Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe (existing) + adding InfiniTV 6 ETH?

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KevinRush

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Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe (existing) + adding InfiniTV 6 ETH?

#1

Post by KevinRush » Thu Apr 30, 2015 11:59 pm

Hello, I searched and could not find any discussions on adding additional tuners to an existing whole house HTPC? I know many people have multiple tuners and combine different types such as cable card tuners and OTA tuners, but I could not find the discussions that must exist?

Basically, I'm looking for advice or comments about the process to add the second device. Is it as simple as just running the install again? I don't want to lose the PCIe install?

Am I making it too hard? Thoughts and recommendations?

Best Wishes

PS. I may add a HomeRun OTA tuner at some later time.

Ed 

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#2

Post by Ed  » Fri May 01, 2015 12:14 am

You hook up the new tuner, install the drivers/software and re-run tv setup in wmc.

curtis

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#3

Post by curtis » Sun May 03, 2015 5:49 am

I would not recommend the Ethernet one unless you are ok with extreme unreliability and having to regularly miss recordings and re-setup the tuner ever few days. Likely window issue but still massively unreliable. Go with another PCIe one if you can.

kdean7

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#4

Post by kdean7 » Sat May 09, 2015 9:49 pm

Ceton does not recommend using both pcie and eth on the same device. I know this because i tried. I finally set the eth up on a different computer

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Bill

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#5

Post by Bill » Sun May 10, 2015 2:36 am

i've setup this exact configuration with no issues/missed recordings running for 2 months now. PCI/Ethernet are both setup for network tuners and my client computers see 10tuners available. There is the occasional slow tuning of channels, however that occured with my 2 PCIe tuners as well.
HTPCs, InfiniTVs, and Extenders OH MY!

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Beerman

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#6

Post by Beerman » Mon May 11, 2015 1:27 pm

I have an InfiniTV 4 pci in one system and the ETH6 on another and they work fine. On one system I use the ETH by itself and on the other, the InfiniTV 4 by itself but did have them working in tandom for a bit with no trouble. I decided to keep them separate for other reasons based on users in the household.
I'll admit the ETH6 does not a bit more handholding then the pci version though I am pleased with both and have no problems recommending either.

KevinRush

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#7

Post by KevinRush » Sun May 17, 2015 5:54 pm

Ed  wrote:You hook up the new tuner, install the drivers/software and re-run tv setup in WMC.
Hello, Thank you. It worked. Just to clarify, our steps for other people:
1. We had a InfiniTV 4 PCIe card installed and running great for years on the HTPC serving TVs throughout the house with Xbox 360 extenders.
2. This current project is to add the InfiniTV 6 ETH to the network and access it from other newly connected computers AND the existing HTPC.
3. We started by "hooking up the new tuner" (per Ed, above) according to the Ceton YouTube videos. We followed all the instructions for an original new "set up" on a new computer (SurfacePro2). This was easy and we successfully accessed the 6 tuners on the new computer. (6 is more tuners than the SurfacePro2 needs, but nevertheless.) There was an issue with the video pixelating!
4. We ran the Ceton InfiniTV, Ceton Diagnostics software from the Apps and Software on the new PC. It opens a User Control dialog box asking permission to install the Diagnostics. "YES". The Ceton Diagnostics Tool window opens. The Update tab showed that both hardware and firmware versions were not current. We updated both to the current stable version.
5. TV on the new computer now works great with 6 tuners showing. (I still need to set up the directories to point to the Libraries on the HTPC.)
6. Now to ADD the new tuners to the existing HTPC. Per Ed, we went to the Ceton Web site and Re-installed the driver/software package for the computer. We did this without uninstalling anything. It did ask us to shut down Windows Media Center. That makes sense.
7. We started WMC but didn't immediately find how to "rerun TV setup". It was: Tasks > Settings > TV > TV Signal > Set up TV Signal. We walked through the steps and when it asked us to activate the CableCARD, we didn't reactivate the cards again, we just said OK. At the end of the wizard, it asked if we wanted to setup Windows Media Center to work with CableCARD? This we said YES to, even though it had previously been done, thinking we needed to add the new ones in the new ETH tuner. The wizard rewarded us with a statement that 10 tuners were now active. (4 original PCIe + 6 new ETH)
8. It does seem like the "tuning" takes a couple of extra seconds when changing channels both on the HTPC and on the extenders.

Hope this step by step procedure helps someone.

Best Wishes.

xelrash

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#8

Post by xelrash » Thu Jul 16, 2015 12:17 am

I've had an Infi4 since the early release.
A month into owning an Eth6 and I am still very un-happy with the purchase. :(

KevinRush

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#9

Post by KevinRush » Fri Sep 30, 2016 6:43 pm

Update:
Since installing the 6 ETH and the 4 PCIe we have had 4 week periods of happiness followed by 4-5 days of unhappiness. Everything seems to work absolutely great for 4 weeks or so and then either pixcelation, "You have no Subscription "error messages. or "No Signal" error messages occur. Oddly, for a while it would always start on or near the 14th of the month? (I keep track of when I call comcast.)

Each time I run the Ceton Diagnostics and it tells me that to have the cable company resend the entitlement signals. Windows Medial Center says "There is currently no TV signal detected for the channel..." or no subscription.

Each time I would call Comcast and complain there was no signal or that I DO INDEED HAVE a subscription. Each time, Comcast wants to send a technician out. Each time I tell them that the wires are fine. Internet is rock solid, and the one comcast box, that we rarely use, has a signal. Most of all, I tell them that this is a recurring problem that they solved many times in prior months without a technician visit. I usually have to call three or more times, to find a customer service agent that can actually solve the problem. I ask them to reauthorize my cable cards (I give them the numbers) and I tell them to "turn up the signal strength". If I am persistent enough, within a few hours I will have cable TV signals again.

Lately, I have been tire of comcast and thinking about other ways to record our live tv shows to our "whole house" Windows Media Center.

Thoughts? Solutions?

Best Wishes

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DavidinCT

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#10

Post by DavidinCT » Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:16 pm

KevinRush wrote:Update:
Since installing the 6 ETH and the 4 PCIe we have had 4 week periods of happiness followed by 4-5 days of unhappiness. Everything seems to work absolutely great for 4 weeks or so and then either pixcelation, "You have no Subscription "error messages. or "No Signal" error messages occur. Oddly, for a while it would always start on or near the 14th of the month? (I keep track of when I call comcast.)

Each time I run the Ceton Diagnostics and it tells me that to have the cable company resend the entitlement signals. Windows Medial Center says "There is currently no TV signal detected for the channel..." or no subscription.

Each time I would call Comcast and complain there was no signal or that I DO INDEED HAVE a subscription. Each time, Comcast wants to send a technician out. Each time I tell them that the wires are fine. Internet is rock solid, and the one comcast box, that we rarely use, has a signal. Most of all, I tell them that this is a recurring problem that they solved many times in prior months without a technician visit. I usually have to call three or more times, to find a customer service agent that can actually solve the problem. I ask them to reauthorize my cable cards (I give them the numbers) and I tell them to "turn up the signal strength". If I am persistent enough, within a few hours I will have cable TV signals again.

Lately, I have been tire of comcast and thinking about other ways to record our live tv shows to our "whole house" Windows Media Center.

Thoughts? Solutions?

Best Wishes
Channels keep falling off ? Yep, seen this a ton of times. This is normally something that the cable company screws up.

Get both your cablecard numbers and your HOST ID's (all listed in WMC).

Then call the special Cable card activation line.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =13&t=8446

I have seen this a bunch of times till I finally got it taken care of. Normally this issue is because the cable company didn't put the hardware host ID in correct and channels will stop working after a few weeks. Most reps don't deal a lot with cablecards, so they screw it up a lot...
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

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