New Plex Guide Very Poor in UK

does this work for network based tuners like HomeRun?

Yes, I’ve used it with a networked HDHomeRun and successfully retrieved XML all okay. There is a website as well you can use to download the guide as XML incase you haven’t come across it before and that is http://www.xmltv.co.uk/

yes, but it is limited to 72hrs for all channels and 7 days for a limited number channels (not configurable).

A a user and a consumer I want Plex “the product” to do what it is advertised to do. I primarily bought Plex for it’s DVR functionality as a delayed replacement to Windows Media Center following Microsoft’s abandonment.

As a side note, I used to be quiet involved over at The Green Button back in the day and I was once, along with a handful of other UK users, part of Microsoft’s Most Valued Consumer programme (not quiet the same as being an MVP but I do have an MVP umbrella from the meet).

There are lots of areas where WMC wasn’t as good as Plex, certainly Plex’s library features and organisation of them is far superior. However, the free version of Plex performed quiet nicely in that area for me and did what I needed it to. I simple upgraded to the “paid for product” at the back end of 2018 to gain the DVR functionality as I bought a HD Homerun the very same day - unfortunately this functionality in the main has now been broken for longer than it was working.

As a software engineer I too am embarrassed by the product and as “another side note”, like a lot of open source developers I even have code hidden away in one of the libraries that Plex uses :wink:

From both angles I would like the bugs to fixed and missing features to be implemented, Don’t get me wrong sa2000 is doing a grand job of “wack-a-mole” with the guide, and has even been able to get some of my bug reports fixed, but some of the basics, and more importantly some of the functionality that we had 12 months ago is still missing.

I just can’t comprehend why Elan is paying the “R&D” developers to come up with new features for PlexAmp (where some of those features should be in the mainstream Plex clients, such as Gapless Playback for example) and PlexDash (why does this product even exist? I installed it, had a bit of a play and have never used it again since) at the cost of making Plex a worse product and continually upsetting some of his customers.

Surely get the advertised and paid for features working reliably and then add the bells and whistles on top?

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I personally would like to see the OTA data merged with the downloaded data so that we have the best of both worlds. For me I think this would fix the following:

  • Last minute changes to the schedule (emergency broadcasts and pulled programmes)
  • Start and finish notifications (Late running live shows and extended news)
  • Correct the downloaded data where we or sa2000 hasn’t spotted an error or hasnt been able to correct an error in time
  • Fix the 5 minute infotainment / news inserts from terminating a movie early

I can’t believe the amount of times I’ve gone to watch a TV show or movie only to find:

  • It isn’t what I was expecting
  • It didn’t start on time so I am missing some of it (it doesn’t matter if that is a minute, 5 minutes or 30 minutes - at that point I don’t want to watch it)
  • I get an hour into a movie only to find I don’t have the second half (often my own stupidity I guess for not spotting the run time)
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I wasn’t aware of that thread but have raised that issue elsewhere. The last post from @sa2000 in that thread stated;

“We now have confirmation that a fix is being designed and will go through the change process for implementing. I do not have any dates on it but the good news is that there is a planned fix”

That was December - 6 months later @sa2000, is there any more good news you can bring us about an implementation date?

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At least I’m not the only one waiting on this! Since Plex recognises the two parts of the recording I can’t help but think this issue could be overcome by a little bit of clever code rather than wait another year for the provider to change things.

This is one of the most frustrating things we found about Plex DVR, it is a step backwards and our 10+ year old Humax PVR can cope with films over a gap, and do so much more DVR wise. Wanting to replace it, Plex and a network tuner appeared on paper to be the solution, how wrong we were. I suspect in some countries EPG tracking, automatic compensation for drifting schedules, and clever features like picking up second halves of films over a news break are not available at all, so using Plex doesn’t seem like so much of a backward step.

In the UK we’ve done pretty well on driving the DVB specification and introducing lots of useful features. As I’ve mentioned previously in this thread I gave up on Plex and then programmed my own PVR software, and ironically didn’t need to do anything special to cope with films over a break as it is all written into the specifications, it just works. Even selecting the second half accidentally, automatically picks up the first half, so you always get the whole film.

Why Plex is finding it so difficult to implement picking up the second part of a film I don’t know, I suspect most of the issues are related to their data provider that seems to be lacking in the detail and accuracy it provides.

I think if Plex staff were from the UK having used readily available PVRs on our Freeview platforms we have here they would understand our frustrations with Plex DVR, and how lacking and unreliable it is.

This is my UI and software, also the Humax PVR and pretty much any Freeview PVR you can buy in the UK does the same thing, so if I can do it, a team of one, what is happening at Plex towers that is stopping them from fixing it?

Selecting to record just one part, automatically selects other parts after a break


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Yep. Agree

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Sorry there was a setback. I did post it elsewhere and have now updated the thread where that text was posted

This was my last update on the split movies issue

I regret that we have a setback on this and it now needs to be fixed in our ingestion process.

It is on the list of developments but is held back at the moment because of some re-engineering of the ingestion process to improve its reliability. Once that is complete then I will push for this to be addressed

Thanks. The workaround of course works but it is irritating, especially when adding minutes at the end throws up previously unknown conflicts with other recording.

Hi all,

I would like to add an EPG issue that I have picked up today in the UK:

Tried to record on Channel 5 but the EPG data through Plex app via Amazon Fire TV is different to the TV EPG. I refreshed the list after checking Channel 5 was selected but no change.

I then installed the latest update and refreshed but no joy.

I decided to play the TV through my laptop to see if the correct programme was showing to match the TV EPG or if incorrect. When I did this, it was wrong, playing the programme as per the Plex EPG but what I noticed was down in the bottom left, it showed that it was playing 5 Access, not Channel 5 - even though my channel list in my settings showed it was Channel 5 on the drop down list

In summary, Plex (using a HomeRun tuner) showed Channel 5 on the dropdown list but was showing 5 Access programming, only confirmed when watching through the laptop.

I don’t know if my explanation is clear but I haven’t seen this particular issue described by others before.

I hope this helps with EPG corrections.

What region are you?

Type this into your browser to get all your HDHomerun channels. What channel is “5 Access” for you? It’s not available to me and I must admit I have never heard of it.

Also, what were your trying to record? 
can you give the series name, season, episode & start time?

Can you also give the name of what you were actually seeing?

I believe # 005 is “Channel 5” for everyone so this is quite confusing.

Hi jch. I have my laptop on again and it has changed slightly. It was playing the film Pixels, instead of The Flower Shop Mysteries (don’t judge me, my wife likes the Hallmark movies!) and showed what I thought said 5 Access in the corner but I might have been mistaken.

Now, my laptop is playing Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords on Channel 5, which is correct but my programme info at the bottom of the screen says it should be Johnny English Reborn, which was listed as the next item on my EPG after Pixels - and what I thought said 5 Access.

Having looked at all Channel 5 affiliates tv guides, nothing resembling Pixels & Johnny English films is listed! Very weird.

It is all very confusing and also frustrating because although the EPG issues aren’t as bad as they were in my experience, because it is intermittent, it is almost worse. Today is a good example, as it happens to be wrong for a specific item I wanted to record.

I am not very techie, so any solution for me, if Plex don’t get a better EPG solution, has to be user friendly to set up.

I was wondering if I should subscribe to the HomeRun EPG service, as I use their tuner but I have paid for a Lifetime Pass, so don’t want to if I can help it.

Sorry for rambling; I know glitches happen, which is why I originally posted, in case it was something new as an issue.

According to “On TV Tonight”, Pixels and Johnny English are not being aired at all in the next 7 days in the UK


If you go to settings → Live TYV and DVR. What does it say after "DVR - " on the screen?

[edit] 
also, what is your region? 
what postcode did you use when you setup your EPG?

If memory serves me correctly 5 Access is the name Channel 5 give their annoying 5 minute news intervals - those that are causing us so much grief in recording movies in full length :wink:

I was playing with the new Guide feature in the all new, re-written Samsung 2016+ client earlier and noticed that Johnny English Reborn was showing on a Channel 5. If I search for it in Plex now it shows as Today at 16:05.

huh.

“Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords” was on Channel 5 at 16:05 today.

Mmmmmm
. Yet more bad data from Plex then :frowning: