Does Plex Keep Track of What I Watched Recorded Deleted Prevent Me From Recording Again

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At a Glance

Practiced'south Rating

Pros

Supports full broadcast-quality video and surround audio
Recording options and hardware support provides lots of flexibility
Automated ad removal is a killer characteristic

Cons

Inconsistent experience across devices
No filigree-based channel guide (except on the web)
Setup can be a hassle

Our Verdict

Plex is the most powerful over-the-air DVR solution you tin get, but not the easiest to utilize.

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Plex isn't the easiest mode to record live circulate Television set, but it is the most versatile.

As a whole-home DVR for string-cutters, Plex'south software and subscription service ticks almost all the requisite boxes, including full circulate Television quality, lots of ways to manage recordings, and broad device back up. It too lets you stack multiple tuners to record many programs simultaneously, and even includes a powerful ad-skipping feature—in beta, simply still functional—that near other DVRs lack.

Only compared to other solutions like Tablo and TiVo, you'll demand to assemble and manage more hardware on your own, and the results aren't always as seamless. For those reasons, Plex DVR however feels like a solution for power users, rather than the best DVR for everyone.

Editors' note: This review was updated on June 19, 2018 to report on the newly added online-only grid-based channel guide.

Choose your DVR chance…

Plex DVR requires a subscription to Plex Laissez passer, which costs $5 per month, $forty per year, or $120 for lifetime service. To fix it up, you can take a range of approaches, from elementary to intimidating.

The path of least resistance is to pair an Nvidia Shield Tv set streaming box ($200) with a compatible USB antenna tuner such as the Hauppauge WinTV-Dual-HD. Plug an antenna into the tuner, then connect an external hard bulldoze to the box'southward other USB slot, and Plex's Media Server software for Shield will handle the recordings. You can then picket live and recorded TV on the Shield itself, or stream it over Wi-Fi to the Plex app on other devices, including Amazon Fire Television set, Android TV devices, Apple Roku, Xbox One, iOS, Android, and the web.

shieldtunerhdd — An Nvidia Shield Goggle box ($200), Hauppauge tuner ($65) and external USB drive are the basic tools you need for Plex DVR.

If you lot don't have bang-up antenna reception near your Shield, you tin skip the USB tuner and instead connect an HDHomeRun networked tuner (the dual-tuner model costsabout $80 on Amazon) to your wireless router, which feeds over-the-air broadcasts to the Shield via Wi-Fi. (You needn't splurge on HDHomeRun's pricier Extend tuners, either, since Plex performs its ain transcoding to reduce bandwidth requirements and file sizes.)

The Shield isn't fifty-fifty necessary if yous have a desktop computer or NAS box on which to run Plex Media Server. Just plug a USB tuner into your PC, or connect an HDHomeRun to your router to get started, and you can stream circulate Telly to any other device running the Plex app.

The squeamish affair about Plex's approach is how extensible information technology is. Want to tape more shows at a fourth dimension? Just plug in a 2nd tuner. Run out of storage space? Just plug in second hard drive or movement your recordings to a larger 1. Yous can even store recordings on a hard bulldoze connected to your router's USB port, so that anyone at home can apply the drive's spare storage for other purposes.

The inherent trade-off is that this isn't quite a plug-and-play solution. You must gather all the hardware components on your own, and then install Plex'southward Media Server software on the device that's doing the recording, and so head to a spider web browser to walk through the guided setup procedure.

The need to connect third-political party hardware also introduces more room for hard-to-explain errors. While testing Plex, for instance, I encountered an issue where Android TV's Live Channels app was quietly using upwardly tuners for no apparent reason. It took me weeks to diagnose the problem, and I ultimately had to disable the app to prevent farther issues. While Plex isn't technically at fault, this isn't something that would happen with a controlled DVR system such as Tablo or TiVo.

…But choose wisely

The other outcome with Plex is that your experience tin vary depending on your option of hardware.

On the server side, the Shield has but a couple of USB ports, limiting your power to add more than storage, tuners, or other accessories such every bit game controllers. (I couldn't get the device to recognize my USB tuner when it was continued to an external USB hub.) Plex also notes that in nigh cases, the Shield can only transcode two or three videos simultaneously. For maximum flexibility, a desktop PC or NAS box are notwithstanding your best options.

The device you employ to stream from Plex also makes a difference. If you're a stickler for smooth video, for instance, you'll want an Nvidia Shield TV, since its video player has a double de-interlacer that plays 480i and 1080i channels at 60 frames per second. On other devices I've tested, interlaced channels go choked back to 30 frames per second. (In theory, Plex could fix this by building a custom video player for other devices, like the Channels app has washed on Apple Television receiver.)

Among the Shield'due south other advantages: Information technology's the only device with a picture-in-moving-picture show mode that lets y'all play games or browse other apps while watching broadcast TV, and information technology'due south the only one whose recordings appear in organisation-wide phonation search (in this instance, from Google Assistant). Android-based devices such as the Shield are also the just ones that support watching and recording a aqueduct on a single tuner, so yous needn't burn a second tuner slot simply to view a recording in progress.

On the other hand, Plex's Android TV app, which the Shield uses, is harder to navigate than Plex's apps on Roku and Apple TV. The live TV menu is buried a half-dozen rows into the interface, and it doesn't display network names or let y'all click into a separate "Watch Now" carte. And unlike Plex'south other apps, the Android TV version doesn't list channel numbers.

plexrokuandroid — The alive Telly guide is front-and-center on Roku, only cached on Android Television set devices.

The payoff

What makes Plex worthwhile—aside from its extensibility—is the amount of command it gives you over recordings.

For any given TV prove, you tin filter out reruns, add outset and cease buffer times, filter out standard definition channels, automatically supervene upon SD recordings with high-definition ones, limit recordings to a specific channel, automatically delete one-time episodes (either by appointment or number of newer recordings), and delete old episodes after watching them. It's easy to observe things to tape as well, with separate menus for movies, shows, news, and sports, and multiple filtering options within each.

plexdvroptions — Recording options abound with Plex DVR.

Plex besides supports out-of-abode streaming for live and recorded Idiot box, and y'all can sync any recording to your devices for offline viewing. Your recordings aren't perpetually locked into Plex's system either. Recordings are unprotected in .TS format, and so yous tin use them with other media server programs or transfer them onto other devices manually.

The best characteristic of all, though, is automatic advertising removal, which uses some post-processing to delete commercial breaks from the actual video file. While Plex's ad-stripper sometimes leaves bits of commercials intact, I've yet to see a cutoff of any bodily evidence content, and it's always satisfying to see an hr-long recording trimmed downwardly by near 15 minutes. (If you're nervous about losing material, you tin can set advertizing removal on or off by default, and enable or disable information technology on a per-plan basis.)

Still, Plex does accept some limitations. On most devices, Plex does non yet offer a grid-based channel guide, similar to what'due south already available from other over-the-air DVRs such as TiVo, Tablo, Emby, and Channels. Instead, you lot'll only see some guide-like menu rows, such as "On right now," "Starting soon," and "New Episodes this evening." This merely doesn't feel as straightforward equally a traditional grid.

Plex has added a grid guide to its web app, letting you easily see what'due south coming upwards across lots of channels and schedule recordings with a couple of clicks, simply information technology's unclear when this feature will ringlet out to other devices. Plex'southward ability to record live sports is also lacking, with no way to tape specific teams.

plexwatchnow — In lieu of a grid guide, most Plex apps merely list what'due south on current channels past number.

Considering of those limitations, the somewhat daunting setup process, and the inconsistencies between its various apps, Plex is non a solution I'd suggest to anybody. (That honour withal goes to Tablo.) Simply for power users who don't listen fiddling with their string-cutting setups, Plex's combination of video and audio quality, granular recording controls, and extensibility is as skilful as information technology gets.

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Jared Newman has been helping folks make sense of technology for over a decade, writing for PCWorld, TechHive, and elsewhere. He also publishes 2 newsletters, Advisorator for straightforward tech advice and Cord Cutter Weekly for saving money on TV service.

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Source: https://www.techhive.com/article/583212/plex-dvr-review.html