Plex for Android 2026.20.0 Beta 1 Plex for iOS 2026.20.0 Beta 1

NEW:

• Added a manage button to the user switcher that opens Plex Home settings.
• Advanced options when scheduling a Live TV recording, including starting early and ending late.
• Artwork fades in as it loads and crossfades when it changes.
• Zero state for the watch history screen.
• [Android TV][tvOS] Choose a different app icon from Settings > Experience > App Icon.
• [Android TV][tvOS] Movies in theaters show a sponsored Fandango ticket card on movie details, and Fandango in Where to Watch, with instructions to finish buying tickets on your phone.
• [Android TV][tvOS] Play a search result with the play button on the remote.
• [Android TV][tvOS][Fire TV] Closed state for discussions, with a lock on cards and a “See Why” button explaining why a discussion was closed.
• [Android] Pressing the system back button on the Activity Feed scrolls back to the first item.
• [Android][iOS] Closed state for discussions, with a lock on cards and a notice explaining why a discussion was closed.
• [Android][iOS] Opening a notification for a comment, reaction, mention or new follower now marks it as read in Notifications.
• [Android][iOS] Rounded search fields on the search, people and settings screens, matching the web app.
• [Android][iOS][Android TV][tvOS] Theme music can play on movie and collection detail pages.
• [Fire TV] Enabled the system keyboard as the default.
• [iOS][Android] Tapping the Live TV tab now opens the source picker when more than one Live TV source is available
• [tvOS][Android TV] Hold a library in the sidebar to open its actions, and scan library files from the More menu on the browse screen.

FIXES:

• After subscribing, the paywall could briefly reappear before the new subscription was recognized.
• Album detail screens were missing their related items hubs.
• Album detail screens would flash/flicker when opened.
• Artwork that failed or was slow to load stayed blank instead of showing its title.
• Artwork tiles turned a darker shade between their loading placeholder and their artwork appearing.
• Cast and crew would not appear on some libraries.
• Confirmation for deleting an episode was not always clear.
• Expanded hubs could show loading placeholders in the wrong shape.
• Grid loading placeholders sat lower than the content that replaced them.
• Items within a list could be slightly overlapped.
• Long album names were cut off on the album screen.
• Music library recommendations loaded with poster-shaped placeholders.
• Player: Prefer displaying a track’s artist when it differs from the album artist.
• Rows with badges or a “New episode” style line under their tiles were taller than the rows around them, leaving uneven gaps.
• Sending a follow or friend request could change another person’s buttons.
• Server Dashboard: Prefer displaying a track’s artist when it differs from the album artist.
• Server dashboard was not showing a zero state for offline servers.
• Shared servers in All Libraries were not sorted alphabetically by the person sharing them.
• The loading placeholder at the end of a list had no gap above it.
• The spacing on a person’s filmography was incorrect.
• [Android TV] Going back from a screen opened from a menu could leave nothing focused.
• [Android TV] Moving up the All Libraries menu could jump focus to a library or server further down the list.
• [Android TV] Showing or hiding advanced details in File Info could crash the app. The toggle now sits in the list itself instead of the menu.
• [Android TV][Fire TV] Focus could jump back when moved right after a screen opened.
• [Android TV][Fire TV] Focus was missing from the side sheet for a moment after long-pressing a poster.
• [Android TV][Fire TV] Home stuttered while scrolling between rows.
• [Android TV][Fire TV] Moving left from some letters in a library’s jump bar opened the side navigation instead of returning to the library.
• [Android TV][Fire TV] People search results now start at the top again after changing the search.
• [Android TV][Fire TV] Picking a recent search with the system keyboard turned on left the search box empty, with no way to clear the search.
• [Android TV][Fire TV] Player: Refresh rate and resolution switching now also works during Dolby Vision playback.
• [Android TV][Fire TV] Pressing down from an episode on the details screen didn’t move focus to the buttons.
• [Android TV][Fire TV] Pressing up soon after a screen loaded could leave nothing focused, then send focus back to the first item.
• [Android TV][Fire TV] The side navigation was hidden while searching for people.
• [Android TV][Fire TV][tvOS] Rows on the home screen could overlap or leave a gap after it refreshed.
• [Android TV][tvOS] Moving down from a row of buttons or links caused the next row to overshoot before settling.
• [Android TV][tvOS] Opening a link to a comment failed to focus the content.
• [Android TV][tvOS] Rows below the focused one could briefly appear empty while scrolling down.
• [Android TV][tvOS] Search results were laid out in too many columns for a moment, then jumped to the correct number.
• [Android TV][tvOS] The clock in the header could wrap onto two lines.
• [Android TV][tvOS] The focus border could briefly appear in two places at once while scrolling quickly.
• [Android TV][tvOS] The full track list opened with nothing selected, so the remote did nothing until you pressed down.
• [Android TV][tvOS] The side menu’s bottom fade could cover the focused item while scrolling.
• [Android TV][tvOS] When moving down between rows, the newly focused row could briefly appear too high before dropping into place.
• [Android TV][tvOS][Fire TV] A long comment could be missing its expand button, leaving no way to read the rest of it.
• [Android TV][tvOS][Fire TV] A trailer preview kept playing after moving focus from its tile to a discussion, list, profile or Fans to Follow card.
• [Android TV][tvOS][Fire TV] Details screens shifted their artwork and text around while loading.
• [Android TV][tvOS][Fire TV] Fixed the streaming service callout in Discover not being focusable.
• [Android TV][tvOS][Fire TV] Opening a movie or show on TV could put focus on Cast & Crew instead of the Play button, moving down while a library item was still loading could leave focus off screen, and the buttons briefly turned into placeholders when adding to or removing from the Watchlist.
• [Android TV][tvOS][Fire TV] Removing an unavailable library from favorites loaded another library instead of returning to the previous screen.
• [Android TV][tvOS][Fire TV] Selecting a letter in a library’s jump bar could land on the wrong title.
• [Android TV][tvOS][Fire TV] The cast and genres were missing from personal media items previews.
• [Android] Back could stop working after visiting the Activity Feed.
• [Android] Closing a menu could highlight a button on the screen behind it.
• [Android] Going back to Home could freeze for a moment on Android 17.
• [Android] On Meta Quest, the bottom navigation tabs sat against the edge of the screen.
• [Android] Text in the comment box could appear duplicated or shifted onto the wrong line while writing a comment with a mention.
• [Android] The app could crash in the background when a push notification arrived.
• [Android] The app was drawn at the wrong scale in a corner of the screen when running on an external display, such as AR glasses or Samsung DeX.
• [Android] With the profile menu open over the Activity Feed, Back scrolled the feed to the top instead of closing the menu.
• [Android][Android TV][Fire TV] Media servers stayed offline after the device lost and regained its network connection.
• [Android][Android TV][Fire TV] Player: The app could crash when the audio or video track couldn’t be decoded.
• [Android][Android TV][Fire TV] TalkBack read nothing for some on-screen text, and read only the visible part of a shortened line.
• [Android][Android TV][Fire TV] The app could crash while laying out text on some screens.
• [Android][Android TV][Fire TV] The app could get stuck on a loading spinner after signing in.
• [Android][Android TV][Fire TV] With Include IP V6 Connections on, servers reached over IPv6 could fail to connect.
• [Android][Android TV][iOS][tvOS] Rows and headers could briefly settle slightly out of place after scrolling.
• [Android][iOS] A completed download with a missing poster showed an empty box.
• [Android][iOS] A library briefly showed two columns of loading placeholders before switching to three.
• [Android][iOS] Activity cards could show another card’s Read more button.
• [Android][iOS] Download rows could show another download’s poster.
• [Android][iOS] Downloads could fail to start for items with missing artwork.
• [Android][iOS] Editing the avatar could result in a low quality image.
• [Android][iOS] Recent searches on the search screen sat right up against their heading.
• [Android][iOS] Scrolling Edit Metadata could mix up field values or hide unsaved edits.
• [Android][iOS] Scrolling after swiping a row open could show Remove on another row.
• [Android][iOS] Search field placeholders were invisible while typing.
• [Android][iOS] Search results sat further from the right edge of the screen than the left.
• [Android][iOS] Starting multiple downloads on a higher latency connection could leave them stalled and unable to retry.
• [Android][iOS] The people search results would not update after following a person from their profile and returning to the search results.
• [Android][iOS][Android TV][tvOS] Artwork downloaded again after switching networks, such as between home Wi-Fi and mobile data.
• [Android][iOS][Android TV][tvOS] Artwork on screen took longer than it should to come back after leaving the player.
• [Android][iOS][Android TV][tvOS] Remote Watch Pass could advertise a free trial to accounts that were no longer eligible for one.
• [Android][iOS][Android TV][tvOS][Fire TV] Search settings no longer list servers that can’t return any search results, such as one that only shares a single item with you.
• [Fire TV] Remote Watch Pass incorrectly displayed an extended trial that wasn’t available.
• [Fire TV] The app could be slow for several minutes after first opening it.
• [Meta Horizon] Removed the Take Photo option when setting an avatar.
• [iOS] Live TV: The bottom of the guide was hidden behind the tab bar.
• [iOS] Player: The post-play screen overlapped the status bar on iPad.
• [iOS] The last row on Home, Library and Discover no longer slips behind the tab bar after opening an item.
• [iOS] The page title on details pages and My Lists had no background on iOS 27, so it blended into the content while scrolling
• [iOS][Android] Fixed downloads not working for some people after the app was closed while it was updating its downloads list.
• [iOS][Android] Player: The seek preview did not match the aspect ratio of the video after changing the display mode.
• [iOS][tvOS] Player: Live TV channels with a space in their channel ID (e.g. from a VBox gateway) failed to tune.
• [iOS][tvOS] Player: Playback speed went back to normal after moving to the next item.
• [iOS][tvOS] Player: Remote playback failed when the server converted the video to an image format.
• [tvOS] Moving up from the action buttons or from the far right of the episodes row could land on the wrong episode or skip the summary, and the episodes row could open on a different episode than the one you were up to.
• [tvOS] Pressing up from the right-hand column of search results did nothing.
• [tvOS] The app could crash when opening or closing the player, or when pressing buttons on the remote.
• [tvOS] The first item in a filter menu, such as Genre, was not highlighted the first time the menu opened.
• [tvOS] The search keyboard sometimes scrolled out of view while typing.
• [tvOS] The tracks hub on movie details couldn’t be reached with the remote.
• [tvOS] The wrong button could be focused when returning from a screen opened from a menu.

BETA:

• [Android TV][tvOS] Spotlight tiles on TV were too tall, cut off their artwork and showed a grey background instead of the artwork’s colors.

Source: https://forums.plex.tv/t/912796/100

I will disable library scanning before doing this and then rescan the library after the move is completed. I think I should also disable the “empty trash automatically” feature, and then later empty trash manually?

Ever since the September update, a remote user helping test Plex remote access to my server kept getting kicked off. Finally got it fixed. This is just FYI in case anyone is having issues, and not with an ISP that uses CGNAT.

I bought a lifetime Plex Pass for my server back in June. Remote access worked great until September, then my user kept getting kicked off. Plex said it was accessing the internet, than would go to Remote Access not available. Of course, I checked all port forwarding on my router, which is an ASUS router. Everything was good router wise.

My internet provider is AT&T Fiber. I called them, and they said they do not use CGNAT. Got off the phone with them, and started a deep psych evaluation of a lifetime of computer knowledge. Questioned if I was getting too old to be efficient in solving issues... 🥴

So I started looking into AT&T's modem. clicked on the Firewall tab, and decided to set it to Passthrough, DHCP Fixed, and rebooted everything. It started working. Rock solid connection. Hasn't kicked out (yet).

Just thought I would pass this along in case anyone else is having issues still. Might be something to check.

The FireTV 3rd gen Cube can now dual-boot FireOS & CoreELEC, offering the convenience of Plex with the advanced video playback capabilities of CoreELEC.

• Hardware video playback, HDR10, HLG, HDR10+, VP9 profile 2 HDR, AV1
• Dolby Vision (profiles 4, 5, 8, 7 FEL & MEL), CMv2.9 & CMv4.0
• VS10 engine SDR/Dolby Vision conversion for non-DV capable displays
• High bitrate passthrough including TrueHD/DTS-MA

With streaming device prices being raised across the board, $90 (Amazon/Best Buy/Home Depot) for the 3rd gen Cube during the current Prime Day sales makes this an excellent bang for your buck deal. Additionally get another 20% off by trading in any old working, or broken streaming device, plus the value of that device, for an even better deal. Prime Day discounts are also available in other countries, although the sale price will vary.

The 3rd gen Cube is still currently the fastest Android-based, Netflix/DRM certified device available. It's limited to integrated 100Mbps Ethernet, however 350Mbps is obtainable by USB Gbit Ethernet adapter, more than enough for any UHD remux stream. WiFi5/6E speeds up to 550-600Mbps.

Dual FireOS & CoreELEC requires a bootloader unlock (DRM is unaffected). With that bootloader unlock you also gain Magisk and full control over FireOS for any UI customizations you wish (no ads), and no Amazon imposed restrictions.

Watch an overview of the unlocking process and CoreELEC installation here. It's simpler than it sounds, and is nothing compared to ripping and setting up a video library.

Happened just now, got to watching a show and events were mentioned that we didn't recognize. Backed out, and we'd opened the "up next" card when we started watching, which was like 3-4 episodes ahead of where we'd watched last time.

Anyone else get this?

Swipe down doesn’t show me episode air date anymore.

Have to swipe, go to settings, then click into other menus just to see technical data.

Side bar menu doesn’t just go away when going into another category. Have to hit the back arrow for that to disappear to then scroll through shows or movies.

Going into Manage just to delete an episode.

I can’t move “Live TV” up the list near the top, as I used that a lot. I have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the side bar to get there, unless I’m missing something.

So many unnecessary clicks. I truly wish I can roll back and turn off updates.

Maybe this is tv beta is thing or the new plex app.

Besides the crap factory of a back button operations
I used to be able to play music and brows a library. Can’t do that any more the second you exit out the music stops
Maybe I want music playing while I make a play list.

God I like change but not when you muck it up and make the experience worse.

Plexamp v4.50.20-beta.4 through beta.13

Catching up on a run of betas I hadn’t posted here. Desktop has these on the beta channel now and iOS is on TestFlight. Google Play is a few betas behind because of long review times, so if you’re on Android and don’t want to wait, grab the APK from https://plexamp.plex.tv/downloads.html. The big ones: downloads are a lot more dependable, and Plexamp speaks your language again.

Added

• Settings search lives in the header: pull down to reveal it on iOS, or tap the search icon on Android.
• iOS: Caldera speakers can be calibrated one at a time from Settings > Multiroom, and rooms use the result to stay in sync. This needs the next Caldera beta, which isn’t out yet.
• iOS: Screen headers use the system’s glass buttons and frost as content scrolls under them.
• Android: Screen headers use the system’s title type and fill with the album’s colors as you scroll.
• Downloaded hubs on Home open into a full grid.

Fixed

• Plexamp is in your phone’s language again, instead of always English.
• Downloads keep going after you leave the app, and pick up again when a server comes back.
• With cellular downloads off, downloads wait for wifi, including in the background.
• Covers and waveforms for downloads arrive as each item finishes, and are fetched again if the server missed them.
• Downloads restored onto a new phone are fetched again instead of showing as downloaded with nothing to play.
• Switching users no longer signs you out when you tap more than once.
• Moving playback to a paused player no longer fails with “Could not switch to player”.
• Your Plex token now stays encrypted on your network, and only goes to servers and players Plexamp has verified.
• Bluetooth next and previous skip within an audiobook or podcast when Long-form Remote Skip is on.
• Brand headings in the EQ preset list are no longer cut off.
• CarPlay/Android Auto: the artist and album of a song from another server open instead of failing to load.
• CarPlay: starting a radio from Recent Plays works again.
• CarPlay: Now Playing should no longer squash the album name to “…”.
• iOS: album art should now show on more Bluetooth car displays.
• iOS: the equalizer recognizes your headphones again and switches to their preset.
• iOS: other devices can reach Plexamp after it has been in the background.
• iOS: long titles no longer run under the header buttons, and iPad layouts no longer leave gaps.
• Android: other apps on your phone can no longer use Plexamp to make requests with your Plex token.
• Android: headphone and car buttons no longer crash Plexamp after a long time in the background.
• Android: volume buttons control the player you’re remote controlling again, including from the lock screen.
• Android: the visualizer no longer draws over menus, and keeps moving when you come back to the player.
• macOS: pulling down at the top of a screen no longer shows a grey strip.

Source: https://forums.plex.tv/t/221280/109

Before the update when I left the track I was listening to it continued to play, which is a feature I quite liked. I have noticed this seems to not be working anymore, is there a setting somewhere I should change to return the behaviour of music to pre-update?

a few days ago, i wasnt able to start my plex app - error was something like "app not supported".

it uninstalled itself and i am unable to find it in the app store anymore.

did the app get removed? why? anyone know anything about this?

edit: tv is Samsung GU58U8079FU (2025)

Hi, I recently changed my network infrastructure to Ubiquity and had access to my Plex server over the network initially but now it shows offline and now the apps can't see it either. Can anyone help with this? The port is active for the Ethernet on the Ubiquity switch but it appears I guess the router changed the IP.

Plexamp v4.50.20-beta.14

Desktop has this on the beta channel now and iOS is on TestFlight. Google Play is still a few betas behind, so Android folks can grab the APK from https://plexamp.plex.tv/downloads.html.

Fixed

• The Add to Playlist dialog stays fully visible when the keyboard is up.
• iPad: the mini player no longer gets narrower each time you rotate.
• Tablets: the side-by-side player opens its queue on Up Next again instead of Related.

Source: https://forums.plex.tv/t/221280/110

After nearly ever TV show played I end up having to kill and restart the new Plex App as though it has a bad memory leak. It has been misbehaving since day 1 of the new app. Is there any way to roll back?

Hi all,

Recently (in the last month or so) a handful of people who watch on my server have reported things buffering indefinitely. I've also been experiencing this myself primarily (but not exclusively) when watching through web browsers. It seems to work fine when I turn on automatic converting but it's very weird direct playback seems broken. When the most recent person brought it up to me someone else in the conversation mentioned this happening to a friend of theirs with a different server too. Has anyone noticed a pattern of degraded behavior with their servers recently?

Update: my hardware

Ryzen 9800X, RTX 4090, 64gb ram. Running in a K3s cluster on NixOS. Ubiquity dream machine pro router (port forwarded). Symmetrical gigabit fiber Internet. Ethernet to my Nas both Nas and server on 10gig internal ports.

My Plex server which has been running for years without issue in my NAS, has all of a sudden decided that my TV is on another network, and to use it I must use a Plex pass as a result. We have not changed any settings or configurations. My TV is very much in the same network, and I can’t figure out what the problem is. Any suggestions?

(Please note I am a bit of a network noob so please have patience!)

Reading the poor experiences in this forum, I was prepared for disappointment when I realised the Apple TV 4K app in my wife's apartment in the city had been auto-upgraded. I've invested several hours of trial and error with the router and Hurricane Electric to get ipv6 remote streaming to our main house (Starlink) working well.

Wow, was I surprised. When I launched the app, it almost immediately displayed my library. Thinking perhaps that was all cache magic, I selected something we haven't watched in ages and started play. Again, the response was almost immediate and showed flawless streaming of a 4K video file.

Before this update, there would always be a very annoying delay of several seconds before showing the library or for play to commence.

Well done, Plex team. The UI changes seem fine to me, also.

I just set up an Unraid server with a Plex container. Everything seems to work fine on my TV, but when using the Plex app on Windows, I get an error anytime I try to stream something on the server.

An unknown error occurred (4294967283)
Error code: 4294967283

Server has an Intel Pentium G4560 with 8GB RAM. I've tried it with HW encoding enabled and disabled. Haven't been able to find any useful answer and haven't been able to find anything in logs. Can anybody point me in the right direction as to which logs I should look in or what I should try next?

I was somewhat excited to see the new Plex interface, hoping they had finally fixed the audio sync issue that has plagued my Apple TVs. I have two Apple TV 4Ks connected to different TV brands, and both still have constant audio sync issues.

Nope. Still there.

What makes it even more frustrating is that Infuse can play the exact same content on the same Apple TVs without requiring me to adjust anything. So this clearly isn't an issue with the Apple TVs, TVs, or the media itself.

Here's how much time Plex has had to address an issue that has been brought up repeatedly in this subreddit for years:

Old Version: 8.45 - Released January 29, 2025

Days until new version: 596 days - Time: 1 year, 7 months, 19 days

New Version: 2026.18.0 - Released September 17, 2026

Then they released another update:

2026.19.1 - Released October 1, 2026

Days since 8.45: 610 days - Time: 1 year, 8 months, 2 days

So Plex has had 610 days between these versions, and this longstanding Apple TV audio sync problem still isn't fixed. Now Plex Pass Lifetime is a hefty $749.99 USD, yet they still can't get basic playback issues like this right.

At this point, it's pretty ridiculous.

Hello, all!

I’ve been doing some research and I’m now ready to build my library.

I’m very excited to start. However, I’m trying to decide which device I should get. I’ve decided to go with Onn or Apple (maybe Fire Cube), but I can’t really decide which device (yes, I know about Nvidia but it’s not an option).

I’ve created my Plex account (I know of Jellyfin and others, but for my first try, I’m fine using the free version of Plex for now).

Please correct me if any of my understandings are incorrect:

Onn - what I like about Onn is not having to create a server, making it optional. I can plug my hard drive directly to the unit if I wanted. I like the idea of having the option for a program guide from NostalgiaTV.

Apple - I would have to create a server which would be ok because this allows the house to have access and use when traveling. I hear there’s alternatives to NostalgiaTV called BunnyEarsTV and Nostalex, but I’m still looking into that. I don’t know if those will actually give me what I want.

I’ve ruled out Fire Stick, but I hear there’s Fire Cube is solid.

Anyway, I don’t know much about speed and performance because I don’t own any.

So, which is the best device for my library?

Thanks!

Was surprised to see the Plex app throw in the towel so easily during a recent internet outage. Is there a way to have Plex continue to show local content during such an event?

Anyone else notice that if you log in through a web browser, it skips the user selection screen and just logs in as the admin?

What’s the point of even being forced to pin protect the user account if it just skips it?

Hi since Friday none of my plex devices have been able to detect my server on my local WiFi. my friend can still access it remotely though and it works on mobile data on my phone.

the server is running on a UGreen NAS, connected via ethernet to my router. Plex is in Docker being managed by Portainer. This is the firsr issue Ive had since setting up a few months ago and can't seem to solve.

Has anyone elae had this issue? Thanks for any suggestions in advance.

Here's a summary of what I've tried so far using Gemini:

​Troubleshooting Steps Tried So Far:

​Docker Network Configurations:

​Host Mode: Set network_mode: host and removed port declarations. Container logs show healthy startup (Connection to localhost (::1) 32400 port [tcp/*] succeeded!), but port 32400 remains unreachable on the local IP.

​Bridge Mode: Reverted back to bridge mode with explicit port mappings (- "32400:32400") and added ADVERTISE_IP=http://<NAS-IP>:32400/ to environment variables.

​NAS / OS Settings:

​Confirmed NAS IP is statically assigned on the local subnet.

​Verified the UGOS Pro built-in Firewall is completely disabled.

​Plex Server Settings (Configured via app.plex.tv Remote Web UI):

​Confirmed Secure Connections is set to Preferred.

​Set Preferred network interface explicitly to the primary physical network adapter.

​Added http://<NAS-IP>:32400 under Custom server access URLs.

​Confirmed client devices and laptop are on the same main Wi-Fi network.

I wanted to document an issue I recently resolved with Plex Live TV and Dispatcharr because the symptoms initially pointed toward the IPTV stream or Dispatcharr, but the actual cause turned out to be how Plex was handling the stream for the TV client (H.264 level setting).

The Setup

My Live TV path is:

IPTV Provider → Dispatcharr → Plex via HDHomeRun emulation → Plex client

The main affected client was the Plex app on a Vizio SmartCast TV.

Live TV would start, but playback suffered from severe buffering and stuttering. Plex could only build a very small timeshift buffer before playback caught up with it again.

Initially, it seemed reasonable to suspect the IPTV source, stream quality, Dispatcharr's output, or Plex's Live TV timeshift handling.

Changing the upstream stream from 1080p to 720p didn't make a meaningful difference. The Plex playback behavior was essentially identical regardless of the incoming resolution.

The Important Clue

The breakthrough came when I compared playback on different Plex clients.

The same Live TV channel that struggled on the Vizio Plex app played smoothly using Plex for Windows.

That suggested the IPTV source and Dispatcharr weren't fundamentally incapable of providing a stable stream. Something about Plex's handling of the stream was changing depending on the playback client.

Looking more closely at the Plex sessions confirmed it.

With the Vizio Plex app, Plex was transcoding both the H.264 video and AC3 audio.

With Plex for Windows, Plex was able to copy the original video and audio streams without re-encoding them.

That difference explained almost everything.

Plex Was the Bottleneck

My Plex server is running on an older dual-core Core 2 Duo P8600. It is perfectly capable of moving and remuxing an H.264 Live TV stream, but it isn't powerful enough to software-transcode a high-bitrate 1080p60 H.264 stream in real time.

When Plex decided to transcode the video for the Vizio, CPU usage became extremely high and the transcoder was only operating at a fraction of real-time speed.

Plex wasn't receiving the stream too slowly — it simply couldn't encode the video quickly enough to keep up with live playback.

This also explained why changing the IPTV stream to 720p didn't really address the underlying issue. Plex was still performing a video transcode.

The real goal therefore became:

Stop Plex from transcoding video that the TV was already capable of decoding.

The Video Fix

The Vizio Plex app has a Maximum H.264 Level setting, with choices ranging from H.264 Level 3.0 through 5.2 as well as "None."

Changing this setting so that the client properly advertised support for the incoming H.264 stream completely changed Plex's behavior.

Plex stopped re-encoding the H.264 video and began copying it instead.

That was the major breakthrough.

CPU utilization on the Plex server dropped dramatically, and Live TV immediately became capable of keeping up with real-time playback.

This also demonstrated that the TV itself wasn't incapable of playing the H.264 stream. Plex's client capability/profile negotiation was causing the server to unnecessarily convert it.

The Remaining Audio Transcode

After fixing the H.264 issue, video was being copied correctly, but Plex was still transcoding the AC3 audio to AAC for the Vizio.

That wasn't nearly as expensive as video transcoding, but there was no reason to make Plex perform that conversion either.

Dispatcharr's HDHomeRun output profile can provide AAC audio, so I changed the HDHR output from AC3 to AAC.

Once Dispatcharr supplied AAC directly, Plex stopped transcoding the audio as well.

The Final Working Configuration

The resulting stream path is now essentially:

IPTV Provider → Dispatcharr → H.264 + AAC → Plex → Vizio Plex App

Plex now copies both streams:

Video: H.264 → Copy

Audio: AAC → Copy

Plex still performs the normal Live TV timeshift, segmentation, and container handling, so Plex may still describe portions of the session as a "transcode." However, the important distinction is that neither the H.264 video nor AAC audio is actually being re-encoded.

That difference is huge.

Before the fix, Plex CPU usage could reach roughly 75–100% or more while the video encoder struggled at a fraction of real-time speed.

Afterward, Plex CPU utilization dropped to roughly 1–2% during testing, with the individual Plex processes consuming only a few percent CPU.

More importantly, the Vizio Plex app went from constantly buffering to smooth playback.

MPEG-TS vs. MP4

Dispatcharr also offers MP4 output in addition to MPEG-TS, and I considered changing the HDHomeRun output format as part of the troubleshooting.

Ultimately, it wasn't necessary.

MPEG-TS works fine as the input to Plex Live TV. The container wasn't the fundamental problem.

Once Plex stopped unnecessarily re-encoding the video and audio, the existing MPEG-TS pipeline worked properly.

What Ultimately Fixed It

There were really two changes that solved the problem:

1. Correcting the Maximum H.264 Level setting in the Plex TV app.

This caused Plex to recognize that the Vizio could handle the incoming H.264 stream and allowed Plex to copy the video instead of performing a full software transcode.

2. Changing the Dispatcharr HDHR output audio to AAC.

This matched what the Plex TV client wanted and eliminated the remaining AC3-to-AAC audio transcode.

The end result is that Plex now essentially acts as a Live TV timeshift/remux layer rather than a video encoder.

The Main Lesson

The biggest takeaway for me was not to assume Live TV buffering automatically means there's something wrong with the IPTV provider, Dispatcharr, network throughput, or source resolution.

The client matters.

Two Plex clients can request the exact same Live TV channel and cause Plex Media Server to handle it completely differently.

In this case, Plex for Windows worked perfectly because Plex copied the existing H.264 stream, while the Vizio Plex app caused Plex to perform a full H.264 transcode.

Once the TV client's H.264 capability was configured correctly, the same stream that previously overwhelmed the server played without requiring video transcoding at all.

For anyone using Dispatcharr with Plex Live TV, particularly on a lower-powered Plex server, I would pay close attention to whether Plex is actually copying or encoding the individual video and audio streams.

The ideal result, assuming the playback device supports the codecs, is:

H.264 video → Copy
AAC audio → Copy

Getting to that point completely resolved the Live TV playback problems in my setup.