I want to make sure that I am understanding this correctly.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/226463767-Frequently-Asked-Questions-DVR
Can I add more than one DVR tuner?
Multiple tuners can be added from within the Plex Web app, provided you are using version 2.10.5 or newer. Tuners must be of the same type; all OTA or all cable, on the same Plex Media Server
For example, the HD HomeRun Connect has 2 built in tuners. Could I have 3 HD HomeRun Connects for a total of 6 tuners and DVR or LiveTV all 6 tuners through Plex at the same time (server hardware and performance aside)?
Yes… Currently, I have 1 WinTV quadHD PCI card and then I added a WinTV dualHD USB. The PCI card has 4 tuners and the USB dongle as 2 for a total of 6 tuners and all are working. I did attempt to add a second quadHD PCI card in the system for a total of 8 tuners prior to the picking up the dual USB, but the 2nd PCI card simply wouldn’t be recognized by my system. I’m pretty certain it has nothing at all to do with Plex, I’ve narrowed the PCI issue to my motherboard and how the PCIe bus is split with one PCIe slot running via the X88A bus and the other PCIe slot being ran thru the APU bus. I really want 8 total tuners running via the 2 PCIe cards. I’m going to try a different motherboard next week to test my A88X/APU bus theory.
Current System:
OS: Windows 10 Pro
MB: Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-D3H-rev-30
CPU: AMD A10-7890K
RAM: 16MB
HDD: 12TB (4 - 3TB drives)
Single HD OTA Antenna with a splitter running to the two tuners
Hauppauge WinTV quadHD PCIe Card
Hauppauge WindTV dualHD USB stick
Happy Plexing!
Thanks for the reply and I’d be interested to hear if you get that 2nd PCIe card working.
I found the issue with the 2nd PCI card, as I suspected, it’s how the PCIe slots are handled by the Gigabyte F2A88X board. all but 1 PCIe and PCI are handled by the APU bus, while only 1 PCIe and PCI slot is handled by the X88 bus and Hauppauge itself is using old mfg tech when they make the PCIe board and won’t speed up the PCIe board itself so the MB isn’t seeing it so it can pass off the info to the OS for windows device manager to see it. The board itself is slow (x1) and needs the x1 slots to run. It’s the perfect storm of old manufacturing tech on Hauppauge’s part and high-speed PCIe slots on the MB not liking each other.
So to get two of the Hauppauge PCIe cards working, you need a motherboard which specifically has 2 - PCIe 2.0 x1 slots handled by the non-APU bus.
For me, that’s going to be a forklift upgrade. I just purchased the A10-7890K CPU to handle the transcoding of Plex a few weeks ago. To get a new MB, means I’ll have to upgrade the CPU again to AM3 socket.
Here’s a MB that I found which meets the capability to handle both PCIe tuners from Hauppauge - https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-B350-PLUS
I’ll upgrade the MB and CPU at some point in the near future so I can have the 4 additional tuners unless Hauppauge decides to get with the program and make the cards so they work in x8 and x16 PCIe slots that are handled by an APU bus.
I had looked at that quadHD PCIe card, but I’m pretty sure that due to the way my rig is set up, I can’t use it. I’m running a docker Plex Media Server on Unraid. There doesn’t seem to be drivers that the host (Unraid) supports. I’m probably going to go with a HomeRun Connect or Extend. My concerns are / were multiple devices, and bandwidth through put. I’m wanting 3 to 4 tuners, and being able to have multiple HomeRun devices (2 tuners each device), I can do that with 2 of them. Now, I just wonder about my Plex rig recording 4 tuners simultaneously over the network. Seems like more of a bottleneck than a PCIe card.
Another question (a little off topic), when Plex is streaming live TV, is it pointing the client to the tuner device or is recording from the tuner to the hard drive/s (writing) and then streaming to the client from the drive/s (reading) simultaneously? I’d assume the latter since you can time shift LiveTV.
@d8sychain - I have 6 tuners running now - 4 with the quadHD PCIe x1 card from Haup and the dualHD USB dongle from Haup. It’s working. But as I mentioned above, I’ll eventually be pulling my MB so that I can have two PCIe x1 slots so I can use 2 of the quadHD cards.
As for the streaming, I don’t know how its being handled internally.
