No matter what I do to the HD Homerun EXTEND (with the help of SiliconDust) I cannot get Plex to utilize any of the hardware transcoding. As a result, 100% of the files saved to the DVR are in native resolution, but lossy due to H264 conversion and with no reduction in file size (1080p hour is ~9gb). Likely on a similar note, streaming to my phone works for 5-10 seconds at a time, but this is only true on the HD Homerun EXTEND and not on the CONNECT that I was using previously. SiliconDust has worked with me extensively on this issue and after discovery that no matter what I tell plex to do the recorded files indicate conversion with ffmpeg they have decided that the issue is with the plex software. I have attempted to force the HD Homerun EXTEND to only broadcast H264 streams (even of lower quality), but SiliconDust informed me that plex ignores these settings. No matter what settings I choose in plex I get the same poor live TV streaming performance and horrendous DVR experience. It doesnt help that the plex software makes it unreasonably difficult to delete recorded files, but it is extra frustrating when these files are enormous despite my willingness to replace a functioning Homerun CONNECT with a Homerun EXTEND.
It appears there are multiple issues reported here using the HD Homerun EXTEND. Could someone from plex please address these, or at the very least respond to more of the threads about these issues.
Some of my testing with Live TV and a HDHR Extend have had some different results. I have been testing with my iPhone 7 Plus as the client. Using my Windows 10 Desktop as the Plex Media Server I have found that I can use the setting of High Quality (30fps limit) or what the Extend calls their Mobile Profile to stream Live TV. On my MacBook Pro I have found that if using a wired connection I can use the same High Quality setting with some buffering every few minutes or I can switch to Medium Quality (540p) with no buffering during streaming. If using a wireless connection on the MBP I must set the transcoder setting to Medium Quality (480p) or lower in order to stream Live TV to my iPhone 7 Plus. Here is a screenshot showing the streaming of Live TV and the tuner status from the Extend.
Edit: Adding screenshot of the Extend Transcode settings showing it is set to none so Plex is setting the transcode during Live TV streaming using the Extend.
SiliconDust informed me that plex ignores these settings (although I tested it just to make sure). They tell me that the relevant settings to choose are within the Plex app
No matter what settings I put on the HD Homerun settings from the screenshots you show or from the plex app in the screenshot I show, the plex performs the same. I set a daily recording of PBS news hour to test my recordings from the HD Homerun CONNECT vs the EXTEND during my transition and while altering all the settings. The only thing that has changed is MPEG2 vs H264, however, SiliconDust informs me that this H264 conversion is not from their hardware as the inspection of the TS file indicates it was converted using ffmpeg, which they said is the fault of plex. When I set the setting all the way down to 240p every recording is still in broadcast resolution (1080p or 720p) and still converted to H264 using ffmpeg, still the same file size, etc.
The native HD Homerun apps (Windows 10, android and xbox one) all utilize the hardware H264 conversion of the EXTEND, they all abide by my quality settings when I alter them. This was all verified by my network bandwidth usage and further verified by comparing these numbers to the CONNECT.
Even more odd, is I could stream live TV to my phone over 4G LTE (and easily over wifi) much better using the CONNECT than the EXTEND. Between this and my HUGE file sizes, I’m provided no benefit to the EXTEND (with regards to plex), just a more expensive product with inherent quality loss in a lossy conversion to H264. The live TV streaming on the extend gives me 5-10 seconds of hope at a time, and then buffers (as reported by many on the forum)
Here is what I am experiencing. I have two HDHomeRun EXTEND installed in my environment. They both have the latest firmware (Firmware: 20170930). Both set to Plex recommended “Highest Quality” transcoder quality setting. Resulting to the following recordings information (I looked for broadcasted shows of various resolution and length) :
I ran a quick test where I changed the transcoder quality of one of my HDHomeRun Extend to “Medium Quality (540p)” which resulted in the lower resolution as expected:
Thanks @leguelp . I was on the same HDHomerun EXTEND firmware. I installed the latest plex and my first attempted recording was similar to yours. I am happy that this is now half the file size! I’ll test the next one at a lower quality, I imagine it will work since the filesize is already halved.
I wonder why the SiliconDust people were telling me that ffmpeg as the publisher is not their hardware transcoding? My PR2100 does make massive amounts of noise while recording and it seems like it shouldnt need to if the HDHomerun EXTEND is doing the work.
@johndavies24 SD is partly correct in that Plex does use ffmpeg from what I understand as part of the process to remux the individual 1 second recordings it creates in the transcode folder into a single ts file. The internal video coming from the Extend should still be h264 or mpeg4 though, just wrapped in a ts container. As shown in my prior screenshots and confirmed by @leguelp Plex does send the transcode setting to the Extend when it requests a recording or Live TV session. Here is a log entry from my Extend starting a recording, notice the ?transcode=mobile included at the end of the URL for the recording. That is how Plex is sending the request to the Extend to use a specific transcoding profile.
@johnm_ColaSC Thanks! That makes complete sense. So the process of H264 conversion is lossy and the process of recording is lossy? The CONNECT live video (regardless of app choice) and recorded video are noticeably better than the EXTEND and I am no videophile.
For the sake of this question, thank you both for answering. I will look into the other threads about the 5-10s of live streaming and then buffering when it comes to the EXTEND. It doesnt make any sense that my CONNECT would stream better. But this too might have been fixed by updating PMS. I’ll check today when I am out and about.
The 520p recording worked great and was an incredibly reduced filesize, ~870mb for the hour.
Setting recordings to 520p restricted live TV to the same resolution, as you suggested it would. At 520p I could stream live TV over 4G LTE. However, switching to the settings above that did not stream well. At high res 30fps (what SiliconDust calls mobile), it does not work at any reasonable level over 4G LTE and it still lagged over WiFi on the same network as all my hardware. Moreover, my WD PR2100 made zero noises at all when recording or streaming 520p, but again maxes out the fan at even “high res” 30fps. None of this was true with my CONNECT when I kept everything at native streaming. There were times that I could not stream well on my cell phone but there was much better quality and much more consistent streaming with the CONNECT even over mobile internet. Also, why would the plex require so much of its own hardware power to result in max fan noise if the EXTEND is supposed to be doing the work? The EXTEND compressing to 520p keeps the plex server making no noise, streaming high quality video files housed on the plex results in the server making no noises… so why does it tweak out and is unable to stream the H264 at 30fps (both 1080 and 720)? Something just seems odd that the poor performance seems much more EXTEND dependent than bandwidth dependent.
You have a lot of statements in there and not clear on what you were testing in each statement. Are you streaming to the same device in all the statements you made or were you using different devices that might have different specs for what the device can handle direct playing? If a device can direct play a stream then Plex does not have to do any transcoding of the stream. If the device can’t handle the stream directly Plex must transcode. Setting the Extend at 540P probably was the setting needed for your device to Direct Play, higher settings were causing Plex to have to transcode. The WD PR2100 is probably maxed out trying to transcode a HD stream which is why the fan as you said is maxed out. The PR2100 has a Pentium N3710 with a passmark score of 1886, from what I recall a passmark of 2000 is the standard for transcoding a single stream.
All of my devices that I am referring to support H264 and MPEG2 at such resolutions and frame rates. The only device tested outside of the local network is an LG G6, OS and apps up to date. The LG G6 has also been used to test in every condition mentioned (other than DVR as that is handled by the WD PR2100).
WD PR2100 server running PMS:
There is no fan noise when streaming to any device when I play my video files that are stored on the server.
Video files of identical quality, codec and bitrate, including those recorded from my HDHomeRun devices, stream fine to all devices.
This is also true of devices that are not connected to the local network.
The WD PR2100 did not require the fan while I was using the HDHomeRun CONNECT (when I did not permit PMS to transcode) while streaming or recording to local network
The PR2100 turns on the fan whenever engaging with the HDHomeRun EXTEND when the transcode setting is on highest (as well as highest 30fps).
Setting the transcoder quality to “original quality” results in no fan noise while recording, however, this fails to stream to any device on the network without buffering.
This was not the case with my HDHomeRun CONNECT. Additionally, the HDHomeRun app on all the devices I am testing works fine with both the CONNECT and the EXTEND. This makes me feel like it is a problem with PMS and the EXTEND.
No live streams above 540p are seamless from the EXTEND via PMS.
However, it is true that the choppy nature of the stream gets worse as I increase the quality settings.
It is important to note that this is not true from the HDHomeRun apps on the devices I am using.
The live streams do not work at all to devices off of the local network (tested using 4G LTE and previously tested at over a friend’s wifi).
The 540p setting made everything work smoothly. But native format via the CONNECT worked on the local network smoothly, so all settings from the EXTEND should work smoothly. Additionally, the HDHomeRun apps work fine, so its not a direct play issue.
Of course it is possible that these issues are isolated to something unique about my setup. I still wouldnt fully understand why the CONNECT seemingly performs better than the EXTEND. For the time being I will have to leave it set to record at high quality and switch my apps to HDHomeRun for live TV. But it is unfortunate that I cannot have it record at high quality but live stream off network at 540p (even though it should be able to do better). Ideally, I would be able to use the plex app on all my devices for all of these features and ideally it could dynamically stream off network so I get the best quality that actually works while out and about.
To be clear, I dont really care about the fan going on my PR2100, it just seems odd and possibly correlates with the difference in behavior between the CONNECT and EXTEND.
I’m also happy that the recordings are now much lower file sizes, even if I was dumb and needed to just update. And extra thanks to @johnm_ColaSC and @leguelp for taking the time to help and try to understand what I am saying.
