Ditched Synology and decided to build my own. What are you guys using for software? What works best for Channels, if any? I think I’m leaning more towards UnRAID at this point.
I like TrueNas. Its free and has many apps you can install, including Channels DVR. I have two servers set up. One holds all my media files that feeds channels with movies and tv shows.i have a 2nd that holds all my backup files.
I used to run TrueNAS and moved to Unraid. If you care about your electric bill, Unraid provides multiple options to help you conserve. You need to think about how you will use your NAS as you might want to separate computer from storage. A low power mini PC makes a great server if you don't need a lot of CPU power and will sip power. If you plan to have a bunch of hard drives spinning, TrueNAS which uses ZFS will require an entire pool to spin at once. You can set Unraid up this way or you can set it up so that only the disk that has the files you are reading or writing will spin and thus save power. SSDs use the least power if you don't need huge amounts of storage.
I’m running a Thunderbay box from OWC using Softraid software connected by a thunderbolt cable to my M4 Mac mini. Not a NAS of course but the performance is outstanding.
I built a UnRaid server 2 years ago, runs channels like a champ. Also using it for Home Assistant and other things.
I was running truenas for a while but my channels clients kept crashing. I tried unraid but it will only install to a usb drive and didn't like the ui. I then installed xubuntu as I have Linux experience. performance is excellent and I use teamviewer/ssh/portainer to admin it. bottom line is you get more control and performance with a regular ubuntu flavor than an dedicated nas os. fyi I am running zfs. for hardware, I use a dell t560. it has 12 3.5" sata bays. also newegg keeps running a sale on seagate 24 tb baracudas which work excellent. In my opinion, nothing matches the reliability of a dell server. I even have an old t30 (skylake) still running that I use as an off site file server.
Whatever you're comfortable with Install Channels DVR Server- Select a device.
You can easily migrate Channels DVR Server to another device.
Try it on something you're comfortable with, then experiment by migrating it to something else.
This is great advice though if you have your server working well on something you are comfortable with, leave it alone. Running Channels DVR on a low power computer or even a retired laptop is a fine way to go. For the best storage management for things such as redundancy and drive (pool) upgrades, a NAS is the best way to go, Most OS can manage storage better if you take advantage of advanced features such as Storage Spaces in Windows.
If you're technically inclined, it's hard to beat Proxmox. It's a hypervisor, so the idea is to run whatever you want either as a virtual machine (VM) or container (LXC) on top of Proxmox.
With everything virtualized, it's incredibly easy to move a virtual machine from one host to another. Or backup and restore an entire environment. If you decide to setup another Proxmox host in the future, you can redistribute your workloads in a few clicks.
Want to try something new? Spin-up a new LXC or VM and give it a whirl. If it doesn't work out, you can nuke it in a flash. The production and the experimental can live side-by-side, with no worries.
It'll very likely transform the way you think about, and approach your computing. 
1 Like
OpenMediaVault. I've had channels-dvr running in a docker container for well over a year without any issues at all.
And, actually OpenMediaVault as a VM on Proxmox, with data drives passed through to that VM, is a pretty awesome solution. Both are Debian-based.
Then you can create a Debian LXC in Proxmox, and run Docker on top of that.
Optional, but run Proxmox Backup Server on another host on your LAN -- and you're a virtualize-everything rock star!
Add LXCs or VMs as desired for future projects or experiments.
good to hear OMV is working good for CDVR! this is my planned 'upgrade' to an older i5 desktop (i think 11th gen) to finally get rid of the usb 3.5" enclosure.