I’ve been reading the forums to see if I can get any information on the growing problem I see with LIVE-TV & DVR feature. I recently bought a HDHomeRun Connect Quad, after seeing that Plex supported it. The set-up and integration went as expected, no real problems.
I did a couple of test recordings, none of them worked. I was getting random recordings, just like other people, then the dreaded transcoder error.
I have also been getting it randomly on playback to a Samsung TV, the playback would keep stopping with Transcoder errors. Not too fussed as I normally stream from my FireTV instead.
The computer I’m running the Plex Server 1.13.5.5291 beta on is a Windows 10 Machine, AMD FX 9590, 16Gb Mem, using a 256Gb SSD for OS, and 2TB download / transcoding & 6TB for main storage. The 2TB has 1.8TB free and the main storage has 1.14TB free.
I’ve also tried to downgrade the server to various lower versions and all do the same thing, record for a random amount of time before getting a transcoder error.
I have used the Curl command to grab 30 mins worth of recording from the HDHomeRun without any issue. I can play it back and it was a flawless recording. So I can rule out the connection between them.
Please turn off Verbose logging unless specifically asked by a Plex Employee. Verbose logging adds a bunch of extra entries to the log that are unnecessary and causes the logs to roll over too frequently.
The recording that I found is showing that the Transcoder does not see any Audio or Video when it started trying to record the incoming stream from the HDHR tuner.
Jul 26, 2018 19:06:00.713 [88176] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: It took 30.9 sec to start the session for http://192.168.0.16:5004/auto/v102
Jul 26, 2018 19:06:00.714 [88176] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: No part because session isn't reporting one.
Jul 26, 2018 19:06:00.714 [88176] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Couldn't obtain a part, something went wrong.
Jul 26, 2018 19:06:00.714 [88176] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Error 12 (There was a transcoder error) starting the record, shutting things down.
Have your tried to manually record a sample from the above channel? If not try the following from a command prompt:
I’ve already tried most of the suggestions I’ve read on the forum including what you said. Nothing so far has made a difference. I have turned off IPv6, that seems to make things a little more stable. I can record now for 5 minutes before it stops with a transcoder error.
I’ve just done a test, recording 3 TV channels at once, two have completed without error and the third is still going. Strange thing, nothing has been changed…
The plot thickens… from my logs, I can see that FFMPEG threw up some errors, regarding the audio conversion. I’ll keep my eye on it. Perhaps its having a good day.
Would be able to provide some fresh logs, and a sample, per the instructions below, please?
Getting samples for DVR issues
Steps:
Restart your server, and allow the EPG to load (if it’s been ~18 hours since a server restart)
If you had the EPG reload, then restart your server again (this keeps the logs clean, as there won’t be the EPG refresh this time) - otherwise you can skip this step
Start a direct .ts sample from the tuner. You can do this by using a command such as: curl http://tunerip:port/auto/channel > /users/outputpath/plexSamples/samplefile.ts for macOS or Linux.
For Windows use something like this: curl http://192.168.0.16:5004/auto/v102 -o C:\Users\Loki\Desktop=\sample.ts
(You can copy the tuner URL bit from your logs, if it helps)
Start a recording in PMS of a problematic channel
Wait for the error to occur.
Stop the direct capture from the tuner
Download the complete logs from the server
Zip up the logs, the direct sample from the tuner, and the recording from PMS, and post them here (tag me to make sure I see them)
