I own a mac mini and a nas. And a RPi, and an i7 windows 10 machine. I choose to run Channels on my NAS. But the question in this thread wasn’t about what I think is the best place to run channels. It was a question as to which offers superior performance, a qnap nas or an m1 mini.
The answer to the question in the OP is, without doubt, the M1 Mini.
That is the same question though.
The best place to run said service(ChannelsDVR), would be on what device offers the superior performance.
Though, in reality, would the average user notice any real world difference between those 2 devices, most likely not.
The only exception would be for transcoding and comskip, neither of which did user post to what extent they utilize those features.
What is "best" boils down to usage case. And can be relative.
To which, the user who asked, has not stated to what extent their usage of Channels DVR is.
Are they needing 4+ remote transcode streams, do they have several users, many live viewers, and remote viewers, many daily recordings...want comskip to run on all of them, and as fast as possible?? If yes to all of that, they you should get the most powerful hardware they can afford.
If your use case is one or 2 users, who maybe remote stream from time to time, and may use comskip but don't care it it takes a bit to process cause you don't watch recordings immediately after they finish recording,, then cheaper, less powerful hardware will be just as good for you and you have no need for super high end hardware setup.
I almost agree 100% and yes you can't install the latest mac os on old hardware. You can use some old hardware and run win 10 not the best performance but it will work. I am not very happy that Apple went with the Arm architeture but not my call that's why I still bought a Intel this year. As the sole IT for a small company for 20 years that only used Pc's I was happy to go home to my iMac until the display went on it and it was not worth replacing. The guts still going strong after 11 years.
Cheers and Happy Friday
Ps: thanks for calling me a boy (fanboy) at 66 years of age I am more like an old fan. LoL
I’m about to turn my 9 year old Mac mini into a dedicated IP camera viewer. It can view 9 cameras at the same time without dropping any frames, very impressive. I’m guessing an equivalent windows machine would do it just fine as well, but I don’t think there’s any denying that Mac minis have a reputation of high reliability over very long lifespans.
Do you use btrfs or ext4 for your volume?
I've been using a stock M1 Mac Mini (headless) for a Channels server since January, and it works like a charm. Setting up Channels on it was easy. I have the DVR library stored on an external Synology NAS as an attached volume, but I could just as easily attached an external disk -- which I would have done if I didn't already have the Synology. It's hard to imagine a simpler setup for Channels than this Mini. It just works, and it hasn't yet let me down. It doesn't labor at all when multiple simultaneous recordings are underway. I've never even heard its fan.
Configuration:
Apple M1 chip with 8‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU, and 16‑core Neural Engine
8GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage
$899.00
Intel NUC $500 Cheaper .... Great Channels DVR server wit QuickSync.
He already has the M1 Mini.
OK ... I am just wondering why would someone invest in a Mac MINI m1 just to have it run Channels DVR ? I see the Mac MINI M1 as a powerful machine ... that would be a waste to use it as a headless Channels DVR server. Just my Opinion.
@Edwin_Perez
If you read the posts above, i wondered the same thing.
And they posted their reason why.
But, you can't convince otherwise, when talking to a Apple Fan person.
Their money to burn...if its what they want, then that's their decision.
While I agree that there are "Apple fan" people that are just going to buy Apple no matter what you tell them, not everyone that owns anything Apple is that person. I use what works best for a given use case and fits my budget needs. There are many factors besides just cost.
My point was that for similar CPU performance, a NAS in my experience is going to cost more than a Mac Mini. CPU performance is going to impact transcoding and commercial skip processing. If you want the fastest for that, my vote is for the cheapest M1. Couple that with the lack of any reasonable support from most NAS companies and the fact that NAS's are increasingly a target for malware. The Mini is going to just work, and simple to setup and support.
But even factoring $$$, I don't think its fair to say that someone buying a Min just has money to burn. My 9 year old Mac Mini that I paid $599 for (if my memory is right) ... they are going for around $250 now on Ebay. Most of the Apple stuff I've bought over the years I've sold off at some point and offset any premium paid when I bought it.
A no name WIndows machine wasn't the question of the thread, but of course they will be cheaper than either a Mac Mini or a NAS, as will a Rasberry Pi. Pros and cons with all choices.
btrfs volumes and about the malware you need an antivirus like most PC's and make changes in the nas config to secure it properly. I just like my Synology but I do have two mac's and two windows 10 boxes so I could chose any to run my server that's the neat part about Channels DVR it will run on almost everything you chose.
Very well said.
Well I would respectfully disagree with you that just configuring your NAS properly is sufficient. Here is a thread I started on the QNAP forum when I got hit with QSnatch that has 572 replies and went on for months. https://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?t=151402 My NAS boxes were not open to the internet, were simply used as file shares on my home network (no other apps) and were updated regularly, and yet still were infected... and not infected with the same variant on the two boxes. It was a pretty painful experience trying to get them back to functional. I don't have a Synology but my understanding was they've had similar attacks.
I'm not suggesting that no one should ever use a NAS, but simply that I believe a Mac in any form is a much more secure and easy to support device from my own personal experience. Its a consideration, especially if the user is not technical and doesn't want to be on the business end of Linux command line.
We can agree to disagree I am not a QNAP person anyway. That why I use Mac's for my more sensative information and I encrypt everything.
Have a good one. Cheers
My QNAP server may be on the fritz. I cannot access it remotely during my snowbird status. When I get home I might be replacing it with a synology NAS. But for those of you that use the Mac mini, how do you configure it and with what software? Thank you
Not sure what you mean on "how do you configure it?". It really depends on if you are using it strictly as a server box or a desktop computer. If a server, then the main thing is to configure the user to auto login on boot so that it restarts on its own. Channels DVR then runs. You don't need to make any config changes to run it "headless" with no monitor, keyboard, or mouse. I use VNC to access it from my laptop, but I do also have a cable connecting it to the TV in my office so if I have any issues I can always drop back to that, but can't remember the last time I did that.
I looked at switching to Synology for my NAS needs when I was battling with QSnatch malware and I concluded after reading many reviews and reviewing both forums that they are pretty similar and both have some of the same challenges. The biggest things with Channels is that you need a fast CPU to handle transcoding and commercial skiip processing well and the NAS boxes with those CPUs get very pricey. It really depends on what you want. I use the NAS where protection of my stored files is important and I want redundancy.
I looked into the price of a rasberry pi 4 and everything you need to go with it and thought about what I have in the end and decided against. It aint cheap anymore for what it is and transcoding is handicapped
Runs fine until Bill Gates decides to reboot the machine, I am sick of windows machines running the server. I am looking at the M1 as well but was wondering about its transcoding capabilities. You take any build with an Nvidia card in it for transcoding and you are way past $699 for M1 entry. The GPU, CPU and MB will certainly cost more than that and take up way too much realestate.