"Unable to tune channel"

General Discussions Plex Features
1

First time using the Plex TV live feature, and I’m pulling my hair out trying to get this thing to stream. I’ve been able to add my tuner device and load channels/guide data, but every time I try to stream a channel it times out after exactly 30 seconds with an “unable to tune channel” error message. This occurs on multiple playback devices (web, nvidia shield tv, android).

Details:

  • Latest Plex Media Server (1.13.5.5291)
  • HDHomeRun Extend (HDTC-2US) running latest firmware (20180327), connected with antenna

I am able to capture and playback content from this tuner device using a desktop on the same network, so I know the video coming from the URL that Plex is pulling from (http://192.168.15.250:5004/auto/v3.1?transcode=heavy) is good.

The Plex Media Server logs seem to indicate that the failure is “DVR:Recorder: No part because session isn’t reporting one.” But I have no idea what this error message means.

Below are the debug error logs for the Plex Media Server during an attempted play. Can anyone help point me in the right direction for troubleshooting this issue?

Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.776 [0x7f5ffd3fe700] DEBUG - Request came in with unrecognized domain / IP ‘XX.XXX.XX.XX’ in header Host; treating as non-local
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.776 [0x7f5ffd3fe700] DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as User
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.776 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.15.1:24788 (Allowed Network)] POST /livetv/dvrs/4/channels/3.1/tune (9 live) TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (User)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.776 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Starting a new rolling subscription for session eqnahvnrjv6yld7c1ftozdsh channel 3.1.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.892 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity bee02d88-aded-4ba0-b8fc-20b926f361ce - Processing subscriptions
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.893 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Scheduling subscriptions.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.895 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Initialized 1 schedulers.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.895 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Starting with 0 grabs, scheduled 0 active ones preemptively.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.895 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Schedule: Attempting to schedule the item ‘Live TV - Session’.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.895 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Schedule: Trying airing at 2018-08-17 08:36:27 on channel 3.1.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.895 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Schedule: Device 0 tuner 0 scheduled recording between 2018-08-17 08:36:27 and 2018-08-17 08:41:27 on channel 3.1.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.895 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Starting grab immediately for ‘Live TV - Session’ and we’re 0 seconds in already.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.895 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Scheduled all subscriptions in 2 ms.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.895 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity bee02d88-aded-4ba0-b8fc-20b926f361ce.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.895 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: There are 1 grabs at the end.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.895 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Waiting for media grab to start.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.896 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Starting operation for ‘Live TV - Session’.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.897 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.898 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: HDHomerun starting a media grab on device device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/1056F0CB (Silicondust HDHomeRun EXTEND, supported) tuner 0.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.898 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Creating custom segmented recorder for grab for channel 3.1
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.898 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET http://192.168.15.250:80/lineup.json
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.930 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - HTTP 200 response from GET http://192.168.15.250:80/lineup.json
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.931 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Segmenter: Creating a new recorder for http://192.168.15.250:5004/auto/v3.1?transcode=heavy.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.934 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Setting timer to stop grab of ‘Live TV - Session’ in 300 seconds.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.934 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Waiting for a tuner (2 available).
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.934 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Allocated a tuner (1 left)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.934 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - We’re going to try to auto-select an audio stream for account 1.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.934 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Selecting best audio stream for part ID -1 (autoselect: 1 language: en)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.934 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - We’re going to try to auto-select a subtitle.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.935 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Audio Stream: -1, Subtitle Stream: -1
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.935 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol hls; container: mpegts
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.935 [0x7f5fecbff700] ERROR - Unable to find title for item of type 5
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.935 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item -1
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.935 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - MDE: : no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts/
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.935 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - MDE: : no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts//
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.935 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - MDE: : codec is unavailable for analysis
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.935 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - MDE: : codec is unavailable for analysis
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.935 [0x7f5fecbff700] ERROR - Unable to find title for item of type 5
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.935 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - MDE: : selected media 0 / -1
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.936 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Cleaning directory for session 5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e ()
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.936 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Starting a transcode session 5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e at offset -1.0 (state=3)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.936 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Added session 0x7f5feb621420:5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.939 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Job running: EAE_ROOT=’/tmp/pms-9ca934fc-0e1e-4430-84d9-7d44ed1b3f49/EasyAudioEncoder’ FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS=’/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/e944d3a-1309-linux-ubuntu-x86_64/’ XDG_CACHE_HOME=’/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache’ XDG_DATA_HOME=’/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources’ X_PLEX_TOKEN=‘xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx’ ‘/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder’ ‘-noaccurate_seek’ ‘-ignore_unknown’ ‘-scan_all_pmts’ ‘-1’ ‘-rw_timeout’ ‘30000000’ ‘-fflags’ ‘+discardcorruptts+fillwallclockdts’ ‘-i’ ‘http://192.168.15.250:5004/auto/v3.1?transcode=heavy’ ‘-map’ ‘0:V?’ ‘-codec:V’ ‘copy’ ‘-map’ ‘0:a?’ ‘-codec:a’ ‘copy’ ‘-copypriorss:a’ ‘0’ ‘-map’ ‘0:s?’ ‘-codec:s’ ‘copy’ ‘-segment_format’ ‘mpegts’ ‘-f’ ‘ssegment’ ‘-individual_header_trailer’ ‘0’ ‘-segment_time’ ‘1’ ‘-segment_start_number’ ‘0’ ‘-segment_time_delta’ ‘0.0625’ ‘-segment_list’ ‘http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e/8b15d0b9-6751-489f-8fd3-7a163d6ba2c3/seglist’ ‘-segment_list_type’ ‘csv’ ‘-segment_list_size’ ‘2147483647’ ‘-segment_list_separate_stream_times’ ‘1’ ‘-max_delay’ ‘5000000’ ‘-map_metadata’ ‘-1’ ‘-map_chapters’ ‘-1’ ‘media-%05d.ts’ ‘-y’ ‘-nostats’ ‘-loglevel’ ‘quiet’ ‘-loglevel_plex’ ‘error’ ‘-progressurl’ ‘http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e/8b15d0b9-6751-489f-8fd3-7a163d6ba2c3/progress’
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:27.944 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Jobs: Starting child process with pid 1742
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:30.898 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - completed 1% - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:33.899 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - completed 2% - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:36.899 [0x7f5fedbff700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - completed 3% - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:39.900 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - completed 4% - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:42.901 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - completed 5% - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:45.901 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - completed 6% - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:48.902 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - completed 7% - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:51.902 [0x7f5fedbff700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - completed 8% - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:54.903 [0x7f5fedbff700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - completed 9% - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.201 [0x7f5ffb3ff700] DEBUG - Request: [34.244.6.8:35065 (WAN)] GET /identity (6 live) TLS Signed-in Token (User)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.201 [0x7f5ffd3fe700] DEBUG - Completed: [34.244.6.8:35065] 200 GET /identity (6 live) TLS 1ms 357 bytes
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.903 [0x7f5fedbff700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33 - completed 10% - Recording
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.948 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Using default transcode duration of 120 minutes
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.948 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Started session successfully: 5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.948 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: It took 30.0 sec to start the session for http://192.168.15.250:5004/auto/v3.1?transcode=heavy
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.949 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Merging EPG item with live item.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.949 [0x7f5fecbff700] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: No part because session isn’t reporting one.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.949 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Operation for Live TV - Session completed with status error (Could not start recording)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.950 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 92d210fd-2b97-47be-8bc0-6611cae36b33.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.950 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Cleaning up rolling grab for channel 3.1.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.950 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: Asked to stop recording ‘Live TV - Session’.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.950 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: Stopping transcode session.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.950 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Killing job.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.950 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Signalling job ID 1742 with 9
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.950 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.950 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - Stopping transcode session 5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.950 [0x7f5fedbff700] DEBUG - Cleaning directory for session 5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e (/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/Transcode/Sessions/plex-transcode-5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.951 [0x7f5ff5bff700] DEBUG - Jobs: ‘/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder’ exit code for process 1742 is -9 (signal: Killed)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.952 [0x7f5fecbff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Freed a tuner (now 2 available)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.952 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] ERROR - DVR:Subscription: Rolling media grab failed to start.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.952 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Cancelling operation for ‘Live TV - Session’ with status cancelled.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.952 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Operation was active, stopping recorder.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.952 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: We’ve cancelled the grab with 270 seconds remaining.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.952 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Cleaning up rolling grab for channel 3.1.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.952 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: Asked to stop recording ‘Live TV - Session’.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.954 [0x7f5ff9bff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Recording for ‘Live TV - Session’ stopped with status complete.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.954 [0x7f5ff9bff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: This was a rolling sub, not assimilating.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.980 [0x7f5ffd3fe700] DEBUG - Request came in with unrecognized domain / IP ‘XX.XXX.XX.XX’ in header Host; treating as non-local
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.980 [0x7f5ffd3fe700] DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as User
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.981 [0x7f5fe63ff700] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.15.1:63099 (Allowed Network)] GET /status/sessions/background (7 live) TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (User)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:57.983 [0x7f5ffd3fe700] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.15.1:63099] 200 GET /status/sessions/background (6 live) TLS GZIP 3ms 470 bytes (pipelined: 1)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.029 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity cea156cb-b4a2-467a-8b3f-e1b9e9844614 - Processing subscriptions
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.029 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Scheduling subscriptions.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.031 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Initialized 1 schedulers.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.031 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Starting with 1 grabs, scheduled 0 active ones preemptively.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.031 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Scheduled all subscriptions in 2 ms.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.031 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity cea156cb-b4a2-467a-8b3f-e1b9e9844614.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.032 [0x7f5ffc3ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: There are 0 grabs at the end.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.034 [0x7f5ffd3fe700] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.15.1:24788] 200 POST /livetv/dvrs/4/channels/3.1/tune (6 live) TLS GZIP 30257ms 512 bytes (pipelined: 8)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.039 [0x7f5ff9bff700] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 8392dba3-8750-4e63-b904-519812addaa4 - Processing subscriptions
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.039 [0x7f5ff9bff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Scheduling subscriptions.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.041 [0x7f5ff9bff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Initialized 1 schedulers.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.041 [0x7f5ff9bff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Starting with 0 grabs, scheduled 0 active ones preemptively.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.041 [0x7f5ff9bff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Scheduled all subscriptions in 1 ms.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.041 [0x7f5ff9bff700] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 8392dba3-8750-4e63-b904-519812addaa4.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.041 [0x7f5ff9bff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: There are 0 grabs at the end.
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.074 [0x7f5ffdbff700] DEBUG - EventSource: Got event [data] ‘’
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.074 [0x7f5ffd3fe700] DEBUG - EventSource: Got event [data] ‘’
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.075 [0x7f5ffdbff700] WARN - PubSub: Received notifyConnectivity event with incorrect async identifier (e26106fa-33b9-4042-a60f-06258e0931bf, expected )
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.075 [0x7f5ffdbff700] WARN - PubSub: Received notifyConnectivity event with incorrect async identifier (e26106fa-33b9-4042-a60f-06258e0931bf, expected 9adce917-d87a-419d-a6df-fd27d78b4df4)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.075 [0x7f5ffd3fe700] WARN - PubSub: Received notifyConnectivity event with incorrect async identifier (e26106fa-33b9-4042-a60f-06258e0931bf, expected )
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.075 [0x7f5ffd3fe700] WARN - PubSub: Received notifyConnectivity event with incorrect async identifier (e26106fa-33b9-4042-a60f-06258e0931bf, expected 9adce917-d87a-419d-a6df-fd27d78b4df4)
Aug 17, 2018 08:36:58.934 [0x7f5ff7bff700] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: Asked to stop recording ‘Live TV - Session’.
Aug 17, 2018 08:37:00.904 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - Transcoder: Cleaning old transcode directories.
Aug 17, 2018 08:37:00.905 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - Whacked session 5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e, 0 remaining.
Aug 17, 2018 08:37:00.906 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0x7f5feb621420:5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e with reason Client stopped playback.
Aug 17, 2018 08:37:00.906 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Removing session 0x7f5feb621420:5b1ffcf0-4926-43f3-8e72-35b94cff728e
Aug 17, 2018 08:37:00.906 [0x7f5fe07ff700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Destroying rolling subscription for channel 3.1.

2

One thing I’d like to do is confirm that PMS is able to receive content from the tuner. I can see a directory getting created under /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/Transcode/Sessions, but no data is added to the directory. Does anyone know how to see the data coming from the tuner?

3

Are you able to watch live TV using the hdhomerun apps on your server PC?
Are you running Windows 10 on your server PC?

4

Thank you for the suggestion, I didn’t even realize there was an HDHomeRun app.

I installed the app on my desktop and I am able to see video from the tuner.

But my PMS server is running on a headless Linux (Ubuntu) virtual machine without a desktop, so I’m not able to install the HDHomeRun app on it.

My desktop and the PMS server are on the same LAN.

5

Consider first using your desktop as your PMS to make sure your setup is working and your antenna signal is sufficient.
Keep it as simple as possible until things start working to save yourself time.
I am using the Extend with PMS on Windows 10 and after some initial issues it’s working pretty well now.

6

Thank you for the suggestion again, this really helped me isolate my problem!

Per your recommendation, I set up my Windows desktop as a PMS. I added the HDHomeRun and I was able to see Live TV from the Windows PMS. So this proved that the HDHomeRun itself was good and I had decent signal.

So what could be the difference with the Linux PMS?

To briefly explain my setup…my modem/router/switch/PMS server are in my basement. I have a single Ethernet cable running from the switch in my basement to a different router upstairs that’s been configured as an AP (bridge mode). Both my Windows desktop and the HDHomeRun are directly connected to the LAN ports on the AP. I’ve had the Ethernet cable from the basement connected to the WAN port on the AP…but that WAN port should act just like a LAN port, since it’s configured in bridge mode…right? I guess not so much…I moved the Ethernet port from the WAN port on the AP to one of the empty LAN ports and now I’m able to watch Live TV from the Linux PMS.

So I guess I’m confused what traffic might be being blocked when that Ethernet cable was connected to the WAN port on the AP. Maybe the AP is blocking some broadcast traffic, even in bridge mode. Is broadcast traffic somehow needed between the PMS and the HDHomeRun? I’m considering putting another one of these HDHomeRun devices at a relative’s home in another city (connected via VPN), so it would be good to understand the network connectivity requirements better.

7

Hey, it’s good to hear about your progress.
Feels great when you get things start to work, right?
I am not familiar with Linux.
I’m only slightly familiar with bridge mode but I haven’t tried to network through the WAN port. I have only ever used a WAN port between the modem and router.
If you need more ports consider a cheap unmanaged Ethernet switch.
I suggest using it with your Windows desktop for a while to get used to how things should work.
Consider installing both HDhomerun and Plex on a tablet or smartphone to see how they work.
Plex will be available outside you network but HDhomerun is only available when you are connected to the same local network as PMS.

8

I’ll give you some pointers that I wish I would’ve known when I started.

When your done watching live tv with plex you should click the little X in lower right corner to release the tuner from that channel.

If you don’t but just move on to view a video file or something that tuner will be tied up and unavailable to other plex users in your network or even for live TV on you PMS desktop.

9

This one you might already know.
When you look at DVR settings you can see the IP address for the HDHomeRun EXTEND.
You can copy and past the IP address into a new tab on your browser to see a status page.
If channels are tuned in, you can see the frequency, signal strength and more for each of the two tuners.
I run Plex trascoder quality as “original format” for the extend so that the PC doesn’t do any addition work.
Since the extend has extra hardware for internal transcoding on the fly you should do it there and only there.

10

Consider using your router LAN DHCP to lock or bind a specific IP Address (last 3 digits of your choice within allowed range) to your MAC address for the HDhomerun Extend.
That way it’s always the same and easy to find.

11

Thanks for the tips, cryovortex. I’ve tested “original format” and “highest quality” settings, and it looks like “original quality” means that the hdhomerun extend won’t transcode to MPEG4.

Here’s a separate thread on this topic…

12

For the Extend you set the transcode with your browser by entering the IP address you find in the Plex configuration.
It may be something like this.
http://192.168.1.158/transcode.html
Setting it here will take advantage of the special hardware you paid for when buying the Extend version.
Then your PC doesn’t have to do any transcoding if you set it to “original format”.

13

You can make configuration changes to your Extend by running “C:\Program Files\Silicondust\HDHomeRun\hdhomerun_setup.exe”.
You can view your list of channels and change your location for DVR recordings.
I’ve had this less than a week and haven’t been able to make a DVR recording yet.

14

I think the transcode setting on the Extend is just the default. If I set the transcode on the Extend to something like “heavy”, the PMS setting seems to override it. For example, if I set the PMS to “original format”, I see MPEG2 video coming from the Extend, whereas if I set the PMS to “highest quality”, I see MPEG4 video coming from the Extend. You can see the incoming video format by hovering your mouse over the video session in Plex Web under “Activity”.

I saw the DVR settings in the HDHomeRun Setup application, but I don’t think you’ll need to configure those unless you’re planning to use the HDHomeRun View app for DVR recording. If you’re going to use PMS for DVR recording, you shouldn’t need to change those settings.

I need to spend some time getting my antenna situation sorted out. I’m only picking up a couple of the big four channels reliably with my Leaf antenna. And even with those channels, I’m seeing the occasional packet loss and the Extend is reporting lower than ideal signal strength (sounds like a minimum of 75% is preferred). I just ordered a ClearStream 2Max antenna, so hopefully that helps. Also, I had purchased a WiFi adapter (TP Link WR810N), since the Extend doesn’t have WiFi and I was wanting to place the antenna/tuner in an area of my house that isn’t wired for Ethernet or Coax…but apparently the WR810N doesn’t pass broadcast traffic either, so Plex can’t talk to the Extend when it’s connected to the WR810N. Crossing my fingers that the bigger 2Max antenna will let me place the antenna/tuner at a wired location in my house.

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I think you spent an extra 50 bucks or so the get the “Extend” version of HDhomeRun. That gives you special processing hardware that is very good at encoding. It’s more efficient, energy wise than your PC CPU that Plex has to use. It’s my opinion you should use the Extend to encode to the format of your choice and set Plex to “original format”. Then Plex will use very little CPU power when it stores recorded or buffered video on your Hard drive. You are encoding twice if you set Plex to encode. When Plex serves video out to a phone it probably will use your CPU to re encode it to mp4 and downsize it .

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Have you found https://www.antennaweb.org/ yet?
It will tell you where to point your antenna to grab the channels in your area. It will tell you how far away the transmitters are and what type of antenna you need to reach them. Very helpful. I also found the Digital TV Antennas app by Nicolas L. very helpful to point my antenna.

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