Latest Ceton InfiniTV 4 Info Thread - Page 51

Both fans are running as well as the stock CPU fan and the Bios is set to manage the speed based on temps...so far, it's very quiet. There is some noticeable noise at night when everything is turned off (mostly from the stock CPU heatsink & fan), but you can't hear it at all with any TV channel turned on.

In my particular setup, the PC sits in a cubby hole, so the noise is more from the echo against the inside than anything else...the cheap little media console that I have has doors, but the PC gets extremely hot even without the Ceton card because it's a cheap console and has terrible ventilation...so I leave the doors open. Just for fun, I pulled it out and the noise is significantly less.

To put it in context, the Western Digital drive is the loudest thing.

As for temps, I don't recall off the top of my head but watching TV or Blu-ray and browsing the net is probably the highest load I'll put on it and I recall it being something very low like 40 C??? Like I said, not too sure because I only looked at it once and it wasn't even close being an issue.

I did order 2 additional 120mm fans just in case, but looks like I just wasted money on those as I probably won't use them. I might replace the stock fans that came with the case as these are supposedly better, but I'm not sure I want to invest the time to rip everything out if I don't have to either.

Just wanted to share my experiences getting the InfiniTV up and running. This is long but hopefully it's informative/entertaining.

For reference, I just built an HTPC with an i5-2500, Gigabyte GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3 mobo, 8 GB 1600 RAM, 64 GB SSD, and 2x 2TB drives. Basically, I used the Assassin guides and went for the high end version.

I installed the InfiniTV 4 PCIe version and called my cable provider (TWC in SW Ohio) for the CableCard and TA. The rep told me they could not mail these to me and had to set up an installation by one of their techs for $19.95. The first available installation date was 2 weeks from then. I know they are supposed to give these to me, but knowing how out of touch TWC is, I said "fine."

The day after, I tried chatting with a TWC rep online to see if I could get the CC/TA quicker and through the mail. They told me it was available at their retail store.

So, I drove 35 minutes to the nearest retail store, stood in line for about 30 minutes (it was a big rush for some reason), and was unsurprised to discover they were out of the CC/TA. I had the rep there look up other stores nearby to see if they had any in stock. There was another store about 40 minutes from there that had one CC and two TA's left. Knowing that I might need two TA's for this install, I asked them if they could hold them for me. The rep took my name and relayed the information via chat with the rep at the other store.

I drove 40 minutes to the other store to find out that they had given away the CC/TA and they only had the one TA left. I asked if they could let me have the TA because I was really dubious of me ever getting a CC/2 TA's from them. They said no, so I just left. Before I left, though, I did look at the TA to check the model. It was a Cisco STA1520, and I did verify later to see if these were capable of tuning 4 streams. Honestly, I was not surprised by any of this. This is par for the course when it comes to TWC.

I opened a ticket with Ceton to see if they could intervene on my behalf. They promptly responded to my ticket and did talk to TWC to see if they could get me a CC/TA.

About a week later (2 days ago), I got a random call from a TWC rep apologizing to me and assuring me they would have someone come out and give me a CC/TA the very next day. I can only assume that Ceton must have gotten through to them because I have never received this amount of attention from TWC. So, a HUGE THANKS to Ceton!

They set up an appointment and about 30 minutes later, I got a call from the tech that was assigned to work with me. Now, this guy was fairly clueless about the whole InfiniTV installation, and it even took a fair amount of hand holding to get him to navigate to TWC's own pages regarding the InfiniTV. I also had to convince him that I would be installing it and not him because I didn't trust him coming to my house and messing with my HTPC especially since I was probably not going to be the one answering the door when he got there. Still, to his credit, he was very understanding and he agreed to let me be in charge and to ask him for any help I would need. He was also genuinely curious about this new product, so I was more than happy to show him how it worked.

He came to my house yesterday and I was able to meet him. He did bring the things I had asked for. It took a little bit of time to get the TA up and running. I didn't realize the TA would be that much of a hassle, and I am glad he was there for that. I am also glad he had a splitter and extra cables. We had some issues getting the CC recognized. Both of us couldn't figure out what was wrong even after we mutually agreed on the way to install it based on the pictures in the installation guide. Then, my wife unceremoniously took the card out, flipped it over, and bam! It worked!

The tech then paired up my CC/TA with my TWC account settings (we do have HBO and Showtime and both appeared to work as intended). The rest of the installation as far as getting the tuners set up with WMC was a breeze. Luckily, I didn't need a second TA. The next steps will be to see if it stays stable. I will eventually get an Xbox to see if I can extend the TV tuner and recorded shows over my network. While it took a couple of hours to get the CC/TA installed and running, I am more than happy with the service from this tech. Yes, he was clueless about the InfiniTV, but he was a very nice guy and very helpful as far as getting the TA/CC set up. On top of that, I hope I taught him a bit about what the InfiniTV is and maybe he can pass that knowledge onto other techs and/or apply it on his future encounters with the InfiniTV. By far, it was the best encounter with a TWC rep I have ever had.

As for the InfiniTV performance, I am very happy with it so far. Shows look just as good as before on my HD TV. Browsing through the WMC guide is a billion times better/faster than any cable/satellite STB I have ever used.

Finally, I will say that so far Ceton seems like they have good customer service. Also, if you can get a tech that is nice/helpful, that will make everything smoother.

I've had the PCIe Ceton card for awhile and it's been good to me so I decided to try adding the USB version for more tuners... wow what a mistake.

I spent DAYS trying to figure out why the new tuners would just randomly die when I tried to test all 8 right after finishing the setup.

I can't believe Ceton has known about the issue for some time now but hasn't even hinted on a fix.

Thankfully I found this thread when I did.. I'm about 3 weeks into the 30 day return policy with Newegg and with this as proof of the problem, they waived the restocking fee without question and they're even sending me a prepaid UPS label to send the brick back.

Thinking about trying the HDHomeRun PRIME instead..

Hi Bigmurphler,
Did you open a support ticket with us? We have been testing a pre-beta firmware this week which addresses an issue similar to what you are mentioning. We have provided it to customers that have tickets open with us on this issue, and the response has been positive so far. Currently, we plan on making it a full beta release tomorrow.
While I can't promise it will fix every single scenario, and I don't have any data on your scenario so I can't comment, as I said, the responses so far from customers have been promising

Yup - I remember your ticket. I reached out to TWC - I'm glad to hear they handled it well for you.


My apologies for the confusion. We are working on updating the document to avoid confusion, such as you experienced, in the future.


Thanks!

Motorola makes one that is widely used:

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CGUQ8wIwAA

No, I didn't open a ticket.. I thought it was a problem with my setup for the past few days so I've been trying everything to try to get it working... I was even close to reinstalling Windows. Then I found this thread late last night and read that a few people submitted tickets with no avail so I thought it wouldn't do me any good either.

Thank you for your response, it's greatly appreciated ... I really want the extra tuners and still have a few days left until I have to ship it back... I understand the new beta fw might not fix my scenario but I would definitely like to give it a try. Will it be posted on your site?

We typically only give out beta firmware to those that ask, and don't put it on the normal firmware download page. I'd recommend opening a ticket to get the link.

I've been discussing the random USB disconnect issue and other tuning issues with Ceton support for the past 2 months with the USB InfiniTV and not one support email has mentioned that Ceton has seen this problem before, let alone has a potential fix. I keep getting told that it's probably an issue with my TA or signal and they need more diagnostic reports.

I gave up on the Ceton last weekend, setup all the same equipment (cables, TA, cable card) with a HDHomeRun Prime and it's been up with no issues. Now I just need to figure out how to get a refund on the $300 Ceton box since I'm out of the 30 day window for newegg.

Wish me luck

Well I was hopeful.. until I saw your post and the post about the beta fw not being public. That sucks about being outside the 30 days. I would still contact Newegg, they've always been awesome and it seems if the product is defective, they're a little more lenient. I opened the RMA, gave a good description, added a link to this thread.. it auto deducted the restocking fee so I contacted their live support to see about getting it waived. I wasn't even in the chat 10 mins and like I said before, it was removed without hesitation... I didn't even ask about the return shipping, I figured that was on me but the rep offered it out of no where.

I guess I'll submit a ticket and see if I can get the beta link before I have to mail it out Tuesday. From some of the stories on here though, it sounds like I have a better chance of hitting the lottery.

Ceton USB Product Randomly Rebooting Flaw


Eric,

Does this new firmware fix the rebooting flaw?

Well I finally received a CC from TWC today. Installed the tuner card in my computer and then called TWC to get the CC activated. I waited and waited and waited and finally after about 90 minutes someone picked up. I now have the CC activated and I am able to receive the local networks (Clear QAM) stations only. I assume that when I receive my TA and get that going, I will be able to view the rest of the channels that I am paying for.

I had an excellent and instructive experience with Comcast tonight.

A recording cut out about ten minutes before it was scheduled to end. (And we couldn't delete it through 7MC.) Thinking that maybe it was time to reboot and refresh the system, I power-cycled the computer and went back into Media Center.

This time I was able to delete the program, but when we went to watch live TV, we got the dreaded "Service Unavailable" error message. No channels of any kind were coming in.

I went into the Ceton card diagnostics page, and sure enough, it was telling me that the CableCard was not working and needed to be replaced. No amount of the usual fiddling or tinkering worked. This was bad news, as we're going to be away much of the weekend, the cableco has very limited hours on Saturday, and my wife is recording five shows on Sunday night.

Hoping that I could get by with a hit to the CableCard, I called Comcast and gave the CSR my account info. When I told her (yes, it was a she) that we have a CableCard device and needed a hit, or maybe to re-pair the card, she told me, "Just take out the CableCard, wait about ten seconds, and put it back in."

"So, do I turn off the computer and then take the card out?"

"No, just take out the card. You don't need to turn anything off."

I did as instructed, and lo and behold! the TV signal came back almost at once. I said to her, "Is that really all we did? Didn't you send a signal out to the card??" And she said, "No, it was all done at your end."

I thanked her profusely, regretting having declined the pre-call offer to take a customer satisfaction survey afterward. Everything's working great again.

This sounds a lot like the advice they used to give in the old days when the set-top box was acting up -- to disconnect the coax cable, wait 60 seconds, and then screw it back in.

So, next time you can't receive channels through your InfiniTV, try this first. I know I will. Hope it saves you time and aggravation.

I've been using the new firmware for 2 days. It has not fixed my problems in my Ceton USB tuner.

-I'm still getting recordings fail with 'partial recording' errors
-tuner crashes with 'viewing or listening conflict' bluescreen during live TV
-picture freezes while watching Live TV

I'll give Ceton a little while longer to fix the USB version before I ask to have it exchanged for the PCIe model.

Gary

Heading to local Cable office today to pick up a cable card for my Ceton Infinitv. I am hoping by being there waiting when they open I will get in/out quickly, the last time I went there it was a 1hr45m wait jsut to talk to someone.

Everyone wish me luck!

Are the Gamestop units the new/slim units with HDMI? I am always concerned about the Xbox honestly. I am a old schol Xbox fanatic. I still have my original version xbox modded running strong with a 250gb all these years later. It has been great for travelling since all our games are on it, no need for disks.

But I recall the 1st few years of the 360 they had major heat and RROD issues. I would hate to get a refurb of one of those old unit and have it fail?

Last I looked a refurb @ gamestop was $140, that is much cheaper than you could build a win7 htpc when you include the $99 win7 OS..

I have been having problems with my Ceton usb tuner rebooting. My tuner would usually reboot several times a day and sometimes, (not often) might stay up for a day. I found the tuner would reboot even when WMC was not running, just having the computer booted was enough for the reboots to occur. You can tell by checking the up time using the web interface and I would also hear the Windows alert sound of a usb device being unplugged and see the blue led start flashing on the tuner.

I have a ticket opened with support and I have sent them several diagnostic outputs. They have never given me any feedback other than they know about the problem and are working to resolve it. Oh and to try a different usb cable and port.

So I started looking at my configuration and this is what I found. I had set the ip address for the tuner to static by going into the web page and un-checking dhcp and putting in a static ip. I also had set the computer up with a static ip address. I did this because I was having problems with lost tuners from my other computer that shares the tuner and thought it might help.

Now here is where I screwed up, I had set both ip's to the same address. It worked but I was getting tons of tuner reboots. So I changed the ip address's for the tuner and computer and made them unique. I did this two days ago I have not had one tuner reboot.
I would think that the fact that I had duplicate ip address's would have been seen in the diagnostic output I sent to Ceton but either no one caught it or the logs were never looked at.

I still need to do a lot more testing to see if I still have any more issues but this is the longest this thing has stayed up by far.

WOOT!! SOO glad I went early! I arrrived at the center 15min before open, and there were many cars in lot. I saw one guy waiting at door so I hustled out of car and got 3rd in line. 3 min later there were 20 people waiting! By the time the doros opened the line was close to 30.

I was out the door within 15min. came home put the card in, fired up pc, went to "setup TV signal" and it gave me my host and data ID. I called comcast and the girl asked for the info, then said she sent her signals out. I had gone thru the wizard and didn't know if all was good. skimmed the ceton menu's, had it check a channel. GOOD TO GO!

Whatching NCAA championship in HD on my 42" LCD thru the htpc as I type this!!

Hey Eric,

Has Ceton ever considered making an xbox like extender but with more functionality? I really feel something like that would help sell the infinitv's better. Just my .02!

The latest beta firmware update for the InfiniTV addresses situations reported by customers where the InfiniTV may become unavailable. While the new firmware may not address 100% of configurations, it should help many people. We're making this update available in the interest of helping affected customers while we continue to address other situations.

I wonder if some of those problems have different causes. For example, if I configure my Windows sound output device (HDMI output to my Denon AVR) to anything other than "Stereo" (even though I have 7.1 surround), then I get live TV picture freezes and errors. I have WMC set for 5 channel output to HDMI, but I still must set the windows sound device to "stereo".

The specific problem that I still have (even on stereo) is that the USB InfiniTV randomly reboots, which I can tell because the computer makes the USB disconnect sound, and the uptime on the webpage resets to zero. If that happens during a recording, the recording stops and does not restart. Those reboots happen usually within a few hours of having recordings going on all four tuners. If there are no recordings going on, it can sometimes go a day or two without a reboot.

Additionally, there is another random problem I have (on my PCIe InfiniTV as well as the USB) where WMC sometimes cannot find a tuner to use for a recording, giving a viewing or listening conflict error. Sometimes I can go a couple weeks without an error of this type, but then I can get several in a few days, resulting in partial or missed recordings.

Is the "latest beta firmware update" different from the 20111212_1_1_0_19 firmware image that was sent out to some people last month?

If so, where is this new update that Ceton is "making available"? Is there a download link, or do I need to request it with a service ticket?

I am in Dayton, Ohio and they mailed the CC and I picked up the TA.
Bryan

We aren't going to make it an "official" public beta until next week, as things are quite hectic due to CES. That said, if you would like to install it, you can download it at http://cetoncorp.com/firmware/ceton_..._1_1_2_4.IMAGE
I don't believe there are any new features in this release, so at this point, I would only recommend those having difficulty install it.

Understandable, I appreciate this much as I don't have much time. I don't need new features I just need the unit to not reboot.

I've just installed it and have been recording 8 things for about 20 minutes now which is the longer than I've been able to in the past.. so far it's looking promising.

I'm hoping it works out for you. Dealing with this issues for the last 2 months has frustrated the crap out of me. The ceton is sitting in its box waiting to go back as soon as someone responds to my ticket. I surrender!

Just to throw some more experience on the pile: I have had my USB CeInf4 for about 3 weeks in new Win7/Asrock/Intel i3 HTPC; no runs no drips no errors....until last night. Went in to WMS, then live TV and got the "no tuners available message". Waited...waited etc. the rebooted the PC, but no change. Then I decided to pull the power plug on the Ceton, waited a minute, repowered and all came back to normal. Eric: Since this was the first time time, probably stand by and not download new firmware or do you recommend something else?

Also, if I am not using the Inf4 for a day or more at a time, should I pull the power on it or leave it running all the time? I do not use the recording feature constantly.

Thanks! I wasn't sure if firmware was specific for USB, PCIe, ect. But I took a leap of faith and flashed this onto my PCIe tuner. Works great! The great thing is it seems to have fixed he lines of pixelation. I must have watched for like an hour so far, and didn't see anything that looked like it used to - 1-2 seconds of a line of pixels. I did see one where it looked like it might have did it for like uS or mS. It was so fast. But I rewinded and couldn't fit it again, which was weird cause in the past you could rewind and replay the spots of the lines of pixelation over and over if you wanted to.

So it seems to be pretty fixed to me

Edit: Seems I got over excited for nothing. It's still there:

To clarify, the linked beta firmware is compatible with all InfiniTVs - both USB and PCIe


Feel free to install it - we aren't aware of any new issues introduced in it, so worst case you'll be where you are at now.

There should be no need to unplug your InfiniTV when not using it.

@erickotz

Are there any fixes for the pixelation issue in that version of the firmware? Either installing a new firmware is having a placebo affect on me, or it is really better. I am not noticing the pixelations as much. But still see them once in a while. I guess as I watch a bigger range of channels I'll know more.

Here's the latest pixelation I just saw. It was so minor, that if I wasn't looking for it I wouldn't have spotted it. It didn't linger long so it was hard to rewind and pause on it.