Workaround: Plex DVR unmaps channels from xTeVe

jpann

• 2 min read

Thanks to Zimmra for this workaround!

I don't know if this is an issue that a lot of people are experiencing but there is at least one post on r/PleX regarding it, and several users on the xTeVe discord server have experienced it, including myself.

The issue is that all non dizqueTV channels that are setup in xTeVe and mapped in the Plex DVR become unmaped in Plex and no longer function. You end up having to delete the Plex DVR, restart Plex and re-add the xTeVe mocked HDHR (HDHomeRun) tuner and XMLTV url back to Plex. This seems to happen when xTeVe refreshes it's XMLTV file.

When I say 'unmapped in Plex', I mean that when viewing the DVR in Plex it will say something like "100 channels – 6 enabled", then when you click the 'N enabled' link, it will show each channel as unchecked in the 'Manage Channels' window and will no longer be mapped to a 'Guide Channel' on the right:

OTA channels are no longer mapped to any guide channel

When this has happened to me, and after talking to others that have the issue, the only channels that remain mapped in Plex's DVR are the custom channels created in dizqueTV. I'm not sure if this a Plex issue or an xTeVe issue.

So what is the workaround? You have to create a dummy/mock channel in dizqueTV for each channel that becomes unmapped in Plex and set the dummy channel in dizqueTV to only have Flex time as its lineup.

So for example, I have an OTA channel 4.1 that becomes unmapped in Plex. I have to create a dummy/mock channel in dizqueTV with that same channel number. There is an issue with some OTA channels when doing this is that dizqueTV does not currently support sub channel numbers, so I have to use another channel number for these.

I went through my xTeVe channel mapping and renumbered all of my OTA channels to not include periods, so here is the channel list I currently have, that keeps getting unmapped in Plex:

I'm not working with anything that is inactive (red), so ignore those.

In order for these channels to no longer get unmapped, you have to create a dummy channel in dizqueTV that matches that channel number, so for channel 2 above, I create a new channel in dizqueTV with the channel number of "2" and add only Flex time by clicking the 'Schedule Flex Time' button:

Continue doing this for every channel that constantly becomes unmapped in Plex.

You should eventually have a dummy channel in dizqueTV for each of those channels:

In xTeVe these channels will appear in the channel mapping screen, do not actually map them to anything, leave them inactive.

After you do this, make sure you restart Plex and setup the DVR in Plex again.