Problem: after 1 Hr 30 min of watching Live OTA TV using PLEX continuous buffering begins.
System Setup: Access Plex app through Nvidia Shield TV
Nvidia Shield TV - Version 9 - (2017 system) with 128Gig USB drive as internal storage - connected with Ethernet cable to router.
HDHomeRun Quatro Tuner connected directly to router. Running V 20210224. I do have transcoding turned on for the tuner. I have tried it turned off, and seems to have no impact.
Plex Media Server - dedicated Dell PC i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 4Gbs RAM running Ubuntu 20.04, connected directly to router (Ethernet cable). WD HD connected to Dell USB 3.0 port for recordings.
Attached Plex logs from the latest time the issue occurred.
Turned Plex to specific channel at 912am. At 1044am buffering began. When buffering starts, it is constant (I have waited for 4 minutes without any change). I have Optimized the Database, Cleaned Bundles, given all Plex processes on the Dell “highest priority” for CPU access, and set my Router to give Plex unlimited bandwidth. The 1 Hr 30 min is constant, it happens when no one else is using the network, or when it is in use by others. It seems like the temp recording buffer (or whatever is used to pause LiveTV) fills up and everything just stops.
Also, I was originally using the Plex Media Server on the Shield TV, since that was when I first experienced the issue, I moved the Plex Media Server to a more powerful PC (The Dell).
Does anyone have any ideas how I can correct this issue?
Turn off VERBOSE logging, unless specifically asked for by the support team.
On the Ubuntu, you will get better results if you uninstall the SNAP version and download and install .deb version. Snap is great for trying out software but the container gets slow if it changes or grows a lot which Plex does. You will either have to create an override.conf to point to where snap put your data or move the data to the default location.
If all you are doing is DVR the 128GB on the Shield might be enough, just keep in mind each live stream is storing 6-10GB per hour so with 4 tuners you could use up any free space pretty quick.
The client disconnected but that seems to be a current issue with Android clients below 8.15.
thank you,I will turn off Verbose, I had seen on another post that Verbose was needed for this issue. The 128GB is set up as internal memory, I have a 4TB WD HD for recording libraries on Shield TV, and a WD 5TB for my existing PMS on the Dell (using Ubuntu).
And thank you for the info on SNAP, I will go back and reinstall PMS with the .deb version.
Thank you to everyone that has offered help or suggestions. I have located what seems to be a fix for the “90 Minute limit playing Live TV” in this PLEX Post: Android (mobile) beta release notes - #416 by SamFromPlex. I am currently running Plex for Android 8.15.0.23620-beta on my setup and so far it seems to be working. I have not tested everything, but it does seem to solve the 90 Minute issue.
I understand, at this point not sure where my install with the issue, I spent a lot of time trying to find what you were trying to create, it would have been helpful. I did take Tiebierius’ suggestion, uninstalled the SNAP version of PMS and installed the latest .deb version. That seemed to create it’s own set of issues I had work through, but at least I am hoping this will help avoid the slow down issues he referenced. I also installed the latest released version of the Plex app. Everything seems to have settled and it is operating very well, but have not had an opportunity to test everything yet.
The good thing looks like Plex is not only working on new features, but working to correct the issues (bugs) folks encounter.
I do appreciate any suggestions since I feel like overall this is the best media solution, after trying other options, ands want to make it work.
Here is the configuration I ended up with that seems to be working very well:
Nvidia Shield TV (Model: P2897) V 9 - Plex App 8.15.0.23847
Internal Memory (expanded with USB drive) 140GB
External HD: WD 4TB
Plex Media Server -resides on Dell Desktop i7-3770 running Ubuntu 20.04 with 4GB RAM and 5TB WD HD for recordings
-Plex Media Server: 1.22.1.4228 installed from latest .deb package, not the
SNAP version available on Ubuntu
-set all Plex processes on Ubuntu to Very High Priority
-set Transcoding on PMS to “faster recording” (default is Automatic)
-Transcoder throttle buffering (default is 60 seconds) : set to 20 seconds
-other setting remain at Default
HDHomeRun Quatro Tuners V 20210224
Set to Transcode
All of the devices are connected to my router with Ethernet cabling. (not WiFi)
At this point things are working, a little (2-3 seconds) buffering around 3-4 minutes into a program, but other than that, the system works well. The longest I have remained on a single channel is around 2 hours and 20 minutes without any buffering. Pause and Play Live TV, DVR, Play recorded programs, 30 second skip forward, pause and play DVR program, are all working.
