Exactly the same here. I want to love Plex for the new functionality I’ve never had before after using WMC for over 10 years. I was told by my wife last night that not being able to watch a recording in progress from the beginning was a deal breaker. I haven’t yet tested this yet, but I had issues with time shifting in WMC as well every now and then due to some of the plugins like DVRMSToolbox/Comskip, etc.
@JimN how are you finding Plex meeting your needs so far? The only box I need to check off is channel surfing and direct entry. It doesn’t appear that this is possible (but then again on the AppleTV, there’s really no direct channel buttons anyway). Channels and Channels DVR is another option, but if I’m going to pay for this service, I prefer Plex’s pricing model.
I’ll switch to Emby when my yearly runs out. Fed up with the lack of progress and the devs’ attitude here as if we are irritating them while they don’t work on fixing it.
Pros and cons? Plex is much better for my movie collection, don’t like Emby’s movie interface and naming idiosyncrasies, but hey, their DVR works as advertised last time I tested.
So far I give it a D+/C-. Not super impressed yet, although I feel it’s not far from being usable. Really, I just need to be able to schedule recordings and watch them back at any time (even while they’re being recorded), with an intuitive, efficient, and responsive interface. I don’t even need or care for channel surfing.
Things I do like:
The pricing model
Being able to use my existing hardware (mini pc with Windows, hdhomerun networked tuner)
Being able to view on multiple tvs through the house
Commercial skipping (a bit clunky, but good enough to start)
The pricing model is a big one. For local OTA programming I really just want a few network tv shows and news programs, and just need a platform to pull these from the air at low cost (channels at $8/month is definitely way overpriced for this scenario; that’s almost as much as a netflix subscription; I want to pay for software, not a service or content).
I totally agree with you. I’m using plex for the time being as I wait for my Tablo to get replaced due to a faulty wifi adapter. I find the interface nice but there is so many bugs. A lot of times when I am watching a show I go to fast forward through a commercial and the timeline and thumbnails are at the end of the recording. Very frustrating. If I stop the program and restart it, its starts at the beginning. Tablo is way more polished.
Time shifting is still definitely broken on Roku’s. I’ve had success on 480i Live TV. But broken 100% on 720p and 1080i channels. I was watching SD channels and let it run for a few shows and was able to time shift all the way back to the start of the recording and fast forward without issues. I hope this is still being worked on.
Still no progress on ROKU Stick/Stick+/Ultra18/Ultra19 or ATV4K. Frequent failures on Shield as reported by my neighbor. 100% failure rate after “high level” of use on all.
My wife went to start the Bachelor while still recording (also 3 hours) maybe recorded 2 hours so far and Plex started an hour into the recording and did not allow us to timeshift back to start. Pretty bad WAF score right now, she was ready to throw Plex out of the house until I found this long drawn out bug report. Plex please provide an update to this.
Timeshifting consistently fails when a recording which is in-progress “spans” the pre-planned program timeframe as listed in the guide. This is consistently reproducible using the above client/server.
Steps to reproduce:
Record a football game listed as 10:00 am to 12:30 pm in the guide using default settings.
Start watching from the beginning after the game has started recording but before the game has finished recording.
Skip forwards and/or backwards several times.
If skipping forwards/backwards before the recording has reached the point which was recorded at 12:30 pm it works.
If skipping forwards/backwards after the recording has reached the point which was recorded at 12:30 pm it will skip to an unexpected location and then commanding a skip will result in nothing.
@DaveBinM@darcilicious@sa2000
Plex… guys, come on please. Can we have SOME level of support here? There are what seems like what I would call in my support days, mission critical failures that are not being addressed. Or if they are, there is no communication that it is. This is a HUGE functional failure that is making it very difficult for a lot of us to continue using Plex. You have a potential gold mine here if you could just close these few gaps that a normal user will get very frustrated with.
New to Plex, and have spent a while getting this all set up, only to puzzle over why I can’t watch a recording that is in progress and then stumbled over this and other threads. So adding my view too… I had 2 steams tonight, one I could jump to the beginning, the other stream never offers me the chance. I had to use the ‘.grab’ folder hack to at least watch from the start of the live recording.
If it would help, I can post logs, etc. I am using a linux/docker server setup (v. 1.18.4.2171-ac2af) and a Sony Android TV as the client.
Is there any chance of an update / confirmation this still a known bug and being worked on? I am trialling the paid plex pass (solely for the DVR) - without this feature, I won’t pay for the pass.
I’m sorry to hear that you have had issues with Plex DVR. I know that others have reported the same thing. For a while it was a major issue and it did not seem like anyone at Plex was working on it, but it did get better and for some people the issue has been resolved. I do believe that they are working on making it better. It seems that some combinations of hard ware and players work better than others. I don’t think that it is working on ROKU or ATV4K at all yet.
My Plex Media Server (PMS) is running on a Windows 10 Professional computer with an Intel Core i7-4790 processor and 16 GBs of RAM. The OS and PMS run on a 1TB SSD and media is stored on 10TB HDD. These specs are overkill and exceed minimum specs for PLEX. However, I’m a computer tech and get new hardware almost every other year, so old parts get re-purposed.
My main player is the nVidia Shield Pro 2019 edition. I also use the Plex app on my LG Smart TV and also with an Amazon Fire TV 4K dongle.
I’ve been watching this whole NFL season with PLEX DVR without any issues. I can schedule recordings and then start watching the recordings later from the beginning, pause and resume, fast forward and rewind.
I also have been with Plex before they even had a DVR feature. There have certainly been growing pains and at times, I wanted to throw it all out the window. I’m glad that I stuck with it though.
Current Versions in use are…
Plex Media Server Version 1.18.4.2171 on Windows Professional
Plex for Android (TV) Version 7.26.0.14578 on SHIELD Android TV
Plex for Android (Mobile) Version 7.26.0.14578 on Galaxy S10+
Plex for LG Version 4.11.1 on LG 50UK6500AUA
Plex for Android (TV) Version 7.25.2.14287 on Amazon Fire TV
Ya, there are a few cheer leaders running on the least used platforms (based on sales numbers) that want to claim the problems are fixed and give PLEX a pass (pun intended). Don’t be fooled. It doesn’t work, it’s never worked, and based on the responses it most likely will never work reliably. And then there’s the guide fiasco …
It can at times mostly function on Shield and a PC platform but it’s completely different software than the predominance of the streaming platforms. And it’s NOT 100% or even close. Who wants to spend $200 and up per TV for a so-so service with an inaccurate guide ? Tablo and other solutions would be much cheaper and are hands down better performers. I have about 15 devices that I support.
Don’t know what your ties to PLEX may or may not be but we get it, two or three people are happy with a substandard product. Good for you. I’m sorry you can’t tell when you you have a lemon.
There hasn’t been useful input from PLEX on any of these threads for more than 6 months and if you review ALL of the release notes for the MAJORITY of streaming platforms in use you’ll not find mention of any of these problems being addressed.
For the majority of us, we want things fixed. Since you’re happy with what you have, I’ll return your guidance you’ve had for some of us and ask that you just move along!!!
PS - I just observed the failure on an Android TV, on my Android phone, on my ROKU Stick/Stick+/Ultra 18&19 and my ATV4K. That’s a HUGE percentage of the market share.
After the recording is finished? I can do that fine. The gist of this thread is that timeshifting while the recording is still happening has never worked for me. Doesn’t matter whether the client is my Roku Ultra or Plex web client. If I can’t pause the game and go get a beer or drain a beer without it going completely haywire from then on, then it really isn’t a DVR. Period.
