Latest Ceton InfiniTV 4 Info Thread - Page 86

That's not good, so you think it could be the NIC?

I've changed those settings already, I've pretty much done everything that microsoft and ceton have suggested and it still looks bad.

rencjm - can you refresh my memory in what you mean by "looks bad"? It is stuttering, or?

What MB do you have? I have a RealTek NIC w/out any issues (once I updated to the latest NIC drivers, that is) running multiple extenders on a GB switch. I do have Flowcontrol turned on at the NIC (and switch but not sure if yours supports that). Did you try a different switch yet?

I've seen lesser quality switches cause issues like stuttering - I'd recommend something a little beefier. I've used both an HP Procurve 1810G(24port) and Dell 2816 GB switches with great success.

Thanks for the advice. I'll configure the cards as you suggest and I agree that from a performance perspective it is probably less than ideal to network bridge tuners that will only be used on the local host.

Live TV is the problem. When I run media center on my computer the Live TV looks great (no shuttering or lag). I've paired my xbox 360 with my HTPC and I'm running through a GB Netgear switch. When I run media center on my xbox I'm experiencing lag and shuttering and it is extreme.

Not sure what you mean by MB?

I haven't tried a different switch yet as it is the only one that I have. I do have Flowcontrol turned on at the NIC. The switch is supposedly unmanged...not sure if I can get in there and change settings.

Sorry - MB I mean is MotherBoard; just curious on who the maker was. I have a Gigabyte H67MA-UDH2-B3. Correct, it looks like your switch doesn't offer any management (web or cmd line).

Do you have a wireless router? If so, you could try using the switch that's integrated vs. this particular switch to see any differences. Since everything works as expected at the HTPC end, I'm almost 100% positive this is a network issue somewhere.

I was previously using the router and bought the GB switch to rule that out hoping that it would work and it didn't.

Here are the specs on my system http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/asu...-33699688.html

Not sure on the MB, can't find the specs on it and I'm not at home to check.

Couldn't agree more on the switch recommendations. Most consumer level Gigabit switches just don't handle Gigabit to Fast Ethernet translation well or don't have a sufficient buffer for it.

1- HP ProCurve Switch 1400\\1800 Series

2- Dell PowerConnect 280xx Web-Managed Switches

3- Pakedge Managed Switch or AV Priority Switch

I'm interested in shrinking the footprint of my HTPC. Right now I've got my HTPC in a Lian-Li C-33B case, while I love the look of this case, it does not fit in my entertainment stand (Ikea Lack) so I'm looking to move my components to a half height case. I tried a half height case before, however, with two infiniTV's heat became a big problem in trying to keep it as quiet as possible.

So ideally, I'd like to move my tuners my desktop computer that is located in a another room. But have a couple of questions.

1. How much, if any toll would be put on my processor in the host machine? I have an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 processor, and do a fair amount of video transcoding. Ultimately, would there be any degradation to either the TV video quality, or the videos that I am ripping and transcoding?

2. I am on an SDV system (Charter Communications) and have two TA's, I was wondering which computer I would plug them into? The infiniTV host or the actual HTPC?

What half height cases are you looking at? I've had several low-profile chassis with 3x InfiniTV in them with no issues (And I'm very picky on keeping them quiet).


What network card do you have? That will be the biggest factor.

And do you spike the CPU currently?

What half height cases are you looking at? I've had several low-profile chassis with 3x InfiniTV in them with no issues (And I'm very picky on keeping them quiet).

-I tried the nMEDIAPC 1080P Media Center case. Not happy with it because I couldn't use the fan's I wanted to (can only fit 'thin' fans in the case) so that might have been one of the issues. My infiniTV's would constantly run at 65+ degrees until I added a 5th fan blowing directly onto the cards)

Was currently looking at the Silverstone MLO3B case.

What network card do you have? That will be the biggest factor.

-Using the network port on my motherboard, it's listed as Realtek 8111C.

And do you spike the CPU currently?

-Occasionally, the vast majority of the time when transcoding I run 70-80% CPU usage.

Has anyone had any luck fixing the pixelation/macroblocking issue recently?

I opened a support ticket and was told to update my firmware to the newest (beta). I did this, but it didnt seem to make a difference.

I know this issue has been a problem for a while. It is really quite annoying.

Especially when the wife says, "But the regular cable box doesnt do that..."

Mikinho,

Big thanks man! Your suggestion above works like a charm. I am now able to share 3 tuners across my network and have 5 dedicated to my HTPC.

Got my replacement ceton today. Installed nice and smooth. But I have noticed WMC as a whole is slower now. Channel changing, browsing the guide. Slower than it was with the HDHR. Which surprises me as I figured the network aspect of the HDHR would make it slower.

Right now I hit "guide" to open WMC. And it opens but I see the blue loading orb for a good 10-12 seconds and the guide is unusable. Never used to be like that.

that shouldn't happen. mine doesn't do that, and if yours never did that in the past, then something software wise is probably messed up. try resetting media center and re-setting up everything.

It seems to be getting better. Not sure what the deal is. When I first started it channels changes took 20 seconds.

I did a reboot and it seems better. I had a weak signal warning before the reboot. Hopefully it will work the kinks out itself.

I have noticed the pixelation issue people speak of.

I am still running 1.1.5.2, haven't upgraded to '7'. I have had this long tuning problem since I first upgraded the firmware, day 2... some cases it is as long as 30 seconds. Due to an automatic re-sizing of the screen when the TV is shut down, I must shut down MC when the TV is turned off (or, restart it).

Last week I installed a signal booster at the POE, my signal strength is generally around +1.8 - +5 dB and SNR 34-37. I've had several crashes, two within an hour while I was watching. On some crashes, the program which is recording can't be deleted either from within MC or, directly from the drive it was recorded to (in one case, early on in the week I rebooted and then could delete the file). It is held up in Media Center Receiver Service.

In any event, these two problems (long start-up/tuning, dropped recordings without the ability to delete the file) along with the 'pixelation' horizontal line is resulting in a WAF of -4. Any suggestions? Trade her in for a 20 year old?

Hopefully I can help you out.

First, on the screen size, you need to do two things to fix this. I finally fixed it this week.

First - follow the instructions in this post:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post17448181

Second - install TightVNC server on your HTPC.
http://www.tightvnc.com/
Turn off your TV and connect to the HTPC from another PC using VNC viewer. You will see that it is running at some other resolution(which has been driving you nuts ). Change the resolution through VNC to 1920x1080 (or whatever it should be). I am not positive, but I think you could also fix this by hooking up a VGA connection to your video card and changing the resolution to match the HDMI resolution.

Problem should be gone.

To put it mildly, the 1.1.5.2 firmware has issues. *Definitely* recommend upgrading.

xnappo

Can't comment on whether you should switch from AVG to MSE, but FWIW, here is a relatively short thread on AVG at TivoCommunity:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...d.php?t=480967

In post 20, I link to an article about MSE. You should read that.

I think it's fair to say most people in the thread prefered MSE over AVG.

This doesn't make sense to me, this is for a handshake issue and seems like a long way to go to fix this relatively simple problem.


I haven't gotten around to the remote desktop settings at all, but need to, I made one quick attempt from a Mac but it failed to find it. I need to set some settings somewhere. I'm new to Win 7, but, am getting another work machine where I'll need to go through this.

I will probably upgrade the firmware this afternoon, hopefully will reduce the tuning time and the frequency of crashes. I'm sure it requires a re-boot and hopefully I'll be able to delete the partial recording currently locked by Receiver Services.

Just saying the two things I did to fix it. I was having the resolution issue and both the hdmi handshake and the VGA resolution were contributing. If you are not routing through a receiver you may only need to do #2. Note that you must use VNC and not Microsoft remote desktop since the latter auto sizes to the viewing PCs screen.

Definitely think you will have better luck with the new firmware.
xnappo

I always close WMC because sometimes I lose sound from the AVR when turning everything back on. Not really a big deal for me though.

I've been following this thread for a couple weeks now. I just got my Infini Card and will be going through the install soon. Any advice as to what I should tell the installer? I see stuff about tuning adapters, filters, ect. Im using time warner if that matter. Just looking to make the install go smooth.

Have the installer bring at least 2 cable cards in case one doesn't work initially. You will need a TA if your cable provider has implemnted SDV; this varies by region. Have him test your lines to ensure you're getting the best signal since he's there anyways.

I had this same problem. To fix it I installed MCE Standby Tool and set it to shut down 7MC when Windows is put into Stand by or shut down, and automatically restarts 7MC when the system restarts or is brought out of Stand by. It fixed the resolution problem and it's one less MC frustration to deal with.

+1 did same and not a singe issue since.

I'm still having what I assume to be macroblocking issue. Most all channels with the copy once flag set are at time unwatchable. Running the beta firmware with no improvement. Considering switching from WOW cable to Time Warner

I updated firmware and am still having the problem, even on NatGeo which is copy freely.

My signal strength/SNR are in the good-very good ranges (+1 - +5 and 34-37 respectively).

Is there a way to figure out why a computer went to sleep? I have a new HTPC build with a Ceton card. I was recording the Red Sox game for 5 hours and the recording stopped after an hour and half.

I don't know if the Ceton card stopped recording or the computer went to sleep prematurely. I'm running Windows 7 and the power policy is to put the computer to sleep after 20 minutes of inactivity.

I know the powercfg command can tell you the reason for a computer to be woken out of sleep but is there a similar command to determine why the computer went to sleep?

I'm guessing that Ceton stopped recording and then after 20 minutes, the computer went to sleep. I guess I need to start monitoring the Ceton logfiles.

Doesn't matter what cable provider you have. It is very widespread.

I'm assuming since the infamous reboot issue seems to be rectified they are placing their resources onto this issue.

Here's a thread that started it all.
http://experts.windows.com/frms/wind...x?PageIndex=19

Notice the first post was May 9th. So we are one month away from a whole year of when it was first reported.

You could check your Event Log; I'm not sure if it would be there, but it's worth a shot. You can also check your recording history in Media Center to help determine if there was some sort of issue with the signal or your Ceton. If you're not using it already, I'd suggest checking out MCE Standby Tool. It's a big help with getting sleep/wake settings the way you need them, and it should keep the computer from going to sleep when there's still stuff (like recordings) going on.