I run PMS on a fairly new Win10 PC in a big honkin’ case with lots of capacity and power. So I could run any tuner compatible with plex.
My wife and I will be the only users. We ditched our cable company last week but we kinda miss being able to pause, rewind and record TV so i thought we should try the plex live TV and DVR solution. I’m a lifetime plex pass member so why not?
What tuner do you recommend? Please reply and give advice if you have experience. I am new to this.
Are the HDHomerun tuners the best? They seem to cost a little more. Do they all have fans? Are they loud? I don’t want to hear a fan…
And do I need the tuner to transcode? Won’t my big PC and PMS do all that heavy lifting? Or will there be an advantage to allowing the tuner to transcode?
I understand the difference between single and dual tuners. We typically only watch one TV at a time but how often will we really need to record two shows simultaneously? Are dual tuners highly recommended?
Which tuner device to purchase is not an easy decision. I have all HDHR tuners, 2 of their Connects, an old Dual, and a Prime unit. All of the HDHR devices that I have all have 2 tuners, the Prime has 3. None of the HDHR devices I have require a fan so I don’t hear any noise from them. I am not sure about the Extend model that is out that does on the fly transcoding, I know it will run hotter when it is transcoding but do not know if it has an fan or just heat sink to pull the heat off the unit.
You will be surprised how many tuners you will use recording shows that you and your wife like. During the Fall season I may have 6 or 7 tuners recording shows at the same time.
As you start to decide if Plex Live TV is what you are wanting you will need to consider that currently Plex Live TV is only available on iOS and Android TV devices. Android TV is hardware such as the Shield TV or other similar devices, not Android Mobile devices. Live TV is also not currently available in the web browser, on Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, etc.
I’ve had SiliconDust HDHomeRun tuners for some time. I started off with an HDHomeRun Dual (older white model) which I still use today. Its fairly versatile in that I initially used them as Clear QAM tuners but when my provider started to lock things down due to an FCC ruling in their favor I converted them to ATSC for OTA. I also have two HDHomeRun Prime cablecard tuners.
I’ve tried a lot of tuners over the years and the SiliconDust HDHomeRun offerings are the best IMO.
Either the Connect model or the Extend model should serve your needs although the Extend is a bit more versatile with respect to hardware transcoding.
For what its worth I regularly record more then one show at a time and my Wife and I are basically the only ones that watch TV in the house.
Does anyone seeing this have an HDHomeRun EXTEND? I’m curious about your experience and if the transcoding is beneficial in a plex environment such as mine…
I have 2 Extends that I am using and 2 Connects that they replaced. The benefit to the Extends is that they have a transcoding chip. This significantly reduces the file size and proocessing requirements to get that file size
@“James Struble” said:
I have 2 Extends that I am using and 2 Connects that they replaced. The benefit to the Extends is that they have a transcoding chip. This significantly reduces the file size and proocessing requirements to get that file size
Thanks for answering James.
Can anyone guess or explain what the smaller file size will mean in terms of functionality for me?
I’m guessing 1) DVR recording files taking up much less hard-drive space and maybe 2) live streams working better and quicker on all devices?
Does anyone care to comment?
James - can you please elaborate? I understand the smaller file size but what is the real world effect? Have you noticed any difference in terms of performance and functionality?
I’m trying to decide if it’s worth the extra money to go with the Extends. They are quite a bit more…
I think it really depends the way you watch tv. I think you did not tell what client you are using.
Personally, I chose the connect over the extend because I do not want the tuner to transcode and reduce the quality of the original broadcast. I mainly watch the recording using the nvidia shield and mpeg2 legacy video direct play on it. 90% of the recording, I delete it after watched. But for the remaining 10% that I want to archive, I prefere having the original broadcast stream. Almost all modern TV shows are captured at 24fps. Then the broadcaster convert it to 30 fps. That’s ok for 60 Hz display. But for 120hz display, I prefere having the original framerate. So I carefully cut the commercial with VideoRedo to maintain the 4 different frames for 1 duplicate pattern and then transcode to hevc using handbrake and convert it back to 23.98fps. So to maintain the best quality, I don’t want the tuner to transcode it.
That’s why I choose the connect over the extend. I would have paid for a feature that I don’t want to use.
But depending on what you intend to do with the recording and the client you use to watch it, it may make sense to use the extend. H264 will direct play on a lot more clients than mpeg2. It easier to skip commercials when direct play.
Well I’m just starting to use my plex clients a lot but here’s what I’m doing and all that I envision doing:
watching on Fire TV Plex client connected via ethernet
watching on Android TV box client via WiFi
watching on iOS devices at home and remotely (will I be able to watch when away from home?)
I don’t have ANY interest in saving and editing files for the long term. I will watch and delete 100% of them. I care most about things working quickly without buffering or other issues. I’d also like to have the freedom to watch from the largest selection of clients and locations. (I think I have my answer now = Extend)
James - do the extend models have fans? If so can you hear them?
@“James Struble” said:
I have 2 Extends that I am using and 2 Connects that they replaced. The benefit to the Extends is that they have a transcoding chip. This significantly reduces the file size and proocessing requirements to get that file size
I also have both the Connect and Extend. The transcoder on the Extend works well with progressive (720p) channels. Not so much interlaced (480i/1080i) ones. I have tried to isolate the channels for each type to the Connect and Extend without much luck. At this point I just keep the transcoding off on the Extend.
Since you have a powerful system you shouldn’t have any problem playing the MPEG2 stream. I like that the Extend converted files to H264 on my lower powered NAS because it would direct stream but since I’ve updated my system to a more powerful CPU I just keep it at “Original” and let Plex convert it for viewing on the different devices.
In terms of the fan the newer Extends (metal casing) are fanless. The original Extend (plastic) had a fan that people complained about the noise and I believe it had heat issues. If you buy used you may run into an old one but any of the new purchases are the fanless ones.
The Extend does give you more options because it is a Connect with transcoding ability. But it is around double the cost. If that doesn’t bother you the Extend is the most versatile choice.
In terms of file size I observed around 20%-25% savings using the built-in transcoding on the Extend. Not nearly the same impact I get using Handbrake on a system. I get results like 50%-70% using Handbrake.
That’s the other reason I decided to go with capturing the MPEG2 stream directly. It gives me a better source file if I decide to process it manually in the future.
Thanks for the point about the original file setting helping with the quality of the interlaced content. The 1080i broadcasts look like garbage on the “high quality” setting off the extend. I am trying original now…
