I’ve tried everything I can think of, including transcoding, but nothing is helping me… the software that comes with WinTV plays live TV perfectly without stutter, but when I use PLEX it is completely unwatchable. I may get 5 seconds of TV every minute.
My server setup is a 2007 Macbook Pro with 6GB of RAM, and a core duo 2.4Ghz intel processor. I am using a 50-70 mile antenna (works great seemingly with the WinTV software), and a HAUPPAUGE WinTV-DualHD Dual USB 2.0 HD TV Tuner (a product recommended by PLEX).
Would it help to swap for a HDHomeRun EXTEND, which can transcode the content, or is something else going on here? I’m trying to figure out what my options are so I can make this work…
Swapping to the extend and allowing it to do transcodes may help. But honestly a 2007 MacBook Pro at this point is underpowered for trying to do live tv as it’s not really optimized for doing mpeg2 to h264 conversions.
Fair enough, from what I understand the HDHomerun EXTEND converts the stream to h264, which may solve the problem here. It sounds like if I have any hope of making this work here, this is it and it’s worth trying.
If this doesn’t work, I suppose I’ll convert an old PC tower I put together 12 years ago into a new server. I like using this laptop because it has very low energy usage, though.
Live TV depends more on what the client can support. I use Fire TV and Nvidia Shield client devices and have no issues with streaming Live TV. If the client device can play the content directly or has the ability to transcode the content your server can Direct Play or Direct Stream the Live TV channel to the device and your server will see no transcoding on it.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
Live TV depends more on what the client can support. I use Fire TV and Nvidia Shield client devices and have no issues with streaming Live TV. If the client device can play the content directly or has the ability to transcode the content your server can Direct Play or Direct Stream the Live TV channel to the device and your server will see no transcoding on it.
Ah, this is helpful thank you for explaining this! It seems like the EXTEND might solve a lot of issues here then, however, if my server can’t play it then I’ll be limited or barred from the DVR functionality (which kills the entire concept for me). I’m looking into potential replacements for the server instead now, since the EXTEND is $100 dollars more anyway, and I want a system that can mirror my library so I don’t lose it when the drive dies (originally I wanted a NAS, but those are all too under-powered, or overpriced from what I’ve seen.)
