In 2021 I tried to use PLEX to DVR the Olympics. It was a complete disaster, and I was very much not alone:
Ref: Over lapping Olympic recordings - #17 by jamesbigler
Ref: Olympic Recording Disaster
I’ve setup a pair of HD Homerun Prime devices again for the 2024 Paris Olympics and I’d really prefer to record directly with PLEX. When I look at the EPG I see what looks like a promising schedule…but once bitten, twice shy. I have literally not used the DVR since because it was such a bad experience.
When I search for “Olympics” the last post I find is from 2021. I don’t see any conversation during or post-2022 Beijing Olympics.
Can anyone confirm-or-deny successful recording of the 2022 Olympics? Is nobody talking about it because all the problems were fixed, or because 2021 was such a mess that everyone gave up on the idea…
Is the DVR + EPG up to the task? Is there any PLEX employee around that might be familiar with the original SNAFU and any ensuing fixes? (Looking at you @ChuckPa and @BigWheel)
Inquiring Olympics fans want to know.
1 Like
(shrug) I have FAR more problems with EPG data issues than with the Plex DVR.
Last time around, I had multiple channels, and pretty much ran multiple streams simultaneously through the DVR (tvHeadend as an IPTV tuner) for the duration of the event. System load during multiple recording was very low.
I’ve created a recurring recording for the 2024 Olympics, and my DVR guide shows a pretty healthy pile of scheduled recording. At the moment, I’m not interested in doing an exhaustive analysis of how many simultaneous recordings may be happening.
I probably should say that I have a rather overbuilt PMS host, 12th Gen I7 w/ 32gb of RAM, a 4 way 1gbps NIC HBA, and an nVidia GPU.
@JKalchik I have recorded all of the past 10 olympics with my MythTV setup and have never had much luck with the EPG accurately reflecting what was being recorded. I have talked to the guys at Schedules Direct about this multiple times and it really comes down to NBC being terrible about updating Nielsen and Nielsen not being as fast as they should be about turning data around. There is just too much steering of the Titanic going on.
That said, I don’t actually care. We are perfectly happy to have 8TB of duplicate recordings and we’ll skip/delete things we’ve already seen when we run into them again.
What I DO care about is the potential for file-name collisions like in 2021. It was impossible to manage, save, parse, or extract anything useful. Fortunately I still had my trusty MythTV setup to fall back on. We only lost a few events.
What I’m trying to get feedback on is if I tell PLEX to record every-damn-thing that says Olympics on it, what happens with the filenames etc.
This reminds me of another issue I had early on which may require another post: Is it possible to force PLEX to record a program even if it thinks it is a duplicate? I have six tuners and ~70TB of free disk. I just want it to keep recording everything Olympics without trying to figure out one event vs another. Any feedback on that would be welcome too.
1 Like
@JKalchik I just realized that you mis-interpreted my misgivings about recording. I am not concerned about performance. I can record 6x streams while 10x clients are watching and transcoding, no sweat.
My concern was was referenced in the linked posts: In 2021 there was a massive name-space collision because the Olympics events/programs don’t have associated season/episodes…they are all Season 2024, but have no episode names at all for what I think are obvious reasons. They are very much parallel and not serial…How this shakes out when the recordings are done really matters. Previously it resulted in overwritten episodes and unplayable / unfindable recordings…among other horrors.
Okay, my mistake.
That’s all going to be on the EPG data, where ever you acquire it from. I’m getting mine from Plex, but I suspect that all of the available online sources may be depending on more or less the same original data. Personally, I didn’t note any name collisions, but this household is far more of a casual viewer than a fan.
I do have some concerns about a currently running show, the 2024 Formula 1 season. The first couple of months all missed the Practice 2 session and Qualifying, even though the episodes were uniquely named, apparently all claiming duplicates from the logs. The last 2 races did record appropriately, so something obviously has changed, don’t know if that’s inside PMS (which I do keep updated,) or in the incoming EPG data.
1 Like
I am very optimistic of the schedule I have seen so far for the Paris games. Because of how close the two Olympics were in 2021 and 2022, they suffered from similar issues. There was some comments made after the 2022 games that seemed to indicate that Plex was working on fixes. If the DVR works as it looks like it might, we may be in luck. I still wish that Plex offered a timed record feature that just let us record the channel for as long as we wanted… I have the HDD space to fill, let me fill it, break it up into chunks if you have to, but I would much rather just turn on my DVR for 17 days than have to deal with episodes being missed. I’m hoping that it works this games, but I have access to Peacock so I can rewatch there as well.
1 Like
@phonehome Do you know if you can force the DVR to record something that it thinks is a duplicate? I remember that was a problem in 2021. The EPG had the same name for a few different entries and PLEX flat out refused to record the second showing. I could not force it.
As I type this I am finalizing configuration of MythTV which is clunky but still has many features that PLEX lacks, such as the ability to force any recording. It does what I tell it to without any BS…but getting the recordings into PLEX so the whole family can watch conveniently is a PITA, and I never figured out a way to make MythTV’s comskip tagging work with PLEX. And the Olympics without comskip is almost unwatchable.
Similar to my comment above to @phonehome: Do you know if you can force PLEX to do a “duplicate” recording?
One thing that happens all the time during every Olympics is that scheduling forces events to over/under-run what is listed in the EPG, so that you oftentimes have entire events listed under the wrong heading, entirely-possibly a duplicate heading of something that has been recorded. If you can’t force-record them, then you will lose them.
I found the answer to my own question about repeat airings:
@phonehome Semi-non-sequitur: As one olympics fan to another, be sure to be on the lookout for 3 new temproary channels if you are on cable. They are adding ‘Paris Extra 1’ and ‘Paris Extra 2’…and Xfinity (at least in my area) is adding an additional USA HD channel in 4k:
1350 
USA Olympics 4K
1351 Paris Extra 1
1352 Paris Extra 2
1 Like
This was the main thing I was looking for 4 and 5 years ago. Back in 21/22 the new and repeat airings setting didn’t work at all. But I think that’s because of how the guide was set up. This year, at least according to my DVR Schedule, it is going to work. I’m just recording all Paris 2024 events. Note that Primetime is considered a separate series. And if your local affiliate has a pre-primetime show that will also be separate. The opening Saturday is a mess, as the way I think Plex is dealing with the issue is to just have the guide create multiple recording spaces, so I will be walking away with about 10 different recordings that day. Varying in length from 30 minutes to 4 hours.
2 Likes
Thank you! Unfortunately, I do not have cable. I have access to OTA and the Peacock stream. And as a reminder, if you do run into issues and can afford it, all events are streaming on Peacock this year (provided you are located and watching in the USA). Canada is using CBC for broadcast and CBC Gem for streaming. They also may be partnering other networks.
Thanks for the heads up. I also saw this and have two separate recording schedules:
- 2024 Paris Olympics
- Primetime in Paris
The key thing for me to remember was to set “New and Repeat Airings”.
1 Like
We considered Peacock but I decided against. We want to be able to skip commercials (NBC still wants to feed you ads somewhow, no matter how much you pay) and, more importantly, we take a very, very, very long time to watch…several months. We will watch pretty much everything broadcast except the long-format pool-play games such as soccer, rugby, or golf…so that means probably 6-10 months @$11.99 for the same thing I could have for free and commercial free on my DVR. Nothing makes me more angry than paying for a media service and being shown ads. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a movie theater that plays commercials, for instance. Also, this way the entire family benefits. We’re spread all over the country and I like that my inlaws, my brother and his family and the kids can all enjoy. PLEX is really awesome in this regard and why I am so keen to finally get off MythTV. I am hopeful the kinks have been worked a out and we’ll have a smooth Olympics experience.
Had very similar experiences and disappointments when recording the 2020 Tokyo winter games. I only found a workaround at the 11th hour: manually overwriting the EPG data such that each episode had a unique identifier (Olympic Recording Disaster - #73 by Yatagarasu). Fingers are crossed though it won’t come to that again; it looks like the repeat airings option is working properly now…
I chickened out at the 11th hour and reverted to MythTV. Unfortunately, I’ve run into a different issue now, I cannot “Match” 2024 Paris Olympics with my externally recorded programs
Thank you! I found the “2024 Paris Olympics” listing and would likely have missed the primetime series until I noticed it.
FYI, for anyone who comes across this later, regarding the three ‘popup’ channels on Xfinity:
1350 USA Olympics 4K
1351 Paris Extra 1
1352 Paris Extra 2
These channels are “IP-Only” and will not work with a cablecard based tuner…but good luck getting anyone at Xfinity to come right out and say this. It took me six days of phone calls and a visit of a technician in-person just to find someone to dig up the correct support page, where it says it plain-as-day: Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 - Xfinity Support
Requires an IP-capable device, such as an Xfinity X1 TV Box (excluding XG1v1, RNG150, DTAs, and legacy boxes) or an IP-enabled compatible customer-owned device (supported Roku device, Samsung Smart TV).
How hard would it have been to put this nugget of information on the main Olympics marketing page Xfinity? Or maybe inform any of your support staff? A**holes.
I missed the Tokyo disaster having come to Plex only this year. So far, my wife is furious and wants me to go back to Channels because Plex attempted to record the multi-hour opener and decided to stop recording after 40 minutes for no reason.
1 Like
My PMS log is full of errors too.
Running official Docker of PMS on Unraid. Version 1.40.4.8679
A ton of crash reports have been sent according to the other logs.
I’ve backed off the transcoding (I have no issues with space and I use an NVIDIA card to do it).
I don’t understand the connection failures to plex. The container has access (I can even go to the console and get to the internet).
Plex Media Server.log (316.1 KB)
