do you have any data caps on that gigabit internet service? the remote viewing resolution also might be sub par for multiple concurrent streams. The Mac Mini will crush on the processing side but the 35 Mbps upload would be your bottleneck - do you get better upload speeds over ethernet?
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I do not have any data cap (unlimited data). However, the 35mbps is the advertised upload speed for now. Cox is in the process of upgrading my area to fiber and then I will have symmetrical internet (gig up/gig down). Until then, I agree that I will likely only be able to stream 2, maybe 3 external streams at once.
I've used an early 2009 Mac Mini to run Channels for 18 months and it has been working fine. I often record many things at once and never have problems playing locally. Watching remotely on my iPhone or iPad works well too.
So I imagine any newer Mac Mini would be perfect.
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Unlimited data is very important for what you are wanting to do. I go well what a cap would be with the number of recordings I'm doing, and I'm not doing any viewing outside the house. I would also go with an M1 Mac Mini for what you described. I'm using an old Mini and its been great up until just recently something has been off.. I think its sorted now with help from the forum and developers, but what I realized in doing the diagnosis was the processing for commercials is taxing to it... the M1 should be able to fly through that better than any alternative platform.
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Can anyone comment on performance using a Mac Mini 2010 - 2012 model, I plan to purchase one to use as an AirMessage server.
You should take a look at this thread...
https://community.getchannels.com/t/dvr-on-mac-mini-2012-tips-wanted
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This is really solid info that has pretty much sold me on getting one off eBay.
I suppose the real question in my head is how much better will it be than my SHIELD.
I'm also a Synology fan. It just works. What I didn't like about running the DVR on my Mac Mini is because I used my Mac Mini as my daily driver. I moved it to the Synology so I didn't have to worry about downtime because I need to reboot or whatever. The Synology is set it and forget it really. I use a DS1019+.
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Likewise, my Mac Mini has no display, keyboard, or mouse, and is just sitting on a shelf running (sitting next to two QNAP NAS boxes). So I think your specific use case is that running Channels DVR on a multi-purpose machine presents downtime issues, not that its a Mac Mini.
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If I ever get a MacBook Air I’ll turn my Mac mini Mac into a server.
Been running channels on a SHIELD Pro, with only a Chromecast and a Firestick that never gets used. Runs great. But I still want to build a new DVR server and am torn between a few options, despite having no real need for it with my limited setup. Keep in mind please that I'm poor please, buying them all isn't an option, really wish it was like that.
What I've considered:
Apple Mac Mini A1347 with i7, SSD, 16gb RAM headless
Latest M1 Mac Mini bottom of the line, can upgrade later, headless
RPi4 8gb with USB SSD (not a flash drive), headless
Intel NUC 8, 9, 10 series as server and pc
Midrange NUC Hackintosh
How I see it:
Yea, it'd be cool to have an RPi4 for channels and to play with, but it won't be any better or worse than my current setup. The old upgraded mac mini would probably handle it like a boss. The Intel NUC is only an option because I need a new PC, and if I got that, I would still want to build another sever based on MacOS, windows is pure garbage for anything other than not being apple.
Despite all of my issues with apple and refusal to use their products I feel like the server would run superior on their OS. Am I gonna have to violate my #1 rule of using devices and buy an apple product?
Any thoughts?
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If you buy any version of the latest MacMini I think you have almost zero options of adding internal memory or internal SSD unless you have special tools and skill sets for hot air soldering.
As far as I know the “late 2012 Mac Mini” was the last one to support after market upgrades, see iFixit.com, no, wait,I was wrong, looks like the 2014 and 2018 support some upgrades too.
But maybe by upgrade you didn’t mean upgrade the M1 Mac Mini itself? But rather to purchase some other server as an upgrade?
More thoughts: I believe @tmm1 had suggested the new M1 Mac Mini may currently be the fastest hardware for a DVR.
But what might be the second fastest? Maybe an Intel based PC with an internal M.2 NVMe (not SATA) based SSD running Ubuntu or other Linux?
I think the server is performing a variety of tasks, and it would appear different hardware platforms vary in their ability to do these quickly. For me, it's important that the dvr server complete commercial detection quickly, as the ability to transcode for remote clients is impacted during this time, and separately, that the platform can do that transcoding quickly. I am currently running an intel i7-sixth gen mini pc, running linux. It has plenty of RAM available, and boots from an nvme drive, and records to a large mechanical hard drive. This has worked well for remote clients, and it can process a one-hour recording for commercial at right around 2 minutes start to finish, which seems quite close to what the M1 people are showing? One thought had been that using a separate GPU on a card would improve transcode over the intel graphics, at least a bit, and I think this can happen even with Linux, but unfortunately the machine I have would require a single-slot low-profile card, and those would provide little or no advantage over the igpu approach.
I have also had Channels DVR server running on a Synology NAS with intel CPU, and it was fine, just slower at commercial detection. It makes sense, also, to consider efficiency of power usage and total cost - this is a machine that runs all the time. My linux box is running a few more server applications that Channels, so I felt justified in its expense (which wasn't much as it was a refurb, older machine) and relative efficiency, as its a lower-wattage cpu and power supply
Are there any disadvantages to using a SSD for the ChannelsDVR recordings?
I have not seen any ... Recordings are large but remember you are writing them over a long Period of time ... it is not like you are simply copying a file. A 5 Gig recording written over an hour is not write intensive.
I use my SSD only for the Streaming folder using symlink... not for recordings.
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Thanks. I am using a 1 TB USB, SSD, and it is working great. Silence is golden. 
I have 2 8TB USB 3 5400 RPM drives in redundancy (mirrored) using Windows Storage Spaces and never had a problem. I had a bad experience with a NAS that refused to power up. Easier to replace a windows cheap PC than a NAS.
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Synology DS720+ 6GB ram no issues you never know it's there.
I thought I should chime in with my experiences using M1 Mac mini 8GB 256GB base standard config as a “server”. tl;dr M1 is the greatest value and speed bump since Pentium. It's great if your needs are limited and the apps you regularly use and need are native for Apple Silicon. My electric bill fell by 16%.
My build
• M1 with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage base config(!)
• 10-port USB 3.0 48W Powered hub with 4 external Western Digital hard disk drives (3x 8TB easystore and bus-powered 500GB My Passport)
• No monitor, headless but I sometimes use AirPlay or plug in an HDMI cable (display emulator, once I move Mac mini to my closet amazon.com/fit-Headless-GS-resolution-emulator-game-streaming/dp/B01EK05WTY)
• Bluetooth input devices: Logitech T651 and K811
• APC Back-UPS 1100
• Google Fiber / Webpass 1 Gig Internet connection
• It runs Channels DVR server, Backblaze, Chrome (chroot), iPhoto (photo backups), Screens (VNC) and I plan to eventually add Plex (once it's native) and SuperDuper! (for easier drive cloning)
Positives
• It's quiet af compared to the 2012 quad-core i7 Mac mini I used to run as a server
• 4K output over HDMI is pretty cool and works well over AirPlay, too
• The video server (ffmpeg) could simultaneously handle receipt of 9 inbound streams (DVR recordings) and send 7 outbound streams (3 remux live and 4 DVR files from a single hard disk drive) -- CRAZY
• Auto-skip commercial detection (comskip) runs slightly faster with M1, but it is WHISPER quiet compared to the Intel that ran its fan at full blast
• As I suspected, my electric bill was noticeably lower (16% or approximate $6 monthly savings); unscientifically with my normal habits, I used 0.55 kWh less on an average day with the Apple Silicon Mac mini compared to Intel
• Internet Sharing (Google Fiber hooked directly into Mac mini) to share my Internet connection to other devices with the Mac as a “router” works for days, unlike Intel (which needs to be restarted almost daily)
Negatives
• Bluetooth input device connectivity issues were a consistent issue up until macOS Big Sur 11.2; I resorted to Screens VNC since Bluetooth keyboard and mouse had to be deleted and reconnected daily
• Recovery Mode is weird (you now just hold down the power button), and clean install of macOS is a pain with multiple volumes (this might be a Big Sur / APFS issue)
• It thrice restated due to kernel panics, which I presume were due to Chrome; but my longest uptime was 13 days, still not as good as Intel
• I wish I had more than 2 USB-A ports, but I use a hub; only 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports is super annoying, as I'll need a much more expensive Thunderbolt hub if I want to switch to SSDs from the 3x 8TB HDDs I use now
• I really wish it had 10Gb Ethernet 10000BASE-T, but I'm going to test out a Thunderbolt 3 adapter to see how it performs with Google Fiber; I'm hopeful that I might squeeze out a bit more throughput
• Many apps aren't native, so if you rely on any, especially if they require a kernel extension (kext file), they're likely not going to work (Dropbox is one example)
• There are still some really shitty Apple Silicon native apps out there (Chrome, meh, but I need chroot for Channels — I wish this would change somehow) that can bring down your system even if you never launch them. Chrome is creepy and still shows as a recently used app in my Dock and the Apple Menu even when I never launch the app
• Backblaze is non-native, but bzserv seems to run well with regular daily backups
I plan to keep this M1, sell Intel Mac mini multi-core now (while there's still a demand for it) and consider upgrading if Google Fiber deploys faster speed uploads that require 10000BASE-T or I switch to SSD and need more Thunderbolt ports. I’m glad I’m on the latest version of macOS, as my Intel (running High Sierra) will eventually lose support.
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