Advice on using a Raspberry Pi

Channels DVR Server
#1

Hi,

I am a Channels DVR subscriber and currently use an Nvidia Shield with an unpowered 1TB USB drive. It works great.

I arrived at this solution a few years ago when I decided I wanted to use my Apple TV for everything. I never again wanted to switch inputs on my TV — one device and one remote for everything.

I got the Shield and USB drive because it was the cheapest solution and more or less silent. I don't need a NAS and this is the Shield's one and only function.

I don't really like the Shield, though, and the recent scares with the version 9 software update have made me think about replacing it and a Raspberry Pi seems like the obvious choice. I have questions, though.

  • Is the 2GB Raspberry Pi Model B sufficient? It's the only one available (4GB and 8GB are out of stock everywhere).
  • Does the Raspberry Pi provide enough power to run an unpowered USB HDD?
  • Will I need to buy the Raspberry Pi keyboard/mouse (I don't have any USB keyboards or mice available)?
  • Can the Raspberry Pi be more or less set up and forgotten forever? That's the dream scenario, as far as I'm concerned. Will I need to go in, check for updates, perform maintenance, etc, on a regular basis?
  • Will I still be able to use my Mac to connect to the server software and to upload the occasional film to my library?

Any answers from people in the know would be much appreciated...

Steve.

#2

Yes.

No. You need an externally powered drive. (Others may disagree with me on this, but I'm of the firm belief that powering a drive through the RPi is a "bad idea".)

No. All management can be performed remotely through the web UI or SSH.

Forever, no. Generally speaking, yes. However, certain advanced library and recording actions can only be performed through the DVR's web UI. But overall, yes it is basically an internet-connected appliance device.

Yes. You can copy files over via SSH/scp or by mounting the device directly over SMB. (It's easier than it sounds, and can happen in the background.)

— Rob

1 Like
#3

Use a usb ssd not a HDD, much faster much more reliable, no extra power required.
I use a Samsung T7 500GB ssd, was only $50.
Only con, if you need large storage, like 2TB or more, then ssd is much more expensive.

1 Like
#4

The only ongoing major difference with the Raspberry PI is slower commercial detection times than with the Nvidia Shield. For most use cases, this isn't even noticeable.

And I assume the # of parallel recordings with a Pi is slightly less than the Nvidia, although for most folks, 3 parallel recordings is the max they ever do, so you should be okay. [someone please update me on this]

#5

I had 6 simultaneous recordings last night, 2 ATSC 3.0 and 4 TVE and was watching one of the TVE recordings in progress. No problems whatsoever. As he said the only slow thing I've noticed is commercial detection, and you can typically only watch 1 stream outside the house at a time.

1 Like