Plex DVR - Recommendations and Setups?

Kevinf63

Hey all, I've been a long time user of Open/LibreELEC devices running TVHeadEnd and unfortunately between manufacturer and community support dropping for my devices slowly and more and more bugs and issues becoming present... I've had enough moaning from the family and I've been looking at new solutions.

I have a beefy PLEX server already in place, so I figured why not expand its worth by utilizing it's DVR feature with a HDHomeRun Connect Quattro for DVB-T2. However I've hit a roadblock with regards to DVB-S2 being unsupported, with some random PLEX end users using TVHeadEnd proxies/homerun emulators as a workaround for unsupported devices.

Does anyone here have a similar workaround or solution they've come up with, it's caveats if any and the hardware used etc to achieve full SaorView (DVB-T2) and FreeSat (DVB-S2) over PLEX DVR or perhaps another solution entirely?

Johnboy1951

Because I would like to be prepared I have a few questions I hope you can answer ....

What devices do you have for which support is being dropped?

What bugs have become apparent?


What exactly does not support DVB-S2? .... /hardware/Plex/?/ I found it hard to figure out ..

I am still using tvheadend so have no answers for your Plex issues, but am concerned about what might be coming down the line, hence the questions.
Thanks.

Kevinf63

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Because I would like to be prepared I have a few questions I hope you can answer ....

What devices do you have for which support is being dropped?

What bugs have become apparent?


What exactly does not support DVB-S2? .... /hardware/Plex/?/ I found it hard to figure out ..

I am still using tvheadend so have no answers for your Plex issues, but am concerned about what might be coming down the line, hence the questions.
Thanks.

Official Android firmware support of the MeCool KII Pro devices is quite out of date (5.1 AfAIK). The official OS for these devices is also loaded with crapware and clunky, so I ditched it in favour of community led LibreELEC builds (Linux kernel, just enough for KODI).

These builds worked great at first, but after two years of the DVB and WiFi drivers proving quite troublesome, freezing mid TV show, WiFi driver failing without warning randomly on boot, which prevents the TVHeadEnd service from being accessible...so now I have to wire them in over powerline LAN. The final nail in the coffin was community build support ceased since 9 months ago, it was okay while it lasted!

It's more a product of my own fault haha but I really disliked the original android software so much I had to give it the boot out the door.

The PLEX DVR feature as of writing does not support any DVR device/hardware capable of receiving DVB-S2. It appears to officially support a small list of DVB-T2,C and ATSC devices such as the HDHomeRun brand.

There is a supposed workaround involving a proxy service that helps emulates HDHomeRun DVR devices so that your unsupported device can used through PLEX. Curious if anyone had any success with them on this site or any other workaround.

Antennas Workaround:
https://github.com/TheJF/antennas

Johnboy1951

Kevinf63 wrote: »

Official Android firmware support of the MeCool KII Pro devices is quite out of date (5.1 AfAIK). The official OS for these devices is also loaded with crapware and clunky, so I ditched it in favour of community led LibreELEC builds (Linux kernel, just enough for KODI).

These builds worked great at first, but after two years of the DVB and WiFi drivers proving quite troublesome, freezing mid TV show, WiFi driver failing without warning randomly on boot, which prevents the TVHeadEnd service from being accessible...so now I have to wire them in over powerline LAN. The final nail in the coffin was community build support ceased since 9 months ago, it was okay while it lasted!

It's more a product of my own fault haha but I really disliked the original android software so much I had to give it the boot out the door.

The PLEX DVR feature as of writing does not support any DVR device/hardware capable of receiving DVB-S2. It appears to officially support a small list of DVB-T2,C and ATSC devices such as the HDHomeRun brand.

There is a supposed workaround involving a proxy service that helps emulates HDHomeRun DVR devices so that your unsupported device can used through PLEX. Curious if anyone had any success with them on this site or any other workaround.

Antennas Workaround:
https://github.com/TheJF/antennas

Thanks, I don't mean to derail your thread.
The KII Pro has a couple of different versions with different wifi chips AFAIK.
There was some support in CoreElec for this device as I recall.
That might help ..... edit .... https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/kii-pro-videostrong-s905-no-wifi/3230

I use tvheadend with Kodi front end so never met the Plex limitation on DVB-S2, hence the question .

I have found wireless generally unreliable for streaming in-house, and have wired up things with ethernet cable which is solid now.

Presently I have a low spec Tanix Tx3 mini box running CE with tvheadend doing the server roll, managing the HDHomerun DVB-T/2 and the Digibit R1 DVB-S/2 IP tuner boxes. I have separate client boxes at TV points - again cheap boxes running LibreElec or CoreElec.

Anyway, thanks for replying to the questions.

Kevinf63

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Thanks, I don't mean to derail your thread.
The KII Pro has a couple of different versions with different wifi chips AFAIK.
There was some support in CoreElec for this device as I recall.
That might help ..... edit .... https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/kii-pro-videostrong-s905-no-wifi/3230

Interesting, never heard of CoreELEC. Is that a relatively new fork distro? I'll definitely give it a spin to see if its any use.

Big thanks for posting about your setup! Funny that you'd mention the Digibit R1. I'm on the ropes on whether to get a Digibit or the Megasat SAT to IP Server 3 as a new DVB-S2 IPTV tuner.

Perhaps I could:

• Nab the digibit and HDHomeRun.
• Put them over TVHeadEnd running on the same server as the PLEX.
• If the PLEX DVR service fails to work, I can always keep the TVHeadEnd running on the PLEX server.
• Then use the MeCool boxes simply as TVHeadEnd clients (before, each would run a separate TVH server) but running CoreELEC?

Nonetheless, I would like to keep on the hunt for PLEX DVR related builds people have out there and ultimately how they found it so far as a comparison.

Johnboy1951

I'm on the ropes on whether to get a Digibit or the Megasat SAT to IP

I think there is no real difference in the hardware in both of those, and if so I guess it won't really matter which you get.
The Digibit seems to be the more popular around here.