A friend and I both installed Plex DVR around the same time and are running the latest version. His is installed on a Synology NAS and mine is on an Arch Linux server. Additionally, we both have the HDHomeRun Dual tuner. We are both experiencing the same issues: the recordings will stop about 2-15 minutes into a show or movie. The results on the guide will vary as well, whether it says recording complete or error in the recording. I’ve seems some other posts here regarding the same issues, it seems to be so many variables, and I don’t know where to start looking.
I was wondering if this is related to signal quality or if there is some setting that I need to use to force the HomeRun to keep the recording going until the end of the episode. I’ve plugged the antenna into my TV to check the quality and it seems to be scratchy at times, but I don’t ever lose signal completely, just a few boxy glitches here and there and every once in a while.
Any help would be appreciated.
If the video signal has issues Plex will probably have issues recording. Saw another post from a user having similar issues. They resolved it by either moving the antenna to have a better signal or buying a better antenna to resolve the signal quality issues. You could also possibly try an amplifier to boost the signal strength possibly.
I have this exact same issue and it is not related to signal strength. I have perfect 100% signal strength constantly and my recordings stop after 1 or 2 mins.
@James. I feel like that’s the same on my end. I’ve also been looking at the HDHomeRun to see if it’s the issue…
I’m still open to ideas. The current antenna is a 50mi and is amplified.
@william.jonah.roberts said:
@James. I feel like that’s the same on my end. I’ve also been looking at the HDHomeRun to see if it’s the issue…
I’m still open to ideas. The current antenna is a 50mi and is amplified.
What is the signal strength, signal quality, and symbol quality when looking at a tuner on the HDHR? You can check this using VLC or some other tool to start a network stream. Go to my.hdhomerun.com, click the link for your tuner device where it lists the number of channels. from the list of channels right click on a channel link and copy the link address. Then launch VLC and start a network stream pasting the link address you copied. VLC should start playing that channel. Go back to the my.hdhomerun.com page and this time click the link for the actual tuner above where it shows the firmware. From that page click the tuner status link and you can see the signal strength information.
One user I recall repositioned their antenna and I seem to recall another that bought a better antenna and resolved signal issues. You mentioned the signal being “scratchy” and “boxy glitches” which sounds to me like signal quality issues. These are not a problem when watching TV but recording is different, the DVR detects a loss of video signal perhaps and thinks something has happened so probably terminates the recording. Your Plex Media Server log should have some message when the recording is aborted.
johnm_ColaSC: Thanks for the help. I agree with you now. So, I plugged directly into the TV and the signal is great, but when I plugged into the HDHomeRun and steamed like you suggested, the signal is very poor. After doing a little research, it looks like TV’s also amplify the signal. My assumption is that the HDHomeRun doesn’t. I just bought a Cable-Master wall-mounted signal amplifier to see if that will do the trick. Additionally, I will see if I can split it so that I can stream it to my VLC player and the TV at the same time. I already have a bunch of the 8 inch coax cables that I’ve collected over the years, so I can minimize the cable length off the splitter. Amazon says it should be here on Sunday, so more to follow.
Thanks again for the help and sorry to dismiss it the first time. I should have checked the stream directly like you suggested.
