This sounds like a pretty cool feature. Would be nice to see something like this with tablo. Not sure if it would work.
Sounds like HDHomerun has an interface that works through the Plex.
This is a Tablo killer in my mind. Plex is the most fundamental media element in our home. Anytime we have to switch over to Tablo (Roku) it’s like firing up an old dinosaur. It works, but not as well as Plex. I’ll be watching the Plex forums closely for Beta user feedback.
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I unfortunately agree. I love Plex. It overall has worked better than anything else I have used for a media server. If I could stay in the Plex environment I love that.
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Yep, once they add support for the Shield I think I’m jumping ship. Plex has much faster and better development dedicated to Android TV and this new system allows an uncompressed steam WITH 5.1 SUPPORT.
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Welp, I know what I will be doing tonight. I still have my HD Home Run from my MythTV days, and already have a Plex server running with PlexPass…
I don’t see this as a Tablo killer though. I can see how one would say that if they are a tech savy user looking through their own lens. (I will leave Tablo so Tablo is dead)…
The thing Tablo has going for it is that it is an appliance. Pretty much set it and forget it. This Plex solution is good for me, but I know members of my family (one of which is currently a Tablo customer) who don’t have a Plex server, have no need for a Plex server, don’t want to setup or maintain a Plex server. Even with how easy or trouble free Plex is, it is not yet mainstream.
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Let us know how it goes. What I would like to know is if the DVR saves the shows on the HDHomerun or on the Plex server.
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this is probably the only thing slowing plex dvr right now…
What about live TV or time-shifting? It is not currently possible to watch TV live or time-shift it. It’s an area we’re interested in.
The HDHomerun isn’t a storage device, its just a network tuner. The recordings get saved wherever you tell them to be saved (and aren’t locked down like Tablo).
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Once live tv and recording management via Android TV is added, we will drop Tablo. We already use Plex for a lot, it will be nice to integrate.
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Well the good thing here is there is plenty of room in this industry for everyone and more is always better (it spurs innovation and development), My self I use both (but im not a plexpass owner and have no real desire to be one) … but as @Motobikeman says, the TABLO is great for people who dont want to set up their own plex server or lack the ability, skill, resources to do so … So yes while these products overlap they do cover different areas too… I only see this as a good thing really.
In that same vein, it would be nice if Tablo also had some better integration with Plex. With this announcement it sounds like that might not be possible.
As a result, I hope Tablo maybe start teasing some of the new stuff they are doing with their apps to stay in the race. The rest of my family just uses the existing Tablo apps to watch most recorded stuff but I integrate a lot of my recordings with Plex to allow for automatic conversion and syncing to my mobile devices.
This development is quite compelling. Based on the screen shots I wish some of the Tablo UI looked more like (or at least offered the option) the second screen shot in this article:
I know the Tablo Roku app has something similar to the Plex agenda view but it needs to be in the rest of the apps ASAP.
Direct integration with Plex is going to appeal to a LOT of us.
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Another thing I noticed. With Plex Pass the guide data (from Grace Note) is included. That’s very appealing because it means instead of having to pay 2 $150 lifetime subscriptions (1 to Tablo for guide data/remote viewing, 1 to PlexPass for sync, etc.) that if you aren’t too worried about live TV watching you could just pay $150 for a lifetime PlexPass subscription and it would include guide data, remote viewing and syncing.
Please Tablo, tell us you have some competitive software updates coming soon.
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I already have a lifetime Plex subscription, but having to buy yet another device (HDHomeRun) is aggravating. Also, I’m only noticing 2-tuner versions for the HDHomeRun. This is a step back for those of us with a 4-tuner Tablo.
Totally agree. That’s one of the reasons I went Tablo over HDHR, I liked that I could get 4 tuners without having to buy multiple boxes.
I agree about the 4-tuner thing. Although, the HDHR’s (I have one from a while ago) tuners are all individual, one could (if they wanted) buy multiple HDHRs and have as many tuners as they wanted. From the intro video on the Plex site, there does look like some good features in the Plex DVR, like being able to give priority to recordings if there are conflicts.
I am just wondering how Plex will handle the video. Only the HDHomerun Extend (from what I can tell via their FAQ) does h.264 encoding. All the other HDHR devices stream out the MPEG-2 that comes from the antenna. If that is the case then Plex will have to transcode these files either on-the-fly or via their conversion process. That’ll mean that you’ll need a beefy PC if you want to do on-the-fly encoding (like for live TV viewing on mobile or tablet devices).
I still like the convenience of the single box Tablo solution, but I like that Plex and Silicondust are now giving Tablo good competition on the market. Hopefully this will motivate Tablo to push out improvements quicker – like a better Apple TV app which could rival the Plex app on Apple TV; priorities on recordings; bitstreamed 5.1 sound; better stability (mine still crashes and reboots when hitting a weak signal); etc.
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Put two of them on your network and then you have 4 tuners.
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(2) HDHR Connects are cheaper than a tablo 4 tuner
The flexibility of HDHR is what makes them especially great. Tablo’s closed nature has always been mildly offputting.
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This page covers this: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/225877347-Set-Up-and-Configure-a-DVR
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Off - Don’t do anything to the recordings at all. For most devices, that means you’ll end up with .ts files encoded with MPEG2 in your library.
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Remux Only - Remux the recording into a standard MKV container. The content will remain in the original encoding (usually MPEG2).
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Transcode - Transcode the video stream to H.264 and place it in a standard MKV container. This helps save space and make the content more compatible, but it requires a fast CPU. (Audio is always retained as-is.)
Honestly, its not that intensive. My old i5-750 processor handled 1-2 1080 10mbit transcodes just fine.
Very true. Thanks for the link to the article, I was wondering how they would do it.
But, at least in my household, the DVR equipment sits in the livingroom. Having a device that is passively cooled, especially since it is running 24x7, is a real nice benefit.