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I have a Hauppauge QuadHD Tuner and 3 different models of Rokus. The problem is that when watching Live TV, if I pause and wait until the Roku screen saver kicks in, the Live TV pause is killed. When I click to play that channel again I don’t get a popup that asks if I want to start from the beginning or watch live; it just starts playing. In the past, I was able to pause Live TV on one Roku, then go to another Roku on a different TV and pick it up from where I left off. That is completely gone now. Plex doesn’t do “trouble tickets” or let you open a “case” so I went to the Plex Facebook page and messaged them. Here’s what transpired:
Me:
I’ve been a Plex Pass end user for many, many years. When you changed the screen saver on the Roku client app, you did not do sufficient due diligence. If you pause while watching live tv and the screen saver comes on, Plex does not maintain the pause. That’s a game changer. There are complaints on the Plex forum where you can learn about a lot more issues caused by this programming screw up. If you are already aware of the issue and working towards a solution, please let us know when we can expect some relief.
Plex Pro: This change was intention to comply with new Roku guidelines. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Me: Thanks for the reply. It needs a fix. Badly.
Plex Pro: Unfortunately, this is not something we can control.
Me: Yes it is. Other apps show the Roku logo as a screen saver. When those apps are paused, they behave as you would expect. The plex app hands the screen saver to the Roku OS. That would be ok if the app would not lose the pause on the process, but it does. If I watch live TV and pause and the screen saver turns on, it dumps out of the channel you are watching and you have to click on that channel but you lose the minutes from when you paused. You absolutely have control over that.
Plex Pro: As mentioned, this is a new guideline requirement by Roku. It is possible you see a different behavior with other apps, because they have not been updated to meet this new requirement.
Me: So, you are saying that because of the new requirement, you can’t write code that preserves a paused live TV show so that when a button is pressed on the Roku remote returning the user to the plex screen, they can continue watching from the paused condition?
Plex Pro: I do not know the details, but the behavior you see now is a requirement by Roku. As you mentioned, the app did not do this before. We are aware this is an undesired behavior for many users and we are working with Roku to see if there is anything that can be done.
That was on June 21, 2023. It’s been over two weeks and still no fix. Plex has screwed up royally on this one. I know I’m not the only one affected by this so if you are also PO’d, I recommend messaging them on Facebook. Maybe if they get smothered in FB messages, they might get off their duffs and do something about it.
