(Still) testing the DVR feature. If I record a programme in HD, then when playing it back (without any kind of post processing done on it) I get stuttering (picture freezing about every 10 secs or so). I have tested recordings from a few channels, and different programs, and playing back to a number of devices (iPhone, chromecast, appletv). I was (am) running Plex on a Virtual machine, so thought that may be the issue, so I have just brought a Mini PC (with Kaby lake G4560) and installed the latest version of Plex on that, but it still happens. The VM has a passmark score of about 3500 (single thread score of just below 2000), and the new PC a score of about 4600 (single thread score of just above 2000), but CPU usage during playback isn’t that high anyway, so don’t think it’s being maxed out. Looking at the “playback” info shows that the video is direct play, but the audio is being transcoded from (I think) AAC-LC to AAC. If I browse to the file location, and play back within windows it plays fine, and if I convert with Handbrake it converts ok, and then plays back ok.
So no one has any thoughts on this. Is this something that may be unique to UK (Freeview) HD tv. This has happened on 3 plex servers (2 VM, 1 physical), and several playback devices. Any pointers to settings / logs to check.
I have a similar problem on the nvidia shield for playback. I can watch tv perfectly with the android live channels app on the same box without issues. A few ideas but would love someone or a Dev to chime in:
1- plex not decoding mpeg2 in HW
2- slow IO (my plex library is on a NAS, while the live tv app uses internal storage of my shield)
I benchmarked my NAS IO and got 55 MB/ s write and 40 MB/ s reads which should be fine for 6-8gb / hr playback.
I wondered about slow disk IO as I was recording / playing back the program on a “file share” of another server, but I set up a new library pointing to a folder on the local disk (SSD), and did a recording, and it still stuttered.
Check your signal levels and make sure your signal isn’t too strong for your tuner. I had stuttering issues with my HD HomeRun Connect and still had it when I upgraded to the HD HomeRun Extend. Signal was 100% in the web interface so I decided to get some RF attenuators and brought the signal down by 6dB. That brought the signal strength down to about 95% but the quality rating was still 100%. Since then I’ve had zero stutters.
So tried to do a bit of testing. Downgraded plex server to 1.6.1 and then recorded a couple of programs. They were “saved” as .ts (as expected). Playback on the iPhone seems a bit better, but playback on Chromecast (wireless) and Apple TV (wired) is still stuttering. However the programme recoded on BBC2 was worst then ITV. Tuner stats for both these are: Signal Strength - 100% Quality - (around) 74%, Symbol Quality - 100%.
If I play the file back outside of Plex (just by browsing to the file location) the files play fine, so not sure it’s the other issue that some are having on the other thread where the bitrate drops to 0.
The aerial I am using has a powered amp / booster, so may try it without that to see if it lowers the signal a bit to see what happens. Also I am running the HD homerun with a firmware from Nov (I think) last year, but think I have seen there is a beta from a month or so back, so could try that.
So removed the amp, and the Signal strength dropped to about 75% and the Quality to around 40%, and still the same. Programs stutter when using Plex. I think the recordings are ok, because as I say, they play fine directly, so assume it is Plex related.
Have just updated the Homerun firmware to the June beta, so testing again (with the amp back in place). I am still on 1.6.1 at the moment, but will see what happens, then upgrade to 1.7.5.
I have this stuttering as well (picture freezing about every 10 secs or so) on nividia shield server 1.7.4. I don’t see this on every channels. So far, I’m seeing this on 720p 59.94fps channel like FOX, CW. I don’t think is a reception issue. I can watch NBC (1080i 29.97 fps) correctly but not CW (720p 59.94fps). Those 2 channels are on the same RF channel in my OTA market.
Recording seems impossible on those channels as well. I would like to try PMS 1.6.1 on my windows PC but I don’t have the installer. Is there a place where I can download the windows installer? I googled it, but did not find it.
Upgraded Homerun firmware, and did another couple of test recordings. This time there didn’t seem to be as much stutter, but there was still some. Also noticed that for 1 particular recording the stuttering was in exactly the same place every time, and also playing back either via the iPhone or Apple TV. Playing this file back directly (via windows file share was fine). I upgraded to 1.7.5 and this time the stuttering on one recorded program was very bad, and it seemed to be worse again on the other.
So to conclude (for me), downgrading to 1.6.1 and also the homerun firmware update may have made it a bit better, but dropping the signal strength, and 1.7.5 with the upgraded Homerun firmware didn’t seem to make any difference.
I’m probably going to post process the recording to MP4 anyway, so this may not rally be an issue, but there may be items I just want to record, watch, then delete, so didn’t really want to waist time and (processing) power re-encoding, but if they can’t play back correctly I may have too.
Just tried Live TV of a few of these programs (that are still on, as just recorded 5 - 10 mins of them earlier as test), and apart from the Plex app on my iPhone crashing once during playback (worked ok next time) they played back ok.
@rouq I posted a method to download prior versions on several posts in the last month or so. Basic process is to go to Plex.TV/downloads and right click on the link to download the current version and copy the link address. Paste it into a text editor. For example the current version download for Windows is:
Thank you. Sorry if I did not see your previous post about this. I did search though, but did not find it.
I installed this version on my Windows PC. This server version pretty much solved every issues I had on 1.7.4 on my Shield. So for using the DVR on my Shield, I will have to wait until Plex fixes few things in the recent server. But I’m glad that I can record on my pc though.
Glad you were able to get it working. The 1.6.1 doesn’t have Live TV but I’m not worried about that right now. Once Plex fixes issues with tuner allocation, recordings that never end, etc. I will try the next version but for now staying with 1.6.1 myself.
