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Ceton/WMC recording failure

post #1 of 11
5/23/11 at 8:20pm
Thread Starter 
So I tell my wife this new Ceton tuner is going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It can automatically skip commercials, has more HDD space, etc.

So, I am remote-desktop into the HTPC/server (Win 7 x64) archiving a blu-ray before a show is scheduled to record, and it chokes !! I look in record, history and it appears to have tried the three tuners assigned to the server and thought none of them worked.

Is this the fault of remote desktop? Seems pretty lame, but I guess that is windows. I thought this was a service that could wake from sleep and run without any user login. Grrrr . . . .
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post #2 of 11
5/23/11 at 9:27pm
Thread Starter 
Hmmm, this might not have had anything to do with remote desktop. I noticed TV on both my server and client PCs is hosed up. Claims to have no tuner. And I notice that the DHCP-assigned address has changed for the Ceton card. Wonder if that hosed it? Why don't they allow for a static IP?

I have my router set to assign the same address, we'll see if that fixes it through a reboot and DHCP lease expiration.
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post #3 of 11
5/24/11 at 12:15am
Unless something has changed it does allow static IP and was recommended to set it static prior to the network tuner wizard release, since it's set in the web UI I don't see how why you couldn't still do it.
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post #4 of 11
5/25/11 at 1:26pm
Do you have the latest firmware?
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post #5 of 11
5/25/11 at 2:13pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, latest FW. Now it works OK on the host, but if I try to connect the client it thinks the Ceton card has a DHCP-assigned address, although the Ceton card has been set to a static address on my subnet using the web GUI. So I configure it manually on the client, at which point the static IP address that was assigned pops up pre-filled in the manual configuration. After completing the WMC setup on the client it breaks both the host and the client 'no tuner found'.

What a bunch of garbage. I submitted a ticket to Ceton. I have no idea why I'm having so much trouble with this thing. Perhaps the network tuner announcement was premature.
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post #6 of 11
5/26/11 at 10:32am
Thread Starter 
I am repeating my trouble ticket with Ceton here in case it helps anybody. I don't know how many users are network tuning, or how my network is different from others, but I found it to be a particularly problematic process with some indications Ceton has bugs to work on.

Ceton:Hi Anthony,

It appears you currently have Kaspersky Anti-Virus running. We have found that a majority of antivirus and firewall programs can cause network issues with our product. Try disabling or uninstalling the antivirus program on both systems (if applicable), rebooting the system and then attempting to connect the client computer.

Please let us know if this remedies the issue.

Thank you,
Ceton Support



Me:I turned off Kasperksy AV, this did not seem to help the problem. I should note that this is anti-virus only (although it does screen HTTP traffic for exploits), I use the Windows firewall.

I reset the tuner to defaults, but this did not seem to help either. Ultimately, what seemed to work is installing twice within WMC. The first time through it would pick up the default IP address for the InfiniTV4 on the host PC, 192.168.200.1. Then I set the mini-port bridge in network connections to 192.168.0.10 (original static IP for the host PC), and 192.168.0.6 for the InfiniTV4 using web GUI. Then I installed in WMC again. First time through it thought the IP was the DHCP-assigned 192.168.0.160. Couldn't find the tuner. Then I installed again and it got the address right at 192.168.0.6. It worked. Pretty much the same story on the client PC; first time through it would somehow pick up the DHCP-assigned address (don't understand this, card was set static), and not find the tuner at the end of WMC install. Second time around it would get the correct static IP and work.

I have turned Kaspersky AV back on and so far it is working. A bit early to declare success, we'll see.

Some comments: This is a networked device with a slightly unusual configuration in that it uses a network bridge. There is no mention in the setup procedure of what or when to configure on the users network. Clearly this device is intended to be used in a network environment. Omitting this info is extremely unhelpful. Many questions were unanswered:

1) At what point in the install should I set the card to a static IP?
2) When should the mini-port bridge be set to static?
3) Should the mini-port bridge take over the IP of the host PC?

It is difficult for me to tell how much of the issues are caused by WMC, and how much needs to be addressed by Ceton, but I suspect there is work for Ceton to do. Why are the wrong IPs consistently detected and the first install always fails?

I hope you guys are able to improve network use of this tuner. The install process has been by far one of the most difficult and frustrating I have ever experienced, and I consider myself a pretty competent computer/network user. I have VoIP with Asterisk PBX, two switches and a wireless access point all working properly on my network.

I'll report back if there are further problems.
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post #7 of 11
5/26/11 at 11:54am
Did you try turning off windows firewall? One of things that made it much more difficult to get the tuner sharing set up and working manually over using Mikinho's tool during the beta phase was all the firewall settings the tool would set for you. I'd think the official release would also take care of this but you never know.
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post #8 of 11
5/26/11 at 12:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lifespeed View Post
I am repeating my trouble ticket with Ceton here in case it helps anybody. I don't know how many users are network tuning, or how my network is different from others, but I found it to be a particularly problematic process with some indications Ceton has bugs to work on.

Ceton:Hi Anthony,

It appears you currently have Kaspersky Anti-Virus running. We have found that a majority of antivirus and firewall programs can cause network issues with our product. Try disabling or uninstalling the antivirus program on both systems (if applicable), rebooting the system and then attempting to connect the client computer.

Please let us know if this remedies the issue.

Thank you,
Ceton Support



Me:
It is difficult for me to tell how much of the issues are caused by WMC, and how much needs to be addressed by Ceton, but I suspect there is work for Ceton to do. Why are the wrong IPs consistently detected and the first install always fails?

I hope you guys are able to improve network use of this tuner. The install process has been by far one of the most difficult and frustrating I have ever experienced, and I consider myself a pretty competent computer/network user. I have VoIP with Asterisk PBX, two switches and a wireless access point all working properly on my network.

I'll report back if there are further problems.
Wow I can't fathom why the Ceton Network Tuner Uility is giving you so much grief and is forcing you to jump through such hoops. I had no problem with the utility at all. It seemed like a fully mature app.

I have tuners #1 and #2 assigned to the i3 box that the Ceton is installed in.
#3 is assigned to the Dual Core Atom/Ion I am posting this on
#4 is assigned to a Dell Notebook.

All IPs in my network are assigned via the DHCP functionality of my D-Link. There are no static IPs on my network at all. My network always includes at least 4 desktop PCs, a Windows Media Center Extender, an Oooma VOIP adapter, an HP Printer and at least one notebook (usually more). Most of the time there are a couple of Blu-Ray players as well. When I ran the Ceton Network Tuner Utility there was a Tivo HD on the local network as well.

Other than not realizng I needed to run the Digital Cable Advisor on each client before you go through TV Signal Setup... the only accomadation I made in running the Ceton Network Uility wa firewall configuration and even then all I did was apply the suggested rules for Norton on the Atom. The other client, my new Dell 14r Inspiron had the Windows firewall running and required no special effort.

I was struck by how easy and staightforward the whole Network Tuner configuration was. Now Ceton's instructions for the utility needs to mention the Digital Cable Advisor, and it should be in boldface type as the first step.

My brother installed the Network Tuner Utility and is sharing tuners without assigning any static IP addresses.
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post #9 of 11
5/26/11 at 1:33pm
Thread Starter 
It sounds like those who had no problems are using DHCP. Perhaps was part of the problem for me. I do support DHCP on my network so the occasional guest (friends smartphones usually) can use it. But, for a number of reasons, I prefer static IPs for all my devices that are, well, static.

I know the Ceton card was picking up a DHCP address when it powered on in it's default configuration. It seems that once it did that it had a hard time remembering or applying the static IP it was assigned.

Perhaps this install would have gone trouble-free if I had turned off DHCP, installed InfiniTV4, assigned it an IP, and then turned DHCP back on. It would have never gotten confused with the initial DHCP address assignment?

Perhaps Ceton could include a few simple instructions or fix the bug where their card reports on old DHCP address when it is supposed to be at a static IP address.

Based on the responses it sounds like static IP networks are not the most common among AVS self-flagellators, but they aren't unheard of either (VoIP is often preferred to be static, and any server). And networks with most clients assigned static IPs almost always still support DHCP.

Oh well, live and learn.

Edit: No, I never turned off the windows firewall during the process. Supposedly it is auto-configured, and there weren't any indications the firewall was the problem.
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post #10 of 11
5/26/11 at 1:36pm
I had similar problem with my InfiniTV4, after below steps, I am trouble free few days now.

1) I've no tuner share yet therefore I ran the InfiniTV 4 Wizard and set the tuners back to default setting.
2) Instead of assigned each device to IP address I want in iPV4 properties, my router is assigning IP address to match with the MAE address in the DHCP reservation table. Example here.
3) Set up a Scheduled Task and reboot the HTPC early morning daily.
4) Check the PCI slot and make sure it does not have any IRQ conflict with any devices attaching/connecting to. For example, my original PCI slot I use was share IRQ with 1394 then I move to another PCI slot and share with LAN. When I moved it there, I got few more problems and lock up my LAN. After that I move the tuner back to the PCI slot with 1394 but this time, I disable on board 1394 from the BIOS.

Other items you can check it out are:
A) Make sure your temp is not 70C+. Before an additional fan installed, I have 63C+ all the time. Now, I only have 50C to 53C.
B) Make sure your signal is between -10 to 5 dBmV.
Both above you can find out from their tool or this plug in.
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post #11 of 11
5/26/11 at 2:14pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by hlkc View Post
2) Instead of assigned each device to IP address I want in iPV4 properties, my router is assigning IP address to match with the MAE address in the DHCP reservation table. Example here.
Yeah, it seems Ceton have only looked at the DHCP network model for their network setup wizard and/or firmware.

I know about DHCP address reservation, but don't particularly want to change my network configuration. I set it up the way it is for a reason and want to keep it that way.

So far it looks like I can, but at the expense of a couple evenings of InfiniTV4 troubleshooting.
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