Plex Plugin Problem

[rbmcgee]

Although I haven't done a lot of testing with plex to the android in general and, obviously the livetv plugin in particular, I have seen the following...

All of thse comments are related to streaming from the plex server, wirelessly, to my android, across the lan.

I seem to be able to play my ripped blurays (MKVs in full glory) pretty well and without flaws.

WRT LIveTv, the video stream will freeze, while the audio continues. Sometimes I get just a black screen and after a while an error appears that says Plex can no longer play the video.

I am prepared to accept that these issues are related to the plex server settings in some way but I thought I would pass it along in case the plugin may be involved.

I am prepared to test any scenario because I believe a software alternative to the slingbox would be FANTASTC.

[psycik]

Although I haven't done a lot of testing with plex to the android in general and, obviously the livetv plugin in particular, I have seen the following...

All of thse comments are related to streaming from the plex server, wirelessly, to my android, across the lan.

I seem to be able to play my ripped blurays (MKVs in full glory) pretty well and without flaws.

WRT LIveTv, the video stream will freeze, while the audio continues. Sometimes I get just a black screen and after a while an error appears that says Plex can no longer play the video.

I am prepared to accept that these issues are related to the plex server settings in some way but I thought I would pass it along in case the plugin may be involved.

I am prepared to test any scenario because I believe a software alternative to the slingbox would be FANTASTC.

I've been able to get pretty consistent streaming off my ipad with live tv. Some things though.

I have my plex client (for IOS) settings as follows: Local Wifi 1280x720 3mbps, remote 420x240 320kbps.
My plex server is a pretty grunty windows 7 machine able to transcode the live video on the fly for the ios devices.
My Nextpvr server is a virtualised Windows 8.1 machine, with a HDHomeRun network tuner. All wired.

What is your live tv source? MPEG2 based HD/SD or h.264 DVB-T? And what is your plex system? Anyone that is using a NAS or low powered server would most likely have issues using the nextpvr channel as the server most likely wont have the cpu power to be able to convert the video for the device.

I did in the past have issues with my network, and found that I couldn't watch h.264 1080i DVB-T on my system - but when I switched to an SD channel my network was able to keep up.

If you're looking at an HD channel, do you have some SD ones around to try? Also have a fiddle with the streaming settings and see if we can find a combination that work.s

[rbmcgee]

MY TV source is the Colossus card fed via HDMI from a Directv box (need splitter to overcome HDCP issues) so video is h264.

The server runs W8 w/ a dual core Pentium Ivy Bridge G2020. Rates about 3000 on Plex cpu assessment chart.

It has taken quite a while but I've got an NPVR client working flawlessly on another PC against NPVR on the server.

Everything that can be wired, is wired and if I have to turn to the slingbox, that would be wired as well. Alas, the phone can't be wired. But even if it could be, it couldn't be.

I don't have sd channels available, so I can't test that.

[rbmcgee]

What I'm not understanding is that if Plex can stream full BR rips to the android flawlessly, why can't the same thing be accomplished w/ HDTV?

Of course, I'm not a coder at all, so I have no idea what I'm talking about.

[psycik]

What I'm not understanding is that if Plex can stream full BR rips to the android flawlessly, why can't the same thing be accomplished w/ HDTV?

Of course, I'm not a coder at all, so I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Does a previously recorded recording file (again using nextpvr channel) work on your phone? Maybe there is a delay in locking on to the tuner that is stopping it?

I don't tend to tell plex much about the video (which means it's more flexible) so maybe it has more trouble figuring out what it is that a regular video that it knows all of the parameters before starting.

[rbmcgee]

Yep, recorded HD shows play pretty flawlessly. Until now, I've only played those thru plex as its own folder and not thru the plugin itself. I just watched an HD recording thru the plugin, and it was flawless for about 15 min.

[psycik]

Yep, recorded HD shows play pretty flawlessly. Until now, I've only played those thru plex as its own folder and not thru the plugin itself. I just watched an HD recording thru the plugin, and it was flawless for about 15 min.

OK, so that makes me wonder if the tuner is taking a little while to kick in.

Can you try this for a test. Start a show recording, then give it a minute and then go into the plex next pvr plugin and it should show up under recordings, try watching it then.

[rbmcgee]

OK, took me a little while to understand what was happening. Here's what I did:
I began a recording. After about 2 minutes I went into Plex->Channels ->NPVR plugin and chose "Recordings". The currently recording program was there. I told the plugin to play that file. When the file begins playing it shows the length of the file, ie, 2:32. The file plays perfectly but stops when it gets to the length that was shown when it first opened. I would say that the file that is playing does not continue to grow even though the recording is still progressing. When the file ends (even though the program is still recording) it exits the video and goos back to the player controls.

I'm not sure if the fact that it plays very well or the fact that the file does not continue to grow is the important part of this test.

[psycik]

OK, took me a little while to understand what was happening. Here's what I did:
I began a recording. After about 2 minutes I went into Plex->Channels ->NPVR plugin and chose "Recordings". The currently recording program was there. I told the plugin to play that file. When the file begins playing it shows the length of the file, ie, 2:32. The file plays perfectly but stops when it gets to the length that was shown when it first opened. I would say that the file that is playing does not continue to grow even though the recording is still progressing. When the file ends (even though the program is still recording) it exits the video and goos back to the player controls.

I'm not sure if the fact that it plays very well or the fact that the file does continue to grow is the important part of this test.

The important bit, IMO, is that it plays ok (even if only for the short amount of time) - as its an in progress file. This means your live tv should work and it's possibly the time between your tuner locking on.

I'm not sure if I can add a delay. Did yoiu have the other post I saw (and responded to) about live streaming doesn't work? Or was that someone else? As I looked at a log in that post and I could see messages saying the channel wasn't found.

Post a log the plex nextpvr log (under logs\pms plugin logs) of you attempting live tv and we'll have a look.

Also another test does live tv actually start with the plugin? What about getting that first picture...and then hitting pause on the plex client.

[rbmcgee]

The other post is someone else.

I have already tried the pause - wait - unpause test. Doesn't seem to have a very positive effect. I thought bigger buffer/better result, but it didn't really work out that way.

I will test livetv again and post the log in a sec.