Plex introduces DVR features

[wayner]

Originally Posted by IVB

I bought the very last Extend in stock anywhere in the Bay area (new model just released a few weeks ago) so it automatically picked it up, but did you type in the location manually on the screen?

What screen would you do that?

[IVB]

right after you click DVR setup. pause at 1:32 on this video, you'll see a "enter network address manually"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqkTySJRX6c

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by IVB

Dumb question, do you mean "watched and deleted so don't re-record it"?

Yeah, I think we're talking about the same thing.

Here's the scenario: create a favorite for a TV, telling Sage to record new episodes and reruns. Watch an episode (which results in it automatically be marked "watched"), then delete it. Sage will not record future airings of that episode unless you either mark that episode "unwatched" or you set up a manual recording.

As far as I know, almost every single DVR would re-record that already-watched episode because they don't keep track of viewing history.

[IVB]

got it. I can tell you later, but i'll bet you're right. I'd imagine they need to address this ASAP as its a clear bug. I have a Tivo Bolt too, I should see how that works.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by IVB

got it. I can tell you later, but i'll bet you're right. I'd imagine they need to address this ASAP as its a clear bug. I have a Tivo Bolt too, I should see how that works.

Re-recording watched shows is a bug? I don't think it is unexpected behavior. I know Tablo works that way, and the developers seemed wholly uninterested in handling that any other way. The feedback I got from them was basically to get an 8TB drive and never delete anything (which, admittedly, might work if I was only recording OTA channels).

[IVB]

Actually I just remembered, no, Tivo bolt doesn't re-record either. My wife just went through her whole Tivo setup last night and deleted tons of stuff. (It was all about Real Housewives of <all>, I can't be in the same room even for the program guide)

I'd consider it a clear bug. Or at least give the user an option. Look at Tivo for what the standard should be, thats an insanely highly adopted solution.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by IVB

Actually I just remembered, no, Tivo bolt doesn't re-record either. My wife just went through her whole Tivo setup last night and deleted tons of stuff. (It was all about Real Housewives of <all>, I can't be in the same room even for the program guide)

I've never had a TiVo, so this is entirely unconfirmed, second-hand information, but I think TiVo SeasonPass/OnePass uses a 28 day window- it won't re-record an episode that was previously recorded in the last 28 days.

The way it's documented, I'm not sure what would happen if it records a show, but you delete it without watching it (perhaps due to a problem with the recording). It sounds like it wouldn't record it again.

Originally Posted by IVB

I'd consider it a clear bug. Or at least give the user an option. Look at Tivo for what the standard should be, thats an insanely highly adopted solution.

I don't know if I'd call it a bug, but something like this seems like a core feature of a DVR. Perhaps a permanent viewing history would raise performance/storage concerns, but something at least like TiVo's apparent 28-day rule (if I'm getting that right) seems rather important.

[IVB]

I have the new Tivo Bolt. It has a "keep only streaming" if that's an option (ie xfinity VOD), but I haven't yet seen it re-record anything. I'm not the primary user, so I might have just not noticed. Wife is pretty vocal about TV issues so i'd think i'd have heard ;-)

[IVB]

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/23...nly-bug#latest . lots of discussion on this topic. Promises to basically track pre-viewed episodes, but there's bigger fish to fry.

my personal guess: It'll take 3-6 months for this to be at a level to feel fully comfortable disconnecting SageTV. Not sure what i'll personally do in that timeframe, running both seems stupid. I'm loathe to stop using Plex DVR as the only way to influence the future is by being a vocal participant, but its a step back from just the DVR portion. Sage had years to build up their product though, these guys have been at it for weeks/months.

[stuckless]

If plex expands it's input sources for DVR (ie provides a developer api to integrate more tuner options sort of like the sagetv network encode) I think it will succeed for most people.

This article does a nice job of comparing Plex and Emby and I think it's in line with my own feeling vs the two (which I have both installed).

Ultimately I'd love to see Plex become more open. SageTV is a great example of a closed source, commercial entity, that is completely open. I don't expect Plex to get there... but I can dare to dream that they'll someday start to be more developer friendly. Until then, I do think that if people are looking for a plex like solution with more potential for integration with SageTV, I think Emby will be the way forward. I already think they are far beyond plex in terms of supporting PVR features.

The cool think about running unRAID is that all of these solutions run on a single box and setting them up, etc, is almost trivial with a couple clicks.

[IVB]

heh, I just read that article and thought "no, emby isn't for me". No desire to run sudo commands just to set up a program.

I don't personally need Plex to be fully open, I just need it to be slightly more open. CQC can handle the rest. My needs are far simpler than most, although a functional DVR is minimum viable product.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by IVB

heh, I just read that article and thought "no, emby isn't for me". No desire to run sudo commands just to set up a program.

I don't personally need Plex to be fully open, I just need it to be slightly more open. CQC can handle the rest. My needs are far simpler than most, although a functional DVR is minimum viable product.

On Ubuntu it's just the usual sudo to install a package and optionally one to add the repository to your sources list. Windows is just a download.

I haven't gotten it to recognize my SageTV recordings, but haven't put a lot of time into that. It's great for sharing other media with family locally and remotely. I like it over Plex because you have more control over remote access/SSL.

[IVB]

Just to be clear, I have no emotional attachment to Plex. If another option comes along that achieves the desired goals (transcode to any device, multi-user support, watched support, easy sync to mobile devices even if on the road, integration with HA), i'll switch.

One thing I'm learning from setting up Plex DVR is that switching TV apps is a PITA. Setting up favorites is easy, its this damn watched flag for things i've watched in the past. IE, Blindspot is starting up, i've already seen season 1, plex will re-record all of season 1 (and NOT record something else) unless I (um dunno).

After sleeping on it, i'm not going to make a change until there's a material reason to make the change. Its really darn close to a material reason right now just on ease of adding new favorites/recordings vs Sage's web UI (which wife won't use) but she just purged a ton of her Tivo stuff. Ability for CQC to tell a roku (plex or emby client) to turn on the TV, tell me what unwatched stuff I have, and start a specific show would be instant WAF and kid approval. They're already using the Echo for lighting plus basic media on/off/vol control, using it for TV stuff would seal the deal.

Emby or Plex, whichever allows movies & TV control best is what I'll do.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by IVB

Just to be clear, I have no emotional attachment to Plex. If another option comes along that achieves the desired goals (transcode to any device, multi-user support, watched support, easy sync to mobile devices even if on the road, integration with HA), i'll switch.

One thing I'm learning from setting up Plex DVR is that switching TV apps is a PITA. Setting up favorites is easy, its this damn watched flag for things i've watched in the past. IE, Blindspot is starting up, i've already seen season 1, plex will re-record all of season 1 (and NOT record something else) unless I (um dunno).

After sleeping on it, i'm not going to make a change until there's a material reason to make the change. Its really darn close to a material reason right now just on ease of adding new favorites/recordings vs Sage's web UI (which wife won't use) but she just purged a ton of her Tivo stuff. Ability for CQC to tell a roku (plex or emby client) to turn on the TV, tell me what unwatched stuff I have, and start a specific show would be instant WAF and kid approval. They're already using the Echo for lighting plus basic media on/off/vol control, using it for TV stuff would seal the deal.

Emby or Plex, whichever allows movies & TV control best is what I'll do.

I really wish there was an interface that allowed SageTV to provide the same functionality as Plex. Part of that needs a mobile app infrastructure for syncing. Not sure if that can be done inside the current STV environment like in the current Android app or if a native interface app would be required. Syncing on the server side shouldn't be that difficult.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I really wish there was an interface that allowed SageTV to provide the same functionality as Plex. Part of that needs a mobile app infrastructure for syncing. Not sure if that can be done inside the current STV environment like in the current Android app or if a native interface app would be required. Syncing on the server side shouldn't be that difficult.

I keep going back and forth on this myself. On one hand I think it would be we great if sagetv had full blown app like plex/emby with syncing, etc, which would take a huge amount of time and likely only support Android (if I were doing it). Or, would it be better if we simply built a better integration into something like Emby and allowed it to manage metadata, file syncing, native UIs for Android, iOS, ROKU etc. The latter is still a lot of work, but much less work, than re-inventing everything.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I keep going back and forth on this myself. On one hand I think it would be we great if sagetv had full blown app like plex/emby with syncing, etc, which would take a huge amount of time and likely only support Android (if I were doing it). Or, would it be better if we simply built a better integration into something like Emby and allowed it to manage metadata, file syncing, native UIs for Android, iOS, ROKU etc. The latter is still a lot of work, but much less work, than re-inventing everything.

Yeah, really, I can already do syncing with Plex using the SageTV For Plex Media Center plugins. So lack of that in SageTV isn't a huge deal right now.

As has already been mentioned I do wish that Plex would remember what has been watched. Unless you just keep everything setting up automatic sync for a show gets invalidated once there are no more episodes of that show. Works great as long as there's always at least one show. Even then I've noticed there's some funkiness that causes the plugins to split up shows on subsequent scans.

I tried using the Plex SageTV Channel but it only allows streaming. No syncing available through it.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Yeah, really, I can already do syncing with Plex using the SageTV For Plex Media Center plugins. So lack of that in SageTV isn't a huge deal right now.

As has already been mentioned I do wish that Plex would remember what has been watched. Unless you just keep everything setting up automatic sync for a show gets invalidated once there are no more episodes of that show. Works great as long as there's always at least one show. Even then I've noticed there's some funkiness that causes the plugins to split up shows on subsequent scans.

I tried using the Plex SageTV Channel but it only allows streaming. No syncing available through it.

Yeah, Plex is horrible for integration, which I why I keep mentioning Emby. I prefer plex over emby, but, at least with Emby you can actually do some level of integration. Plex is not developer friendly which is why I abandoned the SageTV Phoenix Channel development. Even syncing watched between plex is a nightmare, and the plex devs have no interest in making this easy. My hope is that emby proves to be a more open platform. I haven't really looked too hard, but from my limited research it seems very possible to a nice integration.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Yeah, Plex is horrible for integration, which I why I keep mentioning Emby. I prefer plex over emby, but, at least with Emby you can actually do some level of integration. Plex is not developer friendly which is why I abandoned the SageTV Phoenix Channel development. Even syncing watched between plex is a nightmare, and the plex devs have no interest in making this easy. My hope is that emby proves to be a more open platform. I haven't really looked too hard, but from my limited research it seems very possible to a nice integration.

Just installed Emby on unRAID and set it up. Looks interesting. I'm noticing that many of the features such as live tv require a premier account. I also singed up for the Schedules Direct trial but it's apparently not updating the guide yet?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Just installed Emby on unRAID and set it up. Looks interesting. I'm noticing that many of the features such as live tv require a premier account. I also singed up for the Schedules Direct trial but it's apparently not updating the guide yet?

yes, sadly (but understandable), both Emby and Plex require a subscription to be fully useful.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by stuckless

yes, sadly (but understandable), both Emby and Plex require a subscription to be fully useful.

It's been a while since I set up my Plex subscription but I seem to remember that Plex was more useful than Emby seems to be without one. Could just be my poor memory though.

BTW, do you know what HDHR's are compatible withe Emby? I've been trying to figure that out.

Would be nice if SageTV could have "standard" (i.e. "Series Name - S01E01 - Episode Name") filenames for recordings rather than what we currently have now where the whole thing is crammed together with no spaces with the now less meaningful id tagged at the end. Especially since SageTV writes this metadata into the end of the file itself. I've looked at the renamers but it appears that they are all made to copy the files to a new location rather than renaming them in place.