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

Do InfiniTV or Homerun have android apps for simple mobile (or shall I say remote) viewing?

Answering my own question, I suppose Plex can do the job.

Quote from hooha23 : For those that are raving about this, why did you choose a pcie tuner over a network-based tuner, like the hdhomerun, aside from the option of a 4th tuner?

At the time that I purchased the cost per tuner was in favor of the Ceton because of specifically that 4th tuner. That one extra tuner was big in our household. I now own 2 of them in one HTPC for a total of 8 tuners. Then a pair of XBOX 360's around the house as extenders. It is great to not have to pay the extra box fees as the second tuner was cheaper and allowed greater flexibility. More importantly we now have all our recording co-located as well as our recording menus. Then to boot these can easily be converted to work as network tuners too. I just ilked the flexibility at price point I got from it. TBH it is mostly a personal choice

I'm trying to decide between the Ceton and the Silicondust 3-tuner device.

How long/wide is the Ceton card? From the pictures, it looks like it may collide with the memory on my old Gigabyte mATX motherboard.

I just chose it because of the 4th tuner and because I thought a card inside the case was a neater solution. I was also leery of USB and hangups associated with that like its ability to consistently sleep and wake up.

But the 4th tuner was the biggest driver.

I didn't really see an advantage to the Silicon Dust tuner except cost. Although now I see that keeping it outside of the box is good for heat dissipation. My Ceton gets hot. I don't think I can put it into a cabinet without some more work with fans in the case and cabinet at least if I want to stay under 65 C.

I never really understood the sharing of the tuner thing. I guess that is for folks that watch a lot of Live TV? I have extenders at my tvs that don't have the htpc connected to it. I can watch Live TV on them.

Here's my ceton with 2 fans zip tied to it. You don't want the ceton to overheat. I had my 6850 right next to my ceton for about a year then both started getting hot. I move the 6850 put new thermal paste on and the fans for the ceton card.

I use 2 turners on my pc dual monitor so I can watch live/internet and record one channel or to an xbox360. The other 2 are wireless n 5hz to 2 pcs with dual monitor.

It was a hassle to get everything running and there are some issues but feels awesome to know I get hd in 4 rooms for my family.

Quote from trip1eX : I just chose it because of the 4th tuner and because I thought a card inside the case was a neater solution. I was also leery of USB and hangups associated with that like its ability to consistently sleep and wake up. But the 4th tuner was the biggest driver. I didn't really see an advantage to the Silicon Dust tuner except cost. Although now I see that keeping it outside of the box is good for heat dissipation. My Ceton gets hot. I don't think I can put it into a cabinet without some more work with fans in the case and cabinet at least if I want to stay under 65 C. I never really understood the sharing of the tuner thing. I guess that is for folks that watch a lot of Live TV? I have extenders at my tvs that don't have the htpc connected to it. I can watch Live TV on them.

Quote from javamaan : Can you watch TV on a linux pc without an extender? for that matter can i can watch TV on a linux PC using HD Homerun prime?

Both the InfiniTV and the HDHR Prime are supported under linux, but only for Copy Freely (CCI 0x02) content. There is no solution for Linux with Copy Once content.

I bought one of these at $220 last December, also from Newegg. One of the best component purchases I've ever made. It's not without its drawbacks and quirks, but if you're reasonably tech-savvy (or know someone who is) and can use a card with its capabilities, it's easily worth the $170. It basically allows you to ditch your STB and watch and/or record up to 4 channels at once (provided you subscribe to them), be they SD or HD.

It allows you to view recorded shows (including copy protected ones) on "extenders" connected to other TVs, that are networked to the PC this card is installed in (right now the only in-production extender is the XBox 360, but Ceton is coming out with its own extender later this year). You can also view non-copy protected shows on networked PCs that have Media Center or Media Player installed. You can even dedicate one or more of it tuners for exclusive use by networked PCs that have Media Center, allowing you to mimic the card's features on those PCs, including recording and watching copy protected shows. If you use Media Center, the program guide updates automatically and is free (buh bye Tivo fees).

There are several potential cons, though:

--You need a bit of tech savvy to install and work these cards as they can be finicky sometimes (often having less to do with the card than with the cable company and DRM SW).
--They run a bit hot, usually in the low to mid-50 C's
--Every now and then they fail to record an entire show, or crash and require a reboot
--They tend to need fairly strong and clean cable signals
--They can't record over-the-air broadcasts--they are cable, Fios (and Dish?--not sure) only
--Some cable companies require these huge and silly "Tuning Adapters" for them to work (but they're usually free)
--They can't handle or record Pay Per View or On Demand shows automatically
--They don't make bad shows better

It sounds worse than it is. Most of the time you forget that it's there and it just works. Oh, and they have great customer service.

Quote from thrillsnspills : I'm trying to decide between the Ceton and the Silicondust 3-tuner device. How long/wide is the Ceton card? From the pictures, it looks like it may collide with the memory on my old Gigabyte mATX motherboard.

See dimensions in the FAQ at http://cetoncorp.com/product-support/

A bit of an aside, but I recently found out that you can't view ripped DVDs via Media Center on TVs connected to Media Center extenders like the XBox. You can watch copy protected shows recorded on your HTPC, but not ripped DVDs that are stored on or accessible from your HTPC, even though you can watch them on your HTPC directly. So extenders won't completely duplicate the functionality of an HTPC.

Note that I'm referring to DVDs ripped to VOBs. There are workarounds that allow you to view them via MP4s and such, but they're kind of clunky and generally lose the DVD navigation functions.

On the other hand, you CAN watch ripped DVDs on a Media Center PC that is networked to your HTPC, as well as NON-copy protected shows recorded on it. But you can't watch copy protected shows on it. To do that, you have to dedicate at least one InfiniTV tuner to the networked PC. But then you can only watch copy protected shows recorded on it on that PC. Kind of annoying that you can't do all of these things on an extender or networked PC, but you can't right now.

Quote from B3261 : Here's my ceton with 2 fans zip tied to it. You don't want the ceton to overheat. I had my 6850 right next to my ceton for about a year then both started getting hot. I move the 6850 put new thermal paste on and the fans for the ceton card. .

Wait no thermal paste on Ceton card right? Just fans?

MIne never had a problem in my big pc case. But then I got fancy with my thin htpc case. That's where I had to install some extra fans and move the card to a horizontal full sized slot for better air flow around it.

Problem is I hate to spend more money tinkering with my case as one of these days I will just buy a Tivo instead if they come up with a decent extender. I don't have a ton of time to monkey around with it either especially given that MS isn't exactly improving the software.

Quote from KMan : A bit of an aside, but I recently found out that you can't view ripped DVDs via Media Center on TVs connected to Media Center extenders like the XBox. You can watch copy protected shows recorded on your HTPC, but not ripped DVDs that are stored on or accessible from your HTPC, even though you can watch them on your HTPC directly. So extenders won't completely duplicate the functionality of an HTPC. Note that I'm referring to DVDs ripped to VOBs. There are workarounds that allow you to view them via MP4s and such, but they're kind of clunky and generally lose the DVD navigation functions.

I wouldn't say ripping a DVD to H.264 is clunky at all. You don't need chapters when you can instantly skip to any point in the movie. It takes up way less room too.

The dumb part is WMC sees the shows as Videos and not movies so they are not stored or rather shown in Movies.

Another note is I tried to have my cake and eat it to with this card and my gaming video card. I tried to make my dvr my gaming machine as well. Didn't work. I had it attached to a monitor and a tv. I could theoretically play a game on my monitor and watch a show on the tv, but it isn't really made for that. You get mouse issues where you can off screen and then have to hit CTRL-ESC or something and get it back to the monitor.

The sound is an issue too. I needed 2 sound cards and I think I had them working at the same time. some games though didn't allow you to change your sound source so they didn't work. And then I think the whole thing slowed a bit when you were gaming and someone was watching a show on the tv.

At the time I didn't want an extender as I thought my htpc was more responsive when directly connected to the tv than an extender. Plus I had a nice little setup with minimal cost with some SoundStick powered speakers plugged directly into my htpc for my tv sound and the Windows remote let me control the volume (important since the Soundsticks don't come with a remote.) Anyway I ended up buying a whole new 2nd pc rig for my dvr.

Now I am thinking when I move I will turn that into a 2nd gaming pc and dvr and just get a 360 an extender. On a side tangent, today I was playing Battlefield 3 and I swear I was doing great when no one was home. It seemed very responsive. Then when my wife and kids came home I was started doing worse.

And soon enough it dawned on me that maybe I wasn't just tired or a bunch of super players suddenly got on the server, but maybe just maybe it is was because of they were streaming Netflix to the 3ds/Ipad and watching Storage Wars in another room via the 360 connected to the WMC pc. And that all that network action was slowing me down just enough reaction-time wise.

Quote from thrillsnspills : I'm trying to decide between the Ceton and the Silicondust 3-tuner device. How long/wide is the Ceton card? From the pictures, it looks like it may collide with the memory on my old Gigabyte mATX motherboard.

It looks like the card may just have to clear the lock that holds the memory in place so as long as the memory is installed first you should be fine hopefully.

Can you watch premium channels (HBO, Starz, Cinemax, etc) on the Ceton? I am currently using a HDHomerun Prime on Comcast and come to find out the HDHomerun Prime does not allow viewing or recording of those premium channels. Other than that I am very happy with my purchase but if anyone can confirm the Ceton Infinitv works with premium channels on comcast or other providers I will be giving it a try.