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Latest Ceton InfiniTV 4 Info Thread

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#1 ·

Welcome to the Latest AVS Ceton InfiniTV 4 Info Thread

Goal

I noticed there are few threads here and there and in different forums, I hope this thread can help some of the new owners to set up and troubleshoot the tuner if there is a problem.


Brief history

In 2010, after few years of R&D and speculations, a fully working CableCard tuner finally released. This is a great news for the HTPC users in US who want to watch the pay channel programming within Media Center. No more S video, RCA, component or firewire input and IR blaster from cable box to HTPC. Other benefits are HTPC will be able to record the pay channel content such as CNN, ESPN & HBO into our own HDDs instead of the cable box's hard drive. Last but not least, with CableCard tuner, we can send the cable box back to cable provider and save $12/cable box, since our HTPC will be able to do just the cable box does and much more.


Engadget review here .


Price

$199 -> http://cetoncorp.com/buy-now/

Ordering CableCard from your cable provider

Do yourself a favor, if you have not order the CableCard yet, please just tell them you need the dual stream cable card like the one we insert to Tivo. I know Ceton or your dealer will ask you to be very specific such as "Multi-Stream CableCARD M-Card". But most if not all the service operators will have no clue what you about to do and in their system they will not list it that way. According to Comcast rep when I ordered my CableCard, it listed as "dual stream cable card (TiVo)" in their system.

Official manufacture site

Official Setup Guide

http://cetoncorp.com/infinitv_support/  


Set up other than local HDD as a Recorded TV folder

Set up Kensafe iStorage server in the desired storage server and initiate local machine connects to as an iSCSI server using the instruction here .


Follow the direction here if you want to get a free 1 server lisc of Kensafe iStorage server.


Installation

 

PCIe

Official Installation Guide

Official Installation Video

 

Cannon PC installation Video at YouTube  - Video demonstrates steps for a Ceton InfiniTV 4 being installed in a PC.

Report problems to Ceton

Most likely before Ceton support will be able to help you out, you will need to send them the log. Please go to their Diagnostic Tool -> Diagnostic, describe your problem inside the top description box, click "collect information" and this tool will collect all the log. Save the log and email them. Yahoo mail and Gmail will think this is a virus after you attach and not allow you to send such log. You can use different email client or send the log via Ceton support site .


Most common problems
No TV signal

*Check your signal strength and make sure your signal strength is not -15 dBmV and more.

*Make sure you go thru the installation process, above, and activate and pairing your InfiniTV 4 tuner card with the cable provider's cable card.

Signal and Temp

Signal: From what I told by Ceton, we need the signal to be -10 dBmV to 10dBmV (some member using the Motorola signal booster to boost up the incoming signal.


I personally encountered some problems here and at the end, Comcast technician came back redo some of the coaxial wiring, removed the splitter and all fine after that. (from -15 dBmV to -1 to 3 dBmV now)

Temp: 60C to 70C (according to Ceton, anything over 70C we need to watch out) You can refer the signal and temp from their Diagnostic Tool OR you can try InfiniTV Status Media Center Plugin and after installed, it will be in the Extra section in Media Center.

"View or Listening Conflict" Media Center Message

*When you reboot and start your HTPC, this will be most likely the message displaying, about 5 to 10 secs, before the Live TV kicks in.

*According to Ceton, different AV vendors will block different ports/settings and such Windows message will appear. But with Ceton released Network Tuner Wizard, the build in tool will allows tuner to go thru different setting based on your AV software.

*Before the Official Network Tuner Wizard released in beginning of May, 11, there are few tricks to share the tuners. Different tricks or hacks can easily cause such Windows message appears.

"Video Error Files needed to display video are not installed or not working" Media Center Message

Below are what I noticed from different members to sove this problem.

* Disable "Exclusive" in the Properties of the default playback properties

* Change Windows Playback to stereo, 2 channel, and whatever speaker setting you have in Media Center

* Turn off navigation and animations sounds in Media Center

* If none of the above work, please try below and reboot.

Control Panel -> Programs -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows Features on or off.

Turn off the media features. Reboot. Then follow the same procedure to turn them back on.

Please note that you will have to re-run the Media Center Setup.

Happy Live TV and Record 4 programming at once!
 
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#753 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jhoff80 /forum/post/20817567


That number doesn't actually seem to mean the hardware revision though, because that is an upgradable firmware as well, which there's no new version for at the moment, but you can access if you're in the beta.

http://www.cetoncorp.com/infinitv/su....php#changelog

Well that defeats the purpose of calling it hardware, doesn't it? Poopies.
 
#754 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by rolodomo /forum/post/20815729


From this description, it seems like you are using the tuner locally (i.e., no streaming over a network), correct? If so, are you giving the tuner approx. 25 seconds to initialize after the computer awakens from sleep, but before starting WMC?

Yes, local tuner only at the moment. Does the ceton take this long to initialize because it has to communicate with the cable card and catv network or is it the hardware? Did the ati tuners take similar amounts of time? Just curious.
 
#755 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by crkpot /forum/post/20818211


Yes, local tuner only at the moment. Does the ceton take this long to initialize because it has to communicate with the cable card and catv network or is it the hardware? Did the ati tuners take similar amounts of time? Just curious.

Yes it's basically takes some time for things to initialize and the ATI though much quicker(in my experience was ready before I could try and use even from full boot up) also takes time before it's ready.


Also if you don't figure out causes your need to close then re-open 7MC you could use MST(media center stby tool) to automatically do it, it may have some other features that could be helpful for you as well, also if the issue was related to trying to tuner before the Ceton was ready you can set a time delay before 7MC starts after resuming from suspend.
 
#756 ·
Anyone here tried using the power DVD decoder for live TV and how does it compare to the default Microsoft one built in to MC.
 
#757 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by lovemyram4x4 /forum/post/20818358


Yes it's basically takes some time for things to initialize and the ATI though much quicker(in my experience was ready before I could try and use even from full boot up) also takes time before it's ready.


Also if you don't figure out causes your need to close then re-open 7MC you could use MST(media center stby tool) to automatically do it, it may have some other features that could be helpful for you as well, also if the issue was related to trying to tuner before the Ceton was ready you can set a time delay before 7MC starts after resuming from suspend.

Thanks for the info. I used mst on my last build and will probably install it on the new one soon. So far I'm doing the simple approach trying to install as few things as necessary to get everything working. Unfortunately it seems there's a lot of utilities and codecs needed to get htpcs working right now matter what.
 
#758 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by al210 /forum/post/20818374


Anyone here tried using the power DVD decoder for live TV and how does it compare to the default Microsoft one built in to MC.

I am using the PowerDVD 10 Decoder. Is it better? I don't know. You would really have to make some recordings, and do some exhaustive viewing comparisons which would ivolve changing decoders back and forth, over and over. I was running LAV CUVID but ran into this weird bug with CNNHD commericals blanking for a second or two then coming back and blanking again. Hence the switch to Cyberlink.


I have an exernal VP so I let it re-deinterlace the 1080P output, so for 1080i TV content I get perfect deinterlacing.. that does not fix non 1080i content sent out on a a 1080i signal (typically a lot of commercails) but for the 1080i true content it pretty much assures perfect 1080P out of 1080i.


In theory except for deinterlacing which is done in hardware most of the time the output of the various MP2 video decoders should be identical.. I don't believe that is really how it is. But if done to spec, the output should be identical from any MP2 decoder... these are pretty mature decoders at this stage. MS does know what they are doing with encoding and decoding video.


I choose to use the PowerDVD decoder because I can. I think it looks okay, I am not prepared to try and prove it is better than the M$ version. Real improvement would come if we could use madVR with with live television output. And the only way that is done right now is with OTA and JRiver.. the quality improvement is noticeable over DXVA which is the native rendering system Windows uses with hardware deinterlacing.


PowerDVD vs. M$ well there may be an advantage to PowerDVD but I can't be sure and even though I use PowerDVDE, I remain skeptical. It does not seem to hurt anything.. I don't know what other versions of PowerDVD I tried. I had trouble with one decoder and I think it was a Cyberlink decoder, heck it could have been an earlier LAV CUVID even ... anyway, I tried the decoder at one point but it broke Cable TV playback. WMC would come back with the message this decoder does not support protected content playabck. I wanna say it was PowerDVD 11 but I only had a trial version of that. Version10 seems to work with no glitches and that is all I am prepared to claim.. is it better? Perhaps, but it is unlikely, and if it is better, it is not so much better as to be patently clear it its better.


Things rendered by madVR are obviously better and yet some will claim that is a placebo effect. So go figure!
 
#759 ·
There is something more going on with the Ceton and being ready than when WMC wakes from sleep. My Ceton box does not go to sleep unless commanded. I use the Network Tuner sharing. Media Cetner doe not need to be running on the Ceton host for the Network clients to access their assigned tuners.


So lets say at 8 AM I wake up the Ceton box. An hour later I am sitting in front of a client PC and start Media Center and choose a station from the guide. I could very well get a blue screen, however if someone was wathcing a cable channel on the host PC already, it is almost guarranted that my client would get a tuner immediate and playback would begin right away.


So there is some timing or power saving going on and the Ceton is in a twilight state. I assume it could be windows is allowed to turn off power to the PCI devices, either the nic, or the Ceton and you have a kind of a wake on lan, situation which Media Center is not really prepared to understand since it thinks TV tuners are always ready.
 
#760 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by gtgray /forum/post/20818789


There is something more going on with the Ceton and being ready than when WMC wakes from sleep. My Ceton box does not go to sleep unless commanded. I use the Network Tuner sharing. Media Cetner doe not need to be running on the Ceton host for the Network clients to access their assigned tuners.


So lets say at 8 AM I wake up the Ceton box. An hour later I am sitting in front of a client PC and start Media Center and choose a station from the guide. I could very well get a blue screen, however if someone was wathcing a cable channel on the host PC already, it is almost guarranted that my client would get a tuner immediate and playback would begin right away.


So there is some timing or power saving going on and the Ceton is in a twilight state. I assume it could be windows is allowed to turn off power to the PCI devices, either the nic, or the Ceton and you have a kind of a wake on lan, situation which Media Center is not really prepared to understand since it thinks TV tuners are always ready.

Is your networked client wired or wireless?
 
#761 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj /forum/post/20818825


Is your networked client wired or wireless?

Wired wprls, wireless is crapshoot. I have made it work, know how to do it in my house. Ugraded to a better router and broke it (ironic isn't it). I have ethernet connections everywhere anyway. I don't have any problem with OTA wirless, but my Netgear 4000 does not handle the Ceton well. I am sure I could work it out but it is low on my priority list, The D-link 825 did the Ceton quite well but the range was limited. I could go back to the D-Link and puts some amps on the antennas and most likely get the range... in my home this is for notebooks anyway and each has its own nic and is probably a special case. I wanted to be able to sit on the back porch and watch HD cable on the notebook. Then we got five straight months of near or above 100 degree weather.. screw that.


If I was trying to do it on desktops with wirless I would use a lot of antenna both on the client and the router. Big antennas and amplifiers mean good locks, intel makes some great wireless notebook nics that you can by PCIex adapter for that have 3 antenna jacks.. opportunities there to make hot signals.
 
#762 ·
I have problems with my tuning adapter staying on. Even though I set my HTPC to never sleep, hibernate, etc, when I turn my tv and receiver back on my TA isn't working (confirmed by Ceton diagnostics). A few moments later I hear the tone for new hardware and my TA then initializes and is ready to go. How can I keep it from turning off? Core i3, Windows 7 Home Premium. THANKS!
 
#764 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jimwhite /forum/post/20824025


disable the power savings on the USB port/hub in device mangler....

I went into the device manager and tried that for all the devices there. I only found a "Power Management" tab (that allowed me to make changes) under both the "Generic USB Hub" and "USB Root Hub". Neither had the setting checked to "Allow the computer to turn off the device to save power".


The actual Tuning Adapter Peripheral (Ceton) device had no changeable power settings.


Any other ideas?
 
#766 ·
I purchased and installed my Ceton tuner yesterday with the Comcast truck roll scheduled for Friday. I bought a 2 TB HDD and replaced a 1 TB HDD from my server with it (server now has 3x 2 TB HDDs). I then placed the 1 TB HDD in my HTPC which only had a 64 GB SSD. The 1 TB HDD will only be used for Recorded TV storage and maybe an image of the SSD. This should take care of my recording storage need. I can also archive back to the server if needed.


The installation and setup seemed to go off without a hitch. My tuner needed a firmware update to 1.0.9.5 I think. It picked up all 15 of my ClearQAM stations and my guide also shows the entire Comcast WOM data. I had read that the ClearQAM may or may not work without a cablecard installed. None of the Comcast channels worked, only the ClearQAM ones with the XX.X format (channels 2 and 802 didn't work, but 2.1 did). I'm not messing with the guide cleanup until after the cablecard is installed.


I hit record on four channels and everything started recording as expected. Hopefully things go well when the cablecard arrives, but I have low expectations.
 
#767 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj /forum/post/0


Hopefully things go well when the cablecard arrives, but I have low expectations.

You will probably know more than they do. You will need to get the cable card ID through the Ceton diagnostic screen so they can call their tech support and pair it up.


Make sure the cable card is installed properly in the Ceton. I have a Motorola card and the Motorola logo sticker was visible through the square window on the Ceton. I had it installed backwards and could not get 7MC to recognize a cable card until I flipped it. Don't plug it in/out with power on.
 
#769 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj /forum/post/0


Anyone know how to access the Ceton Diagnostic page (192.168.200.1) on a different PC across a network?

This is just a guess, but if you have network sharing of tuners enabled, maybe the Ceton diagnostic program will work on the second PC?
 
#770 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj /forum/post/20835630


Anyone know how to access the Ceton Diagnostic page (192.168.200.1) on a different PC across a network?

type the ip address into the address bar of your browser.. you are making it way too complicated. Also look in Network and you will see the Ceton, you can doubleclick it and the page will come up if I recall correctlyl.
 
#771 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by gtgray /forum/post/20836414


type the ip address into the address bar of your browser.. you are making it way too complicated. Also look in Network and you will see the Ceton, you can doubleclick it and the page will come up if I recall correctlyl.

I'm talking about from another PC, not the one that has the Ceton installed on it. My network is on 192.168.1.X and the Ceton is on 192.168.200.X on my HTPC. Before I go in messing with my network configuration I was wondering if someone else has attempted this.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jreese831 /forum/post/20835737


This is just a guess, but if you have network sharing of tuners enabled, maybe the Ceton diagnostic program will work on the second PC?

I figured this might enable it, but I don't have tuner sharing enabled and have no current need to.
 
#772 ·
Quick Question

When sharing 1 of the 4 streams with a 2nd computer



Can comp #2 watch live tv AND record a different channel (e.g. use multiple streams) at the same time if nobody else is using any of the streams

or

can it only do 1 at a time since only 1 is shared



Second question

If I share 1 of the 4 streams with comp #2

Can my main computer use all 4 streams if the comp #2 isn't using its stream?


Question 3

When comp #2 schedules recording is recording stored in comp #1 ?


Question 4

Any rumors when 6 tuner model available?

Any rumors on price?

Any rumors on extra features?


Thanks in advance

Eddie
 
#773 ·
No. You've got to share the exact number that you wish to have available to the second PC. If you only share one tuner then you will only be able to use three on the main and one on the secondary.


If you wish for them to be dynamically available then you should consider the HDHomeRun Prime or hope for an update for the Ceton.


Using extenders does not require you to use network tuner sharing.
 
#774 ·
Got the ceton paired last night. First csr wanted a lot of different numbers, and couldn't get it to work. Called back, this guy only needed the host id and data id and got it working.


Certain channels that I get on my cable box don't come in on the ceton. Says subscription required. HDNET, for instance. Anything I can do about this?


When I go to settings>tv signal>activate digital cable, I get "Your computer is not digital ready. You will no be able to set it up for use with a CableCard". I also saw this message when I ran the initial live tv setup wizard, but it seemed to be ignored, since everything else in the wizard went ok and when it was done I was able to watch live tv. Possibly related to why I don't get all my channels? I will try running the setup again.


Thanks again
 
#775 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by sievers /forum/post/20837249


Got the ceton paired last night. First csr wanted a lot of different numbers, and couldn't get it to work. Called back, this guy only needed the host id and data id and got it working.


Certain channels that I get on my cable box don't come in on the ceton. Says subscription required. HDNET, for instance. Anything I can do about this?


When I go to settings>tv signal>activate digital cable, I get "Your computer is not digital ready. You will no be able to set it up for use with a CableCard". I also saw this message when I ran the initial live tv setup wizard, but it seemed to be ignored, since everything else in the wizard went ok and when it was done I was able to watch live tv. Possibly related to why I don't get all my channels? I will try running the setup again.


Thanks again

Did you run the Digital Cable Adviser that is located under the Extras Gallery?
 
#776 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj /forum/post/20836688


I'm talking about from another PC, not the one that has the Ceton installed on it. My network is on 192.168.1.X and the Ceton is on 192.168.200.X on my HTPC. Before I go in messing with my network configuration I was wondering if someone else has attempted this.

For easy access to the Ceton web interface, and other reasons, I assign a static IP address to the InfiniTV4 that is on the same subnet as the rest of the network. It can be accessed from any PC after that. Personally, I have a folder in internet explorer with all of my (numerous) network devices bookmarked so I can interface with them easily.


I did notice that configuring the Ceton as static was slightly confusing to WMC, and I had to go through the setup procedure twice to get the static IP address to 'stick' in WMC. Perhaps the latest FW/SW is better in this regard. It was worth it, nice to not have to wonder what DHCP address your network devices picked up.
 
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