Latest Ceton InfiniTV 4 Info Thread - Page 53

Originally Posted by bryansj

All the commercial skipping software has to do is analyze the file and create a separate file (such as .xml) that has the skip location timestamps defined. The player would use that file to automatically skip to the correct location in the show. I think that is similar to what the programs do anyway, they just have trouble analyzing the .wtv files.

Originally Posted by bryansj

All the commercial skipping software has to do is analyze the file and create a separate file (such as .xml) that has the skip location timestamps defined. The player would use that file to automatically skip to the correct location in the show. I think that is similar to what the programs do anyway, they just have trouble analyzing the .wtv files.

Originally Posted by tgrinch

Very cool - didn't know how that worked. I always assumed it created a new file with the commercials removed. Sounds promising if possible!

Originally Posted by sgbroimp

Eric, All: Well it happened again last night. Started up the PC and no tuners found message in WMS. Reboot PC again did not help. Pull power off the Ceton and bingo, tuners right on line again.

Question: Is doing a full shutdown of the PC with the USB CetonInf4 still powered contributing to this issue? Maybe a no-no or maybe some PC settings I need to change? Have had no failures while running, no dropped recordings etc.

Originally Posted by Jobber8742

okay, maybe I'm blind, how do I set up Network Tuners? The help says it's included in the driver download and can be accessed in the Ceton tab in WMC, but I can't find it. The links to download it directly are all dead. So, how do I set this up? I want to share one tuner. I have the internal card if that matters. Thanks.

Originally Posted by makomako

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.

Originally Posted by makomako

I do think that setting up the tuner and computer to both use static ip's did help with the lost tuner problem. Try it and see.

I installed the beta firmware and had one reboot about two hours after installing it. I did send the diagnostic logs in to Ceton of this beta firmware crash but as usual they did not respond. One would think that they would be interested in this crash. The good news is since that one reboot my tuner has been up for eight days straight.

The beta firmware seems to fix a lot of problems. The channel changes are much faster. The difference between the original and beta firmware is like night and day. I don't know how they had the balls to sell this thing with the original firmware. They still have some problems to fix but it is much better.

The thing that really gets me is the fact that Ceton doesn't mention anything about these problems on the support section of the Ceton web page. They have a news section that never mentions it. I wasted a lot of my time on this and the only way I found out about the beta firmware was by reading this forum and its posts about it.

Originally Posted by flocko

Just purchased my pci version of the ceton . My God , what happened to a product that worked pretty good in the first 1/3 to 1/2 of this thread to a product that has become a real pita to set up and more importantly , keep set up

Do I have to have a static ip cause Time Warned does not allow that, in my area any way's . I called and asked the question once before on an unrelated issue to the Ceton ?

Originally Posted by RobbyTV

where is there a guide that will tell you how to use a PC as a media extender?

thanks!

I know the Xbox 360 and DMA2100 are the most popular options but what about using a computer as a media extender?

the OP should have a guide on his first post but failed to do so!

Originally Posted by RobbyTV

where is there a guide that will tell you how to use a PC as a media extender?

thanks!

I know the Xbox 360 and DMA2100 are the most popular options but what about using a computer as a media extender?

the OP should have a guide on his first post but failed to do so!

Originally Posted by Jobber8742

okay, maybe I'm blind, how do I set up Network Tuners? The help says it's included in the driver download and can be accessed in the Ceton tab in WMC, but I can't find it. The links to download it directly are all dead. So, how do I set this up? I want to share one tuner. I have the internal card if that matters. Thanks.

Originally Posted by MegaVA

There is a decent setup guide over at The Missing Remote.

Originally Posted by buceyes

I really love my HTPC and Ceton InfiniTV4 USB when it works. The 4 tuners vs. 2 in the WOW dvr, the WMC interface, channel guide, media file integration etc. all make this for an awesome experience. BUT it just isnt as stable as the old reliable DVR and the wife is ready to chuck the thing out the window because of the missed recording due to the USB issues and the annoying stutter on certain "copy once" HD channels. 2 different motherboard combinations and the addition of a GT430 video card later has yet to resolve the issues. This weekend I will be running some new RG6 cable, eliminating any unused outlets and unnecessary splitters and adding a Motorola BDA-K4-RA signal booster to the incoming feed in hopes of remedying the "stutter"/picture/sound issues. If that part gets resolved and I can convince the family to hold out a bit longer for the USB issue to be fixed I may end up with the perfect HTPC experience. Otherwise its back to the Atari interface of the cableco DVR....

Originally Posted by gsr

The difficulties people are running into are mostly related to the USB version of the tuner, assigning some of the tuners to other PC's, getting customer service reps who know how to pair a cable card, and in some cases getting tuning adapters to play nicely.

The new beta firmware seems to have resolved a lot of the USB issues.

If you just want to use the tuner for one PC and possibly some extenders, you shouldn't expect to run into any problems getting things setup. I'm not sure if configuring tuners to be used on other PC's is overly complicated or if it's just an issue of people who aren't overly familiar with networking (I have no interest in the feature, so I haven't looked into how it gets configured).

Getting the cable card paired is sometimes a luck of the draw on which customer service rep you happen to get and it's not exactly uncommon to get a defective cable card.

If you don't live in an area that uses tuning adapters, then you don't need to worry about them.

The static IP is for the Ceton card, not for your router. Within your house, you can use static IP's or DHCP on your devices. Basically, you don't need to worry about it.

Originally Posted by thehobster

I left this thread a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm back in seeing there appears to be a firmware fix for the Ceton USB random reboot.

Anyone care to comment on why no one from Ceton, knowing I have 2 different cases open on the random rebooting problem, didn't bother to email and say there is a beta I should try? Do I REALLY have to monitor this forum to get support from Ceton?

Originally Posted by buceyes

Gary,
Good to know there is someone in Columbus with WOW and a Ceton. Curious if you experience any video quality issues on some of the copy protected HD channels. History HD, A&E HD and AMC HD tend to be the worst for me at least from what I notice because of the # of programs I watch/record on those stations. This is where I think I may have a signal problem although the db and SNR readings seem to be within spec. But if you have video quality issues with this type of channel as well then at least I have peace of mind that its not just me and I can quit chasing my tail on that front.

Originally Posted by buceyes

This is probably not specific to Ceton but is probably an MCE issue or "feature"... There is a winter storm warning in the area and media center is running the warning across the top of the screen. It is not on the station but actually generated by media center and appears on ALL channels. Running for over 2 hours now and very annoying, anyone see this before and more importantly know how to turn it off.