PLEX ready to replace Windows Media Center?

General Discussions Plex Features
21

@jfreiman said:
Microsoft Windows Media Center went through all the same CableLabs certification and testing that TiVo has gone through plus it works with laptops, tablets (yes, I have a cheap 8" Windows tablet streaming live and recorded hd cable tv) desktop computers with 2 cores or more.

That’s true, BUT you couldn’t share that file between those devices. If you recorded a copy-protected broadcast, you could only watch it on the same device where it was recorded, unless you were using a dedicated Media Center Extender that was connected to that computer. Plex is trying to allow you to record a show on one server and watch it on other devices. To be honest, I’m not even sure if that’s allowed by CableLabs! But I also imagine it’s not cheap.

Copy protection is the “elephant in the room” for many DVR systems, including MediaPortal, NextPVR, and even SiliconDust’s own DVR software. The problem here is more the cable providers than Plex, but obviously that’s not going to change anytime soon.

22

@blue-dawgie We can only hope Plex is able to negotiate something with CableLabs. Maybe limit the quality outside the network to 480p? I think that would be a fair compromise.

It is expensive. Only three copy protection schemes are approved by CableLabs.

Microsoft PlayReady, RealNetworks Helix, or DTCP-IP

23

I have a different take than most here - I’m an OTA DVR user only. For that it has worked remarkable well after a few hiccups last winter-spring I think? Those mainly were a combination of my Plex server being upgrading and wanting to drop my NAS shares and some funky EPG data refresh problems I was seeing where it wasn’t always automatically pulling the guide. That being said it I haven’t even thought about it for most of this fall season to date.

I was using mythTV for a similar setup before and this is much easier view the recordings on any number of devices than mythTV was. There are still a few odd things with how it decides to what to record, mainly around rebooted shows (MacGyver, Hawaii 5-0, etc) either the guide data is screwy and has both versions under one heading or in my case I have the old show in my library so the scheduler thinks I already have even those I don’t have this episode of the current show.

It was also nice to be able to watch some college and NFL football off my phone when out and about this fall streaming from Plex.

24

@blue-dawgie said:

@jfreiman said:
Microsoft Windows Media Center went through all the same CableLabs certification and testing that TiVo has gone through plus it works with laptops, tablets (yes, I have a cheap 8" Windows tablet streaming live and recorded hd cable tv) desktop computers with 2 cores or more.

That’s true, BUT you couldn’t share that file between those devices. If you recorded a copy-protected broadcast, you could only watch it on the same device where it was recorded, unless you were using a dedicated Media Center Extender that was connected to that computer. Plex is trying to allow you to record a show on one server and watch it on other devices. To be honest, I’m not even sure if that’s allowed by CableLabs! But I also imagine it’s not cheap.

Copy protection is the “elephant in the room” for many DVR systems, including MediaPortal, NextPVR, and even SiliconDust’s own DVR software. The problem here is more the cable providers than Plex, but obviously that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Well, that’s not 100% true either. You can watch DRM content on other devices “extenders” - aka Xbox 360, anywhere on your local network.
Also, while this isn’t practice for most users because of internet subscription bandwidth (upstream) you could and can stream DRM WMC content to another device that you have set up on your Windows Home Group. You could not stream live TV or access the WMC tuners directly, but you could play the DRM recorded channels using Windows Media Player – across the internet. Windows has rudimentary transcoding built in for this purpose, but wasn’t always stable or reliable – especially with 1080i MPEG-2/ATSC recordings.
So, the hooks were built into Windows and by extension Windows Media Center for this application.
I brought a friends desktop PC to my home, added it to my network, connected it to my Home Group, enabled streaming to/from Windows Media Player and once it was working, I took his computer back to his home.
This wasn’t reliable enough via his dsl connection, but it well enough that I was able to do a similar setup on my laptop for when I traveled away from home and had a fast internet connection.
So, yes, DRM sucks and without licensing and certifying the PLATFORM (software, video drivers, monitor drivers, operating system, file package, cable tv tuner drivers, ATSC digital tuner drivers, etc etc) Plex will never be able to offer a product that just works – for everyone.
ANY PROVIDER of DVR or allows the streaming of recorded television (something Plex already did just fine before adding the DVR function) is a dead end product with NO future. The only reason Media Center was allowed to exist in the first place, was the FCC guaranteed all users access to their cable subscriptions regardless of the hardware they used. Sure the choice was limited to WMC and TiVo or your cable box rental, but it was made possible.
With only TiVo now offering such a feature/function and the FCC doing nothing to keep Microsoft from abandoning their existing or future users, there is no hope for such a platform any longer.
So yes, Plex is allowing you to record on one server and play it back anywhere on any device, but in a world where cable TV is just one way to get and stream ‘cable’ programming, it doesn’t make any sense to even develop when alternatives already exist and more are being released every day. DirecTV Now, Dish, Hulu, Netflix (sort of), etc.

25

@kd6icz said:
@blue-dawgie We can only hope Plex is able to negotiate something with CableLabs. Maybe limit the quality outside the network to 480p? I think that would be a fair compromise.

It is expensive. Only three copy protection schemes are approved by CableLabs.

Microsoft PlayReady, RealNetworks Helix, or DTCP-IP

There is no way that Plex can put together let alone pay for an “end to end” protected stream from cable/OTA through to the final endpoint. if ONE driver is broken, changed, modified, etc the whole system shuts down. Even Windows Media Center’s protected content can not survive a system re-install or be transferred to a new Windows Media Center computer.
So while users may want Plex to do this, they would have to design this protected pipeline, then get

Video Drivers: AMD, Intel, NVidia to write drivers that support their DRM.
Cable/ATSC tuner manufacturers to write new drives that have protection.
Audio chipsets would need their own drivers, ie; Realtek, AMD, Intel, etc
HDMI protected drivers and HDCP certifications
develop a DRM package for the recorded content that protects the audio, video and additional streams woven into each recording.

And that is just for the machine that’s recording it.

Then there would need to be similar protections built into EVERY device that would play back the content. There are many hundreds of Android build and many more audio and video drivers for each one – many, most or NONE support DRM.
Apple would need to be in on this too for their phones, tablets, tv boxes, desktops and laptops.
Then to get CableLabs to certify the all the browsers too! LOL

And it’s not just writing the driver and your finished. You need to commit to having this feature in all future drivers, plus the additional support costs associated with supporting any new specification for not just Plex, but all the end users who would ‘rely’ on this new standard.
One link in the chain breaks, and you have a dozen companies pointing the finger at the one another saying “it’s not my fault” - etc.

Who would the Plex user contact when DRM stops working? Plex doesn’t even HAVE ANY SUPPORT FOR THE MOST BASIC OF SERVICES!

For a platform that is in all intent and purposes no longer being developed, that you would find it hard to get even ONE of the above companies to agree to take on such an endeavor.

DO YOU WANT PROOF CABLE IS DEAD!!! Comcast / Xfinity STOPPED broadcasting ANY AND ALL CABLE channels in 1080i over a year ago. 100% of all content from “cable” channels that was 1080i - HBO, Showtime, Lifetime, Discovery Channel, Bravo!, BBC America – ETC ETC is all now being transcoded to 720p before it even reaches your home.

Has anyone seen this FACT on the news? Read about this change in the newspapers? Heard about it from the companies manufacturing and selling UHD televisions? – NO. Because CABLE IS DEAD. (and because Comcast sent a software update to all X1 boxes to up-convert all those poor quality 720p transcodes of 80% of all the cable networks 1080i programming before your TV’s user-interface can even splash “720p” on your screen.

26

@blue-dawgie said:

@jfreiman said:
Microsoft Windows Media Center went through all the same CableLabs certification and testing that TiVo has gone through plus it works with laptops, tablets (yes, I have a cheap 8" Windows tablet streaming live and recorded hd cable tv) desktop computers with 2 cores or more.

That’s true, BUT you couldn’t share that file between those devices. If you recorded a copy-protected broadcast, you could only watch it on the same device where it was recorded, unless you were using a dedicated Media Center Extender that was connected to that computer. Plex is trying to allow you to record a show on one server and watch it on other devices. To be honest, I’m not even sure if that’s allowed by CableLabs! But I also imagine it’s not cheap.

Copy protection is the “elephant in the room” for many DVR systems, including MediaPortal, NextPVR, and even SiliconDust’s own DVR software. The problem here is more the cable providers than Plex, but obviously that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Sure copy protection is indeed the central issue for those DVR users who have not cut the cord. However, for those of whom that do subscribe to cable and use cablecard there is at least one option.

As I stated before, the Hauppauge HD PVR as well as any of its derivative products like the Hauppauge Colossus and Colossus 2 can capture 1080i / 720p from even premium pay channels (like HBO, showtime and so on) all without DRM restriction.

So the solution there is to use something like the Hauppauge HD PVR and if preferred use cablecard as well (for the other channels under no such restriction).

I’ve used every version of Microsoft Media Center that was publicly released and thus have been using it since its first release. I’ve even beta tested some Microsoft Media Center features. Still I’ve always rejected the extender model despite having an Xbox 360 and cablecard.

I have always avoided recording DRM ridden media much less archive it. I have literally thousands of recordings stored on my server and NAS as well as an offline backup system to restore from.

NextPVR has the ability to use cablecard but does not support the copy once / copy never flag. However, I never wanted to record and archive such locked down media anyway. NextPVR also support the Hauppauge HD PVR so it is capable of providing a similar experience as Media Center for my use case (cablecard Mcard + Hauppauge HD PVR). MediaPortal supports both cablecard and the Hauppauge HD PVR as well IIRC.

27

@Octavean said:

@blue-dawgie said:

@jfreiman said:
Microsoft Windows Media Center went through all the same CableLabs certification and testing that TiVo has gone through plus it works with laptops, tablets (yes, I have a cheap 8" Windows tablet streaming live and recorded hd cable tv) desktop computers with 2 cores or more.

That’s true, BUT you couldn’t share that file between those devices. If you recorded a copy-protected broadcast, you could only watch it on the same device where it was recorded, unless you were using a dedicated Media Center Extender that was connected to that computer. Plex is trying to allow you to record a show on one server and watch it on other devices. To be honest, I’m not even sure if that’s allowed by CableLabs! But I also imagine it’s not cheap.

Copy protection is the “elephant in the room” for many DVR systems, including MediaPortal, NextPVR, and even SiliconDust’s own DVR software. The problem here is more the cable providers than Plex, but obviously that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Sure copy protection is indeed the central issue for those DVR users who have not cut the cord. However, for those of whom that do subscribe to cable and use cablecard there is at least one option.

As I stated before, the Hauppauge HD PVR as well as any of its derivative products like the Hauppauge Colossus and Colossus 2 can capture 1080i / 720p from even premium pay channels (like HBO, showtime and so on) all without DRM restriction.

So the solution there is to use something like the Hauppauge HD PVR and if preferred use cablecard as well (for the other channels under no such restriction).

I’ve used every version of Microsoft Media Center that was publicly released and thus have been using it since its first release. I’ve even beta tested some Microsoft Media Center features. Still I’ve always rejected the extender model despite having an Xbox 360 and cablecard.

I have always avoided recording DRM ridden media much less archive it. I have literally thousands of recordings stored on my server and NAS as well as an offline backup system to restore from.

NextPVR has the ability to use cablecard but does not support the copy once / copy never flag. However, I never wanted to record and archive such locked down media anyway. NextPVR also support the Hauppauge HD PVR so it is capable of providing a similar experience as Media Center for my use case (cablecard Mcard + Hauppauge HD PVR). MediaPortal supports both cablecard and the Hauppauge HD PVR as well IIRC.

This is the reason I still run WMC and before that BeyondTV. You will never see anything meaning full to digitally record DRM content due to control of the pipeline it travels.

My hope is that someday soon Plex will support HDPVR or Colossus for that odd one off program i do like to record off the DRM channels that I keep having to support WMC for.

28

@DDimit said:

@Octavean said:

@blue-dawgie said:

@jfreiman said:
Microsoft Windows Media Center went through all the same CableLabs certification and testing that TiVo has gone through plus it works with laptops, tablets (yes, I have a cheap 8" Windows tablet streaming live and recorded hd cable tv) desktop computers with 2 cores or more.

That’s true, BUT you couldn’t share that file between those devices. If you recorded a copy-protected broadcast, you could only watch it on the same device where it was recorded, unless you were using a dedicated Media Center Extender that was connected to that computer. Plex is trying to allow you to record a show on one server and watch it on other devices. To be honest, I’m not even sure if that’s allowed by CableLabs! But I also imagine it’s not cheap.

Copy protection is the “elephant in the room” for many DVR systems, including MediaPortal, NextPVR, and even SiliconDust’s own DVR software. The problem here is more the cable providers than Plex, but obviously that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Sure copy protection is indeed the central issue for those DVR users who have not cut the cord. However, for those of whom that do subscribe to cable and use cablecard there is at least one option.

As I stated before, the Hauppauge HD PVR as well as any of its derivative products like the Hauppauge Colossus and Colossus 2 can capture 1080i / 720p from even premium pay channels (like HBO, showtime and so on) all without DRM restriction.

So the solution there is to use something like the Hauppauge HD PVR and if preferred use cablecard as well (for the other channels under no such restriction).

I’ve used every version of Microsoft Media Center that was publicly released and thus have been using it since its first release. I’ve even beta tested some Microsoft Media Center features. Still I’ve always rejected the extender model despite having an Xbox 360 and cablecard.

I have always avoided recording DRM ridden media much less archive it. I have literally thousands of recordings stored on my server and NAS as well as an offline backup system to restore from.

NextPVR has the ability to use cablecard but does not support the copy once / copy never flag. However, I never wanted to record and archive such locked down media anyway. NextPVR also support the Hauppauge HD PVR so it is capable of providing a similar experience as Media Center for my use case (cablecard Mcard + Hauppauge HD PVR). MediaPortal supports both cablecard and the Hauppauge HD PVR as well IIRC.

This is the reason I still run WMC and before that BeyondTV. You will never see anything meaning full to digitally record DRM content due to control of the pipeline it travels.

My hope is that someday soon Plex will support HDPVR or Colossus for that odd one off program i do like to record off the DRM channels that I keep having to support WMC for.

I have theorized that it might be possible given that Plex has started supporting more tuners. The Hauppauge HD PVR / Colossus line were made compatible with Media Center through companion software. There were two that I was aware of. The native Hauppauge beta Media Center software and the DVBLink HD PVR software. The latter of which seems to now be abandonwear. These software options took two different approaches. One spoofed a quasi Cablecard tuner and the other made Media Center think it was a DVB-T tuner.

If either software package could be loaded on a Windows system with a Hauppauge HD PVR / Colossus installed then maybe Plex Media Server running on the same system would see it as a local tuner,…then again maybe not.

Edit:

For what its worth, I asked both Plex and Hauppauge if they would consider supporting the Hauppauge line of capture products in Plex and the answer was less then encouraging :frowning:

29

@Octavean said:

As I stated before, the Hauppauge HD PVR as well as any of its derivative products like the Hauppauge Colossus and Colossus 2 can capture 1080i / 720p from even premium pay channels (like HBO, showtime and so on) all without DRM restriction.

So I just want to make sure I understand how this thing works. Let’s say I wanted 6 tuners, I would need 6 cable boxes, and 6 of these HD PVR units?

30

@jfreiman said:
DO YOU WANT PROOF CABLE IS DEAD!!! Comcast / Xfinity STOPPED broadcasting ANY AND ALL CABLE channels in 1080i over a year ago. 100% of all content from “cable” channels that was 1080i - HBO, Showtime, Lifetime, Discovery Channel, Bravo!, BBC America – ETC ETC is all now being transcoded to 720p before it even reaches your home.

That’s true for a balk of their channels but you can’t say ALL channels. I think you’ll find you still have a few 1080i mpeg2 streams. Typically these are the channels that are also broadcast OTA in your area.

31

@cayars said:

@jfreiman said:
DO YOU WANT PROOF CABLE IS DEAD!!! Comcast / Xfinity STOPPED broadcasting ANY AND ALL CABLE channels in 1080i over a year ago. 100% of all content from “cable” channels that was 1080i - HBO, Showtime, Lifetime, Discovery Channel, Bravo!, BBC America – ETC ETC is all now being transcoded to 720p before it even reaches your home.

That’s true for a balk of their channels but you can’t say ALL channels. I think you’ll find you still have a few 1080i mpeg2 streams. Typically these are the channels that are also broadcast OTA in your area.

Yes, that’s correct. Your local channels (including subchannels) are still in their original MPEG2 format. Also there are a few channels that Comcast leaves in full quality, due to channel localizations. The main example of this is The Weather Channel.

Comcast’s move from 18mbit 1080i MPEG2 to 3-4mbit 720p H264 has been a clear downgrade. It’s probably my biggest disappointment with their TV service in the past year. They have clearly made an effort to “dial in” the encodes a bit better, but they throttled the bit rate too low. Even 5mbit would be a huge improvement.

They also have old MPEG2 SD stations that are using a higher bit rate than the newly-encoded H264 stations, but aren’t even converting them to HD at the same bit rate. Comcast seems to be using their existing cable customers as a cash cow at this point.

32

@kd6icz said:

@Octavean said:

As I stated before, the Hauppauge HD PVR as well as any of its derivative products like the Hauppauge Colossus and Colossus 2 can capture 1080i / 720p from even premium pay channels (like HBO, showtime and so on) all without DRM restriction.

So I just want to make sure I understand how this thing works. Let’s say I wanted 6 tuners, I would need 6 cable boxes, and 6 of these HD PVR units?

That would depend greatly on what you are trying to accomplish with your setup.

For example, I have 4x HDHomeRun Dual tuners in ATSC Mode, 2x HDHomeRun Prime and 2x Hauppauge HD PVR units.

I consider the tuners with respect to value to me. So the Hauppauge HD PVR is the highest value tuner because it can record everything without restriction. The HDHomeRun Prime is second highest value tuner because it can record everything but premium channels would be restricted (which I would’t bother recording anything with DRM using these tuners). Lastly the HDHomeRun Dual would have the least value because it can only record a few OTA channels.

Since only the premium channels are restricted with DRM via my cable service I use my tuners logically. Obviously OTA network channels are tackled via the HDHomeRun Dual tuners, premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax ect) are recorded via the Hauppauge HD PVR and all other channels are addressed with CableCard via the HDHomeRun Prime.

I can’t imagine why I would need 6 cable boxes and 6 Hauppauge HD PVR units. However, if you thought you needed to setup only Hauppauge HD PVR units then yes, you would need the 6 cable boxes and 6 Hauppauge HD PVR units.

33

@Octavean said:

@kd6icz said:

@Octavean said:

As I stated before, the Hauppauge HD PVR as well as any of its derivative products like the Hauppauge Colossus and Colossus 2 can capture 1080i / 720p from even premium pay channels (like HBO, showtime and so on) all without DRM restriction.

So I just want to make sure I understand how this thing works. Let’s say I wanted 6 tuners, I would need 6 cable boxes, and 6 of these HD PVR units?

That would depend greatly on what you are trying to accomplish with your setup.

For example, I have 4x HDHomeRun Dual tuners in ATSC Mode, 2x HDHomeRun Prime and 2x Hauppauge HD PVR units.

I consider the tuners with respect to value to me. So the Hauppauge HD PVR is the highest value tuner because it can record everything without restriction. The HDHomeRun Prime is second highest value tuner because it can record everything but premium channels would be restricted (which I would’t bother recording anything with DRM using these tuners). Lastly the HDHomeRun Dual would have the least value because it can only record a few OTA channels.

Since only the premium channels are restricted with DRM via my cable service I use my tuners logically. Obviously OTA network channels are tackled via the HDHomeRun Dual tuners, premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax ect) are recorded via the Hauppauge HD PVR and all other channels are addressed with CableCard via the HDHomeRun Prime.

I can’t imagine why I would need 6 cable boxes and 6 Hauppauge HD PVR units. However, if you thought you needed to setup only Hauppauge HD PVR units then yes, you would need the 6 cable boxes and 6 Hauppauge HD PVR units.

So you manually select what you want each device to record?

34

@kd6icz said:

@Octavean said:

@kd6icz said:

@Octavean said:

As I stated before, the Hauppauge HD PVR as well as any of its derivative products like the Hauppauge Colossus and Colossus 2 can capture 1080i / 720p from even premium pay channels (like HBO, showtime and so on) all without DRM restriction.

So I just want to make sure I understand how this thing works. Let’s say I wanted 6 tuners, I would need 6 cable boxes, and 6 of these HD PVR units?

That would depend greatly on what you are trying to accomplish with your setup.

For example, I have 4x HDHomeRun Dual tuners in ATSC Mode, 2x HDHomeRun Prime and 2x Hauppauge HD PVR units.

I consider the tuners with respect to value to me. So the Hauppauge HD PVR is the highest value tuner because it can record everything without restriction. The HDHomeRun Prime is second highest value tuner because it can record everything but premium channels would be restricted (which I would’t bother recording anything with DRM using these tuners). Lastly the HDHomeRun Dual would have the least value because it can only record a few OTA channels.

Since only the premium channels are restricted with DRM via my cable service I use my tuners logically. Obviously OTA network channels are tackled via the HDHomeRun Dual tuners, premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax ect) are recorded via the Hauppauge HD PVR and all other channels are addressed with CableCard via the HDHomeRun Prime.

I can’t imagine why I would need 6 cable boxes and 6 Hauppauge HD PVR units. However, if you thought you needed to setup only Hauppauge HD PVR units then yes, you would need the 6 cable boxes and 6 Hauppauge HD PVR units.

So you manually select what you want each device to record?

Sort of but it doesn’t quite feel that way.

Basically it’s more or less all in the initial configuration. So for example:

The HDHomeRun Dual units have their OTA ATSC channels reconfigured from their default assignments. So CBS channel 2.1 (HD) is reassigned to channel 1102.1.

The HDHomeRun Prime, would have it’s entire block of channels reassigned as well. For example, CBS channel 602 (HD) would be reallocated to 2602.

The Hauppauge HD PVR channels are all left with their default assignments. So for example, CBS channel 602 (HD) remains channel 602.

So all tenable OTA channels are in the 1000 range, all CableCard channels are in the 2000 range and all Hauppauge HD PVR channels are in the 1 to 999 range.

It works fairly well.

If I wanted to record “The Walking Dead” on AMC (HD), I have the option of recording it on channel 667 or channel 2667. Anything on BBC America (HD) can be recorded on channel 550 or 2550. Anything on HBO HD can be recorded on either channel 700 or channel 2700 but I would only use channel 700 in this case.

35

@kd6icz said:
But Plex DVR offers one thing that is huge in my book. Remote viewing! It’s a one stop shop media manager. With transcoding to adapt to any hardware, it would be hard to go back to WMC and a Slingbox.

I don’t do any remote viewing, yet, as I’ve two routers to go through, and i haven’t been able to get the port forwarding to work, but that said, Couldn’t you record with WMC, convert the WTV files to a format that PLEX can use, and use Plex to view remote and locally? Not sure if that would be an idea scenario or not, but you’d get the best worlds, a reliable DVR solution (WMC) and a means to view your content locally and remotely via Plex.

Too bad Plex can’t buy the rights to WMC, and run with it and improve upon it. I like WMC for many reasons, I like PLEX for many reasons. Combining the the features of both… could be… well… .I can dream.

36

Plex can natively play WTV’s, I believe. At least, I’ve used WTV-Metarenamer to give my WTV’s a Plex-friendly naming format, and Plex recognized the recordings just fine. It would transcode the files while streaming them.

That was my preferred technique for a long time: Plex crawled the renamed Recorded TV folder, and I moved the movies to a separate folder, which was crawled by a separate library. And I’d just use the HDHomeRun Viewer channel if I needed to remotely view a live channel.

My preference was the manually edit the files and deinterlace/encode to AVC or HEVC, of course. Then they’d direct-play everywhere in the house, not just on PMP on a PC (which handles MPEG2 natively). Manually deinterlacing in Handbrake will get higher quality than Plex’s catch-all deinterlace approach.

37

The WTV is the same thing as a TS files. Just a different file extension. You can actually just change the extension without a need to remux.

38

Yeah, from what I have seen all you really need to do is put the .wtv files in a Plex friendly file structure and you are good to go.

39

@cayars said:

@jfreiman said:
DO YOU WANT PROOF CABLE IS DEAD!!! Comcast / Xfinity STOPPED broadcasting ANY AND ALL CABLE channels in 1080i over a year ago. 100% of all content from “cable” channels that was 1080i - HBO, Showtime, Lifetime, Discovery Channel, Bravo!, BBC America – ETC ETC is all now being transcoded to 720p before it even reaches your home.

That’s true for a balk of their channels but you can’t say ALL channels. I think you’ll find you still have a few 1080i mpeg2 streams. Typically these are the channels that are also broadcast OTA in your area.

Correct, ONLY the CABLE channels ATSC 1080i (80% of all cable is 1080i) is transcoded down to 720p AVC – just as I tried to explain in my post.
The only 1080 channels being passed through to Comcast/Xfinity consumers are CBS, NBC, The CW, local PBS affiliates and a small handful of other formerly UHF local channels (but in my area, they are mostly all multiplexed 720p channels. .1, .2, .3.

So in summary, the networks NOT under federal regulation (FCC) are now (poorly/sloppily) transcoded by Comcast at their “HQ”(?) from 1080i/30 to 720p/60 and/or 720p to 720p for the few non-1080i networks.

40

So last night I had a internet and tv service outage which continues today. Supposedly service will be back online by around ~10:00pm this evening.

The reason I bring this up is to contrast some issues I see with Plex under such circumstances.

Since Plex doesn’t allow for dissimilar tuner / signal configuration, Plex DVR can’t just continue recording and playing live TV because in my case it’s a CableCard only configuration.

Microsoft Media Center has no problem with this and all OTA ATSC functionality is uneffected by the loss of the CableCard Functionality.

Also, for some reason, all Plex clients are unresponsive now that internet service has been interrupted. The PMS web interface works fine and can play Media but the clients can’t.

Microsoft Media Center can see and play its media locally and connect to local network shares without issue regardless of whether or not internet service is active.