Latest Ceton InfiniTV 4 Info Thread - Page 134

It is looking much better for me too. Haven't watched enough to say it is completely gone, but it is certainly much better.

BTW Ceton bent over backwards with customer service for me regarding this issue. It is a long story, but the short version is they made things right.

xnappo

After running fine for a number of months now and all through the fall TV season, I've had a few issues during the last 2 weeks. Last Wednesday (12/19) and this Monday (12/24), I got the "tuner not available" popup for all 8 tuners (I've got 2 InfiniTV 4 PCIe's in my system). The first time, I happened to be watching something when it happened and a reboot of the PC got things back up and running. Monday, I wasn't using the PC at the time, so the recording was missed (though it looks like there's a replay of the show scheduled for this weekend). It's really bizarre that this happened during a time when the TV schedule is so light as so many shows have been on hiatus the last few weeks.

So I decided to update to the beta firmware and drives and will see how it goes. For both cards, I went from hardware version 4884 to version 6408, firmware version 1.0.9.5 to 1.2.2.6, and driver package version 1.5.4.4304.06 to the current beta (ceton_infinitv_setup_w7_sp1_2012_10_23_0732_beta.exe) that's available on their site. Will keep my fingers crossed .

It will help with that.

Still happens to me occasionally though.

Based on the feedback I've been reading here, I figured it probably would. It just seems odd (and maybe a bit amusing) that I had absolutely no issues for months (basically the entire TV season last year and through the busy fall season) and then it decided to act up while most shows are on hiatus and it has a light load. Maybe it was just starved for attention .

I was still getting occassional reboots (1 or 2 a month) of the USB tuner that would sometimes cause missed recordings with the lastest beta firmware and a USB hotfix that was not the latest. However, I installed the latest recommended hotfix KB2742516 (http://cetoncorp.com/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/50/19/usb-hotfixes-and-improvements), and now the USB tuner will occassionally lock up with "USB Device Not Recognize" and can only be resolved by power cycling the tuner. I tried to uninstall KB2742516 which worked, but when I tried to install an older USB hotfix a week later, I got KB2742516 again and the problem started to reoccur.

Are others having good experiences after installing the KB2742516 hotfix?

When I follow your link to the ceton KB article, then to MS, then to download the hotfix, I get KB2720599. I haven't installed it yet. But it is not KB2742516.

I installed KB2742516 from a link Ceton support sent me before the Ceton KB article had been changed to say "KB2742516" even though the link was not updated. My update history confirms that it is KB2742516. I think that I had KB2720599 installed before I installed KB2742516.

Can't you just follow the link to download KB2720599 and use that instead of the newer one?

I have been using network tuners with a Ceton with WHS 2011 since before network tuners were officially supported (using the utility from Missing Remote).

The experience has overall been good but I have never been able to get the kind of stability that I wanted. I have tried a lot of things:

a. different firmware
b. switching to an Intel NIC
c. Replacing Cat6 cable
d. Switching PCI slots for the card.
e. Adding fans.
f. Changing power settings in Windows
g. Had a dedicated Coax line run to service the WHS box and another infiniTV box.

Ultimately, I have come to conclude that the InfinitVs are not too stable in a WHS box. What this means is abut once a week, I will have some kind of issue. The most common are the tuner conflict or no available tuner errors. This are solved by reboots. The server itself is rock solid and would not have to be rebooted if not for these issues.

Has anyone been able to use an infinitv in a WHS box and obtained stability: no issues for months at a time?

I am a Cablevision customer and initially there were cablecard issues but those have long since been solved and I am aware of no carrier or system issues that could cause these issues.

B/T/W, using an InfiniTv in a standalone box has never been great for me either. By now, the whole family knows the drill about how to get things working again. We just hope we do not miss any important recordings.

I see that I have the KB 2742516 installed and am no getting that kind of message. I am hopeful that the latest beta firmware I downloaded will stop all the "no tuners available" message and need for full power off reboots....I have had to have a lot of patience for almost a year now.

I've been running my card in a whs box, for the most part with out issue for roughly 9-10 months. I’ve had a few snags here and there, one being a recent Comcast screw up with my account, not necessarily a problem with the card, and I was never able to figure out how to let my server sleep/hibernate using Lights out, on resume, it would lose the tuner, this happened with an HP N40L mirco server as well as my home grown whs using and Asus p8h67-i. So I gave up, and have been running 24X7.

I had 28 days of uptime, would have been longer, but My server rebooted after a MS update, I had a post serveral months ago, showing 20 plus days of uptime, reboots are usually because of ms updates or other software updates, never rebooted for the tuner card IIRC. I have had a few sporadic moments of the micro blocking on two or 3 occasions, they would occurr on the lower HD channels, like ABC and Fox, I’m on Comcast, but no other channels were affected, and after a day or two the problem would go away. Again for the most part, I’ve had really good stability with the card.

How do you shut down your client PCs after you are done watching?

I use the MCE standby tool, when I power down the client PC's using my harmony, they go into S3. I was having issues when I first got the ceton, card was installed in my my HTPC, and the system would not stay asleep, found this tool , problem solved, been using it ever since. You can set it to reboot your PC daily, weekly, monthly, and turn on sleep timers, like after 3 hours of no MCE Input activity, the PC, will power down (sleep), highly recommend.

http://slicksolutions.eu/

+1 for MCE standby tool.

I find it's simplest to just let the PC sleep on its own rather than bother shutting it down. My sleep time is set for 3 minutes. 1 or 2 would probably work just as well.

I'm thinking about doing the same thing you did here. I have 3 extenders and received a new XBox for Christmas. I was going to keep a computer running 24/7 just for tuners. Should I use the extenders connected to my HTPC or the computer with the tuners? I was going to network share the ceton with my HTPC and distribute it that way? I am trying to find the right standby/sleep setting for my HTPC now., It seems it has some problems when it runs that way. I read a lot of your posts. Great Job GTGRay!

After doing some work on my network, I think I am now much more stable. I now have 10 days of continuous uptime. It would have been longer (I think) had it not been for a power outage ten days ago.

This is the most reliable my WHS/Ceton has ever been.

My Cetons are running on a P35DS3L motherboard with an e2160 and 2GB of RAM, running Server 2008 R2. I know, the hardware is old school (now), but it has run flawlessly, and is more than enough for what it needs to do. This is not the HTPC, merely the server that hosts the cards and a couple of other things. It is set for S3 sleep and wakes up automatically when any of the client HTPCs actually wake up or are started. When they go to sleep, after 10 minutes, the server goes to sleep as well. Been working flawlessly, since I redid the server setup. 19 days of up-time and counting.

Someday I'll do a guide on how to setup S3 sleep properly combined with network settings and utilities to do waking/sleeping properly.

Kapone, I would be very interested in that particular guide... Thx

I can't even get it to detect the card at all, does not present to the OS.

I didn't see anyone with the exact same motherboard I'm trying to use, has anyone had success using the PCIe version with an Asus F1A75-I? Or had similar problems?

Since its ITX obviously there are no other slots to try. The slot itself works, I threw in a random dual intel NIC and it shows up.

Nothing in device manager.
Booted up with a linux usb and I can account for every item in lspci -vv as something already on the motherboard.

I've tried everything in the bios that has anything to do with pci or roms or booting (not much) and its the latest version on asus's site, 0904.

Are your sure it is seated properly? Is the light on the infinitv lit at all? If so, what color?

It happened to me that the car would not be seen but the issue was it was not seated properly. It is a big card to have a 1X slot connector and I think it sometimes does not stay in the slot when you tighten the screw.

What was in the latest firmware? After returning home from the in-laws after Christmas, I got a message that I had to install the latest firmware. I was not given an option. Now, I can't keep anything working post firmware update.

I didn't get any update message. I've been running 1.1.7.2 since it was a beta and the diagnostic tool says my driver and firmware are up to date.

Ken F - You probably don't have the most current install package if you are still on firmware 1.1.72. If I remember correctly, you have to uninstall the previous package and download the latest installation package on Ceton's Web site. The new diagnostic utility will detect and allow the latest beta to be downloaded from within the utility. FWIW, I have been having more problems than ever before using the last couple of firmware/hardware updates. I've been getting a ton of "No signal detected" messages when jumping from the guide that a channel up/down will fix. Also, occasionally I lose my tuners and have to reboot the PC. I NEVER have had this issue, and I have had the internal infinitv since its release.

Sounds like my experience with my InfiniTV usb model.. every 3-5 days.. been that way since day 1. I also get channel unavailable.. tuner conflict.. subscription unavailable.. etc... All roads lead to power cycle of the TA , Ceton, or both..

I do have Ticket(s) opened with Ceton (since May 2012). Ceton support is good, but it takes a long time to get anything accomplished using the ticketing system due to the long periods of time that elapse trading posts in their system. I got wore down using the ceton ticketing system and had to take a break from it last November. Now that I've had a few months to chill for the holidays I've gotten to the point where I'm ready to get back on it..

I have attached my Ceton InfiniTV diag display info.. (I'm on firmware 1.1.7.2)


I also updated my ceton ticket with questions on the latest firmware for InfiniTV USB hardware version 4881, and also asked questions about applying the latest win 7 usb hotfix that is listed on the knowlegebase. I was told to apply an earlier usb hotfix .. KB2683549 which I did back in October.. do I need to back that one out before installing the newest listed in the ceton knowledge base article? (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2720599)

I'm waiting on ceton support for a response. (I'm actually suprised they left my ticket open - thank you ceton!)

I just sent the latest reply today so it may take a week or two for them to see it....

I wanted to update but I guess I'll keep what I have for a while longer. I occasionally get service unavailable and weak tv signal messages although the signal strength and SNR are good. The trouble seems sporadic. It works perfectly for several months, then I get occasional errors for a few days. It doesn't appear to happen across all the tuners at once, nor does it seem to affect the same tuner every time. I've never completely missed a recording but I have had partial recordings reported a few times. Usually the whole program gets recorded but I did have one stop recording in the middle of the show a couple of weeks ago.

I am not sure whether this question belongs here but since people with Ceton's are running WMC and this is cableTV/WMC question I will thow it out for comment.

I am using a Ceton 4 PCie with Win 7 WMC. My provider is Comcast in Houston. A ticker box has popped up with a scrolling message that indicates a required test is in in effect effective at an earlier today. I have a Tivo HD also and when these emergency broadcast kind of scrolling messages come up from time to time you can hit the clear key and they will go away. I don't seem to be able to get rid of this one.

I can close WMC and restart it to and OTA station and no ticker box and no scrolling message the Emergency Broadcast Alert system but as soon as I tune to a channel on Comcast; with in a minute or two the ticker is running withthe same alert.

I have tried about every key combo on the HP WMC Remote to no avail. How do I get rid of this thin?.

Calling Comcast to ask about WMC and an OCCUR tuner setup seems more of a joke then a real search for a solution.

Anyone run into this?

My usb version wigs out every week or so. I never have figured out the root cause. it just...happens. I really like this ceton and wmc stuff too.. I've been using it since last may.. its really close to being a good solution. For me its 99% there.. I even tried a band-aid approach.. use taskmgr to launch batch files to shutdown ehshell.exe 10 min before the mcupdate runs. Also run batch files with taskmgr to restart pc twice a week.. it sucks if your watching tv at the time, but I try to sched during off hours.. (In my household thats 1pm) I checked taskmgr to make sure mcupdate isnt shceduled to run during pgm recordings.

It seemed to help, but I still had random instances of losing the tuners (no tuner avail error in wmc7) and the TA (cisco 1520) still will lose its usb connection and start flashing six times.. sometimes I just unplug the usb and wait a minute then plug in and go to the pc and try to access the ip address of the TA and it will start working again (green light goes solid) Other times I have to powercycle the TA and the ceton.. then chg channels a few times and then its working again. But for the most part, it rarely misses recordings.. and I've gotten used to the occassional macroblocking.. (both the blocked line and the pixilated varieties) I've seen the same pixelization on a breakroom tv at work so I think the pixelization is inherent in the cable provider signal.

I don't know if I'll ever see a perfect pc based solution. I've been down this road before.. I get a product close to working decent.. then go for that final one percent of perfection and... kablooey! I thought my problems were due to the unusual cpu/mobo I'm using.. AMD FX-60 skt 939 / asrock 939790GMH. The mobo uses 790gx chipset but has 184pin PC3200 ram.. I'm running win7 sp1. The video card is xfx-5850 (non ref) It actually runs pretty good despite the slow processor and ram. (stuffed it into an Antec Mini P-180 case) But then I built another amd system using a six core thuban 1100 cpu and msi 790fx gd80 mobo with 2 hd6950 vid cards. Ceton behaved the same sporadic way...

I'm about to start on two IVB system builds to test out the ceton InfinTV usb... one using an i3-3225 / Asrock extreme4 mobo and one using an i5-3570k/gigabyte ga-z77x-ud3h mobo. Both will be fresh builds. I will start on them in about a week or so.. Maybe intel IVB / Z77 will work better with the ceton?
Edited by NCoastTweaker - 1/8/13 at 6:03pm

WMC seems to have a hard time to dismiss these emergency alert messages. If the message is indeed expired usually restarting WMC will no longer show it. From your description it sounds like you have both ota and cable and it happens only when watching cable (including ota stations on cable). On cable if one station initiates the message it is supposed to be visible on all channels it is my understanding there is not supposed to be a "clear" button to clear it, though I agree that one would be nice during the tests but the point of the message is to force you to read it in case it was an actual emergency and if one got accustomed to just pressing clear no one would ever see these messages even in cases of an actual emergency. Occasionally the cable companies don't send the time it expires and/or don't remove the signal that tells wmc to display the message.

I've said this before but my solution is no automatic updates (set to download or inform only, that way after the update I can institute a shutdown rather than restart) as my tuning adapter has problems on any reboot (loss of power is ok, and so is a controlled shutdown, also my slower systems seem to only sometimes have this problem... its like it doesn't have time to realize the connection went down as the reboot is too quick so it doesn't properly reconnect to the ta and/or the power on the usb never fully went out). The quickest and most fool-proof way for me to reset the TA is to actually pull the (power) plug on the ceton usb. Pulling the plug on the ta is hit and miss and takes at least 5 minutes per try where a ten second disconnect of power to the ceton brings it back fully functional in about 60-90 seconds. I've never been able to reestablish connection by pulling usb cables. For some reason when it comes back up from a controlled shutdown (when the two are on the same page) or power outage it correctly reestablishes connection to the TA... Whenever its in that flashing no connection state, a controlled shutdown still does not bring it back. Its like it missed a key exchange and remains out of sync, like the TA is on key 3 while the tuner is on key 2, then increments both on the next boot... I don't believe this is how it works just reporting how it seems to behave since they remain out of sync unless they are in sync at the time of the shutdown and a reboot (restart) seems to be the cause of these getting out of sync to begin with.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Comcast Houston. I run Win 7 WMC as well, but I've never seen that message. I do know that we had an Amber Alert this afternoon at 3:30 which came through as a text to my phone. Wish I could tell you if I got the same message on WMC, but my Ceton has been down since I had the firmware upgrade pushed through last week.

After another couple hours the message finally went away. When the Tivo HD displays Emergency Alert messages they can be removed by hitting clear. However, if its not a test then the message will pop back up in a few minutes. Some messages even say hit clear to remove this message. Clearly some things are better thought out on the Tivo.. years and years of development on the software is there and it shows. For the most part WMC was a once and done sort of project..

I have been running the HTPC as my primary live source of cable for some two months now and am about to take the Tivo out of service. I have never before even seen an emergency alert on a cable broadcast with the Ceton. One alert or another was a near daily occurrence with the Tivo. Of course the Tivo was running and tuned to a channel 24x7. On the HTPC I let the PC run 24x7 but I exit WMC when the TV itself is off.