Recordings Crash:
A) At Least 30%
B) At Least 50%
C)At Least 80%
D) All the time, without warning
E) no crashes or extremely rare
My answer is D
I don’t even use (nor want) Plex DVR, but from the posts that are made outside the ‘official forum’ for it I can see it’s mostly junk.
Here’s something that isn’t junk, has been working here flawlessly for nearly a decade and comes with it’s own bulletproof graphic novel for making it work - with Plex:
Automatically and Unattended I might add - after you schedule the recordings, of course, but that’s not nearly as painful as an entire system that’s basically broken… right?
And on top of that - it’s FREE! You can donate if you find it’s worth it - and you will - because it is.
E: Works fine for me.
@JuiceWSA said:
I don’t even use (nor want) Plex DVR, but from the posts that are made outside the ‘official forum’ for it I can see it’s mostly junk.Here’s something that isn’t junk, has been working here flawlessly for nearly a decade and comes with it’s own bulletproof graphic novel for making it work - with Plex:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1321322/#Comment_1321322
Automatically and Unattended I might add - after you schedule the recordings, of course, but that’s not nearly as painful as an entire system that’s basically broken… right?And on top of that - it’s FREE! You can donate if you find it’s worth it - and you will - because it is.
How does a tool (MCEBuddy) that’s designed to strip commercials and rename/move files actually record content?
A satisfied customer. There’s one at least. A Plex success story.
I guess your Shield deals with that mess that comes in via every recording device on the Planet.
(still wouldn’t buy one)
@JuiceWSA said:
I don’t even use (nor want) Plex DVR, but from the posts that are made outside the ‘official forum’ for it I can see it’s mostly junk.Here’s something that isn’t junk, has been working here flawlessly for nearly a decade and comes with it’s own bulletproof graphic novel for making it work - with Plex:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1321322/#Comment_1321322
Automatically and Unattended I might add - after you schedule the recordings, of course, but that’s not nearly as painful as an entire system that’s basically broken… right?And on top of that - it’s FREE! You can donate if you find it’s worth it - and you will - because it is.
What is it used with? What records the content and what provides the guide data?
Windows Media Center. They didn’t bother including it with Win 10 - but wait!
I’m maintaining my Win 7 box on the network to hold storage and run WMC. I’ve been doing it that for at least a decade, no need to re-invent the wheel. It’s plenty round as is.
The issue is that MPEG-2 video streams are incompatible with just about everything on Planet Earth. That means Plex has to transcode for just about everything on Planet Earth. If you don’t know, you will, but Plex’s transcoder isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. MCEBuddy’s transcoder went to school and got an edubekashun and works just fine - considering I told what I wanted it to do.
@JuiceWSA said:
Windows Media Center. They didn’t bother including it with Win 10 - but wait!
Here is how to install Media Center on Windows 10 | Windows CentralI’m maintaining my Win 7 box on the network to hold storage and run WMC. I’ve been doing it that for at least a decade, no need to re-invent the wheel. It’s plenty round as is.
The issue is that MPEG-2 video streams are incompatible with just about everything on Planet Earth. That means Plex has to transcode for just about everything on Planet Earth. If you don’t know, you will, but Plex’s transcoder isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. MCEBuddy’s transcoder went to school and got an edubekashun and works just fine - considering I told what I wanted it to do.
that’s cool, how do you get the guide to work for windows 10?
@JuiceWSA said:
Windows Media Center. They didn’t bother including it with Win 10 - but wait!
Here is how to install Media Center on Windows 10 | Windows CentralI’m maintaining my Win 7 box on the network to hold storage and run WMC. I’ve been doing it that for at least a decade, no need to re-invent the wheel. It’s plenty round as is.
The issue is that MPEG-2 video streams are incompatible with just about everything on Planet Earth. That means Plex has to transcode for just about everything on Planet Earth. If you don’t know, you will, but Plex’s transcoder isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. MCEBuddy’s transcoder went to school and got an edubekashun and works just fine - considering I told what I wanted it to do.
Shoot, the file WindowsMediaCenter_10.0.10134.0.zip is unavailable, I just found a variant some where that I’m going to test.
E: No crashes.
I’ve had one issue which was related to guide data. One channel (LAFF) not showing any guide data, but that was an issue with gracenote - guide was not in my kodi xmltv.xml either. Final got around to notifying zap2it and a couple of weeks later the guide data showed up.
Windows 10 Pro with HDHR4-2US
@JuiceWSA said:
Windows Media Center. They didn’t bother including it with Win 10 - but wait!
Here is how to install Media Center on Windows 10 | Windows CentralI’m maintaining my Win 7 box on the network to hold storage and run WMC. I’ve been doing it that for at least a decade, no need to re-invent the wheel. It’s plenty round as is.
The issue is that MPEG-2 video streams are incompatible with just about everything on Planet Earth. That means Plex has to transcode for just about everything on Planet Earth. If you don’t know, you will, but Plex’s transcoder isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. MCEBuddy’s transcoder went to school and got an edubekashun and works just fine - considering I told what I wanted it to do.
Thanks! I am now using WMC to record and plex to view.
I still love plex, but i’m going to record with WMC.
@hyrumster said:
Shoot, the file WindowsMediaCenter_10.0.10134.0.zip is unavailable, I just found a variant some where that I’m going to test.
If you post the link to that ‘variant’ - or shoot me a PM with it - I’ll add it to my bag of tricks and the ‘guide’ for MCEBuddy. I’m certain it will come in handy:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1321322/#Comment_1321322
WMC - unlike Plex DVR - will work with any tuner card/device you happen to have in or out of your box. Thousands of Plex Users may find that helpful.
@cayars said:
E: Works fine for me.
Same. I forget that I even have it some times. It just keeps adding episodes in the background. I haven’t had to tinker with it in months.
E: works without issues, no crashes.
I certainly can see why other people would want to use a different DVR program Hell I’ve used numerous and was affiliated with SageTV for a period of time.
If you already own hardware that doesn’t work with Plex DVR then that is surely a compelling reason to use a different product! 
If you have a unique situation where you need to be able to watch the recording while it’s being recorded (think sports) then that too could be a reason to use a different product until Plex matures a bit more on that front.
But for others who do have hardware that works with Plex or intend to purchase said hardware Plex DVR is plenty fine for 99%+ of it’s users and will run on the same installation and won’t require another machine (dedicated or VM). This makes management of your whole system a bit easier and of course allows you to easily setup recordings from any place with web access which isn’t always the case with some other products without having to setup additional programs and or plug ins.
Regardless of what platform you use to record the shows you will most likely still end up with the same file that is going to be a transport stream with the same codecs used. You’re still going to get interlaced video on your 1080 content and will still have the same problems in Plex with those file types regardless of how they were recorded.
Plex is working on the interlaced issues as they have already said in the forums. Again regardless of what you use to record the streams you will most likely be in the same camp who will need to re-process the file to h.264 for better streaming support. Plex could certainly adapt the Optimize feature specifically to recorded content as well down the road. The main difference could be once optimized it would replace the original as opposed to just creating a new secondary file.
E) It’s never crashed on me.
I used to use WMC but the handwriting is on the wall that it’s days are limited. I tried installing it on Windows 10, but updates will break it.
The addition of DVR into Plex has allowed me to dismantle the Windows machine (and sell it) and replace it with my already existing Ubuntu Linux server and a Roku. Plex’s implementation has been amazingly solid for me.
@JuiceWSA said:
Windows Media Center. They didn’t bother including it with Win 10 - but wait!
Here is how to install Media Center on Windows 10 | Windows CentralI’m maintaining my Win 7 box on the network to hold storage and run WMC. I’ve been doing it that for at least a decade, no need to re-invent the wheel. It’s plenty round as is.
The issue is that MPEG-2 video streams are incompatible with just about everything on Planet Earth. That means Plex has to transcode for just about everything on Planet Earth. If you don’t know, you will, but Plex’s transcoder isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. MCEBuddy’s transcoder went to school and got an edubekashun and works just fine - considering I told what I wanted it to do.
You know which device can play mpeg-2?
Roku Shield TV
You know, that $200 sh it game console you love bashing on despite having zero personal experience with it.
E. I’ve had one strange crash since the DVR went mainline. Oddly enough plex itself stayed up, just no recordings.
E: No crashes.
Anyone claiming the Plex DVR is mostly junk is probably using it on mostly junk equipment (or network). I have never had to reset my HDHomeRun tuner and my NAS (and Plex) has been up for nearly 90 days. The only time I restart my NAS is when I install new firmware. As for Plex, I can’t remember the last time I had to ‘bounce it’.
One might need a tri-band router, use port aggregation, cat 6 cables, RAID for performance, etc… but to say Plex DVR is junk is just wrong.
Before I was A. After I re-configured and re-setup the dvr I am now an E.
I really wish they would add live tv, or a way to manage DVR settings in the apps(two of the very first features requested). 8 months since it was announced and 4-5 months since the last feature update. Feature wise the DVR is pretty dead with development progress in a blackhole it seems. The dev team besides maybe 1 member doesn’t even interact with users in the DVR forums anymore. It took us days to get their attention to fix the EPG guide not being available to download. Then 10 days later it happened again.
It sucks because it means Non-Plex Pass users will have to keep waiting for this feature, for no apparent reason(I know it’s in beta, but look at all the E responses). In the meantime the Plex social media team will keep actively and heavily advertising it to bring in more subscribers.
So my word of advice to Non-Plex Pass users, don’t buy Plex Pass right now, and especially do not buy it to just gain access to the DVR. The Plex team for the past 5-6 months is like a completely different team, hardly any interaction with forum users. They really don’t seem to value the community as much any more.
