This was extremely helpful! I have used Plex for several months now and have been blown away by how neat, easy and orderly it is, but have always been scared of the whole live TV/DVR portion because I had no idea what to get. I'm buying exactly what you recommnded here and can finally ditch Xfinity and their absurd prices. I could hear you were a fellow Minnesotan and then got confirmation with seeing the local news etc in your video!! I'm in Blaine! :) Thanks so much for this very knowledgeable video!
I was an RF engineer, so here comes the nerd. Amplifiers only help in specific setups, that being when using antenna with a long or otherwise lossy run. They will do nothing, maybe even hurt performance if there is very little loss from the antenna to the tuner. You care not only about the absolute signal strength but the signal-to-noise ratio. There is a naturally occurring noise floor (kTB to really geek out). I can't explain this without drawing pictures, but if you have an antenna above the trees and buildings to get a strong signal, that means you will need a long cable run. Putting an amplifier directly at the antenna output in this case will help overcome the cable losses and avoid the noise floor. However, putting the amplifier next to the tuner will only hurt (by adding any noise of the amp) because the cable losses have already buried the signal into the noise floor. So if you have the antenna close to your tuner, don't use an amp.
Here's a thought for you: I'm a long-time audiophile/videophile. I want the sound and pic to be as close to perfect as possible. Years ago, I bought the super-duper-blah blah Terk Antenna for FM. It had a built-in amplifier. When I was listening to FM THEN switched on the amplifier, it pinned the reception needle, but also added audio noise to the FM channels and it was OBVIOUS! That went back the same day. Thank you for your thoughts.
Thought I needed a better antenna even though I live in a large city. Bought the Silicon Dust 5g filter. It made a world of difference. Fixed 90% of pixelation issues. Thanks for the tip
One problem with the ATSC3 broadcasts: more stations in the US are locking them down with DRM encryption. Plex is not able to deal with them, so you'll have to stick with the ATSC broadcasts while they're still around.
Yeah DRM is a big issue here, most ATSC 3.0 stations are turning on DRM by default. HDHomerun has not been able to fix this issue yet and it is really unknown if they can. Plus even if HDHomerun does over come their DRM issue then Plex has it's own. They would have to get their Plex server software NextGen TV certified, which might be impossible without a complete rewrite to remove Plex's dependency on FFMPEG. That is a big ask for a company laying people off because it would not be cheap
@@tom4296 Up here in Canada, the stations have shown no interest in moving from ATSC to ATSC3 - and we carry most of the same network shows as the US - so when the US goes fully ATSC3 if you're near a border city like Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and Windsor you can always get DRM-free broadcasts from your neighbours. 😂
@@TechnoTim yeah, the concept of putting fences around the channels sorta negates them being the public airwaves. I've been using the MythTV open source DVR since 2011.
As a Ham, I can tell you that you should put one filter at your antenna and then another right up at your tuner. The first one filters out any signals that your antenna might pick up and then the second one filters out any signals that might 'sneak in to' your cable run.
Question, I to am a HAM operator (General Class License) and when I was taking the class they taught us that we could use ferrite rings on the antenna cable to mitigate rf noise (interference). Would that work in this instance as well?
Haha I literally just set this up on mine a couple weeks ago. I never setup the DVR part though. But bought the tuner with 2 channels. I think hdhomerun duo. This saved us so much money. I get about 40-60 channels in NE Minneapolis, MN
As a TV engineer, I can tell you that most stations will NOT be going to 4k for NextGen and even if they did, it will be compressed as every distribution method uses compressed video. Uncompressed 720p/1080i video is 1.5 gigabits per second. Uncompressed 1080p is 3 gigabits per second. Also I can tell you from all the viewer phone calls I get that those flat antennas won't work very well for high-VHF stations (channels 7-13) and is almost guaranteed not to work for low-VHF (channels 2-6). Thank you for recommending an LTE filter and telling people to avoid amplifiers. If you live in a metro area then you probably don't need an amplifier.
I laugh every time we install a 4k TV on a video conferencing system. Sure it works well for local presentation but users think they are watching 4K Teams calls.
I used to do this way back with an HDHomeRun but took it down when I moved… never got it going again. The old hardware I’ve got will only do 1080p but it was like Blu-ray quality picture, way better than the same channels on cable. I have to imagine a similar situation on the modern hardware vs internet streaming
do you have to have the HD Homerun tuner cause I have the Airtv 2 from sling and was wondering if you could do this with that. I like the Airtv 2 just not the sling software.
DVB-T is unfortunately dead in Switzerland and T2 was never introduced. From a financial standpoint its understandable since most homes have a DVB-C connection or there is IPTV. I remember around 2006 my father bought a small USB tuner from Elgato, now Eve.
Hi mate, great tutorial, thanks! I noticed you added a second DVR during the start of the tutorial. Is it possible to buy a 2 tuner today and a second 2 or 4 tuner in the future if this is required? Would it just 'add up' to a 4/6 channel, or would it double the channels as there are 2 DVRs, EPGs etc? How would it handle recording priority? I'm not sure how much a DVR would be used in my household and I don't want to buy the more expensive 4 tuner model if I don't need it.
I think you can if you have a cable card tuner! I think it’s called the HDHomerun Prime. And yes you can have multiple tuners, I had 2 OTA at once a few weeks ago. Thank you!
I bought a tivo OTA with the all in for $499. It's important to keep in mind the cost of setting something like this up for non technical user. The HDHomeRun is $199 plus a plex pass isn't free $4.99 monthly, $39.99 yearly or $119.99 lifetime. Obviously the lifetime offers the best value. Plus storage is required be it as simple as a external hard drive which adds another $50 or so for a 1TB. Or something more complex like a NAS, which is far more costly. A device is also required to set up the HDHomeRun like a phone of computer. While most people do have these keep in mind a tivo doesn't need all that to be set up. So all in all you're spending about $300-375. Yes, it's definitely cheaper than something like a TIVO. But there are cheaper and or simpler alternatives. I definitely would have preferred this set up over my tivo but that's only because i have everything needed and i would only need the turner. That and i am a technical person for those who aren't I'd advise against this.
Is there an easy way to watch live recordings while Plex is recording? I always have to search the programming guide to watch a show in progress. I do this for live sports.
@@TechnoTim Not sure if anything with their EPG has changed recently, but I just helped do this same setup on an Emby server a month ago and the channel data that has been provided is very accurate so far. Anyways, great video as usual. You're my favorite channel for practical homelab content.
There's probably a method to do something similar with Kodi and/or Jellyfin. Or you could use iptv since that would likely include most OTA channels, and that wouldn't require any additional hardware
Both Jellyfin and Emby support live TV via an OTA antenna and TV tuner. I actually just did this same setup a month ago on an Emby server, so far it's been amazing.
Here’s a trick if you don’t want to run a new coax line from the attic and don’t mind sacrificing an existing run. You can cut an existing run, re-terminate the line in the attic for the antenna. You’ll probably want to tell the next owners though.
@@TechnoTim Not sure you could tell in Plex, Looks like you and I are almost neighbors, aside from buildings we have excellent signal strength, an old school non digital uhf/vhf antenna still helps/works, just not as well as Digital but if you have a good picture now - don't bother changing... If your old antenna has a filter or amplifier I suggest removing it cos that would be designed to remove the digital signal tho.
I will have to set this up when I get home. I'd been planning on adding a TV tuner card but had not gotten around to it. I'm going to be traveling internationally a lot more and it's football season. 😊 Is it possible to use this without an internet connection? My parents live 10 minutes from a metro of 1m people but have to hotspot their phone for internet. Will it download the guide OTA?
Ive ran jellygin and currently running emby. Trying to find the best solution for my family. This video helps quite a bit. Thinking about Plex a lot. Just starting to get into the LiveTv setup. I just ordered an antenna, but it plugs into the server, not the network. Makes me wonder if it'll even work. I like the hdhomerun solution a little better, though. thank you for this video. Hopefully I understand it enough to get things setup. May have questions in the near future.
Wow I truly didn’t know that you can do this but I was hoping for something like this The TV tuner seems unavailable in Amazon but I will get a similar one I will get the Plex premium for life thanks to this and use your link I hope you can get more of this in the future 🎉
Great video. I did the setup with your recomended products and it worked great! I do have a question though, I noticed on your guide the local tv listings are shown as "Plex Home" but mine just says Plex. It works great, if I am logged onto my account. I paid for the lifetime pass for my account. My wife has a free account thru plex and I have shared everything with her. But on her devices she only has the default streaming channels and does not have access to the channels I am now streaming. Any ideas to make this work?
Tim, I have been looking to get rid of my Direct Tv setup but my wife NEEDS her MeTV, and was wondering if that channel is available with your solution, do you know? as always thanks for the video.
yeah I am running a similar setup. I "How I met Your Mother" always had the last 2 minutes or so cut. Drove my wife nuts. I am rebuilding my flex and VR now. lol I am noticing that some broadcasts on ATSC 3.0 are being encrypted/pay-walled. I've heard its the next big fight :(
Great Video Tim, thanks for all the details. I am an early adopter of HDHomerun and have been running a Quattro Tuner with my Silicon dust DVR subscription. A couple of years ago I did try to set up my tuner with Plex DVR and it seemed to conflict with the Silicon Dust DVR so I just gave up on the Plex DVR at the time. After seeing your Video I am thinking of revisiting it because I can record the shows to my plex library and watch when were not home (something I can't do with the SD DVR). Hopefully SD and Plex has worked out the issues. One point you mentioned is the recording of the plex "Fast" channels or the streaming channels available on plex but when I searched for more information I could not find any. has something changed? Furthermore what if I only want to record the FAST channels that are in plex and no OTA channels, can I set plex up as a DVR to just record those channels? I assume the DVR function is part of Plex and not SD and since I already use my SD set up for the OTA channels. Not a big problem unless I have issues with the SD OTA recoding we record... I know those channels do not allow me to watch over plex but that's probably ok its usually only the morning new shows we record and watch ... I hope this is clear I guess in looking at this I could hook up the Plex with the Quatro and then only record the Fast channels from OTA that I may want to record when I am going out of town. Thanks for the video.. and Thanks for SD, we have been a customer for many years and love the system.
Hey! Sorry, I guess I assumed that people watching had a Plex DVR already. Check out the other Plex Pro videos this week to see how to set up a server. It can be done with modest hardware (even an old PC) with a decent side hard drive!
I have a hdhomerun and plex on a qnap. Been running plex for years but just added the homerun. All looks good and on the hdmomerun app I see all my guide details but in plex the guide only shows me tomorrows programs, not todays, tomorrow morning the guide will then look fine but by the afternoon the current day will be gone and I will only have the following day programming. What am I missing?
Great video and information. Do you use a remote control with your Plex Media Server, if so what kind is it? Can you add a link to it in your video description?
Being new to Plex, I didn't see it strictly metioned, but where the recordings are saved are in the libraries? I noticed you did not hook up an external SSD/HDD to the HDHomeRun. I can only assume then that the libaries are saved elsewhere connected to the Plex server itself.
I've never heard of it but if it supports a network stream it should. Check out plex's compatibility list. They even have community based support too for ones they don't officially support.
Nice video; very clear and helpful. Thanks for posting this. 👍 I do have a question and I hope you can help. What brought me to your video was that I was trying to find where to set the zip code for the program guide. I could have sworn there was somewhere within Plex to let me change the zip code, but I just can't seem to find it. I've got some channels that my receiver is picking up, but the EPG doesn't include a drop-down for them. I'm assuming that it could be that the station in question doesn't show up because of my zip code, I.E., the station is too far outside of what it thinks I should receive. I vaguely remember back when I set it up that it was possible to specify more than one zip code in order to expand the guide, but for the life of me, I can't find that setting.... So, if you can provide any pointers, they sure would be appreciated!
Thanks! I don't think they allow you to search by ZIP, It just adds the channels that are on the tuner? Otherwise you can try deleting it and re-adding it
@TechnoTim I was afraid of that... I was hoping to avoid that because I am concerned that deleting the tuner would also cause it to delete my existing DVR schedule. I guess I'll have to hope that it doesn't do that.... 😰 Thanks for the reply!
I’m not sure if this is a dumb question but, does this only pick up channels in the US or can it also get channels from other countries ? I’m curious because I’m looking into setting up something like this at my parent’s house. They watch US channels but also watch channels from where they are from (The Dominican Republic) . If so this would be great !
Does the HDHomerun introduce any amount of stream delay to the live broadcast? That’s my one pain point with commercial live tv streaming that I’m trying to avoid with an antenna setup.
Greetings, fellow MSPer. Ill have to upgrade my antenna and find a better location. I'll probably have to upgrade my HDHomerun too. The last time I tried doing this, Plex didn't support the model of HDHomerun I had. Strange that the new 4K quad tuner only has 100Mbps Ethernet. Two high quality 4K broadcasts would consume all available bandwidth. Are any local stations here in the Twin Cities broadcasting in 4K?
did this years agp but with tvheadend and modi. however TV over terrestrial and satellite is being fazed out with Internet streaming instead. not only that to receive any sort of broadcasts you have to pay for a tv license here in the UK.
are the recordings shown "per user" My mom loves recording the news, I would like to just record some sports. Can I keep them visible only to the user that recorded them? I love plex and this would be a huge addition!
Great video! Is it possible to use more than one SiliconDust HDHomeRun Tuners with my Plex Media Service (running on my 10G Qnap) I actually need 7-8 tuners. If so, are there any limitations?
@@TechnoTim Very cool, thanks. So basically, if I used two quads with Plex it will essentially act as if I have 8 tuners? Also, will it mess up anything in the guide? -- for example add two instances of channels because there are two devices.
Explain 2 things to me please if you can. 1. Why plex stops recording certain shows within minutes of a recording starting? 2. Why does it take so long to load a recording or fast forward through a recording before it starts play and then fails to play?
It sounds like 1) you have a bad connection between your HDHomeRun and your plex server and 2) a bad connection from your client to your plex server or your plex client is just under powered? (TV app?)
@TechnoTim the server is actually on ethernet. As well as the hdhomerun. Both on the same switch. I did have the silicon dust lte filter on it until today. As of tonight, everything has recorded perfectly since it has been removed. I have narrowed down my loading times to two things. Hdds are too slow, or yes I'm just not getting a good enough signal from the router to the roku device. It say 5ghz at 168mb/s download. I honestly don't know. I really do appreciate the help though.
@@TechnoTim awesome, thanks. The Internet basically had me convinced to go jellyfin instead of plex until I saw this (have used Plex some in the past and wasn't impressed by how bloated it is and unintuitive some things are). Will have to reconsider now.
I mount an smb drive from my plex server to my NAS to get the content. When power goes out, and my battery dies, I would like to power on my plex server after my NAS is powered on so that it can mount. What are my options?
If the NAS powers on automatically after an outage, run a script on another system like a pi to ping them both and once the NAS is up, send a wake on lan command to wake up your plex server. I have wake on lan examples on my docs site and a script in github that does something similar.
Thanks for the video. I have Plex Pass and the HDHOMERUN Flex 4K (4 turners). The combination works well as a DVR, but it is slow to switch between live channels. On my system, it takes 2-3 seconds to switch channels, much like launching a movie on Plex. When switching live TV channels, the industry expectation is that it takes less than a second; as close as possible to being instant. Basically, it works well as a DVR where you mostly watch recordings, but if you want to channel surf live TV quickly, it will be a disappointment.
Also should point out that signal quality is about getting pixelization where the video\audio stutters. Video quality is about the sharpness\clarity of the video. Some OTA stations broadcast highly compressed video and the result can look as bad as an old VHS tape. Some OTA stations I receive have a very strong signal strength, but the sharpness of the transmitted video is pretty bad, which will be just as bad for everyone who watches.
Thank you! I would be sure that you verify you get the right tuner for your country. I would check your local country's local broadcasting options and then check to be sure that Plex also supports the area!
One thing you didn't bring up is how things are being saved. I know some people use NAS drives and I know there are other options as well. How did you set it up? How you dealing with transcoding etc?
Mine is being saved to my NAS. I do have a GPU in my machine for the occasional encoding but all of my devices can play at the native saved resolution.
Here in my apartment here in Norway I can’t have antenna, I can only see tv on cable or internet, because of this I have change from coast to cable tv to internet streaming tv!
How well will this work on Jellyfin or Emby? I know Plex wouldn't want you to talk about their competition in a sponsored episode, but perhaps you could cover this in another video?
Honestly Plex looks the best from this review. The EPG in Jellyfin is manual to setup. Plex seems to have the most features and polish. Maybe not enough to switch to Plex, but it does look nice.
If you have weak signal and amplifier typically won't work you're just amplifying weak signal with a lot of noise. The purpose of an amplifier is to amplify the signal before its week so it can Travel further
@technotim is your non admin account (wife's) able to watch live TV? My admin works fine but all secondary accounts are not able to watch even though I allowed it on those accounts.
I am not sure because we use the same account at home! Maybe check the permissions again for the local accounts? Not sure how this works with local accounts.
@@TechnoTim Thanks for the reply! Yes, everything looks right. I found a post on the plex forms but it was never answered. I assume you're running this in your kubernetes setup. I'm running on Truenass scale so should be similar builds.
Have to ask as I think this will be the best place and given that google don't care about their consumers, but what's the best or recommended plex client for DVR? Chromecasts do not work well with 1080i .ts mpeg2video content at all e.g. mega framedrops and struggles to play live dvr content for the most part.
note about getting TV Guide info.....there are edge cases [like me] where you might get more channels than the guide for your ZIP assumes. I'm in Baltimore, but a good antenna chose and aiming gets me several DC stations....to get the right guide info I needed to chose one between the two cities. And overall feedback, a good guide for setting this up.
@wojtek-33 I was a long time plex user but it got worse and worse over time. Playing for services I didn't want or need and all the extra clutter you couldn't remove, The subtitle stuff sucked and the media download/sync was always broken. With JF i just stream media and download the media for the plane and it works amazing, all the time and it costs me absolutely nothing
I have been comparing between using the HD Homerun app vs., Plex. While there’s a lot to like about Plex I don’t like that I need to dedicate a computer to run it. Also, I found the audio quality to be much better using HD Homerun. Picture is about the same.
This was extremely helpful! I have used Plex for several months now and have been blown away by how neat, easy and orderly it is, but have always been scared of the whole live TV/DVR portion because I had no idea what to get. I'm buying exactly what you recommnded here and can finally ditch Xfinity and their absurd prices. I could hear you were a fellow Minnesotan and then got confirmation with seeing the local news etc in your video!! I'm in Blaine! :) Thanks so much for this very knowledgeable video!
I was an RF engineer, so here comes the nerd. Amplifiers only help in specific setups, that being when using antenna with a long or otherwise lossy run. They will do nothing, maybe even hurt performance if there is very little loss from the antenna to the tuner. You care not only about the absolute signal strength but the signal-to-noise ratio. There is a naturally occurring noise floor (kTB to really geek out). I can't explain this without drawing pictures, but if you have an antenna above the trees and buildings to get a strong signal, that means you will need a long cable run. Putting an amplifier directly at the antenna output in this case will help overcome the cable losses and avoid the noise floor. However, putting the amplifier next to the tuner will only hurt (by adding any noise of the amp) because the cable losses have already buried the signal into the noise floor. So if you have the antenna close to your tuner, don't use an amp.
Here's a thought for you: I'm a long-time audiophile/videophile. I want the sound and pic to be as close to perfect as possible. Years ago, I bought the super-duper-blah blah Terk Antenna for FM. It had a built-in amplifier. When I was listening to FM THEN switched on the amplifier, it pinned the reception needle, but also added audio noise to the FM channels and it was OBVIOUS! That went back the same day. Thank you for your thoughts.
Thought I needed a better antenna even though I live in a large city. Bought the Silicon Dust 5g filter. It made a world of difference. Fixed 90% of pixelation issues. Thanks for the tip
One problem with the ATSC3 broadcasts: more stations in the US are locking them down with DRM encryption. Plex is not able to deal with them, so you'll have to stick with the ATSC broadcasts while they're still around.
Yeah DRM is a big issue here, most ATSC 3.0 stations are turning on DRM by default. HDHomerun has not been able to fix this issue yet and it is really unknown if they can. Plus even if HDHomerun does over come their DRM issue then Plex has it's own. They would have to get their Plex server software NextGen TV certified, which might be impossible without a complete rewrite to remove Plex's dependency on FFMPEG. That is a big ask for a company laying people off because it would not be cheap
@@tom4296 Up here in Canada, the stations have shown no interest in moving from ATSC to ATSC3 - and we carry most of the same network shows as the US - so when the US goes fully ATSC3 if you're near a border city like Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and Windsor you can always get DRM-free broadcasts from your neighbours. 😂
I heard that and it's sad. I also saw there was a petition going around to try to stop it.
@@TechnoTim yeah, the concept of putting fences around the channels sorta negates them being the public airwaves. I've been using the MythTV open source DVR since 2011.
I remember Myth! I tried it once, but ended up going with Windows Media Center because of the EPG!
As a Ham, I can tell you that you should put one filter at your antenna and then another right up at your tuner. The first one filters out any signals that your antenna might pick up and then the second one filters out any signals that might 'sneak in to' your cable run.
I did exactly that!
A second filter is not always necessary. If you are installing an outdoor or attic antenna place the filter ahead of your preamp if using one.
Question, I to am a HAM operator (General Class License) and when I was taking the class they taught us that we could use ferrite rings on the antenna cable to mitigate rf noise (interference). Would that work in this instance as well?
The Antenna Man, Tyler, is the absolute best source for antenna info
Totally agree. I have been watching him for years and I recommend him to everyone!
@@TechnoTim great video. Have had live tv set up for 2 years. I still learned a couple of things. Bought the 5g filter
Haha I literally just set this up on mine a couple weeks ago. I never setup the DVR part though. But bought the tuner with 2 channels. I think hdhomerun duo. This saved us so much money. I get about 40-60 channels in NE Minneapolis, MN
As a TV engineer, I can tell you that most stations will NOT be going to 4k for NextGen and even if they did, it will be compressed as every distribution method uses compressed video. Uncompressed 720p/1080i video is 1.5 gigabits per second. Uncompressed 1080p is 3 gigabits per second. Also I can tell you from all the viewer phone calls I get that those flat antennas won't work very well for high-VHF stations (channels 7-13) and is almost guaranteed not to work for low-VHF (channels 2-6). Thank you for recommending an LTE filter and telling people to avoid amplifiers. If you live in a metro area then you probably don't need an amplifier.
I laugh every time we install a 4k TV on a video conferencing system. Sure it works well for local presentation but users think they are watching 4K Teams calls.
Thank you for all of your knowledge!
I used to do this way back with an HDHomeRun but took it down when I moved… never got it going again. The old hardware I’ve got will only do 1080p but it was like Blu-ray quality picture, way better than the same channels on cable. I have to imagine a similar situation on the modern hardware vs internet streaming
do you have to have the HD Homerun tuner cause I have the Airtv 2 from sling and was wondering if you could do this with that. I like the Airtv 2 just not the sling software.
Thanks Tim.
I'm using this with a VU+ sattelite receiver for a year or so without a hitch. Plex DVR is awesome.
DVB-T is unfortunately dead in Switzerland and T2 was never introduced. From a financial standpoint its understandable since most homes have a DVB-C connection or there is IPTV. I remember around 2006 my father bought a small USB tuner from Elgato, now Eve.
Hi mate, great tutorial, thanks!
I noticed you added a second DVR during the start of the tutorial. Is it possible to buy a 2 tuner today and a second 2 or 4 tuner in the future if this is required? Would it just 'add up' to a 4/6 channel, or would it double the channels as there are 2 DVRs, EPGs etc? How would it handle recording priority?
I'm not sure how much a DVR would be used in my household and I don't want to buy the more expensive 4 tuner model if I don't need it.
They stack, you can add multiple tuners and plex will use any that is available. I had 2 hdhomeruns with a total of 6 tuners. Worked great!
Great video, Tim. Can't wait to get my setup going and put that Plex license to use.
Have fun!
all this info is great!!! Now is there an option for cable card as well?
Great video. Can you hook up plex cable TV? What is needed? Can you do both cable and Ota and how?
I think you can if you have a cable card tuner! I think it’s called the HDHomerun Prime. And yes you can have multiple tuners, I had 2 OTA at once a few weeks ago. Thank you!
You need a premium Plex pass to be able to record 😢. So it’s not free !!!
psst... have you ever heard of _jelly_ with _fin_ s?
Thanks man. Works Great!!
I bought a tivo OTA with the all in for $499. It's important to keep in mind the cost of setting something like this up for non technical user. The HDHomeRun is $199 plus a plex pass isn't free $4.99 monthly, $39.99 yearly or $119.99 lifetime. Obviously the lifetime offers the best value. Plus storage is required be it as simple as a external hard drive which adds another $50 or so for a 1TB. Or something more complex like a NAS, which is far more costly. A device is also required to set up the HDHomeRun like a phone of computer. While most people do have these keep in mind a tivo doesn't need all that to be set up. So all in all you're spending about $300-375. Yes, it's definitely cheaper than something like a TIVO. But there are cheaper and or simpler alternatives. I definitely would have preferred this set up over my tivo but that's only because i have everything needed and i would only need the turner. That and i am a technical person for those who aren't I'd advise against this.
Is there an easy way to watch live recordings while Plex is recording? I always have to search the programming guide to watch a show in progress. I do this for live sports.
"wife gets mad"
me: **laughs in being single**
also me: **cries in being single**
I think you can do this with emby too
Jellyfin as well
I have tried both, both but neither of them have a good EPG which is a deal breaker for me.
@@TechnoTim Not sure if anything with their EPG has changed recently, but I just helped do this same setup on an Emby server a month ago and the channel data that has been provided is very accurate so far.
Anyways, great video as usual. You're my favorite channel for practical homelab content.
That's good to know! I will have to check it out! And thanks for the compliment!
Can the non-OTA content be recorded, like the FAST channels, limited time available on demand content, etc?
Any way to do this with free & open source software?
There's probably a method to do something similar with Kodi and/or Jellyfin. Or you could use iptv since that would likely include most OTA channels, and that wouldn't require any additional hardware
Both Jellyfin and Emby support live TV via an OTA antenna and TV tuner. I actually just did this same setup a month ago on an Emby server, so far it's been amazing.
Great video! Super helpful!
Here’s a trick if you don’t want to run a new coax line from the attic and don’t mind sacrificing an existing run.
You can cut an existing run, re-terminate the line in the attic for the antenna. You’ll probably want to tell the next owners though.
Thanks! - Just ordered the encoder! Was just researching :) --- FYI - Not sure that is a digital antenna in your attic...
Thank you! Good call! I might test with a different antenna! How can i tell in plex?
@@TechnoTim Not sure you could tell in Plex, Looks like you and I are almost neighbors, aside from buildings we have excellent signal strength, an old school non digital uhf/vhf antenna still helps/works, just not as well as Digital but if you have a good picture now - don't bother changing... If your old antenna has a filter or amplifier I suggest removing it cos that would be designed to remove the digital signal tho.
I will have to set this up when I get home. I'd been planning on adding a TV tuner card but had not gotten around to it. I'm going to be traveling internationally a lot more and it's football season. 😊
Is it possible to use this without an internet connection? My parents live 10 minutes from a metro of 1m people but have to hotspot their phone for internet. Will it download the guide OTA?
Ive ran jellygin and currently running emby. Trying to find the best solution for my family. This video helps quite a bit. Thinking about Plex a lot. Just starting to get into the LiveTv setup. I just ordered an antenna, but it plugs into the server, not the network. Makes me wonder if it'll even work. I like the hdhomerun solution a little better, though. thank you for this video. Hopefully I understand it enough to get things setup. May have questions in the near future.
"i have run". "I ran". Fixed that for you.
Wow I truly didn’t know that you can do this but I was hoping for something like this
The TV tuner seems unavailable in Amazon but I will get a similar one
I will get the Plex premium for life thanks to this and use your link I hope you can get more of this in the future 🎉
Great video. I did the setup with your recomended products and it worked great! I do have a question though, I noticed on your guide the local tv listings are shown as "Plex Home" but mine just says Plex. It works great, if I am logged onto my account. I paid for the lifetime pass for my account. My wife has a free account thru plex and I have shared everything with her. But on her devices she only has the default streaming channels and does not have access to the channels I am now streaming. Any ideas to make this work?
Unfortunately hdhomerun has not been available in Europe for more than a year 😢
Tim, I have been looking to get rid of my Direct Tv setup but my wife NEEDS her MeTV, and was wondering if that channel is available with your solution, do you know?
as always thanks for the video.
MeTV is available in almost every market as a sub-channel (ie a .2 or .3)
@@TVJAY thank you
That's pretty cool. Do you know how I can find out what OTA is available in Canada?
yeah I am running a similar setup. I "How I met Your Mother" always had the last 2 minutes or so cut. Drove my wife nuts. I am rebuilding my flex and VR now. lol
I am noticing that some broadcasts on ATSC 3.0 are being encrypted/pay-walled. I've heard its the next big fight :(
They are being encrypted with DRM similar to HDCP. Should still be free if the device supports it.
Now we just need a follow up video on how to circumvent DRM... for educational purposes of course 😁
Can you go over setting up the Plex server including the hardware that you use? Did you build a media server or use something off the shelf?
Great Video Tim, thanks for all the details. I am an early adopter of HDHomerun and have been running a Quattro Tuner with my Silicon dust DVR subscription. A couple of years ago I did try to set up my tuner with Plex DVR and it seemed to conflict with the Silicon Dust DVR so I just gave up on the Plex DVR at the time. After seeing your Video I am thinking of revisiting it because I can record the shows to my plex library and watch when were not home (something I can't do with the SD DVR). Hopefully SD and Plex has worked out the issues.
One point you mentioned is the recording of the plex "Fast" channels or the streaming channels available on plex but when I searched for more information I could not find any. has something changed? Furthermore what if I only want to record the FAST channels that are in plex and no OTA channels, can I set plex up as a DVR to just record those channels? I assume the DVR function is part of Plex and not SD and since I already use my SD set up for the OTA channels. Not a big problem unless I have issues with the SD OTA recoding we record... I know those channels do not allow me to watch over plex but that's probably ok its usually only the morning new shows we record and watch ... I hope this is clear I guess in looking at this I could hook up the Plex with the Quatro and then only record the Fast channels from OTA that I may want to record when I am going out of town. Thanks for the video.. and Thanks for SD, we have been a customer for many years and love the system.
where does Plex get their EPG data from?
you did not mention your DVR setup, Hardware, OS, Storage, etc...
I'd also like to know how much it all costs
Hey! Sorry, I guess I assumed that people watching had a Plex DVR already. Check out the other Plex Pro videos this week to see how to set up a server. It can be done with modest hardware (even an old PC) with a decent side hard drive!
hey tim! plex offers plenty of live channels - can these be recorded with the hdhomerun, or only the ota channels?
I have a hdhomerun and plex on a qnap. Been running plex for years but just added the homerun. All looks good and on the hdmomerun app I see all my guide details but in plex the guide only shows me tomorrows programs, not todays, tomorrow morning the guide will then look fine but by the afternoon the current day will be gone and I will only have the following day programming. What am I missing?
Great video and information. Do you use a remote control with your Plex Media Server, if so what kind is it? Can you add a link to it in your video description?
Hi! I use the Plex app on Apple TV and Xbox, so I use their controls!
@@TechnoTim How about a video demoing that?
What about in Canada with Shaw Cable TV does this work
Being new to Plex, I didn't see it strictly metioned, but where the recordings are saved are in the libraries? I noticed you did not hook up an external SSD/HDD to the HDHomeRun. I can only assume then that the libaries are saved elsewhere connected to the Plex server itself.
They are saved in plex. When you configure that you choose a library location.
Will watching the same channel live while recording that channel use 1 or 2 tuners?
I think it steams from the buffer is what I have seen!
@@TechnoTimAwesome! Thanks!
can you add another source like TVE tv everywhere, for example using your login in from dish or cable tv?
Any freezing while watching local channels on the latest hdhomerun 4 turner 4k?
Can I use the Tivo Bolt OTA tuner with Plex?
I've never heard of it but if it supports a network stream it should. Check out plex's compatibility list. They even have community based support too for ones they don't officially support.
Nice video; very clear and helpful. Thanks for posting this. 👍
I do have a question and I hope you can help. What brought me to your video was that I was trying to find where to set the zip code for the program guide. I could have sworn there was somewhere within Plex to let me change the zip code, but I just can't seem to find it. I've got some channels that my receiver is picking up, but the EPG doesn't include a drop-down for them. I'm assuming that it could be that the station in question doesn't show up because of my zip code, I.E., the station is too far outside of what it thinks I should receive. I vaguely remember back when I set it up that it was possible to specify more than one zip code in order to expand the guide, but for the life of me, I can't find that setting.... So, if you can provide any pointers, they sure would be appreciated!
Thanks! I don't think they allow you to search by ZIP, It just adds the channels that are on the tuner? Otherwise you can try deleting it and re-adding it
@TechnoTim I was afraid of that... I was hoping to avoid that because I am concerned that deleting the tuner would also cause it to delete my existing DVR schedule. I guess I'll have to hope that it doesn't do that.... 😰
Thanks for the reply!
Can this work with the Satellite (Dish) antenna?
I’m not sure if this is a dumb question but, does this only pick up channels in the US or can it also get channels from other countries ? I’m curious because I’m looking into setting up something like this at my parent’s house. They watch US channels but also watch channels from where they are from (The Dominican Republic) . If so this would be great !
Does the HDHomerun introduce any amount of stream delay to the live broadcast? That’s my one pain point with commercial live tv streaming that I’m trying to avoid with an antenna setup.
Minimal for buffering, otherwise I am not sure because I have nothing to compare it to!
Can live TV be shared with Remote Family added to ones Plex Server.
Greetings, fellow MSPer. Ill have to upgrade my antenna and find a better location. I'll probably have to upgrade my HDHomerun too. The last time I tried doing this, Plex didn't support the model of HDHomerun I had. Strange that the new 4K quad tuner only has 100Mbps Ethernet. Two high quality 4K broadcasts would consume all available bandwidth. Are any local stations here in the Twin Cities broadcasting in 4K?
Thanks for reminding me I haven't watched NOVA in a while, dude!
NOVA is the best!
Do you have a video on building a basic Plex server?
Hi Techno Tim Great video. I looked into my plex accounts and can’t find my manage then Live tv DVR option? Where is it?
@@Jarles-vq5fd hi! If you have plex pass it should be in settings
@@TechnoTimOh I have to get plex pass.
@@Jarles-vq5fd yes, to record live tv you do need a plex pass. I bought lifetime when it was on sale a while back and it’s be great
did this years agp but with tvheadend and modi. however TV over terrestrial and satellite is being fazed out with Internet streaming instead. not only that to receive any sort of broadcasts you have to pay for a tv license here in the UK.
Hej Tim, does this also work with a normal cable connection?
It does, but requires HDHomeRun DVR, and your cable provider must supply a CableCARD. (if they still have them)
@@zeddy893 You will need the HDHomeRun PRIME version in order to use a CableCard.
can you do something similar for satellite?
are the recordings shown "per user"
My mom loves recording the news, I would like to just record some sports. Can I keep them visible only to the user that recorded them?
I love plex and this would be a huge addition!
Is this not ideal for someone who lives far away from cities? It looks like I only have access to 11 channels with a long range antenna
I wonder if that TV Tuner would work with JellyFin, as I moved to it about a year ago. Otherwise great video, keep up the good work.
It should work fine! It's a network tuner so should be agnostic of platform! You can even use VLC (I do for testing my channel strength sometimes)
@@TechnoTim thank you for the info, will have to add it to my list of upgrades to get for my home lab.
Great video! Is it possible to use more than one SiliconDust HDHomeRun Tuners with my Plex Media Service (running on my 10G Qnap) I actually need 7-8 tuners. If so, are there any limitations?
I am not aware of any limitation. I was using 6 just fine, but sold my dual tuner after getting my quad!
@@TechnoTim Very cool, thanks. So basically, if I used two quads with Plex it will essentially act as if I have 8 tuners? Also, will it mess up anything in the guide? -- for example add two instances of channels because there are two devices.
I am thinking about doing this but where are the DVR recording stored? Is it on my computer or is it on Plex's cloud system?
You need to have a Plex server in your house (typically running on a PC or a NAS). The recordings are stored locally.
How do I get the ip of the tuner?
Couldn't you use a second hdhomerun to get more tuners?
You can.
Does anyone know if there is a Canadian version of the Antennaweb website?
Yeah, there are!
Explain 2 things to me please if you can. 1. Why plex stops recording certain shows within minutes of a recording starting? 2. Why does it take so long to load a recording or fast forward through a recording before it starts play and then fails to play?
It sounds like 1) you have a bad connection between your HDHomeRun and your plex server and 2) a bad connection from your client to your plex server or your plex client is just under powered? (TV app?)
@TechnoTim the server is actually on ethernet. As well as the hdhomerun. Both on the same switch. I did have the silicon dust lte filter on it until today. As of tonight, everything has recorded perfectly since it has been removed. I have narrowed down my loading times to two things. Hdds are too slow, or yes I'm just not getting a good enough signal from the router to the roku device. It say 5ghz at 168mb/s download. I honestly don't know. I really do appreciate the help though.
Flex 4K or Scribe 4K is better?
You don’t need a scribe unless you want to use their app to save to the included disk. You want flex to save to your plex library!
Tim... do you live in MN?
i do!
Is this at all possible on jellyfin?
I think so but you have you have to pay for a 3rd party subscription for the EPG
@@TechnoTim awesome, thanks. The Internet basically had me convinced to go jellyfin instead of plex until I saw this (have used Plex some in the past and wasn't impressed by how bloated it is and unintuitive some things are). Will have to reconsider now.
when we record and watch, will these shows be 0 bucks or do we have to pay.
I mount an smb drive from my plex server to my NAS to get the content. When power goes out, and my battery dies, I would like to power on my plex server after my NAS is powered on so that it can mount.
What are my options?
If the NAS powers on automatically after an outage, run a script on another system like a pi to ping them both and once the NAS is up, send a wake on lan command to wake up your plex server. I have wake on lan examples on my docs site and a script in github that does something similar.
Thanks for the video. I have Plex Pass and the HDHOMERUN Flex 4K (4 turners). The combination works well as a DVR, but it is slow to switch between live channels. On my system, it takes 2-3 seconds to switch channels, much like launching a movie on Plex. When switching live TV channels, the industry expectation is that it takes less than a second; as close as possible to being instant. Basically, it works well as a DVR where you mostly watch recordings, but if you want to channel surf live TV quickly, it will be a disappointment.
Also should point out that signal quality is about getting pixelization where the video\audio stutters. Video quality is about the sharpness\clarity of the video. Some OTA stations broadcast highly compressed video and the result can look as bad as an old VHS tape. Some OTA stations I receive have a very strong signal strength, but the sharpness of the transmitted video is pretty bad, which will be just as bad for everyone who watches.
In my area over the air TV is hard to get because of the mountains.
Well, that's a good problem to have, a great view! 😀
Where does Plex DRV actually work in EU?
Can I setup the tuner in a different location than my network and would it work with my Plex?
Yes, either VPN or 2 plex servers
Can you use Hdhomerun with a tv box?
Not sure, I don't think so because this streams OTA TV over the network but some TVs have apps that will let you stream from the HDHomerun.
@@TechnoTim thanks!
What an incredible video! If I buy this tuner, even if I live outside of USA, would it pick up channels from my region?
Thank you! I would be sure that you verify you get the right tuner for your country. I would check your local country's local broadcasting options and then check to be sure that Plex also supports the area!
am in australia got 11 years old sony tv and every talking about google tv how i get that
One thing you didn't bring up is how things are being saved. I know some people use NAS drives and I know there are other options as well. How did you set it up? How you dealing with transcoding etc?
Mine is being saved to my NAS. I do have a GPU in my machine for the occasional encoding but all of my devices can play at the native saved resolution.
I was just having a discussion with the wife on getting rid of satellite, and looking into this. By an chance will Plex also record from Pluto T.V. ?
Plex wont but there is a paid tool that can. Dont know that its technically legal so I cant put it in the comments.
Emby and another great platform
Finally!!!! Thank you been waiting for a how to for dummies like me lmao😂
Thanks haha! I don't think you're a dummy and it's still a complicated topic! Glad you like it!
Anyone know about the Netherlands I want to do this but I am not sure it will work
Here in my apartment here in Norway I can’t have antenna, I can only see tv on cable or internet, because of this I have change from coast to cable tv to internet streaming tv!
How well will this work on Jellyfin or Emby? I know Plex wouldn't want you to talk about their competition in a sponsored episode, but perhaps you could cover this in another video?
I would imagine it works the same but the EPG isn’t as good from what I remeber
Honestly Plex looks the best from this review. The EPG in Jellyfin is manual to setup. Plex seems to have the most features and polish. Maybe not enough to switch to Plex, but it does look nice.
If you have weak signal and amplifier typically won't work you're just amplifying weak signal with a lot of noise. The purpose of an amplifier is to amplify the signal before its week so it can Travel further
@technotim is your non admin account (wife's) able to watch live TV? My admin works fine but all secondary accounts are not able to watch even though I allowed it on those accounts.
I am not sure because we use the same account at home! Maybe check the permissions again for the local accounts? Not sure how this works with local accounts.
@@TechnoTim Thanks for the reply! Yes, everything looks right. I found a post on the plex forms but it was never answered. I assume you're running this in your kubernetes setup. I'm running on Truenass scale so should be similar builds.
If I dont care about recording do I still need the plex pass? All I really want to do is watch live tv thru plex.
Have to ask as I think this will be the best place and given that google don't care about their consumers, but what's the best or recommended plex client for DVR? Chromecasts do not work well with 1080i .ts mpeg2video content at all e.g. mega framedrops and struggles to play live dvr content for the most part.
Honestly, it’s Apple TV. I also have Xbox one which is nice, but Apple TV blows away the other Plex clients by far.
note about getting TV Guide info.....there are edge cases [like me] where you might get more channels than the guide for your ZIP assumes.
I'm in Baltimore, but a good antenna chose and aiming gets me several DC stations....to get the right guide info I needed to chose one between the two cities.
And overall feedback, a good guide for setting this up.
Good call, better to use the ZIP where you want TV, rather than the ZIP you live it!
Will this work in India
Does anyone know if this works in Europe?
Sure.
I understand that's a sponsored video, but not mentioning that Jellyfin supports live tv without subscription is meh..
Sorry, but not have a good EPG makes it a deal breaker for me.
@@TechnoTim I mean that's a valid point but you could mention this in the video
And I would rather struggle a bit to configure something than pay for a mediocre service, isn’t that the motto of any homelab user/adminsys? 😂
@wojtek-33 I was a long time plex user but it got worse and worse over time. Playing for services I didn't want or need and all the extra clutter you couldn't remove, The subtitle stuff sucked and the media download/sync was always broken. With JF i just stream media and download the media for the plane and it works amazing, all the time and it costs me absolutely nothing
I have been comparing between using the HD Homerun app vs., Plex. While there’s a lot to like about Plex I don’t like that I need to dedicate a computer to run it. Also, I found the audio quality to be much better using HD Homerun. Picture is about the same.
why wouldnt I do this with Jellyfin, which is free ?
This is so cool