Mac Mini as DVR server

@mjbomar - if you got the new Mac Mini M1 then you may have the best DVR platform available at this time per a comment from @tmm1 elsewhere in this Support Community.

Yes, you will be able to stream 3+ TVs at the same time as long as your internal / home network can handle it - gigabit is recommended.

You asked about not letting the HD go to sleep -- but I don't think there is an internal HardDrive -- from what I see all new Mac Mini M1 ship with SSDs not HD.

Here are the specs per Apple.

SSD can most certainly handle it. Its the longevity of the SSD. SSDs my nature only have so many read/writes and the nature of a DVR server would do a lot of that making the lifespan of a SSD less than that of a HDD. People do use SSDs...I'm just saying that using an HHD is better for longevity standpoint.

I also don't think you need the SSD speed for a DVR.

Enjoy it! Its a great platform.

Yes set the HD to not goto sleep. That bit me a few times when I first set it up on my mac. That will ensure the external drive doesn't go sleepy.

Adding storage paths doesn't change where the DVR stores new recordings. It will just include the drives listed in the total library. So over time you have to move things from the primary drive to these drives, if the primary drive begins to fill up.

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Unless you're like me... I changed from an external USB3 spinning-platter drive to a USB3 SSD quite awhile and noticed a substantial speedup when skipping forward/back. For the ultimate speed, my current DVR server has a 1TB SSD connected internally to SATA port and the server itself is connected to my WiFi router with GB Ethernet. Everything I do now from the client end has almost no observable latency.

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Its all in the usecase. SSDs are great if they fit your requirements. It can't work for me because I have over 3TB of saved DVR recordings.

I agree not everyone "needs" an external SSD an external HD can work fine, I have an external HD USB 3 attached HD and it works fine, I do notice some slight lagging on skipping forward or backward but it is so much better than the cable set top box that it replaced that it is easy to ignore the slight lag when skipping.

In MacOS how do you prevent an external drive / HD from going to sleep?

So I got everything set up on my Mac Mini M1. I went with an external HD and pointed storage to that. When I watch live TV I've noticed that it is way snappier and quicker moving from channel to channel. And, commercial detection for an hour show took like 5 minutes. I do have gigabit internet as well.

The only issue that I'm seeing is that last night I watched a recording I had made and some of the colors seem pixelated. Would anyone know why this might be? I was thinking maybe it's the network? It says it recorded in HD but it doesn't look like HD. I'm using Locast and TVE watching on an Apple TV 4th gen if that matters.

@noviceTV to prevent the HD from going to sleep on a Mac you go to the System Preferences > Energy Saver then check the box that says "Prevent HD from falling asleep".

If you're using a newer MacBook it's in System Preferences > Battery > Power Adapter.

I also learned you have to set the Mac OS to auto-login and turn off encryption. That way you don't have to have a mouse or keyboard connected to the Mac Mini. I then use VNC to remote into the Mac Mini from my MacBook so I can control it and do any needed updates.

TVE is not stunning quality. It all depends on the stream provider on how high or low definition they want their stream to be.

Make sure the Apple TV is set to SDR mode.

You can also enable Experimental under Settings > Playback > Advanced > Video Driver inside the Channels app.

@tmm1 How do I get the Apple TV to SDR mode? I knew about 4k SDR for the 4th gen 4k model but I just have the stand 4th gen.

tmm1 Is this 1080p SDR or a different format?

Oh yea that model can't do HDR/SDR. So the default settings should be fine there.

Should I static the IP on the Mac Mini? Cox doesn't offer static IP on the router for residential customers only businesses where I live.

I know how to static the IP on the Mac Mini but I've on these forums that changing the Configuration from Using DHCP to Manual causes issues the Channels DVR working outside the home. Can anyone confirm this? Do I need to static the IP? In case the internet goes out or I need to reboot my modem. Cox told me they dynamically refresh IPs every few days. I'm not sure if that is true but if it is I definitely don't want the issues.

You're confusing a whole bunch of different things together.

You don't need a static IP from your ISP.

In your home, you can configure your router to use a DHCP static reservation for the devices you care about. This is preferred to a static IP on the client side. It tells the router to hand your device the same IP every time, so you don't have to change anything on your Mini.

Automatic vs Manual for port forwarding is a separate thing and not related to DHCP or static IPs.

How do I do the DHCP static reservation? I'm using the cox gigabit modem/router.

On the other issue, I've already set up port forwarding.

Find the model number and then google for the model plus dhcp reservation.

If it doesn't support reservations, then you can go to your Mac under System Preferences > Network and change from DHCP to Static and pick an IP (or use the same one currently assigned).