I’m experiencing this too, and it’s driving me nuts. Live TV is completely worthless on Roku as it just buffers constantly. If I let it sit for a couple minutes, it will play for a little while, then it’s back to buffer land. Kind of negates the whole point of “LIVE TV”.
I’m using a dedicated transcode machine (Core i7-4770) to do Plex and the Live TV is the only thing being done. There is no shortage of processing power or machine resources for this. When streaming locally on the network via Ethernet or WiFi, it works great. It also seems to work well streaming to my iPhone remotely over the cellular network (Verizon). However when streaming out to Roku remotely, it’s a buffering mess. I’ve tried lowering the quality setting as low as 1.5Mbps 480P (don’t really care about HD streams at all as I’m using a small set in the remote location…) and it doesn’t improve things one bit. I’m talking buffering every 5-15 seconds making the Live TV completely and totally worthless here.
Is there any “fix” for this? I was initially excited about Roku and the Live TV possibilities but it’s been a pretty bad buzz kill thus far as performance and stability have left A LOT to be desired across the board. Even on the local side, there are A LOT of issues like random stuck transcoders and streams that just “FAIL” and require a total reboot of the Roku each time to repair. It doesn’t feel like this solution is ready for prime-time in the least, in my experience, and I’m left with a pretty sour taste in my mouth.
Any suggestions would be most welcome. Looks like a lot of people with similar issues here but nothing in the way of resolution or mitigation beyond “adjusting quality settings” which I’ve already tried numerous times on both sides of the connection to absolutely zero difference in the buffering nightmare.
I’m with cpabster, this is super frustrating. While I can stream high bit rate 1080p DVR/files on the server, I have to turn it all the way down to 1.5 Mbps 480p to avoid buffering.
I have constant “retrieving” on my dual band router and my Roku Streaming Sticks+ (2017 version). I do not have the buffering (retrieving) issue on my phone (Note8), Galaxy Tab S3 or my wired desktop (W10) paying via HDHomerun app. Plex on my Tab S3, no buffering (retrieving) though some movement artifacts. No Plex support on my wired desktop for DVR/Live TV. Plex on my Note8, no buffering (retrieving).
I have 2 Roku Streaming Stick+
Most devices are running on gigabyte ethernet.
Wireless (5G band preferred) for phones, tablets.
3 switches, 1 Quantum router (Verizon FiOS).
Plex running on a Qnap TS-251, 4GB RAM
Recording not setup presently
Plex video quality is set to Maximum.
Samsung 4K TV’s set to 12 (quality settings) in Plex app.
Direct Play is set in PMS
My internet connection is 100/100 (for reference).
1 Ceton 6 Eth paired to a W7 HTPC (i7-4770K + 8GB)
1 Ceton 6 PCI paired to a W7 HTPC (i3-4130T + 8GB)
i3 is my recording HTPC
SiliconDust HDHomerun Prime (no access to any Fox or HBO channels with DRM) which is why Prime is last/experimental.
I am not going to reduce video quality which would impact ALL my video, movie media on my NAS, not just Live TV. Suggesting that is NOT a compromise considering all my OTHER media would be degraded to match that quality setting and force the NAS to transcode my 4K and 1080p videos and movies.
I have this issue as well with the roku express. It will be fine for the first couple hours but it will start to buffer. The longer it streams the more it buffers. Restarting the stream will correct the issue for me. Super frustrating to have to restart the stream all the time.
"I also have this problem… “Retrieving” and buffering constantly…on my Roku (v8.0.0) but only with the built-in live tv from the Plex app (running on the latest Beta v1.11.0.4666 for the server on a Intel Core i7 w/ 16g of ram that sits largely idle) but not the Channel Plugin HDHR Viewer v2(1.1.1)
i have a AverMedia Hybrid Volar Max and for the past couple of days i’ve been trying to find solutions to play my live tv without buffering i plays good for a few seconds than poof any ideas?
I have been having the same issues. I can stream it fine with the network cable plugged into my roku ultra but when I try to stream it wireless it has to reload every 5-15 seconds.
Trying to get LiveTV working with minimal buffering. Using Ubuntu Linux with a WinTV DualHD tuner on a GIGABYTE GB-BXBT-2807 (rev. 1.0) 1 x 204Pin SO-DIMM Intel HD Graphics box. Viewing on a Roku.
I try checking and unchecking direct play, direct streaming. I try adjusting home streaming and internet streaming to the lowest settings - nothing seems to have any effect. The 480 broadcasts seem to work acceptably - but any broadcast at 720 or 1080 buffer every 30 seconds.
Again, I’d like to know the specific setting the controls LiveTV quality?
“Me too”… Playing multiple 1080p file streams no problem. A single live tv stream on a well equipped and lightly loaded server buffers. Currently seeing buffering with <5% disk IO, <50% memory, <30% CPU, <10% GPU, <5% network utilization.
I am having this same issue. For testing purposes, I found that my MacBook Pro (2012) with 8 gb ram streams the Plex live with no buffering to my Roku Ultra (hardwired). That would be great but I do not want to tie up my primary computer to be my Plex TV server.
Trying to stream from a MacMini with 8 gb ram to the same Roku buffers about every 15 to 20 seconds. I also purchased a Western Digital PR2100 for a Plex Server to run Live TV and DVR but its buffering is even worse. Very disappointing and hope it will be resolved soon. I changed most of the settings, including reducing quality down to garbage, and it still buffered.
FYI, my HDHomeRun Prime streams flawlessly on all my devices, especially Xbox One.
I’ve been trying to duplicate this issue to get any type of logs for the devs to look at but I can’t reproduce it.
I’m using a Roku Premier. First I tested for with a Gb connection then switched to 5Gb wifi connection and I still can not reproduce this issue.
I have zero buffering issue.
I’m using a couple of Prime tuners connected to Comcast. I tried channels encoded in H.264 and channels that are Mpeg2.
Obviously it had to go through the Plex Transcoder in order to transcode the mpeg2 to H.264 and de-interlace since the Roku can’t do either.
My server uses HW transcoding and never spiked the CPU at all.
So if some of you guys can post some info like:
Network type: wired, 2.4 or 5 on wifi
Tuner type and Cable or OTA
Channel you are trying to play (mpeg2 or H.264) if cable
CPU utilization of your NAS/Server while trying to play LiveTV via Plex
That info would be most helpful. Also if you can easily reproduce this I’d like to ask you to play something enough to get a couple of buffers then upload your Plex Server log zip file.
I see this is an old thread from October last year that was answered and was revived in December. I have tried to read over the recent posts and wanted to provide some information regarding my setup. I don’t normally watch much Live TV or even DVR content using my Roku Stick, I am normally watching recorded content from my Nvidia Shield or Fire TV Stick.
My setup is as follows:
Primary Plex Media Server
Intel Core i5-3570K @ 3.4GHz
32GB Memory
500GB SSD Boot Drive
Gigabit wired network
Tuner Devices:
HDHR Connect (2) - both set with the Convert Video While Recording turned off
HDHR Extend - Transcode set to Highest Quality. This is the last device configured in Live TV & DVR so is the last tuner used
Secondary Plex Media Server
Nvidia Shield 16GB version with 128GB USB 3 Flash Drive as adopted storage
Gigabit wired network
HDHR Extend with Transcode set to Highest Quality
Roku 3500XB Streaming Stick connect via WiFi obviously
When streaming Live TV from my Primary server described above I see no buffering. I watched roughly 30 minutes of Live TV this morning doing some testing from my primary server. While streaming Live TV from the primary server it is using one of my HDHR Connect devices that do not have any transcode capabilities built into the tuner device. From the Plex Server I see the following under the Now Playing section:
The incoming OTA signal is transmitted in mpeg2 format which Plex then needs to transcode to H264 for the Roku. While the transcode processing is happening my CPU utilization runs between 20-30% on average. Looking at Windows Task Manager for the Plex processes I see a couple of Plex Transcoder processes running with 20% CPU utilization on one of them:
If I try streaming from the Nvidia Shield the majority of transcoding is occurring on the HDHR Extend that is connected to the Shield. The same channel/show was streamed with the above example and this test stream. Looking at the Now Playing for the Extend I see the following:
The Extend is transcoding the incoming stream to h264 before sending it to the Plex Server. The Plex Server is then transcoding H264 to H264 (HW). The reason is that the incoming video while in H264 format is a 1080i video stream. The Roku can not handle an interlaced video stream so the Plex Server must transcode the interlaced video for the Roku.
To stream Live TV to a Roku device your Plex Server either needs to be able to handle transcoding the stream for the Roku device, or you need a tuner device capable of doing the transcoding on the tuner. I personally prefer the Fire TV and Shield as my clients for consuming media. When viewing from these devices I see no transcoding but rather Direct Play. One last screenshot in which I am playing the same show from both the Roku and my Shield. I had to copy/paste the Roku details on top of the image to get the Direct Play and Transcoding details to show for both devices.
Reducing the bit rate seems to clear up the buffering issue for me. It’s been working for a while with Roku. This buffering thing is pretty recent for me. I can’t say for sure whether it started after I installed the most recent Plex release. I don’t think it’s a network or wifi congestion issue. My HDHR is connected to a wired gigabit switch port along with the PC that runs Plex, and I have five Rokus (2 Ultra and 3 4’s). One of them is connected with wired gigabit, and it has the same issue as my wireless ones, so I think wifi is out of the equation. And I can stream high bit rate local media from Plex with no buffering. Seems to only be live tv that buffers.
@tcarter0 said:
Reducing the bit rate seems to clear up the buffering issue for me. It’s been working for a while with Roku. This buffering thing is pretty recent for me. I can’t say for sure whether it started after I installed the most recent Plex release. I don’t think it’s a network or wifi congestion issue. My HDHR is connected to a wired gigabit switch port along with the PC that runs Plex, and I have five Rokus (2 Ultra and 3 4’s). One of them is connected with wired gigabit, and it has the same issue as my wireless ones, so I think wifi is out of the equation. And I can stream high bit rate local media from Plex with no buffering. Seems to only be live tv that buffers.
While this appears to be a “fix” for now, many users won’t accept this in the slightest. Many see this as a downgrade on all their media, as they likely have relatively high bitrate media to stream. I have pretty “average” bitrate stuff, so this fix mostly works for me. However, the live tv stream still is unreliable after an anecdotal 10-15 minutes. I had to abandon watching the superbowl by the 2nd quarter on my Roku TV in the living room and finishing watching on my Xbox One in another room.
Mine are all blu-ray movies as MKV files produced with Handbrake using the typical high quality settings. I can’t say that I’m very knowledgeable on the subject. I pretty much just point and go where that’s concerned. My movies stream fine with no adjustments.
I have an HDHomeRun Extend, and I noticed if I change the transcoder to 30fps limit, it works best, with almost no buffering. However, on some channels, I lose full 16x9 and instead get black bars on the sides for some channels (though not all). For example, the Olympics on NBC has the black bars on both sides. If I change to any other setting for Transcoder, I get frequent buffering. It would be even better if there was both a 60 and a 30 fps limited 720p setting, as the next step down is 540p.
Remote Live TV for me has been garbage. Some Plex public/beta releases have been much better than others. The current Public release is garbage.
I have tried it seems everything on earth to get Live TV to not stutter when viewing remotely, even dropping the quality down to the lowest and it still stops, sputters. However there are no issues viewing recorded content already on the server at max resolution all the way down to lowest quality. Issue appears to be with Live TV only!
Problematic Playback devices: Android Phone (latest version and all previous versions), Nvidia Shield (latest version and all previous)
Tuner: HDHomerun Quatro, latest firmware
(Tried the Connect and Extend too)
Running latest PMS version 1.11.3.4803 and tried all the betas & publics before it.
Plex Server is installed on a dedicated Win 10 machine, i7-3770 @ 3.40 GHz, 16GB ram. I don’t use it for anything else other than Plex. While playing back, overall CPU hovers around 10% and Ram also about 10%.
C Drive (OS and apps only) uses Samsung SSD Drive
D Drive (Transcoder only uses Samsung SSD Drive
It seems however that playback via a Web browser (Plex Web Version 3.37.2 at the moment) (Chrome) remotely is flawless.
But on my Android phone or Nvidia Shield is sputterville!
I would like to add that I can have multiple (I tried 4 since I have 4 tuners) different Live TV streams playing locally, all transcoding, with zero pauses/sputters. However, when doing it remotely (not on LAN), I can’t do ANY Live TV streaming at any quality. Zero.
Interesting. I’ve got the same type of specs and equipment and have very little issues. Curious, are you recording and/or have your transcode directory on an SSD drive? This makes a huge difference.
Do you have hardware transcoding turned on for playback transcoding? If not try it turned on.
I have a roku 3, express, and premeir. They all stream correctly with live TV. Have you investigated your network? Raw data from the HDHomerun’s is quite a bit.
So think about where/how the data is moving on your network.
IE
TV show -> Tuner->Network->plex server-> transcoder CPU time ->network->Roku
If your network can’t handle the packets then you will see buffering for sure.
I have the plex server (linux, 24 cores, with two port channeled NIC’s) and the tuners on a seperate gigabit switch that then uplinks into my router then to wireless.
So all the main traffic is local to that one switch. Then, when a stream starts only the transcoded traffic is leaving the switch into my network. It is a fact that lower end cheaper gigabit switches cannot handle all of the data. I used to see the buffering happen a lot when MCEBuddy was doing a conversion during the file copy process. It would flood my router and then I would have to wait. Especially if a recording was going on at the same time.
A good test would be to iperf your setup and find out if it is able to hang. Preferably during a recording and a transcoded live tv feed to the endpoint.
