Long time Plex user for stored content, and an even longer time user of Windows Media Center for Live TV and DVR. I have been using WMC with a CableCARD Tuner (HD HomeRun Prime) and recently I finally got word that Microsoft is ending the electronic program guide for free. I’ve always joked about how this day might come. I know there are some other options to get guide data again in WMC, but I figured i’d get a Plex Pass and give Plex a shot for LiveTV and DVR. From what I can read from previous forum posts, things have come A LONG way since the introduction of these features and that is awesome.
Right now I’ve got my Plex server (Ubuntu VM running in ESXi with GPU passthrough) tweaked to support Live TV from my HDHRP and added a new volume for DVR storage. Everything there appears to be working. Guide data is taking a long time to refresh, but it’s working finally.
Trying to keep my Wife Acceptance Factor score high, I need to find a replacement for WMC on the TV in the living room. It seems like Plex has removed it’s “TV Mode” experience from the current version of Plex Media Player and I realize their rational is that most people are watching from streaming devices and mobile devices, but I really don’t want to transcode all of the MPEG2VIDEO from the HDHRP for the Apple TV app. That is a poor WAF score for sure.
I’d rather keep my Windows 7 box with new software on it that I can use with my Logitech Harmony remote if I can and I am hoping that I can direct play the MPEG2VIDEO streams because I still have WMC installed.
What is the best practice for this in 2019? If I can’t provide a similar TV viewing experience in the living room with Plex I may have to look at Channels on the Apple TV or worst case, getting a new source of Guide Data for WMC, but I’m completely excited about all of the new feature gains I will get from DVR on Plex so this is the worst case scenario here.
Is OpenPHT still a thing? Does Kodi fit into this anywhere (That seems to work well in a Living room experience).
Thank you! I’m downloading the Windows client now. Odd, I downloaded the Plex Media Player for Windows from the plex.tv homepage earlier this morning and it installed version 1.4.1. Why did this version not download instead? I apologize for the out dated information, I read a few older forum posts indicating that this was removed.
Thank you! I’ve installed it and in it right now and it’s exactly what I was looking for!
I’m currently RDPing into my HTPC from work, so I can’t really see how the performance is, but I can cross this one off my list! Thanks!
Not sure why transcoding for Apple TV is an issue. As long as your server can handle it, everything is done automatically by plex; your wife won’t even notice. My current set up is a server with a 3rd Gen i5 (supports hardware h264) and a roku, works great. Also supports grid view for guide.
I initially had trouble transcoding live TV, but I did not have hardware transcoding configured for my ubuntu VM. I had to enable passthrough for the Intel GPU in EXSi (with quick sync, Core i5 Ivybridge, it’s fairly old, but supports it), once I did that though, I noticed that transcoded MPEG2VIDEO was way smoother and quicker. Last night I spent most of my time re-building my DVR schedule and started recordings and ensuring things were working correctly.
Not having a guide view in the windows App is a real deal breaker- it makes Live TV almost un-usable. I have an Apple TV 4K in the living room as well and will play with that, but IR control wise it’s a bit more limited. Can you do channel surfing? If watching a channel, is there a way to arrow up and down between them?
I don’t have an apple TV, but on the roku if I hit the up arrow the video stream goes to the top right corner and the guide appears. Not exactly channel surfing but close enough for me.
