Thanks i’ve used another of my precious votes to upvote the older item too.
That’s 2 of my 5 votes on the one item, i’m certain that will make all the difference…
2 Likes
Well, I’ve given Plex almost 1.5 months to respond. There’s been no acknowledgement whatsoever or any suggested workarounds to a real issue for people recording sports.
So my suggestion is “Don’t use Plex Live TV/DVR”. And if you’re thinking of getting a Plex Pass to gain access to Live TV/DVR, don’t waste your money. There are free DVR options out there that work a lot more reliably than Plex with far more flexible recording rules. I personally regret trusting Plex with my money.
If you record TV through other means, just set the output folder to one that is part of a Plex TV Show library. The in-progress ts file from the recording will appear in the Plex library and you will be able to play it in Plex while it is recording. Seeking works and Plex will remember your position if you stop playback.
There is one caveat. Plex will think that the length of the program is whatever it is when you start playback. So as you approach that time position, you need to stop and restart so that Plex gets the new/current “length” of the video. To me, this is a completely acceptable tradeoff when you compare against all the frustrations that people experience with live recordings in Plex Live TV/DVR.
I really wish there was something I could offer other than “don’t use the product”. But it is difficult when Plex simply will not engage on real problems in features that we have paid for.
2 Likes
Just keeping this ongoing issue alive that particularly affects people recording sports.
1 Like
Wow. Not one reply from any Plex employee for months. SHAMEEEE!!!
1 Like
I’m NOT defending Plex or saying this is not an important issue…
… I think Plex should address it.
workaround steps:
- Record game as scheduled W/O any “Extra/Padding”
- Record the next program in the guide that follows and (optionally) in advanced settings set “Minutes before start” to 1
- Repeat 2 as many times as desired…
- Enjoy/Hate game!
not the way it should be but it works…
I appreciate that. But that approach can sometimes not be ideal. For one thing, it defeats the purpose of a recurring recording since you have to remember to do this every time since the next program can vary considerably. The other thing is that the next program might be an episode of a sitcom or drama that you already have in your library – and PLEX absolutely will not record it in that situation. But you’re right, this is an approach that can work. After 3 years though, it’s still pretty pathetic that this basic functional expectation of a DVR is not met and Plex doesn’t even want to discuss it.
No argument here.
Let’s not let this thread die, hopefully someone at Plex cares enough to respond…eventually.
How would the DVR even know the show is over-running the schedule anyways? The guide would have to be updated regularly which it’s not. At most once per day when using Plex EPG.
So how are they gonna solve this problem? Maybe someone could provide some insight for the Plex team to ponder.
Please READ the thread it’s not about PLEX knowing about over-runs.
Did you make a suggestion on how they need to fix this?
@DaveBinM can you make a suggestion to the Plex Engineers to implement a function to play a recording already in progress via the ‘DVR SCHEDULE’ menu. We can already play recordings from this menu after they are finished but if we are able to play them from this menu while recording I believe this problem would be solved. Thanks!
When I record sports, I usually record extra time (60 to 90 minutes) in case it runs over. When the regularly scheduled time is over, the live playback icon on the guide is removed. This results in absolutely no way to playback the live recording during the last 60 to 90 minutes. I have to wait until the recording is completely finished. It’s a huge problem if you’re looking forward to watching an event and you can’t.
Some might say, “so you have to wait”. Well, we don’t often control when we will have free time to relax. Very frustrating when Plex says “Nope. You can’t watch that right now.”
I hope this explains the issue to your satisfaction. It’s not what you thought because the average user would never expect such a crazy functional limitation.
Really??
1, There are plenty of suggestions of how to handle this all-ready posted in this thread.
2, I posted a workaround (not ideal…)
3,
I have already suggested this in the past, and it’s something that is on our to-do list, but there are other higher priority items at the moment.
There’s no need for sniping here. Seems like there was a simple misinterpretation of the problem. TMC, I hope you’re ok with my response. I don’t think anyone (certainly not me) is expecting Plex to detect overruns. I just want a playback UI to be present for the entire recording time. And the software knows that since it is doing the recording.
I completely understand the problem and it looks like they have plans for this as stated. Just gotta wait. I’m sure they will get this fixed up eventually.
So, for now, if you want to watch recorded/recording sports programs in Plex, the only way to get a get decent user experience is to use a non-Plex DVR and record to a Plex library folder.
No problem here (Hey, you asked for a workaround and yes it takes extra work like all workarounds do 
)
hope this actually gets fixed soon!
It’s been like this for 3 years now. I know Plex does not comment on when things will be fixed. But given that watching programs when we want is such a basic expected functionality of a DVR and 3 years is a long time for paying customers to wait, I am forced to conclude that this will never move up the priority list enough to actually get addressed.
It’s a real shame too. The pretty bells and whistles in the product just don’t matter when the basic functionality isn’t there.
1 Like
This is so frustrating.
Is there an alternative service that provides better DVR functionality for OTA broadcasts? I’ve heard amazon has something. Anyone tried it?
