Perfect, that is what I want so it doesn't mess anything up with my Channels DVR if I have to reboot the Mac or the internet goes out and comes back up.
I did read another thread where someone said setting this to manual on his mac mini caused connection issues so he switched it back to DHCP and it worked. Do you know if there are issues with this?
It's more likely it was setup incorrectly. Besides, DHCP helps with change to the network over time.
Some additional remark. Accessing your server from outside your home depends on your operator. Mine put all users behind double firewall so there is no way to acces server outside without some crazy ssh tunneling to some external VPS.
I am using Mac Mini 2018 but instead of external hard drive I cannot affrod I have possibility to use Google Drive unlimited space, it works well but you need to have some symmetrical fibre to get most out of such setup.
I was in the same boat with the WD My Cloud Duo. Way too underpowered. I bought a Lenovo "tiny" desktop PC and used that to run the Server. Then, I used the WD My Cloud as a NAS on my LAN. It works fine for that. But, running the Server app on the WD is not a good idea. I don't think you need to buy anything more. Just use the WD My Cloud as the location to store the recordings. That's adjusted in the Settings.
I will say that I had to basically reformat the WD My Cloud to finally kill off the Server app that was on it. Not really a big deal as it was used only for that purpose.
Good luck!
Just pay for an SSD!
You think you won't care about the speed difference (and you probably won't), but the real issue is that every time you need to access the disk (to start playback, to perform a search, ...) you have to wait for it to spin it. Unless you are serious strapped for cash, go SSD.
You can external USB SSDs on Amazon, or you can make your own by popping a bare SSD into an enclosure.
Whatever you buy will probably come formatted as exFAT. Don't forget to reformat it for mac use, using either JHFS+ or APFS.
I don't see any noticeable speed or response issues that I would tie to not having an SSD. Maybe SSD is faster, but Channels seems to be plenty fast. For me to replicate the 30TB of storage that I have would be about $5,000 and then I wouldn't have any way to attach them all to the Mini.
If there was more robust storage management available where you could target certain things to one drive or another, then a hybrid approach might be good. You could then target movies to the spinning disk, and target short lived things you were going to watch and then delete to SSD. But as it is, I'd quickly fill up the SSD and have to then go to manuallly moving stuff around which is not worth it.
If you don't have a lot of storage, then its probably good. I got spoiled for the short time I was on YouTubeTV and like the idea of having anything I might want to watch recorded so I never have to watch commercials.
The Apple refurb store has the low-end M1 mini for $589 right now.
I ended up going with a HD over a SSD. Only because the Mac Mini was a spur-of-the-moment purchase. I was initially looking for a NAS. I wanted something I could set up and not have to hook a monitor or keyboard up to it. But, when I saw the Mac Mini and the price they had it for I had to go with it. In the week I've had it it's been great! Really fast and responsive. I set up a VNC so I can do everything from my MacBook.
The only issue I'm having at the moment is when I playback content from my library dark colors look a bit pixelated. I'm not sure if that is something I need to adjust in Channels or on my TV, or if having an SSD would fix that due to being faster. I'm not sure.
Are there any concerns with power consumption and long term effects on the Mac Mini HD always being awake? I'm just wondering how much electricity is being consumed. I moved to Channels from previously using YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV to save money and take advantage of the DVR. If I stay with my current set up I'm saving $517.32 a year. But I'm wondering if that savings is offset by the amount of electricity the M1 Mac Mini is using by always being awake and going?
you worry too much about nonsense. just watch tv.
if you're worried about a $1000+ computer costing too much to run for watching TV, then your priorities are all mixed up.
do you honestly think apple spent years upon years and billions of r&d money on the 40 plus years of evolution of the computers they sell today just to make you worry that the mini cant handle being awake for thursday's nbc lineup?
@AeroR1take this negativity somewhere else!
I asked a question because I care about being right side up on things. I understand that the Mac Mini is a solid product but that doesn't mean people don't have issues with hardware and that it always runs as expected. Like every company, Apple has had products come out that don't live up to what is expected. I'm simply asking a question. If you don't like the question don't respond it's that simple.
Relax chief. How is anyone going to know how much electricity your computer, at your house, at your electrical rates is going to cost you when you watch mattock?
Im just someone putting things into perspective for you since it seems that this is taking a lot of space in your head.
Who’s going to answer your rhetorical questions? If you want to get to the “right side up of things”, don’t make anyone guess.
With the next non important information you supply, the Mac mini is going to wipe out 2 years of your savings if you’re buying a mini not counting the power.
I don't know exactly what the power consumption is on a Mac Mini, but I believe Apple has made the power consumption of the M1 the best in class. Over time, I'd worry more about a 2.5" HDD than anything else. Those little drives aren't designed to be run like a NAS or something. My 9 year old Mini has SSD boot drive but all my recordings are on the larger 3.5" external USB drives. Bottom line is that this is a DVR. If a drive fails and I lose something, oh well. I'll just start recording again. I doubt anything in your setup is any less reliable than a cable company DVR for sure.
If you really want to know about the power consumption then you should get one of those smart plugs that measures it and then apply the rate you play per kilowatt and you can figure it out for your setup, your power company, etc..
I decided to look this up - hot damn is the M1 an efficient chip!
https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/compare_cpu-apple_m1-1804-vs-raspberry_pi_4_b_broadcom_bcm2711-1796
Obviously, I wasn't asking anyone to give me specifics on what it's going to cost me. I was asking in general for others who have Mac Mini's. You kind of need to understand what's being asked before you reply. What's exactly your purpose for responding? Who cares if it takes up space in my mind? I'm free to ask whatever questions I'd like. I'm not sure what your goal here is to do other than be disruptive? I appreciate replies from those willing to actually help.
@pdaphone I'm thinking about switching to an external SSD do in the next couple of months. Thanks for the time on the smart plug. That's a good idea.
Did you ever get to a conclusion about this?
it has 8 cores, and fast ones at that. Starting with 2, and working up as needed, is fine.
Unless you're batching up a huge import or something, it's not worth maxxing this out.
It has 4 performance cores (very fast) and 4 efficiency cores (not so fast but very low energy use).
This is unusual (unique?!) among personal computers. So I'm wondering how the thread count setting behaves in regards to this unusual arrangement.
The reason for posting a question here about it is that I was thinking that perhaps others have gone through a process of experimentation and may have some insight into what an optimal setting is in different scenarios that perhaps I could benefit from rather than doing it all my self from scratch.
...and my point is that it's likely moot, unless you're batching a huge amount of content through it at once.
I believe this is on a single core: