Questions on Upgrading DVR Storage

Channels DVR Server
#1

Good afternoon,

I’m a new Channels user and after just a week I love it. As this started as an experiment, I just used the my existing systems. I am currently running the DVR service on a Mac Mini server (early 2010) with dual 500MB drives. This is my media server and network file store. Currently my Channels DVR recordings are stored on one of these 500MB drives; but with only about 380MB available. Woefully insufficient to handle my wife’s television behavior; therefore, I want to upgrade my storage capacity to a 1 or 2 TB drive.

So I have a couple of questions:

  1. Transferring exiting recordings: Is it as simple as copying the current directory to the new drive and remapping the drive withing the DVR configuration?

  2. Any performance issues or recommendations on getting an external USB drive over replacing the internal SATA drive?

  3. Increasing tuners from 2 to 4. Any performance or other issues with using two Silicon Dust devices vice one? (Do I add an additional HDHomeRun or replace the one I have with a Quattro?)

Thanks.

Cheers,
Dave

#2

I can answer a couple of your questions based on my experience. I am running my DVR on a 2011 Mac Mini.

  1. I am saving my recordings to an external 4TB drive. I also use this drive as a Plex drive and a backup drive for wireless Time Machine backups. No performance issues that I have seen.

  2. I started with a single HDHomerun Connect. Like you I started using Channels as a test. When I decided to switch over completely I purchased a second Connect and added it to the system. No performance issues and the two work very well together.

#3

Thanks for the quick reply!

Good to know that service works this well. I’m heading out to get an external drive to increase my storage capacity today. I want to get my final configuration (if that ever exists) set before we record too many more shows.

Cheers,
Dave

#4

Yep!

#5

Thanks for quick response. And more importantly, thanks for creating a absolutely awesome app.

Cheers
Dave

2 Likes
#6

Just to throw my 2 cents in here regarding the HDHomerun devices. I am running a Quatro and the new Duo off of one Antenna without any issues. I upgraded from 2 Connects to this setup because I wanted the 2 extra tuners because I was afraid of some recordings conflicting with only 4 tuners.

Anyway, I think the Quatro is a great deal if you only need 4 tuners and then you only have one device to work with.

#7

I am changing EXTERNAL hard drives and I did not take note of the exact path for the old storage. Which of the following is correct? From my previous installation have a “Channels” folder in my HDD root directory. I don’t know if I created the Channels directory or if the app created it?

/Volumes/New-HDD/Channels
or
/Volumes/New-HDD/

My existing drive has the following
Channels/DVR/
Then within DVR are folders is “Database”, “Images”, “Logs”, “TV”, and “Streaming”

When I selected /Volumes/New-HDD/Channels as the new directory, a new folder was created with Channels folder
/Volumes/New-HDD/Channels/Database (which is in addition to the previously existing “DVR” folder)

#8

We do not create a Channels directory. The path you provide to the DVR is the directory with the TV, Movies, Images, Database and Logs folders.

#9

So should I have pointed it to
/Volumes/New-HDD/Channels/DVR

2 Likes
#10

I re=-read your response, I think the answer to my last question is yes