Not sure if I’m in the right place, forum layout is a bit different than I remember…
Anyhow, I’m about ready to kill PS Vue and move to Philo. But to do that, I need to fill in some local TV (and finally get PBS as well). I have a decent/modern attic antenna, but I am some distance away - TV has no issues with signal, hoping the HDHomerun is at least as sensitive.
That said, I see lots of complaints about watching live via the HDHR Extend here - Plex transcoding h264 to h264 and eating up all the CPU, and no end to fiddling with settings in the server and on the HDHR. Is the Extend even worth it? I’d say like 95% of my OTA TV viewing will be DVR. Will Plex pull the pre-encoded stream for DVR or does it transcode the MPEG-2 stream? Or does it pull the encoded stream and then re-encode or otherwise alter it (move from TS to another container)?
Primary client is a Roku TV, but also have a FireTV and ATV available.
Can Plex’s DVR record MPEG-2 from the Connect and then do some kind of post-processing step to convert to a more storage-friendly codec?
The Extend is $100 refurb, the Connect is $60. I’d probably rather pocket the extra money or put it towards an attic pre-amp if the Extend doesn’t buy me much.
Most infuriating is that locast.org is offering me all these streams 24/7 for free and Plex has no way to DVR a stream like that.
I would separate it like this:
If you have all Apple devices or devices that can’t direct play MPEG2 and/or your Plex server is of limited CPU strength then the Extend is the better choice.
If you have devices (Roku, PMP, Shield) that can direct play or a multi core CPU with Single Thread Rating 1500 or better then the connect is a better deal. Any 7xxx or later i3,15,17 will do this with ease. Added bonus, the iGPU on them can HW transcode with ease. Roku devices need OS9.x+ for mpeg2 support. My Roku Ultra deinterlaces , I would think TV’s with Roku built it would do it as well.
It can compress it by about 40% and leave it in a .ts container. You can create your own post processing script though I haven’t seen a lot of people doing this. Figure 6-9GB per hour without compression.
TV’s have better tuners with built in de-interlacing, noise filters, just can’t get around that. I play back on a Windows PMP using GPU’s deinterlacing.
I have a quattro and a connect just incase I get more than 4 concurrent recordings.
Cool, thanks for all that. My Roku TV got whatever the big update was a number of months ago. My NAS has an i3-4150, which I think is a bit weak (it doesn’t bog down during most transcodes unless it’s also doing something like generating the video thumbnails).
I can live with 6-9GB per hour. Sounds like the Extend is not really a big benefit for me.
Best use case is to DVR all programs and watch later, this uses very little CPU/DISK/RAM and I have never had an issue this way. Plays to the core strength of Plex.
It isn’t up to Window Media Center level but they are getting close. If you are a channel surfer there will be a 5-10 second delay on each channel tune because the server has to buffer some of the stream before sending to the client. Plex is working on this, I’ve seen versions that deinterlaced before sending to the client. Plex is world wide so it is hard to get reliable guide data for all locations, most US OTA locations are good. FF while recording on low end systems isn’t 100%. The Plex Pass will enable you to us QSV HW transcoding which will speed up thumbnails. Haswell processors, QSV works but doesn’t have any built in smoothing, noise blocking, etc. Roku and PMP don’t seem to have issues quality wise but with 1000’s of devices there are bound to be exceptions. Get as close to 100% on the signal and you shouldn’t have to worry about it.
OK, just a few more questions… Can someone with the full Plex Pass version of the server share a screenshot of what the config looks like for post-airing compression of the DVR recordings? I’d like to see what the options are and whatnot.
Also going to try to narrow this down further. It sounds like the Extend is just not all that great of an advantage for my use case (letting the recordings happen, letting Plex do the compression at its own pace after the recording, watching recordings hours or days in the future), so let’s rule out the Extend. I can get either a new “Connect” for $60 (new), the “Connect Duo” for $100 (new) or the “Connect Duo” refurb for $70. I’m not really grasping what the difference is between the “Connect” and the “Connect Duo” when flipping between both products in two browser tabs… Leaning towards the refurb Duo with the assumption that it’s a replacement for the Connect and hopefully a bit better?
I have an Extend and Plex on Linux using an old, slow computer. Being able to use the old, slow computer was my driver for the Extend. I’m very happy with my DVR experience. It is reliable and consistent. I have nothing to add on Extend vs Connect, others have lots of great feedback on use cases for each. That being said, I’ll add a couple of Roku specific items since you said you have a Roku TV. These aren’t stoppers for Roku, but fall into the category of things you need to know:
There is a FF/RW/Resume bug for Direct Play of .ts container files. If you get a device that doesn’t transcode broadcast TV, you will get files that are .ts container and .mpeg2 encoding. The Extend, when set to transcode, will give you .ts files and h.264 encoding. In either case, when direct play is used then FF/RW/resume don’t work. It looks like it is fast forwarding or rewinding, then it just resumes from where you previously were. If you stop watching and later try to resume, it will start from the beginning. I’ve replicated this on a Roku 3 and a recently purchased Roku TV. My experience is that this is specific to the .ts container, and the encoding type doesn’t matter. I can FF/RW with direct play of h.264 in .mp4 containers with no problem. Weirdly live TV will FF/RW without problems, so it’s something with the .ts container in files “recorded” to the filesystem. Do a search for fast forward/rewind issues and you will find a number of threads.
Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean Roku can’t be used. I direct stream to my Rokus instead of direct play. Direct stream still meets my need of low CPU use and doesn’t experience the FF/RW issue.
Regarding transcoding and constant playing with settings, I found the challenge is that there are quite a few factors that impact when Plex decides to transcode and it isn’t always clear why it decided to transcode. On Roku the key for me was in the Roku Plex client to set the video Local Quality setting to “Original”. Mine was transcoding because my stream rate was higher than the default setting, so Plex HAD to transcode to obey this Local Quality setting. I have the Direct Play setting on “Auto”, I allow Direct Stream, and I have mpeg2 allowed. Frankly I could turn off mpeg2 allowed and disable direct play for my needs. If you have get a Connect you will definitely want to turn on allowing mpeg2 in the Roku client app if you use a Roku.
My Connect Duo arrived today. Good news is that the signal is better than I thought, so probably won’t need to get a pre-amp unless I add a splitter for the TV. Also, this thing is way smaller than I thought…
I’m hung up on the upgrade to Plex Pass, and started a thread on that (bought it, but it’s not clear how to get my old data into my new PP install). Once that’s sorted, hopefully I can get DVR-ing.
Any apps you know of to watch live direct on the Roku? It seems like they have an app for every platform BUT the Roku…
The Roku Media Player app will play live TV directly from my HDHomeRun Extend on my newer Roku TV, though the same app on a Roku 3 that I have doesn’t work. My guess is that it would work with your Connect Duo. Open the Roku Media Player app, then select video, then select your Connect, then “Channels”. It isn’t the best interface experience, but it might work for you.
I run PMS on Ubuntu 18.04.1 Server. DVR works great with HDHomerun. Usually the commercials are edited out extremely well. Odd though if I actually try to watch live TV thru Plex it stutters and usually fails. (Incidentally also run Emby and I can watch live TV without issue on it.) The HDHomerun seems to have a better tuner than my TV’s. Gets more OTA channels than the TV’s and better quality. As far as the transcoding goes and CPU usage has not been an issue for me.
I haven’t tried live yet, but the DVR is working well. It transcodes on playback, and the i3 seems to just handle it with like 30% CPU left over, but it works. Still might add a post-processing script to save some space. Kind of weird that there isn’t just a built-in option to transcode after recording. Also wonder if I add a post-processing script if plex still goes in and makes the scrubbing previews after the file is processed?
Also cancelled PS Vue ($45/month) today and turned on Philo (no locals, but $20/month). HDHR pays for itself in 4 months.
