I have a Raspberry Pi 4B on order to be used for HOOBS (Homebridge) and Pi-Hole. I know that the Pi4 is capable of running the Channels DVR Server, but I am curious if it can do all three? I will not be doing any transcoding. I do have a HDHR Quatro and TVE through Philo.
Are there any users already doing this?
I really like the idea of replacing my large HTPC with a Pi4 & hard drive enclosure. If it proves to not be powerful enough for all three, I will probably order a second Pi to be dedicated to Channels DVR. Although a single unit is cleaner than two.
You can install raspbian then install each piece of software manually. But it likely won't be as easy and you will have to do more Linux administration. It should work though.
As someone who had a homebrew Pi4b running before, and jumping onto the dedicated build from Channels, i would buy a 2nd Pi, and run the dedicated build on it. There were some teething issues, but it's really getting polished very quickly.
hoping I could piggy back on this thread. I don't get the transcoding part. But wanted to setup a Pi too. If I only plan to watch TV my home network (not remote out side of my house) on either apple TV(s) or Roku(s) with a peak usage of watching 1 show (live or recorded) while recording 1-2 at same time should the Pi still work.
It's experimental, alpha quality, requires a DVR server (for transcoding), and does not provide a full guide interface. Basically it only offered the On Now view of your Favorites, and your Library.
For the thread on the Roku channel, see here:
Not sure if you can still add the channel, or it has been fully removed, but you can check if https://my.roku.com/add/CHANNELSDVR still works.
So. I have found a Lineage OS Android tv 10 image and instructions how to make the Pi4 a decent Android tv box.
Its a bit complex, but not difficult, to setup, for someone who has some experience in managing and flashing custom roms on phones.
The img file u write on the sd card, boots to a normal Android tv install, with no apps what so ever. U have to use the terminal to into a command to boot to TWRP recovery, flash Gapps (the google apps) zip, a zip to expand the file system of the sd card, factory reset/wipe in TWRP, then flash the boot out of recovery zip, and reboot.
Then u get a workable Android tv on the Raspberry Pi4.
wifi does not seem to work, though maybe u have to setup that way first, i did via Ethernet then wanted to move to wifi. and it crashes and does an infinite reboot loop if u remove the Ethernet cable while it is on. so i gues its wired only for network connection
Channels DVR client app works fine, has to use software decode (hardware decoding is not functional with the Lineage os rom). The channel number/logo section of the guide is smaller than it should be and cuts of logos a bit, but that is cosmetic.
Performance is fine. no issues playing OTA Or TVE. Emby and my media files work fine.
I do have my Pi 4 8GB overclocked to 2.3ghz, and 256MB video mem set(512 caused no boot) in the config.txt, but everything ran fine with the default config.
Hello, I had a RPi 4 running Homebridge on a micro sd card before I successfully installed my channels dvr server. Now only one or the other works: when I unplug my channels hard drive, Homebridge boots up and when I remove the Homebridge sd, channels works. How can I have them working at the same time?
So, I know this is old, but for the record -- you can, of course, run Channels DVR, HomeBridge and Pi-Hole on the same system at the same time, without difficulty. (And without Docker, too.) Mine is also running chrony time server and the various services to make it work as a typical NAS. It's a Linux box, it's made to do this stuff. I used to do similar things on an old 486 -- and the Pi is much more computationally powerful than that, while drawing much less electrical power.
I do have a minor annoyance where, every time I start the Channels app, I get a warning message that the DVR service can't be found. Then, after a few seconds, it goes to the guide (or whatever). Every time. I dunno if this is due to load on the server, but I guess it could be? There's no apparent lag during playback.
I get this too, randomly. On both tvos and iOS. I’m so used to it now I just sit and stare at the “we can’t find your server” screen for a few seconds and then it magically vanishes and everything loads up. I haven’t been able to find a pattern of when and why it happens. Next time it happens I’ll submit diagnostics from the client, in hopes it helps.
Got a recording of this on iOS today. Took a few seconds to start the recording, so the screen you see probably displayed for 5-10 seconds after app launch before finding the DVR. No action taken by me.
