I sort of asked this question before, I decided to give it its own thread.
I am grandfathered into a really good deal with FIOS for internet and TV. There is no and I mean it, no other option for what I have for the price.
I literally stepped in it during one of their big promotions and I cannot think of switching or upgrading.
I have the ExtremeTV Channel option, phone, 1GB Internet, 1 TV Tuner, 1 Cable Card and 1 modem. All for $99/month. I’ve had this package since they first offered 1GB FIOS in my area.
I am NOT allowed to upgrade anything. Every attempt at it I try, requires I alter my contract, so as you can see, I’m going nowhere for the time being.
Plex was a life saver. I can now watch TV in any room or computer I like using HDHomerun. I was not forced to lose my deal just to watch two TV’s.
Here’s the thing. My HDHomerun is starting to get flaky. Live TV is causing Plex to crash. Sometimes it won’t tune to a channel or it will pause Live TV as if it has to catch its breath or worse yet it makes my Roku reboot.
Normally I would just upgrade or move to a competitor. Upgrading is not an option since Silicon Dust discontinued Cable Card appliances. All other options I can find either have no support on their end, are not supported by Plex or just plain bad according to reviews.
Can someone recommend any other viable option for viewing LiveTV and still leverage my Paid Sub through FIOS?
HDHomeRuns can be updated?
*Checks out my HomeRun*
Oh my. Mine’s still on the 2021 firmware. Hm. I don’t watch live TV, only use it as a tuner to record off of it.
If it crashes the Plex client, I’d more suspect the client itself is unsteady, and would replace the Roku first to see if that fixes it.
I use a Infinity Cable Card. I have an older one that is installed in the computer. I have it installed on my Unraid NAS and use a Windows VM to run the cable card and the proxy app that allows Plex to see at as a HD Homerun tuner. Been using this for about 3 years now without issues.
Might be a discussion for a different thread/PM, but I am curious how you are running the card in a VM and if you have any issues?
I tried/am doing this using XCP-ng as my hypervisor and running my Windows VM (I P2V’ed it from my HTPC which was giving me some issues with outputting video). When I check the InfiniTV diagnostics app or even try to tune to a channel, I will find the InfiniTV isn ot recognized.
@NJDevils28 Pretty sure this is what @Alucard1 is referring to regarding proxy app:
But you would have to see if you could get a used Ceton InfiniTV tuner as they have been discontinued for a while (there are some on eBay).
It was discontinued? I see it for sale on the centon website. I did not buy it because it’s not supported. Does this poxy app work well with plex? Could i use it to replace my HDHomerun?
Yeah. If you actually click the buy now button you’ll be brought to the page where you will see the USB version (ETH) or the PCI-e version. There are links to Amazon and Newegg but they both come up with the devices being out of stock.
Regarding the proxy app, I cannot comment on it as I only found it right before posting by doing a Google search. It was the first time I have seen it. That said, @Alucard1 did say they have been using it for about 3 years without issues.
Ok - I updated the Firmware. So far it seems the same. I will let you know after a hockey game as that is the one thing (Sport) that allways triggers a re-boot.
It is call ceton proxy. The application reads the information from the card and converts it to HDHome Run format that Plex sees as a HDHome run device. I am not sure if it will work with Cetons USB or Network Tuners. I had to assign the cable card to the VM in the VM settings.
HDHomeRuns can be updated?