I have a MyCloudEX2Ultra two bay , and tv os I’m hoping the DVR will work on my NAS. any ideas anybody ?
You have the same CPU as my DS1815+. It works great, but transcoding will be very limited.
I’m excited to hear that the DVR engine can be on a NAS; I have a
QNAP-TS 653 which is a quad core 8 GB RAM beast; you mention
hardware based transcoding at the ATV4 ; could I not take advantage
of the transcoding ability of my QNAP? How will the software know where
the encoding is done? Streaming content to the ATV4 in my living room
implies that the ATV4 does the conversion from mpeg2 to mpeg4? Bit
confused on how the NAS DVR software fits overall…
Wow. something must be going on there. I have a older i7 and have no problem with 4 1080p streams at once.
I all ready have a lifetime Plex Pass so it should be free to me too. I have not tried the Plex DVR beta yet but if it saves $8/mo will definitely go that route. I would gladly do a similar lifetime deal with channels if they would support a reasonable lifetime pass price as well.
Price wise & feature wise it will come down between the offerings
of SD versus those of Channels; SD supports multiple viewing
clients like MAC Win10 and Android…a big plus for me; if I go the
Channels DVR route I’ll have to use PLex to see recorded content on these
other platforms; I like the fact that the Plex library and that of Channels can co-exist
on my QNAP NAS; I’m retired and on a tight budget but will find a way to
shoe-horn in another $8/mo; can’t remember…is the Channels subscription itself
for the ATV4 a yearly fee?
Pricing is very disappointing. I had such high hopes for the program. I have been using Channels for about a year and was really thinking it was the program that differentiated the Apple TV from NVIDIA shield and other Android streaming devices. The original DVR functionality with silicon dust actually worked pretty well for me and I was upset to lose it. Before moving to Apple TV I was using Windows Media Center so I had full DVR capability for free, but I really liked the Apple TV interface and with Channels I would have all the same functionality. I expected I would have to pay some sort of fee to use the DVR and I was happy to pay the 1 time fee for the Channels app, but I really didn’t expect this high of a recurring cost. I have 5 OTA channels and really only want to use it to record some NFL games so I can time shift and watch the game in an hour vs 3 hours. bummer.
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any recommendations on other rackmount nas to use ? is transcoding a huge deal or will the rs815+ do just fine?
It’s not an issue for me. If you want a replacement you might want to wait a bit since the RS817+ will probably come out this year with a newer CPU. I’m waiting for a DS1817+.
So, just FYI, the “skip forward” button on the Harmony Remote is in fact something that the ATV listens for, though most apps, don’t use it for anything. However, I was playing around with Plex and found that if I hit that button (on my harmony remote its set up to be a long press of the ff button), it’ll skip to the next episode/item you have queued up. So I would think it would be possible to listen for that signal and set it to skip to the next chapter instead.
Another alternative would be to use the left and right button presses (when you’re in a show obviously, not when in menus) to skip forward and backward by chapter. Basically if Channels is going to mark commercials as chapters, anything you can do to make skipping around between chapters is going to be much appreciated. (It makes me miss my 3rd Gen ATV which did let you skip around in chapters using the Skip Forward/Back command by default in nearly all apps).
Anyway just wanted to provide some more info/context.
You won’t be disappointed…
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I just started using Channels and it’s awesome. I bought it on ATV and was surprised I had to pay twice for iOS also but did not hesitate to support the product as good code doesn’t write itself. That said add me to the $8 a month is too much for DVR. 10 years ago this technology warranted a monthly fee but today you have so many more options with content streaming such as Hulu, Netflix, individual network apps that it almost makes a dvr unnecessary today. I still am interested and if it was a single payment I’m in. Though I also understand Devs need to get paid and subscription model is the best way to keep money coming so future updates continue to flow. I’d suggest going all out and capture the market by aggressive pricing like $3 a month, $25 a year. Make it irresistible.
If the WD MyCloud device I have was used during the previous DVR beta, does that mean it will work with the new DVR service?
Do you mean the Silicon Dust Beta DVR? If so then I wouldn’t count on it. I was able to run the SD beta on a single drive WD MyCloud (4TB), which is below the current minimum for the Channels DVR. If you have a two bay until (MyCloud Mirror, Mirror Gen 2 or better) you should be ok.
Channels DVR is doing more and needs more CPU than the SD product did.
Would you kindly explain your assertion that the Channels DVR needs more CPU than the
SD product…this is not evident to me and I wonder what I’m missing if this is true…
Thanx in advance
The minimum requirements of the Channels DVR are above the specifications of the single drive WD MyCloud products, which can run the SD product. Given the things the Channels DVR can do that SD does not: pruning, auto-update, commercial detection, local guide data, transcoding, etc., I’m sure they set those specifications to ensure a proper experience for the DVR.
I agree with @rcgfl. I did use the SD DVR Channels Integration for some time on the WD Single Drive 4gb… Like the Channels Developers I was pretty frustrated with the SD DVR Progress. The Channels DVR in much less time has created a much more powerful DVR then SD will ever have. So basic DVR functions may work on a WD Single Drive but you would not be happy with dropping so many of the features mentioned above. The more powerful the DVR Hardware the better the experience.
It’s worth noting that the SD DVR is mostly cloud based. All the installed component does is sync a schedule for when to record from your device to disk. So it’s requirements are very very low.
Channels DVR was designed specifically to avoid any cloud based systems to be as reliable as possible, so everything runs in your installed instance. Because of this, its requirements are a touch higher.
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It definitely should work, those specs seem to be well above and it appears to have hardware transcoding.
Considering Apple has apparently abandoned the Mac Mini platform (no update in years and rumors abound), focusing on NAS devices is smart. I’ll be on the lookout for good deals on Synology devices.