Plex DVR - Not Quite There Yet

Plex is a media center application that I've had my eye on for some time as an option for live TV recording. It looks great and it's a whole lot less complex than my Kodi/MythTV DVR setup. I tried it out, and it's certainly easy to use, but just doesn't have enough functionality for me.

There are two major strengths to Plex, from my perspective. One: It's really easy to set up. Installation on my Linux box was extremely simple, there's a nice web user interface for configuring the system, and there's an app for my Fire TV. Even detection of my HDHomeRun TV tuner for the DVR functionality was seamless. Two: The interface is beautiful and very simple to use.

Sadly, all that simplicity means that there's a lack of functionality. In no particular order:

• The program guide is extremely limited. There's no grid-style guide to browse. You can see what's currently on, and search for specific future shows. But if you want to browse to see what's coming up tonight, or tomorrow, or next week, you're out of luck.
• No option for recording a specific time and channel. This means that if the program guide is wrong for some reason (which happens regularly when there's special programs like live sports or news specials), there's no way to record the program even if you know when it will air.
• Playback on the Plex Fire TV app is inconsistent. Some shows play fine, others are extremely choppy. I looked at all the settings and did some web searching, but all I could find was something about needing to transcode the video. Which makes no sense considering that the shows are all being recorded by the same Plex TV backend, so they should all be in the same format. No reason that some would need transcoding and others would not.
• Moving around within a recording is limited. You can skip ahead 30 seconds or back 10 seconds. I've tried hitting the skip ahead multiple times to go 3-4 minutes ahead, but it doesn't always work. There's also a delay on audio after you skip ahead.
• There's a beta option for commercial skipping, but it doesn't work very well. Worse, it actually cuts the "commercial" that it identifies out of the video file, so if it makes a mistake and cuts some of the actual program, it's gone.

On top of the limited functionality, the DVR functionality requires that you subscribe to Plex Pass. It's $40/year, roughly double what I pay for my current setup. (MythTV and Kodi are free, but I pay for program guide updates.)

So for now, I'm sticking with Kodi and MythTV. It's more complicated to set up (but I've already done that) and has some issues of its own, but it works much better for my needs.

Miscellaneous Media Center Updates

A few minor changes have hit my media center in the last couple of weeks. Herein, a quick round-up.

Amazon released an update to the Fire TV operating system (5.0.5.1) which blocks the Firestarter application. Firestarter just disappeared overnight, with no explanation or warning messages, which was a very unfriendly-to-the-user action. I tried re-installing it, which silently failed, again with nothing to tell me why. Eventually I found an explanation on the Firestarter issues list, but it was a frustrating experience.

I kind of understand why Amazon would want to block Firestarter. It takes over the home screen of the Fire TV, which means I don't see Amazon's ads. Not that I pay attention to them anyway, of course, but I do understand why they'd care. But there's no good excuse for the terrible user experience that I had from this update. At the very least, they could have some kind of pop-up message, or send me an email, explaining what had happened.

That update wasn't all bad news, though. I was using Firestarter as an easy way to launch applications that didn't show up on the Fire TV main screen (mostly Kodi). The Fire TV is now showing those applications in the Recently Used application list. So I can get by without Firestarter, as long as Amazon doesn't change that behavior.

Another minor update applies to the Trakt.tv Kodi add-on. I had recently expanded the episode lookup code that I use with my MythTV DVR recordings. Part of that change involved making an API call to Trakt for every episode of a show, which is terribly inefficient. Thanks to an update by the maintainer of the trakt.py Python API module, I was able to replace that with a single API call to get all episodes at once. It's still not as good as a real search-by-show-and-episode-name function would be, but it's an improvement.

It'll take a little while for that change to work its way through the various levels of code maintenance. The main branch of the trakt.py module needs to be updated, then the script.module.trakt Kodi add-on package, plus my own modified version of the Trakt add-on. Eventually it'll all be in place.

My media center using Amazon Fire TV

I've had an Amazon Fire TV for about a year now. Recently I did a full factory reset, in large part because I needed to upgrade several of my apps anyway. Seemed like a good time to document what I'm using, both for my own use the next time I need to do this, and in case anyone else is doing something similar.

Back to Factory Defaults

The factory reset is easily accessible from the Fire TV Settings, under System. Be careful! There's one "are you sure" dialog, and then it happens...no additional prompts! So be sure you're ready to reset.

It's best to use the original Fire TV remote when you're going through the setup. I don't use it normally (see below about the Harmony remote) but I needed the original to get through the initial setup steps, before activating the other remote. You also should remove any USB devices...my FLIRC kept the remote from working properly during the initial setup, and other devices may do the same.

The actual setup steps are nothing more than connecting to your network (if necessary...mine needed no configuration) and entering your Amazon.com account info. Then you'll see a intro video (feel free to skip through that) and get back to the home screen with nothing but the default content installed. At this point, accessing Amazon Music and Video works, and very little else.

Preparing to Add Apps

In the Settings, under System:

• You may need to update the time zone. Mine defaulted to Pacific time, so I had to change it to Eastern.
• Under Developer Options, enable both "ADB Debugging" and "Apps from Unknown Sources". These will be needed to load up non-Amazon-store apps, like Kodi.

On your PC/Mac/Linux box, install ADBFire. It's the simplest way I've found to work with sideloading apps that aren't on the Amazon app store, and it's especially useful with Kodi. Once you've installed it, open it up and set up the connection to your Fire TV. If you run into any issues, go to Help->Help in ADBFire and select Connection Tips for help. Once you're connected, installing apps is as simple as clicking "Install APK" and selecting the APK file for the app.

Apps

Firestarter

Firestarter is an app launcher, an extremely useful thing to have since Amazon's default home screen won't let you directly launch non-Amazon-store apps. Once you've downloaded the APK, install it via ADBFire. You'll need to launch it once by going to Settings->Applications->Manage Installed Applications, selecting Firestarter from the list, then select Launch Application. Now you'll see the Firestarter screen whenever the Fire TV starts up or you press the home button, and it lists all installed apps (not just the Amazon-approved ones). There's plenty of other things Firestarter can do, such as launching apps automatically on restart, but I only use it as a launcher.

Kodi

I use Kodi as my front-end for watching over-the-air TV, my local video files, and music. Download the Android ARM version and install it with ADBFire. Kodi can do a ton of things and I won't list it all here, as there's plenty of info out on the Interwebs for that. I mostly use it for connecting to my MythTV system (which I use to record over-the-air TV), as described on the Kodi wiki.

Streaming Media

Just about everyone uses some kind of streaming service these days, and I use more than most since I'm not a cable TV subscriber. My current list, and where to get each:

• YouTube (web videos): Amazon App Store
• Crunchyroll (anime streaming): Search for Crunchyroll on Google Play. Note that you'll need APK Downloader, which is also available on Google Play, installed in your browser in order to download the Crunchyroll APK.
• Sling TV (ESPN, TNT, TBS, etc live TV streams): Sling website
• Netflix (streaming video): Amazon App Store

There are others, of course, this is just the list that I use most.

Extras

You can get by fine with just the original Fire TV remote, augmented with either a USB keyboard or something like the Amazon Fire TV Remote App (available on the Amazon App Store) to make keyboard entry easier. I like a bit more flexibility, though, so I added a couple of extras.

Harmony Hub and Remote

Logitech's Harmony remotes are excellent universal remotes. I have the Harmony Companion model, so I can use either the remote or an app on my Android tablet (which has a keyboard function). It controls my TV, sound system, DVD/Blue-Ray player, and the Fire TV. It does take a bit of initial setup, but it was pretty straightforward and didn't take too long. I especially like the one-button selection of configurations, so I can easily switch from the Fire TV to the DVD player to my PC as input sources, without having to modify the TV and sound inputs every time.

FLIRC

I use a FLIRC dongle to add a bit more flexibility to the Harmony remote configuration. You can do a lot of things with the Harmony setup alone, but the FLIRC adds a ton of additional options, especially when it comes to controlling Kodi.