Server Version#: 1.14.1.5488
Player Version#:
I recently purchased an HDHomeRun Connect Duo to use with a Plex server on FreeNAS, but the performance is much worse than I expected. I have 16GB RAM and a processor with a passmark of 5486, but it can’t manage HD transmissions. I can watch and record SD, but HD is too choppy to watch either live or recorded. Is that normal?
Live tv is based on MPEG2 whereas Plex and Plex clients prefer H.264. While your CPU appears strong enough to do the transcode your chosen client may not like the high bit rate stream. What are you working with for a client?
I’m using an nVidia shield, or the web client on a MacBook Pro. There doesn’t seem to be any difference in performance between them.
The Shield shouldn’t have any problems using the Plex Media Player. Is everything wired or do you have wireless in this?
Everything’s wired.
Is it video artifacts, blocking, tearing or frequent buffering? In any case Plex will need logs to better assist you.
All of this will be done in the browser, go to:
https://app.plex.tv/web > Settings > General
Click on show advanced. Enable these two settings
“Send crash reports to Plex” and “Enable Plex Media Server debug logging”
“Enable Plex Media Server verbose logging” should not be checked
Save and restart Plex.
Start a live tv HD session, once the symptoms present wait 30 seconds, stop playback and go to
Settings > Troubleshooting > Download the Logs then upload the zip file here.
While watching live tv you can minimize the player by clicking on the minimize down arrow in upper left corner of the viewing area. Click on status which will take you to the Dashboard, in the now playing section you can click on the show details and see how Plex is processing your Live stream.
The problem is mostly blocking and tearing, although from time to time it’s buffering. Playing around with it just now, it seems that every now and then I can start a session without problems, but then if I stop and start again the problems come back.
Anyway, I appreciate the help.
So I guess that’s it for this issue? I realised after trying to use the HDHomeRun some more that it’s not usable for SD on Plex, either. I can only use it to watch live TV through the Shield’s own live TV app – I can’t use it at all with Plex. The only reason I bought it was to record TV with Plex, so I guess it will just go into the junk drawer.
Is there a freenas or freebsd tag you can add to your thread to get the attention of the mods?
Video artifacts are mostly from reception problems, the HDHR app will drop the frame instead of showing it but Plex displays them. With some of the TV spectrum being given over to Cellular I am starting to see the signs of signal interference, probably time to invest in a LTE filter.
There is a server version update, but not being familiar with freenas or how you have it setup I would just be careful and read up on the changes. Library dependencies and if you have made any customizations on user or storage location would impact the upgrade. The upgrade does help overall performance and tuner/dvr operation. Getting the HW transcoding working if possible under freenas would also help.
Hi Tiebierius. Thanks for replying again, and thanks for the tip about the tag.
Anyway, I know this isn’t a reception problem because I can watch live TV without any problems through the HDHomeRun Android app on the Shield – I only have problems using Plex.
I’m on the latest plugin version available on the freenas plugin repository – I know there’s a separate update script I could use, but I’m doubtful this is a general problem that has been fixed with an update, since I can’t find anyone else who has it.
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