Too many issues to be a serious replacement for Tivo etc

General Discussions Plex Features
1

Well I had hoped that my Plex Live TV and DVR experience would be better, but unfortunately I’ve had nothing but problems.

If you want the short version, then I certainly DON’T recommend using Plex Live TV and DVR, especially if you plan on using it with an Nvidia Shield.

I wanted to switch from my previous home broadband and live TV solution, my VirginMedia package, whilst reliable, had crept up to £46.99 per month, for 70mb broadband, basic TV package and a home phone.

I found that I could switch to another broadband provider for £30 inc line rental for up to 76mb fibre broadband, and if I could just replace the Live TV and recording features of the old tivo box then I could save £17 per month.

Ok, so it would require some investment in new equipment, but as an Nvidia Shield TV was listed as a compatible device to run a Plex Media Server and I’d just need to add a Homerun Connect tuner and still have the ability to use the Nvidia Shield as a gaming console etc I was prepared to pay the price, in my case £380.

Ok, it was going to take a long time, in my case 30 months before I broke even if you take into account the approx £4 per month Plex Pass cost, but I’d have a multi purpose setup and after the 30 months I’d be making a saving of £13 per month.

It just hasn’t worked out that way, whilst I’m completely satisfied with my new Vodafone home broadband the same cannot be said for either the Nvidia Shield Pro TV or the Plex Live TV and DVR service.

It’s just so buggy and glitchy that I can’t watch Live TV or record it reliably, contantly having error messages, it makes watching TV a total pain, just waiting for that next error message or freezing up of the app.

I got so frustrated with the whole experience that I just went out and purchased an Apple TV 32gb 4th Gen, installed the Channels DVR app on my Mac Mini and the Channels app on my Apple TV ( cost £24 ) and was watching Live TV and recording programmes within minutes without a glitch.

Now ok, maybe I could have used the Mac Mini as a Plex Server which may have made the Nvidia Shield TV/Plex experience better, but to be honest the whole solution seems so flaky and unreliable that I’m just fed up with Plex.

At least it proves that my HDhomerun Connect tuner is rock solid, as it’s working perfectly with my Channels solution.

It can’t just be me that’s had all of these issues with the Plex Live TV and DVR/Nvidia Shield combo.

2

What do you make of the channels app?

I’m on the verge of giving up with Plex DVR - the issues seem to have been going on for an eternity, so don’t really hold out much hope of a resolution any time soon - it’s really not fit for purpose at present. My Sky subscription has been cancelled, and will run out next month, so I need an alternative in place for the wife’s soaps!

I’d have to return the Hauppauge I purchased though and get a HDHomerun instead, which means going from 4 tuners to 2. However I currently have 4 tuners which are unusable with Plex!

3

Well I did try the channels app on my nvidia shield, but it just didn’t work well and the Android app is nowhere near as good as the AppleTV app.

I’m loving the Channels app on the AppleTV, it’s just so stable and works beautifully, ok the app does cost about £25 and it’s a $8 ( £5.97 ) per month subscription, but to be honest I’m moe than happy to pay that bit more and have an app that works properly.

The proper channel guide on the Channels app is worth the slight increase in monthly cost for me, and as I have just cancelled my Plex Pass and gone back to the free Plex it’s not an issue.

I personally don’t know anything about the Hauppage tuners, although I did use elfato eyetv many years ago, and to be honest that wasn’t very good either, I was starting to doubt how good the HDhomerun connect was when I was using it with Plex/Nvidia Shield, but with AppleTV and Channels it’s working perfectly.

4

Oh, and switching channels on the Channels app on the ATV takes approx 1 sec, much quicker than it was with Plex.

I’ve finally found a wife friendly replacement for my Virgin Tivo box, it doesn’t have as many tuners ( although I could add another HDhomerun Connect to give me a total of 4 ) but then I have 2tb of storage for recordings as opposed to 500gb by using a USB 3.0 HDD connected to my Mac Mini.

If you have a computer or device capable of running the Channels DVR app that is on 24/7 then go for it!

5

Ugh… sounds good but I don’t really want another monthly sub… I’d be happy with the Plex offering if the bloomin’ thing actually worked properly!

May just stick with on demand for now then…

Thanks for your replies, I had never even heard of the app!

6

Well as I’m using my Mac Mini as the Channels DVR I’ve also set it up as my Plex server too, so now I can watch all of my MKV movies on my ATV using Plex app ( with the Mac Mini Transcoding incompatible files ).

In my opinion the Plex Live TV and DVR should never have come out of beta, and moving to another platform shows just how poor the current version is.

I hope they continue to improve the software, but although the Channels app does much less than Plex, it does at least work very well as a Live TV and DVR solution.

7

I concur plex live tv has no guide, takes for ever to switch channels and the DVR is only available on the server! I use ATV4. Not good so going to Channels which is rock solid although I’ll have to fork out on a DVR sub!

8

does apple tv need a tuner for each tv?

9

I gave up… i just subscribed to hdhomerun DVR. Plex dont record 25%-50% of the time and thats when it is able to download the EPG correctly… I bought the plex pass for life and regret it… i’ll wait to septembre to see if they are more reliable!

10

It is unfortunate but true. There are some noteworthy issues with Plex Live TV and DVR. This adversely effects reliability and ease of use which are two key areas that any TV / DVR solution should excel.

I too am considering other options but I have never truly relied on Plex DVR to begin with. In my case I want a DVR that will allow me to make use of my Hauppauge HD PVR units so that I can record from premium channels such as HBO, ShowTime, StarZ (and so on) at 1080i / 720p AVCHD / H.264 without DRM. Yes I enjoy CableCable via the HDHomeRun Prime but DRM is a factor.

In my case, I think the easiest solution is to use something like NextPVR which has native support for both the Hauppauge HD PVR and Colossus as well as (partial) CableCard support. This way I can use NextPVR as a backend

I’ll need to pay for Schedules Direct annually though.