Plex will use an xmltv file just fine; is that what you’re referring to?
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I use HD Homerun OTA/Premium with a schedules direct subscription. The xmltv file can be uploaded into Plex, but it is without issues. For example, all my local nightly news programs show in Plex as ‘Movies’, episode descriptions are missing a lot, and cover art is missing frequently. It’s the best option I currently have but it is far from perfect.
Not a true statement. You don’t have to have a lifetime Plex Pass to use live tv/dvr, you just have to have a Plex Pass (I subscribe annually for example; there is a monthly option as well).
My bad - I jsut meant to point out that WE are somehow (monthly/lifetime) paying a premium for Live TV.
adding schedules direct doesn’t seem to be a option
My point is not about schedules direct, it’s that I (and others) was willing to pay a bit more for a feature when I used another PVR program (that is scheduling data), and I think that could be the case here. Gracenote is not free. It’s costing Plex something, and it may well be the reason they are moving so slow on this request, because maybe the agreement is for one user instance of Gracenote per Plex server. If that’s the case, I’m willing to pay an additional monthly/annual fee to overcome this problem. Again, assuming it is indeed a fact - I don’t really know.
As of this writing, this feature has 231 votes. A related feature, HDHOMERUN Premium TV, has 62 votes. I’m pretty sure that this feature would almost fully address the issues for the HDHomeRun Premium TV feature. The total votes for the two features is 293. This ties the fourth ranked feature suggestion. Yet there is no response from Plex. The silence is deafening.
I contacted Silicon Dust support regarding the issues. Here is the support request…
Folks,
I have purchased two HDHomeRun Extends and am in a 14 day trial of your Premium TV service.
I have had good experience using a single Extend with Plex for off-air DVR use. I have previously subscribed to Hulu for OTT channels, but would like to move permanently to your Premium TV. I have also been using a four tuner Tablo DVR but would like to move fully to the Plex DVR platform and integrate it with your Premium TV service. I know that you offer a DVR service, but prefer to keep as much of my media as possible within Plex. And, each of my TVs are equipped with a Roku. I know of no other way than Plex to use your products well with a Roku.
I knew going into purchasing an additional Extend and the Premium service that there would be issues. They are documented on various forums, but not particularly well. There are also solutions and workarounds mentioned, though these are also not well documented. There is almost no discussion of any of this in your support FAQs and instructions. And, of course, your product pages for Premium TV would lead one to believe Plex is supported.
At this point I have installed my two tuners and set them up in Plex. I am located in the Houston, TX area (central time zone). I have selected a “Comcast - Digital” guide. I am surprisingly pleased at the number of channels supported by this guide and their arrangement. Most of the OTA channels I would like to have listed are. And I am delighted that the Premium TV channels mostly match their channel numbers in the listing. However, as expected, there are time zone / schedule issues for many channels. At this point, I am not even sure how to get an accurate listing of programs on your channels from TVGuide.com, much less via Plex on my Rokus.
Do you have any well documented workarounds for the Plex timezone / guide issues? Do you have suggestions for any useable on-line guides to simply see what’s on? Do you have any other working solutions for using your products with Rokus? Can I expect this situation to clear up with work you, Plex or guide providers may be releasing soon?
Thank you,
Bob Ketcham
This was their response…
Dear Bob,
In short, it’s up to Plex to fix the design of their software so that it supports multiple channel lineups simultaneously. Dedicated channel lineups for the Premium TV service are available from Gracenote, who supply data to us, Plex, Channels, Schedules Direct, Emby, basically any other software you might use to watch TV. The problem with Plex is that it only supports using one channel lineup at a time, so you can pick your OTA lineup or you can pick the Premium TV lineup, but not both together. This is in contrast to basically all other DVR software in existence, as pretty much everything supports multiple lineups. There are no workarounds we are aware of for Plex that don’t require violating the terms of service of whatever guide data source you’re using, so we do not recommend any attempts to do so and cannot provide any documentation on how it might be done. Your best options are either keeping the pressure on Plex via forums/social media and hoping they develop the support, or switching to Emby, which has many of the same features as Plex including Roku compatibility, but also supports multiple guide lineups.
Silicondust Support
The ball is in your court, Plex. This problem is so severe for many, and your product so weak vs. others, I don’t even understand why you would need a voted feature request to fix it. It should be handled like a fairly critical bug.
similarly frustrated for quite some time on this particular issue and others with plex. I recently (just this past week), switched to emby and have been loving it. their epg setup works out of the box with multiple tuner/multiple lineups. (you do, however, have to have some type of premium subscription with emby to use live tv/dvr) library scans also seem almost like lightning in emby vs plex.
Emby also has pretty sweet integration with Kodi, allowing emby backend/ kodi frontend setup (also something plex can’t do)… not counting plexkodiconnect hack.
plex ui is a bit more polished, but emby customization seems pretty great so far. personally, I couldn’t wait on plex any longer… emby is definitely worth a look
I had a similar request as well I posted here.
Thanks. That request does not have the “vote” feature attached to it. If you haven’t already, you should vote in this forum (in the header at the top of the forum) to help lobby Plex for this item.
Thanks, yes I have voted on this one…
This feature is needed in my household. The whole reason that I am switching to Plex is so that I can abandon my cable provider once and for all. I would much prefer to use silicon dust channels, and tune those via Plex. The general mapping option works well I am sure, and it is a cute workaround. But this is not the kind of action that people take who want to use a real piece of software to solve a real problem in their house.
Channel mapping is not a long-term solution, merely an experimental exercise.
We hear you Bob! Rest assured we’re working to address nearly every issue mentioned in this thread. Stay tuned!
Wow! Thank you! I am absolutely delighted to hear this. Unless I’ve missed something, I think this is the very first confirmation that Plex was working on this issue since HD HomeRun introduced their Premium TV last August. Between this and Roku UNO, that bitter taste in my mouth is turning much sweeter. A little communication goes a long, long way.
This makes me soooo happy!
I have the HDHR Premium, along with local channels from two markets. I’m using a zip code from a random town between markets, so I got all the local stations, but I am missing a few others. It would be amazing to have multiple EPG sources so I could have all of the OTA channels and the HDHR PTV in Plex. I know there are thousands of others with similar situations a d this would be a game changer.
As much as I want to be happy, the question still remains of how long? Are we talking a couple weeks, months, or years. I have been playing with Emby and if this cant be fixed fairly quick, I think I might just take the leap. I prefer Plex, but I want my guide data correct. Plus, I can cast live TV to chromecast with Emby which is another thing missing from Plex.
I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for an answer to that question.
I am glad this is finally getting addressed. Once multiple guide sources are supported (Hopefully on a per channel basis as well). The only other feature that will be required is allowing secondary accounts to access Live TV.
Hey @thezigpc I’m curious exactly what your use case is here? Can you give me an example?
For me it would more as a workaround. There are certain channels for me in Germany with my provider Kabel Deutschland which are not available in the Kabel Deutschland guide. Reported it literally years ago, no changes there. Telekom guide has them though. So for the automatic channel mapping I need the Kabel Deutschland guide and for 2-3 channels I’d have to manually switch to the Telekom guide.
There are also certain regional channels (e.g. ORF 1/2) which have no uniform distribution, thus often missing from the guide even though they are available locally. Same for certain pay TV channels which are not all available in the Kabel Deutschland guide.
I assume the larger interest for per channel basis mapping is for international IPTV where many countries/providers have to be mixed for one device.
Gotcha. I’m not as versed in international guide data as I am with North American metadata. Are you solving the bulk of these issues with XMLTV solutions? Are there providers for this in Germany?
Originally I just used the Telekom guide instead of Kabel Deutschland. Had to painfully map every channel manually. I couldn’t check too often if the Kabel Deutschland guide has changed/got better because there is no mapping export/import function, thus everytime I checked I had to once again map every channel manually. Since about a year now I switched to the Kabel Deutschland guide since it got a little bit better and for the rest of the missing channels I just accepted my fate.
I have no experience in XMLTV providers. I’m currently running my IPTV with Perfect Player since the Kabel Deutschland guide only provides me with around 7 channels out of the 400 I am using. Which is why I am excited for multiple guide support so I can finally ditch Perfect Player and use IPTV on Plex with more than 7 channels. But as @thezigpc already mentioned there is probably not the one perfect guide out there to map all the international IPTV channels…
Speaking of this upcoming situation, is it an aesthetic reason (e.g. channel logo) why we can’t enable channels without having any guide data for it?
I definitely would like this feature and SOON - I need OTA listings for my OTA sources and Cable listings for my cable sources. A cable guide for both does not work for my OTA sources, because no cable system carries all of my OTA channels.
Allow 2 or more guide sources, that’s all I need. You already allow one guide source mapping per channel input. So, I just need my 7.3 OTA channel to map to an OTA listing for that channel. And I need my ‘TBS’ channel to map to a Cable listing for that channel.
I was astonished to see this is not in place already, and disheartened to learn that competitors do have it.
+1
throughout the server it seems to indicate I can create multiple DVRs how do I do this?
thanks leon
