I’m running Plex Server on a late 2012 Mac mini with MacOS 10.14 and a HDHomeRun Prime 3, and since the new TV season began late last month, I’ve been struggling to record and play back shows properly.
Every few seconds or minutes, the show I’m playing will glitch, garble, and skip forward several seconds; I’ve seen this on shows recorded from NBC, PBS, and especially The CW, where one of two shows I recorded concurrently wound up massively garbled and skipping ahead on its own every few seconds, and both had the weird skipping-ahead glitch in some form. One of those CW recordings had commercial-skipping enabled; the one with the worst garbling did not, and neither did the other programs where I’ve seen this error.
Oddly, one recording I’ve made since these glitches first cropped up, from CBS, showed no problems. It was recorded directly after one from NBC that did.
While Plex itself is showing that the glitchy recordings are the proper length (or, in one case, even longer than they ought to be, and listed as a “partial recording,” I still see the skips and glitches even when I go onto my storage drive and open the video file in VLC.
So it’s not a problem with Plex’s Web or Mac app players (both of which have experienced this playback error); it’s a problem with how Plex is recording the shows themselves. Please help!
Server Version#: 1.13.9.5439
Player Version#: 3.73.1 (Web), 2.20.0.909-46413dd1 (Plex Media Player Mac app)
Mine generally weren’t that bad, but I have an ffmpeg command in that thread that will re-containerize the video (no re-encoding). You could try that and see if it helps.
The other thing to check would be signal strength. Plex is super sensitive to signal strength (and the HDHRs are not great).
I had issues similar to this. In my case, it appears to have been due to a weak signal. While watching through normal means, a glitch in signal is minimal, if at all barely perceptible. Plex seems to fumble the football in some cases terribly and turns a minor blip into a major screw job.
If you’re getting the same behavior out of the recording through multiple different playback devices, then it’s baked into the file, and likely signal based. Another key indicator is if it’s only happening on certain channels.
An adjustment to my antenna seems to have solved it for the most part in my case. Still need to figure out what to do about certain stations.
Thank you both so much! I fear signal strength is the most likely culprit, since I’m seeing the same weird glitches even when I play the files outside of Plex with VLC.
Ever since Comcast did “upgrades” in our neighborhood, our internet speeds have fluctuated weirdly, and I wouldn’t be surprised if our TV signals were doing likewise. I’ve checked and re-checked all my coaxial cable connections to make sure they’re good and tight, which is about all Comcast recommended before shrugging its collective shoulders.
If you’re using the HDHomeRun line, I believe you might find something in their PC app, or you could possibly find a phone app that will help you look into signal strength.
There are definitely some experts that wander around here that would know how to check such things if it’s coming from cable, and not antenna.
To check the signal strength/quality you should be able to access the Channel list. My screenshots below are from a HDHR Extend but the Prime from what I recall had the same information plus some extras for the CableCard. Access the device in a web browser and select Channel Lineup:
From the Channel Lineup right click on a channel giving you issues and select copy link address:
Leave the browser window open and Open VLC. From the Media menu select Open Network Stream:
Paste the link you copied for the channel into the Please enter a network URL and click Play.
When the channel starts playing go back to the browser and click the back button to return to the menu you saw the Channel Lineup link on, look for a tuner status menu.
Look for the tuner that is playing the channel you requested.
Click the link for the appropriate tuner and look at the stats reported for the tuner.
Thanks! I also found a listing on the main CableCARD menu page for my Prime 3 tuner – signal strength 100%, signal quality 88%. That seems like enough signal quality to guarantee good reception, but I’m no expert. I’ll use your method when I get the chance to see whether individual channels are coming in at different strengths or qualities.
OK, signal strength doesn’t seem to be the issue. I have overall signal strength of 100%, and after re-connecting my coaxial cable to the HDHomeRun, overall signal quality between 89% and 92% consistently. When I tune to specific channels and look at the readouts on my tuners, I’m seeing 100% signal strength and signal quality. Yet I’m still getting pixelations and sudden gaps in the pre-scheduled recordings I’m making – though not, oddly, an impromptu partial recording on the same channel on the same night.
My next step in troubleshooting: See whether the automated backups my computer runs during recordings have been causing the problem. The backups go to a different drive than the one I record to, but maybe the extra load on the CPU or data outflow is causing those glitches?
I completely uninstalled Plex Media Server, reinstalled an older version (1.13.7.5369), and the problems seem, thus far, to have vanished. I’ve recorded numerous shows with no signal dropouts or glitches.
I don’t know what Plex did to its server code after 1.13.7.5369, but it does not appear to have been a good idea.
I found this post helpful. Hope it helps you, too!
FWIW, I’m now on the latest version of Plex and haven’t noticed any glitches or garbles. Have you checked your signal strength, as someone else posted above? Low signal strength MIGHT cause gaps or errors in recordings.
Thanks for quick response and I will try going back. Checked the signal strength through HDHomerun last night and all are at 100%. Live TV is fine but the recordings are all skipping badly at the moment. Only other idea I have is if it is related to family playing older shows on Apple TV4 at the same time as I can see the transcodee using a lot of CPU time (not sure how you can have 150% usage but that is what it shows occasionally when using Apple TV.
Thanks NATO, my server is bang up to date but working terribly at present - am slowly giving up and watching catch up tv on ATV4 but then you have to live with all the adverts…
Live TV is fine except sport is much poorer quality than when I used eyetv so may give up and revert to that soon. How is your quality of live TV sport on Plex?
