You are hilarious. Let me know on the specs when you get a chance. Feel free to post back to me at any of my many different accounts.
@Mike_Mike Already posted, but you need to let me know once youāve passed a basic course on IT at least, as it seems you havenāt got to grips with the basics of social engineering, of which youāve tried and failed here.
Obviously you have everything figured out. Iāll set up my new (4 year old) i5-9800u based Plex HTPC as soon as Intel starts shipping that magnificent CPU. Iām sure once I do, the LiveTV and DVR functions will truly be a dream come true and all will be right in the world.
Thanks for all your help - it has been incredible.
@Mike_Mike Youāve got several Android devices and you mentioned crashing. Check out the most recent release for Android 9.16.0. There are a lot of crash fixes and couple specific to Live TV. Please let us know if this resolves some of your issues.
If you have anymore scenarios youād like to share, please do. Also include your client logs after reproducing the issue when possible.
Thanks! Iāll check what versions I have and update if Iām not at 9.16.0.
The Ubuntu Plex HTPC setup seems to work much better - just a lot harder run it because I canāt hit āOKā on the remote to select something. I have to go to āmouseā mode and click it. Any work around for something like that?
Thanks for the reply!
This is not my expertise and Iām not sure of your setup (HTPC and a controller?) but HTPC does allow for a fair bit of customization in regards to keymapping.
Great - thanks! Iāll take a look later today.
@Mike_Mike , I feel your pain. Iāve used Plex for several years now as my DVR. I had used WMC until Windows scrapped the channel guide, thatās when I migrated over to Plex. I tried the competition, and at the time Plex worked the best/was the best layed out. Iāll pass along what Iāve learned so far.
Your client and hardware do make a big difference. Thatās the biggest thing Iāve learned, still learning on that front. I initially used a older Firestick. It was clunky, but proof of concept. Then I graduated to a Roku TV. This was my first smart TV. It was a TCL Roku. The Roku app is inferior to the Android app. I think I saw someone say the opposite higher up in this thread, but I can say this simply is not true. Jumping around a TV show using the Roku app is painful. If you donāt have your server trim commercials automatically, then youāre in for a rough experience on Roku.
I actually supplemented my āSmartā Roku TV with a Chromecast. This was a big improvement over the Roku. Skipping around with the arrow buttons doesnāt require a āConfirmā okay click, and is instant. Where on Roku you spool up how far you want to skip, then poke Ok. Then it buffersā¦for a while, and finally skips ahead.
On the Chromecast you poke the forward button and the show skips ahead, normally instantly. Similar with back.
This inspired me to buy an AndroidTV TCL TV. This lesson taught me that cheap TVs have junk hardware. While the app performed as well as the Chromecast, it crashed randomly/often. The whole OS did on this TV. I HATE that TV. I repurposed it into a wall-calander. It is no longer used for anything other than to display an HDMI signal from a Raspberry Pi.
Finally, I recently moved and went ābigā. Bought a high dollar Sony Bravia 75" TV. Plex works excellent on this. Watched the Super Bowl on it the other night, flawless. Now Iāll admit I did NO pausing/rewind/fast forward. Wellā¦actually realized I was a few minutes behind as I was recording it, and did skip ahead to live. That worked fine.
I have very little experience with Live DVR functions currently on this TV. I can say that Live DVR, my biggest problem was this: I typically record football games. I rarely am able to sit down live for the beginning. But will start watching the recording from the beginning while the game is on-going. Skipping ahead works okayā¦sometimes. My goal is to skip commercials until Iām live with the on-air feed. Then watch live. Sometimes if I try to rewind a great play or something, the time location gets 'effed, and bam Iām live. This is a buzz kill as it gives spoilers if Iām far enough behind.
I only got this Bravia in time for the playoffs this year, and watched everything live. Or fully recorded, have not tried time-shifting a live recording.
But the skipping ahead to live when you did not want to has plagued my Plex experience since I moved over to it.
So my experience is that Android/Googleās version of Plex app is FAR superior to Roku. Seems similar to the web app on a PC in Chrome. Also if using a smart TV, donāt go with cheap hardware, you will regret it. I havenāt tried a Shield, or any other platform. A big reason I bought the Sony Bravia was the Google platform. I wasnāt sure if the proprietary OSās on the other Smart TVs (the LGs and Samsung) used had a junk client like Roku. I knew that the Google app works well.
NOW itās not all sunshine and roses. Iām here because my Chromecast is now stuttering all playback. I havenāt found a fix yet. Just happened upon your thread first on my quest to fix my Chromecast. The GoogleTV platform on my Bravia still works fine, but Chromecast has been stuttering the video playback for a week or 2 now. Trying to find out why. Actually got it to work normal on LiveTV now. But recordings are unwatchable. The same recording on my Bravia or a PC is fine.
Additional info. I like you use an HDHomeRun Prime. I have the Duo/dual tuner connected to an OTA antenna. Works pretty well on my Bravia.
My dad has the Quatro with a CableCARD for his cable subscription. He uses the HDHomeRun DVR platform. He seems happy with it. To my knowledge the HDHomeRun platform has no ātraditionalā channel guide. Your grid view with whatās on now, whatās coming up, etc. That has a $35 annual fee, which if it works great (and as far as I know, he claims it does), is rather reasonable for a headache free DVR experience. Iām too stubborn to abandon Plex.
ChannelsDVR allows you add your own channels from alternative streaming sources - thatās an available capability. However, from an HDHomeRun it pulls those streams directly from the tuner just like Plex LiveTV does. Iāve used both ChannelsDVR and Plex for a couple of years.
@blackngold75 Though with ChannelsDVR you still have the option from adding all the channels that the HDHomeRun provides via a streaming source and thatās something that Plex does not have natively.
Thatās not entirely correct: not āallā of my OTA channels, in fact most, do not have a comparable streaming source I can legally access. Has more to do with TV Everywhere access and availability, and doesnāt have anything to do with an HDHomeRun or other network tuner. ChannelsDVR can pull in TVEverywhere channels, Plex DVR cannot.
Maybe I misunderstood your original comment: I thought you were implying that ChannelsDVR does not use the HDHomeRun tuner stream, and it absolutely does.
@blackngold75 Indeed, not everyone will be able to get everything via a streaming source.
Indeed it does, but I think that Plex would benefit from being able to add a streaming source or at the very least add manual tuning it itās DVR functionality.
Update: I wasnāt able to get the keymapping to work. When I push the OK button on the remote it doesnāt make an entry like the other buttons do. Iāll take another shot at it - maybe it is just this remote.
My Fire Stick is on version 9.15.0.38159. It will be a few days before I can play with it but Iāll see how it goes with 9.16. Hopefully better.
Thanks for your help.
Thanks for the comments - I canāt stand the Roku version. Too painful to FFD/RWD. I think the smoothest experience is with my Shield Pro - other than the LiveTV/DVR falling on its face anyway.
The Ubuntu version shows promise - if I can get it to work with a remote.
Iāve only used my Quatro with OTA via Plex. I did use it with Channels in past where it worked great.
I havenāt tried the other HDHomeRun services/guide but maybe should check it out.
Yes, HomeMediaServer2018 was claiming that Channels didnāt use the tuner to stream the broadcast channels. That was in response on my comments about Channels being able to handle DVR functions on an old $29 Firesticks and Plex has trouble with LiveTV and DVR functions on all the hardware platforms that Iāve used - old and slow to the latest and greatest. I suspect he knows the truth but was trying to defend Plex for some reason.
Channels does a great job with HDHomeRun tuners and I may be re-subscribing just for that - unless the latest update to Plex fixes some of my troubles anyway. Fingers crossed!
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You should just make the switch. Plex Live TV/DVR has never failed to disappointment me for 5 years now and it seems youāve had pretty much the same experience. You know the definition of insanity ā¦ I switched to something else (that happens to be free) 2 or 3 years ago now and I just keep Plex Live/TV installed so that I can update it every once in a while just to confirm that it still totally sucks.
Canāt even do basic scheduling - For example, I want to record the national news on a somewhat flakey channel at 11:00 pm and the rebroadcast at either 5:30 or 6:30 each morning. I want to record both as the channel doesnāt always lock. Absolutely no way to do that unless Iām willing to get up in the middle of the night everyday, move the first recording (to avoid the plex cardinal sin of duplicates) so that the morning airing will record. Donāt know about every DVR software out there, but the free NextPVR handles every scheduling scenario Iāve thrown at it ā flawlessly. The Plex DVR scheduler was clearly designed by someone that has never used a DVR before ā certainly, satisfying basic use cases just wasnāt important. Canāt even record by time/channel.
