So I have just been researching how to ‘cut the cord’. We currently have a Virgin Media UK TiVo, and if you have used one of these things you will know how mind-numbingly slow it is. In addition we are charged through the nose for it.
I was pretty close to deciding HDHomeRun + Plex was the answer but I came across the following stumbling blocks which through a spanner in the works, so I had a few questions:
A proper EPG - This is a biggie, even if I can find my way around this navigation system its a no-go for my girlfriend and guests. - to this end are there any plans for a ‘normal’ channel list style EPG for Plex DVR?
HDHomeRun - Their home page now only lists the one product - HDHomeRun connect, are they discontinuing their other product or is the company in any kind of trouble (I know they are devloping their own DVR service)
Amazon Fire TV - There is a landing page for Plex for Amazon fire TV, and on that page it lists the DVR functionality. So I wanted to check if SMB shares are still ok with the Fire TV? - also any Alexa integration?
How does Plex DVR hold up with a remote control rather than a keyb/mouse - again it has to be very user friendly to pass the girlfriend test!
My understanding is there are no plans for s standard type EPG.
It is currently driven by Gracenote (In The US anyway other countries have big issues).
No other way to schedule a recording… So if it is missing from Gracenote, there is NO way to schedule a recording by date, time, and channel, (I missed the ability to record the Academy Awards due to this feature!)
As far as cord cutting, there is no way yet to watch live TV built in to plex. There are some User built channels to do this but performance is sketchy and not Plex Supported.
The DVR in most cases records the media in the format provided by the broadcaster. In the US this is mostly mpeg2ts. This causes the media to transcode heavily on playback to most devices, making your server requirement to be a relatively beefy CPU. If more than one recording to play may be problematic.
There is a work around for the above issue, that is doing some post processing of the recording BEFORE trying to play it. (IE: re-encode to a more friendly format).
The transcode on record function could possibly solve this (Along with HW transcoding) but to date neither are working reliably for DVR.
Also, my experience has been about 30% of recordings I attempt fail for no discernable reason. Just outta luck when that happens.
Now Plex as a media server is GREAT. As a DVR, a lot to be desired. What I mean here is do not invest in Plex just for DVR, invest in Plex because it is probably the Best All Around Multi Platform Media Server.
For nearly a decade I have used MCEBuddy to deal with OTA recordings Scheduled via WMC - on my trusty Win7 Networked box - the one with the PCI tuner card in it - I have a few more years before the drop-dead date - Win7’s - mine could happen at any moment - problem solved.
At this point it would be hard to improve upon ‘perfection’. I have little hope Plex will ever match MCEBuddy’s flawless operation, but so long as MCEBuddy continues to work flawlessly with Plex there is no need to subject myself to Plex’s failed attempts to do what MCEBuddy is already doing - flawlessly.
Don’t know how I managed to overlook the lack of live TV! Is live TV something thats coming?
I think it makes my other questions a bit moot really tho. Unless I can offer up a familiar experience to what the girlfriend is used to then it’s going to be a no go.
I have never really stored much local media. I’m very much a streamer of Movies and TV so I never have the need for local storage. As such I just dont need the versatility of Plex as a media server.
Well Silicon Dust has apps for some devices to act as live TV but I do not know which ones.
Prolly Xbox, PS3.4 and the Shield.
Not sure though.
@JuiceWSA
Exactly that is what one has to do.
BUT, I do not know if a standard DVR user (Non-Tech, girlfriend type) want to mess with that like you or I do…
One of the reasons I think Plex DVR is a waste of time until it is seamless and user ready…
At the rate Plex is going I am not holding my breath for that…
I just stumbled across the Android TV Live Live Channels DVR implementation with the HDHomeRun, need to do a bit more looking but looks promising.
I had also seen Silicon Dust’s upcoming PVR, it again lacks a proper channel list EPG, but they at least seem to be trying to implement the exact solution I am looking for.
Tried the plex DVR, didnt like it at all. Ended up getting an Apple TV and using Channels + Channels DVR (awesome live TV app by the way) and also using the apple tv for plex.
@jmeehan11 said:
Tried the plex DVR, didnt like it at all. Ended up getting an Apple TV and using Channels + Channels DVR (awesome live TV app by the way) and also using the apple tv for plex.
Ditto. Dont wate your time with DVR in Plex. It lacks features (proper EPG, Live TV, etc …) AND stability.
Use Plex what it’s good at, being a media server. I’m using DVBLink to record and automaticly move recordings to Plex.
@jmeehan11 said:
Tried the plex DVR, didnt like it at all. Ended up getting an Apple TV and using Channels + Channels DVR (awesome live TV app by the way) and also using the apple tv for plex.
Ditto. Dont wate your time with DVR in Plex. It lacks features (proper EPG, Live TV, etc …) AND stability.
Use Plex what it’s good at, being a media server. I’m using DVBLink to record and automaticly move recordings to Plex.
Hey @wally007 that sounds great! What software do you use to move DVBLink recordings to Plex?
Plex DVR is half baked even for a beta product. It lacks some of the most essential features of any product calling itself a PVR.
-No Live TV
-No time shifting
-can’t schedule recordings from any client apart from a website (this IMMEDIATELY kills family friendly).
-No proper EPG and data quality from Gracenote outside of the USA is pretty bad
-most Plex players require heavy transcoding to play back the .ts recordings
-it’s got more bug issues than a drugged Kanye West
As an early beta it looked very promising. Now after nearly 9 months of what appears as very little progress or work on it I’d say give up on it and look elsewhere. At the current rate it might be years before any of the above features are added (if ever).
The channels DVR as mentioned above is a MUCH better product, has very active development and involved devs in the forums. Unfortunately not available in as many countries and player support is much more limited.
Or ofcourse go buy a DVR from off the shelf. I guarantee you it’ll be a better experience than Plex DVR.
@jmeehan11 said:
Tried the plex DVR, didnt like it at all. Ended up getting an Apple TV and using Channels + Channels DVR (awesome live TV app by the way) and also using the apple tv for plex.
Ditto. Dont wate your time with DVR in Plex. It lacks features (proper EPG, Live TV, etc …) AND stability.
Use Plex what it’s good at, being a media server. I’m using DVBLink to record and automaticly move recordings to Plex.
Hey @wally007 that sounds great! What software do you use to move DVBLink recordings to Plex?
MCEBuddy.
Many use MCEBuddy to encode the video to their desired format. I dont.
I use it to:
1, pick up the finished recordings
2, rename it
3, change the container to mp4 ( takes about 1 minute for 60 minutes of HD recording)
4, embed the recording’s EPG metadata to the finished mp4 (so that Plex’ built-in personal scanner has all the EPG data I want it to have)
5, move the file to the final location (and create folder structure that Plex scanner will understand)
Why this is better than Plex DVR ?
1, DVBLink TV backend is truckload load more stable BACKEND than Plex DVR. (Their GUI blows but who cares about backend GUI)
-You can use ANY EPG source you can think of. EIT, XML, TV_ADviser etc… Gracenote is terrible EPG provider outside of US.
-You can use ANY TV tuner.
2, Post processing by MCEBuddy is flawless … I think i’ve had one failed remux in over 3 years I’ve set this up
-Developer of MCEBuddy actually responds to bug reports and fixes them almost immediately.
3, EPG metadata is embedded in the final output recording file
**4, MCEBuddy has post-processing option that allows you to run custom commands. I use this to create TV Show and Season screenshot using ffmpeg text module. ** This way ALL of my recordings (even the ones that dont have posters in the EPG) have posters in Plex.
To each their own, for some Plex DVR is good - but in my opinion it only looks good in marketing brochures.
See now I take a different approach to looking at Plex DVR. I consider it at present a DVR and nothing else. By that I mean a video recorder. I set up all my TV Shows to fill in missing episodes I don’t have. I don’t have to monitor it or watch an EPG. It’s a set it/forget it thing for me.
I like having web access to the DVR for setup as this means I can access it from anywhere. Unlike many of the other DVR products on the market which don’t allow web access. If there’s a show or movie I find out about I can quickly and easily set it up to record and bump it the highest priority to make sure it gets recorded.
We already know client side recording is coming at some point since the GUI for this slipped during a release of a client previously. We also know live TV with time shifting is important to Plex because they told us this.
Plex doesn’t have to use Gracenotes data. You are free to setup your own provider if you want. It’s just that Gracenotes is included for free as part of your plex-pass subscription which makes it the easy choice if you live in a country that GN supports.
When at home I don’t worry about LIVE TV via Plex since I can just switch the input on my TV and have Live TV that way. If I’m out and about and really need access to Live TV I can still do this via one of the Plex Channels. Granted it could be better if part of Plex vs a channel but it works well regardless.
I think it really depends on what you presently need to get out of your DVR vs a long list of wants. Need vs Want. Example I want it to support every feature every other DVR has ever supported but in reality I only need it to record the TV Shows I have in my library and the ability to find Movies I want to record. Plex handles these really well.
I personally think the way Plex displays movies and TV shows is brilliant. So much better than a traditional EPG it’s scary. Why should I have to scan a grid with over 500 channels when I can have it broken down to shows I already have in my library and upcoming movies that I can then filter by genre? This is exactly what I would have to manually do anyway but why bother? That’s not to say it wouldn’t be useful to have a traditional EPG as a backup but I’d primarily still use the same format Plex DVR has now since it’s efficient.
I look at Plex DVR exactly as @cayars does.
Works like a charm as he describes and is how I use it.
With that being said, Plex DVR is just for types who are reasonably techy and don’t mind messing under the hood.
However the mainstream user wants a DVR to work like a DVR.
This is why I do not think, lacking the general conformity to a DVR product, Plex DVR will gain widespread acceptance, at least till it can pass the Wife or Girlfriend Test.
The bottom line is that the Plex-DVR user better have:
A Beefy Box for PMS to run on - because transcoding will likely be required for everything.
Own a Shield - or similar - that will handle all that incompatible stuff that rolls in via OTA.
Be prepared to do a LOT of ‘optimization’ - or use something like MCEBuddy as the middle-man to automatically recode what comes in before it hits the PMS (I don’t know how that’s going to work, but it may work fine - once you hit the right sequence of events).
@JuiceWSA those 3 points are just as valid regardless of what PC DVR you use to record with.
If you record with Plex, WMC, Emby, BeyondTV, SageTV, Myth, etc it doesn’t matter. If you are capturing the stream then you’ll end up with a TS file and Mpeg2 as well as a few h.264 codecs since this is what is broadcast (USA).
If you have a card/device that does real-time encoding to a different format such as h.264 then you aren’t getting the same quality as the true stream. It’s a trade off.
But all of your points you made aren’t problems with Plex’s DVR but the nature of the beast as this is how it works.
BTW #2: It’s not “incompatible stuff”. It’s a broadcast standard that has been around for a long time. Plex handles these formats just as any other format. This format just happens to use older technology codecs which aren’t compressed nearly the same as h.264 that we have become accustomed to so they require more bits to stream. Many devices can play back mpeg2 not just the shield tv.
@cayars said:
Many devices can play back mpeg2 not just the shield tv.
None in my list do. That covers a whole lot of devices out there. Plex will have to do a LOT of transcoding and you’d better have the box to do it - or do it before hand with the optimizer or via some other means.
MCEBuddy’s converter is quite adequate in that regard and automated to boot. When it shows up in the recently added list it Direct Plays looks and transfers great. Works for me.
I love those MPEG-2 streams for frame accurate editing and that simply isn’t possible with 264 streams due to the way the frames are constructed. Soon after that however MPEG-2 streams quickly lose their charm - when Plex has to transcode every dam one of them.
My box is more than capable of transcoding. Sadly Plex’s transcoder isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer and as such is avoided like The Plague.
