[elsmandino]

A few recent threads have inspired me to consider using an ARM device for PVR purposes.

Although the latest RPi seems like a good candidate, I think I am going to go with a Rock64 - please feel free to suggest anything better out there.

I have a Digbit R1 on my network and the idea is to connect a hard drive directly to the Rock64 (rather than recording directly to my NAS).

I have a few initial questions:

1. How much RAM should I go for?  Is tempting just to go for the maximum 4GB as it is not that much more expensive.
2. What sort of hard drive can I connect to the device, before I start needing additional power?
3. What is the eMMc module? Should I use this in preference to an SD card?
4. How well does the Rock64 perform generally?  Is it as stable as a RPi?

Thanks

[noggin]

A few recent threads have inspired me to consider using an ARM device for PVR purposes.

Although the latest RPi seems like a good candidate, I think I am going to go with a Rock64 - please feel free to suggest anything better out there.

I have a Digbit R1 on my network and the idea is to connect a hard drive directly to the Rock64 (rather than recording directly to my NAS).

I have a few initial questions:

1. How much RAM should I go for?  Is tempting just to go for the maximum 4GB as it is not that much more expensive.
2. What sort of hard drive can I connect to the device, before I start needing additional power?
3. What is the eMMc module? Should I use this in preference to an SD card?
4. How well does the Rock64 perform generally?  Is it as stable as a RPi?

Thanks

I'd also suggest you have a look at the ODroid HC1. It's got a built in USB->SATA bridge and power for a 2.5" HDD (there is one for a 3.5" HDD too I think)  I am running it with an HD Homerun network tuner (though have also used a Sat>IP tuner in the past)

I run a self compiled TV Headend and Open Media Vault on it and it runs very nicely indeed.

[elsmandino]

Thanks noggin - I really do like the look of that HC1.

Ideally, I would love to run Openmediavault (with MYSQL) and TVHeadend off an SSD drive, with a 6TB 3.5" HDD for recording and a second 4TB 3.5" for storage.

This being the case, do you think the RockPro64 would be the best solution, with the option of the PCIe 2xSata card for the two hard drives?

If I did go down this route,however, I am starting to think whether it might just be easier to get one of these instead:

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/J3455-ITX/index.us.asp, with a Pico PSU

or even waiting to see what the Odroid N2 offers?