Plex DVR backend missing frequencies for German cable provider Unitymedia

I’ve noticed that Plex in unable to find a number of free-to-air cable channels from my German cable provide Unitymedia when doing a complete channel scan:

WDR Köln HD
ARTE HD
PHOENIX HD
KIKA HD

Problem is, I have no problem findings these channels when using the very same TVButler tuner with another tv solutions like DVBViewer, TVHeadend or DVBLogic.

I can replicate this problem Plex servers running on both a Windows 10 x64 machine as well as a QNAP HS-251+ NAS. Channels are missing in Plex, but can be found when using a different software.

Could it be that Plex is simply missing some frequencies?

Also, Plex also seems to be scanning for radio channels as well. Is there a way to tell Plex to ignore radio channels, like you can on basically every other TV software?

Since support by Plex is so awesome, I’d to look into this and fix it myself.

As I’d suspected, the Plex frequency data is out of date and hasn’t been properly curated. Everyone using Plex DVR with the German cable provide Unitymedia can crap the updated ini-file I’ve attached to this post.

Once you’ve replaced the old file with this one, a channel scan will finally find all of the available channels.

Where is the file location on PMS that you replaced the 5219.ini?

Any luck on finding the location for the ini-file? I’m running Plex on a Debian instance and couldn’t find the right place to put the ini-file.

I find mine on my QNAP Linux here:

/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/Resources/Tuner/Shared/scanners/dvbc/transponders

Maybe this helps you under debian/ubuntu.

Could it be that Plex is simply missing some frequencies?

Yes, I can confirm this. The underlying DVB-Frameworks Tuning files have not been adjusted to Unity after “change-day” (yet).

@kinoCharlino guess this needs to addressed, right? Do you want me to send a separate mail with the background information and links to Unitymedia pages explaining what changed?

The file provided above is good for sure.

We’ve updated the dvb-c transponder frequencies and expect it to go out with PMS v. 1.12.2.

Today we are using version 3.95.2 and the bug still persists. When is Plex going to fix this? In case you are really willing to fix this issue, here is the file with all current Unitymedia frequencies.

Please note: There are two different networks operated by Unitymedia. Therefor the file is seperated into two columns:

  • left column titled “NRW, Hessen Upgrade” is for Unitymedia network in the federal states Hessen and Nordrhein-Westfalen
  • right column titled “BW Upgrade” is for Unitymedia network in the federal state Baden-Württemberg. This network was formerly called KabelBW and has been bought by Unitymedia.

I also include the edited transponder files so they just have to be imported. Currently there are several files for Unitymedia and KabelBW (the local provided they bought a few years ago):
5219.ini
–> old name “DVB-C Germany (Unitymedia)”
–> new name “DVB-C Germany (Unitymedia, NRW/Hessen)”
5219.txt (1.2 KB)
5213.ini
–> old name “DVB-C Germany (KabelBW)”
–> new name “DVB-C Germany (Unitymedia, Baden-Württemberg)”
5213.txt (1.3 KB)
5214.ini
–> old name “DVB-C Germany (KabelBW, Ausbaugebiet)”
–> not in existence anymore, please delete that one

They need to be placed here:

/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Tuner/Shared/scanners/dvbc/transponders

This is the path for Debian/Ubuntu systems. If you need to find it on another Platform, try

find / -type d -name transponders