Official Ceton Echo Extender Info Thread - Page 11

But with 6 tuners, does this really matter except for the hardcore? I would wager, not much.

My impression was that the two threads had merged. If there really is a thread dedicated to the Q (I can't find it), please point me in the direction. Thanks!

Here you go: Ceton Q DVR-HTPC Info Thread.

I guess it depends on how we define "hardcore" in this sort of application. I don't really see someone having several things recording, someone watching something on the main system, and some extenders watching live TV all at the same time as being an entirely unusual usage pattern, or for someone to just have a bunch of things recording at the same time. In either scenario, it wouldn't be too difficult to need more than 6 tuners to service all those needs. Once in a while, I run into a situation where I have more than 6 tuners recording at the same time (I have a pair of InfiniTV 4's). When this happens it's usually overlap where some shows are ending and other shows are starting (and there's usually a hockey game in the mix that I almost always start watching delayed by about an hour so I can skip over the intermissions and pretty much end on time).

To a certain degree, it all depends on who Ceton wants to sell the Q to. Do they just want to be just a cable company / Tivo alternative (if so, 6 tuners is probably plenty)? Do they want to be a custom built HTPC alternative? Do they want to sell lots of Echo extenders (if so, more tuners makes more Echos more usable)? Assuming the hardware they're using is up to the task of handling more than 6 tuners, it ought to be trivial to add support for the InfiniTV 4 USB, which would give the user the ability to add 4 more tuners by plugging the device into a USB port, giving a total of (obviously) 10 tuners. That obviously wouldn't satisfy those who want to use OTA tuners, HD PVR's, etc. (which one could argue is more of a "hardcore" request), but it might be a solution that satisfies a big enough percentage of potential buyers to do the trick.

Has anyone posted this link yet? Looks like it doesn't have wireless. Not a big deal for me.

http://cetoncorp.com/products/echo/

Yeah, I remember Eric hoping for no wireless to make his job easier . I don't argue either wireless just isn't there yet imo.

Yes I'm suire they did this on purpose or they would get thousands of calls/emails about video issues.

I know I am a little late to the game, but here would be my top ten requests:

1. an app store. allow 3rd parties to build plug-ins to extend the functionality.

2. full mymovie support. I know that others use other apps to do similar functionality, but I ripped all of my purchased movies (11TB+). I would like that to continue to work. This means Blu-ray ISO or BDVM.... I mean, with the ability for camcorders to shoot HD, and video editing apps to convert that to blu-ray discs.... shouldn't I be able to watch all my own user created content.... that isn't encrypted? (if you catch my drift)

3. themes. the one you have is nice, but may not be for everyone

4. really good parental controls. I mean really good. I have kids and i like to be able to control what they watch, how long they watch, when the watch time starts and ends... etc.

5. Airplay. Apple said that they were going to make that an open standard. The ability to push things to an tv from iTunes, iPhone, iPad, etc is an amazing feature.

6. Remote access. It is great to remotely add shows to record.

7. Ability to add drives to extend recording time. Or save the shows to a WHS.

8. Amazon Prime video streaming.

9. iTunes support... please.... ok, this is a bit of a tough one, but I can dream?

10. the ability to customize what you see on your window. I don't watch sports, nor do I use WMC for my music. I wish I could remove those strips.


That said, this is great news. If the echo and Q are as good as they are being made out to be.... then all I can say is I have a fair amount ready on my credit card with ceton's name on it. We are moving into our new house in June... it would be great if you had it ready by then.... please?!

(BTW - please forgive me if some of these have been mentioned before. It is difficult to read through all 11 pages and remember everything)

I assume these will come with a remote.. Any images of those yet? Will they be wife friendly (can they turn on my TV at least)? IR or RF?

Can't wait to lose the Xbox extenders!

Man I havn't been this excited for a product launch in ages.... Can't wait

I'd take it that since they've listed it in their products page, it's release has to be pretty close.

Preorders? - Yep, I went there!

I personally need a bit more concrete information before I'd sign up for a preorder

+1

The Q and Echo are poised to be the answer to our cries of "give me one great box that does it all"

It looks like I may be retiring a WDTV box in the future.
I will gladly replace 5 DMA2100's with the Echo's and Pair them up with a Q so I can power off my power sucking/noise making PC.

I really just want a media center box that can do Live TV,Recorded TV, Netflix, Pandora, RadioTime app, Netflix, and play DIVX and MKV from my NAS and PC.

I can't wait to see what the future brings.

That's all I want!! Now just give it to us with a nice interface and you will be rich!!!


Well actually SageTv did give us that but I'm not sure they were so rich. I think this will be a lot easier for the average user to implement though.

+1. I don't see anything on their spec page that indicates it will do anything more than the current media center extenders, excepting the web browser.

Haha - I agree completely. I was being a little facetious with the pre-order comment considering the nightmare a couple of years ago with the Infinitv.
That said, I'm sure IF any preorders occur, it would be much smoother this time around.

Regarding specs - if at the VERY least it had a buttery smooth interface (with animations) like the xbox and WOL, I'd still be in for several. The DMA's/x280n/other extenders that exist today ALL have their own quirks/issues with zero hope of being resolved.

The fact it would be SUPPORTED goes a long way IMO

I wonder why they are secretive on codec support. If they released that it could play mkv, dvd and blu-ray rips/iso then that would start a huge buzz and rally. My guess is that it's either technically not possible, they haven't gotten it fully implemented, or they have some legal concerns. With the last 2 reasons meaning they dont want to say one thing and then have to take it back. I can't see any other reasons to miss out on the marketing.

This is why Apple's way of doing things can be better. You announce the product, all it's features and then have it available to ship in like 2 weeks. The down side is that sometimes this can make it harder to plan out future purchases. In the end I think it makes for a better product management methodology.

I still need to know if it will support Blu-ray rips/structures with a Windows 7 server (vs the Q).

I believe ealier in this thread and in an interview they have said it will play mkvs and that there are legal issues with Blu ray rips that they are still sorting out.

Any idea of a ship date or cost?

Oh please give us a release date already. My HTPC is dying, on its last legs, the WAF is down to -100 - I'm in the dog house. My choices are to make several "upgrades" to the HTPC and/or take it to a shop to repair... spending several $00's or... get a Q and a couple of Echos.

I am a faithful Ceton InfiniTV user - love it. And I'll beta test/preorder whatever you want... I can't remember the last time I wanted a product so badly...

Agreed. Just saw the "official" product listing on the Ceton site a couple of days ago and immediately thought of a project I've had in mind for a few years now.

I'm a college football nut. I currently have season tickets for my favorite team's home games, but for away game Saturdays I'm watching the ESPNs and whatever networks are airing games all day into the wee hours of Sundays. Lots of flipping between channels.

With the Echo I'm envisioning what I fondly refer to as "The Wall", something I almost have my wife agreeing to. The 61" screen in the middle, with 3 (or more) 27 - 32" screens across the top of that. An Echo attached to each of those showing the different games and I'm in hog-heaven, except for the obvious issue of controlling those screens independently. I believe this would require the ability to set each Echo to a different carrier frequency for the remote (otherwise a single button press affects all of the units), but I'm no expert on this subject.

Just dreaming out loud. Back to reality...

You are not alone, though I am an NBA nut instead. I am currently running the HTPC directly to a 50" plasma and a DMA2100 to a 32" LED TV mounted above the plasma to the upper left. I had to do a registry edit on the HTPC so the remote for the DMA2100 and HTPC weren't using the same remote ID (1). It works well but I would really like the Echo to have the ability to change the remote ID and then I can add another 32" tv to the upper right corner above the plasma.

Also, if the Echo supports Netflix, it will replace the other DMA2100 I use for the bedroom TV.

Just read thru the thread and there is one question I have that I don't think has been asked yet... Can the screen saver show the proper picture wall like the host PC. One of my gripes with the Xbox as an extender is that it just dims as a screen saver.

Thanks,
Zarb

Yeah, I was pretty sure I wasn't the only one around these forums!

I currently have an old 27" CRT setup in the corner for the "background" games. I'm controlling both with a single Harmony remote, so with the Echo I would need A) a way to set the ID (or frequency, or whatever needs to be set to make them unique) and B) to be able to program the Harmony with those unique IDs for multiple Echos. Ditto for the smaller TVs if I get the same model across the board.

I suppose time will tell. And I've got a few months until college football season starts...

Interesting point - I thought I read at some point the pre-release of W7 (or was it Vista?) allowed extenders to use the picture wall but it was disabled in the GA release perhaps since extenders were less powerful. It would be nice if this could somehow be enabled...

Give me my Q, give me my echo! Where are you Ceton? Fill this tv emptiness in my life.

Can you please give us an ETA? PLEASE!

Drama rant over.

Really looking forward to getting what Ceton has to offer.