PMS Stops Playback Every ~4 Minutes While Watching Live TV

Plex Media Server
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1

Server Version#: 1.24.5.5160
Player Version#: (Various)
Server: Ubuntu 20.04 on AMD Threadripper
Tuner: HDHomeRun Prime

So I’m having an extremely frustrating issue. When watching Live TV on my server, about every ~4 minutes playback stops with the message “Error: An error occurred while attempting to play this video. Please check your connection and try again.” This occurs regardless of client, and I have tried: Android phone, Chromecast, AndroidTV app, Web Player, and iPhone. Each player exhibits the same/similar behavior.

I have performed all the basic troubleshooting steps: restarted PMS, restarted entire server, restarted tuner, turned off hardware transcoding, updated PMS and tuner firmware, etc. While watching the console (looking for errors when the playback suddenly stops), I see:

DVR:Segmenter: Stopping idle session: http://192.168.*.220:5004/auto/v694. (220 is my tuner)
Deleting media item 28262.
Was connected to metadata item 18379, count is now 0.
Destroying metadata item 18379 (NFL RedZone) (Channel I was watching)
Transcoder: Cleaning old transcode directories.
Whacked session 65fbd308 etc…, 0 remaining.
Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0x7f60 etc… with reason Client stopped playback.
Streaming Resource: Removing session 0x7f60 etc…

I don’t know if that is what is causing the playback errors or not, but if so I don’t know why PMS thinks the session is “idle.” Any thoughts/help from the community would be so, so, so welcome!

Other Notes: the problem happens regardless of tv channel. I also checked the tuner webgui which reports a strong connection so I don’t think the issue is with the cable signal or the tuner. Also, the “Plex LiveTV” works fine, as does playback from my libraries. The issue ONLY occurs with LiveTV coming through the HDHomeRun.

Edit: I just tested the time between playback stops with a stopwatch, and it is almost exactly 3 minutes and 55 seconds from when I start playback to when the error occurs. So now I’m wondering if there is some sort of “idle timer” that stops “idle” streams at 4 minutes. Still don’t know why PMS or the tuner is considering the stream idle though!

2 Likes
2

I’m having the exact same issue. Do you remember if it started happening after an update?

3

It seemed to come out of nowhere. I didn’t update Plex or alter any hardware or install anything else on the server … Sorry to hear you’re dealing with it as well!

4

Looks like a duplicate of :

Same issue here, timing is exactly my experience as well.

Server Version 1.24.5.5160.
Windows 10 Host
Tuner: Haappauge WinTV-quadHD

Oct 24, 2021 18:28:45.747 [13404] DEBUG - DVR:Segmenter: Stopping idle session: http://127.0.0.1:32600/devices/… [tuncated for readability]
Oct 24, 2021 18:28:45.747 [13404] DEBUG - Deleting media item 104.
Oct 24, 2021 18:28:45.748 [13404] DEBUG - Was connected to metadata item 105, count is now 0.
Oct 24, 2021 18:28:45.749 [13404] DEBUG - Destroying metadata item 105 (Detroit Lions at Los Angeles Rams)
Oct 24, 2021 18:28:45.750 [13404] DEBUG - Transcoder: Cleaning old transcode directories.
Oct 24, 2021 18:28:45.752 [13404] DEBUG - Whacked session 02b3d0e6-aa14-469a-b533-3408cf9359b8, 0 remaining.
Oct 24, 2021 18:28:45.752 [13404] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0A4CD668:02b3d0e6-aa14-469a-b533-3408cf9359b8 with reason Client stopped playback.
Oct 24, 2021 18:28:45.752 [13404] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Removing session 0A4CD668:02b3d0e6-aa14-469a-b533-3408cf9359b8

Can post full logs if useful.

5

Rolling the server back to version 1.24.4.5081-e362dc1ee fixed the issue for me.

1 Like
6

I have exactly the same problem as I mentioned in another post.

A rollback to the previous version works as others noted.

7

Great, thanks. Any tips on how to rollback on Linux? I understand for Debian I can use $ apt remove plexmediaserver , but not sure how to install a specific old version …

8

I’m using Unraid with the Linuxserver.io docker. I was able to roll back by putting 1.24.4.5081-e362dc1ee into the version field in the Plex docker config. I realize that you’re probably not using Docker but I figured I’d mention what I did in case anyone using Docker sees this and needs the full version string.

9

Update to PMS 1.24.5.5173 works for Android and Plex for Windows, but PlexWeb is still not stable.

2 Likes
10

I can confirm 1.24.5.5173 has fixed on Android player. Will test AndroidTV/Chromecast/Webapp later and update.

11

Having same issue on Win10. Live TV play back ends after 5 to 10 minutes over and over and over. Highly annoying.

1 Like
12

Same problem here, with crashed live TV after 4 minutes. Thank you for your message on the exact version to fix this problem. Testing my system now and live TV has been running longer than 20 minutes without error.

I’m running Ubuntu 18.04 x64 (non-docker) and just used this link to download and install right over the latest updated Plex version that I had installed earlier today:
https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-media-server-new/1.24.4.5081-e362dc1ee/debian/plexmediaserver_1.24.4.5081-e362dc1ee_amd64.deb

2 Likes
13

Thank you for this information. I had the same problem with Plex dropping off every 4 minutes also. Rolling back to this version fixed my problem as well.

Running LinuxServer.IO Plex Docker. All the Plex updates After 1.24.4.5081-e362dc1ee Live TV is broken.

14

Thanks for posting the link and what worked. I have Plex on a Hyper-V virtual machine running Ubuntu 20.04 and can confirm that your solution works. I just had to reboot the computer and set up Live TV again.
I don’t know if people would lose their libraries with this downgrade because all I have running on this server is Live TV.

You don’t have the Windows exe for this version of Plex do you? I’ve tried to construct the link and haven’t had any success. I want to migrate this to a Windows box and the installer pulled down the latest, which has the web app issue.

15

Yes, exactly the same problem

16

I did fix the problem by rolling back the Plex Media Server to version 1.24.4.5081. Everything runs flawlessly now. Just Google “rolling back Plex Media Server version” and there are several good articles on how to do it. It was quite simple really and took less than 10 minutes. Your prior versions of Plex Media Server are automatically saved so you don’t have to download anything.

17

This is the version that broke Live TV playback on Windows 10 Home 64bit for me. I had to roll back to version 1.24.4.5081 to get everything working properly again.

I have taken to reading what it is included in PMS updates and generally will not update anymore as 95-100% of fixes in updates are things don’t pertain to me and then instead something that was changed lands up leading to way more problems than enhancements.

18

Yup did exactly the same and all back to normal.

19

Rolling back also worked for me. Thanks guys! And Plex please address this issue, It has been there for a while …

21

Same exact thing to me here, rollback to 1.24.4.5081 also fixed it for me.