Stream path

Live TV & DVR
1

What is the path taken by the stream, between the tuner and Plex player?

Currently using HDHomeRun Quad tuner and Plex AppleTV app. Does PMS simply give the Plex player the URL with which to obtain the stream from the tuner and which then routes directly from the (HDHR in my case) tuner to the Plex player, or does PMS ‘pull’ the stream from the tuner and then relay/re-stream it to the Plex player and if it does, is there any transcoding involved?

Reason I ask is that I get better performance for live TV when using the Channels app on the Apple TV than the Plex app. The former pulls the stream directly from the HDHR tuner, decodes the stream and plays it. What does Plex do? When playing Live TV, there is significant lag when starting playing compared to Channels and also more prone to picture break-up using Plex.

So I’m trying to establish what are the differences in the way the stream is routed/handled that might account for the difference in performance.

I see no reason why PMS needs to be involved in the actual streaming as that would be terribly inefficient and has to add some lag and also unnecessarily doubles network traffic, certainly for the server itself. It would be far more efficient just to allow the Plex player to pull the stream directly from the tuner. But which modus operandi does Plex actually use?

2

All streams go through the server.
This is the general modus operandi of Plex.
Main reason for this is that there are numerous client types which cannot handle the original signal format.
And there is also the possibility to pause the live TV, which wouldn’t work if the client is simply pulling the data from the tuner.

3

Thanks for the confirmation Otto.

However, passing through the server is not required for pausing the live stream. Channels can do that, so it must simply buffer it on the AppleTV. Good reason to get the one with more memory. :slightly_smiling_face:

4

The ATV is not the only Plex client platform. And it is unrealistic to expect Plex to fundamentally change its working principle, depending on which of the myriad different client devices is used at the time. It would raise the required development effort in developer hours and costs exponentially and therefore make it impossible.

5

Er, yes, I am fully aware of the existence of multiple player platforms and do understand the reason for this ‘normalisation’. I was not complaining or actually requesting anything different. Just trying to establish Plex’s modus operandi.

Thank you for confirming this.