Ceton InfiniTV 4 Quad-tuner Card $219 @ Newegg

[mikemcc]

I was thinking I'd have to get the $269 deal on this at Amazon. Glad I waited.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815706001

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

where do you get the channel program guides when you use something like this?

 

[Dirigible]

where do you get the channel program guides when you use something like this?

Windows media center provides the channel/program guide with no additional charge beyond the cost of windows.

There may be other ways but I have windows 7 and it's easy with that so didn't look farther.

 

[GTFan]

where do you get the channel program guides when you use something like this?

Heh, with a screen nick like this you should be using MythTV, not Windows Media Center. Ceton works with Myth for non-copy protected channels.

 

[allthatisman]

Too bad this doesn't work with satellite, or Dish in my case. The DVR we have is HORRIBLE, and I've been through 3 of them.

 

[Craig234]

I still don't know what the value of these are, other than saving a small monthly rental fee and having four instead of two tuners.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I still don't know what the value of these are, other than saving a small monthly rental fee and having four instead of two tuners.

For 2 TVs my monthly STB rental fees would be over $20. The Ceton pays for itself in a little over a year. Also my HTPC does it all - streaming, live TV, DVR, network assignable tuners/access with media extenders, Blu-ray, and I can game on it as well. I don't need 2, 3, or more separate components to do the very same thing a single mATX box can do and that simplicity is great. Additionally it's all unified under WMC so the interface is consistent throughout.

imo, that a great value.

 

[wirednuts]

what type of horsepower does this card need to stream to 4 tv's? i want to build a 24/7 server that holds this card, and all my htpc's will use a tuner from it over the network....

thing is, i would like to use an e-350. if i cant though, Llano for sure

 

[Craig234]

For 2 TVs my monthly STB rental fees would be over $20. The Ceton pays for itself in a little over a year. Also my HTPC does it all - streaming, live TV, DVR, network assignable tuners/access with media extenders, Blu-ray, and I can game on it as well. I don't need 2, 3, or more separate components to do the very same thing a single mATX box can do and that simplicity is great. Additionally it's all unified under WMC so the interface is consistent throughout.

imo, that a great value.

I don't know I can appreciate the card. If my costs are similar, I'd save for one box taking a couple years to pay for it; streaming and blu-ray are already available with a PS3 (and an HTPC if I set it up), the DVR is $5/month oir if I have the HTPC, not sure what 'network assignable tuners with media extenders' does, I can game on PS3 or HTPC not sure what this does. People like it so I'm sure it's nice for them, for me it'd just be a headache to set up to save a small monthly fee as far as I'm informed.

 

[dclive]

what type of horsepower does this card need to stream to 4 tv's? i want to build a 24/7 server that holds this card, and all my htpc's will use a tuner from it over the network....

thing is, i would like to use an e-350. if i cant though, Llano for sure

Almost no horsepower; it's just reading and writing to disk; there's no high CPU involved in this at all.

A 5 year old Mac mini (Intel), Windows 7, 2GB RAM, with this card and a big drive is more than enough.

 

[dclive]

I don't know I can appreciate the card. If my costs are similar, I'd save for one box taking a couple years to pay for it; streaming and blu-ray are already available with a PS3 (and an HTPC if I set it up), the DVR is $5/month oir if I have the HTPC, not sure what 'network assignable tuners with media extenders' does, I can game on PS3 or HTPC not sure what this does. People like it so I'm sure it's nice for them, for me it'd just be a headache to set up to save a small monthly fee as far as I'm informed.

The advantage comes when you drop cable and use your OTA antenna, use this as your DVR, and are already invested in XBOX360s (the media extenders), which makes for a seamless, simple interface on all your 'client' TVs. If you don't have that infrastructure it isn't as handy.

Sickbeard and an NNTP provider is another easy way to get all the TV you want.

 

[Craig234]

Dropping cable would be nice, if I could get the shows elsewhere (e.g., MSNBC). I'm not sure how to set that up, or what sickbeard or nntp providers are.

 

[dclive]

A few seconds in google will explain NNTP (News) and Sickbeard, so I won't go into that.

If you drop cable, you get the show via antenna, if it's OTA.

 

[mikeford]

The advantage comes when you drop cable and use your OTA antenna, use this as your DVR, and are already invested in XBOX360s (the media extenders), which makes for a seamless, simple interface on all your 'client' TVs. If you don't have that infrastructure it isn't as handy.

Sickbeard and an NNTP provider is another easy way to get all the TV you want.

The point of this card vs other much cheaper options is that its for all the channels you CAN'T get with an antenna, the cable scrambled signal for all the non local channels. For OTA I picked up a $14 new in the box ATI Radeon TV Wonder 600 (from memory, could be different model) and it does fine on all the clear channel stuff.

 

[cboath]

what type of horsepower does this card need to stream to 4 tv's? i want to build a 24/7 server that holds this card, and all my htpc's will use a tuner from it over the network....

thing is, i would like to use an e-350. if i cant though, Llano for sure

Streaming just uses your internal network so it depends on what you have setup or what you're willing to set up. Don't know that I'd want to stream to 4 machines simultaneously on a wifi network though.

The quad tuner portion should mean that it can receive/record 4 channels at once. Doesn't relate to the output at all.

 

[dclive]

The point of this card vs other much cheaper options is that its for all the channels you CAN'T get with an antenna, the cable scrambled signal for all the non local channels. For OTA I picked up a $14 new in the box ATI Radeon TV Wonder 600 (from memory, could be different model) and it does fine on all the clear channel stuff.

Very correct; I was thinking of the OTA stuff, not the cablecard related stuff, what I made that erroneous comment.

 

[JeffMD]

Well first off, its not a magic bullet, it still requires that your cable supplier provides cableCARDs, and that you get one.

Second, this is going to mar the use of your pc when its recording. You can't do any intensive things like play games while it is recording one or more shows. There is a buffer the card uses to write the mpeg stream to the HD and if a game loading makes that buffer fillup, you will lose a frames.

Third, one thing people don't realise when they are paying 10 bucks a month for a DVR that they don't own.. is that they DON'T own it, the cable provider does. So if it breaks, or a new model comes out, you can pack it up and return it for a new one at absolutely NO COST.

Not being able to save shows to a separate medium is about the only thing you sacrifice, but in the case of DVR's, having the unit be separate from you main PC is more ideal, and renting from your cable provider does have its perks.

 

[dclive]

There are advantages:
1. Buy this once, have it forever.
2. Unlimited TVs, no additional monthly costs for more TVs.
3. Rip commercials out automatically (never see commercials again!)
4. Convert to other media easily, put in iPads, iPods, iPhones, WinPhones, DroidPhones, etc.
5. You control what you do with your TV, not a provider

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Well first off, its not a magic bullet, it still requires that your cable supplier provides cableCARDs, and that you get one.

It's Federal law that your cable provider must supply a cable card upon your request.

Second, this is going to mar the use of your pc when its recording. You can't do any intensive things like play games while it is recording one or more shows. There is a buffer the card uses to write the mpeg stream to the HD and if a game loading makes that buffer fillup, you will lose a frames.

If you had said "streaming" I would agree with you. Streaming to extenders does require a modicum of CPU, particularly when there are 3 or more streams. However, recording requires very little CPU. My HTPC has an E3400 and it can record 4 shows and playback a recorded show at the same time without a hitch.

Third, one thing people don't realise when they are paying 10 bucks a month for a DVR that they don't own.. is that they DON'T own it, the cable provider does. So if it breaks, or a new model comes out, you can pack it up and return it for a new one at absolutely NO COST.

Cetons have warrantees, not to mention fantastic support and customer service, maybe some of the best in the business.

I had problems with my first Ceton card. Opened a ticket and they were very responsive and provided great yechnical support suggesting changes and software/irmware updates. After that didn't solve the problem they decided to replace my card. They shipped me a new card via 2nd-day air, provided a return box and return label, and now my card works perfectly.

Not being able to save shows to a separate medium is about the only thing you sacrifice, but in the case of DVR's, having the unit be separate from you main PC is more ideal, and renting from your cable provider does have its perks.

When cable providers come out with 4 tuner DVRs there won't be a sacrifice. Until then...

 

[JeffMD]

It's Federal law that your cable provider must supply a cable card upon your request.

Aye, this does seem to be the case now, huh.

If you had said "streaming" I would agree with you. Streaming to extenders does require a modicum of CPU, particularly when there are 3 or more streams. However, recording requires very little CPU. My HTPC has an E3400 and it can record 4 shows and playback a recorded show at the same time without a hitch.

I didn't really refer to cpu in my statement, as the device is mearly saving the data stream that comes from the cable provider. However an HD stream is going to be fairly large and requires consistent disc access. A game could interrupt this.

Cetons have warrantees, not to mention fantastic support and customer service, maybe some of the best in the business.

Really, where have I heard this before? Either way, it dosn't quite beat running to the local office and getting it swapped out.

When cable providers come out with 4 tuner DVRs there won't be a sacrifice. Until then...

Cant recall the last time I needed to record more then 2 shows at the same time either.

5. You control what you do with your TV, not a provider

How vague can you get with this statement? I seem to have no problem doing what I want with my tv, cable or not.

 

[GTFan]

I didn't really refer to cpu in my statement, as the device is mearly saving the data stream that comes from the cable provider. However an HD stream is going to be fairly large and requires consistent disc access. A game could interrupt this.

I have never seen this issue and I game on my HTPC all the time. Recordings are sent to a 1TB USB external drive which should make it even worse, but I never see glitches even though gaming runs the CPU at 100% while recording.

As stated above, recording a show is nothing more than passing data from the tuner to the HD, there's very little CPU used to do so. Gaming will not impact recording, but it will very likely impact playback to extenders.

 

[dclive]

Gaming will not impact recording, but it will very likely impact playback to extenders.

Why? They're just reading a 1MB/s or so datastream, which is trivial.

 

[Midwayman]

Almost no horsepower; it's just reading and writing to disk; there's no high CPU involved in this at all.

A 5 year old Mac mini (Intel), Windows 7, 2GB RAM, with this card and a big drive is more than enough.

Reccomended is a 2.7ghz C2D IIRC. It doesn't need a terrible lot of power to record, but if your video card doesn't support the right codec in hardware on playback you might need that.

 

[Midwayman]

Cant recall the last time I needed to record more then 2 shows at the same time either.

Do you live by yourself? If you live in a house with a family, particularly with divergent tastes you can easily go through 2 tuners. I've run into issues with 4 on sunday nights at times trying to pick up all the weekly prime time shows at once.

There are plenty are reasons to like a ceton.

It'll save you money in the long run, especially if you have multiple TVs hooked up. One TV isn't much of a pay off, but if you're running 3-5 TVs the savings really adds up. Locally its $18 a month per dvr plus $8 per extra TV. You need two DVR's to get approximately the same functionality, and possibly more outlet fees. That adds up over time. On the forums I see most people breaking even in the 18-24 month range including buying a host PC and media extenders.

The experience is plain better. A htpc can do a whole lot more, and the interface on cable co dvr's is junk compared to a win7 dvr. For instance you can setup automatic commercial skipping on a WMC box. Its also expandable, and when you go to internet site to stream video content you're using a full PC so you don't get blocked like so many media streaming units. Its expandable so you can add more tuners later as you need them. You can also add storage capacity easily or even have a separate media server.

There are downsides of course
It has a high up front cost to pay back. If you live alone, only have one TV, or simply don't watch much TV it might not be for you.

It requires a cable card which can be a hassle to get and get installed the first time. They are legally required to provide it, but it doesn't mean its easy. Tell them you have a tivo to make your life easier. Ask if you require tuning adapters and ask for 4 channels worth.

Cetons require a pretty hot signal. No weaker than -10db normally. That means if you have lots of splitters you may have to be careful where you put your ceton or buy a cable amp.

All of this setup isn't exactly plug and play. I wouldn't reccomend it to the average joe, but most people on this forum probably can handle it.

 

[Midwayman]

Why? They're just reading a 1MB/s or so datastream, which is trivial.

I know when I have all 4 tuners recording and its starting or finalizing a recording I see occasional stutters in the interface. If you have a separate physical disk for OS and media you might be okay. I read about one guy who recorded 13 HD streams and played back 4 at the same time on a regular HDD and it worked though.