This issue was originally documented back on Mar 18 by @Cafe_Diem (closed after 90 days) . Other posters were: @bigwheel_martech_com, @danwis. Not enough people to get Plex excited, apparently. Since the original thread is locked, I figured I would make a new one to continue the discussion.
The issue persists and it is incredibly annoying. Plex appears to be using the show title in the guide to select the channel, rather than the channel number. If you are able to receive the NBC/CBS/ABC/FOX networks from different markets, you have no ability to control which channel records.
For example, if 8.1 is ABC in market “A” and 14.1 is ABC in market “B” and both are broadcasting the ABC evening news, Plex randomly (as far as I can tell) chooses 14.1 as the channel to record even though 8.1 was the broadcast specified.
When 8.1 and 14.1 have their own newscasts (with unique titles), you can tune successfully to that specific channel. When the guide reverts to the same program name, the ability disappears.
This has been going on for many versions of Plex, but never been corrected.
Ramifications of this undocumented feature:
Sports broadcasts with different announcers from different markets
Sports blacked out in on market can’t be tuned in from the other market carrying the programming
Channel with marginal reception gets selected by Plex, and there is pixelation in the recording.
Morning new programs (Today, CTM, GMA) have weather from local markets that I don’t want.
Is this issue even on Plex’s radar?
Has anyone discovered a way to work-around?
I think what you are describing is the same issue that I am facing. Tonight’s NBA Sixers vs Celtics is being broadcast nationally on ESPN (570 for me) and locally on NBC Sportsnet (576). If I try to tune in on 576, it ultimately tunes into the ESPN broadcast. I assume this is because it is first numerically.
It would be great if Plex took the channel into consideration as these are two totally different shows, even though the episode and title of the show is the same.
Thanks for the reply. Sounds like the same issue. My experience is the channel selection is not predictable; it is random. Hopefully they correct, even if it is an option in advanced settings to obey the channel number when selected for live viewing or recording.
@shermanh4 when scheduling a recording, you can use the “Limit to Channel” option if you only want it to record on a specific channel. Otherwise, PMS may select any channel that the airing is available on.
As for being unable to select the specific channel when tuning into Live TV, which client(s) are you seeing this issue on?
I am watching LiveTV on nvidia shield (server is on Linux), it is picking most often the lowest channel like @darcilicious mentioned in the thread that @shermanh4 mentioned.
Any fix for this? It always picks the lowest channel showing the same program. For me that means Im watching a channel in a completely different country than the one I selected. Sigh…
