Server Version#: 4.126.1
Player Version#: AppleTV App
Tuner Make/Model: HDHomeRun Quatro 4k
Guide/Lineup name: ?
Using XMLTV?: ?
Channel number/Name: ?
Server was originally hosted on a 2014 iMac and serves up LiveTV and DVR functionality from an HDHomeRun Quatro 4k.
The iMac is getting old and I moved the server to a newer Mac mini with M2 processor.
Music, Movies, etc. all work flawlessly. However, LiveTV from the HDHomeRun has been plagued with an issue I’ve been unable to resolve.
In short, selecting the channel from the guide will serve up television feed, generally local broadcasts from OTA antennas. After 30 seconds or so, it stops and the screen reverts back to the guide.
I tried everything I could find and ultimately switched back to the iMac. No issues on iMac, and the HDHomeRun App works without issue as well.
One notable, when tailing logs on the console (using another computer), the dashboard freezes when the interruption occurs. Or it only shows bandwidth dropping to 0 followed by a spike. The console logs show nothing. Useless.
Believing it to be compatibility problems with M2 chip, I tried another x86 Mac mini and saw the same problem.
As of now, I’ve resumed working with the new Mac mini M2 chip since the older hardware is to be retired. I’m using the HDHomeRun App to watch broadcast TV, but would much rather stay in the Plex app.
My Experience has been with a Mac Mini M2 Pro and a HD HomeRun and using the Apple TV 4K Plex App. Drop outs reverts back to the guide. A huge PITA
Good news recently, this seems to be resolved since new Apple player Beta Testing, even though it’s a bit of a accidental byproduct.
My belief it’s about interlaced TV content, trans coding…
I would suggest to check that HDHomeRun Firmware is up to date, by using your browser and point to it’s LAN IP address, also the latest Plex Media Server version is 1.40.1.8227. For correct Versions use the PMS Tool ( Spanner) and navigate to Authorised Devices in PMS settings
This issue has been for me in Australia with Terrestrial Local TV, which is 1080i mostly. Glad it’s not happening any more. So cross fingers and the Beta update goes main stream soon.
I never thought about interlaced content.
Excellent observation. The channels I’m having issue with are 1080i. Actually, I think all the OTA channels are 1080i with only a couple being 720p. Interlaced doesn’t explain why the old iMac as a server never presented an issue. Might be that it was slower, which helped?
I’m not sure why PMS wants to transcode anything since the TV can play it direct. But I will give your suggestions a try and report back the findings.
I listed wrong PMS version. I’m currently using: 1.40.1.8227.
I’ll check the HDHomeRun as well.
Thank you for the help.
UPDATE
Checked and the OTA channels are DirectPlay, not transcoded.
Since this is only happening with AppleTV, how do you install the newest beta build?
I was able to grab a screen shot of the Dashboard when this happens… easy to see where the drop occurs:
UPDATE
I’ve given up on M2 Mac chip.
From the DVR not working to guide freezing and the console showing nothing but nothing.
Five minute pivot back to my old iMac and everything was back up and running.
