Ceton InfiniTV 4 - Owner's Thread

[STC]

My wiring closet is usually between 80-85 degrees Fahrenheit, and my two HDHR Primes have no problem with that.

I would hope so, that's not very warm compared to inside a PC chassis.

[barnabas1969]

...not sure how heat affects the SD HDHomeRun Prime...

It would probably be fair to compare the InfiniTV USB to the Prime in this instance.

I can tell you that when I first put the two HDHR Primes, and the two Tuning Adapters in the closet, I had the TA's stacked on top of one another, and the HDHR Primes stacked on top of that. They still worked OK, but they were very hot to the touch with all the heat rising from the TA's. I stood all four on end, and they stay much cooler now.

[STC]

Back to the original question a few posts up, I'd say it all depends on your personal environment.
If you pop over to the Silicondust forum you will see problems with no signal errors, WMC config, IP problems etc etc.

I have absolutely nothing against the HDHRP, I think it looks like a great product.

However, it is perfectly justified to comment every time Barnabas talks down the InfiniTV (as he got a bad rap whilst trying to configure it), to point out that I and many many others do not have problems with theirs.

From that information you can make your own mind up on which product to buy.

[mcewinter]

Ceton power down tuners that are not in use. I can certainly live with another second or two for a channel change. I don't think I'd lose sleep over that. I don't channel surf either. Nothing to see here. Not a selling point for a HD. Give me four tuners any day.

Four tuners really is the only dominant feature Ceton has over the Prime which in a wholehouse scenerio still isn't enough IMO. The Prime does everything else with more grace.

Edit: If I only had one HTPC and never planned on more I would most likely purchase the infiniTV.

[barnabas1969]

I'm not trying to talk down the InfiniTV... just pointing out the strong points of the HDHR Prime. As I've written a few times before, I feel real bad for complaining about the "macroblocking" issue with the Ceton before testing to see if it could be caused by the video card. The thought just never entered my mind. This is especially embarrassing for me because I pride myself on my troubleshooting skills (in electronics repair, computer repair, programming, auto mechanics, etc). I made a big mistake, and I'm having a hard time living it down here on this site.

But, the areas where I've continued to point out the HDHR Prime's strong points... those were not due to my lack of troubleshooting. It tunes faster, no doubt about it. It doesn't give me the "spinning circle", and you can find many people who have that problem with the Ceton. It never gives me ANY trouble. It just works. And, maybe best of all, it allows me to hide the Tuning Adapters. If you have a TA and you care about how many "boxes" are sitting under your TV, you will love the ability to hide the TA in a closet/basement/bedroom/office/whatever.

[barnabas1969]

Just to add to what I wrote above, I am happy to tell people that Ceton's customer service is very, very good. They stand behind their product. When I first bought my InfiniTV (for $500+), it was DOA. I bought it new, but 2nd hand from someone who bought four of them and sold three at a small profit (I didn't want to wait 3-4 months for the back-order, so I guess you can call me an "early adopter"). Even though I wasn't the original owner (I had a copy of the original invoice), Ceton cross-shipped a new card OVERNIGHT, free of charge, and even paid for the return shipping. That's great service. I deal with many companies in my profession, and I only know of one or two who meet or exceed Ceton's level of service.

I don't know if the same can be said for the SiliconDust HD HomeRun Prime though... because I've had no problems.

[joevulture]

Ceton's customer support is pretty good; in the end, they couldn't resolve the issue I was having, so I ended up switching to a HDHomeRun Prime and have had no problems with it for three weeks. Even with the latest non-beta firmware (there was no mention of a newer beta one), my InfiniTV 4 USB was crashing twice per week. Not rebooting, mind you, but actually appearing as a "corrupt" device on the USB bus with no drivers available for it. Rebooting the PC didn't fix it, I had to reboot the InfiniTV 4 USB. (Actually, now that I think about it, the final straw was when it rebooted while I was watching Live TV for three hours, and Ceton said that there was nothing in the logs that seemed suspicious.)

I tried moving it between the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports (I used the USB 3.0 port because I had a bunch of other USB devices on the USB 2.0 bus), and that didn't fix it. I was told that my Tuning Adapter rebooted 25 times in one day, I was told that although there were no conflicts with the HDHomeRun (not Prime) drivers and the InfiniTV drivers, there could be issues if the HDHomeRun drivers were installed first (as I had done), but no other useful information in my logs. I was advised to change all of the USB cables in my setup. My thoughts:
1. The TA should be able to reboot 24/7, and the InfiniTV should not lock up. Shows should not be recorded, but it should not get messed up on the USB bus.
2. I don't see how the drivers should be conflicting, but I'm willing to forgive that one more than (1).

With the HDHomeRun Prime, my TA hasn't rebooted in three weeks, the HDHomeRun Prime rebooted once (for a CableCard firmware update), and I've only missed one recording (and I have a reasonably heavy schedule) - and I have not changed any wiring, whether it be coaxial or USB. I don't like having lost one tuner, but combined with my non-Prime HDHomeRun, three CableCard and two ClearQAM tuners is (most often) enough.

My internal Ceton unit was working reasonably well until it stopped locking on certain channels (not decryption errors, the tuner was just unable to lock); I knew that it got really hot (70+ degrees), and so I replaced it with an InfiniTV USB unit, and it worked after the Host ID was changed. I suspect that their USB drivers just act up in certain situations with certain hardware, and perhaps my equipment is one of those certain situations. Who knows? All I know is the Ceton works for some, the HDHomeRun Prime works for others.

-- Joe

[choliscott]

Hi Everyone,

Not sure if this should go here or in a separate thread. I have 2 infinitv4's & semi regularly get the the "no signal, could not record message". When I see which tuner is causing the issue 98% of the time, its from the same tuner on the same card. However if I try running the "record 8 shows at once or record 7 & watch 1 live", then there is no problems.

Any suggestions on what to try?

[Phil Seastrand]

Hi Everyone,

Not sure if this should go here or in a separate thread. I have 2 infinitv4's & semi regularly get the the "no signal, could not record message". When I see which tuner is causing the issue 98% of the time, its from the same tuner on the same card. However if I try running the "record 8 shows at once or record 7 & watch 1 live", then there is no problems.

Any suggestions on what to try?

I have the same problem with a single infinitv. I haven't checked to see if it is the same tuner, but I suspect it is. Fortunately it will automatically record on the next tuner, so no recording loss for me.

[KScott]

To follow up my last post, Amazon had the HDHomeRun Prime on sale for $149.00.
I've removed both Ceton Infinitv's and set up 2 HDHomeRun Primes.
Since July 6th, I've had ZERO problems with my htpc.
All works flawlessly, no "no tuners" when awakened from sleep.
Yeah, well, I realize this is understandable since they are external and already powered when the pc resumes.
Also, no false cable card notifications several times a week.
As someone previously stated, "they just work".
I purchased a 3rd Prime (to have total 9 tuners for household) from Fry's last week for $120.

I plan, via the registry, to assign one Prime for Live TV.
This one will be powered all the time.
The other 2 will be put to sleep when the htpc sleeps.

The 2 Infinitv's may become gifts, I may use them elsewhere, or I may sell them.
Undecided at this point.
They may work perfectly for some but I had constant problems (and with 2 different motherboards) since June of 2011.
Nice to not be constantly searching for the "fix".

[barnabas1969]

Nice to not be constantly searching for the "fix".

Amen!

You can sell each InfiniTV for more than you paid for each HDHR Prime. It helps take the sting out of having to purchase new tuners.

[thorhtpc]

I plan, via the registry, to assign one Prime for Live TV.

I am interested in doing this. Can you post info or a link on the subject.

Thanks

[KScott]

I plan, via the registry, to assign one Prime for Live TV.

I am interested in doing this. Can you post info or a link on the subject.

Thanks

Sorry, but checking in to this is on down the road for me.
I assume it's possible to do so, don't know for sure.
If it is possible, I'm sure one of the most knowledgeable forum members will shortly provide the info.

[barnabas1969]

See this post and this post.

You can't specify one tuner for live, and another for recording... but you can assign some tuners to a higher priority for live TV, and others as a higher priority for recording. It's not an absolute guarantee that your "recording" tuners will never be used for live TV or vice versa.

Kscott's reason for doing this was, presumably, to save money on his electric bill by powering off the tuners that are to be used for recording. I went down a similar road at first, but realized that it would only save me pennies per month and it was not worth the trouble. Just leave them turned on.

And... this conversation is now going in a direction that probably doesn't belong in this thread.

[KScott]

Kscott's reason for doing this was, presumably, to save money on his electric bill by powering off the tuners that are to be used for recording. I went down a similar road at first, but realized that it would only save me pennies per month and it was not worth the trouble. Just leave them turned on.

I measured the Primes power usage with the htpc asleep and no tuners in operation this morning.
My kill a watt meter indicated 3.9 watts.
Even running 3 HDHRP's it would probably take a couple years use to break even in energy usage after buying the equipment to sleep them when the media center sleeps.

I'll just as you suggest, leave them powered.
Thank you for your advice and opinions!

[barnabas1969]

Kscott's reason for doing this was, presumably, to save money on his electric bill by powering off the tuners that are to be used for recording. I went down a similar road at first, but realized that it would only save me pennies per month and it was not worth the trouble. Just leave them turned on.

I measured the Primes power usage with the htpc asleep and no tuners in operation this morning.
My kill a watt meter indicated 3.9 watts.
Even running 3 HDHRP's it would probably take a couple years use to break even in energy usage after buying the equipment to sleep them when the media center sleeps.

I'll just as you suggest, leave them powered.
Thank you for your advice and opinions!

At 11 cents per KWH (what I pay here in Central Florida, including taxes and everything), that's $3.76 per YEAR, per HDHR Prime, or 31 cents per month.
(3.9 * 24 * 365 / 1000 * 0.11 = 3.75804)

[Joeh2056]

After much debate on this fourm i ended up getting tthe Ceton. I ordered it from New Egg for $189 i saw it on eBay for cheaper but i wanted a new card so as to not to be inherit anybody problems. I have installed it got it up and runing . I must say the driver is alot more stable since from when i used to have it previously. Two problems i am having the tuning is still slow i am looking for recommendation to increase the peformance on that. I saw a video on youtube with the Ceton and it was tuning faster than my setup. I want to know if there is anything i can do to my system to increase the speed of the tuning. I am over all happy with the setup but the tuning speed could be better. I tried it out on friday on my tv and i was watching the Olympic opening on HD i noticed my hard drive space kept decreasing as i was watching it. I have a seperate drive for recording tv shows but i was not recording the time. My drive is an older 32Gig OCZ SSD for the OS. I am lookin for a newer 64Gig SSD for the OS with sata III to try to increase peformance of the system. My current SETUP is Intel Celeron G530 Sandy Bridge 2.4GHz LGA dual core 65W, ASRock H61M-GE LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard, Crucial 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT51264BA1339, OCZ 32 Gig Agility drive, Blue ray Drive adh 500Gig Hatachi drive. All in a silverstone LC19b-r case. Any suggestion on improvements that i can make.

Thanks.

[AUPhil]

Hello Everyone - first post here.

I was wondering if anyone could explain why my CableCard WORKS on all my channels even though my Ceton Diagnostics screen has a red circle at the "Cablecard has not received validation signal. Please ask your cable company to send a CCV signal to your cable card."

Just to be sure my message is understood. My cable card and WMC is INDEED WORKING FINE. I receive ALL the channels I am expecting. However, I get the message I listed above.

I do not understand why.

I have Charter Digital Service with HD. My WMC is Windows 7 on a Core i5 CPU w/8GB of memory.

Thanks!

[STC]

^^ Hi and welcome

It means your cable co. does not require that your cable card be 'paired' to the tuner card. My cable co. is the same.
You can ignore it.
The nice thing about it is you can move your cable card between tuner devices and it will continue to work without having to call them to re-pair.

I hope that makes sense.

[Diverge]

Anyone know why my new system won't allow my to play channels that I am currently recording?

I get the following errors when trying to make it play. I've tried starting off just watching the channel then pressing record, and also tried with no channels playing and recording from the guide and then selecting the channel. Also sometime I get no errors and just a blank blue screen.




This is a brand new OS install of Windows Embedded Standard 7, but on a new motherboard DQ77KB. Same OS worked fine on my older DH61AG system.