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

Quote from MaStA : I'd be happy with getting one of these, but media extenders aren't cheap and the only xbox 360 I have has the RROD...lol

Most people I know (including my self) got in on the Linksys deal on newegg a few years back for $80.

You can get XBOX for under $150 on Black Friday. Ceton Echo will be $170 initially, but will probably drop under $100 within a year.

There are a bunch of discontinued extenders on ebay for under $100.

Quote from blueiedgod : Do you actually subscribe to those? I have no problem watching and recording HBO and Cinemax with Ceton.

Yes I definitely subscribe to them. They are viewable on our two comcast cable boxes/DVRs.

Always scan CL for anyone wanting a 360.

Quote from deuce300 : Yes I definitely subscribe to them. They are viewable on our two comcast cable boxes/DVRs.

Home Run Prime should be able to tune those too, as long as your CableCard is properly paired up with the unit.

There may be a very rare case where your provider flags those as "record never" which does not allow a Cable Labs approved device to record them on the hard drive.

Quote from blueiedgod : Remote potato, and Ceton has its own companion app, as well.

Hey guys I am on of the developers of the Ceton Companion app here at Ceton. You will see me all over www.thegreenbutton.tv forums as well. Just so you guys know our apps work with all Tuners on any Windows 7 Media Center PC, so just not our card. It is a companion app for windows media center with our branding. Supports iOS, Android (Google Play + Amazon App Store), and Windows Phone.

if you have questions let me know.

Quote from blueiedgod : Home Run Prime should be able to tune those too, as long as your CableCard is properly paired up with the unit. There may be a very rare case where your provider flags those as "record never" which does not allow a Cable Labs approved device to record them on the hard drive.

I just checked HBO and here is the CCI info: CCI Protection protected-copyonce

Quote from deuce300 : I just checked HBO and here is the CCI info: CCI Protection protected-copyonce

You should be able to record and view on the original recording device.

Quote from blueiedgod : You should be able to record and view on the original recording device.

Correct, or stream it to an extender as well.

Quote from blueiedgod : Home Run Prime should be able to tune those too, as long as your CableCard is properly paired up with the unit. There may be a very rare case where your provider flags those as "record never" which does not allow a Cable Labs approved device to record them on the hard drive.

On a side note the issue can run deeper than just a proper pairing. I learned this when I purchased and installed my second Ceton card. The previous one had all the premium channels and pulled them in fine, when the second was installed it caused a mess whenever I attempted to look at those channels (Media center would claim that subscription is needed etc etc)

After chasing my tail for several months with Comcast and Ceton customer service I finally got an installer who understood the issue. Funny enough this installer had NEVER installed a cable card at any residence before mines! Having the Cable Card properly paired is only part of the problem, there is also provisioning and properly sending out the valid channels authorization listing. What he told me to do was that Comcast merely treats each Cable card as if it was its own set top box. So the cable company needs to individually and specifically push the correct and updated channel listing and authorization to exactly that Cable Card.

Once the installer explained this to the service rep on the phone I had full access on the new cable card.

Hope this is helpful info to someone out there!

Quote from poslundc : Note that you need a decent network to make this work. I have wired ethernet to all my rooms so it's no problem. People do wireless as well but you need a good signal. We're looking at buying a house, and when we do I may run two separate CAT-6 cables to every room so we can have two side-by-side networks: one for computer and Internet traffic and then another just for television.

Running two ethernet drops is a good idea if your are running cable anyway, but you don't need it for media center traffic unless your are running seriously heavyweight computer applications if you use a decent gigabit Ethernet switch with jumbo frames enabled on everything that supports them. I have 6 desktop machines and several laptops, iPads, smartphones, etc. running on a single network with multiple WiFi networks.

The single gigabit Ethernet connection on m MCE PC handles all the traffic to it with ease (3 active extenders, 4 total).

At this price, I may buy a 2nd card.

Quote from werds : On a side note the issue can run deeper than just a proper pairing. I learned this when I purchased and installed my second Ceton card. The previous one had all the premium channels and pulled them in fine, when the second was installed it caused a mess whenever I attempted to look at those channels (Media center would claim that subscription is needed etc etc) After chasing my tail for several months with Comcast and Ceton customer service I finally got an installer who understood the issue. Funny enough this installer had NEVER installed a cable card at any residence before mines! Having the Cable Card properly paired is only part of the problem, there is also provisioning and properly sending out the valid channels authorization listing. What he told me to do was that Comcast merely treats each Cable card as if it was its own set top box. So the cable company needs to individually and specifically push the correct and updated channel listing and authorization to exactly that Cable Card. Once the installer explained this to the service rep on the phone I had full access on the new cable card. Hope this is helpful info to someone out there!

Yeah its weird the two installers had dispatch verify the correct channel codes were assigned to the cable card. In the HDHomerun log it shows those premium channels as subscribed but they just come back as a black screen in QuickTV and Windows Media Center.

Hi folks… First off, thanks in advance to anyone that may be able to provide feedback to my questions below!

I've been looking into my first HTPC build for many months now, just trying to figure out what all the pluses and minuses would be if my wife and I move away from our TimeWarner cable 2 dvr setup. I’ve also been trying to save up money for the build. This is the cheapest I've seen the Ceton, which I believe is my preferred option over the HD homerun prime and I would love to feel confident enough to go ahead and jump on the Ceton while it’s at this price even though I don’t have all my other HTPC components, yet.

I have a couple of questions and would appreciate any feedback from anyone who already has a Ceton setup…

... of note, my current plan would be to use Windows Media Center and we already have two Xbox 360s we can use as extenders...

1) Regarding recorded shows, especially for sports. With our current TWC dvrs I will often times set a show to record and then start it about 15-45 minutes in so I can skip through commercials and half time. Would this be possible with the Ceton? In other words, start watching a show from the beginning while the recording is still in progress.

2) Regarding live tv; If I’m watching a show live, is the show automatically recording (buffering) up to an hour, or more, of what I’m watching live so I can rewind the live show?

3) Regarding live tv again; It sounds like with four tuners I could be watching a live tv show in the living room and my wife could be watching a live tv show in the bedroom… and we could actually be performing two other functions like recording two shows – all at the same time. Is that correct?

4) One last scenario, if all four tuners are taken up recording shows, could we still watch shows that we had previously recorded?

Once again, thanks in advance for any feedback!!!

Quote from mr.unnatural : I bought pre-ordered one of these when they were first announced 2-1/2 years ago. I had to wait five months before the first production run started shipping. Best $399 I ever spent. At $169 it's the best deal anywhere. Did I mention that I now own three of them? Fantastic product and the best support you'll ever find.

What this tuner do? Is it to get cable hdtv to your computer so it can play in media center? I will have to pay monthly to get a cable card to be used by this tuner, right?

Quote from rsriram22 : can i record 3 different shows simultaneously and watch 1 (a fourth one) on the tv with this 4 tuner card? (assuming all 4 are DRMed aka 'copy once'd)?

No, you can't but yes you can. This is not a DVR; it just receives the signals. It does not record or watch shows. You need something else to do the recording and watching. If you have the something else then yes you can do all that.

Quote from rsriram22 : The idea is you get a "m-card" from you provider (not satellite dish providers, but the cable provider, say comcast) and do a self install (to avoid the truck roll 'fee'). during self install, call up comcast and get the card activated and check you get all your SD/HD channels and you should be good to go. the flip side to this is that you cannot get any PPV or On-Demand programming using these cablecard tuners.... oh and by the way, your DVR box fees should go away and you should be charged ~2-3 bucks per month as cablecard 'fee'. hope this helps..

That sounds right to me.

There was a time when we had to pay for a cable provider's box, such as DirecTV. I think the cable card is something the federal government and cable companies have designed so that we are not required to pay high prices to cable providers. We only pay about $4 to the cable provider and use equipment such as this from other companies.

Quote from henlai10 : You will most likely need a Tuning adapter which the cable company should provide for free. I have xbox 360 as extenders in all the rooms that I want TV in. I love my Ceton!

My guess is that the law prevents the cable company from charging for more than the cable card.

Quote from Troupster : In terms of your mouse issues, you need to understand better how windows functions, and what mode your applications are running in.

That is a problem. People should not be required to be technical to watch television.