I am getting this error on my iPhone & iPad both have the latest versions of Plex and iOS but I only get the error on some channels i.e. ABC & SBS which are government owned here in Australia, all my other commercial channels are working fine. Any clues?
Hi,
from QLD here. Same issue. Any Terrestrial channels with MP2 audio will not play. Strangely if you record, it will play back without issue as it transcodes the audio. Iām hoping the next update 19, addresses the issue along with some DVR issues.
Example: ABC QLD
Hi Craig. Itās now been over a month and three releases with OTA not working properly on the iPhone app. A few channels play properly but most donāt. Are people at PLEX working on the issues? Is there anything more we can do to provide data to help solve the problem?
YIKES! I just updated to the lates Server and now things seem to be working on my iPhoneā¦ Iāll keep testing and let you know if problems are now solvedā¦
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In my hands, all OTA channels are now capable of playing with the latest Plex Server (Version 1.41.9.9912-371133ff9) and the latest iPhone Plex update (client version 2025.19.0 (1132). But there are still major issues.
One issue is that, when using wifi at home on the same network as the server, I need to manually set the DNS Server on my iPhone as described above by TheLivingBubba. Thanks everyone!
A second issue: If Iām using HDHomeRun Extend (which does internal hardware transcoding) I can switch from a 720p broadcast channel to a 1080p broadcast channel very quickly (takes just 2-3 seconds to play after switching channels). However, if Iām using a HDHomeRun Flex 4K device, there is a 30 second delay from the time I switch to a 1080p channel until it actually starts playing. Maybe I need to use different settings with the 4K device??? Any advice would be appreciated (although Iām happily using my older HDHomeRun device!).
One more major issue, it still only works for me if I have (in iPhone Plex Settings) Local, Wifi, and Cellular Quality all set to Maximum and Allow Direct Play and Allow Direct Stream Enabled.
CAN SOMEONE AT PLEX LET US KNOW IF ANYONE IS LOOKING INTO THESE PROBLEMS? OTA IS THE MAIN REASON I CHOSE PLEX. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.
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When did v19 (1132) come out?
Two days ago, I believe. Thatās when I downloaded it.
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I would also highly appreciate a comment from Plex on this, as an update broke live-streaming on ios. (on web-app it works).
Iām getting the error message as mentioned here:
Live TV streaming is important for me, and setting an IP manually is not an option.
Iām working on a fix for the original issue that TheLivingBubba outlined.
That will be out in an upcoming release along with a fix for MP2 (and other) audio codecs not transcoding properly.
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thanks for the hint. disabling dns rebind protection solved the issue with live-tv streaming in the mobile app for me.
however, it would be very helpful if error messages would give some more information, i.e. which host was not found, instead of only āhost not foundāā¦
The latest version fixed most of my OTA issues.
It fixed my ability to use OTA with cellular access but not with local wifi access.
The DNS problem persists.
Iām experiencing the same DNS issue when trying to watch live tv on iOS. Latest linux server 1.42.2.10156, iOS client 2025.26.0 (1279). Iāve whitelisted plex.direct on pihole and Iāve ensured my mobile app has local network permissions. Iām quite comfortable making any adjustments to DNS on my network if that would be helpful for testing.
iOS: With 2025.26.0 (1279) the DNS issue for Live TV persists.
Manually setting DNS servers and/or disabling rebinding protection is NOT an acceptable workaround. My local DNS server does a lot of things for network security and blocking bad stuff for my kids, so Iām not going to override it on their phones just so they can watch football on Sundays. Additionally, a static record for āplex.directā seems broken and the wrong way to resolve this issue. This is a bug in the client.
This should not be hard to fix, as itās working fine in all other clients and the web client AS WELL AS other streams like Movies and TV Shows.
What is the hold up?
Surely Live TV is still a priority for the company as itās a āpremium featureā we are paying for? We all understand strategically that the direction is online content and streaming services but donāt forget about the people who put Plex on the map. This is very frustrating.
Adding a rebind entry for dnsmasq on my pi hole of rebind-domain-ok=/plex.direct/ did not seem to have any effect. I am still unable to play OTA tv on iOS devices. If thereās any other recommendations of things to test Iām happy to do so.
In spite of the error referencing the hostname, I donāt think this is a DNS rebind issue. As a test I disabled the following options on my Pi-Hole instance and I still get the same error on iOS devices. I suspect the second option is the only potentially relevant one though. Either way, disabling them had no affect.
Never forward non-FQDN A and AAAA queries
Tells Pi-hole to never forward A or AAAA queries for plain names, without dots or domain parts, to upstream nameservers. If the name is not known from /etc/hosts or DHCP then a ānot foundā answer is returned.
If Conditional Forwarding is enabled, unticking this box may cause a partial DNS loop under certain circumstances (e.g. if a client would send TLD DNSSEC queries).
Never forward reverse lookups for private IP ranges
All reverse lookups for private IP ranges (i.e., 192.168.0.x/24, etc.) which are not found in /etc/hosts or the DHCP leases are answered with āno such domainā rather than being forwarded upstream. The set of prefixes affected is the list given in RFC6303.
I agree this is not a rebinding issue, as far as I can tell. I use pfsense and i tried to disable rebind protection completely as well as add plex.direct AND the actual host name of my PMS to allowed domains and this changes nothing.
A static A record for plex.direct might work, but itās incredibly stupid. What about people who know nothing about networks and/or do not run DNS themselves?
And there is no way Iām changing default DNS servers either in the DHCP server settings nor
manually on any device. This bug needs to get fixed please!
I can confirm that bypassing my local lan DNS does enable playback on iOS. If I manually set my phoneās DNS to 1.1.1.1 I am able to get OTA tv playback. At this point if I were to continue troubleshooting the problem Iād collect some packet captures, which I may do. But my question is, is the root cause well understood at this point? As I read through this thread I felt like that was the case, but then it seemed like things stalled. Are we still in the ādefining the problemā phase or is this more in the āimplementing a fixā phase?
If creating a rebind exception doesnāt work, there must be another configuration that works.
Ok, I have this working in my specific use case. I donāt know how universally applicable this is but this is how I was able to make this work.
I am running both Plex and Pihole. I suspect there is a lot of overlap between those two users. My Pihole install is Core v6.1.4, FTL v6.2.3, Web interface v6.2.1 though I doubt the versions actually matter.
I edited /etc/unbound/unbound.conf and added the line private-domain: āplex.directā
I also have modified /etc/dnsmasq.d/custom.conf to have a line with rebind-domain-ok=/plex.direct/ that I had added earlier in my troubleshooting that didnāt have any effect on its own. I simply include this for additional context in case it ends up being somehow relevant, but it may not be necessary.
Saved unbound.conf and rebooted and OTA TV started working on iOS with using Pihole DNS.
Glad you got it figured out and hope it helps someone else. I solved it by switching to Emby. If I use Plex itās the 8.45 version. The new apps have been out for six months, a fix has been in the works for almost three months and hasnāt hit the weekly beta. Maybe by Christmas theyāll have it back to working like it did in the previous version.
Now even manually setting the DNS doesnāt work on my iPhone. SO FRUSTRATING! Iāve never tried EMBY but guess that is next on my list too. Iād be happy to help with any troubleshooting if anyone from Plex just asked. What a painā¦..
Craig, Iām now unable to use OTA under any conditionā¦ either at home using wifi and manual DNS settings or using cellular service. Everything else seems to workā¦ I just canāt stream from my HDHomeRun devices. Is there anything I can do to help sort out this problem?
