As the FAQ states “Over the air broadcasts are often in MPEG2”. I would add that most tuner cards also have encoders for MPEG2. Why not just support MPEG2 directly then for Live TV rather than transcoding it? I.e. I had a mythtv and then a WMC setup with two channels (Houppauge WinTV-HVR-2255) with virtually no CPU usage. Now with plex (pass) I cant watch a single live tv channel because the server’s CPU is railed transcodeing a (presumably) perfectly fine MPEG2 encoded (from the tuner card itself) stream. Seams like a waste to transcode it if all I’m doing is watching it live… just keep in MPEG2 and play it.
What client are you watching with? It really depends on that.
Since live TV isn’t supported on my smart TV (LG) client app or the windows client app, I have been using the web interface. I do have an Android phone, so I’ll install and give that a shot. Thanks.
Live TV on the Android app does (mostly) work. The transcoder isn’t nearly as busy, however the picture is jumpy as if there are many missing frames - it was quite annoying. This could have been due to me tinkering with the video quality on the server however.
I also recorded a TV show as a test. Again, the recorded TV plays on the Android app (and the Windows app) but not on my LG TV app. Just a blank screen with 3 dots (…) if I tried to resume where I left off (from watching on the phone). Never played. If I tried playing from the beginning the same screen … and then an error about the stream not starting in time.
Bottom line: why would I watch Live/Recorded TV on my 4 inch phone screen when I have a perfectly fine big screen LG smart TV (yes I could try some type of casting or screen sharing… but why)? I really, really wanted to like Plex, but my main reason for installing it and paying for PlexPass was for the DVR and Live TV feature.
So far, I’m quite disappointed and will mostly likely limp along with WMC for live TV until I can a) afford new hardware to run the Plex trancoder and b) Plex live TV and recorded TV works through the LG smart TV app.
@ps3681 said:
Since live TV isn’t supported on my smart TV (LG) client app or the windows client app, I have been using the web interface. I do have an Android phone, so I’ll install and give that a shot. Thanks.
Lets go back to this. You are using the web browser on the TV? Web browsers on a TV are just horrible. This is not something we really support. Just because it can load Plex App does not means it’s going to work.
I also recorded a TV show as a test. Again, the recorded TV plays on the Android app (and the Windows app) but not on my LG TV app. Just a blank screen with 3 dots (…) if I tried to resume where I left off (from watching on the phone). Never played. If I tried playing from the beginning the same screen … and then an error about the stream not starting in time.
Are you using the Plex app or the web browser? If it’s the browser, see my comment above. If it’s the Plex App, turn on logging, recreate the problem, then get me the PMS logs. See https://support.plex.tv/articles/216955788-logging-for-smart-tvs-tivo/ for more details.
@“MovieFan.Plex” said:
Lets go back to this. You are using the web browser on the TV? Web browsers on a TV are just horrible. This is not something we really support. Just because it can load Plex App does not means it’s going to work.
Right. Sorry for not being more clear. I am using the LGTV Plex app (installed from the “LG app store”) on my LG smart TV and was not able to play recorded TV - just blank except for 3 dots. When I refer to the web browser client, I am using a separate PC in my home, typically using Firefox.
Are you using the Plex app or the web browser? If it’s the browser, see my comment above. If it’s the Plex App, turn on logging, recreate the problem, then get me the PMS logs. See https://support.plex.tv/articles/216955788-logging-for-smart-tvs-tivo/ for more details.
I have enabled logging, reproduced the problem and attached the log (zipped).
Thank you for addressing my concerns. Really appreciated.
I think this is a major issue as well. Plex should record and play the mpg files created directly from tuners without the need to transcode them. I am using the HD Home Run Prime and Plex installed on a QNAP TS-453A. I attempted to use Plex for recording and playing live TV, but my QNAP is not able to transcode even one stream fast enough. On the other hand, the Channels App (getchannels.com) does this perfectly on the same setup. Their video player reads the mpg format directly from the tuner without the need to transcode anything and works amazingly well.
I would love to have 1 solution for all my media. However, as it stands I have to use Plex for ripped movies and Channels for all TV Tuner interactions (both live TV and recordings). Channels also allows viewing remotely which works very well.
Is the ability to play (without transcoding) straight mpg files from TV tuners even in the works?
