I’m long time user of Plex, but new user to Live TV on Plex. I am, however, a long time user of Channels on tvOS. I’m interested in the idea of using Plex for Live TV & DVR, but I’m having a horrible experience. Live TV is unwatchable.
Streams take, on average, 15 seconds to load. Video stutters/pauses every few seconds. I’m running Plex Media Server on my an 8-bay Synology. Plex Media Server reports up to date with Version 1.12.2.4929. I’m using a 2-tuner HDHomeRun Extend. I also see a “Weak Signal” error during playback. For comparison, using Channels on tvOS, streams instantly start, there are zero hiccups playing video, and I have great signal strength when checking directly from the HDHomeRun.
I get the same playback experience testing on an iOS device as well.
I have been told this is due to the fact that Plex is unable to play a direct stream from the HDHomeRun w/o transcoding the video, which the Synology is unable to do in real-time. If this is the case, this information is either not documented or buried somewhere that I can not find.
I’m attaching server logs that should show a single playback attempt. What other information can I provide, as I appreciate any help with this issue.
Your NAS is running on an Atom D2701 processor. That’s a very underpowered processor (a Passmark score of under ~750).
The TV broadcast you’re watching is in MPEG-2 format (as are nearly all US-based broadcasts).
Apple TV (and iOS) devices aren’t natively capable of playing MPEG-2, so your Plex Media Server will need to transcode the stream to be compatible for playback on an Apple TV. (That would be similar to trying to play any video format that isn’t natively compatible, such as DivX or VP9, too.) Following our Why is my Video Stream Buffering troubleshooting article, your logs show that your NAS is averaging roughly 0.3-0.4 of real-time speed, which means that it’s too slow to be able to convert the content for smooth playback (it is taking more than 2 seconds to convert 1 second of video, meaning that it’s capable of converting at less than half the needed speed).
Because your NAS can’t convert/transcode the content fast enough, that results in buffering/pausing in the client app (Apple TV, in this case). You could instead try playing in an app that supports MPEG-2 for direct playback, such as our Android app or Plex Media Player. Similarly, a tuner like the HDHomeRun EXTEND offers built-in transcoding, so it could transcode the stream to a compatible H.264 format itself before delivering it to Plex (meaning Plex wouldn’t need to convert it because the H.264 would be natively compatible with Apple TV).
The “Channels” app may implement non-standard software-decoding of MPEG-2, but Plex currently makes use of the native Apple TV capabilities, which don’t include MPEG-2 support, unfortunately.
Chris: Thank you for the support. I tested the different hardware transcode options on the Extend. I noticed a drop in resolution/bitrate, but the stuttering issue wasn’t resolved. Is the Extend also transcoding the audio, or could that be the issue?
You can see what the Plex server is doing by starting a stream on your apple tv, then logging to Plex Web on your laptop, click on the EKG looking button on the top right and you will what it is doing.
