Plex DVR can't find sports team's names

Live TV & DVR
1

I just changed my XLMTV provider and I had to reset up my DVR. To be honest I do not remember if this was working prior. The issue is if I choose a team to record, lets say the “Seattle Seahawks” and they have a game on Sunday night on NBC. I go and click to DVR it I at some point was able to select “All Seattle Seahawks games”, now I just get “All NFL Games”. I know in the past this was a general issue for everyone and Plex fixed it.

I am not sure if it is because of my XLMTV, or it is like this for others. Attaching what the EPG looks like. The main header is NFL Football, but it does have the two teams play and I always remember that it looking that way no matter what EPG data I used.

EPG NFL
EPG NFL1569×210 37.9 KB

Thanks!

Server Version#:1.42.2.10156
Player Version#: N/A
Tuner Make/Model: HDHR Prime
Guide/Lineup name:
Using XMLTV?: Yes
Channel number/Name: Any Sports broadcast

2

Bumping. Anyone else having this issue?

3

Hoping for some help.

4

I just have the regular Plex EPG. I don’t recall it ever working like you do, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t so. On my setup, I can only select “All NFL Games”, so I am not sure it would be EPG specific.

5

Interesting. There are definitely circumstances under which the Plex-provided EPG allows you to specify specific teams for which to record all games:

image
image568×214 60.2 KB

This from an OTA EPG, provided by Plex.

@knoll Are you in an area for which Plex doesn’t provide EPG data?

In general though, XMLTV can be a bit like the Wild West. The “official” XMLTV Project DTD only specifies certain pieces of information. Anything else is an extension which others would have to agree to adopt.

6

I switched over to using Dispatcharr to import my HDHR and spliced in some IPTV feeds into the mix. Plex does not allow their EPG and an XMLTV guide at the same time. Since Plex doesn’t allow two guide options, I am forced to use only XMLTV guide. The source shows the teams playing as you see in the screenshot.

7

The source is showing it in the sub-title. Plex would need to implement something to parse the sub-title data as the XMLTV “standard” doesn’t specify specific elements for identifying teams (I provided a link above which shows the supported XMLTV elements).

My suggestion would be to create a second Plex server specifically for recording sports, with live TV configured using Plex’s EPG data. You could create it as a VM. I’ve done similar, but for different reasons.

8

Here is the XML file for tonight’s Miami vs Pittsburgh game.

</programme>
  <programme start="20251216010000 +0000" stop="20251216041500 +0000" channel="10179">
    <title>NFL Football</title>
    <sub-title>Miami Dolphins at Pittsburgh Steelers</sub-title>
    <desc>The AFC North-leading Steelers (7-6) host the Dolphins (6-7) on Monday Night Football. The Steelers wrested the division lead back from the Ravens with a 27-22 victory at Baltimore last week. Miami has won four straight for the first time since 2022.</desc>
    <date>20251215</date>
    <category lang="en">Sports</category>
    <length units="minutes">195</length>
    <icon src="https://zap2it.tmsimg.com/assets/GNLZZGG002N77NT.jpg" />
    <url>https://tvlistings.gracenote.com//overview.html?programSeriesId=SH00003128&amp;tmsId=EP000031285418</url>
    <episode-num system="dd_progid">EP00003128.5418</episode-num>
    <new />
    <live />
    <subtitles type="teletext" />
  </programme>

I know that I found some post awhile back stating what Plex inserts into the EPG data to get the teams to populate. Would be great if they did something like that.

I actually switched over to Emby for Live TV recently. Much better handling of multiple EPGs, IPTV sources, and what I think are better DVR options. The ability to have a keyword for DVR recordings in Emby is amazing.