Normally i’d post in an already discussed thread but there are literally a ton of these threads…
This should be stickied; to fix this issue, all you have to do is enable “Convert Video While Recording” and Select “Transcode” instead of off.
That’s literally I had to do to get this thing to work all the time without fail! Been running for weeks now, no issues at all with mysterious failed recordings.
Thank you and goodnight Plex and friends!
But… My Extend no longer has this option, or Plex doesn’t show it any longer. I am converting on the fly with ‘heavy’ transcoding set on the Entends and ‘High Quality’ set on Plex. Hangs every night now.
@lmolter What happens if you don’t do any transcoding on the extend or in Plex?
@cantenna said:
Normally i’d post in an already discussed thread but there are literally a ton of these threads…This should be stickied; to fix this issue, all you have to do is enable “Convert Video While Recording” and Select “Transcode” instead of off.
That’s literally I had to do to get this thing to work all the time without fail! Been running for weeks now, no issues at all with mysterious failed recordings.
Thank you and goodnight Plex and friends!
Is this for the issue with recordings getting stuck at 100+%? If so, I will give it a go.
@DaveBinM I haven’t had all transcoding off in a while. I’ll guess that Plex will complain that my NAS lacks the horsepower to transcode the playback or something. I can try it again in the next few days and see what happens.
I’m willing to give this a try but I don’t think this is the solution for these issues. As @lmolter states the Extend doesn’t even have this option. And as far as I can remember it never has. Also, this activity happens on both my Connect and Extend. At this point I just leave the transcoding option off on both of them and record the MPEG2 stream directly.
I still get random fails of items stuck in the grab folder(s), doesn’t record because of an error, or multiple items going over 100% that adds up to more than the number of total tuners that I have, and where it says it’s using one tuner but when you look at the actual device it’s using another one.
With the Fall TV season right around the corner I’m afraid that the Plex DVR is still just an experiment/beta. I’ll need to keep my main DVR up and running to make sure my family doesn’t miss any shows.
But I just updated to version 1.8.1XXX so maybe that will fix all of the issues I’m seeing.
@chargerdan said:
I’m willing to give this a try but I don’t think this is the solution for these issues. As @lmolter states the Extend doesn’t even have this option. And as far as I can remember it never has. Also, this activity happens on both my Connect and Extend. At this point I just leave the transcoding option off on both of them and record the MPEG2 stream directly.I still get random fails of items stuck in the grab folder(s), doesn’t record because of an error, or multiple items going over 100% that adds up to move than the number of total tuners that I have, and where it says it’s using one tuner but when you look at the actual device it’s using another one.
With the Fall TV season right around the corner I’m afraid that the Plex DVR is still just an experiment/beta. I’ll need to keep my main DVR up and running to make sure my family doesn’t miss any shows.
But I just updated to version 1.8.1XXX so maybe that will fix all of the issues I’m seeing.
You can do the transcoding on the server end if you have enough horsepower. However, unless this works, The only real “solution” I’m aware of for the over 100% issue is to roll PMS back to a version prior to 1.7.x. I know 1.6.1 or 1.5.6 don’t have that particular issue. See the thread below for more details.
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/274585/issue-with-tuners-and-recordings/p1
Page 3 has details on how to download an older version if you don’t have one.
@lmolter I’m not saying it’s a solution, I’m just trying to narrow down some reproducible behaviour here. 
@lorddoskias But… the DVR is a commercial product now - shouldn’t have to downgrade to get a better product. Oh, wait… when Windows Vista came out, people downgraded to XP. Same thing, I guess. 
Here’s my beef with downgrading: First, yes, I agree it works. But older versions (and maybe the latest, as well) are not tuner-aware. I have four (4) tuners, but Plex DVR can’t see them all, even if they’re idle. Again, with the broadcast season coming upon us, I want to have the ability to record 4 shows at once without worry. I could catch them on demand from my streaming provider, I suppose, if nothing works. And when my streaming provider finally gets their DVR up and running, I won’t need the Plex (or anyone else’s) client-side DVR.
For the time being, the HDHR DVR seems to be fine, although I can only play back on interlace-artifact-laden Amazon Fire devices.
@lmolter Preaching to the choir my friend.
However, in their defense PLEX’s DVR functionality is in public beta, and they have said on other threads (like the one I linked) that they are both aware of and working on this issue. Now the wisdom of running such a large unsolicited public beta seems questionable, but I wasn’t consulted. 
It’s not like a person can choose to run “stable” we’ve all been forced to have the beta DVR functionality, we are just not forced to use it.
I have complained vigorously about the issue reporting system for the beta (forum) and the lack of feedback within. They have also told me that they have a new, and better system in the works. I think all most people want in the short term is just to know that their issue has been aknowledged and is in the queue somewhere to be fixed.
Or is it not in BETA anymore?!? I see they don’t list it as such on their main page anymore. I stand corrected.
As always thanks to everyone for posting issues and possible fixes. I keep trying different things with the hope that it will become my main DVR.
@lorddoskias said:
@cantenna said:
Normally i’d post in an already discussed thread but there are literally a ton of these threads…This should be stickied; to fix this issue, all you have to do is enable “Convert Video While Recording” and Select “Transcode” instead of off.
That’s literally I had to do to get this thing to work all the time without fail! Been running for weeks now, no issues at all with mysterious failed recordings.
Thank you and goodnight Plex and friends!
Is this for the issue with recordings getting stuck at 100+%? If so, I will give it a go.
yes
@cantenna said:
yes
Where do you change the setting? I have never had the transcoder turned on under the plex dvr settings, and yet still have the issue.
