I feel like I’ve read everything there is to read about Plex DVR a dozen times. I’ve watched YouTube videos. I’ve stared at the SiliconDust site for hours. Finally, I decided to pull the trigger.
I got an HDHomeRun Prime, and 8 TB drive and a Roku Stick to supplement the two XBoxes in the house.
I picked up a cable card from the cable company on Monday, and today I was ready to set this thing up and try it.
I never imagined that the little line in the FAQ would get me…
Are channels encrypted with DRM supported?
Channels encrypted or protected with DRM of any kind are not currently supported.
Dang it. I never thought about that. I never considered that my channels would have any sort of DRM. But lo and behold, of 363 channels, 320 of them have DRM, meaning that Plex can only access 43 of them.
So now I cling to that one word in the FAQ - “currently.” Not currently supported, but will they be at some point in the future? Or did I just buy a bunch of equipment for 43 channels?
I notice that if I use the HDHomeRun app, I can play all channels with no problem.
Currently I have over 400 channels and only the premium pay channels are flagged copy once. However, I used to get over 40 channels in the clear including the locals but that was locked down.
Perhaps you can change your cable provider to one a little less draconian???
@fluharty13 said:
Don’t I wish, but they’re the only cable provider we have here.
Sorry that there’s no competition in your area. Unfortunately I don’t see us supporting DRM encrypted channels in the foreseeable future. Never say never, but there are technical and cost challenges associated with it. Costly certificates aside, DRM requires end-to-end encryption and can’t have a media server in the middle at all. See this write up for more on that. The content is encrypted from the HDHomeRun and then the tv display app is responsible for the HDCP handshake and decryption. It’s a huge can of worms.
I think there is a workaround you can use, i have not tested this in Plex and i am only going off of what i was told. None of this is supported either so you may have to do some Google foo on how to setup all these programs. You should be able to use Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 ( Windows 10 does not have Media Center and you will need it) Media center and setup the HD Home Run Prime in Windows Media Center Since Windows has the DRM license you need (hence the HD Home Run software plays the channels if it can play them so can Windows MC). Once its working you can then setup a program called ServerWMC. Once Server WMC is happy you can use the ServerWMC plex app in the unsupported app store to have ServerWMC send the channel data to Plex. I have not used ServerWMC to Plex only to Kodi and it worked with Kodi. Now the big issue is the built in guide with Windows MC is terrible since Microsoft abandoned Media Center and its not updated. There are several paid guides you can use, just google them. There are a lot of moving parts here but i am somewhat sure this will work if you use Windows 7 or 8.1. ServerWMC basically grabs the data from Windows Media Center and Sends the data to another program. Now i have no doubts you will be missing a lot of features you would get using the native Plex DVR & Live TV, but if you have no other cable company options then this may be your only option. I would also recommend a fresh install of windows 7 or 8.1 if possible and if this works make a system image backup because its easy to break the Windows DRM license and its a pain to get it back and the system image will get you back on track quickly. Good luck.
Thanks for the suggestions, but I don’t even own a PC that isn’t Windows 10.
I’ve furthermore learned that even the HDHR software can’t record the DRM channels, so the device is basically worthless to me at this point. My only option to truly get all of my channels is a DVR from the cable company or a Tivo.
@fluharty13 said:
Thanks for the suggestions, but I don’t even own a PC that isn’t Windows 10.
I’ve furthermore learned that even the HDHR software can’t record the DRM channels, so the device is basically worthless to me at this point. My only option to truly get all of my channels is a DVR from the cable company or a Tivo.
There is another alternative. Although quality isn’t as good, you could get a PlayOn subscription and use it to record most of the DRM’d stations. Quality is limited to 720p and it’s stereo only, but you can record the majority of channels. And you can also record Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu among others. I actually use PlayOn for sitcoms where quality isn’t as important to me. Another benefit to PlayOn is that the commercial cuts are 100% accurate and can easily be skipped with chapters (or cut out with MCEBuddy).
I am in the same boat
I feel a little deceived by Plex regarding this issue.
After spending the money for all the equipment and getting rid of cable boxes, then to find out I cannot DVR most of my cable channels… It Was all a waste of time and money…
I feel ya. I don’t know if deceived is the right word, though. Now that I know what I’m looking for, everything clearly states that DRM channels are not supported. I guess I just assumed that my channels wouldn’t be DRM channels since I was doing everything properly and actually paying for cable and a cable card and stuff like that.
mbarylski, can you tell me more about how PlayOn works? Does it actually record things from my DVR/tuner? Or is it pulling streamed video from online? One of my concerns is live sports, so if PlayOn doesn’t allow me to get live TV, then it probably isn’t a solution for me.
@fluharty13 said:
I feel ya. I don’t know if deceived is the right word, though. Now that I know what I’m looking for, everything clearly states that DRM channels are not supported. I guess I just assumed that my channels wouldn’t be DRM channels since I was doing everything properly and actually paying for cable and a cable card and stuff like that.
mbarylski, can you tell me more about how PlayOn works? Does it actually record things from my DVR/tuner? Or is it pulling streamed video from online? One of my concerns is live sports, so if PlayOn doesn’t allow me to get live TV, then it probably isn’t a solution for me.
It’s pulling streamed video for online. So it wouldn’t work for live sports. If you want to just watch DRM’d live sports though (and not record) you can do that using the HDHomeRun app on your Xbox One. There are sports channels available in PlayOn, but I’m pretty sure they’re all the subscription based ones like MLB, NFL GamePass, etc. Here’s a link to their channels. Record and Watch Streaming Shows and Movies Offline and Ad-Free. I don’t use PlayOn for those though. Better to just go to the app or use the Edge browser which is what I use to watch condensed pro baseball games.
I’ve been in the same situation for you for years and have constantly debated whether or not to get another TiVo. Frankly I just want a single media center, which is why Plex is such a good option. DRM definitely makes it difficult though. I think I’ve settled on 2 options: either Plex with PlayOn and just suffer lower quality for the DRM’d shows; or Plex/PlayOn and a small hard drive TiVo just for the DRM’d shows. I’m leaning towards the first option unless I can trade in the lifetime subscription on my TiVo Premiere for a new TiVo Vox.
You have every right to be displeased with the given situation.
Primarily the issue is with you’re cable provider. The equipment is capable but the cable provider is draconian and locking everything down beyond reason.
It is unfortunate that Microsoft has attempted to kill off Windows Media Center and its absence has caused a power vacuum of less capable products with respect to CableCard. Plex is one such product. That isn’t a knock against Plex, it’s just an acknowledgement that it wasn’t designed with the same goals.
Even if you were to use Microsoft Media Center which could handle your DVR CableCard needs easily, it may still leave you with Media that was locked down with DRM. TiVo would be no different in this respect. It’s also important to point out that both TiVo and Media Center currently get their guide data from Rovi which has been lacking in a number of ways. Finally, additional DVR options from cable companies may be archaic and clunky.
I looked into TiVo myself. I was considering getting a TiVo Bolt 4K unit but I find being nickeled and dimed monthly unpleasant to say the least. Paying for TiVo lifetime service with the TiVo Bolt was prohibited (not untenable but unpalatable) but preferable to monthly charges.
The last I checked, a TiVo Volt entry price was about ~$200 usd and the TiVo all in service plan was over twice the price of the unit itself. Something like ~$450, ~$500 or so for lifetime service,…which doesn’t include the price of the unit itself.
@kinoCharlino , I get what you’re saying about the roadblocks to getting a feature like this, but how did they do it with Windows Media Center? I mean, that is a media server just like Plex in many ways, right? They did have PlayReady and licensing to handle it, but isn’t a similar avenue available to Plex? Well, if money weren’t an obstacle.
Microsoft did it by paying for it as outlined in the link above. And using the same restrictions (encrypted end-to-end) which is why you can’t watch DRM’d WMC recordings on any device but only on MS-certified ones.
@Mattaton said: @kinoCharlino , I get what you’re saying about the roadblocks to getting a feature like this, but how did they do it with Windows Media Center? I mean, that is a media server just like Plex in many ways, right? They did have PlayReady and licensing to handle it, but isn’t a similar avenue available to Plex? Well, if money weren’t an obstacle.
@darcilicious hit it accurately. They paid for the certifications and were limited in which devices they could offer support for, and didn’t have to pass the data through a user’s own media server.
This seems to be the crux of supporting DRM - tight control over the media. I’m now seeing that with DirecTV, you can only watch recordings on the DirecTV app. With Tivo, you use another Tivo device. Even with HDHomeRun, the content can only be watched on the same network as the DVR, I believe. So, even if Plex adds some sort of DRM support, it still won’t get me to where I really wanted to be with this whole setup, which included being able to watch my recorded content even when I was traveling.
Have you looked into other subscription packages from them ? Typically the basic non-HD packages are not DRM’d. Which is essentially local channels plus a couple extra channels. I use Mediacom’s basic TV package with PLex’s built in Live TV & DVR with the HDHR Prime. This gets us local news and some other shows we watch then Plex and a Netflix gets us our other media needs.
@fluharty13 said:
Well, I DO get 43 channels without DRM, but some of the ones I really wanted are in the other 320. Again, live sports is the magic bullet.
Yeah unfortunately until Silicon Dust releases its DRM ready devices Plex Live TV & DVR will be good for non-DRM content. Really the only option for roll your own DVR with full DRM support is Windows Media Center. Like i said previously you could use Windows Media Center and ServerWMC as a back end and use a device like Amazon Fire TV to run the plex app connected to the TV. I still think this setup will work with what you want since ServerWMC essentially bridges Windows Media Center to Plex Server.
