Time to try HDHomeRun with Plex

Thanks for the feedback - Number 7 and 13 are big features for many, good to know the limitation (which I can only assume they will fix later).

Yup. I actually have the device in my utility room, connected to an RG6 cable that runs to another room in the house. At the wall in the next room, I connected a roughly 6 foot long RG6 cable with the last 10 inches stripped down to the center conductor. I’ve been doing this for years. At my previous house I had a Terk Attic antenna which was no more effective. My closest tower is 3 miles away, and the longest distance is about 7 miles.

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Thanks for the info. Figured you had to be pretty close (and I agreen on Terk antennas, they aren’t very good at all).

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/225877427

I guess this puts the nail in the coffin for the Tablo at my house.

I’m not quite ready to give up on Tablo yet but as I posted in another thread, this is compelling.

All my content ends up in Plex for final viewing so this may allow removing some moving pieces and simplifying the overall process. Plex appears to have addressed some of the major pain points with this release so I’m curious to give it a try.

One thing I’m interested in is multi-tuner support on the Shield TV since we use that as the platform for the only TV we have. We would need 4 tuners like we have with our Tablo now. The Shield TV has 2 USB ports. I’m using one for an external 1TB drive since we have the 16GB Shield TV. If we get 2 2-tuner USB tuners I wonder if the Shield TV supports a USB hub so I use the second USB port on it to connect a USB hub and then put both tuners in that?

I also use both HDHomeRun and Tablo.

The Tablo records all the OTA network shows, and my Plex DVR using a HDHomeRun Prime (with a Cablecard) records the like of ‘Better Call Saul’, ‘Mr Robot’, and ‘The Walking Dead’. I ra

The Plex app allows you to apply post processing to the recordings, so I use PlexComskip to remove all the commercials from the Plex DVR recordings.

For the Tablo recordings I use the script I posted here.

All the shows wind up in Plex, commercial-free. I use the Plex app on the latest TV to playback.

And, btw, Plex just released Live TV for PlexPass holders. I already use a second HDHomeRun for live via the Channels app on the TV. The new live feature in Plex might be very useful for getting hometown live TV when out-of-town.

With other apps on the TV for Hulu, Showtime, HBOGO, etc. I can get everything I need, including live TV and commercial-free DVR, through the TV. Whole-house DVR (for any tv with an TV attached) for the cost of a Cablecard, $4.99/mo.

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Now that live tv is supported on both android and apple clients this is starting to get interesting. Does anyone know if transcoded shows (using the “Extend” model) support 5.1?

Found a post on the SD forums that said this about the Extend…

“Stereo vs 5.1 - the EXTEND outputs the audio in the same format it is broadcast in - 5.1 is supported (no loss of channels). If you are using the HDHomeRun apps for Windows, Mac, or Android and you are using the HDMI output you will get 5.1 if the original broadcast is 5.1. I believe Plex is the same.”

I don’t do 5.1 but one thing I ran into when I got an Extend fairly cheap via the Plex Pass deal a few months is I couldn’t get Plex DVR recorded content to direct play on a Roku 3 without transcoding. At that point since live TV wasn’t supported on Android (just Android TV) and there wasn’t (and still isn’t) a grid for live TV (sorry, my wife let me do this much, she still watches some live TV during the and prefers a grid for that so, so that has some weight in a move to something else) I ended up returning the Extend and will be sticking with Tablo for now.

BTW, the speed of Tablo Ripper vs post-processing stuff in Plex DVR via ffmepg, etc. was a determining factor as well. Tablo Ripper just works, which is a testament to the time you have put into it. Thanks!

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Thanks for the insight! I wouldn’t have suspected something as basic as a channel guide would be missing. This isn’t a great way to surf IMHO.

Tablo still seems to be ahead of the competition. It all just works :+1:

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The HDHR DVR and Plex DVR both have a channel guide, just not a “grid guide”.
As a user of both Tablo and HDHR Products, my way is as follows:
Tablo: DVR only.
HDHR Connect(2x) serves as my “Live” under the “Google Live Channels” app. The HDHR App provides a 4hr grid guide to the google app, and works great for channel surfing.

**Google Live Channels also supports the HDHR devices under their native interface- which adds a 24hr guide and their native DVR, but if you have and older TV you will not get audio without an AVR or soundbar that will decode the 5.1 audio.

TBH, everything I have tried has had a shortcoming somewhere-
Tablo: Horrid experience for “Channel Surfing”, No “Google Live Channels” app support
HDHR DVR: “Slice” guide is not wife approved, doesn’t fully integrate to the “Google Live Channels” app.
Google DVR: Single device DVR, won’t support stereo only TV’s.
Plex DVR: nonstandard guide not wife approved, (haven’t tested the newest release- newly added features and expanded the DVR interface) https://www.plex.tv/blog/control-time-space-sort/

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Don’t say to loud about TABLO. Everyone thinks that TABLO is the Best thing up there and the person who has a problem with it they don’t know what they doing…

I don’t think that’s an entirely fair comment. I understand there may be some frustration for you but I try to be very careful about using everyone and making blanket statements.

Yes, there are plenty of us here (remember, generally lots of people only post when they have issues, not when things are going well) that have minimal problems but I think most of us that fall into that category still have places where we feel Tablo could be doing better. Posts from long time posters asking for updates on long standing requests is pretty much proof of that.

Having said that, there are also some pretty tried and true causes and solutions for some of the common complaints and most of the time they are worth paying attention to. Not that they always resolve the problem, but there is plenty of evidence in other posts that it’s worth the time to investigate them if only to rule things out.

Using solutions like Plex and Tablo necessarily introduces more pieces into the puzzle so sometimes it is a Tablo problem, other times it’s a network or antenna problem.

I’ve been a long-time Plex user (going on 6 years now)…and I’ll say with confidence that the Tablo isn’t going to be replaced any time soon. I’ve been running a Tablo Quad and an HD Extend w/Plex DVR simultaneously for a couple of months. Despite hours upon hours of troubleshooting and research, I continuously have issues with the Plex DVR recording shows and then immediately deleting them upon completion. Some others simply don’t record. Additionally, the Extend’s tuner significantly underperforms the Tablo’s in terms of both reception and transcoding quality.

Tablo still has some frankly head-scratching shortcomings (still no ability to limit a show to a certain # of recordings??)…but it’s never eaten up much of my time. It’s still leading the OTA DVR competition, in my opinion.

Food for thought…

Yup getting interesting.

Sounds like it’s basically got Comskip/MCEBuddy or something similar built in now doesn’t it?

Still takes the additional time and processing power to do it but if it makes the process automatic so people don’t have to set up and configure the other 3rd party stuff that’s pretty compelling.

Man, if Plex and Tablo would ever come to the point where Tablo tuners could be used as a source…

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Plex is using Comskip for it’s commercial processing as you can find the comskip.ini buried down in it’s library files, however it’s pretty limited at this time. From what I read it mostly works on Windows/Mac and a few Linux variants. Says not support for FreeBSD cause of no transcoding ability, which I don’t get at all given how popular Plex is running on FreeNAS.

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@Nilex
Amen brother, let us use Tablo as the source!

hows it going with folks setups lately?

I’ve got an HD Homerun Extend working great in my attic currently. Previously had an HD homerun 2-tuner non-extend working similarly.

I’ll be setting up my 4-tuner Tablo later this week after 2TB WD drive arrives. Not sure if I will get the chance to avoid the .18 software update, or whether i should just go for it.

I don’t see the advantage that plex provides and I am hoping to use the Tablo as a DVR without plex, perhaps with the latest roku. channel-surfing with tablo will be a crucial use-case for spousal satisfaction. our current solution is Moxi 2-tuner HD-DVR plus a couple of Moxi Mate remote-units. i understand that with tablo+roku we will lose the ability to watch&listen live tv in the corner of screen, while surfing the grid-guide simultaneously…

Just be aware that channel surfing is not going to be the same experience on the Tablo, but it’s because of the very reason you can use Tablo on some many streaming devices (i.e. Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, etc.).

The Tablo buffers for what is now 6-10 seconds (it used to be longer) when you start viewing a channel live in order to transcode the signal real time. As a result channel surfing with it isn’t a great experience. If you really need instant channel surfing you will probably want to split the antenna signal and run one line directly into your TV (assuming it has a tuner, lots of newer models don’t anymore) and the other into the Tablo. That will give you the best of both worlds.

In our case we actually watch very little live TV and already have a reception issue on 2 channels so waiting for the buffering to complete isn’t a big deal and I’d rather not split the signal and potentially create more reception issues.