I'm thinking of having a dedicated machine for channels DVR server, so that my family desktop is less taxed/tasked. I saw the minimum requirements, but was wondering if anyone has personal experience with re-purposing an old Win 10 PC laptop---and plusses vs. minuses?
Should work just fine. Just make sure to turn off sleep mode
Old Laptops make perfect home servers.
Pros: Small footprint, quiet, integrated battery backup, cost-effective
Channels doesn't need a lot of horsepower. Depending on specs of laptop you might want to upgrade storage on laptop. You can either upgrade the internal hard drive (look up your model on youtube) or add a quality usb hard drive. I remember some members having issues with usb hard drives that did not use external power source.
If you choose to keep Windows do as @tmm1 turn off sleep mode. If you want to go down the linux rabbit hole Ubuntu is fairly easy. But Windows is perfectly capable of running a server. But if it's a old laptop. I might recommend installing windowd fresh. Who knows what kind of surprises lie in wait with old things installed
If you are intending to dedicate the machine to channels and/or related media purposes, I'd consider installing FreeNAS (TrueNAS Core) See: Channels DVR instalaation instructions for TrueNas Core
A dedicated NAS like TrueNAS makes the management of media and servers (including Docker containers) so much easier. It will be much more stable than a WIndows. I don't want to go off on an anti-Windows rant, so I'll just say, you'll have fun learning to install and operate TrueNAS.
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However, I would stick with what you have. Channels is not that taxing and if you are going to have an always on PC anyway, it'd be better if you only had one (single maintenance point, less electricity, etc...). That's where I ended up after this: