Live TV on my Plex Client on Fire TV 4K Stick using HDHomeRun Connect 4K streams the live image at 720p. The server is a QNAP NAS with an AMD Ryzen 7 1700 with 8 cores and 16 threads. No network or performance problems. The HDHomeRun tuner records live broadcasts on Plex DVR at 1080p and recordings play back at 1080p on the Plex Client on the Fire TV 4K stick.
Two problems.
Live TV plays at 720p despite max stream being set on the player. Recorded live tv play back at 1080p and other media can play back up to 4k with no issues off the same server.
Live TV plays for maybe five minutes and exits back to the guide. Plex Live TV works perfectly on a plex client on a Samsung Smart TV and also Plex Client on a Roku.
Any suggestions regarding the Plex client for the Fire TV 4K stick as I have outlined above?
I can tell you that Live TV has no playback issues on my Roku Plex client or my Samsung Smart TV Plex client. Recordings always play back flawlessly. The problem is limited to live TV. I’ve heard rumors that the generic “Android” client does better than the Fire TV Plex client. I am waiting for someone else to post with any ideas or a fix.
Same here. Latest Plex update on FireTV - Live TV & DVR stream just stops after 5 minutes back to the Guide… I have tried decreasing bitrate to lowest, still same issue so it is not the internet speed (200Mbps). I also have old Roku and it Plex on Roku works just fine for hours, happily streaming tv channels…
I even have the newest HDHomeRun Connect 4K with the ATSC 3 tuner. The issue is centered around the Plex Fire TV client for the Fire Stick 4k. All recordings play back perfectly. It is only the live TV that has the issue of playing for 2-3 minutes and exiting back to the guide. I’ve tried running my Fire TV 4k stick both wired and wireless. It is not a bandwidth issue because I can play full 4k movies perfectly. This is clearly a problem with the Plex client specifically for the Fire Stick 4k. Hope someone at Plex is listening.
Ive always had the problem of livetv stopping after a few minutes on the firetv 4k, that is until the last update. The firestick is not on one of my main TV’s but I tried it the other day and it played livetv fine for about 30 mins. This is the 1st time ive got anywhere near decent playback i tested it with both 1080 and 480 UK channels.
Just the standard client on firetv, no sideloading. I use the beta on my shields but cant be faffed sideloading for the firetv. I had hoped to use firetv’s on all my TV’s as the remote is good and they cost much less than the shields but the livetv just didnt work on the firetv.
I was experiencing the same issue while also not being able to rewind/fast-forward on Android TV. Not being able to seek was bothering me most, but the only playing for ~5 minutes before exiting was also annoying. I noticed the same behavior on Android mobile (not being able to seek). I am not sure if it would kick me out after 5 minutes also.
I’ve sideloaded 8.2.1.18636 on my Android TV and my Android mobile and I haven’t been kicked out in ~ 1 hour of testing (and seeking is back). 8.2.1 is pretty old, so I want to test some more with some newer clients to see if I can get something newer that will work.
Ideally, the newest clients wouldn’t have this issue but may consider downgrading by sideloading an older version.
My Plex client on my Fire 4K Stick is v8.8.1.21332 (0798457a). I am not sure that I have ever seen consistent playback on live TV. That’s surprising because everything else besides live TV plays perfectly. Live TV used to buffer and lock up constantly. Now it locks up less frequently, but always exits back to the guide within 5 minutes. As mentioned earlier, my Roku client and my Samsung Smart TV clients never have an issue with live TV.
I prefer the Firestick 4k as a client to the Roku because I am deeply vested in Amazon automation. Also, I much prefer anything that does Android TV as opposed to Roku or proprietary Smart TV because I have the option of running any Android image.
I had considered getting an Nvidia Shield, but both the price and lack of significant built in storage has dissuaded me. My Fire TV 4k is a constant source of annoyance with the lack of storage. The 8GB device uses a solid 3GB for the OS and with a small collection of apps I generally have maybe 850MB free. I’ve had external storage configured on it, but lately changes to FireOS have caused that storage to be disconnected.
I have considered the new Chromecast with TV, but again, the same storage issue. Why don’t these folks put 16GB in instead of a stingy 8GB? Have they ever used one of these devices? I often wonder if the Plex Live TV on the Fire Stick 4k is resource constrained somehow.
Same issue… Began around the same time. There have been a couple of times that it worked, but the fast forward and rewinds continue to be missing. I have uploaded the logs from the Fire Stick Network Logging.
In the past, Live TV has been finicky unless I turn off the “new” player. In that case, it had played fine. Now, with both the new and old player, Plex exits to the guide after ~5 minutes making the product unusable.
The later I try it seems the less stable (I haven’t tried every version) and timeshift features work little to none based on the version.
8.2.1 is what I’ve had the most success with (recording, starting from the beginning of that recording, and timeshift are all great). Oh, and of course I don’t get kicked out of the stream.
I don’t know if this makes a difference, but I’ve never updated my hdhomerun software. I wonder if Plex changes and tests with the latest hdhomerun software and me being on a 3+ year old version is causing problems. The later Plex gets the more unusable live tv and DVR features become on Android clients.
Amazon fire I believe would need to sideload Amazon Fire OS Devices (armv7a) 25 from Plex for Android - #348 by SamFromPlex if I am not mistaken (and anyone wants to see how theirs would run on this version).
I don’t live being on such an old version because I feel I might be missing out on other features/fixes but this is the main reason I subscribed to Plex pass years ago.
The thing that gets me is that recording and playback from my HDHomeRun on the Fire Stick 4k Plex client is always PERFECT. The only time I see an issue is watching live TV. In playing live TV, it plays perfectly but exits back to the guide like clockwork about every five minutes.
I had the same problem. I am using HDhomerun Extend and Fire Stick 4K., The live tv will go back to guide after 3 or 4 minutes. Problem is solved by changing the transcode setting,
Open Plex sever, manage, live tv & Dvr, device settings change the transcoder quality to original format from Highest quality. Save and wait for couple minutes. Start your plex app on FireTV. Check your playback information and make sure the source is direct.
Plex Server, manage, live TV & DVR, device settings does not have a transcoder quality. In that setting, I have only Transcode while recording on or off.
Thanks for the input CranbrerryPlex. If you sideload and have a good experience let me know and maybe I’ll update hdhomerun.
I had transcode turned on in HDHomeRun CONNECT settings and I turned it off a few days ago.
It’s possible this helps some things (like live tv exiting as mentioned) but my overall experience is really bad unless I’m on an older version (8.2.1 being the best I can find).
On later versions, the recording portion of the hdhomerun works fine as long as I watch it after the recording finishes. However, trying to watch something that is currently recording is difficult to impossible.
Setting “Transcode Interlaced Live TV” to off makes the video continue, but the audio is way off on my TV. The only thing that I watch live is sports, so this workaround is acceptable for me, but it probably isn’t for everyone.
To note: this is using the latest publicly available release of both server and Fire TV app.
When you watch the Live TV, on the right down corner, there is a orange dot, click to view the playback information, make sure it says the source is not transcoded. Both of the HDhomerun and Plex server are direct play.
No audio delay on my side. I check the plex (client) app setting on the firetv , the HDMI audio passthrough is ON.
