Server Version#: Most recent
Player Version#: Most recent
Tuner Make/Model: HD Homrun
Guide/Lineup name:
Using XMLTV?:
Channel number/Name:
Wanted to hear from users who use Live TV before I go that route. I am looking for pointers and general comments on how happy you are with your setup. I already have an aging different system up and running. I am contemplating getting an HD Homerun and using Live TV. I have a second antenna connected to a 75 inch LG TV. I pick up many clear stations. I have a Plex Pass.
I would have my second antenna connected to a, to be purchased, HD Homerun 4 tuner. My plex server is a decent, underused Synology NAS that has been running Plex for a few years. DSM 7 or greater. NAS has enough horsepower and storage for whatever. I mainly use my Plex server for storing and playing audio files. Again, I have a Plex Pass. I have no oddball parts, software or patches. I am using off the shelf streaming devices.
I have already read all the technical stuff on how to setup and use it. My questions: Can you watch Live TV away from your home network? (Reliably). Is the guide easy to use? Is it easy to skip commercials or use whatever product is available to skip commercials? Is it easy to setup recordings for a season? I am pulling stations that are 100 miles away. With certain turns of my antenna I can pick up station 48 miles north of here and 100 miles to the south at the same time. Can the guide give me multiple cities?
I apologize if this type of question should go in a different place.
Thanks.
In my experience it’s better at recording than watching live. It’s not terrible but it could be better in terms of the amount of time it takes to present the channel after selecting it. I’m not using HDHR though so YMMV. There are users out there who are happy with the time to tune, lock, display and change channels. I’m not one of them.
Yes, you can stream your live TV over the internet. I do this on holiday to keep up to date on the local news broadcasts. The guide is easy to use and you can detect commercials for skipping or deleting when watching the recording. Seasons are straight forward; you can tell it to record the show at any time on any channel. Set and forget really.
I wouldn’t say “difficult”, but if you like hopping from channel to channel it doesn’t work so well (for me). There are people out there I’m sure that don’t experience the same issues that I do so it might be alright for you on that front.
You’ve got all the kit and a Plex pass. Why not just give it a go and see how you get on?
I’ve been running LiveTV & DVR with an IPTV source now for 6 years. As long as the EPG is maintained, recording does seem to work reasonably well. As far as live TV goes, yeah, channel changing does take a few to several seconds, and there’s a long standing rather well known issue where you can’t tune into a recording in time scheduled beyond the normal program end until the whole recording time is completed.
JKalchik - Thanks, please give me more on the long standing issue. Do you mean that the show is supposed to record from 2 PM to 3 PM and you want to start watching at say 2:15 PM and it won’t let you?
As far as IPTV, Plex has some free channels, so you must be referring to some other source that you have added to Plex. Correct?
Say, for example, you have a show scheduled to start at 2:00 PM and end at 3:00 PM.
At any point between 2:00 PM and 3:00 PM, when you tune in, you have a choice of watch from beginning, or watch live. Should be pretty self-explanatory.
There are 2 advanced attributes, record minutes before start, and record minutes after end.
Obviously, you can start watching prior to a show starting to record. I suspect you’ll have some buffer available. Caveat: I have not used this attribute.
Record minutes after end…this is useful for sporting events where things may run into overtime. If you schedule 30 minutes after end, you can start watching after 3:00 PM, but you can only watch live and rewind up to 30 minutes of buffer starting from when you began watching. If you want to watch the beginning of your recording, you need to wait until after 3:30 PM and all post processing and copying to complete before can start watching the recorded version (not from the EPG.)
I’ve been using various HDHomerun tuners for well over a decade at this point, with a 4k Flex currently running. Plex’s DVR system was really rough with a lot of significant bugs from 2020-2022 or so, but they’ve finally addressed most of them and it’s a pretty nice system these days.
If you can save some money buying a used/refurbished HDHomerun then I absolutely would. They’re well built and aren’t terribly complicated hardware, so they tend to last.
Can the guide give me multiple cities?
That seems to be your only question that hasn’t been answered yet, and I’m not sure that part is so easy since you have to associate the guide data when setting up your tuner. Here’s a reddit post I came across discussing some options though: https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/7mghli/plex_dvr_guide_multicity_epg/
I have three Hauppauge devices - 2x HVR-1800 (PCI) and 1x HVR-950Q (USB).
The 1800’s take 6-8 seconds to tune a channel
The 950Q takes 12-20 seconds to tune a channel (depending on whether tuner power is sleeping)
Tuning sub-channels tends to be faster if already tuned to another sub-channel on the same frequency.
I’ve decided to disable the USB tuner just because I was missing the first 10 seconds of a show. Am hoping to try an HVR-2250 dual tuner PCI card to see how it performs.
Edit:
This is on Windows, not Linux. Not sure if the drivers are any better on Linux.
I’ve my Plex server running for about a year now, and 2 months ago decided to get the HDHomerun, but so far for me, the DVR has been a bust. About 30% of my recordings stop before the programs end. It’ll record anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes of a 30 minute show, or as much as 45 minutes of a 60 minute show, but not the whole program, with no logical reason. I’ve tried several troubleshooting measures, but nothing has fixed the issue. Luckily I have another OTA DVR that is still running, so I’m not missing any new shows.
Yes, I have an IPTV source from our ISP. Unfortunately, we’re going to lose it in the next several months as the set top boxes are being completely decommissioned, and all TV delivery will be via app. At this point, I have 2 separate networks being delivered here, 1 for Internet usage and the 2nd (that practically nobody knows about) is a dedicated video network. I’m pretty sure that the video network is going to go away completely when the set top boxes are decommissioned. The ISP can’t get updated firmware for the boxes, and there are only a very few users of the boxes anyway, shoot, they don’t even want the boxes back, I’ve been told to just throw them in electronics recycling.
