Ceton InfiniTV 4 Question

[phillygwm]

Hi, I'm considering whether to purchase the InfiniTV 4 or perhaps a similar product.  I presently have 2 HD STB's, one with a DVR.  I would like to eliminate those.

My question is pretty fundamental but I didn't see it on the Ceton website (I may have overlooked it:)  How can I get the signal from the PC that I'd install the Ceton/CableCard in to the TV's? 

One is in my living room, the other is on the other side of the house in a bedroom.  I also have a Wii and STB attached to the living room PC, but nothing is attached to the upstairs PC except, presently, the STB.  My wireless router is in yet another room; it also has a old PC (Windows XP) wired into it.  I anticipate running the system through a new Windows 7 PC.  I can put that anywhere and it will be more or less earmarked for media stuff.

Any suggestions are appreciated! 

[Anthony_VZ]

Installing the InfiniTV 4 in one of your computers with a Verizon Cable Card will allow that computer to decode the signal. Once the signal is decoded, it can be passed to any device hooked up to the computer. You could watch it on your computer monitor. If the video card on your computer has an HDMI output, you could run an HDMI cable from your computer to any HD TV that the HDMI cable could reach to. You would be hard pressed with the TV's being so far apart to have the InfiniTV send a signal to both, unless you got a really really long cable. Even then, both TV's would be showing the exact same thing. Also bear in mind playback for the InfiniTV is done through the computer. It's just simply the TV that displays the image given to it from the computer. This means all interface with recording, changing channels, or anything else is done through the computer and not the TV. To make it easier, there are "media center remotes" that you can get. This would make it easier to interface with the computer by just using that remote control. Your computer will also need a media dashboard (such as Windows Media Center) in order for the InfiniTV 4 to work. I hope you enjoy your new Ceton product, I love mine 🙂

[Carl]

---

@phillygwm wrote:

My question is pretty fundamental but I didn't see it on the Ceton website (I may have overlooked it:)  How can I get the signal from the PC that I'd install the Ceton/CableCard in to the TV's? 

---

I hope you like XBOX360's! (more on this later)

The question is do you want to consolidate the guide and DVR capabilities into one box, or do you want each PC to have its own guide and DVR?

If the answer is "I only want one PC to record" then you will need to purchase extenders for every TV that isn't attached to the PC. The XBOX360 is the only currently manufactured and supported extender on the market. if you look on e-bay, you can find HP's x280n Media Smart device, or the Linksys DMA2100 and DMA2200. These are also extenders. I currently use the HP.

Extenders work best if they are hardwired to the netwrok in between themselves and the PC. However, I do use a 802.11N 5Ghz wireless connection for my bedroom TV, and have expereinced very few issue (mostly juddering)

Extenders will allow you to watch live TV from the PC with the Ceton tuner, as well as Recorded TV Shows marked "Copy Once".

If the answer is "I want to use each PC as a DVR", then you would not need extenders. You would, however, have to bridge the tuner you want asisgned to the PC. Ceton recently released a utility to do that for you ( I haven't tried it). You would have to repeat it for each PC you want to watch live TV on or record to. 

One drawback is that if a show is marked "Copy Once", you will ONLY be able to watch that show on THAT PC. The other to consider is that Ceton tuner sharing is not pooling (IIRC), so once the tuner is assigned to a PC, it can not be used to record on another PC.

I have been running the Ceton InfiinTV4 for about a year (full time). In fact, next week I am building a new HTPC and migrating the Ceton to that.

Any other questions feel free to ask,

Carl

[psm2000]

Hi, 

I've been a happy user of FIOS DVR and decided to upgrade to the new DVR model. Big mistake as now VZ wants to charge my $8 more on top of the 40 bucks I paid for upgrade. I get nothing new except some more space and it's very difficult for me to get the billing reps to get that. I wanted only to upgrade the box and nothing else (no multi room anything since I don't have any other smart boxes). So I'm thinking of completely giving up the DVR and going with the HTPC with the Ceton. 

Q. With the current Cable Cards (CC) from Verizon (in DFW area), can I tune 2 channels like I do with the current DVR? Any cheaper alternatives? I watch and must have HD content that can be recorded just like my current DVR. 

Q. With HTPC, where do I get the channel guide from and does it cost extra?

Q. Any advice as to which off-the-shelf PC will work with teh Cetron USB external box? I am pretty handy with PCs (can build my own) but want to just buy one if possible. Of course, it needs to be able to be able to switch via Logitech Universal remote. 

Any answers, links etc. appreciated. 

I've had 5 years of top notch service from FIOS TV/Ineternet but this screw up is just getting to me. 

Regards,

[Carl]

---

@psm2000 wrote:

Q. With the current Cable Cards (CC) from Verizon (in DFW area), can I tune 2 channels like I do with the current DVR? Any cheaper alternatives? I watch and must have HD content that can be recorded just like my current DVR. 

Q. With HTPC, where do I get the channel guide from and does it cost extra?

Q. Any advice as to which off-the-shelf PC will work with teh Cetron USB external box? I am pretty handy with PCs (can build my own) but want to just buy one if possible. Of course, it needs to be able to be able to switch via Logitech Universal remote. 

Any answers, links etc. appreciated. 

I've had 5 years of top notch service from FIOS TV/Ineternet but this screw up is just getting to me. 

Regards,

---

A1 - The Ceton InfiniTV4 is actually a 4 tuner device, so you can tune/record up to 4 channels. There is a PCI-e option and a USB option. The Ceton is about $275 for 4 tuners. 

SiliconDust has 2 models of CableCard tuners on the marker, the HDHomeRunPrime comes in 2 flavors a 3 tuner and a 6 tuner. The 6 tuner is actually two 3 tuner models fudes together, and will need 2 CableCards from Verizon. Both of these are network accessible tuners, meaning you can have multiple HTPC's accessing these tuners over your 1Gb Network. The 3 tuner version is $220 and the 6 tuner version is $450.

Hauppague has a Dual Tuner CableCard USB device and is $125.

A2 - The guide comes from Zap2It and it is included at no additonal charge in Windows Media Center.  

A3 - All of the current PC's should work fine with any of the tuners. I can not provide specific advice, as all of my home PC's are my creations. I did buy the HP IR Receiver and it works great with my harmony One remote. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-MEDIA-CENTER-REMOTE-CONTROL-USB-IR-RECEIVER-EMITTER-/150606208983?pt=LH_D...) If you go the off the shelf PC route, I would recommend buying a 2nd hard drive for the recordings and live TV buffer. 

Other Stuff - 

- I think My Channel Logos is a must-have add-on. http://mychannellogos.com  

- I have a SSD as the boot device, so I am in MCE very quickly when I do reboot. It will take about 1.5 minutes for the Ceton to acquire the signal, howver. 

- Get very familair with these sites:

http://experts.windows.com/f/

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/index.php

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26&order=desc

- Currently, there is only the XBOX available as an extender, if you have more than one TV. You can find some DMA's and x280n on ebay if you don't want the XBOX. (Just get the 4GB Slim if you go XBOX). Ceton just announced a new DVR and Extender, but no availability and pricing details are available at this time. 

Best of luck. I have been running with the Ceton from just about one year, and loving it. My next task is to rip our DVDs onto it and maybe move my music over there. I may also try some additional addons.

Carl

[UnnDunn]

---

@psm2000 wrote:

Q. Any advice as to which off-the-shelf PC will work with teh Cetron USB external box? I am pretty handy with PCs (can build my own) but want to just buy one if possible. Of course, it needs to be able to be able to switch via Logitech Universal remote. Regards,

---

Any PC running Windows 7 Home Premium or better should work just fine. It should also have an nVidia or ATI graphics processor to aid with video processing.

[SteveP2]

Hello all,

I am thinking of getting a Ceton USB device and connect it to my Win7 PC. Will the recordings be accessbile by other media streaming devices that are on my same network? I have a WDTV Live on my network and it can stream from my Win7 PC.

Thanks,

Steve

[UnnDunn]

The recordings are stored in WTV (Windows Media TV) format. It is unlikely that your WDTV will support it.

[SteveP2]

Ahhh I see but in reading more about this on the WDC site I see I can convert the .mtv format to .dvr-ms format, and then take this and convert to .mkv. This will then allow me to view the recordings on the WDTV Live.

Thanks,

Steve

[alanmalm]

Does anyone know if FIOS in Dallas, TX adds the "Copy Once" flag to their broadcast streams or not? I have just been on the phone for over an hour with multiple people in tech support including supervisors with differing answers. I am interested in buying a Ceton InfiniTV4 card to use with Window 7 Mediacenter as my DVR. I then want to share the content that it records to my other PCs. Can I do that? I would think I could as long as the "Copy Once" flag is not set.

I don't want to buy an extender or have to pay for any more set top boxes.