I recently had my HDHomeRun Extend replaced due to an unrelated transcoding issue. The new issue seems to be having some other issues, which I am working with SiliconDust support to deal with, but I noticed some behavior which may indicate a problem with the way Plex handles errors from the HDHomeRun.
I have about 5-10 programs scheduled to record per day with the Plex DVR. All programs recorded as expected until the last one of the day. When I got up the next day I found that the last recording of the previous day and the first recording of the new day were both showing as still recording in the recording schedule (red recording circle icon) whereas the previously recorded shows had a play icon and shows that hadn’t aired yet had no play/record icon.
I looked at the HDHomeRun logs and found these logs, the time of which matches up with when my recording the previous night stopped. https://pastebin.com/xjLEUy6N
Looking at the file system for Plex, there is a file for the recording the previous night which stops around the time of the HDHomeRun logs. The next recording is only 700KB and 2 seconds and is also of the end of the show being recorded the night before.
When I tried to view live TV in Plex it showed a screenshot of the show that was being recorded the night before, but wouldn’t play at all.
Watching live TV from the HDHomeRun with another application worked just fine.
I closed and reopened the Plex Media Server application and when launched the Plex client again the two recordings that failed no longer showed at all in the past Recording Schedule and Live TV worked again via Plex.
My next scheduled recording is now going and so far there have been no problems with the HDHomeRun.
Edit to add: I do have debug logging enabled, please let me know if those logs would be helpful.
TLDR:
I realize the root of this problem stems from the HDHomeRun, and I am working with them to get it resolved, but it seems to me like there is a problem with Plex as well. The HDHomeRun had a problem while Plex was recording. The HDHomeRun appears to have restarted and recovered, I could watch live TV through other apps, but Plex would not work with the HDHomeRun (for live tv or recording) until I closed and reopened the Plex Media Server application.
