Official Ceton Echo Extender Info Thread - Page 9

And I don't (though I would still like it to potentially)


I know it will play recordings, it's a Windows Media Center Extender so it has to. I'm not interested in (just) that, I need something that supports TV (from Dish or DTV) and Blu-ray/DVD rips, ideally in their native folder format.

It seems clear that the Echo can do both, but there's a giant question hanging of if it can do both while connected to a regular WMC machine or if the Q is required to enable the advanced media support current extenders don't. They've stated some advanced functionality will only work with the Q, but the skins are the only example that has been specified so far.

So it sounds like you are saying that if I live in a country where it is legal to remove the encryption from a BluRay and then convert it to MKV for personal use only, you guys are making sure it can do that?

Obviously, in countries where it is illegal it is a moot point, since it is not legally allowable, but in some European countries it is legal to do...so there would be no issue there.

Do I understand it correctly?

I'm not sure what you are trying to get at. An MKV is a container and you can encode and put pretty much whatever you want in it. What difference does it make if it came from a BlueRay or your camcorder. All you should care about is if it will play MKV files with whatever video and audio formats the container supports.

I'm new to the HTPC community (only 3 months now). There is a lot of speculation on here about what formats the Echo will support ie; Blu-ray, DVD H.264. I found this right on the Ceton website.

Movie/Video Formats
 AVI
 DVR-MS, DVR-MS HD
 H.264
 MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4
 VC-1
 WMV9
Digital Rights Management
 Windows Media Player 11
 WMDRM-11

I tried to post the link but the site will not let me due to being new....I'm not sure what is required to play these formats on extenders but maybe this will help with some of the speculation as to what it will and will not support and you can share that with me.

I came into the HTPC as a way to eliminate Bright House's STB, HD, DVR and Whole House DVR fees. It solved all but the Whole House DVR capability due to DRM's and bright House putting "copy once" even on the local broadcast HD feeds. I went into my HTPC with the naive notion that sharing to other rooms would be as simple as plugging in my laptop. It sounds like this is going to solve the Whole House DVR issue but what about Ripped DVD's? I've just started ripping some movies so some insight as to what formats to use for DVD's and Blu-ray's that would still preserve HD video/sound quality and stream to the whole house would be great.

I feel that it is a very important feature for users to be able to do that for countries where it is legal

Yeah, realized my post was a bit vague if the entire conversation was not closely followed. I meant legal to remove the encryption from the BluRay.

Here's the link he's referring to. It's only preliminary, but there's some interesting info.
http://cetoncorp.com/wp-content/them...Ceton_Echo.pdf

that looks like the standard extender format support blurb with the addition of mpeg-4. the linksys dma2x00 says almost the same thing:

The following Video Codecs are supported:

Video from Disc:
DVD-Video / MPEG2 ( VOB with AC3 5.1 and down mix to Stereo) (DMA2200 only)
Video from Vista PC:
MPEG-1 - Upto 352x240(NTSC),352x288(PAL) - Upto 1.856Mb/s - 23.976 & 24F/s, 25F/s(PAL), 29.97 & 30 F/s(NTSC)
MPEG-2 - (Main Profile @ High Level - Upto 1920x1080x30F/s & 1920x1152x25F/s - CBR & VBR upto 19.39Mb/s- 23.976 & 24F/s
WMV9 (VC-1 Main profile) - @ High Level - Upto 1920x1080x30F/s - CBR & VBR upto 20Mb/s - 24,25,30F/S
VC-1 Advanced profile - @ Level 2 - 720x480x30 & 1280x720x30 F/S - CBR & VBR upto 20Mb/s - 24,25,30F/S -
H.264 - High Profile 4.0 - Upto 1920x1080 - Upto 20Mb/s - 30 & 25 F/s - Audio: MPEG-1 Layers I & II, MPEG-2 Layer I & II, AC-3 (No divx support)
HTTP AV Streaming - MPEG-1 & MPEG-2 - play, pause, stop, seek forward 30s (+/- 3s), seek backwards 7s (+/- 1s).
The following Audio Codecs are supported:

Audio from Disc:
CD-Audio / LPCM - WAV. Mono/Stereo (DMA2200 only)
Audio from Vista PC:
PCM Audio - Stereo - 44.1kHz - Raw PCM, WAV/PCM
MP3 (MPEG-1 layer III) - Mono/Stereo - 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz. Upto 320kb/s
WMA - Mono/Stereo - 11.025 kHz, 16 kHz, 22.05 kHz, 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz - Upto 192kb/s
WMA-Pro - Stereo/5.1/7.1 - 11.025 kHz, 16 kHz, 22.05 kHz, 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz - Upto 1.5Mb/s
Dolby Digital AC-3 Audio - Mono, Stereo, 5.1 - 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz - Upto 640kb/s (In Video)
MPEG Audio - MPEG 1 & 2 layers I & II (in Video)
AAC-LC Stereo via Vista Media Center extension


http://www6.nohold.net/Cisco2/ukp.as...rticleid=15877

Beyond the codecs, what I continue to wonder about are the file types that are supported, and how they are made known to the extender. Will everything have to be indexed by Media Center, or will the Echo function as a more general network streamer? Ideally, the Echo would be a Roku-like device with (among others) Media Center and XBMC "channels", with dedicated remote codes for switching between them. OTOH, if the Echo is named literally and can only "echo" what's in Media Center, then I presume one would have to install codec packs on the HTPC to get Media Center to recognize common file types, and that would not be very desirable at all.

^^^
The ability to extend the 7MC experience combined with a robust media streamer, as I said earlier in this thread, would be a game changer. I would absolutely pay a premium for this functionality.

I hear ya Eric! .mkv playback on my xbox is about 50/50. Some work, some just have sound.

I currently am running 2 Ceton Quads with Tuner Salad and a combination of DMA's and Xbox's to the other rooms.

I'd ditch my HTPC for a "Q" in a heartbeat if we can utilize "outside" server space, or the eSata drive. I have a 4TB raid drive for movies/recorded (kids shows, movies, etc.) TV and it stays full, so I'd need a ton of room.

Question: This 2TB drive in the Q......I'm guessing it's not an SSD, but what if it fails? Could we replace it, or would it need to go back to Ceton for repair?
Does the unit actually have two separate drives (one for MCE and one for Storage)?

I agree with most that the echo needs to be around sub $200.00. If you guys are able to keep the echo price competitive, it would allow a lot more headroom for people like myself to ditch our HTPC's and buy the "Q". You could also "bundle" the products with discounts depending on how many echo's you purchase with your new "Q". Example: Special pricing for a new Q and 2 Echo's for a reduced price, as compared to regular retail for each item separately. Or a reduced price for a 4 or 5 room bundle.

Most important to me overall is access to the storage on the Q (dropping ripped files to the Q from another network PC), the Echo playback formats, and streaming a DVD/Bluray disc from the host machine (Q or HTPC) to an echo extender would ROCK!

Really looking forward to more info on them.....I've been very happy with my InfiniTV's since they were released.

Craig

Hello everyone, I am new here.

I have built an HTPC Win7 media center with a Cablecard tuner. I have no extender currently and have been studying the options available. Like everyone here I am excited to see Ceton coming out with these new products. I would like to express my interest in the Echo extender. Reading this thread, I see a lot of feature requests from everyone, this is bound to happen since there are so many options on how we get and watch T.V./Video/music. I see a consensus of two main features. One being a true WMC extender that is low powered, quite and responsive. Another feature is to be a great streaming device capable of playing nearly any file format. I would love to have a device with all of the capabilities of the latest generation WD T.V. live and a true WMC extender. These two core features alone would make the Echo the best WMC extender on the market. Other user requested features could be added down the road via software updates.

The biggest concern I have is shelling the money for a Q hub and Echo extenders is being locked into cable t.v. only. There are quite a few people now ditching cable for over the air HDTV and Internet t.v. sources. The Q hub needs to support as many different type of tuners as possible so this not a cable locked down system.

With all due respect, when will Ceton be able to shutup and take my money?!

Like many other sagetv refugees, The day this thing is available and confirmed to stream mkv, unencrypted m2ts, VOB, netflix, etc without transcoding is the same day I order 3.

Awesome, and will be more awesomer when actually released!

I have a question for QAM Eric. . .

I see Q requires a cablecard, so I assume will not be able to pull in On Demand (OD). I can get tons of premium (HBO Starz, etc) content via OD, since I already pay for those channels-- so I like and want OD.
If it's true that Q won't do OD, then I'll have to get a seperate, basic HD STB just for OD, and switch inputs on my TV to view. Is there any chance Q could be designed to work with a STB to allow OD to work through it? Better yet, work with the Echos so I'd only need one STB for the whole house?

If my assumption is incorrect and Q will do OD, then never mind.

http://cetoncorp.com/wp-content/them...et-Ceton_Q.pdf

At this point, the OCUR spec (which the InfiniTV, and also competing products) follow, prohibits return-path communication, so you will not be able to access content that requires two-way support from the Q. However, we have done some great things with internet sourced content, which may meet your needs.

Tivo has struck a deal with Charter. Charter will be offering a Tivo HD Premier to their customers that will give them access to Charters On Demand content. The downside is that you lose Netflix.

Forgot to mention that I would take a Q and 5 echo's if they are anything like sageTV's extenders way before I would touch a Tivo.

Eric, any chance of having something available prior to the end of SageTV's channel guide going black?

i know, i know, you cant give us a time frame.

Hmmm. HboGO, showtimeGo, Netflix, and Hulu? (nfl Sunday ticket would be nice for next year as well too)

Is there an announced end to SageTV? I hadn't seen anything? I don't suppose if I say "soon" it will be any better, will it?

Google has said guide service will be provided through this year. No information after that.

Our current plans are to ship well within this year, so you should be safe.

The picture shows one cable card, but it says 6 tuners, that's a nice deal (compared to say the 6 tuner HDHomeRun prime that requires two cards).

I love my HTPC, but if this thing will play by rips, I'd probably be willing to ditch it and get a Q and a few of the extenders.

All CableCARDs deployed in the US can actually support 6 streams (with the exception of a Conax CableCARD literally used by a single MSO in Texas, which can only support 5) so yes, we can do 6 channels with a single CableCARD. All Cisco TAs can do 6 streams also, and most Motorola TAs can do 6 (we are working with MSOs to get the 6-tuner FW rolled out to the rest before our 6-tuner product launches).

I hope the Q takes many of the existing media centric capabilities of the current Media Center and throws out everything not related to an ultimate whole home Video and Audio experience, (i.e., the ultimate whole home Media Center). It should keep the underlying W7/8 base code which would allow the capability to install and run 3rd party programs like commercial skip using show analyzer, Media Browser, My channel logos, and Anydvd for ripping a disk to the hard drive. Also, it would need to have an imbedded or 3rd party player capability for blu-rays. Also it should allow me to combine ATSC (OTA) tuners to work with via USB or Ethernet, the installed internal CC tuners (i.e., like Media Center does today to combine both signals). If the Q does this I will replace my Media Center with the Q, and order a bunch of echo’s for the rest of the home ASAP…

Google was only going to provide channel guide data until the end of May, however, I just read that google will continue to provide channel guide data until the end of this year.

Way OT for this thread, but they never said when the guide data would end, only gave dates that it would not end before.

After watching the video I'm stoked. I'd love to get rid of my HTPC to cut down on power. Sucks I just bought the tuner card a few months ago and a mini-PC for my other TV, but I'm for sure be able to sell them.

I'm hoping you can connect a network share so the Q and the extender know where all the data is. I'm assuming you will be able to. Also, like most people have said as long as it can stream mkv files I'm down to buy the units. Be nice if it had a component to surf the web via a browswer, but no big deal.

I'm pumped.

Here on Cablevision/Optimum, the Cisco TAs are well-known for random reboots, which foul up recordings on Tivos and Moxis (RIP). Cisco, to my mind, has no interest in solving this issue or providing any support. Do you have any insight into how this problem can be resolved? One solution I've heard is to just not connect the TA, and forgo those channels that are switched digital. I would sooner do that than subject my soon-to-be-acquired Q/Echo system to random reboots.

And yeah, I'm buying one Q and one Echo the day you put them on sale.

sounds like a Q3 release target?