Mac Mini

Playground Hardware
#14

Yes. Eyetv will wake or even power on (start your mac) to do a recording schedule if it is asleep or powered off. Although this is an old article, it may give you an insight for future versions of the MacOS version (I know nothing about coding, so I apologize if I am just confused). This would be an awesome feature someday.

pmset and wakeorpoweron

https://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/pmset.1.html

https://www.geniatech.eu/eyetv/faq/troubleshooting-events-are-not-set-in-the-power-manager-schedule/

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Letting the server machine sleep (macOS)
#15

Sleeping your DVR server is problematic in that it won’t be available for guide data, recording listings, or all of the other data that your Channels app needs while being used. Channels DVR does more than just record. So sleeping it would make the experience quite painful. It also needs to be running to get software updates and guide data refreshes.

Even if we attempted to do a wake-on-lan, it would create an amount of lag and latency that would make you hate using Channels.

This workflow works great for EyeTV because it’s not required for your primary TV watching. It’s 90% just for recording things. It’s more of a utility. Even when you are using it to watch TV, it’s on the computer that you’re running it on, so clearly it’s already woken out of sleep.

Channels DVR powers everything in Channels on the Apple TV and iOS, so it needs to be running for those to work.

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ATV DVR disappears if IMac goes in sleep mode
Server software and sleep mode
#16

Touché… good point.

My love for EyeTV became idle frustration… Channels app was one of the reasons why i decided to dump my mac mini HTPC and go Apple TV. Excited for Channels DVR release today!

#17

So should the com skip functionality work on a 2012 Mac mini with an i5 (the 2.3GHz or above) and 4-8gb of ram? There’s also a 2016 version with an i5 (only 1.4GHz and 4gb of ram) which I’m guessing it won’t work with?

#18

For Comskip, any i5 will do ok. Might take a couple of extra minutes depending on CPU + memory. For transcoding, I’n not sure the 2012 models can do hardware transcoding, which is a must, but any of the latest models, even the entry-level, $499, works as a charm.

#19

So should the com skip functionality work on a 2012 Mac mini with an i5 (the 2.3GHz or above) and 4-8gb of ram? There’s also a 2016 version with an i5 (only 1.4GHz and 4gb of ram) which I’m guessing it won’t work with?

The comskip does take some processing and time. I’m currently running on a 4 core i7 2.3GHz mac mini with 8GB of ram and commercial detection runs about 10 minutes per 1/2 hr show. This isn’t the latest hardware but it isn’t low end either.

Synology DS-916+ not transcoding in real time (+ processing hooks)
#20

It works perfectly fine on a 2012, 1.4GHz. Hardware transcoding makes everything smooth. For a 30 minute recording, Comskip takes just 4 minutes if it’s AVC or 8 for MPEG2 channels.

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#21

I am using a Mac Mini Mid 2010, 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 8GB 1067MHz DDR3 and it is working flawlessly. I am saving the recordings to an external WD 1 terabyte HDD.

#22

Just to confirm, real-time hardware transcoding works well on a 2012 Mac Mini? I have a quad-core i7 2.3 GHz, 16 GB RAM. If so, I’m all set for the beta when it’s available in the UK!

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#23

Yeh, sounds like you’ll be using a sledgehammer to swat a fly there bud. I was just worried about the 1.4 GHz model. You’ve got enough there to walk it bud.

#24

Haha, I thought so since I use it as my Plex server (amongst other things), and it has no problem transcoding for Plex. I guess I was just thrown by the comment that older CPUs might not support hardware transcoding.

#25

Hmm… time to save up for a mac mini… Something for both plex and ChannelsDVR.as long as I can attach the mycloudex2ultra via iscsi as a local disk or maybe just a USB3 external… (the MyCloudEX2Ultra is not powerful enough to transcode at all or do more than 4 recordings at once or commercial skip well) [3 week availability on the mac mini model I wanted… :frowning: ]

#26

I would like to install the DVR server on a Mac mini as well but don’t want to invest a lot of money. I saw a cheap Early 2009 mini with Core2Duo 2.0ghz and 2gb of ram from craigslist. Would this be enough to run it smoothly? It runs great from my 2015 iMac 5K but I don’t like leaving it always on. What do you guys think?

#27

Foz86,

It’s still early in the Channels DVR game to have a good understanding of hardware tradeoffs but an early 2009 mini might be pushing the envelope a bit from a reliability and support perspective. You won’t be able to run current OS and you will probably miss out on some hardware transcoding optimization. I’d lean toward a 2012 or newer model and increase your chances that the hardware will be stable for some period of time. I’m not current on used Mac Mini prices, but a low end 2014 1.4GHz Dual Core machine with 4GB ram and 500GB storage is currently available thru apple.com refurbished for $419, so you should be able to get a 2012 model for less then that.

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#28

It’s worth noting that 2009 Mac Minis are not even supported by Apple anymore and were cut out from macOS updates a long time ago. I think the most recent version you can install is 10.7, and macOS is currently in 10.12.

#29

@DebbieFL is using a 2010 core2duo and it is too slow to transcode video for web playback. See Hardware Suggestions and Reviews

#30

The Intel Quick Sync came out with Sandy Bridge in 2011, if you want the hardware transcoding that’s the minimum i would start ( and its gotten better every year). that would exclude “Core 2 Duo”.

if someone is looking for cheap and tiny, i wouldn’t go mac mini, but find a newer processor in a microITX or something like that and just load Ubuntu on it. that would still give you Plex and channels capability for those who want it.

#31

I recently purchased a 2012 I5 Mini Mac on e-bay for $275 + shipping. I really wanted an I7 but, the price was about $270 to $300 more.

It runs the Channels DVR and a Plex Server with no problem. I haven’t done much testing other than to turn it on and use the features. One unexpected thing is that the Plex server on the Mac Mini can play videos from my iMac.

I went with the 2012 because it is the last model than can be upgraded, i.e., replace the internal hard drive with an SSD. I have an external SSD (via USB 3) that I use to boot. I also, bumped the RAM to 16G. I use an external (USB 3) hard drive to record shows.

This fits well for me because I am 100% Apple. Be aware that the 2011 and earlier don’t have USB 3. The 2011 do have Thunderbolt.

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#32

I have an off topic question about Plex, which seems to come up on many of these DVR server hardware conversations. Not sure where to put it so I will start here.

Why are so many folks using a Plex server? My understanding is that Plex is useful when your smart tv devices didn’t have the processing capability to decode complex streams. Plex does the heavy lifting and transcodes files into something the light weight front ends can handle. But aren’t we at the point that many devices can handle the decoding natively without the need for Plex? The 4th Gen AppleTV needed for the Channels app can decode the large OTA MPEG2 streams so it has proven to have some capability here.

In my case I store movies and television shows on a network share and use Infuse Pro on my 4th gen Apple TVs to decode the files right on the AppleTV. Apps like Infuse Pro and MRMC provide the metadata to organize your files and a good job with all current video formats including HEVC so what is the advantage a Plex server brings to the mix? I want to make sure I’m not missing a use case.

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#33

Not to stray too far off topic, but I use Plex because it is one central place to store media that can be used across a whole range of devices, either at home or away. It automatically transcodes to format, resolution, and bit rate as needed. It keeps watched/unwatched status and metadata in sync at all times. Basically it “just works”.

However, their DVR beta is still very “beta”…no live TV, no traditional grid EPG, etc. It amazes me how much further ahead the Channels guys are, because I assume Plex has a fair few more developers working on the DVR. I’m not too optimistic about the Plex DVR to be honest, and I plan on using Channels when it’s available in the UK. And the ability to point Plex to the Channels DVR directory and play recordings on non-Apple devices is a great bonus.

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