Server Version#: QNAP TS-251 - PMS 1.24.3.5033-757abe6b4
Player Version#: Roku Ultra - Plex App Installed on 9/21/21
Tuner Make/Model: HiSense H9F
HDHomeRun CONNECT QUATRO
All my connections are wired.
It is taking approximately 10-12 seconds to load an OTA Live TV channels from PMS on my Roku Plex app. Is this normal? This seems crazy to me. I researched this and many other people have expressed similar experiences, but I want to know if there is a way to improve this. I do have the channels set to DirectStream so I am thinking there should not be any transcoding. I am not sure what the slow-down is?
I tried various configurations such as different players (Android Plex player, Roku Plex player) and different servers (QNAP PMS, Win10 PMS) and every combination has the similar load times. My Win10 PMS was running on an Intel i5 2.9 GHz processor and SSD and I was surprised I did not see any performance enhancement over my QNAP PMS.
My primary use for Plex is to watch OTA Live TV and have the ability to DVR material.
Please send any suggestions, especially if any of you are able to get OTA Live TV stations to load quickly. In this case, I would like to know your set-up please.
Yes, this is normal (or it’s at least what I experience as well). While the Roku can handle MPEG2 without a problem, I believe it still needs to be remuxed into a different container. So, the process of starting the stream is a little longer than on other clients.
Does the remux happen at the server or client level?
If it is at the server level, can better server specs make a significant difference? I would not mind going with something that has more horsepower…but with my testing between NAS processor and i5 processor, there was no difference in performance.
If it is at the client level, is there another client where remux is not necessary for MPEG2? I could build a Plex Player on a RPi, for instance.
Many people state that they can pull up OTA Live TV channels instantly using HDHR app. What’s the difference in how HDHR app and Plex Player app handles MPEG2?
I purchased a computer with a very fast CPU to see if that would improve the load times of OTA channels on Plex. There was an improvement, but it was not a significant difference. Channels still took about 10 seconds to load. I also tried Jellyfin and it had comparable load times, although its FFW and RWD was more efficient. The HD Homerun app loads the channels in about 5 seconds.
Where is the bottleneck in Plex that causes it to load about twice as long? Is there anything that can be done (either purchase hardware or make software adjustments) to make this process more efficient? I would like to get this time to 5 seconds or faster.
