SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime 3-Line Digital CableCard HDTV Tuner w/ Gigabit Ethernet (HDHR3-CC) + Rosewill RRC-126 Infrared Remote Control with Netflix Function $165 + Free Shipping

Price aside, does the Ceton 4 InfiniTV or the HD Homerun Prime best fit my situation?

Also, does one or the other require a stronger low-end CPU or GPU?

Living Room: 46" Plasma, looking to replace cable company's STB with HTPC.

I'm leaning towards an AMD Llano build since the integrated GPU is a nice feature. I've also read things about discrete low-end GeForce cards not being able to properly carry Bitstream Audio through HDMI.

The HTPC is strictly meant to DVR and stream Live TV to other rooms....I'm not into the BD ripping scene.

Living Room: Gaming PC Build: Also, I was planning on building a SEPARATE Gaming PC to hook up to the Plasma. I wasn't keen on adding an internal Ceton 4 because of heat/space/CPU-utilization-while-gaming-if-someone-is-streaming-live-tv-in-another-room issues. Isn't the HD Homerun Prime a great choice then since it is independent of a computer unless I am DVR'ing something onto the Gaming PC's hard drive?

Master Bedroom: I originally thought of building a 2nd HTPC but my cable company copy-protects live tv content. This has forced me to consider a Media Extender (e.g. Linksys dma2100 or the upcoming next-gen Ceton Echo).

Thus, aren't the "mapping" abilities of the HD Homerun Prime a fruitless one for my particular needs?

Quote from trza : I'm pretty sure that you use the HD tuner software on any PC to watch TV on other computers, too. So you don't *have* to run everything as an extender.

Theorectically, you can. The issue is that most cable companies will copy protect their live tv content so that you can't "stream" live tv or DVR content to another HTPC (in another room hooked up to a different TV) using the HD Tuner software.

The only common workaround is to use a Media Extender. I believe it's a standalone device (e.g. Linksys dma2100/dma2200 or an Xbox 360). The Media Extender allows you to receive these live TV streams or watch DVR content with a TV that is in another room.

The general rule of thumb is 1 gig of RAM per extender (+ ~2 for the HTPC itself and Windows), 1 core per tuner. Obviously the power and capability of the processor can influence the need of 1 core per tuner.

You are right about the DRM considerations though. Anything recorded on a specific HTPC can only be played back on it and its extenders, not on any other HTPC.

There is another consideration that has to occur when you are deciding on graphics cards, whether you go with an onchip option like Llano or a discrete card. The 29/59 bug is a stuttering issue that presents itself when a cable tv stream is mis-encoded with either a 29 or 59hz refresh rate and rapidly switches between them. Certain graphics cards can handle this issue properly. I'd recommend googling it to research both the issue and which cards handle it properly. I know for a fact the Llano is affected by it, as I have it for my HTPC, however it seems to mostly present itself on premium content like HBO and Showtime. Its not been something I've noticed in our everyday TV watching.


Sorry for the delayed response, at work and there's been network problems that I've been troubleshooting all day. If I missed anything I'll re-read your question and my response and try to snag other things, but if you have other questions go ahead and ask. I'm not the expert by any means but I've been working with it for a little bit now. If you want to talk to the 'real' experts, head over to thegreenbuttontv forums.

Quote from Genius4sho : So if I use this I can get HD channels without having to pay for an HD box from Comcast? I just need a cable card or something? How much is that a month?

To a computer, though. Not directly. So you need a PC.

The PC needs to be hooked to the TV. Or you can use a xbox to the TV but the xbox must talk over the network to a PC running windows media center. Eitherway you need a PC at some point.

Have one of these - may grab another. Yeah - that remote is kinda lame though (have one of those too). I like the HP remotes with universal capabilities.

Considering I had a PC at every TV anyway, this is an incredibly cool device to give you live TV, multi-room DVR, and to let Media Center do everything with a look and feel way smoother than anything the cable company can offer.

WMC runs mostly smooth, but wouldn't recommend it to households without a computer tech in the home because there are occasional hiccups and accidental forays into Windows.

Wife loves it however.

I've used a Prime since launch and it's been great. Comcast gives me a $2.50/month credit for using a cablecard.

The setup can be a pain because of the DRM required to get a PC working properly with the cablecard. Playready in particular is buggy as can be and I often have to reset and reinstall Playready during the initial install. This has to be done on every PC computer you want to use with Prime. A Xbox 360 on the other hand is easy, but you still need at least one PC for your setup.

You can do commercial skipping on the HTPC using show analyzer and DVRMSToolbox.

I've used an iOS app called Remote Potato to watch recorded WMC shows on an iPhone/iPad. Unfortunately I have not found an app for live viewing.

Quote from The1andonly : For anyone asking simple questions, here's a little tip...don't get this expecting it to replace your cable box. HTPC's are just as much a hobby as they are cable box. I made the horrible mistake of giving my parents a HTPC this week with this prime, which by the way is the best in my experience of the 3, and I just spent my Saturday night at their house getting berated while fixing it. I tried to make everything idiot proof, knew it was inevitable things would come up and was hoping my dad would become interested in computers as he once was but the fact is, even in my case your taking out a keyboard and mouse almost daily reconfiguring things. And if you're not using different plugins and/or get past all the issues your own OS can bring then your dealing with networking and cable companies. I swear cox purposely resets my connection twice a month, then you have to call in and they have to reping your cablecard or do something else. I've been without HBO the last few weeks cause I'm sick of calling in. I'm not downplaying HTPC's, I love all of mine but yeah it's not as simple as connecting wires to it.

Get your parents a TiVo premiere withe lifetime. Super easy to use and much better and faster than Cox. Cheaper in the long run too since no monthly fees. Your parents will thank you

Quote from TDMVP73 : You need a MCE (Media Center Extender) to watch live television channels on your TVs. Everything goes through Windows Media Center on a host PC.... in most set-ups, a desktop. The cheapest MCE right now is an Xbox 360. The Ceton Echo is another MCE that's supposed to be released shortly. The pricing is TBA. PRODUCT PAGE [cetoncorp.com] DATA SHEET [cetoncorp.com]

Well, yes and no.
You could also use the host to watch the recordings.

Looking for deal on Tuner for OTA channels

Quote from trza : I'm pretty sure that you use the HD tuner software on any PC to watch TV on other computers, too. So you don't *have* to run everything as an extender.

Not exactly.
If the recording is flagged as copy-once you can only watch it on the host that recorded the show and media center extenders like the xbox360 or the linksys DMA series

Got to be kidding me just bought one on ebay for $175. Maybe ill run six tuners

Going to install my multiroom dvr this week everything is on order.

Free shipping on this?

I have to say, though. I recently upgraded the firmware a few days ago, and I had to do a power unplug and replug of the tuner to reboot it today. It wouldn't make tuners available to WMC even though the status had them all as free.

I broke the general rule about updating firmware, don't if everything is fine.

I paid $170 for just the HDHR prime back in November 2011. This is a great deal. TU