Plex failing to use available tuners but claims that it is

[NJMorf]

Server Version#: Version 1.41.4.9463 (Running on TrueNAS Scale 24.04, using the official docker version from the app library, with no updates currently available)
HD Homerun Connect (2 tuners): Hardware Model HDHR4-2DT, Firmware Version 20230713 (no updates available)
Provider: UK Freeview
Plex Media Server Logs_2025-03-12_17-20-49.zip (4.9 MB)

I’ve been seeing a significant number of recordings (perhaps 20%) that are too short and frequently start late. The shortest of these run for about two seconds, but are shown in the library are complete recordings. More commonly, a 30-minute recording might last for 10-20 minutes

Last night the DVR recorded two films. One (“Catch Me If You Can”) was in a nearly three hour timeslot but only recorded a little less than two hours, having started about 20-30 minutes late (by my estimate). The other (“Escape Plan 2”) was in a 1:55 timeslot and recorded 74 minutes, again starting late (though I can’t estimate how late).

I looked in the (non-verbose) logs and while they contain references to both movies, they do not appear to contain any reference to the actual recordings, so I can’t tell exactly when the recordings started or stopped, or see any messages relating to errors. I’ve already deleted the recordings, so I can’t see when they ended, but they can’t have overran significantly, based on the overall duration. This does not appear to be a case of the EPG having the wrong start or end times.

The clock on my server is accurate. The DVR settings do not allow partial recordings. Both tuners were in use at times during the recordings: the first film was scheduled to start at 21:00, as was a one-hour long show (which was recorded correctly) until 22:00; the second film should have started recording at 23:15; the first film should have ended at 23:55, the second should have ended at 01:10. The DVR schedule view does not show any other recordings during the time that the films should have been recording, either completed or clashing.

As I said, I’ve had numerous other recordings that were also incomplete. I have a recording scheduled for “Superman & Lois” which is typically in a 40-minute slot. I’ve set it to record 3 additional minutes before and after the scheduled time, but the last episode (several days ago) still only recorded for 40 minutes and started at least 20 minutes into the broadcast. Again, the logs I’ve just downloaded make no reference to the recording itself, and the only entries I can find are all from today, despite the fact that I’ve had to delete every recording of that show and currently have no episodes in my library. The log entries are all like this:

Mar 12, 2025 11:01:07.378 [139663516597048] DEBUG - Subscription: No existing library item show 'guid: plex://show/619897416f935a6c78f09198 ratingKey: plex%3A%2F%2Fshow%2F619897416f935a6c78f09198 thumb: https://metadata-static.plex.tv/4/gracenote/46013ec90c7c777afb30c594b5977434.jpg title: Superman & Lois type: 2 year: 2021'

This issue is causing me to miss many, many episodes of shows that may not be rebroadcast on channels available to me for many years, so it’s incredibly frustrating that there are so many being messed up.

[NJMorf]

Additional information from the HD HomeRun’s log:

20250311-19:00:00 Tuner: tuner0 streaming http to 192.168.1.122:57752
20250311-19:00:02 Tuner: tuner0 http stream ended (remote closed)
20250311-19:00:02 Tuner: tuner0 tuning 11 Sky Mix (t8dvbt:666MHz-22208)
20250311-19:00:02 Tuner: tuner0 streaming http to 192.168.1.122:57762
20250311-21:59:59 Tuner: tuner0 http stream ended (remote closed)
20250311-21:59:59 Tuner: tuner0 tuning 34 GREAT! movies (t8dvbt:618MHz-27872)
20250311-21:59:59 Tuner: tuner0 streaming http to 192.168.1.122:51616
20250311-23:54:59 Tuner: tuner0 http stream ended (remote closed)
20250311-23:54:59 Tuner: tuner0 tuning 69 LEGEND XTRA (t8dvbt:690MHz-34112)
20250311-23:55:00 Tuner: tuner0 streaming http to 192.168.1.122:50816
20250312-01:09:57 Tuner: tuner0 http stream ended (remote closed)
20250312-01:49:59 Tuner: tuner0 tuning 21 5USA (t8dvbt:642MHz-12992)
20250312-01:50:00 Tuner: tuner0 streaming http to 192.168.1.122:41616
20250312-03:34:58 Tuner: tuner0 http stream ended (remote closed)

It appears that only one tuner was ever in use, but those timestamps are not consistent with the DVR Schedule view in Plex itself. For example, this log suggests that tuner 0 was in use between 19:00 and 21:59, but Plex does not show a three-hour recording between those times. Instead, there were three separate one-hour shows recorded consecutively, the last of which overlapped with Catch Me If You Can, scheduled for 21:00-23:55. This log shows a recording ending at 23:55, but starting at 21:59:59, an hour late.

The log segment above only shows tuner0 in use, but the full log does show some entries using tuner1:

HdHomeRunLog.txt (56.9 KB)

There’s a period from March 6th 22:00 until March 12th 17:41 where tuner1 was not used (and that use today was when I manually tuned in, rather than the DVR using it). It looks like Plex stopped using both tuners, or tuner1 was not showing as available to the DVR. In the case of Catch Me If You Can, it looks like Plex didn’t start recording the film until the TV show running concurrently had ended, and then Plex didn’t start recording Escape Plan 2 until Catch Me had ended. This is despite the default DVR settings not allowing partial recordings.

Right now, at 18:37, Plex is claiming that it’s recording an episode of Stargate Atlantis which started at 18:00 and one of The Simpsons which started at 18:30. The HD HomeRun is only showing one tuner as in use, and Plex is only showing one current recording in its .grab folder (although that folder does contain a three second long recording of Star Trek TOS timestamped at 16:00:07 today, despite there being no corresponding entry in the DVR schedule). The Plex Player is showing progress on that Simpsons recording, both in the dashboard and the DVR schedule, but I see no evidence that the recording is actually taking place.

Either the HD HomeRun is incorrectly reporting that the tuner is available when it’s actually in use, or Plex is incorrectly claiming that it’s recording something when it isn’t. My bet is on the latter, which I’ll find out when both of the current recordings complete.

Edit: the DVR recorded 2 seconds of the Simpsons episode. The LEDs on the HD HomeRun box showed that tuner1 was not in use for most of the 30 minutes that Plex should have been recording the Simpsons. The tuner’s log does not show it being engaged at all during the period that the Simpsons should have been recording.

At this moment (19:04), Plex claims to be recording two shows, each running from 19:00 until 20:00. The HD HomeRun only shows tuner0 in use, tuner1 being available, which matches its log where only tuner0 is currently in use. The physical tuner box’s LEDs only show tuner0 in use. I’m confident that when these two recordings complete, Plex will only have recorded one, which is again indicated by the .grab folder only containing one current recording (and still one failed partial recording from three hours ago). Here’s a fresher copy of the Plex logs:

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-03-12_19-10-38.zip (5.1 MB)

The show that’s going to have failed to record is Star Trek Voyager, S05E01. It should have started recording at around 19:00 today, March 12th. I see multiple lines in Plex Media Server.log referencing that episode, starting from Mar 12, 2025 19:00:00.693, but nothing that immediately tells me that the recording failed (which would tally with Plex thinking that it’s still in progress).

Here are two lines where the recordings should have started:

Mar 12, 2025 19:00:14.394 [139663611042616] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Scheduled an operation 'Star Trek: Voyager - E1 - Night' on channel 5fc76db29df53e002dbab94a-5fc705fa6b022a002d77f248 on device 0 tuner 0 between 2025-03-12 19:00:00 and 2025-03-12 20:00:00
Mar 12, 2025 19:00:14.395 [139663611042616] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Scheduled an operation 'Farscape - E20 - Liars, Guns and Money: With Friends Like These' on channel 5fc76db29df53e002dbab94a-5fc706063f45c6002eab58d0 on device 0 tuner 1 between 2025-03-12 19:00:00 and 2025-03-12 20:00:00

I think it may be relevant that Plex seems to have logged the tuners incorrectly. The HD HomeRun box is currently reporting that tuner0 is in use and tuner1 is not, but Farscape is the show that’s visible in the .grab folder, and Plex thinks it’s on tuner1, not tuner0.

I have multiple recordings scheduled for tonight. There are three cases where two recordings coincide, and two other recordings which Plex won’t attempt due to scheduling conflicts. I assume that I’ll only get one of each pair of coincident recordings and neither of the conflicts. When the schedule allows me, I’ll power cycle the HomeRun to see if that makes any difference, but even if there is a problem with it, there is no reason I can think of that Plex should think that it’s recording programs when it clearly isn’t.

[NJMorf]

I have confirmed that Star Trek Voyager did not record correctly: Plex spent an hour recording and produced a video file that was less than a second long.

Right now there is only one scheduled recording, using tuner0 as before. When I try to watch live TV using the other tuner, Plex fails, reporting “Playback Error: Could not tune channel”. I’m certain that this is related to the recording problem. However, if I use the HD HomeRun app on either my Win10 desktop or Android phone, I can watch TV on tuner1 without problem.

I am convinced that this is a Plex problem, not a HomeRun problem. I looked in the release notes for PMS 1.41.5.9522, which as I noted earlier isn’t available via the TrueNAS Docker library yet, and I don’t see any notes which seem to relate to problems with TV recording, so perhaps this is a new problem or restricted to my system. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Edit: the last attempt to watch live TV, which failed to tune a channel, is apparently still using the tuner. The dashboard shows “Recording: Live TV session” and won’t let me try to watch any live channel, even though the HomeRun box says that there is an available tuner.

Note that the live session progress indicator is full, even though the show Plex thinks I’m watching isn’t over yet. I don’t know how I’d get Plex to correct this other than restarting the Docker app.

Update: after I took that screenshot, a new live TV session started, then the “ended” session disappeared, so this is what the dash currently shows:

I still can’t watch live, but now it’s telling me it’s because “All tuners are currently in use” and asks me to choose one to cancel:

I only have two tuners, and yet Plex thinks it’s currently recording three shows, and is actually only recording one.

[NJMorf]

After a PMS restart, Plex seems able to use both tuners again. We’ll see how long that lasts.

[NJMorf]

And it’s misbehaving again. Plex is currently claiming to be recording three shows on two tuners:

That errored movie, The Sweeney, says “The recording was not started because airing was in progress”, but there’s still a nearly 1GB file in the .grab folder with nearly an hour of recording to go.

The episode of the Simpsons ate 21:30 finished recording at 22:00 and is so short that Plex doesn’t show a duration for it:

The episode of Quantum Leap that is allegedly being recorded is not actually being recorded at all.

It looks likely that I’ll see disruption to concurrent recordings again in the near future, at least until I restart PMS again, and if this bug is fixed in the current release, I’ll still not be able to upgrade until the update is available in the TrueNAS apps directory, whenever that is.

Any Plex devs/support team members want to advise on this?