Unfortunately WD MyCloud makes no sense whatever for people who already own either a Mac or a different NAS. Nope, the Channels team have their work cut out needing to support multiple platforms simultaneously in order to have a large enough potential customer base who can buy in without major additional outlay on equipment.
But I’m sure they already realise that!
I don’t understand why you say that the mycloud makes no sense? I’m a all Mac house and use a mycloud cause I don’t want to leave my iMacs on 24/7.
Clearly mycloud makes sense for you since you already own one! I on the other hand have already spent several hundred pounds on a Synology NAS and nothing is going to persuade me to spend a further £150 on a mycloud just to run Channels DVR. So if only mycloud were supported, I’d be a lost customer. I do have a Mac, however, and would be very happy to run channels DVR on it (leaving it on 24x7 is a non-issue: it can just sleep, auto-wake to record then auto-sleep again afterwards). So supporting Mac and my cloud gains me as a customer again whilst keeping you as a customer too (whether you choose to run on Mac or mycloud)
If you extend the logic out beyond just you and me to all the various makes and models of NAS, the overwhelmingly most sensible route in terms of maximising customer base is to support Mac + as many different NAS platforms as possible. Because Mac is the one single platform that ‘captures’ the maximum number of households who either have no NAS or one of the tens of NAS models that inevitably will be on the ‘unsupported’ list.
So then the only question becomes the priority order in which to support NASs in addition to Mac (which the developers have said they’ve already developed for anyway). And in answer to that, despite being a Synology owner I can see the logic of putting MyCloud at the top for the simple reason that if you’re a non-NAS, non-computer household that’s the cheapest route in plus it has good market share amongst those households with a NAS.
I agree with you. I miss understood your original post. You didn’t mean that MyCloud won’t work, but that it won’t work for you and other people that may have already spent a lot of money on different equipment.
The guys at channels have a big task ahead of them. I think the survey that they are running will play a relatively big part on hardware that they initially support. I hope everyone goes and votes in the survey so that they can get a good statistical feel for the equipment layout of the community.
Yeah I realised my post was confusingly worded. When I said “WD MyCloud makes no sense whatever for people who already own either a Mac or a different NAS” what I actually meant was “WD MyCloud makes no sense whatever for people who own either only a Mac and no NAS, or a different NAS”.
I’m quite sure the team will do all they can to support a variety of divices. The poll just stands as a way for them to understand which ones are the most popular and to aim for the largest customer bases first. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this rolled out on Mac and a variety of NAS simultaneously when the main launch happens. During the Beta stage I think we’ll see it appearing on the Mac, then stagger across the NAS’s in order of popularity.
I’m sure we’ll all be happy with the outcome in the end.
For anyone asking why they would write for the mac first, my guess is that its easier. These guys are iOS developers (obviously) and since the appletv, iphone and mac OS all can use the same language its a no brainer. They’ll be able to crank out the mac much faster. In linux, Im guessing they’ll use C or C++. Im sure they know C as most developers start there but it may not be their everyday language.
Im on board with the NAS solution as I dont have a mac on 24/7 but it does make since why that would be first.
My vote would be for FreeNAS / BSD support (this would likely dovetail nicely with developing MacOS and Linux support as well).
Those external hard drives look very sleek, which make/model are they?
They are LaCie Porsche Design desktop drives. The darker PC version.
http://www.lacie.com/gb/en/products/desktop-storage/porsche-design-desktop-pc/
They are now an old model. I had a little trouble to get the 5Gb example recently. Since my Macmini only has USB 2 they are a bit slow but get there in the end.
I also use a 1Tb FireWire 800 drive for faster needs.
Add a vote for Mac, my Mac Mini stays on all day and I do not own a NAS(well other then a time capsule).
Docker Container for the Channels DVR to run in a NAS is an excellent idea (as long as it works) to reduce development costs.
WDMyCloud… Maybe even can be something the user doesn’t have to install anything (no server software) on the drive, just create a shared folder were the app can store the recorded programming/settings and you point this shared folder on the app…, by doing it this way, compatibility opens a lot… but don’t know if it would be feasible.
I know it is a different kind of software, but “Infuse” does this by reading directly from a shared folder on the network, unlike “Plex” which requires server software to be installed. “Infuse” even does live transcoding without a hitch, unlike Plex which requires a NAS with a good processor to do all the transcoding, etc.
Recently bought a HDHR Connect and will probably be buying the Channels app for my Apple TV 4.
I recently posted in another thread asking what OS will the DVR back end run on and stumbled across this thread. I know I’m out numbered with this comment but… I vote for a Windows DVR back end/or straight up Linux .deb install. (I hate working with containers 
And I saw another comment about a monthly fee for the DVR program guide once it’s released… that true? How much will it be? $5/mo? $2?
They have only announced the DVR Beta will start in the Fall and it will not be Free. I would say in about a month or two we should know the cost of the DVR Backend but they have not disclosed it. Since there is a cost for Guide Data most speculate there will be some type of subscription. I prefer annual but no idea what they will end up doing.
Thanks for the info!
Really hoping for a Windows or Linux .deb install of the DVR back end. I don’t have a Mac and really don’t want to go buy one JUST for a DVR. While Channels looking amazing as a front end to my HDHR Connect, not being able to use the DVR functionality (if they go with a Mac/NAS/docker for the DVR) will kind of suck.
Not sure about the docker part. I think they would have a normal Linux since they said Mac and Linux first. But they may clear it up for us soon.
MacOS X for sure. But would be cool to see it on NVidia Shield.
Still using this docker or have you switched to the plugin?