Beelink SER4?

Playground Hardware
#1

Anyone here using a Beelink SER4 with a USB external hard drive as a Channels server? My fiancee needs a replacement for the little Chromebox on her desk. And at the same time, Spectrum is inundating her with letters telling her the CableCard support for her TiVo might be going away soon. So I'm wanting to future-proof her new Chromebox replacement to also be her new DVR if or when necessary.

Here's the link:
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0B423NMSY?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Thoughts? Thanks!

#2

You want it to also function as a ChromeCast replacement? Unless you get an nvidia shield you cant directly play content from the server to your TV. Some folks love the shield. I hated mine and that is why it is sitting in a box in the closet.

My opinion, get either that mini pc (others in the forum have use beelink and from what I've seen have had a good experience) or a used intel NUC. Whatever you choose, load it up with Linux so it becomes more like a DVR appliance and you don't have to fool with upates and reboots etc. If she's like my wife, she wants it to work all the time and does not want to be an IT tech in her own home.

You could connect her chromecast to the channels server and play content that way or get her an appletv (my wife won't use anything else becuase the ATV interface is clean with no ads, and it just works)

#3

No, not a ChromeCAST replacement, a ChromeBOX replacement. Chromebox being a desktop version of a Chromebook laptop, running ChromeOS. I'm looking to replace it with a Windows MiniPC that can double as a Channels DVR server at some point in the future.

#4

I have an older Intel i5 BeeLink similar to the one you are looking at. I don't run Channels-DVR server on it, but it is more than capable of running ChromeBOX with Channels-DVR. Even without an external USB drive, the internal 500 GB SSD should have enough space for about 100 hours of content. I also hear lots of good things about the Intel NUC machines. Many of them now have a pretty good GPU embedded which can offload transcoding from being a CPU bottleneck.

#5

Actually now that I think about about it, she doesn't record/keep anywhere near the amount of stuff I do, so instead of an external 5-8 TB USB drive, she'd be fine with a 2TB drive inside the unit itself. Thanks!

#6

Like @Jeff_Trusty I too am using an i5 BeeLink (the SEi8 i5-8279U 16Gb RAM 2TB SSD), also not for Channels but rather as my Plex server (with 24Tb spread out between internal and external drives). The BeeLink you have listed in your OP does have superior specs to what I am using. I have no problems running a Plex server on my device and therefore running a Channels server on your listed device should easily be a breeze. 8 cores is very nice too. Plus you can go up to 2TB on the M.2 SATA SSD, and also add an additional internal 2TB 2.5-inch SATA HDD (which I have done).

#7

Cool. I'm going to leave the OS drive as-is and put a 2.5" 2TB hard drive in the unit for recording space. Don't need the external drive I mentioned above after all. Thanks.