Live TV buffers every 2-3 seconds in Plex, it does not do that on any other live TV app! Ready to cancel Plex pass!

Live TV & DVR
1

Server Version#: Version 1.24.3.5033
Player Version#: 8.22.0.27533 (bdaff3f3)
Tuner Make/Model: HDHomeRun HDHR5-4US Connect Quatro 4 Channel Tuner
Guide/Lineup name: The one built into Plex
Using XMLTV?: No
Channel number/Name: All

Hey all, I am having a serious issue with being unable to watch Live tv on Plex without it buffering literally every 2-3 seconds which is a huge problem because it’s the main reason I bought Plex Pass!

I HAVE A FIX! The fix is to change the audio stream on Live TV from AC3 5.1 to AC3 Stereo. This will completely fix this non-stop buffering!

However the issue with this is every time you change the channel, you have to change this setting again! Is there any way to make it so every channel will use AC3 Stereo instead of AC3 5.1?

That would sort of fix my issue, except sometimes the AC3 Stereo option is in Spanish!

I am using an HDHomeRun HDHR5-4US Connect Quatro 4 Channel Tuner for my live tv. It is hardwired to my server. My server is a beast; a Core i7 9700k with 64GB of RAM and entirely made up of SSDs, so it’s definitely not my server.

The player is being played on the latest NVidia Shield pro, hardwired ethernet, so that’s definitely not the bottleneck.

Not to mention when I use the official HD Homerun Prime Android app on my NVidia Shield Pro, I have zero buffering issues.

It’s literally buffering every 2-3 seconds on the Plex app and it’s driving me insane.

  1. Why is the AC3 5.1 audio stream causing this issue? Why does switching to AC3 stereo audio stream option fix it?
  2. Why are there no options in Plex to default to the AC3 Stereo audio stream option? Why do i have to change this every time I change the station???

All my TV stations have between 90-100% signal so it’s not that either. it’s 100% the fault of the Plex app (or server?) and I have found people complaining about this for over a year with no fix in site.

Any help would be appreciated before I cancel this worthless Plex pass!

1 Like
2

Hey,

So a few things here.

  1. Modern TV broadcasts can push multiple audio streams through. In the US, the first stream is usually in English and depending on the broadcaster surround sound can be incorporated. The secondary audio streams will generally be in a different language (such as spanish) and at a much lower quality. Sometimes the broadcasters will name these Audio Streams English./Spanish, but not all do.

It’s no different than moving between different audio languages on Netflix. Plex has no control over how the OTA TV broadcasters choose to format their streams.

  1. I’ve tried on multiple devices and I’m not sure if it’s actually possible to transmux the live TV audio feed down to 2.0? I’ve tried on my cell phone, chrome (PC speaker setup is set to stereo), and on my Roku TV. With the Roku TV I know for a fact is telling Plex it’s only capable of Stereo.

Though regardless, almost every single device on the market today is capable of down-mixing 5.1 → 2.0 so the fact it’s being sent as such should not be an issue.

And in fact, Plex’s own KB has this to say

“Plex will present video streams with multi-channel audio to the television as-is. It’s up to the television to handle the audio from there”

What I would recommend is ensuring under Settings > Video “Allow MPEG2 Direct” is checked. All OTA broadcasts are sent in MPEG2 format so by leaving it unchecked you are forcing your server to do on the fly transcoding.

It honestly does sound like the server is at fault. (Either with the plex App or something else on it) I say this not to bash your computer, but by using the Homerun app you’re essentially bypassing the computer and establishing a direct, untranscoded feed between your HDHR and Shield.

(oh and since you’re referring to the PC as a server I’m assuming this server has a hardwired ethernet connection. But if that’s not the case I would definitely get it hardwired as wireless is half-duplex by nature and a plex server acting as a proxy for an OTA feed is going to be continuously pulling down and sending out traffic at the same time)

It would be worth checking your servers plex dashboard to see what it’s showing in terms of encoding, bandwidth usage, and CPU/RAM Usage while you playback some content.

There are also other configurable options for the servers Transcoder such as “Use Hardware Acceleration when available”

3

I appreciate the reply but this doesn’t make any sense because as I mentioned, every other live TV app I try on my Shield plays just fine without buffering. If it were my server (a 9700k with 64 gb of RAM isn’t enough??) then why would all the other Live tv apps work just fine? It’s only the Plex app that chokes on live TV.

4

I guess the big question comes down to if the other apps are using the computer or not.

Plex is crazy optimized, You can get by with 2GB of RAM. No joke, I’m running a Plex server instance on a $5 VPS with 2 cores (which are shared) and 3GB of RAM.

Plex is actually so well optimized it can run off of a NAS, your Shield can actually run a standalone Plex server instance.

Which…have you given that a shot yet? I’ve never actually tried it on my shield and you may ideally want to run Plex on that PC. But it makes for a good test. :slight_smile:

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4471/~/how-to-set-up-plex-live-tv-and-dvr-on-shield-tv

5

The OP is using a 9700k with 64 gigs of ram, why would you tell them to switch to a Shield TV for a server? Not to mention what an incredible undertaking it is to completely redo their server just because Plex chokes with 5.1 audio on live TV.

Anyways I’m having the same issue as the OP. AC3 5.1 buffers like crazy on live TV. Selecting AC3 stereo fixes it. No other live TV apps have this problem. is there a fix?

1 Like
6

This sounds like a CODEC issue. OP is afterall using the Android app which has too many issues as it is. How could this even be a problem with his server? That makes absolutely no sense.

There’s no reason to run the Plex server from the shield when his bare metal server is already more than capable of processing any media thrown at it. This is an absurd suggestion.

7

I am not sure why it would be a codec issue because I never have any issues with any of my direct raw Blu-ray rips and they have all sorts of crazy formats.

But anyway yeah the issue is still happening and is really frustrating.

if plex “remembered” what audio stream I picked for each live TV station, my issue would be resolved. Except it doesn’t so literally EVERY SINGLE TIME I change my TV stations I have to pull up the audio settings and change the audio stream to AC3 Stereo. This really sucks and is a pain in the neck for my kids and even myself.

also I would think if it was codec issue I would have problems playing live TV from the hd homerun app on the same TV and I have zero issues with that at all. it’s purely a Plex thing.

8

Delete everything from the “plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Codecs” folder and then try to re-play the offending channels. Let me know.

Yes, this is 100% safe.

1 Like
9

Thanks, I don’t think I have that folder though. I have this which is kinda close I guess?

C:\Users\server\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Codecs

Would that be it? Why is it so drastically different than the folder you listed?

10

Oh wow that fixed it! Thanks so much! I wonder why that worked??

edit: It worked at first but the problem is back again after like 2 days.

11

Windows vs Linux I guess would be the reason it’s different.

Anytime you run into this problem always delete the files in the codecs folder. There could be an issue with one of them… corruption, incompatability with Android etc…

1 Like
12

It worked at first but the problem is back again after like 2 days.

13

Because the Plex server caches the video and then serves it to each client individually so it needs to be able to read the data. If the server can’t read the data it won’t know how to serve it to the client. Codecs are like the language of video coming in.

hdhomerun → plexmediaserver → client

14

Unfortunately the problem came back. Any permanent fix?

15

Yea, tag a Plex employee and get them to fix the codec.

1 Like
16

How do I do that?

17

@anon18523487 This guy has problems with Live TV skipping and if he deletes his codec folder the problem will go away until the offending codec gets downloaded again. Can you help track this down?

18

I also have this issue with the Shield’s plex app. Switching to a new channel will have several minutes of micro buffers (every 3 seconds or so there’s a split second buffer) that eventually settles down. But once settled will return when changing channels.

I’ve only experienced it on my Shields. The problem does not happen on an AppleTV, but I’d prefer to keep using my Shields as primary media devices.

1 Like
19

I see this exact same behavior on my latest Shield Pro running as both server & client with HDHomerun tuners & SSD storage. It’s been an issue for as long as I’ve owned the hardware (roughly a year).

I only see this behavior in Plex… Not the HDHomerun app or the Android TV “Live Channels” stock app.

1 Like
21

I have the same thing happen occasionally, where you get a grey screen with the buffer wheel until you exit. When it happens, it’s always within a few minutes after the hour. There’s another thread (also unsolved) with this issue: