I am experiencing a problem where Plex does not seem to count the available tuners correctly. I have 4 tuners (which are dedicated to Plex - 2 x HDHomeRun Connects) and when I have 4 programs scheduled to record with overlapping time slots the last will often not start to record until one of the previous recordings has finished. Looking into this problem I found this in the logs…
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.401 [0x7f72bcfff700] DEBUG - MediaGrabber: Waiting for a tuner (2 available).
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.401 [0x7f72bcfff700] DEBUG - MediaGrabber: Allocated a tuner (1 left)
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.422 [0x7f72bcfff700] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET http://192.168.199.178:5004/auto/v104?duration=4560
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.753 [0x7f72c17ff700] DEBUG - HDHomerun Grabber: Starting a media grab on device device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/1231455E tuner 1.
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.753 [0x7f72c17ff700] DEBUG - MediaGrabber: Starting operation for ‘Apple Tree Yard - S1 E2 - Episode 2’
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.756 [0x7f72c17ff700] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity bba2b669-cd72-43e6-b151-08aab262d623 - Recording
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.757 [0x7f72baffb700] DEBUG - MediaSub: Resolved subscription to library item ‘Apple Tree Yard’ (5704)
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.763 [0x7f72baffb700] DEBUG - There were 1 top-level paths for Apple Tree Yard.
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.766 [0x7f72baffb700] DEBUG - Media Grabber: Saving recording to /media/Media1/PlexPVR/TV_PVRTest/.grab/221a3b041307b4e5050f7076f0f7ecbb1d90cf54
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.784 [0x7f72baffb700] DEBUG - HDHR Grabber: Going to record for 4260 seconds, final URL is http://192.168.199.177:5004/auto/v101?duration=4260
Jan 29, 2017 20:57:00.784 [0x7f72baffb700] DEBUG - MediaGrabber: Waiting for a tuner (0 available).
The first two lines would seem to indicate that the 3rd tuner is being allocated to the 3rd recording and there is one free tuner remaining.
It then tries to initiate a 4th recording (Apple Tree Yard) but in the last line it is reported that there is not a tuner available! The recording did start when another recording ended but I have missed the beginning of the recording.
Does anyone have any ideas? I could not find the same situation identified in previous posts.
I am running the current Beta and apart from this issue the server is working as it should.
Padding and trying to record programs back to back on same channels seems to be a problem for me. I get an ice cream headache everytime I try and read the logs. Also the length of padding time seems to be erratic or not work at all if you make it too long. I would like it if someone could give some feedback on your log above. Of note when I went from one twin tuner to 3 twin tuners the problem seemed to be less frequent. I suspect inefficient use of tuners. Also if it is in the Schedule and looks like you have enough tuners and it is not giving an error message it should record but I am finding that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes shows record then promptly delete themselves before going out of the .grab folder and delete themselves from the Schedule history. Somethings not right there.
I think it might have to do with your priority of shows, padding and if you have the option check or not to save partial shows.
I think it could be recording a show and is almost done. Then a new recording is schedule to record that overlaps (maybe due to padding) the current show and it has a higher priority so it takes over the tuner and you loose the 1st recording.
Thanks for the comments.
The problem is with the start of the last recording being missed not the end of the previous recording being truncated prematurely. But it could be due to priority of shows and padding but in my mind as there are 4 tuners and a maximum of 4 overlapping recordings it should record all 4 in their entirety.
According to the log there was a tuner available and then there was not, with nothing seeming to happen in between.
If the behavior is not predictable it is a problem.
Thanks again.
I’ve read that Plex schedules recordings on specific devices. The log says:
Starting a media grab on device device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/1231455E tuner 1.
Perhaps something is going wrong there: Plex wants a free tuner on 1231455E where the recording is scheduled, and maybe the one that is free is on the other HDHR? If so, it should of course have scheduled the recordings differently.
Thanks for the suggestion. You might be right but it just looks like Plex is just losing tuners. My environment has been quiet for hours and I have just kicked off a recording. The log says I have 2 tuners and it is now using one of them. But Plex Settings reports 4 tuners and one of them is in use! So it seems to be getting progressively worse.
I think I will reboot the host and see if that gets them back!
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:30.814 [0x7f72de7ff700] DEBUG - MediaSub: There are 1 versions of the airing available.
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:30.815 [0x7f72de7ff700] DEBUG - MediaSub: No match in the library for ‘Planet Earth II - S1 E2 - Mountains’, grabbing.
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:30.815 [0x7f72de7ff700] DEBUG - MediaRec: Attempting schedule for item: Mountains
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:30.815 [0x7f72de7ff700] DEBUG - MediaRec: Trying airing at 2017-02-09 02:33:00 on channel 009.
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:30.815 [0x7f72de7ff700] DEBUG - MediaRec: Device 0 scheduled recording between 2017-02-09 02:33:00 and 2017-02-09 03:39:00 on channel 009
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:30.815 [0x7f72de7ff700] DEBUG - MediaGrabber: Starting grab immediately for ‘Planet Earth II - S1 E2 - Mountains’ and we’re 150 seconds in already.
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:30.817 [0x7f72de7ff700] DEBUG - HDHomerun Grabber: Starting a media grab on device device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/1231455E tuner 0.
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:30.818 [0x7f72de7ff700] DEBUG - MediaGrabber: Starting operation for ‘Planet Earth II - S1 E2 - Mountains’
…
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:31.222 [0x7f72c43ff700] DEBUG - HDHR Grabber: Going to record for 3809 seconds, final URL is http://192.168.199.177:5004/auto/v9?duration=3809
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:31.222 [0x7f72c43ff700] DEBUG - MediaGrabber: Waiting for a tuner (2 available).
Feb 09, 2017 02:35:31.222 [0x7f72c43ff700] DEBUG - MediaGrabber: Allocated a tuner (1 left)
@knutz99
I got confused with the logs initially , I have 3 x Connects but you will only ever see two tuners in the log. As tuners are exhausted in one it will move onto the next Connect, each connect has a code and you will see that come up in the logs from time to time but you will only see two 0, 1, 2 tuners available message no matter how many connects you have in the DVR. Your not going to see tuner 3, 4 mentioned in the logs.
Thanks Ian, that is useful to know. I did restart the host and it did not report more than 2 tuners in the logs as you say.
I probably jumped to a conclusion because it fitted with another observation. Yesterday evening I only had 3 recordings in the planner and the third missed its start because of a lack of an available tuner! These are never highlighted in advance as a scheduling clash.
Not sure what to try next, it does not seem to be a problem others are having!
As I understand you have 3 devices with 2 tuners each. When Plex schedules a recording, it preselects a device. When it says “Waiting for a tuner (2 available)”, it means (for example) “waiting for a tuner on preselected device #3; there are 2 tuners available on that device”. Tuners on other devices are irrelevant as far as Plex is concerned since the device was preselected.
This is also what causes problems if other programs allocate tuners on a device that Plex had expected to be able to use. But given that only Plex uses the devices, it should preselect tuners in a way that lets all programs be recorded…
Thanks for the info, I have marked the post as unanswered though because as you point out it should allow all the programs to be recorded.
(I only have 2 devices each with 2 tuners but the number of concurrent recordings including overlaps has always been 4 or less)
Have you looked at the shows that are going to be recorded to see what times it is going to record for? I have noticed several shows that are scheduled for one minute over the one hour time slot. For example next week I see that Lethal Weapon, Big Bang Theory, and Masterchef all are recording 8:00 - 8:31 or 8:00 - 9:01. This could cause a problem if I did not have enough tuners.
Thanks johnm_ColaSC,
I have made sure I allow for the pre and post recording padding.
Plex should and does notify you in advance if at any point you have scheduled more recordings than the number of tuners configured, even if it is only overlap caused by the padding added before or after the scheduled program times.
In my experience I have not received warnings in advance, and have never had more concurrent recordings than the number of tuners, (even for1 minute), but still Plex has missed the beginning of a recording because for some reason it does not think there is a tuner available or the tuner it has been scheduled to use is still in use.
I have only just updated to beta 5 so will have to see if it is still an issue. The problem only occurred occasionally so time will tell.
Ok. Was just wondering if it wasn’t overlapping show times or padding really. Saw the 20:57 time in the first post, figured it was starting 3 minutes before recording possibly.
You’re not using the tuners for live tv or anything outside of Plex that might cause one or more to be unavailable but Plex doesn’t know about it until it tries to allocate a tuner?
6/27
I’m currently recording one show using an HDHomeRun Connect with 2 tuners (OTA.) I observe one tuner LED illuminated on the HDHR device itself, and by viewing the summary page I see Tuner 0 Channel 671.000 MHz / Tuner 1 Channel none. On the DVR page of plex, it states 2 tuners—2 recording now.
I stumbled upon this thread while looking for information on how to reset this counter in Plex- so this is basically just a “me too” post and what I’ve noticed. I’ve only been working with HDHR and Plex DVR for a handful of hours now. I’ll keep tinkering.
This might be helpful: plex Version 1.7.4.4017 on Win10
I’ve tried rebooting plex server and power cycling the tuner, but still havent had much luck getting some clean recordings.
7/5 9pm
Okay, learned a little but more about HDHomeRun, the connect requires the server to do transcoding whereas the Extend has a built in transcoder. Costs a little bit more, but worth it to distribute some processing. I’ve swapped the Connect for the Extend tonight, and now playing live tv from IOS seems to be working. Too early to call it, but this may have resolved the issue for now. I’m sure there’s something that needs to be fixed in Plex for transcoding off of the connect, but I’m hoping this is all that is needed here.
I’ll update again when things change
7/6 10a
Things are behaving properly with the HR Extend OTA tuner
