Extenders Discussion

[barnabas1969]

^ hmm, I don't have a problem like that on any of the TV's I have plugged the Echo into.

Others have, even during the beta. The problem was never resolved. I don't think Ceton ever even responded to it. The beta was a disaster/disgrace and it was shameful for them to release the product to the general public in such a state without even addressing most of the beta problems. Then, their failure to resolve even the most basic problems relating to the extender functionality after the failure of the Android project might actually be criminal (or at least deserving of a class action civil suit). The only reason they haven't been sued by the consumers is because they have such a strong fan base among the Media Center enthusiast community. There seems to be such love for them, that even when they released a subsequent product (the InfiniTV6-ETH) which equally under-performs... everyone is happy to forgive them. I've been involved with many betas in my life, and the Echo beta was the worst by far. It's a terrible product and should have never been released to the general public. The fact that it's still for sale is only an indication that Ceton needs to get rid of their stock in order to avoid a capital loss to the company.

I don't know of a nicer way to say that the Echo is a POS. It's definitely a long way from "the best extender ever made" as claimed by Ceton early in the development process.

[RyC]

*insert obligatory b-b-but I don't have any basic issues with the echo at allllll*

[barnabas1969]

*insert obligatory b-b-but I don't have any basic issues with the echo at allllll*

Really? It never crashes on you while watching live/recorded TV? It doesn't have any deinterlacing issues? It doesn't have any issues with the zoom menu? It doesn't have any issues with camping on the skip forward/backward buttons?

I could go on, but those are the most common.

[RyC]

*insert obligatory b-b-but I don't have any basic issues with the echo at allllll*

Really? It never crashes on you while watching live/recorded TV? It doesn't have any deinterlacing issues? It doesn't have any issues with the zoom menu? It doesn't have any issues with camping on the skip forward/backward buttons?

I could go on, but those are the most common.

It might have crashed once, but so did the Xbox at the same time, so it might have been the computer. It might have deinterlacing issues, but I can't tell (my eyes suck). I can't tell a difference between the echo, xbox, and htpc picture. I don't use zoom, but sure, that's a problem. Never ever have had issues skipping around.

[barnabas1969]

I had all of the issues I listed, and more. I couldn't watch live/recorded TV for more than 30 minutes without a crash. Worst product ever, in my opinion. I've used XBox360 S and E, HP X280N, Linksys DMA-2100 and DMA-2200. All of them performed wayyyy better than the Echo. All on the same network, all on the same HTPC. Echo booted and connected to Media Center slower than all of the above too. The ONLY benefit to the Echo was the size. It ran on 5 watts compared to 8 watts for the Linksys and HP extenders. Who cares about 3 watts difference? Oh... and the Echo could send a WOL packet. But... if you let your PC sleep, and you turn off your extender... then the XBox is the choice for you. The XBox will send the WOL packet too... and if you turn your extenders and PC on/off... the difference in power consumption between the XBox and the other extenders doesn't matter very much.

[RyC]

I had all of the issues I listed, and more. I couldn't watch live/recorded TV for more than 30 minutes without a crash. Worst product ever, in my opinion. I've used XBox360 S and E, HP X280N, Linksys DMA-2100 and DMA-2100. All of them performed wayyyy better than the Echo. All on the same network, all on the same HTPC.

Yeah, several others couldn't watch without crashing too. I tried to borrow one of those problem Echos from another user who lived close by to see if it would have the same issues in my setup, but he dumped it all before I could.

[werds]

I had all of the issues I listed, and more. I couldn't watch live/recorded TV for more than 30 minutes without a crash. Worst product ever, in my opinion. I've used XBox360 S and E, HP X280N, Linksys DMA-2100 and DMA-2100. All of them performed wayyyy better than the Echo. All on the same network, all on the same HTPC.

Yeah, several others couldn't watch without crashing too. I tried to borrow one of those problem Echos from another user who lived close by to see if it would have the same issues in my setup, but he dumped it all before I could.

I remember I bought one and was happy at the time thinking I got a good sale price and possible replacement for the 360's in house... was also thinking I could get in before they released their Android update! Well at the time I had 3 xboxes that never gave me an issue extender wise... I plugged in powered up the echo and all looked snazzy. Then I tried live tv and CRASH! It blue screened the HTPC, rebooted and tried recorded tv this time and CRASH blue screened the HTPC... I even moved it to a tv right next to the HTPC in order to see if it was my imagination...

That was all I needed to see, I boxed it up and moved on after that as I didn't want to waste any time trouble shooting it, especially because at that time I had already read about the many heartaches others were having... figured this was just a sign telling me to run and run away fast.

As for the tuners, I have owned multiple infintv4's and all were great, tried the eth6 and was less than impressed with the ordeal and ended up returning it. Currently am running with a pcie infinitv6 and things are great...

[barnabas1969]

Most of the time, when it crashed, it was only the Echo that crashed... not the PC. But, it did cause a couple of BSOD's on the PC too, and that was before the Media Center plugin was released, so it wasn't due to the Echo plugin software installed on the PC. It was something about the way the Echo communicated with the PC. That PC never had a BSOD before Echo, and never had a BSOD after I got rid of the Echo. The guts of the HTPC I was using at the time are now in my desktop PC. I didn't re-install Windows nor any software. My desktop PC is my old HTPC... and it still never gets a BSOD. I'm typing this message from it right now.

[koberhol]

*insert obligatory b-b-but I don't have any basic issues with the echo at allllll*

Really? It never crashes on you while watching live/recorded TV? It doesn't have any deinterlacing issues? It doesn't have any issues with the zoom menu? It doesn't have any issues with camping on the skip forward/backward buttons?

I could go on, but those are the most common.

Crashes on live/recorded TV = rarely.. like 1 in 1,000 viewed
De-Interlacing Issues = Never
Zoom Menu = Yes/Broken
Camping on SF/BW = rarely... like 1 in 1,000 viewed

More common problems for me...
1) Sometimes won't acknowlege channel change from guide or manual input after leaving on overnight (maybe I just don't wait long enough... and I don't sleep my HTPC)
2) Ocassional Freeze leading to reboot = 5 times per month
3) Seems more sensitive to pixelation with poor cable signal (I don't know whether this is the 6ETH Tuner or Echo). Recently my cable company had acknowledged signal issues which caused a living hell for me for about 2 weeks.

I'm only making comment here in that if anybody has a serious tip on what to check. Let me know. The issues I have I want to blame on my motherboard installed NIC. I have considered installing a new one. Anybody agree?? Firmware is up-to-date.

[barnabas1969]

Does the pixelation occur when watching the same program directly on the PC? If not, then it's the Echo or your network. If so, then it's the tuner or your signal levels.

Freezing 5 times per month would be unacceptable for me. I'm not sure how 5 times per month jibes with "Crashes on live/recorded TV = rarely.. like 1 in 1,000 viewed".

Another issue I had was with the poor sensitivity to IR commands, no matter what remote I tried. That could explain your problem with changing the channel.

None of my other extenders have had these issues.

[BCloud]

Yay I got my echo last night, eagerly connected it to WMC with no problem. However the echo plugin apparently broke something on my server. WMC could not longer find my tuners, nor function swiftly. Whats the deal with the echo plugin?

To resolve I removed the plugin, and everything went back to normal. Any other method I can use to modify my Echo's settings?

[mdavej]

Yay I got my echo last night, eagerly connected it to WMC with no problem. However the echo plugin apparently broke something on my server. WMC could not longer find my tuners, nor function swiftly. Whats the deal with the echo plugin?

To resolve I removed the plugin, and everything went back to normal. Any other method I can use to modify my Echo's settings?

I've never had a problem with the plugin. But you can change some settings by going to your Echo's IP in any browser.

[holidayboy]

Is there still a settings webpage that you can navigate to once you know the ip address of the Echo?
I know that there used to be one.
I cant remember if this was disabled at some point though....?

[Crash2009]

It's still working on the version I am using. Well, at least it was on Sept 3.

[BCloud]

Thanks a lot guys, I will give that a shot when I get home.

[Crash2009]

If you set up Remote Desktop, you could make adjustments from wherever you are.

[BCloud]

Smart, I didn't think of that. Yep will do.

I do like the Echo, small form factor and no heat. I do wish the animation were a little bit smoother compared to the Xbox.

Is Ceton even doing any more development on the echo? Are there anymore products coming out Ceton in 2015?

[Crash2009]

My animations have good days and bad. On the bad days eliminating network noise seems to help. I have been toying with the idea of setting up a vlan, just for the Echo's and HTPC. This way they would have their own little freeway on the network. Un effected by sloppy wifi, and greedy torrents.

I don't expect much more development for echo. It appears the manufacturer considers it to be a finished product.

[BCloud]

My animations have good days and bad. On the bad days eliminating network noise seems to help. I have been toying with the idea of setting up a vlan, just for the Echo's and HTPC. This way they would have their own little freeway on the network. Un effected by sloppy wifi, and greedy torrents.

I don't expect much more development for echo. It appears the manufacturer considers it to be a finished product.

That could work, as long as your other traffic is not riding across the same wire using the same bandwidth, it could work.

[mdavej]

It's still worth trying to get the plugin working since it has far more settings than the web page.