Plex DVR New recordings not working

Live TV & DVR
1

So I would like to set Plex to only record new episodes of programs.

But if I do this nothing gets recorded.

I’m in the UK using a schedules direct UK feed and hoping to replace my MythTV recordings that are then added to plex with a plex only solution.

If I take an example of the Last Leg, in the xml:

   <programme channel="89563" start="20191213230000 +0000" stop="20191214003000 +0000">
<title>The Last Leg</title>
<sub-title>Election Special</sub-title>
 <desc>Adam Hills, Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker and guests including Miriam Margolyes, Richard Osman and Rory Stewart analyse the election re#
<credits>
<episode-num system="xmltv_ns">17.7.</episode-num>
<episode-num system="dd_progid">EP016714120200</episode-num>
 <video>
      <quality>HDTV</quality>
  </video>
 <previously-shown start="20191213" />
<new />
<subtitles type="teletext" />
 </programme>

So it has both a new flag in the XML and the previously-shown matches the shown date - so I think these should indicate a new showing, rather than a showing in the past?

What/How does plex determine a new showing?

2

We’ve given up on the Plex DVR software as it was just constantly getting things wrong. We ran it alongside a 10 year old PVR for testing, PVR 100% success rate, Plex around 50% success rate and needed constant baby sitting and refreshing guides and software updates etc

Freeview has it’s own over the air EPG and includes special IDs, the concept of ‘New’ isn’t required and a series will track perfectly even if episodes appear repeated on different channels (+1 or SD for example). All this with Plex including using it with other XML guides seems to be mostly a manual process of flagging ‘New’ in the data or guess work that often goes wrong. I suspect the XML feed you are using isn’t flagging things in the way Plex expects.

In addition you do not get accurate recording on Plex as you would on any Freeview PVR in UK, so you either use plenty of padding or just accept you sometimes start part way into the program or miss the end because it is running late.

So honestly, don’t expect to ever get it working as well as you hope. I was so annoyed by the limitations but wanting to cut the cord and make use of the HdHomerun tuners, I’m programming my own recording engine with all the limitations I feel that are in Plex fixed. So proper series linking and accurate recording, i.e. no padding required. It has a web based EPG and unlike Plex, runs as a real service on Windows as well. Quite pleased with how it is coming along and is up and running. Recordings just drop into a Plex library for playback.

So you may want to stay with your MythTV setup.

1 Like
3

Thanks - one of the reasons I’m considering the switch is my mythtv setup is struggling to get all the HD channels, when the same HDHomeRun Connect Quatro works fine directly. Also I have a shonky script that sets titles etc. for mythtv files so we can pick them up in plex.

IF I can get everything working in plex, then my life would be much easier.

4

If Plex could get everything working in Plex all our lives would be easier :slight_smile:

I think Plex are really struggling at the moment and the latest push seems to be becoming a media streaming service portal presumably for the ad revenue it will generate. I’m not convinced there are many resources going into the DVR side at the moment.

Have you tried the built in Plex EPG provider, it’s not perfect but might cover off what you need it to do.

5

I did originally try using the build in EPG, but this didn’t, work at all. So I switched to the Schedules Direct file that I’m already using for mythtv. I’ve since added lookup based on airing dates and descriptions to ensure that everything has a season/episode and that has been quite successful.

But I can’t see a way to go back and try using the built in EPG.

6

If you wish to revert back to the EPG schedule you need to delete the DVR in Plex and set it up again. Hope that helps.

7

I’m also struggling with the DVR. It seems to work for watching fine, but recording since 1.17.x has been a struggle. I removed the DVR and added back and that seemed to resolve some of my playback issues. However now scheduled recordings don’t record. It shows the repeating recording symbol. But even though it is a new episode, it gets skipped like a repeat. Frustrating! I have other options for some of my shows, but others this is it. I use a HDHomeRun and run Plex (version 1.18.3.2129) as a docker on UnRaid version 6.8.0.

8

I think I’ve finally worked out what’s going on it seems that if the is set even if the date matches up with today’s date or if the is set the plex will consider this episode as a repeat.

For now I’m going do drop previously-shown for new episodes and I believe this this resolve the problem.

Once I have this working and made a little more generic I’ll get my tv guide preprocessor published.

I did try switching to the built in guide, but I still can’t find a postcode that gets accepted.

9

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