ROKU can play live tv on some channels but not others

General Discussions Plex Features
1

Using:
ROKU 5.0.5.4253
PMS 1.9.6.4401 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64-bit
HD HOMERUN PRIME

Live TV now works pretty good on my Fire TV 2nd gen.

I just tried the new ROKU beta and some channels will tune live fine.
Others always give: (immediately) “Live TV Playback could not be started”

In the PMS log I see lots of these:

Nov 01, 2017 20:13:58.481 [0x7f54e17fe700] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Error 3 (The recording was aborted) starting the record, shutting things down.
Nov 01, 2017 20:13:58.481 [0x7f54e17fe700] ERROR - DVR:Grabber: Starting media grab failed.

2

This sounds like the same problem covered in this thread:

I have found the problem goes away for awhile if you stop and restart the server. Not ideal, but a work around until they fix the problem.

3

I have found the problem goes away for awhile if you stop and restart the server. Not ideal, but a work around until they fix the problem.

Not true. I can play all but one channel and its the same issue as above “Live TV Playback could not be started”. It only happens on the Roku (I have 3 of them) but that channel will stream fine to my laptop, my wife’s’ laptop, the server that PMS is on and the other desktop in my house. This is definitely something on the Roku… and re-starting the server does absolutely nothing to fix it.

4

If it helps at all, I’m seeing something similar.

ROKU 3 - version 7.7.0, Plex 5.0.5
PLEX: 1.9.0 build 4252

I get an error “Live TV playback could not be started” for all channels I try (about 5)

No errors in the log coincident with the Roku error. The HDHR isn’t seeing anything, either - no requests for hours, so plex isn’t sending it any commands.

I couldn’t stop the plex service normally, I had to kill -9 it. Reboot made things work… for now.

Nothing interesting in the logs:
Nov 11, 2017 21:33:02.936 [0x7f1d283fd700] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.1.30:59106 (Subnet)] POST /livetv/dvrs/2/channels/507/tune (11 live) TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (jimmyswimmy)
Nov 11, 2017 21:33:02.936 [0x7f1d22bf2700] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET https://plex.tv/servers/d4bf8c9fadf3223264ba4fbbe6355d40c4ce46cd/access_tokens.xml?auth_token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&includeProfiles=1&includeProviders=1
Nov 11, 2017 21:33:02.936 [0x7f1d283fd700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Starting a new rolling subscription for session b6b44fa440be798c7b1226b9d8f24727 channel 507.
Nov 11, 2017 21:33:03.640 [0x7f1d22bf2700] DEBUG - HTTP 200 response from GET https://plex.tv/servers/d4bf8c9fadf3223264ba4fbbe6355d40c4ce46cd/access_tokens.xml?auth_token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&includeProfiles=1&includeProviders=1

5

UPDATE: Unchecking “hardware acceleration” on the plex server under the transcoder options fixed my issue.

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I’m having the same issue, only one channel out of the 20 I have enabled gives me fits. Channel will play fine, quality degrades screen goes black and says “receiving 33%” as if it’s waiting for transcoding and then error message “Sorry, we could not play your live TV channel”. Channel otherwise records on DVR fine, just live TV on the roku.

Roku Express+ 8.0.0 build 3138-51
Plex Client 5.0.5
Plex Server 1.9.6.4429
Tuner Haupage wintv quad hd

When playing it’s transcoding MPEG2 video and AC3 to AAC audio. It is the first channel in my lineup (7.1). Also FOX which means NFC football can’t play to the roku for me, bummer.