Going cablecard!

V

valve1138

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 14, 2003
Messages
11,299
We're going to put our DirecTV on hold for six months. I really only keep it around for the NFL Sunday Ticket.

The local cable company has a promo right now, first month is free, and we can get a double play bundle with internets and tv that winds up being $60 a month cheaper overall.

So by saving money, I get to play with cablecard stuff :cool: Ordered a Ceton PCI-E!

My 'ole HTPC should be ok.

E6600 @ 2.4ghz
2 gigs of ram right now, I've got a 4 gig kit I'm going to put in.
40gb SSD for the OS
5770 video card

I'm not sure what I'll add in for a recording drive. I have several 1TB green drives, some 640gb blacks, and an external 1.5tb USB. I'm leaning towards one or two of the 1tb green's.

Just thought I'd share :D
 
I just ordered one as well. I'm kind of curious if there's a difference between the 5400rpm and 7200rpm drives if there's 4 recordings going at once, plus playback of a pre-recorded show. I only have a 640GB WD Blue (7200rpm) and a 1.5TB WD Green (5400rpm) drive available to stick in as a recording drive.

Anyone know if the green drives would be okay?
 
The greens were never a problem for me with SageTV recording 3 shows at once. I had a mix of HdHomeruns and Hauppauge HD-PVR.
 
Oh yeah, forgot to mention we're going to use our two 360's as extenders.

It's $1.50 a month for a cablecard, and $6.95 for a cable box.
 
Xonim said:
I just ordered one as well. I'm kind of curious if there's a difference between the 5400rpm and 7200rpm drives if there's 4 recordings going at once, plus playback of a pre-recorded show. I only have a 640GB WD Blue (7200rpm) and a 1.5TB WD Green (5400rpm) drive available to stick in as a recording drive.

Anyone know if the green drives would be okay?
Click to expand...
No issues at all. I have a 5400 2gig Hitachi for my storage drive. Be aware that 2 gigs can fill up pretty fast if you dont erase your recordings. ;)
 
JohnDC said:
No issues at all. I have a 5400 2gig Hitachi for my storage drive. Be aware that 2 gigs can fill up pretty fast if you dont erase your recordings. ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah...the plan is to try and automate MCEBuddy (if it still works...) to compress & remove commercials overnight. If not, I guess I need more hard drives...
 
Modern 5400 rpm drives should be fine. HDTV only needs 2-3MB per second of throughput, which any drive made in the past 10 years should keep up with 4 of those without issue...

Verge said:
How does mce buddy handle encrypted streams?
Click to expand...

My understanding is that it can't.
 
So MCEBuddy wouldn't work with something like HGTV that I need the cablecard to decrypt?
 
I was under the impression that anything flagged as "copy freely" can be converted with it, but it wont' work with "copy once" programs. From what I've read, the network shows all are required to be flagged as copy freely, networks in digital cable packages generally are marked copy freely (depends on your provider), and things like HBO/Showtime are usually copy once.
 
Ahh ok. I'll have to see what my cable company does next week when they come for the install.
 
I dont think MCEBuddy supports .wtv and surround sound either. But I haven't used it in a couple years due to the lack of support.
 
valve1138 said:
We're going to put our DirecTV on hold for six months. I really only keep it around for the NFL Sunday Ticket.

The local cable company has a promo right now, first month is free, and we can get a double play bundle with internets and tv that winds up being $60 a month cheaper overall.

So by saving money, I get to play with cablecard stuff :cool: Ordered a Ceton PCI-E!

My 'ole HTPC should be ok.

E6600 @ 2.4ghz
2 gigs of ram right now, I've got a 4 gig kit I'm going to put in.
40gb SSD for the OS
5770 video card

I'm not sure what I'll add in for a recording drive. I have several 1TB green drives, some 640gb blacks, and an external 1.5tb USB. I'm leaning towards one or two of the 1tb green's.

Just thought I'd share :D
Click to expand...

Nice, I've been using the Ceton tuner board for a year and a half now. I love it.

Your E6600 should fit the bill nicely. I run a Q6600 on my media center box and it's more than enough. Since this PC is never used for gaming, I just use the onboard video (Intel GMA X4500). It has done the job well.

I just use a single Caviar Black 2TB HD for my Media Center PC. I personally can't recommend the green drives. I've had a lot of failures on that line of drives. I won't touch them again. If you want one of the lower power drives, maybe seagate?

With my processor, onboard video, 4GB of RAM and a single Caviar Black drive, I am able to record/playback 4 channels at once with no issues at all. A not uncommon scenario is where I am recording 3 channels at once with someone in the house watching a 4 channel live on the Media Center PC while I am watching a recorded show, or one of the 3 recording shows on a 360 running as an extender.
 
griffinhart said:
If you want one of the lower power drives, maybe seagate?
Click to expand...

The Samsung Ecogreen F4's are fantastic. Unfortunately, they're still $160 at this point, though I think I'm going to pick one up and then just use the 1.5TB WD Green I have for a recording drive. Had it for 2+ years without any issues so far, so...hopefully it stays that way.
 
I've already got the WD green drives, so I'll be using one or two of those. No need to spend more money on this.
 
Upgrading my HTPC turned into a PITA.

Didn't like the 4gb RAM kit or the 2tb drive.

Thankfully I had a newer motherboard I had just picked up. Works great, and it's Micro-ATX so I may downsize it from the Silverstone LC-10 beast case.

Ceton shows up tomorrow!
 
You're going to love it - been running mine almost a year now; had some hiccups here/there but it's really good now.

When you go to pair your card, I'd suggest you pickup TWO cable cards in case one of them doesn't pair/work correctly (had this happen on both systems I've setup). Once it's paird, return the other card. If you require a TA, add a splitter at your outlet and feed the ceton and the TA separately; don't daisy chain using the pass-through in TA (granted, this may have changed and not be an issue any more).
 
Thanks for the tips.

It's a truck roll tomorrow since they have to take the filter out at the pedestal, so I'd assume the guy will have more than one card with him.

Also, I don't think this cable co needs TA's yet.
 
It's Shentel Cable. A somewhat small'ish regional cable company.

They don't have enough channels to need SDV :p

www.shentelnow.com

On March 6th they roll out the upgraded channel line up for our area. Shentel bought out the old company, Jetbroadband, which was beyond shit. JB didn't even lay cable in our condoland, and we've got something like 2500 units. So Shentel rolls in, install all new outside plant, whacks our area up with it's own fatty interwebs pipe, and some nice offers to lure customers over. So far, they've been great.
 
griffinhart said:
I don't know what cable company you use, but. Comcast (in NE Mass) does not use TA's. :) It's simply a CableCard and a standard Coax Cable for my set up. From what I understand though, if you need TA's, Make sure you have 1 TA for every 2 tuners. So the Ceton Infinity would want 2 of them.

You may be able to find info here too:
http://experts.windows.com/frms/windows_entertainment_and_connected_home/f/115.aspx?PageIndex=1
Click to expand...

Not quite right anymore. It depends on who makes the head-end units that your cable company uses AND the baseband/firmware revision that they're using.

If you're using Motorola equipment, one TA is required. If you're using Cisco equipment, 2 TAs are needed with the older firmware. TWC in my area has upgraded to the new firmware, so I have a single Cisco TA that runs all 4 tuners just fine.
 
valve1138 said:
Ceton is here :cool:
Click to expand...

Nice. I was lucky enough to get mine just a couple months after the board was released, though that Means I paid full price. The new price is pretty sweet. That said, I've had such a good experience with the Ceton board, that I am still, happy with the purchase.
 
I traded in my old Xbox 360 at Gamestop the other day. Got $90 for it, which I was pretty pleased with.

Picked up a base model 4Gb 360 Slim. This will be an extender for the bedroom. Having HDMI just makes it easier, the old one just had component.
 
griffinhart said:
Nice. I was lucky enough to get mine just a couple months after the board was released, though that Means I paid full price. The new price is pretty sweet. That said, I've had such a good experience with the Ceton board, that I am still, happy with the purchase.
Click to expand...
same here. Its been great, but the fact that 1 year later its dropped 50+% in price kind of hurts. Oh well, such is the price of being an early adopter. It also looks like they cleaned up the PCB a lot, with only one pcb rather than the 3 difference PCB's on the original. Now that the networked tuner functionality is working properly, this thing absolutely kicks ass
 
Activate: AMD said:
same here. Its been great, but the fact that 1 year later its dropped 50+% in price kind of hurts. Oh well, such is the price of being an early adopter. It also looks like they cleaned up the PCB a lot, with only one pcb rather than the 3 difference PCB's on the original. Now that the networked tuner functionality is working properly, this thing absolutely kicks ass
Click to expand...

You know, I have the software for the networked tuner downloaded. I've been wanting to play with it. I like the idea of one tuner reserved that way so I can watch live TV on my laptop. The only thing stopping me is that little voice in the back of my head screaming: "DON'T DO IT!!!! EVERYTHING IS WORKING GREAT, DON'T MESS IT UP!!!!" My inner voice is much louder and more obnoxious than my outer voice.
 
valve1138 said:
I traded in my old Xbox 360 at Gamestop the other day. Got $90 for it, which I was pretty pleased with.

Picked up a base model 4Gb 360 Slim. This will be an extender for the bedroom. Having HDMI just makes it easier, the old one just had component.
Click to expand...

Damn it. I don't need to spend anymore money. Now you are giving me a practical way to "upgrade" my second 360 to one of the newer and quieter models.
 
griffinhart said:
You know, I have the software for the networked tuner downloaded. I've been wanting to play with it. I like the idea of one tuner reserved that way so I can watch live TV on my laptop. The only thing stopping me is that little voice in the back of my head screaming: "DON'T DO IT!!!! EVERYTHING IS WORKING GREAT, DON'T MESS IT UP!!!!" My inner voice is much louder and more obnoxious than my outer voice.
Click to expand...
I have the ceton in my main rig because my HTPC's nic was a total POS, so I wound up having to put an intel NIC in just to make it stream properly from my home server, taking up the only PCI-e slot (its mini-ITX). I just loaded the software, followed some instructions online and 20 minutes later I had TV on my HTPC (3 tuners) and my main rig (1 tuner). It'd be nicer if you could allocate tuners more dynamically between rigs, like creating a tuner pool where any PC on the network could pull an available tuner, rather than having set allocations, but for my needs the software is more than adequate.

But having done the HTPC thing for the last ~3 years I totally understand the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality.. HTPC's always seem to be on the edge of working perfectly or being a catastrophic mess :D
 
griffinhart said:
Damn it. I don't need to spend anymore money. Now you are giving me a practical way to "upgrade" my second 360 to one of the newer and quieter models.
Click to expand...

There's a deal till the 23rd of March (I think), where you get $40 over regular trade in value if you're just going to get more crap from them. Regular value, $45.

In short, DO EEEEEEEEEETTTTTT.
 
MCEBuddy seemed to have worked ok. But when I play the file it created the audio and video are off by about 5 seconds.
 
Mine showed up today. Comcast couldn't activate the card . Tried viewing ClearQAM channels, audio shows up fine but video is super slow/stuttery/choppy. Not quite sure what's up with that. Going to wait and see if it clears up once paired/activated, if not, just gonna wait a week til we're in our new place and try again.
 
Definitely either a hardware issue or just a case of the system needing a new install of Windows. Put the Ceton in my gaming rig and the ClearQAM channels play back fine. Can't get anyone from Comcast that actually knows what the heck a Ceton / Infinitv is, and by me telling them it's a Tivo, it doesn't seem to get it working....
 
Definately make sure you're calling the Cable Card hotline for your provider - NOT the normal support number. It makes a big different in the CSR's you get and how knowledgable they are. These should be listed on Ceton's website.
 
Xonim said:
Definitely either a hardware issue or just a case of the system needing a new install of Windows. Put the Ceton in my gaming rig and the ClearQAM channels play back fine. Can't get anyone from Comcast that actually knows what the heck a Ceton / Infinitv is, and by me telling them it's a Tivo, it doesn't seem to get it working....
Click to expand...
I remember trying to get Comcast to pair my Ceton.. they insisted on doing a truck roll (charging me like $20) and the guy they sent had never even heard of a cablecard before. then he just called the central office and read the numbers off.. nothing special. Having issues later requiring a re-pair resulted in me calling and talking to multiple CSRs, pulling teeth until I finally convinced one to re-send the pairing signals. Now I have fios and the call to pair my CC took 10 minutes and the guy was helpful and knowledgeable, even asked me about what kind of rig I had when I told him it was in a computer. Bottom line: comcast sucks with cablecards, fios was much cooler. I feel your pain
 
Reinstalled windows last night after two failed support calls and choppy ClearQAM playback. Made my 3rd call to support this morning, actually got someone in the states, he knew what I was talking about. He got it paired, but still wasn't working, so he sent a ticket up. Got a call back 15 mins later, that didn't work either. After about 45 minutes I realized I never reran the digital cable advisor before I called this morning. Did that, called the tier two guy back, he resent the hits. 30 minutes later I was in business.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top