Noticed that hardware transcoding wasn't available in i5 running Ubuntu 20.04. Restart computer didn't correct but restating channel-dvr service fixed it. Also noticed after restarting computer that backup wasn't created. Logs show couldn't find external usb drive that channels data is stored on. Also corrected after restarting the service. Cound it be that the channels-dvr service is starting before the usb drive is mounted fully?
2020/09/07 06:35:39.201633 [SYS] Starting Channels DVR v2020.08.21.1831 (linux-x86_64 pid:1352) in /home/randy/channels-dvr/data
2020/09/07 06:35:40.234415 [HDR] Found 1 devices
2020/09/07 06:35:41.514591 [SYS] Started HTTP Server
2020/09/07 06:35:41.724543 [DVR] Recording engine started in /media/randy/Rapid/Channels_DVR
2020/09/07 06:35:41.725346 [SYS] Bonjour service running for dvr-lenovo.local. [192.168.1.3]
2020/09/07 06:35:41.738293 [DVR] Waiting 5h24m18.261736426s until next job 1599494400-ch6159 2020 TOUR Championship
2020/09/07 06:35:41.773280 [ERR] Could not create backup: stat /media/randy/Rapid/Channels_DVR: no such file or directory
2020/09/07 06:35:48.054489 [NAT] Successfully mapped port 8089 using upnp
With regards towards the hardware decoder: Ensure that the user the channels-dvr process runs under has access to the video hardware. Usually this means ensuring the user is a member of the render group. (It used to be the video group, but permissions in /dev/dri were changed with 20.04 IIRC, and the group ownership changed to render.) If you don't want to change the group permissions, you can probably also modify your udev rules to change the video hardware ownership upon startup.
For USB: ensure that the drive is indeed mounted before starting. One way to make sure it's not a problem is to give the drive both a permanent mount point, and put it in your fstab.
Thanks for the suggestions. Had some corruption on a drive that I repaired. Still the same issue. Restarting the channels-dvr service after reboot fixes issue. Saw this posted once and will consider trying. Adding local-fs.target to Systemd channels service in the wants and after lines. Hoping developer would chime in before I tried it.