Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe for $169 AC + FS @newegg

Quote from Sam Hobbs : Quote : Quote from KMan : No DVR that I know of can record 4 channels at once. Tivo sure does. We have three of them; each of them with 4 receivers and each are a slightly different model. I think Verizon offers 4-receiver DVRs for FiOS too. Our first 4-receiver Tivo went bad a few months ago when it was about a year and a half old. The hard drive went bad and it is not covered by warranty. So for that reason and many others, Tivo needs competition.

Thanks for the correction. Still, I've heard bad things about many of them. E.g. smallish hard drives, so-so quality, ugly and clunky program guides, having to pay monthly guide fees, etc.

HTPC-based cards like the InfiniTV aren't for everyone and do have some drawbacks, but for the technically inclined, they're amazing.

And with Ceton's 6-tuner Q coming out in a few months, things should get even more interesting. In addition to the 6 tuners, it can be networked via HTPCs or extenders, has a built-in BluRay drive, and a 2TB HD. It's basically an HTPC without the PC hassles.

Quote from blueiedgod : Perhaps I got lucky, but I was able to set up Media Center, even at the time when Microsoft locked it to specific BIOSes in 2005, and every subsequent version of the media center. I was able to add two ATI DCT's in 2007 to receive premium channels, and again, by following the knowledge base documents and on-screen prompts.

Sounds like fun, and I hope it was fun. I have had fun getting things to work. It can be fun learning how to inject code (programming) into a Windows application from another application. I can do that. I sometimes have fun trying to get Wndows programs to communicate with a Tivo box. I think I had fun about a quarter of a century ago when I installed a hard drive in a PC. I can do things like that, but I have gotten tired; especially when the documentation is not clear and there is no reason it cannot be improved.

I am mainly speaking for all the many people that are not as technically inclined as I. The Infinitv product description and related articles can be and should be improved for them. When I first began researching devices such as it, the product description was unclear to me. Note that when I say documentation, I am using the term loosely and product description is included in what I am trying to refer to.

Quote from KMan : I've heard bad things about many of them. E.g. smallish hard drives, so-so quality, ugly and clunky program guides, having to pay monthly guide fees, etc.

Note that if someone were to ask my opinion of Tivo I would suggest running fast away if possible. Unfortunately that is not yet possible for everyone.

Yet I believe in giving credit where credit is due. One of our Tivo devices has a 2TB drive and the shows are as good as possible as far as I know. Occasionally the Tivo software is buggy but usually the cause of bad recordings is the4 fault of FiOS, but that is not often.

There are many great reasons to avoid Tivo. The hardware is poor quality, based on the hard drive that went bad. That would not be so bad if Tivo were to cover it by warranty. (The hard drive is WD.) Also Tivo costs about $14 a month. Tivo customer service does not exist for prime time in the west coast. And there is much more.

can anybody help me out with these 2 questions.

1) i read from earlier post that this runs pretty hot. my htpc have two case fan that moves very little air, but is dead silent. will this be an issue for me?

2) i get bad signal quality with time warner cable (so cal). when i use their cable box/dvr, everything works perfectly. but when i use their cable card along with the hdhomerun prime during primetime tv hours(weeknights 8pm-10pm), all the most watched channel quality turns to shit. sometimes i don't get a signal at all, especially for nfl channels on sunday (nbc, fox, cbs). will this help at all compare to the hdhomerun prime? the tech guy that came told me that cablecards for htpc requires a stronger signal, but from what i understand, their cable box have a cablecard inside also but it works fine.