HDHomerun Prime or Ceton InfiniTV - Page 2

Just wondering if a simple post count on avsforum might be a sign?

HD Homerun Prime thread is under 500 yet InfiniTV 4 thread is pushing 3000. Or does this just show that more people here have the later product or because it was on the market earlier?

http://www.missingremote.com/review/...al-cable-tuner

This review makes several comparisons to Ceton InfiniTV 4.

The number of posts is more related to the PCIe version of the Ceton InfiniTV 4 being available a year earlier. In addition, SiliconDust has a fairly active forum with good support from SD tech. So I imagine, that has offloaded some of the post that would be found here to their own forum.

Can anyone with a SiliconDust HDHomerRun Prime confirm they can also watch TV on their regular TV, not just a computer. I can now stream video from my computer to my TV using a DLNA program. But I understand that recordings made with the Prime have DRM features that prevent streaming to a TV.

You'll need either a htpc or extender to watch live tv protected or not. I have a Prime and use both a htpc and an Xbox 360 on a regular tv.

-RobNY

How is the quality when you do that? I tried it at the pic quality plus UI of the tv was total junk.

I purchased the 3 tuner HDHomerun Prime when it first came out & it was pretty bad the first few months, but Silicondust seems to have most of the kinks worked out & my Prime has been really solid the last 4+ months.

I just built a 3rd HTPC & I'm looking at adding another tuner. I really wanted to get a Ceton InfiniTV (PCI-E), but it sounds like they run hot & people say that they take a long time to intialize when rebooting or coming out of standby. I also looked at the Hauppauge 2650 & the USB version of the Ceton tuner, but it seems like both of those have problems with randomly becoming disconnected from the computer. I'll probably just go with another 3 tuner HDHomerun Prime.

I get great quality. My whole house is wired with cat five. I use Servio and Allshare from Samsung. Now mostly servio. If I rip a dvd or download a video (in almost any format ( mkv, avi mp4 etc) it is stored on a drive on my computer. The computer and Samsung are wired to a Belkin Router. Servio lets me select a directory to stream from the PC to the TV . So on my Samsung DNLA TV I look at the sources from the remote and select Servio. I get a long list of all videos on the computer. I just click play on the video selected by the TV remote and the video runs. Very high quality. Even large mkv 3D side by side video streams. No buffering.

So I am considering buying a Homerun Prime and save recordings from the Prime and my TW cable card to a folder on my computer. Then use Servio and the DLNA TV to stream them to my TV. I just don't know if the recordings by the Prime are so DRM protected that the cannot be converted or just run back to the TV in their native recorded format. Since we pay TW for rights to view the program, I thought they should stream back in HD without even having to convert them to some other format or resolution.

The Prime is promising but I don't want to view TV on my computer screen.

Time Warner Cable typically marks most channels copy once, so you will be unable to do that with the HDHR Prime

If you're on TWC, you'll be wanting either an Xbox360 or the upcoming Ceton Echo extender then (or pick up an old Linksys DMA2100 on fleabay). That's the only way you're going to get protected content on your TV from an HTPC, and with no loss of resolution.

I find it odd that the DLNA implementations do not support DTCP-IP, which is supposed to allow for DRM content viewing. Still doesn't solve the problem of how to get the .wtv's streamed I guess.

I went with the 2650 because I only needed 2 tuners (coming from a HDTivo) and the price of entry was low enough to take the chance.
I had some disconnection issues at first with sleep/wake cycles which seem to have gone away with updated drivers and firmware. So far, no problems on that end. Channel changing is pretty quick. I only watch TV from that PC, so having a networked tuner wasn't a priority for me. I don't think FIOS flags its channels as copy-once so I may be able to stream recorded shows to other PCs from the HTPC.

For some reason Vz has un-provisioned my card a couple of times in as many months, but that's not the tuner's fault.

I've been using Ceton for a long while.

Never crashed, not even once. However from time to time I will get no signal but the tricks it works for me is go up one channel and back down to the channel I want and picture will come in right away.

I do have pixelation problem before. However, after I called Comcast and they came down and they did something up in the pole where the their own booster locates and after some adjustments, I do not have any pixelation again. The tech told me that I might have some neighbor just joined Comcast and they start to share my bandwidth and after they adjust the booster, I've no problem since.

Yes, Ceton can get hot but I've my case open in a dedicated server/equipment room therefore no worry here.

My HTPC sleep all the time unless it is recording or when I use it. With that said, it wakes up from sleep a lot daily. It takes about 3 to 5 sec and it is ready to watch Recorded TV and/or Live TV.

Please don't spread mis-information. The InfiniTV's power-consumption, at the maximum (assuming a CableCARD drawing the maximum amount of power allowed by the spec is inserted, and with all 4 tuners in use) is 14 watts. Typical power consumption is around 7 watts. This is a very far cry from the 20 watts you quoted. Heat is not an issue in a case with ANY airflow around the InfiniTV.

Also, Ceton is not aware of *ANY* crashes being experienced by customers running our newest firmware. If you are experiencing them, please open a support ticket and we will investigate.

The InfiniTV's coax connectors should not break off, and I have gone so far as to abuse some of mine without issue. If yours did break off, that is an anomaly. Please contact our support and we will resolve it for you.

You are correct that Ceton does not have its own forum, but myself, JeremyH, Michael and Motz are frequent visitors here, and on both TGB sites. At this point, we see no need to create yet another forum when there are 3 sites which share a similar purpose that we participate in.

As far as the blue LED, the OCUR spec actually requires a status LED, so all OCURs will have one. I would expect that the HDHR Prime's LED, which is forward-facing, would be more objectionable. I know that I do not find the glow from the InfiniTV's LED objectionable, even in a dark room. If you find it that objectionable, PM me your address and I will send you a sticker to cover it.

The only incorrect information I saw in his entire post was the "20W" part. Everything else is correct (or his opinion, so not factually incorrect).

I have a Ceton. If I had to do it over again, I probably would have waited for the HDHomeRun Prime. On a Stand-alone unit, the ceton seems to be fine, but when I shared a tuner to another PC, I was constantly having problems with the sync dropping (IE tuner not found in 7MC), and I'd have to go and reset up the tuners on each PC again.

To their credit, Ceton worked their buts off trying to fix my problem. Then sent me a new card at no cost and sent me several software updates (before public distribution) as well as analyzing my logs. I replaced my router and that seemed to reduce the frequency of the drops, but it still happened every few weeks or so. Maybe the newest firmware would fix this problem (I updated it when I rebuilt my PC a few weeks ago, but am no longer sharing), I don't know.

Since going back to just having it on one PC though, I've had no issues. I'm not sure the price difference now, but the Ceton used to be significantly more than the HDHomeRun Prime, and I don't watch enough TV to make that single tuner worth it.

The problem though is that if you have a low-profile HTPC case like many do, the airflow just isn't that great. Mine gets pretty hot, though its not going to burn down the house or anything. Would have been fantastic if they had put a small fan on it.


That happened to mine, but Ceton was very good in replacing it quickly. Been very careful since!

Still pondering but adding more heat to inside my HTPC case is an undesirable situation along with the reported slower channel changing of the Ceton.

That said, can the usb version be networked? Leaving computers on is not an issue for me. What happens with copy protection if the Ceton is connected to a computer that is in my office and I share tuners with my HTPC?

As far as the HDHR goes, being network attached does it have the same issue with copy protection?

I haven't noticed that the ceton changes channels slowly.

I've been told it takes longer than the HDHR from Whiteboy714 who has had both. Uverse is instantaneous.

I've heard (ok, I READ ) this too - though I'm not sure how much faster. I think depending on your local cable co, SDV, time of day, etc, channel changing speed can vary. I know for me, it can take just a couple of seconds to 5-7 for the same channel, depending on the day.

Would uverse channel changing even be comparable (I've never used it)? It sounds like you'd definately have to suffer some lag regardless of which tuner.

You mean to tell me the world is coming to an end in six months (it is 2012, isn't it?) but some providers have lag on changing channels? Does this occur when a channel is typed into the remote or is it just when surfing up and down?

5-7 seconds is time enough to go take a wiz almost or at least run to the fridge and grab a drink. That is not acceptable.

For sure, it is not 5 to 7 sec here. At the most it is 3 sec top here. I would say average 2 sec. The only case for me it is instant is if I record the same channel that I am switching to. In this case it will be SO fast and it will jump to that channel instantly.

hlkc - Do you have SDV? I've done a setup for myself with SDV and another one without. The setup without SDV is no doubt quicker (probably 3 seconds). Mine is certainly slower so if you don't have SDV, I'd expect quicker.

So SDV changes channels quicker?

Which tuner are you using?

I've Comcast here and as far as I know Comcast is not using SDV at all.


No, the other way around. Without SDV it should be quicker.

Ugh! Charter is rolling out SDV next month to provide more HD on existing bandwidth. So your telling me that they can prove 100/10 internet but cannot make channels change in less than 2 seconds, nevermind a few microseconds? REALLY?

If I am not mistakenly, since it is SDV this will not just apply to Ceton but also HD HomeRun in your case too.

I understand that. What I don't understand is that Uverse uses a similar concept to SDV and it changes channels instantaneously.

Uverse is not cable signal, therefore it might be different.

1's and 0's but maybe they found a way to switch streams quicker. I do know it is highly compressed.