InfiniTV 6 - Thought?

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mini-me01

Weaksauce
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Sep 1, 2011
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Thinking of switching my InfiniTV 4 PCIe to a networked InfiniTV 6.

Does anyone care to comment on:
Reliability
Channel changing speed
Tuner sharing
WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor).

I finally have my HTPC and InfiniTV 4 rock solid and I don't want to go back to the daily tweaks to keep it running.

Thanks!
 
I also have a iTV4 PCIe and have mine in a similar state; reliable, no real gripes.

I would give it another couple of months if you're going to upgrade to the ETH6 - it seems they're having a few growing pains with it being their first networked tuner.

I'm personally waiting for the iTV6 PCIe... that one should theoretically work identical to the iTV4, so less issues, I'd imagine.
 
Reliability:
Stock firmware blew, wouldn't even detect a channel some times.
Latest non beta worked ok, until it disappeared from my machine that was acting as the server for extenders (win7 under esxi).
Haven't had a problem with the latest beta yet, but only been on it about a week now.

Channel changing speed:
Same as the 4 tuner version for the most part, but sometimes can be slower, bringing up the 'live tv' first time after starting mce seems to take twice a long as the 4 tuner version. Just started tv on my computer just now, took 6 seconds for the channel to come up first time and about 4 seconds to change the channel. (didn't use a timer)

Tuner sharing:
Works, no problems.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor):
PM me in a month, I'll let you know if it glitches on the beta firmware.

People say hd home run is much faster, but had same growing pains like ceton is going through now. I went with ceton because I don't want to rent multiple cable cards.
 
I have a HDHomeRun with cablecard also but don't really use it because I have the Ceton in my primary HTPC. I think I'll setup a machine to use the hdhomerun and see how this goes while the InfiniTV 6 matures.
 
vxspiritxv said:
Tuner sharing:
Works, no problems.
Click to expand...

Question about this..... Does it pool the tuners or does it assign the tuners to media centers similar to the way networked tuners work on a InfinitTV4?
 
i believe it pools tuners ala the HDHR rather than assigning, but i could be wrong
 
Any of you have an hdhomerun prime x6? Curious how it compares to the iTV6.

Have 3 hdhomeruns (connected to a roof-mount antenna) and 1 prime...they've all been flawless and I don't see any way they could be easier to set up (media center could use improvement but that's another story hehe). It pools the tuners, btw.

Am thinking of moving from 3 available cable ports to 6 and leaning toward the silicondust but the iTV6 is cheaper so...anyone tried/used both? Other thoughts?
 
Isn't the HDHRx6 simply two HDHR Primes in one unit? Meaning you need two cablecards, two power supplies, two TA's, etc? Is it still made?

Quick question on tuner pooling - how does that work when all tuners are in use and one machine attempts to record? Does it miss the recording or is it intelligent enough to grab/prompt one from an existing live tv stream like the standard WMC w/extenders works?
 
Yes...the 6 is basically 2x the 3....2 cablecards. Hmmm...you're right...I don't see it as available anymore...not sure what's up with that. Looks like if I want to add 3 more then it's either pick up another prime or get the iTV6 and sell the prime (probably just get another prime in that case).

If all the tuners are in use and another tries to record a show, it won't record. Haven't had that issue (or tried testing to see if one tuner releases but am 99% sure it won't) as I've set all the clients to use the regular hdhomeruns for all the OTA channels...tends to keep 1-2 cablecard tuners available.
 
I've been thinking about building a HTPC box that would include a DVR etc...and the InfiniTV6 looks like one of the better options out there. However, perhaps someone can let me know about the following

1. Equipping it with a cablecard, will it allow 2-way communications? That is to say, we have a high end Comcast digital HD package w/ premium channels etc.. but last I heard that any of the CableCard devices will mean that On Demand streaming won't work. If that is the case, then I don't think people will go for it at least in my household. People have gotten used to On Demand and they won't want to give it up, even for a better DVR. Just out of curiosity, I wonder if things would be any different in terms of OnDemand streaming under FIOSTV instead of Comcast...
2. Linux support? I've heard that even with CableCard and a device that works on Linux like the InfiniTV6, it may be hard to watch and record some channels depending on your cable provider, because they may use some sort of proprietary bullshit that is shipped with Windows Media Center etc..instead.

The InfiniTV6 looks like a great little tool, but it seems like the TV companies have gone out of their way to cripple functionality for those of us who want to customize our own box etc... to use with their service. Sadly, it may look like the only thing to do is to get the Comcast X1 or a TiVO, so that we don't lose any of our existing features.
 
I believe you can still get fios on demand, but only when using an extender(xbox 360).
 
I recently switched from a HTPC running MC7 with a Ceton iTV4 Tuner to a TiVo. On Demand did not function on the HTPC (or at least I could not get it to work) The ON Demand with Comcast works with a TiVo Preimum XL4 seamlessly.
 
Xaeos said:
I've been thinking about building a HTPC box that would include a DVR etc...and the InfiniTV6 looks like one of the better options out there. However, perhaps someone can let me know about the following

1. Equipping it with a cablecard, will it allow 2-way communications? That is to say, we have a high end Comcast digital HD package w/ premium channels etc.. but last I heard that any of the CableCard devices will mean that On Demand streaming won't work. If that is the case, then I don't think people will go for it at least in my household. People have gotten used to On Demand and they won't want to give it up, even for a better DVR. Just out of curiosity, I wonder if things would be any different in terms of OnDemand streaming under FIOSTV instead of Comcast...
2. Linux support? I've heard that even with CableCard and a device that works on Linux like the InfiniTV6, it may be hard to watch and record some channels depending on your cable provider, because they may use some sort of proprietary bullshit that is shipped with Windows Media Center etc..instead.

The InfiniTV6 looks like a great little tool, but it seems like the TV companies have gone out of their way to cripple functionality for those of us who want to customize our own box etc... to use with their service. Sadly, it may look like the only thing to do is to get the Comcast X1 or a TiVO, so that we don't lose any of our existing features.
Click to expand...

1. On Demand will not function with CC devices. TIVO recently was granted this ability to work with On Demand, but previously had the same limitations other CC devices have. I'm not sure if this is for all regions, or just a subset? Some TIVO folks could clarify.

2. If your cable co flags the channel as copy-once, then your only choice to watch those recordings is a) on the machine that recorded it and/or b) use official WMC extenders like the Ceton Echo, Xbox360, LinksysDMA, etc to view the content on other TVs. The DRM isn't really a WMC thing, rather that WMC is the only product (as of now) that enforces/honors these flags from the cable op and allows CC devices to function as such. Ceton has Linux drivers but I belive you're only going to get copy-freely channels; not a full solution IMO.

As someone else mentioned, I think you can get OnDemand services with some providers via the xbox360, but it's through the native Xbox interface, not while in WMC extender mode; it also would require an Xbox Live GOLD subsciption, I believe.
 
Thanks for the info. That was a great explanation. Cheers. I am still waiting for a robust solution to other PCs as extenders or Ceton creating a streaming client for the PC.
 
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