Channels DVR and Hdhomerun DVR on same box?

Channels DVR Server
#1

I understand this may be an unusual environment, but would there be any conflicts running both the Channels DVR and HDhomerun DVR on the same PC, like a Mac Mini (with i5) or Mini PC (with Atom processor)? I like some features of each and rather than maintaining two DVR systems on two different sets of hardware I am thinking of combining the two DVRs on one "server". Anyone know of any conflicts? (I have an over the air Quatro for a tuner and have shared it between systems no issues so far.)

#2

There are two issues you may have:

  1. The systems won't recognize each other's recordings. (With some after-recording tweaking involving the file header, you can technically have the HDHR recognize the Channels recordings, but not the other way.)
  2. Competing for tuners. The two DVR systems only request a tuner, and what is available at any moment my be in use by something else 5 minutes later. The DVRs have no way to know until they try to access a stream. (This is a shortcoming in how the software was designed: they don't expect to always have full control of the tuners like other DVR software does. For example, your cable company DVR knows it is the only device that can use its tuners: Channels and the HDHR DVR don't have that luxury, which leads to a few compromises.)

(Reason 2 is also why Channels' conflict management is lacking: it can't guarantee full control of the tuners.)

#3

There's no conflict, I've been doing this for years.

#4

Thanks for the reply, have you been using a Mac or Windows?

#5

I started out with them both on a Mac but now they’re actually both running in docker on an Ubuntu server. I have run them together without docker on a Mac, Synology, CentOS, and Ubuntu.