Sources are Xfinity with TV Everywhere and three HDhomerun Primes. Clients will usually be five Fire TV sticks, though an Android tablet may be used occasionally. I have two ST2000NX0403 2TB 2.5" 15mm enterprise drives, though I can buy an SSD if necessary. I'm looking for recommendations for an inexpensive compact and low heat PC to be the server (used is fine).
How many remote at the same time clients do you see needing?
One, rarely, given that everyone can stream with Xfinity's app.
This is coming about because Xfinity is telling me that I have to begin paying $10 per client that connects to my second Xfinity DVR. They also informed me that because my account was misconfigured I was never using the tuners (beyond the first for local use) or storage of the second DVR I've been paying for. So its time for the second DVR to go and calculate a nice big credit. Unfortunately that means using their slave boxes that each steal a tuner from the soon to be only DVR, OR putting my hobby Channels server into production.
I do not think you can stream the Local Channels with XFINITY Stream.
You shouldn’t need too much honesty. An intel nuc running Linux, Mac mini, some people report good results with the recent beelinks. These don’t need to be current generations either. An 8th gen i5 intel nuc with your current hdd”s would be more than enough
So I'm looking at what used to be called nettops with 8th+ gen (should I move to Win11) intel mobile CPUs. Thanks!
I also prefer administering a Windows box and run channels on a Windows 10 virtual machine. It's set up and forget simple. I'd expect the same experience with Windows 11. An old laptop could be use for a low power setup and your drives attached via USB in a case. The reason 8th gen was mentioned is that is the first generation of Intel processors where the on board GPU dose a decent job of commercial skipping and encoding/decoding. I do it via CPU yet have a powerful CPU.
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I've been running Channels for myself for a couple years. It currently runs on a 12500T that is also my Plex server and daily driver. It has to have much better uptime to be accepted by the family, which means moving it off the machine that I'm always messing with. I recently got a ThinkCentre M630e with 8265U/8GB/256GB/Win10 Pro for $100 for my personal webserver. I wish I could replicate that deal. As for drives I'll probably have to sell the 2TB pair because hardly anything compact will fit and cool them. Supposedly SSDs have advanced enough that they can withstand DVR use so I may go that route.
I wound up moving the webserver to a Latitude 5179 I had in storage and using the M630e for Channels. How well each handles those roles will determine whether I get a U or T CPU based machine (and it gives me time to find another good deal). I also discovered that the SATA connection in the M630e isn't powerful enough to spin up one of those 2TB enterprise drives, so instead I'm using the 2TB Samsung P3 that has also been floating around my lab.
How much RAM does Channels server run best with (on Win 10/11)?
I allocate 1.6 GB to the Windows VM that I run channels on and it runs find with the admin interface showing 41 percent free. That free space is enough for me to login to the machine and do maintenance which is hardly ever necessary. A laptop will make a nice low power server if you set it up to continue running with the screen closed or have the screen set to sleep. Depending on how much storage you need an internal 2 TB SSD or had drive may be all you need. Otherwise use what ever you like for the OS and use a USB hard drive for your videos. I don't think you need to replace what you have unless there is an issue with them.
The 8GB I'm currently using seems to be more than enough as pagefile usage is below 5%. I noticed that the 8265U was getting throttled so I added an exhaust booster which really helps, though it still gets momentarily throttled because it takes a couple seconds to detect the warmer exhaust and kick up the speed. So far any server performance issues haven't affected the clients. No hiccups or slowdowns there (except fire stick updates). I needed another tiny server because this one is supposed to be my webserver and as luck would have it it will be again because I found a deal on something better suited for Channels, an EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini with 9600T. The most notable parts are the dual NVME and upgradability to 9900T and 32GB. Bonus: I think I can fit both in the NES shell I'm stripping out. (I'm also liking this round of upgrades that is focusing on efficiency. The CPUs in my big server and these two mini servers are two 35 watt and a 15 watt. Combined they are less than any of my past daily drivers and it is obvious how much less my air conditioner runs.)
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