After the latest update Live TV on our local Plex server connected to a HDHomeRun Prime 3, randomly stops on Roku platforms. (our main Android TV runs directly on the HDHomeRun app so have not see the issue there) on multiple channels at completely random times.
Verified that local resources are not an issue, HDD, and CPU all on low utilization and network is hardwired on all devices. Also verified there is no transcoding going on, should all be direct streams across the board.
Any chance there is something in the release that is messing with Live TV? (recordings appears to be ok for now)
The last crash happened a local 3:38PM Home Player started playing Live Session 1caf290b63196b5dad906ea3f1209b9e on Office Roku TV. (this was me resuming live tv manually)
Nothing in alerts about the previous crash. It appears as a buffering where the buffer just stays at 33% forever until you exit the player and resume the live tv stream as a new stream.
Been running some tests today on this issue. A not 100% verified issue I have identified is that this error seems to be linked to having a web-console for the Plex Server open on some machine. After having had this closed for hours I have not had a single breakdown, this could be a think in the interface for the admin of the server.
I’ve been having issues with Live TV on Roku for awhile, so I’ll happily put this theory to the test tonight. I sure hope you’re on to something, because it’s been driving us nuts!
I came home at lunch, made sure the web app wasn’t open on any devices, and started a live stream.
I’m not sure when it exactly stopped, but I was greeted with an error about signal quality when I got home.
Not sure about OP, but for me, the stream will begin to “buffer” at some point, but stays stuck on 33% for several minutes until it errors out and says that the signal wasn’t strong enough – we have cable and are using a HDHR Prime 3.
Yep I have seen the bug now as well without the web app being open (however I still see more when it is open then when it is not)
As for the 33% bugout, that is what I am seeing as well, I usually just exit out and re-initiate the stream to get back to what I am watching when it bugs out so I rarely get to the error message.
Wasn’t at home for week 1 of the NFL, but I was home today. Had Plex tuned into RedZone on mute while we had the Packer game (wasn’t on TV for me) radio feed going from the stereo.
The radio feed was behind, so we tried pausing the live TV stream to get them more in sync. After about 15 seconds, the Plex app quit and I was greeted with the Roku home screen. I got back into Plex and tuned back to the same channel. Because the app didn’t exit gracefully, PMS was still tuned into the channel and asked if I wanted to play from the beginning or live. I selected beginning and it worked perfectly. I was able to fast forward to where I needed to be without issue.
After another 5 or 10 minutes, the stream began to try and buffer, but was stuck at 33% until it failed out and told me the signal quality wasn’t good enough… This killed the stream, so I had to just start live next time. After another 5 or 10 minutes, it again tried to “buffer” and failed out.
I thought I saw this was fixed in one of the last releases for Roku, but it doesn’t seem to have been corrected. We ended up just using the HDHomeRun app on Roku and it worked perfectly for the remaining 2 or so hours of the early NFL games.
At least watch from beginning and time-shifting appear to be working.
Upgraded to the PMS 1.17 beta was almost convinced this had fixed the buffering issue with live TV on Roku, as I had watched for almost 4 hours with no issues! However, it eventually happened again.
I ran a search for “Roku Live TV 33%” and here is just a sampling of the returned results. I think only two of these threads had a response from a Plex team memeber, but obviously no resolution. It’s a big problem and I don’t know if it’s really been acknowledged yet.
One of those topics was mine. I am.experiencing the 33% stop during live TV. Watching Chiefs / Ravens game and my CBS channel has high signal strength. Sure enough, the feed stops about every 10 or 15 minutes.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure signal strength has nothing to do with it.
When we first started having the issue, we were using an antenna and I thought it was totally possible. Now we have cable and still receive the same error when it fails out.
While we had one of the games playing on our Roku yesterday, I had my Android tablet out streaming RedZone. While the TV stream failed out a couple of times, the stream on the tablet played without error.
This is definitely a problem exclusive to the Roku, I’m sure not any closed to maybe figuring out where the problem lies. Even with MPEG2 direct play enabled on the Roku, the server has to direct stream live TV, so maybe it has something to do with that. If playback a recording on the Roku, it never has an issue when actually direct playing.
The web app open theory has been debunked by others already and I can confirm I have now seen the same behavior.
Second test I have for the past day is to disable “Allow MPEG2” on the Roku TV and let the Plex Server transcode to H264 (I have a decent nVidia Quadro card so it costs almost nothing in resources) so far zero drops, worth testing if you have the CPU/GPU to handle some transcoding.
Will update if I see crashes for this test in my office setup (TV on all day)
I’ll go ahead and disable MPEG2 on our TV tonight for MNF and I’ll report back. I’m pretty sure it will solve the issue though.
Last year when HDHomeRun Premium TV was a thing, I posted a couple of times about the same issue, but in that instance the streams were H.264 (not MPEG2) and being direct streamed. If transcoded, they worked fine.
I’m not sure why PMS remuxes live streams when being played on Roku (I think it has something to do with enabling time-shifting), but I think this is what is causing playback issues (probably a Roku issue).
