Well, Plex DVR never seems to work correctly. Yet ANOTHER set of errors, this time vague transcoding errors.
I’m beginning to regret my purchase of a Plex Pass. I had high hopes for the DVR feature. But it has been one of the most unreliable pieces of code I’ve seen in some time. I know it’s still “beta”, but a “good” recording is such a rarity…
I’m attaching the logs, and I’m hopeful that the Plex developers are reading this forum, taking the logs, and hopefully developing better code.
If you are a developer reading this, let us know what we can provide you to improve this products DVR function.
I am willing to bet that you are on the latest version of Plex. Try downgrading to 1.6.1, it solved my problem. “Issues with recording the 3rd and 4th shows on versions of the > 1.5.6.3790” will tell you where to get the previous version.
Mr. Struble, thank you…in fact, I’ve partially taken your advice…the 1.61 version of Plex I have carefully stored away for a downgrade.
I’ve held off on actually applying it just yet, with the strong hope that the Plex people will actually examine and fix these issues on the current version.
I can “get away” with this for now as most TV on during the summer is basically reruns…nothing too critical (if TV is EVER “critical”…).
But there are a lot of fall premiers I would like to record…so hopefully everything will be fixed before the end of August. I figure if I continue to upload descriptions of the errors and log files, SOMEONE in Plex development will figure this out.
Unless…this is the wrong forum to post such problems…If someone reading this knows a better approach to provide the coders good information to make BETTER Plex code…please post it!
I should start with the fact that Plex is my full time DVR, when its not working I am not happy. I moved from WMC to NextPVR and to Plex DVR. I uninstall 1.5.6 and installed 1.7.6 which had the issues you described. I then uninstalled 1.7.6 and installed 1.5.6, during the upgrades and downgrades all I did was install and de-install, nothing else. I did not protect the databases.
@“rbkirk.Plex” I’ve had a look at your logs, and I can see that the transcoder has exited there with an error. I know there is one particular case that causes transcoder issues with DVR which is being tracked by Plex internally, but I don’t have an ETA on a fix for it. If you can generate a sample, I can see if I can find out if it’s the same issue (no promises though!).
Getting samples for DVR issues
Steps:
1. Restart your server, and allow the EPG to load (if it's been ~18 hours since a server restart)
2. If you had the EPG reload, then restart your server again (this keeps the logs clean, as there won't be the EPG refresh this time) - otherwise you can skip this step
3. Start a direct .ts sample from the tuner. You can do this by using a command such as:
curl http://tunerip:port/auto/channel > /users/outputpath/plexSamples/samplefile.ts
(You can copy the tuner URL bit from your logs, if it helps)
4. Start a recording in PMS of a problematic channel
5. Cancel the recording after a minute or so
6. Stop the direct capture from the tuner
7. Download the complete logs from the server
8. Zip up the logs, the direct sample from the tuner, and the recording from PMS, and post them here
DaveBinM, I’m still a bit new to Plex…the virtual broadcast channel I’m having issues with was virtual broadcast channel 32.6 on an HDHomerun Connect tuner on local ip address 192.168.1.206.
so with the sample command you put above of
curl http://tunerip:port/auto/channel > /users/outputpath/plexSamples/samplefile.ts
I don’t know what the /auto/channel part would be…
The /users/outputpath/plexSamples/ needs to be where you want the samplefile.ts stored at. If you are not familiar with this you are basically requesting to record whatever is currently airing on channel 32.6 and directing the output to a file called samplefile.ts saved in the location you specified.
I killed the task by closing the powershell window after about 40 seconds, give or take.
Unfortunately, it generates a 0 size samplefile.ts file, despite seeing a clear accumulation of data rolling by, per the screenshot!
Is there a different method to kill the task I should be doing? Is that causing a zero sized file? Or is that emblematic of the problem as to why the recordings are failing in the first place?
Also…the plex forum rejects a file with no data in it. I can’t post it…not that it matters much, with nothing in the file itself…
Playing back the samplefile.ts via the Plex player app, it appears there is no video…even though there is video broadcasting from the channel. I just used the HDHomeRun app (which shows the tuners “live”) and video on that channel comes right through.
Also…if one of the Plex developers DOES see the problem based on the samplefile.ts upload,** please let us know even THAT much**. I realize that it is always difficult to ask for WHEN a software problem will be resolved, as that involves writing, executing, testing…and if there is a problem, back to writing again…but it is always good to know when the root cause of a problem is finally identified, and a fix is at least “in progress”…
Also consider my idea of having a “reliable recording” setting that waits til the entire program is complete and encodes it in a single pass…I know this steps away from the idea of allowing playback while recording, but I will trade that feature for reliable recording in a heartbeat. Consistent operation is much more desired when Plex is used as a DVR…offer a toggle between the “old” method of recording that offered more reliability than the “newer” version which fails often, and let the user community decide which method they prefer while the kinks are worked out…
If there’s no video displaying at the start, then I think it might be the same as the issue the other user encountered. I’ll have a look though, and see if I can confirm before passing on to the devs. Also, sorry I didn’t see this earlier, if you don’t use @ and tag me in, I’m unlikely to see it immediately (and it is the weekend too!)
@DaveBinM , I see the new 1.8x version of Plex has hit. I’ve applied it, and a first test of grabbing a show off the air immediately worked without an issue.
I’ve got a scheduled recording tonight (for my wife!) of the Bachelorette, so I’m REALLY hoping this will now work flawlessly, or there will be consequences (for me :s )
If there is an issue, I will generate a new post, as it would apply to the new version, and should not be roped into this one.
