for two months now and its never worked.

I deleted the DVR and re-installed it with the same result. I had originally tested using the HAUPPAUGE 1682 WinTV-quadHD tuner in September. It was worse, had the same problem and many more. For clarity, I am able to set up recordings on the server and I am able to get them to record and save as would be expected and played back on all my devices since September.

I recently bought the newest Amazon 4K Firestick during boxing week sales. I get the following similar message when trying to access the “Guide” tab on the Firestick:

“Error Loading Content”

Historically I hadn’t been able to get the EPG/Guide to show up on my iPad or iPhone but in testing for this post, it turns out they work just fine on my iOS devices - four of them. I can set recordings, see what’s airing/recording in real time on all my channels and start what’s currently airing/recoding via the Guide tabs on my iOS devices. So its clearly not a server or tuner issue.

I guess "I could’ erase the HDHomerun and try a fifth time (twice with the Hauppage and twice with the HD Homerun so far) instance and try again but I’m feeling it will be a waste of time. Given how hard it is to set up the recordings, I really don’t want to have to go through all that again unless there is something obvious I missed.

I’ve Googled and searched and tried everything I can to figure out what I did wrong that results in my EPG not working on either streaming device and can’t find anything. My best guess is that because I live in Canada I’m an outlier and their might be something different here. Haven’t found anyone in Canada using Plex as a DVR to compare notes with.

By point of comparison. I used the Tivo Series 3 and Bolts for decades before Tivo stopped supporting Canadians and they worked extremely well until each of those boxes died their natural deaths. Figured I’d finally move on since Tivo clearly doesn’t want Canadian customers any more. But, as I type this, perhaps my best bet is to see if I can find someone with an old used, working Bold with a lifetime subscription and buy that from them.

Would really love to use Plex’s DVR if it would consistently work though since I use Plex for everything else.

…Dale

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Tough to say without looking at the server logs.

You could try stopping the server and deleting the (usually 3) tv.plex.providers.epg.cloud* files, restart Plex and refresh the guide.

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THANK YOU!!!

I have no idea what those cloud files were but deleting them and restarting the server solved it immediately for the new Firestick. Not so much for my 4k Roku Ultra. I had log out of my Plex account on my Roku, exit the Plex account, start it again and and log back in (typing in those four characters again) and it now works just fine on my Roku for the first time in more than two months of trying!

Wow! Wonderful. Since you solved that, do you have any wisdom as to why my 4k Roku Ultra can’t efficiently play back the TS files generated by the Plex DVR. It’s a wired connection via a gigabit switch and Cat7 cables. It plays everything else just fine - large files and small of many codecs. The TS files are HUGE of course, but they are Mpeg2 which should be trivially easy for it to play back. Again, my iOS devices and the Firestick play them just like any other file, but they take forever to load and constantly crash when playing back on my Roku.

Thanks again!!!

…Dale

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Live TV & DVR is very reliant on the CPU power of your server, you haven’t mentioned what that is but it is probably being challenged.

For the ROKU, direct play is key. Not truly a factor but the ethernet on the device is only 100Mbit, it’s WiFi chip is actually faster.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/204275243-settings-plex-for-roku/

Allow MPEG2

Allows direct streaming of MPEG2 for live TV and DVR when using original video quality

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Thanks. I have tried all these:

  • wifi only instead of EThernet
  • direct play on
  • Mpeg2 playback is allowed

and none make the difference. I’ve futzed with the settings over and over for two months which is why it was such a shock just to see it work on the Firestick with zero effort.

I know its not the server. I just updated my server to a 12 core AMD Ryzen 9 3900x. And I know its not the server because the DVR content plays instantly and like butter on the Firestick and on my iOS devices. Its only on the 4k Roku Ultra (latest model) where it chokes. Surprises the heck out of me I bought the 3k Roku Ultra thinking it was their best codec processor but it jams up on this one. Could be that I have a funky Roku too.

But thanks for the ideas. You are confirming my existing thinking. I’ll retry all those now that I deleted the .cloud files and got the guide working for the first time.

Really appreciate your time and thoughts!

…Dale

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