WOW! Love the Ceton Card!

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rbarr110

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 8, 2003
Messages
278
Recently picked up the Ceton tuner card in hopes of resurrecting the defunct HTPC after two years (thanks to Comcast going all digital making old tuners useless).

Set up went really smooth using Win7 MC and the Ceton drivers and utilities. Activated the cable card in a matter of minutes over the phone with a Comcast representative. Was watching TV on the HTPC and recording in less than 2.5 hours from a fresh pc build and Win7 install.

I currently have the HTPC in a “closet” and access from my main tv using the Xbox which worked pretty well even over the wireless connection.

One thing I discovered that I was not aware of was that you couldn’t use a second Win7 PC as an extender to watch live TV.

I did figure a slight workaround (assuming the program is not DRM protected, such as HBO), if you are sharing your recorded files between PC's, you can start a recording of the live program you want to watch on the main HTPC and then stream playback to the other PC.... technically not live, but about a 2 minute delay.

However, the other WONDERFUL piece of technology that is the Ceton card, is the support for "networked" tuners. You can assign one or more tuners to other Win 7 PC's that will use the dedicated tuner to watch and record live TV, so technically you could have one Ceton card and record/watch live TV on up to three more computers as well. You lose access to the assigned tuner on the HTPC, but a small price to pay to essentially add extra “TV’s” capable of pausing live TV anywhere in the home. I technically only have one real TV, but now have the option to watch TV in 3 different rooms.

Love the Ceton.
 
rbarr110 said:
you can start a recording of the live program you want to watch on the main HTPC and then stream playback to the other PC.... technically not live, but about a 2 minute delay
Click to expand...

That is what I did with directv and their direct2pc app they used to have. I guess maybe they still have it. Just fired up the iphone and hit record, and could start watching in 3 or 4 seconds. It was a minor inconvenience because most tv watching was in the living room to begin with.
 
rbarr110 said:
However, the other WONDERFUL piece of technology that is the Ceton card, is the support for "networked" tuners. You can assign one or more tuners to other Win 7 PC's that will use the dedicated tuner to watch and record live TV, so technically you could have one Ceton card and record/watch live TV on up to three more computers as well. You lose access to the assigned tuner on the HTPC, but a small price to pay to essentially add extra “TV’s” capable of pausing live TV anywhere in the home. I technically only have one real TV, but now have the option to watch TV in 3 different rooms.
Click to expand...

I'm read about this, and now that Ceton dropped the price $100, the card is even more attractive. However, if you assign another computer use of one of the tuners, where do the recordings take place from that PC? I'd want a central repository for my recording, but common sense tells me the recordings would be kept local.
 
J-Will said:
I'm read about this, and now that Ceton dropped the price $100, the card is even more attractive. However, if you assign another computer use of one of the tuners, where do the recordings take place from that PC? I'd want a central repository for my recording, but common sense tells me the recordings would be kept local.
Click to expand...

Yes, when you assign a tuner to a separate PC, the recording stays with that PC. You can transfer the video file to the main storage, however, DRM protected recording can only be played on the machine that records them (or through a media extender).

Was kind of bummed that the HBO recordings, or most sporting events, can only be played only on the device that records them. If you really wanted you could get a program to re-record the file in another format that would likely remove DRM protection, but quality would likely be lost, unless someone out there knows more about it than what my brief research has yielded.
 
I just ordered one of these, and was about to ask for opinions whether that was a good choice. Good to hear they work nicely :D
 
Any of you using Time Warner? I've been thinking of getting a Ceton card so I can record in HD but I've heard talk that Time Warner blocks alot of channels from being recorded.

That sucks if it's true because apparently the (Allow Recording / Do not allow) broadcast flags don't have to be adhered to but Windows Media Center listens to the flags anyways.
 
My ceton (using comcast) is awesome.

I think a lot of those time warner issues have been resolved.

I would give it a try - usually Ceton is VERY good about customer support if you are having any problems.
 
CannibalTrout said:
Any of you using Time Warner? I've been thinking of getting a Ceton card so I can record in HD but I've heard talk that Time Warner blocks alot of channels from being recorded.

That sucks if it's true because apparently the (Allow Recording / Do not allow) broadcast flags don't have to be adhered to but Windows Media Center listens to the flags anyways.
Click to expand...

That would suck if it is true. I was planning a building a HTPC with a Ceton tuner in it, and we TWC here too. Of course I am interested to see what happens with WMC in Windows 8.
 
I have a ceton with time warner cable and dont really have any probs. What channels are being blocked I can try it tonight and report back
 
I have a Ceton card. Love it. I pre-ordered it and didn't mind paying the extra $100.

If you can, get FiOS. Or move somewhere FiOS is available. Almost nothing has copy flags on it.

My work flow, for shows/movies I want to keep is -

- Record
- Convert to MPG using VideoReDo. I had to get the $100 version, but it fixes numerous errors - including files with audio errors that my transcoder couldn't read properly. It's only a few clicks - open, save as, save - but it takes a few min per HD show to write 6-7GB
- Strip out commercials. VideoReDo does this automatically or you can do it manually. Takes 2-3 min per hour show, but you remove 15-20 min per show and 25-30% of the file size. I do this while watching some other show
- Encode with HandBrake to reduce file size. A 6-7 GB 1080i60 program ends up as a 1.5-2.0GB 1080p30 commercial free file when I'm done. Works even better with 720p60 recordings that are really 30p with each frame doubled. Strip off the redundant frame and save space. Or if the show is a 480i show recorded on an HD channel (anything pre-2000). A 480i show that was recorded on a 1080i channel ends up having it's size reduced from 6-7GB to 400MB.
- Awesome for channels that have no commercial interruptions - PBS, TCM - as stripping out the commercials is really easy as they are all at the start or end.

Even if you are on a cable system that has lots of annoying copy flags, all the major networks (PBS, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX) and other local stations should be 'copy freely'. Before I switched to FiOS and got my Ceton, I used a QAM tuner. And here in the Baltimore/DC area I got 50 channels in the clear. It was rather amazing.

EDIT:
If you start recording shows and you record episodes other than only new episodes, you'll be amazed at how quickly you can record shows. For example - 20 episodes/wk of CSI on Spike. Also great for shows that don't exist on DVD at all - Cold Case or the '60s/'70s cop show Ironside (except season 1&2). Within 12 months, you should be able to get every episode of almost any TV show.

Occasionally there will be a recording error and some shows don't air episodes often enough, but that's rare. Looking at the 60 shows I'm recording, there are two shows I won't get in 52 weeks - Hogan's Heroes because they only show it 2/wk and there are 168 episodes and Last of the Summer Wine as, even though it's shown 5/wk, there are 294 episodes and it would be 59 weeks to record them all. On the other hand, I'll record all 96 episodes of My Name Is Earl in only 7 weeks.

If you are a TV junkie, it saves piles and piles of money and frees up something like NetFlix for shows/movies that don't air at all (for me, it's old Dr. Who)
 
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I just setup mine as well, and its just plain great. Win 7 Media Center is very slick, works, has a nice interface, yet has enough bells and whistles.
 
guachi said:
If you can, get FiOS. Or move somewhere FiOS is available. Almost nothing has copy flags on it.
Click to expand...

I think this depends on where you also. Some people have said alot of comcasts stuff is copy once.

The only channel on comcast I have found copy once content on is comedy central where I am at (but I don't have any of the premium movie channels either).
 
Vengance_01 said:
I just setup mine as well, and its just plain great. Win 7 Media Center is very slick, works, has a nice interface, yet has enough bells and whistles.
Click to expand...

I agree, though I have had some odd crashes if I leave MCE up and running without it being on Live TV. Anyone else seeing any issues like this? :confused:
 
No. The only issue I am facing is with my Moto TA. Sometimes WMC will not see the TA s I have to un-plug it and plug it back in, then everything is good. So far their is no rime or reason whats causing it.
 
wtburnette said:
I agree, though I have had some odd crashes if I leave MCE up and running without it being on Live TV. Anyone else seeing any issues like this? :confused:
Click to expand...

What sort of odd crashes have you been having? From time to time I will turn on my tv and have a black screen but from what I have read this is more of an HDMI handshake problem that can be fixed but for me I just hit the live tv button on my remote and within seconds the black screen is gone and my tv picks up the signal.

I leave mine up and running 24/7 as it also has 3 xbox's wired to it as extenders and have yet to have it fail on me once, I love it! Currently saving $45 a month in DVR and hd cable box rentals and I work for Comcast lol.

I don't really understand what all the fuss is about copy protected or copy once shows. I've yet to have a problem recording or watching anything on my extenders and I have every channel available but I could understand if you wanted to playback on another pc or something and couldn't. I could be wrong but I read something about being able to convert those files but for my setup it's a nonissue so I have not messed with it.

Here is a video of the whole setup running with my movies and being controlled by my iPad and my logitech harmony for anyone looking to see how it performs.......
http://youtu.be/RVvSFLTxlCk

Oh and did you guys see where last week they have released the USB model for the same price? I may have to order it and check it out as well.:cool:
 
harrison0550 said:
What sort of odd crashes have you been having? From time to time I will turn on my tv and have a black screen but from what I have read this is more of an HDMI handshake problem that can be fixed but for me I just hit the live tv button on my remote and within seconds the black screen is gone and my tv picks up the signal.

I leave mine up and running 24/7 as it also has 3 xbox's wired to it as extenders and have yet to have it fail on me once, I love it! Currently saving $45 a month in DVR and hd cable box rentals and I work for Comcast lol.
Click to expand...

If I leave a show up and paused (recorded TV) MCE will crash after 15 - 20 minutes. I come back and find the box up on the desktop saying the program has terminated and asking if I want to restart. If I restart it, it opens up just fine. This same thing happens if I leave MCE sitting at the menu. The only time it doesn't happen is if I'm in LiveTV. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the screensaver, so even though I really like the screensaver, I might try disabling it to see if the problem goes away...
 
wtburnette said:
If I leave a show up and paused (recorded TV) MCE will crash after 15 - 20 minutes. I come back and find the box up on the desktop saying the program has terminated and asking if I want to restart. If I restart it, it opens up just fine. This same thing happens if I leave MCE sitting at the menu. The only time it doesn't happen is if I'm in LiveTV. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the screensaver, so even though I really like the screensaver, I might try disabling it to see if the problem goes away...
Click to expand...

Could it possibly be a hardware issue? Like low RAM or HDD Space on the recorder? What screensaver do you have it set to? I use the slideshow one built into WMC. But yea, if you have you screensaver setup to turn on at 15-20 minutes, that could be the culprit.
 
I'm using the slideshow screensaver built into MCE, same as you. I don't think it's a hardware issue, but I could be wrong. It has 4GB of RAM, so that's not a problem, the 1TB HDD is less then 50% full and all this hardware worked together fine as a gaming system for 2 - 3 years without any similar issues. Guess I'll try turning off the screensaver to see if that helps or if all else fails, actually troubleshoot the issue a little ;)
 
I have been loving this card for the last 2 months. I have about a 2 month backlog of shows I'll never get to already...

Great for my kids now too, all the spongebob's and dora the explorers they could ever dream for.. Even my 68 year old mother has been able to navigate WMC7 after I showed her how to use the remote for 2 minutes... and that's saying something.
 
I agree the WMC 7 interface is slick, simple, but yet looks pretty all in the same package. Plus I love the DVR FF and Rewind or super fast and respond right away unlike my old ATT U-Verse POS DVR box.
 
Vengance_01 said:
I agree the WMC 7 interface is slick, simple, but yet looks pretty all in the same package. Plus I love the DVR FF and Rewind or super fast and respond right away unlike my old ATT U-Verse POS DVR box.
Click to expand...

I very much agree with this. That was one of the things I hated about Comcast was the rewind and FF seemed laggy and I spent way too much time getting back to my show after skipping the lame ass commercials. It was even worse with On Demand, which we had to use for some shows because our DVR only had two tuners. I also like the on screen guide better then the Comcast guide.

As an aside, turning off the picture slideshow screensaver seems to have fixed my crashing issue. Too bad as I really liked the SS, but oh well. No crashes = much better :cool:
 
Hey guys I am very interested in this card. Was thinking about just building a new pc with a AMD E350 and using it strictly as a pvr and tuner.. Some say that is not enough power, anyone running something similar with their centon?
 
crazycd1 said:
Hey guys I am very interested in this card. Was thinking about just building a new pc with a AMD E350 and using it strictly as a pvr and tuner.. Some say that is not enough power, anyone running something similar with their centon?
Click to expand...

I'd see why it wouldn't be more than enough, it already out performs an Atom which is plenty DVR and playback of HDTV formats, it's also supposed to out perform Clarkdale on video so it should even do BD well which the Atom struggles on.
 
rbarr110 said:
Recently picked up the Ceton tuner card in hopes of resurrecting the defunct HTPC after two years (thanks to Comcast going all digital making old tuners useless).

Set up went really smooth using Win7 MC and the Ceton drivers and utilities. Activated the cable card in a matter of minutes over the phone with a Comcast representative. Was watching TV on the HTPC and recording in less than 2.5 hours from a fresh pc build and Win7 install.

I currently have the HTPC in a “closet” and access from my main tv using the Xbox which worked pretty well even over the wireless connection.

One thing I discovered that I was not aware of was that you couldn’t use a second Win7 PC as an extender to watch live TV.

I did figure a slight workaround (assuming the program is not DRM protected, such as HBO), if you are sharing your recorded files between PC's, you can start a recording of the live program you want to watch on the main HTPC and then stream playback to the other PC.... technically not live, but about a 2 minute delay.

However, the other WONDERFUL piece of technology that is the Ceton card, is the support for "networked" tuners. You can assign one or more tuners to other Win 7 PC's that will use the dedicated tuner to watch and record live TV, so technically you could have one Ceton card and record/watch live TV on up to three more computers as well. You lose access to the assigned tuner on the HTPC, but a small price to pay to essentially add extra “TV’s” capable of pausing live TV anywhere in the home. I technically only have one real TV, but now have the option to watch TV in 3 different rooms.

Love the Ceton.
Click to expand...

Were you able to pick up the cablecard at the local office?
 
the e350 is prob enough power but I don't think I would use anything less especially if you are trying 3 to 4 hd streams at once. I used it with a dual core old style am2 2.6 GHz and now I'm on a Athlon 2 x4 at 2.8 I would say with my quad each stream uses 10 to 15% CPU to record
 
Comcast forces a tech visit to install the card and charges 16 dollars but they aren't charging me monthly for the cable card
 
luke51087 said:
Comcast forces a tech visit to install the card and charges 16 dollars but they aren't charging me monthly for the cable card
Click to expand...

That is against the law, as of 8/1 they are required to allow self-installs.
 
Is it typical for the CableCard to be free? Anyone know if/what Time Warner charges?
 
that's interesting I think I had mine set up before that and they told me they had to do that but I guess it was pre law
 
I got mine before 8/1 and a comcast tech had to bring it out. I'm glad that you can pick it up and install it yourself now, as he just had someone walking him through it on the phone, so it's nothing I couldn't have done on my own...
 
I love my Ceton tuner card as well! My install is now about 10 months old. Prior to Win7 SP1 I had a rare crash/re-boot on the machine, but since then, not once.

It is currently working so well I plan to keep it at Win7 long after Win 8 is released. Hell, I even have an identical Motherobard, CPU and set of RAM sitting in the closet in case of some sort of disaster.

Also, obviously I had mine installed before 8/1, but Comcast made me schedule a tech to come for my cablecard. He pretty much had no clue about installing it on a PC, but, was still very helpful and got the card activated at the time.
 
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