Onn streamer

#1

I bought the Onn streamer from Walmart...not the stick...the small box. So far, I am extremely impressed with it. It seems to be just as fast as my Shield. It has 2 gigs ram and only 8 gigs of storage. I bought an otg cable from Amazon and then had to enable adopted storage. I plugged in a small 32 gig flash drive just to see how it works. So far, so good. I moved the Channels player app to it and now have a large buffer. However, one little weird thing happened. When I moved the Channels app to it, it could not find the server. I cleared cache and data, and it then found the server immediately. Next test will be to plug in my 2tb SSD and load the server on it to see how it responds. If anyone has already tried this give me a heads up so I know what to expect.

Tom

2 Likes
#2

For $20 each I have three of these little devices and they work great. The only issue I had so far was with poor color on one TV, and that was fixed by turning off HDR in the settings.

Also, I am very interested in your results of running server on this, especially on how long it takes to detect commercials.

#3

I would not recommend using it as a server. The single USB port is most likely only USB2, with a total max bandwidth of 480Mbps, which is decidedly not good with multiple concurrent reads and writes to disk which is the nature of a DVR server.

#4

Would not do comskip very well, way to weak hardware. Even the RaspberryPi 4B, that has much better hardware, is slow for comskip.

If you want fast comskip processing, you will need a normal cpu like a i5 or something.

#5

I am not using comskip anyway. The new auto comskip works on some tve channels on my current server. I am hoping that my 2tb SSD will make up some of the speed difference on USB 2.

Tom

#6

Nope. SSD on usb 2 speeds....pointless.

Commercial skip is cpu intensive, not disk.
And the "new" detection that only works on certain channels uses neither.

#7

First, as I said, I am not using comskip...so forget about that. Secondly, I know for a fact that a SSD drive will run faster than a mechanical hard drive no matter which USB standard it's on. How can it not run faster?...it has no motor...no spinning platter. Anyway, you believe what you want.

1 Like
#8

USB 2.0 Max speed does not even max out the available interface bandwidth of a slow 5400rpm platter drive...so forget about a ssd.

But hey, if it makes you feel better...does not really matter in your case.
You are better off spending your money and time setting up a better device with faster USB and hardware.

The onn streaming is a ok Client device, not server.

#9

It has nothing to do with the drive itself. The bus itself cannot push more than 480Mbps. This is a physical limitation between the device and the drive. Sure, your Ferrari can go 150Mph, but if you're driving it through bumper-to-bumper traffic, the car's speed is irrelevant if the path you're traveling will not let you use the car's full potential.

3 Likes
#10

It has nothing to do whether it is a SSD or HD what matters is the speed of the connection and USB2 by today's standards is slow.

1 Like
#11

Here's the bottom line:

If you are invested in Channels as your tv/media system, running it on a $20 (or any) streaming device is a terrible idea. We highly highly suggest investing in a real computer to run Channels DVR Server on.

If you do a lot of recording, or watching, or anything with it, it's in your interest to get real hardware going. The good news is, Channels DVR Server will run incredibly well on 10 year old PC hardware, so you're not going to have to invest a lot.

8 Likes
#12

This is me. 12-year-old server, actually. Lynnfield era quad-core CPU. Also runs Emby for non-TV stuff.

Question: I suspect the GTX 750ti should die any time now. What would be a cheap, decent card for a HTPC, no gaming, just video serving? (No video on the mobo or cpu, btw)

1 Like
#13

I'll agree it works as a great little client. It replaced Chromecast w/ Google TV for me, and I think it runs better and has a better remote at half the cost. I find it has occasional lag when navigating menus though, like to delete a just warched episode. Other than that, no complaints.
I can't imagine it as a server. I'm running the Channels DVR image on a Raspberri Pi, and that seems minimal hardware to me.

#14

I have a Lenovo T420 laptop. It has an Intel I5 cpu. Is that a good enough cpu? It is the mobile version of the I5. It is running at 2.50 ghz according to Win 11. One problem is that the ethernet port is broken and does not work at all. I have a usb ethernet adapter but it only runs at 100 mbps. The wifi runs faster on the 5 ghz band. Which would be better to use for the server?....reliability is the my concern. The laptop is only about 5 or 6 feet from the wireless router. One other issue is that the laptop idles at 110 degrees F...will comskip make it overheat?

#15

You should get another Ethernet adapter. Ethernet isn't just about speed, it's about reliability.

Laptops can work, but their power profiles are weird when closed, so it can be challenging to keep them running 24/7. You're also running into the issue that it's very warm while closed, so that could be a problem.

1 Like
#16

I completely agree with running it on a pc. I've tried the Shield but a pc is better. I run the Channels server on a Dell 7040 micro (4 core i5-6500T, integrated HD Graphics 530), only 35W cpu. I've had 6 shows recording at once, comskip going and docker running; no problems with maxing out the cpu.
The only issue really is with Windows itself. Whenever it does a big update, the pc restarts and won't go to the desktop (all processes are halted) until you acknowledge the "Check out what's new" screen.
image

2 Likes
#17

Run Channels DVR as a service and you probably won't have the update problem.

#18

Ok, thank you. I'll definitely check into that. Have had missed recordings in the past.

#19

You can delay the updates.

#20

Hey - I'm looking into this and wondering if the Channel buttons on the Onn box work with ChannelDVR?