Hey guys,
The way I have my servers setup, I have traditionally had one computer as my Plex server and a second computer as DVR and media transcoder.
Is there any chance that plex dvr can be setup like this? Now or in the future?
OR DVR done by HDHomeRun software on the other computer, but controlled by Plex software?
You can have multiple servers, and set them to share libraries, I have one server on my NAS, one on my main PC and one on my Shield
@BatterBits said:
You can have multiple servers, and set them to share libraries, I have one server on my NAS, one on my main PC and one on my Shield
Thanks. The only problem here is it’s two servers. I just want the DVR processing on one computer and the media hosting and control of the dvr service on my main (AND ONLY) Plex Server.
I’m not sure I understand what you’re trying to do exactly - but yes, I think it’s possible.
On your main “server” you set up your PMS and DVR. You are going to use your main “server” as storage - so you can have Plex record to that location. When you talk about DVR Processing - are you talking about transcoding and so on? You can do this so that the Plex Server (your primary “server” ) will be doing the processing - in a location of your choice - ie the secondary “server” - or you can use an external programme (like MCEBuddy) to process your recordings, utilising the resources of whichever server you wish.
If you want Plex to process files, but utilising the resources of the secondary “server” - then you will also need to set up a Plex server on that box and initiate any jobs you want, from that “server” - it’s no big deal, they can work together and do as they’re told!
You can have two servers but they aren’t going to “talk” to each other.
I’m running the Hardware Beta version of Plex right now on my main server which is what the stats in my SIG are from. I’m also running the latest Plex-Pass version with DVR Beta 5 on an old XEON desktop.
On this 2nd computer I’m using strictly for DVR I have two libraries setup and they are for TV Shows and for Movies. These are pointed at my main server’s directories. I have indexing turned off on the DVR computer. This way the DVR machine can analyze the files for resolution to know if it should record a higher resolution file of a TV Show I already have.
I setup 2 new DVR Recording directories on this 2nd computer so it would record directly to a local HDD. I then have MCEBuddy scan these two directories and do conversions to MP4 with deinterlacing and drop the finished files in a separate spot when I can run these files through my normal scripts and add them to my main Plex server libraries.
I did this for two reasons. First I wanted to run both DVR and HW BETAs and this required two different machines since it’s till impossible to run them on one machine (HW still not part of plex-pass). Second reason was that I found the EPG update slowing down the whole machine a bit which I didn’t care for. Third it allowed me to do the conversions on a different machine then my main Plex server.
So yes you can do this but the machines won’t talk to each other per say. You will have to switch to your 2nd Plex server to check the schedule and setup recordings, etc. Not really a big deal IMHO.
Carlo
@cayars said:
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On this 2nd computer I’m using strictly for DVR I have two libraries setup and they are for TV Shows and for Movies. These are pointed at my main server’s directories. I have indexing turned off on the DVR computer. This way the DVR machine can analyze the files for resolution to know if it should record a higher resolution file of a TV Show I already have.I setup 2 new DVR Recording directories on this 2nd computer so it would record directly to a local HDD. I then have MCEBuddy scan these two directories and do conversions to MP4 with deinterlacing and drop the finished files in a separate spot when I can run these files through my normal scripts and add them to my main Plex server libraries.
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This is exactly the setup I’m going to do, but I do wish that I could run Plex from one machine and it would tell the other machine do the recording duties. I record a lot and don’t want recording interfering with plex streaming files out. Hence the two separate computers.
So I’ll do as you recommended and setup a second Plex server to function solely as a DVR.
However, as/if Plex moves into Live Streaming (hopefully in the future) this will become a problem. It would be really annoying to switch between computers in order to manage/view live vs streamed content.
You can presently use a couple of channels to do Live TV on your main computer while still using the 2nd computer for DVR. BTW, this second computer can run in a Virtual Machine. It’s basically not CPU limited and only requires access the LAN so it’s a good candidate for a VM if you use them.
If Plex was to introduce Live TV and you didn’t need to use a channel I don’t see why you still couldn’t use 2 different computers.
It definitely works well now and helps to keep beta DVR bugs from causing problems with my main server.
With the introduction of live tv, I really wish this feature existed. There’s too much demand on live stream vs dvr recording vs on-demand streaming vs recording transcoding for 1 machine.
I am not sure what you are referring to as @cayars mentions you currently have the ability to have multiple Plex Media Sever installations on different computers. I currently have 5 Plex Media Servers for testing different platforms but could just as easily have one for DVR and one for Live TV. The only issue you may run into is tuner availability, if you only have one tuner device. If a tuner is being utilized on your Live TV PMS and your DVR Plex needs a tuner to record a show if it is unable to access the tuner the recording will fail.
I’m not looking to create multiple servers. I was hoping to use multiple computers for 1x server. My users won’t understand switching between multiple servers for live tv vs on-demand tv.
Keep in mind right now only the admin has access to Live-TV so this won’t affect users. Anything recorded to common storage that different plex servers can access will pick up the newly recorded media.
Something to ponder. The new PMP2 (computer) and xbox apps are starting to blur the line on this and working in the direction you are wanting. Through this new interface you could connect to the computer that has the tuners and have live tv and DVR. Then due to the way the UI works you have access to the libraries on other plex servers you run.
You could have movies on Plex2 and TV shows on Plex3 and music & pictures on Plex4 and this new style UI more or less combines this all into one “view” of your Plex servers. So Plex is getting there are are closer then you probably thought!
@cayars said:
Keep in mind right now only the admin has access to Live-TV so this won’t affect users. Anything recorded to common storage that different plex servers can access will pick up the newly recorded media.
I’ve actually run into a problem there. If I give another Plex server access to scan a DVR directory being used by a Plex DVR server, it can find the files fine… but for shows like sporting events, etc, the new Plex Server can’t pick up any of the detailed guide information that shows on the original Plex DVR server. I assume that’s a limitation in the media retrieval service. Is there a workaround?
