Latest Ceton InfiniTV 4 Info Thread - Page 6

Originally Posted by hlkc

I don't and never use any codec within WMC.

I will strongly advise you NOT to install Network Tuner Sharing unless you are sharing the tuner with other HTPC. You might open up another can of worm.

It sounds like you have a working/tweak WMC box and then add Ceton in, right? Remember in order for Ceton working with MS approve/comply all the policies, I am sure they are design/building the hardware and software based on MS and FCC regulations. Please remember that we are just a very small % in the picture and I'm sure they are aiming this to a much bigger retail market out there maybe Dell, Lenovo... the average home users and soccer moms. With that said, all the codec and modifications you have done most likely are causing the troubles with Ceton, fighting with the very tight and straight standard. If you want to have a problem free STB in your HTPC using Ceton, you might want to consider to have a clean OS install and hangs off the box. I can tell you that I have only Ceton as TV player and AnyDVD, VCD, TMT5, MyMovies for DVD/BD player in this box, OC Asus P8Z68 V PRO + i5 2500K, it is working flawlessly, 99%+ uptime.

Originally Posted by MarcSparks

Haha what? What else would I share the tuners with? My cat?

Originally Posted by NNate

My Ceton is arriving tomorrow via UPS. I was curious about how to best go about making it play nice with my existing system which currently uses 2 HDHomeruns.

What's the best way to get them setup and working nicely together in the guide? I want my existing local channels to have the same guide information as from the Ceton. Will just running the TV setup in Media Center again work okay once I get the cablecard installed? Should I clear out all my existing guide information first using various guides on the internet?

Anyone have first hand experience they'd care to share?

Originally Posted by elockett

My understanding is that Ceton now supports streaming from a PC with their tuner to client PCs. If my interpretation of this is correct, it essentially means Ceton internal tuners can replicate what the pending Silicondust HD Homerun Prime will do from the start. I know I will want 6 to 8 tuners ultimately to feed 3 to 4 rooms. I already have the client HTPCs required for these rooms so the only question now is to go with Ceton or the HD Homerun Prime. I already have a Ceton (yes I paid full pop for it a couple of months ago ) and it works well, but it's currently installed my living room HTPC which I really envision as a media client. Thus, I like the idea of a tuner-server but I'm wondering if it makes more sense to build a dedicated Windows-based tuner server and add another Ceton, or sell the Ceton and just go with the six-tuner HD Homerun Prime? Here are the pros and cons I can think of:

• Implementing the 6 tuner HD Homerun Prime will ultimately cost less than a 8 tuner Ceton solution
• Implementing the HD Homerun solution should be less labor intensive, as it would just be a matter of installing/configuring the device. With the Ceton I'd have to buy a rackmount case and build a new PC to accommodate two Ceton tuners. This isn't a big deal, but it is a factor.
• OTOH, my understanding is that the Ceton will allow a user-determined number of tuners to be assigned to specific PC clients. I find this very appealing because I can prevent guests from potentially becoming tuner hogs. I don't know if the HD Homerun Prime can do this.
• I've already invested in the Ceton, so why take the inevitable hit on sale?
• Though the 8 tuner Ceton solution would definitely be more expensive up front, it would also be more potentially scaleable with a single box because I can ensure the PC mobo and processing power supports a third card in the future if necessary. I don't envision this in the near-term but one never knows.

A couple of potentially related factoids:

• I will have a large NAS (36TB) running MS WHS v1 running by the end of the week which would have plenty of room for TV recordings. All HTPC clients will run WHS connector software.
• I do have a dedicated room for the NAS with a rack, UPS, and single Gb Ethernet port. The "core" Ethernet switch, router, and cable modem are located in another room. Unfortunately because of the way the home is arranged and wired, I can't co-locate the NAS or tuner-server there.

So what do you all think? Sell the Ceton and go with HD Homerun Prime or build a Ceton tuner server?

Originally Posted by gtgray

I aussume you are talking about using the HD Homeuns for ATSC from antenna. If so is is seamless.. no special accomodations are required. Cable uses only a channle number say 645 CNBCHD on my area Comcast. Our local PBS is 8.1,8.2, 8.3 etc. so the live together in the Media Center guide without any effort. It is automatic when you setup TV signal...

Originally Posted by hlkc

I did not see you mention any your set up and I thought you are just trying to fix your problem using the share tool. All I am trying to say is you might be better off to focus fixing one problem now before adding other things into the mix.



I agree and notice that many people are happy with the WMC/MKV MB bitstream set up. But as the reasons I stated in my reply, I went different route and not using codec to bitstream instead I back up my BD/DVD to ISO and bistreaming them via TMT5. In this case, I don't need any 3rd part codec and make sure my Ceton not fighting any WMC codec internally.

Originally Posted by SLAYER6669

If you paid full price for the Ceton and sell now, you're going to end up losing some money based on the current pricing. I'm not sure what Ceton plans on doing passed June 30th (end of the instant rebate) with their pricing since HD Homerun Prime is coming out soon after. They will surely have to do something to compete? Don't forget the Homerun Prime 6 tuner will also require you to have a two cable cards, and two coax connections which is rather inconvenient IMO.

With the Ceton, I think (and I could be wrong here) you can only assign the tuners manually to each specific HTPC like you mentioned, I'm not sure if the HD Homerun has this capability since its connected through the network. You might be better off waiting it out for Ceton to release their 6 tuner version so you will only need one cablecard/coax connection, but who knows when that will be and pricing. My guess is if their MSRP remains $399 on the 4 tuner, then the 6 tuner will run $599.

Originally Posted by vladd

The Prime will be able to do this. Waiting for CableLabs approval on this was probably one of the things that held up the Prime's release date.

Each tuner can be used by one PC at a time. The tuners are not tied to a specific PC when they are not in use, so you could have 5 PCs and the 3 tuners in the HDHomeRun PRIME, and any 3 of the PCs could be watching live TV at the same time.

Originally Posted by tmservo

I'm interested in someone grabbing hold of one, though, because unless my math is super shaky, supporting 6 feeds out would basically necessitate gigabit connectivity from the SiliconDust to be reliable if multiple HTPCs were to touch it

Originally Posted by vladd

Also remember that it only has to support 3 feeds out. The 6-tuner version is a dual 3-tuner in one case: 2 coax connections and 2 network connections.

Originally Posted by vladd

Just for reference, this was posted by Jason from Silicondust:


http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9494

Originally Posted by captain_video


Check out this thread:

http://www.missingremote.com/forums/...nitv4-282-ebay

The InfiniTV4 will not work with MythTV. It will only work with SageTV for channels that are flagged as copy freely. You need to install the SageDCT utility along with SageTV V7.0 or later in Windows 7 to use the InfiniTV4 with SageTV.

Originally Posted by elockett

I read this thread and as a result I'm not sure the HDHRP can do what I want after all. Jason specifically stated that tuner allocation between multiple PCs will be done dynamically, and that said allocation will happen on a first come-first serve basis. Thus, as an example if I only had a 3 tuner HDHRP to feed three PCs, and one user decided to watch one show and record two others simultaneously (which I do on occasion), the other two PCs would not have access to any tuner until at least one of them was released by the user tasking all three of them.

There's nothing wrong with dynamic tuner allocation per-se, but it would be nice to be able to define the maximum number of tuners a individual PC could tap simultaneously.

Originally Posted by SLAYER6669

Just curious how much RAM everyone has in their HTPCs with a Ceton Card? I'm having some performance issues here. I have 4GB of ram and when I open WMC and watch any premium channels (hbo/cinemax etc.), the used memory creeps up to high 90s/100% within a few minutes and then I start getting stuttering issues on the picture/sound. If I press stop on live TV the memory is still used until I close WMC and then its freed. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by kevbrad66

I am running a Gigabyte h67a-ud3h-b3, i5 2500k with 8gb RAM and a c300 64gb SSD/ 2TB WD green combo, and I have similar problems watching HBO, etc. It takes longer for the stutter to manifest, given the greater amount of RAM, but I get the same stutter, and it will ultimately end up crashing WMC. Re-enabling the page-file makes "getting through" an entire episode of Game of Thrones feasible, but there are frame drop-outs still. Streaming the same exact episode to an Xbox from that machine is seamless and stutter free.

I'm pulling my hair out, because I wanted to replace a 3 DVR DirecTV system, but the wife will have none of it at this point. I'll try a complete rebuild after GoT has run its 1st season course - and we've watched them all.

Originally Posted by SLAYER6669

Ouch, well that doesn't inspire much hope. I also had WMC crash once the memory hits 100%. I figured maybe it was just because those channels maybe needed a bit more ram and what's another $40 for another 4gb after all I've spent at this point. I certinly can't blame your wife, its pretty unacceptable to have to deal with that potential issue every time you want to sit down and watch your shows. What would you do differently on the next build though? You already have the i5 + 8 gb ram which should be more then sufficient for watching TV. Something else must be going on here.

Originally Posted by lovemyram4x4

When you do tuner set up in MC you don't have choose all available tuners, for the above mentioned you could just setup 1 or 2 of the 3 available tuners.