Server Version#: 4.108.0
Player Version#: 8.24 (6661)
Tuner Make/Model: SiliconDust HDHomeRun Flex 4K ATSC 3.0
Guide/Lineup name: ???
Using XMLTV?: ???
Channel number/Name: multiple channels
I’m not a subscriber at this point. I think Plex may work for me, but I want to be sure before I start subscribing. (Yeah - that’s what they all say to convince people to provide answers, isn’t it?) Also, for now, the only Plex client I’m testing is on my AppleTV.
I’ve avoided Plex for years because it seemed to be overkill for what I wanted (plus the strict requirements for how Plex expects movie and TV shows to be organized is a pain for me). I reached the point where I got fed up with the video player I’ve been using and started looking for alternatives and find that Plex might actually do well at replacing my video player AND my live TV viewing program.
I’ve configured my Plex server (running on Debian Linux) to connect to my TV tuner on my LAN and I’m already running into a few issues:
When I’m watching a local TV channel and select a show, it starts playing. But then when the next show comes on, and I swipe down on my remote, to see the information, I find that the episode info is the same as what was playing when I first started watching that channel. For instance, I had The Rifleman, on a local MeTV affiliate playing. A down swipe showed the info, including the correct episode number and title and synopsis. Then, 45 minutes later, well into another episode of the same show on the same station, I swipe down and the episode info has not changed from what I saw at first. (This looks to me like a bug - the info isn’t updating to keep current with the guid.)
When I want to change channels, I hit Menu on my remote (again, using AppleTV). I like that the guide comes up AND the show I’m watching is still there, in the upper corner. The problem is that sometimes I try to move up or down the guide and can’t. There are times when I can’t selecta channel or anything else - it’s like nothing is selected at all and no “cursor” movement (left, right, up, or down) will move it to any selected item. I don’t know if this is something I’m doing or is a normal behavior under certain conditions. I can get out of it by pressing “Menu,” and it goes to the Live TV selection on the menu on the right. This also feels like a bug when the ability to select items just goes away.
I don’t see a way to pick “Record Program” while watching a show. I don’t see it on the guide or anywhere. Is this a premium feature or should I be able to use DVR features without a subscription? Other than the “Delete DVR” function on the control panel on the web interface, I don’t see anything that lets me do anything with the DVR.
Those are what I see as issues, possibly bugs. I have a few other questions:
Can I hid channels from the guide or arrange the guide? I see I can make favorite channels, but I’d also like to just hide some channels, like HSN, so I never have to deal with them.
If I have a show playing and I’m going through the guide, is there a quick way to return to what I’m watching instead of having to step through a number of lines on the guide to get back to the channel I was on?
I’m evaluating Plex and trying to decide whether to use it or something else.
Is it typical that new user questions like this go unanswered or ignored for so long in this forum? Is there another place I should be asking questions?
I don’t find this promising in terms of evaluating if I want to use Plex or not.
There are 100+ messages a day so sometimes one can drift by without a response. No harm in bumping your thread to the top like you did just as some people leave a message and don’t return to read the responses for a month or six. Generally it is expected that you will use the documentation such as https://support.plex.tv/articles/226463767-frequently-asked-questions-dvr-live-tv/ and then ask if there is something not specifically covered.
A Plex Pass is required to use the DVR function if that is the subscription you are referring too. Plex Pass enables access to additional features only, it is not a guarantee of service or payment for direct support. Just setting expectations.
HDHomeRun tuners - Definitely would recommend this over other types of tuners. Using a browser if you enter https://ip_of_the_tuner you can bring up an interface for managing the tuner, select “Channel Lineup” where clicking the star once will favor, clicking a second time will disable the channel. Doing so means Plex won’t match and if you ever go through setup again it simplifies the task. Since you have it already setup, use a browser and go to https://app.plex.tv/web and click the wrench in the upper right. Go to “Live TV & DVR” down the left menu list. In the center panel that comes up you can modify the channel matching or disable them entirely by clicking on the orange # enabled and unchecking any unwanted channels. Plex does not and likely will not support the 4K part of that tuner due to additional licensing which seems to be constantly changing.
Debian - Plain vanilla Debian is wonderful, any derivatives other than plain vanilla Ubuntu is a problem. The more info you give initially (like running in docker) the better to assist in helping you.
Apple TV - I don’t have one and the clients I do use (Plex for Windows, Google TV) don’t have these issues - at the moment. On these clients I can choose the little circle to begin recording a live session. Something that just happened is a new version of Apple TV was released and as Plex often does they try to release an updated client at or after the release. Usually there are rough edges that get ironed out over time. Unfortunately is seems they have reduced the development team to near 0 and it may be a while before some of the issues are corrected.
Live TV - Because their is an infinite combination of hardware/software/environment if Live TV usage is mostly what you are after then your best success will have higher requirements like a newish core i5 (7xxx or newer). I primarily use the DVR to record and watch later so not quite as resource intensive.
Library Management - Create separate TV and Movie libraries for use with the Live TV & DVR first because Plex does proper naming when it records and second if you turn on the delete function you don’t want the rules to be applied to your existing files which will happen.
I can deal with bumping - some forums can be strict about not doing that, but it’s easy to remember it’s allowed and useful here.
All the rest - it makes sense and answers all the questions I had. I tend to use LiveTV and playing local files equally, just had the questions about LiveTV first.
When you want to add your media to Plex, there are many tools that can help with naming things. Filebot is popular. The free version of Tiny Media Manager works quite well. There are many others as well.
PowerRenamer in Microsoft Power Tools is helpful for simple renaming with pattern matches or regular expressions. It makes quick work of tasks such as adding a year to file names, removing undesirable text from multiple files, etc.
It’s a forum like any other, you make a post and there are no guarantees.
I did not make a reply because your questions were about the TV tuner functions which I know nothing about.
Just to make sure it is clear… if you use Plex for movies and TV shows and especially music, the file structure is not a suggestion… it is not a fine-tuning tweak… it is an absolute requirement. There are a couple of corners you can safely cut, but not many.
I have not been part of any community that is regularly using movie and TV files for playback. This has just saved me hours, maybe DAYS of work, since I have a large number of TV shows and movies and originally just ripped them using the order the files were listed on the DVD (like My_Show-V01D01E01.mp4). While setting up a symlink system so I could use them on Plex, I accidentally deleted over 50 comedy series. I had to go down to the barn and get the DVD sets for all of them so I could re-rip them. Ugh! For a few years I’ve been thinking of writing a program that would do what Filebot and TMM do. I’d rather just pay a license fee and not have to do that! (The need to -rerip all those files was a serious motivator to write that program - now I don’t have to.)
(When we first moved out to where we are now, a rural area where there’s internet at both ends of our road, but no landlines in the middle, where the population is sparse, I started buying up DVDs so we’d have a lot to watch, since Viasat is pathetic (and customer service is actually hostile). Now we have Starlink, but, still, we find it nice to have so much on the media server and not worrying about getting into a show and then see it disappear from the streaming service we were using.)
Oh - I’m on a Mac, so any Microsoft or Windows programs won’t help me. I’ve already tested Filebot. I’m pretty sure I’m going to go with that since it works and with templates I can do what I want. (One difference on the one I was going to make - I wanted to add a video viewer so I could check that the episode in a TV listing is the one I think it is, since DVDs sometimes have a messed up order.) Also, Filebot has an option for a lifetime license and TMM does not.
Thanks for looking out for other users!
Yes, I’ve found that out. Looks like it’s a standard, so once I use Filebot to get all my collection renamed as needed, if I start using other programs, it’ll work for all. (I’ve seen a lot of posts in Reddit and in forums where people are using several programs with overlapping functions.)
It’s no fun at first but once your library is ship-shape and you have your workflow down, it’s not hard to keep Plex happy. I hope it works out for you.
To organize your music files, check out mp3tag. It can not only do any imaginable change to tags and filenames, it can look up metadata, and even write out your files to a new directory structure. It is very powerful.
MusicBrainz Picard is another popular option but it has a different focus, its emphasis is looking up the music and auto-tagging it.
