Is Plex actually any good? Errors when I try to stream live TV and now no sound

Live TV & DVR
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Server Version#: 1.22.0.4163
Player Version#:
Tuner Make/Model: Hauppauge WinTV QuadHD internal
Guide/Lineup name:
Using XMLTV?: No
Channel number/Name:

I bought a life time subscription to Plex thinking it was a good idea, but have had nothing but issues getting Live TV and DVR up and running since installing it.

I have a home theatre PC running WIndows 7 SP1, with an internal Hauppauge WinTV QuadHD card. PC runs fine, and the TV card works very well in Windows Media Centre.

When I try to run Plex live TV, most of the time I select a program from the guide and I get an error saying the channel can’t be tuned, saying to check the tuner or aerial, and giving a code 5000. Signal strength looks good on every channel after a channel scan, and I am using the correct transmitter.

Today, for some random reason I can now get channels. On the PC they are stuttery, fragmented, pixellating, and poor quality. Looks like a processing/speed issue but Windows Media Centre produces perfect quality.

I can actually stream the live TV to my phone and Apple TV which I have set up in another room on a different TV, but I get no sound.

However, the success rate of this is totally random. I have just tried now on my phone and get the error 'unable to evaluateplay request Could not tune channel. Please check your tuner or antenna Code: 5000.

On researching this, I don’t think I have seen a single useful Dev solution that resolves the issue.

I have spent hours reading forum posts, and most seem bad press for Plex on Live TV and DVR. Devs not responding to queries, problems continuing for years etc.

Is there any advice out there on getting this working properly, or shall I write off the free money I have handed over and abandon this for another solution where I can stream TV around my LAN?

Any help appreciated!

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I don’t use the live tv function but everything else for me works great. Tried Emby, used to use kodi internally and now I just use plex for everything. Plex makes updates all the time and usually things get better/smoother. Stick it out, plus when plex goes truly viral. At least you are locked into a lifetime membership and don’t have to worry about monthly price hikes. Who knows, sooner or later the lifetime option may not even be available. I find value in it is what I’m saying.

Does any of your content play normally outside of the dvr/live tv? For example, do your movies play ok? With sound and all?

I also run plex server on Ubuntu server. From my own personal experience. Its much smoother than the plex server windows version in terms of resource management and overall speed.

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I use the DVR with a different Tuner but I find it works well if I use this setting. The default setting of “OFF”, I have issue with my TV client.

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Thanks for the comments. I have tried the Transcode option and no difference.

What I am hoping for is that a Dev will comment on the post and give some idea of why it is not working. I have set everything up per instructions multiple times, tried loads of different options, and nothing about the Live TV/DVR system is stable enough or reliable enough to make me want to try regularly recording.

The Media server does seem to work well across multiple platforms with sound, and to be honest, if I want to cut the chord with my satelitte TV supplier, who are costly, but stable and reliable, I would be better off using Windows Media player to record into a plex library folder and watch that. The system just seems too unstable and unreliable to use for live TV and recording at present.

Fingers crossed a Dev will appear and offer some advice. Threads I have read on this would suggest though that you pay your money and you’re on your own.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but I kind of expected a working and stable product, not something I then spend hours trying to troubleshoot.

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When you don’t include the logs in your first post support/dev’s rarely respond.

The hurdles I see from reading all threads every day.

Success with Live TV is mostly dependent on having a client that can direct play the content (mpeg2) and few are currently working without issues. Plex seems to be rolling out feature enhancements to all of them and brought along some quirks.

Windows 7 & 8, Plex won’t be supporting these OS’s much longer, especially for the Clients.

Plex is having great difficulties with the Hauppauge tuners.

Where you don’t have a client that can direct play mpeg2 (like a browser), it transcodes and you need a CPU with a passmark of around 2000 per live stream. A functioning GPU can help but then you can have other stability issues.

Some specs on your system may be helpful to know.

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You may also want to try uninstalling the WinTV software (not driver) if installed. See the below note from the supported tuners document:

Windows: “WinTV 8” (for WinTV tuners) or “AVerMedia TVBox” (for AVerMedia
tuners) software might conflict with Plex Media Server’s use of the tuner.
If you have issues tuning channels, please remove this software, install
only the driver for your tuner, then attempt to scan channels again.

It has also been suggested in other threads (or thread?) that the combination of Windows 7, internal Hauppauge tuners, and Plex Media Server may not be a good one; that’s completely anecdotal however and I suspect that there are plenty of folks using exactly that configuration without issues.

I’m not sure if whatever conflict existed with WinTV 8 has been mitigated in WinTV 10, but it may be worth your time to uninstall it…

However… I have no personal experience with Hauppauge tuners, so the above is just based on the documentation. My Live TV & DVR setup uses a SiliconDust HDHomeRun tuner and has been rock-solid for some time.

[Edit to add]
The supported tuners link actually goes somewhere now…

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Thanks again for the responses. I will get the logs and post them shortly.

The Windows 7 system is:
Win 7 SP1 6.1.7601
A8N-32SLi Asus M/B with an old AMD Athlon 64 dual core 2.8Ghz 939 processor and 4Gb memory. That in itself might be a limitation as it was built from solid spares I had from a very old system. gfx card is maybe not a factor but is an AMD Radeon HD5700 series card

As mentioned, Tuner is a Hauppauge WinTV QuadHD

All drivers are up to date versions. No WinTV software is installed, just the drivers, but I did wonder if there is an interaction with Windows Media Centre as I have a feeling it does not release the tuner after you use it.

With regard to future Windows 7 support, the PC is actually ready to update to Win 10. I have just been holding off in case I can’t get plex working and resort to using Media Centre to record to a folder and then use plex to stream the TV recordings.

Playing around with the system this evening, I can now stream a original (1080) broadcast to my phone and laptop Using the IOS plex App on the phone and the Plex windows App on the laptop. There was no sound on either platform, but if I go into the playback settings on each app and change from Unknown (MP2) to English (MP2) I get sound. But I seem to have to do this every time I start watching something. Not yet looked to see if I can permanently set that setting on the server or on the app.

I have another TV set up with an Apple TV box with Plex on it, and on testing, same issue. I can now stream but no sound. Not yet sorted the playback settings.

So the issue lurches forward. This evening I have stable streaming, but I have to set the playback settings every time I watch.

Like I said, I will go get the logs shortly.

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