I currently have an HDHomeRun Dual, and am looking to upgrade to either the HDHomeRun Connect or Extend, but I have some questions. I’m planning on using it with Plex and understand that is some sort of live tv & DVR integration with plex pass. I also have a QNAP TS-469L NAS that i’d use as the repository to record shows to, and this is also where my plex media server is installed. Besides that I also have a ROKU stick with Plex on it, as well as android phone and tablet and iPhone and windows 8 and 10 devices all with the plex client
So with regards to my questions is what are the benefits of the Connect vs the Extend. Is it simply that the Extend does on the fly transcoding of the stream to MP4? if that’s the case, what is the real world experience of the two devices like? Some of my plex clients are physically cabled to the network, where as other plex clients like the roku, android tablet or iphone would be using wifi. I’m also curious as to what the experience is like streaming live tv through plex over the internet… for example if I was at work or at a friends house, how well could i expect this to work?
When using the HDHomeRun Extend does it record to MP4 or is there a setting to enable/disable transcoding?
The Extend does not transcode to MP4.
The Extend can take whatever video stream is inside of what is (normally broadcast as a) MPEGTS container, which (normally) happens to be MPEG2 video stream, and converts that stream to h264, leaving the (normally) mpegts container and original audio alone.
Plex DVR settings allow a quality setting that adjusts for that compression
Plex Live TV will attempt to follow the quality settings of the device being used to watch.
As for real world usage, I can only mention my own testing - My extend saves my Haswell I5 50% of it’s transcoding requirement when allowed/settings to do so (saving bandwidth too)
Reference my quick usage test here - https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1574432/#Comment_1574432
@JamminR - so in choosing between Extend vs. Connect, it sounds like you recommend the Extend. I was originally thinking it may be overkill to have the Extend with hw transcoding if using Plex, since the Plex media server probably can handle the job itself (esp. if the Extend and Plex Server are colocated with router)
@rbdubz3 - Indeed, I recommend the Extend if not using a cable card (Extend is OTA only, or unencrypted digital cable). Plex can often still be strained doing all the other work during live tv and dvr, allowing the Extend to do one small part saving the Plex transcoder 30-50% CPU power for other tasks will be helpful.
Now that I reread your post, In all honesty, your results with the QNAP 469L acting as server may not be satisfactory. I’m not even sure LiveTV will work (or even be offered as an option?) for the Atom processor device.
DVR will likely work, and an Extend sure won’t hurt, but will be straining for your system when attempting to watch the recorded content.
So I just bought a Plex Pass tonight, since I got an email offering Lifetime Plex Pass @ $74.99 US, and since I already own an older HDHomeRun Dual, I figured I’d give it a try just to see if it would work. It does, but just barely with my NAS. As you’ve mentioned the CPU isn’t strong enough, streaming live TV maxes the CPU at %100.
I’m in the process of setting up a ubuntu server on a Dell Vostro 3460 Laptop to use with TVheadend, so maybe i’ll look at installing plex on it since it has a better CPU
@jrbilodeau - There’s several various unsupported (by Plex) TVHeadend combination apps/plugins/frameworks about. Just search the forum, including the plugins section, for plex and tvheadend. Google will provide a few results too.
I’ve never used TVHeadend, so am unable to give any other tips.
I hope you are enjoying Plex and your Plexpass.
Though Plex as a company has frustrated me lately, as a product, it’s still better than it’s competitors for my current needs.
