Brand new to this and need help. :)

Playground Hardware
#1

I am looking at running Channels DVR only in my home and want to buy the right hardware. I am looking at buying Synology 2 bay NAS DiskStation DS218j and putting in a Seagate 2TB IronWolf NAS SATA Hard Drive (ST2000VN004). Will this work? Is there a lower price option?

#2

The 218j will work well for basic recording and playback. It is NOT powerful enough for commercial detection or away-from-Home streaming.

#3

Thank You!

#4

I have a Qnap 251A with a WD Red Drive (various storage capacities). This setup has been great for server of Channels DVR, Comm Skip and Remote viewing. It is also a good Emby Server (including mpeg2 files) but not Plex (with mpeg2).

Others have used a Mac Mini or Windows 10 box with external USB3 with good success.

I’d suggest getting a drive larger than 2TB for any NAS solution. The extra storage could be valuable for the negligent cost difference. Probably the same dynamics for USB3.

1 Like
#5

Go with QNAP 251+. Much better option. I tried the other and was not please.

#6

What do you recommend that is powerful enough for commercial detection and skipping? This is the most important function for my family. USB3 external drive is also an option while getting everything set up. Have only MAC in house and Apple TV 4k on the way.

thanks

#7

What kind of mac? If you have one already then its probably best to re-use it with a USB3 drive.

#8

iMac, hi Sierra version 10.13.2, 2.3ghz intel core i5 processor. 8gb 2.1 mhz memory
2 tb internal drive

#9

That should work well.

#10

I use an iMac 2015 with an attached hard drive and it works fine.

#11

thanks for the help. you think there is an advantage to going with a steady state drive vs platter?

#12

Recordings are quite huge, so you’re better off getting a larger HDD vs more expensive smaller SSD.

#13

I have a router with a USB port on it. can I use this for the DVR drive?

#14

Sorry, routers are not powerful enough to run the DVR software. I don’t advise running software on a router anyway, because any problem with the software will take down your entire network.

#15

To be clear, you could plug the drive into the USB (depending on the router and OS) and then mount that disk to the ComputerOS and store your content there, but you may have issues where data transfer rates and may not be fast enough or an issue where the drive is not mounted properly all of the time and you miss recordings. You just wouldn’t want to run the DVR from the router (I don’t even think that is possible at the time)

Might be worth trying, but…
Just my two cents