My Newbie Question

#1

Sorry.. new to the forum and not sure where to post this... I am trying to wrap my head around this and could use some thoughts

I have been using Roku and now ATV for years now, got rid of cable long ago.. but have replaced it with directv now, Hulu live tv, YouTube tv and PlayStation vue... But as prices have gone up and frankly little to watch with all those extra channels.. I have decided to cut even further.

In researching how to do this I have purchased a Mohu antenna, a HDHomeRun Duo and Channels, works perfectly with my ATV for live channels.... This is where the help is needed..

I am wanting to be able to DVR the OTA shows (not a lot) just a few here and there (by no means a power DVR user)... So I tried a few things with mixed results

I have a 2010 Mac mini not the most powerful machine but thought it should work.. I have it and the ATV hardwired... in any case I tried Plex live tv/DVR and it was woefully slow loading live tv... it recorded ok and seemed to be watchable on ATV after recording with little problem... but the Live TV is the issue

As I noted I bought channels and so I thought I would try that DVR as well.. I set it up to record, it worked and watched later and was perfect..!!!

So in this long winded way I have a question about transcoding... I hear it a lot and how it relates to speed and such...
Since I only need to record to watch on ATV.. I don’t watch on any other devices is this something I need to worry about ? And I only watch on one TV at a time (never more than 2) but usually just the one

I ask because I am thinking of getting a WD Cloud Home to use as the “server” and storage and using Channels DVR ... but I keep reading the processor is not strong enough to work in this capacity and don’t want to buy if I cannot use it for this and get the same kind of result.... Any thoughts would be appreciated

Also I noticed that the channel art for some of the channels that was there suddenly disappeared
Any thoughts on that

Thank you all in advance

#2

Transcoding is (mostly) used when streaming outside of the home (ie, remote DVR viewing). If you are watching TV in the home, then you most likely have no need for transcoding.

(Also, transcoding is used only when viewing. When Channels records, it records the full-bandwidth original video stream without transcoding, even when enabled. Transcoding is only used when playing back the high bandwidth recording to a client that cannot handle the full bamdwidth.)

#3

The MyCloud Home might work well for your needs, as your requirements are pretty low. The only thing to keep in mind is that commercial detection is quite slow on that device and can bog it down. If you don't care too much about skipping commercials, you can turn off commercial detection and the DVR would work great on there.

#4

Thank You for response and your great software...

I really don’t care to much about detection, it’s nice to have it but I think I can fast forward thru it... so if it’s just for my use you think it would work....

I want to return the Mac mini to the person I borrowed it from if it can be replaced with the My Cloud

Thank you again

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