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Latest Ceton InfiniTV 4 Info Thread - Page 130

post #3871 of 4509
11/26/12 at 5:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken.F View Post

HDMI Detective would probably do the trick.
Hi there, great thread.
You mentioned this HDMI Detective... I was having a problem where I'd get a green or blank screen turning the TV back on. I read that a simple and inexpensive HDMI switch might fix it by keeping a signal coming out of the graphics card / motherboard. This way the TV won't have to re-establish EDID and HDCP info with the PC every time. I keep the HTPC running at all times to eliminate the slow wake-up that the InfiniTV4 offers.
I haven't tried this yet, so do you think a little HDMI switch might do the same job here?
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post #3872 of 4509
11/27/12 at 4:21am
On newegg, it seems to be Out of Stock. The USB version is now at the normal price of $199.

Amazon now has it for $159, down from $179.

I wonder if these 4 tuner cards are being cleared out for a new model (6 tuner?).
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post #3873 of 4509
11/27/12 at 9:55am
I'm just finding out about this. I want to know if this improves HD quality. I have Dish Network from my Apt complex and I have never been satisfied with it. Its the only cable I can get here, so I'm stuck with it.
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post #3874 of 4509
11/27/12 at 10:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken.F View Post

HDMI Detective would probably do the trick.
I wonder if that would fix the issue I was having when I tried to duplicate my display on two monitors (intermittently it was giving me the subcription required of some other HDCP error).
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post #3875 of 4509
11/27/12 at 10:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by isi95010 View Post

Hi there, great thread.
You mentioned this HDMI Detective... I was having a problem where I'd get a green or blank screen turning the TV back on. I read that a simple and inexpensive HDMI switch might fix it by keeping a signal coming out of the graphics card / motherboard. This way the TV won't have to re-establish EDID and HDCP info with the PC every time. I keep the HTPC running at all times to eliminate the slow wake-up that the InfiniTV4 offers.
I haven't tried this yet, so do you think a little HDMI switch might do the same job here?
I don't know how a switch can do that.
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post #3876 of 4509
11/27/12 at 10:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by isi95010 View Post

Hi there, great thread.
You mentioned this HDMI Detective... I was having a problem where I'd get a green or blank screen turning the TV back on. I read that a simple and inexpensive HDMI switch might fix it by keeping a signal coming out of the graphics card / motherboard. This way the TV won't have to re-establish EDID and HDCP info with the PC every time. I keep the HTPC running at all times to eliminate the slow wake-up that the InfiniTV4 offers.
I haven't tried this yet, so do you think a little HDMI switch might do the same job here?
A high-end matrix switch with EDID management might solve that sort of problem, but a simple, inexpensive switch won't.
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post #3877 of 4509
11/27/12 at 10:55am
I didn't think it would last long at that price! I love the two that I have, although it took a while to get set up. I tried installing into WHS2011 box but had too many issues. I then relocated the two to their own HTPC and they are working great! @Blee0120 - Yes they support HD, but as I understand, they only work with Cable and not with Dish or Direct TV.
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post #3878 of 4509
11/27/12 at 11:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by gsr View Post

A high-end matrix switch with EDID management might solve that sort of problem, but a simple, inexpensive switch won't.

How expensive are we talking? I'd really like to get a switch or splitter that would allow my HTPC to put out to two TV's (preferably at the same time), rather than deal with the hassle of extenders. I tried a basic splitter, but hda all sorts of HDCP issues.
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post #3879 of 4509
11/27/12 at 11:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Movnmik View Post

I didn't think it would last long at that price! I love the two that I have, although it took a while to get set up. I tried installing into WHS2011 box but had too many issues. I then relocated the two to their own HTPC and they are working great! @Blee0120 - Yes they support HD, but as I understand, they only work with Cable and not with Dish or Direct TV.

Oh thanks, I was hoping to get rid of my Dish today.
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post #3880 of 4509
11/27/12 at 11:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike_Boulanger View Post

I loaded the beta package and firmware last night. So far so good, will report back if I have any trouble.
Mike,

Any updates on your experience?

Every few weeks my HTPC goes into a "No tuners available" state, and has to be rebooted to correct. There is no pattern I can detect as to why this occurs (has happened the day after a previous reboot in some cases, or may take weeks in others).

The start of my problem seemed to coincide with when Verizon FiOS tightened down their CableCard support. After that I was seeing issues every few days. I upgraded to the latest release drivers/firmware a couple of months ago (firmware 1.1.7.2) which reduced the issue, but it still happens now and then. My plan is to try out the beta versions over the holidays to see if it can clear the issue up completely.
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post #3881 of 4509
11/27/12 at 12:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ncarty97 View Post

How expensive are we talking? I'd really like to get a switch or splitter that would allow my HTPC to put out to two TV's (preferably at the same time), rather than deal with the hassle of extenders. I tried a basic splitter, but hda all sorts of HDCP issues.
An HDMI matrix switch with proper EDID management is going be to in the ballpark of $1000 or more and will probably have a lot more functionality than you need if you're only looking to send the output to 2 TV's at the same time. The point of a matrix is to allow you to send X number of inputs to Y number of outputs in any combination. So with a 4x4 matrix, you could send a PC to TV1, XBOX to TV2, cable box to TV3, etc. OR you could send a PC to TV1 & Tv2 (at the same time) and XBOX to TV3. And so on. For your situation, a Gefen HDMI Detective and HDMI splitter should suffice and cost a LOT less than a good HDMI matrix switch.
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post #3882 of 4509
11/27/12 at 12:06pm
@ BTDT

I have the Beta driver and firmware on my InfiniTV PCIe card, and I can tell you it's night and day experience using the InfiniTV for my HTPC. I would on a regular basis get tuners not found, inability to lock onto a signal quickly which would say that it was a weak TV signal when it wasn't. Channel changes are much quicker. It's much more stable, and the TA adapter is also much more stable and reliable than before. On a rare occasion I get a weak TV signal, but it's able to lock onto the channel and record without any issue and it's on one particular channel.

I've had the beta package installed for weeks now maybe more then a month. I'll have to check the install date.
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post #3883 of 4509
11/27/12 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ncarty97 View Post

How expensive are we talking? I'd really like to get a switch or splitter that would allow my HTPC to put out to two TV's (preferably at the same time), rather than deal with the hassle of extenders. I tried a basic splitter, but hda all sorts of HDCP issues.

If you want to experiement without spending much money, check out the 4x2 matrix switch (PID 5312) for $50.63. I have been using the 4 x 4 matrix (PID 5704) for a couple of years now without issues.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?spcDB=10110&spcWord=Audio+%26+Video+Converters+%2F+Switches+&keyword=hdmi matrix switch

I hope this helps.

Mark
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post #3884 of 4509
11/27/12 at 2:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by giomania View Post

If you want to experiement without spending much money, check out the 4x2 matrix switch (PID 5312) for $50.63. I have been using the 4 x 4 matrix (PID 5704) for a couple of years now without issues.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?spcDB=10110&spcWord=Audio+%26+Video+Converters+%2F+Switches+&keyword=hdmi matrix switch
I hope this helps.
Mark
Inexpensive matrix switches, such as those Monoprice switches, will NOT have the type of EDID management that is needed to fix the problem ncarty97 is running into.
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post #3885 of 4509
11/27/12 at 7:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTDT View Post

Mike,
Any updates on your experience?
Every few weeks my HTPC goes into a "No tuners available" state, and has to be rebooted to correct. There is no pattern I can detect as to why this occurs (has happened the day after a previous reboot in some cases, or may take weeks in others).
The start of my problem seemed to coincide with when Verizon FiOS tightened down their CableCard support. After that I was seeing issues every few days. I upgraded to the latest release drivers/firmware a couple of months ago (firmware 1.1.7.2) which reduced the issue, but it still happens now and then. My plan is to try out the beta versions over the holidays to see if it can clear the issue up completely.

The beta firmware should resolve your issue. I used to get those No Tuners available (also on Verizon FIOS) but haven't ever since I did the update.
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post #3886 of 4509
11/27/12 at 9:03pm
Windows 8 Beta stuff was rleased today, in case anyone didnt get the text, email, tweet, facebook update from Ceton.
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post #3887 of 4509
11/28/12 at 8:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by erickotz View Post

My HTPC at home has a Radeon HD4550 that was something like $10 after rebate

You have any issues with the 29/59 glitch? There was a reccent post on the windows expert forum regarding a "new setting" in the CCC, to allow smooth video play back, but one person said it resolved the glitch, another said it didn't.
Edited by dbailey75 - 11/28/12 at 10:19am
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post #3888 of 4509
11/28/12 at 11:13am
So, now that the Win8 drivers are out and about, and I'm having a Win8 machine setup, I was going to run it as a DVR out of my office at home and hang a few Echo's off of it.. My question is ... the PCIe card (Ceton InfiniTV) has always been favored by everyone over the USB device apparently from a reliability standpoint. At this point though, has the USB based InfiniTV become as stable as the PCIe card?
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post #3889 of 4509
11/28/12 at 12:41pm
I have been experimenting using a Ceton InfiniTV PCIe card with Media Center, NextPVR and VLC. The video in Media Center is excellent, but I am having issues with NextPVR and VLC. The main problem seems to be the transport stream that either SageDCT or VLC gets from the InfiniTV's UPnP connection. I don't know if Media Center uses the same connection or some other api. Anyway, VLC will not even play the stream or any .ts file that was created from the Stream. Media Center & VLC won't play any .ts file created from SageDCT without first running it through a repair tool (TS4NP or ProjectX) some tools like mpeg2repair won't touch it.

I have improved the situation somewhat with different decoders in NextPVR, but it seems there is something fundamentally wrong with the Transport Stream from Ceton, or Media Center is doing some magic when it reads directly from the device that it does not do for a file.

The NextPVR team is investigating, but they are pretty busy. The VLC team has not yet bitten on my post. I continue to experiment but I have limited experience in this area.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
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post #3890 of 4509
11/28/12 at 3:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fbacher View Post

I have been experimenting using a Ceton InfiniTV PCIe card with Media Center, NextPVR and VLC. The video in Media Center is excellent, but I am having issues with NextPVR and VLC. The main problem seems to be the transport stream that either SageDCT or VLC gets from the InfiniTV's UPnP connection. I don't know if Media Center uses the same connection or some other api. Anyway, VLC will not even play the stream or any .ts file that was created from the Stream. Media Center & VLC won't play any .ts file created from SageDCT without first running it through a repair tool (TS4NP or ProjectX) some tools like mpeg2repair won't touch it.
I have improved the situation somewhat with different decoders in NextPVR, but it seems there is something fundamentally wrong with the Transport Stream from Ceton, or Media Center is doing some magic when it reads directly from the device that it does not do for a file.
The NextPVR team is investigating, but they are pretty busy. The VLC team has not yet bitten on my post. I continue to experiment but I have limited experience in this area.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
If you do a packet capture and extract the TS, will VLC or mplayer play that? Are these channels CCI 0x00?
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post #3891 of 4509
11/28/12 at 9:14pm
The Ceton Diagnostics Tool is offering 1.2.2.6 fw update from 1.2.1.1 but no release notes available. Can any information be provided about what was updated. I'm staying at 1.2.1.1 unless I see that there has been a fix or improvement I think will benefit my setup.
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post #3892 of 4509
11/28/12 at 9:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sea3 View Post

The Ceton Diagnostics Tool is offering 1.2.2.6 fw update from 1.2.1.1 but no release notes available. Can any information be provided about what was updated. I'm staying at 1.2.1.1 unless I see that there has been a fix or improvement I think will benefit my setup.

I've had it for a while. It has some fixes for incompatibility with Plex Server. http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/42727-pms-0963-causes-ceton-infinitv-4-and-windows-media-center-to-crash/page__st__120__p__305486#entry305486
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post #3893 of 4509
11/29/12 at 8:45am
The channels are marked COPY FREE in the Ceton web interface. I can record them in NextPVR and watch them live, even if they are a bit flakey. I have not yet tried doing a packet capture, but I have tried having VLC read directly from the rtp UpnP interface as suggested by the SageDCT team. VLC does not display anything, thinking there is no video. This is the same response I get when trying to have VLC read a .ts file produced by NextPVR when recording or watching live.

While I can repair the video stream with ProjectX or TS4NP I don't know if it is making an optimal repair. I don't know if it is introducing other problems that lower the quality while making the video playable.

I may as well try the Ceton Beta code to see it makes any difference.
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post #3894 of 4509
11/29/12 at 9:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sea3 View Post

The Ceton Diagnostics Tool is offering 1.2.2.6 fw update from 1.2.1.1 but no release notes available. Can any information be provided about what was updated. I'm staying at 1.2.1.1 unless I see that there has been a fix or improvement I think will benefit my setup.

The main change is some UPnP changes which should help alleviate compatibility concerns with Plex and MCEBuddy
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post #3895 of 4509
11/29/12 at 11:34am
I'm considering building an HTPC with a Ceton card. Is it possible to output the native resolution from the cable channel (720p or 1080i)? Is this a video card thing? If so, would the onboard graphics used in the typical mobo allow for this?

I would like to output the native resolution of whatever WMC is playing and let me AVR do the conversion.
Thanks.
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post #3896 of 4509
11/29/12 at 11:44am
Your video card would determine that. Generally the application determines the resolution, not the content. I'm not aware of anyway to have variable output in 7MC.
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post #3897 of 4509
11/29/12 at 12:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ncarty97 View Post

Your video card would determine that. Generally the application determines the resolution, not the content. I'm not aware of anyway to have variable output in 7MC.

I was also wondering about native resolution output, as I run everything through a Lumagen Radiance, and would prefer the Radiance deinterlace and/or scale the 480i / 720p / 1080i video signals to 1080p. Just to clarify, are you saying there are two possible scenarios, dependent upon the video hardware solution:

1) If you have a dedicate video card, the card will control the resolution and/or scaling settings.
2) If you have on-board video, WMC will control the resolution and/or scaling settings.

Thanks.

Mark
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post #3898 of 4509
11/29/12 at 12:16pm
I didn't say anything like that.

Your video card will set the default resolution. Some programs will override that (games do this a lot). I am not familiar with any program that overrides the default resolution based on the content it is playing.
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post #3899 of 4509
11/29/12 at 12:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by giomania View Post

I was also wondering about native resolution output, as I run everything through a Lumagen Radiance, and would prefer the Radiance deinterlace and/or scale the 480i / 720p / 1080i video signals to 1080p. Just to clarify, are you saying there are two possible scenarios, dependent upon the video hardware solution:
1) If you have a dedicate video card, the card will control the resolution and/or scaling settings.
2) If you have on-board video, WMC will control the resolution and/or scaling settings.
Thanks.
Mark

I would like to use whatever is the easiest and most reliable. I'm not opposed to using a dedicated video card, but if the onboard graphics get the job done I'm fine with that too.

I'm not familiar with WMC so I don't know if it has the option to output native resolution and if it did would you need to set up the graphics properties, onboard or dedicated, to allow for the switching of resolution.

I guess ideally the graphics card would allow for the switching of output to 720p, 1080i, 1080p, and 1080p/24. I guess WMC would need to recognize what signal it was receiving and the graphics card would make the switch.

If this is possible I would be interested in knowing how it's done.
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post #3900 of 4509
11/29/12 at 3:14pm
WMC doesn't support automatically switching the resolution to whatever the source content is, so native output isn't possible in this case.
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