Official Ceton Echo Extender Info Thread - Page 10

So, by no means am I saying TAs are perfect, but they have gotten a lot better in the last year. I will say we have (and are continuing) to put a lot of effort into making the TA experience more reliable, and I'm actually scheduled to go into TWC's lab next week to do some more testing with them.

I can't say I've seen TA's spontaneously reboot since the 1501 TA firmware from Cisco. There is a known issue on the 1402 firmware, but 1501 fixes it and we've worked with most MSOs to get 1501 deployed ASAP.

I will say that Cisco's TA group (which is different than their CableCARD group and their SDV server group) has actually worked with us and provided some feedback, and we have worked with them (the only reason the current Cisco TA firmware supports 6 tuners and not 4 is because we sent them a 6-tuner InfiniTV) so perhaps we actually have more reliable TA support that our competitors?

If you can simply ignore the TA or not depends on your system. In my case, there are literally about 6 non-switched HD channels so I essentially have to use a TA or my setup is useless.

Are you experiencing specific TA-related issues?


I'm going to defer to the nearest Magic 8 ball for the answer on that one

So when will you guys send me (and other interested buyers) a 6-tuner InfiniTV? I'll be happy to pay for mine...

What is the 'Cisco TA'? I have Optimum and we've had two problems with regards to our InfiniTV:

1) We had a problem with 7MC losing the set up (basically says no tuner available and we have to reset up). Ceton worked pretty hard to correct this and its much less of an issue now. I replaced my router (I share one tuner to another PC) which seemed to really be the issue, but I wondered if it had something to do with Optimum as well.

2) Lately, we've been having a lot of signal drops in the middle of shows. It's not specific to cable cards though as our neighbors (condo) are reporting the same thing and most have regular DVRs.

ncarty97:
Here's the Cisco data sheet:
www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/video/ps9159/.../7013834.pdf

Eric:

Thanks for your reply. I have one additional question concerning HDMI.

I currently have a Denon receiver (an older model) that supports HDMI 1.1, so I have my LG Blu-Ray player set to output audio over HDMI in PCM format. Does the Q support this level of audio support, or will I have to update my receiver when I buy the Q? Note that I easily convinced my wife to approve the Q (because it won't have the external hard drive problems randomly exhibited by the SA8300HD), but it will be more difficult to persuade her that we need to spend another $850 to update the receiver at the same time.

Thanks for your time & trouble.

So what is everyone's wishlist for 3rd party / internet sourced content.

I mentioned a few earlier but curious what you all hope for.

Personally I'd love.
MLB.TV, NBA league Pass, NFL Sunday Ticket, NHL, Hulu, Nextflix.

I'm sure there are a few I'm forgetting so post your wishlist!

Yes, the Q will support this.

Has it been verefied that the echo will play bd rips in iso or folder structures? I personally hate making mkvs.

Eric:

Great! Thanks.

Here's a datasheet on the Echo I just came across.

http://cetoncorp.com/wp-content/them...Ceton_Echo.pdf

Also found the Q Datasheet.
http://cetoncorp.com/wp-content/them...et-Ceton_Q.pdf

Is this any indication they are getting close or have these documents been posted before?

Someone else posted them last week or so - I'd hope its an indicator we'll see it available soon!

Regarding WAF:
I'm the technology geek in the family (how's that for a stereotype!), and sometimes it takes a while for me to persuade my wife to go along with a new gadget. When we got the Squeezebox, it was the good UI/remote design that convinced her. With regard to the Q and the Echo, the thing that convinced her was -
pause for dramatic effect -
the incredibly unreliable nature of the SA8300HD.

see page 9

Anyone care to speculate whether or not we'll see this device by July?

Eric, have you worked with Cox, Cox is still at Cisco TA FW 1402, and claims that is the latest.

I know Cox was at least testing 1501 - I'm unsure if they have started deployments offhand. I actually just pinged them about it yesterday

Eric, any chance that Ceton also sells their softsled software that is running on these units? Those of us already with multiple htpcs would be very likely to buy several licenses of that.

Eric:

Do you know which firmware Optonline/Cablevision uses? Thanks.

microsoft is the only one that can release extender software, and they will never do that.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembe...-features.aspx

Notice one of the features:
Remote Desktop Protocol 7.1 (RDP7.1) includes RemoteFX, which is a set of technologies that includes USB Redirection, Multi-media redirection, Multi-monitor support.

Is it possible to have your clients connect via RDP to get the extender experience? Isn't that how the old extenders worked?

Here's a nice comparison doc of the Windows Embedded os's:
http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...ndard-2009.pdf

If you look on Page 3 you will see they offer easier Third-Party software and driver integration and on page 5 you will see Windows Media Center is fully integrated.

I'm pretty certain they are on 1501, but CableVision is actually a little unique in that they are the only MSO running their TAs in DSG mode and not legacy OOB mode.


No. RemoteFX requires the OS to be a VM on Windows Server 2008 R2, and does not support machines running on physical HW.

Does this mean if the HTPC is a windows 2008 server; a VM client could act as an extender?

It wouldn't get around the issue that WMC machines can't be clients. As far as media center is concerned, multiple instances in VMs are no different than multiple instances on different PCs.

And maybe Eric can correct me if I'm wrong, but while the WMC Extender functionality is based on remote desktop, it is not just remote desktop. I believe the remote desktop functionality is just used for the GUI presentation, audio/video is handled (decoded) locally on the extender box.

It has to be 2008 R2, and it has to be a Win7 VM on it It's also a little more complex.


That's relatively accurate

2 questions.

1. If another machine on my network has a InfiniTV card in it, will the Q be able to use these tuners in addition to what it already has?

2. Has Ceton been able to solve the "record after" bug with back-to-back (on the same channel) recordings?

"Cablevision is running firmware version STA1.0.0_1520.LR_F.BDSG 1501"
http://optimum.custhelp.com/app/answ...ning%20Adapter

EmDub, your questions really belong in the Q thread as the Echo is an extender.


That's Microsoft's bug to fix (I'm assuming you're referring to the bug where you have to specify to record 10 (or more) minutes extra (and not the "when possible" option) at the end of a program to avoid the same tuner being used for back to back recordings on the same channel (which results in the first one ending on time and the second starting on time instead of using the user's specified extra start and end times. I wouldn't expect Ceton to be making changes to core WMC functionality (and I wouldn't think Microsoft would be providing them with the source code to do so), but rather to be writing add-ons to add additional functionality. If I'm wrong and Ceton will have access to fix this sort of issue, that would be a huge selling point for the Q.