Live TV transcoding

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1

OK, so I’m an old WMC user with a focus on Live TV and DVR use.

I am interested in Plex, however I want to understand an issue I am having.

Basically, Live TV is slow to load where as WMC is quite quick.

From what I have read, it is due to the need for plex to transcode the mpeg2 video.

I am using Apple TV 4k as the player and an Intel i5 CPU @2.8Ghz for the server which is hard wired.

I am using two kaiser baas tv dual sticks – Again which were quite quick under WMC.

So, two questions, would a TV Tuner which transcodes rather than relying on Plex solve the problem? Anyone have first hand reccomendations?

And, will Plex ever support playback of mpeg2 without the need to transcode? My understanding is Apple TV’s Channel App can play mpeg2 without transcoding.

Thanks!

Mark

2

Probably. I’m using the HomerunHD Extend which does hardware transcoding on the fly to H.264, something most if not all players can play directly.

Transcoding happens when the target device (say an Apple TV) can not natively play the video format (say mpeg2 from live/recorded tv). Plex uses the native player on each device so if that device can’t play mpeg2 natively, the Plex server is left to do the heavy lifting of transcoding.

The Channels app (and other video players such as Infuse, VLC, etc) on the other hand uses a custom video player and will do the transcoding on the client side.

Plex is unlikely to ever change their approach given the number of clients they support.

3

Just to add to what you’re saying, Plex does support native MPEG2 playback, including deinterlacing, on some devices. The Nvidia Shield does it, so does Plex Media Player for Windows. Also, if you have a 2017-or-later model of LG TV, the new Plex preview app can direct-play MPEG2. I don’t know what AppleTV can handle.

All that being said, I’ve never quite found an experience quite as easy as using Windows Media Center. That 30s-forward, 5s-back control made it really easy to skip through commercials.

4

Right – the target device supports mpeg2 playback, therefore Plex “supports” it.

iOS and tvOS devices cannot playback mpeg2 natively so that format will always be transcoded on those devices.

I’ve used this just fine on recorded TV shows and my iOS and PMP (macOS) clients. Four taps on the 30s FFW gets me through all the NFL commercials :smiley:

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Ok. Thank you all for the replies.

Hmmm, I am also having this issue of slow to load Live TV on my PC using Plex media player as well as using plex server to play on my server PC.

If plex windows media player can handle MPEG2 without transcoding I would have thought it I would not being noticing long load times?

Anything else I should be trying to improve? Even on the windows plex media player?

Thanks

6

Is your Plex Media Player connecting via WiFi? If so, Plex might need to transcode the HD MPEG2 for a more manageable bit rate.

Also, have you checked the “Now Playing” window in the Plex Web interface when Plex Media Player is in use? It’ll tell you if it’s transcoding the video, or direct-playing it.

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My network is wired, so not wifi problem.

Not sure where to look for the “Now playing”, do you mean the playback settings button?

When playing a SD channel it says “quality: convert(maximum)” and when playing a HD channel it says “quality: original (1080p HD)” and both are slow to load.

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