|
|
Post by UsualNoise on Sept 14, 2011 17:34:22 GMT -5
After comparing the Ceton card with the HDHomeRun Prime I ended up picking up a Ceton this week. TW tech is bringing a cablecard tomorrow so I'll report back on how it goes. TW does seem to be getting more 'with it' as far as cablecards, since the triple play package I signed up for is 'cablecard only' which saves around $8 over the package with a regular box. The regular customer service rep I first talked to seemed to have a reasonable amount of knowledge, including letting me know that I would need to call back and order the tuning adapter once the cablecard is activated (they're still drop-shipping them apparently).
Hopefully I won't run into any major hassles.
|
|
|
|
Post by hurnik on Sept 14, 2011 19:12:22 GMT -5
supposedly as well, there's a Cisco TA firmware upgrade that will let a single TA decode/whatever 4 streams, so there won't be a need to use two TA with the Ceton anymore.
|
|
|
|
Post by UsualNoise on Sept 15, 2011 0:57:49 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm hoping the tech I get tomorrow knows enough about tuning adapters to confirm I'll only need one.
|
|
|
|
Post by UsualNoise on Sept 15, 2011 14:04:50 GMT -5
Tech was very nice, easy to communicate with. Said he'd done one Ceton install before and he liked them since they're "much easier than TiVos" to quote him. In any event, the cablecard was activated quickly and I verified a few channels with Ceton's software. Didn't take more than about 15 minutes.
The more involved part was after he left: configuring my two PCs to get two tuners a piece and having Windows Media Center get it all set up properly. I'm just glad I had gotten both machines cablecard-ready ahead of time, as you have to jump through some hoops to get it to work. Ultimately, though, both PCs have access to all the channels and seem to be working properly. I'll have more data as we record more programs over the coming days.
I will say the Ceton card runs HOT. I have decent airflow in my case and it idles at 60 C. Idles. I already ordered a slot fan to blow directly on the card as I do not want to fry this expensive piece of hardware. I also ordered a few more Cat6e network cables to replace the few remaining non-Gig wires on my network to optimize bandwidth.
As far as the tuning adapter(s), I forgot to ask the tech about it (he was in and out so fast it slipped my mind). So, I called up TW and the rep I spoke to found out (from some unnamed source while I was on hold) that they still do only 2 tuners apiece. Don't know if that is correct or not, but I'm getting 2 TAs shortly so I'll find out.
|
|
|
|
Post by UsualNoise on Sept 20, 2011 0:03:49 GMT -5
My 2 Cisco tuning adapters arrived via UPS today. I hooked the first one up and the Ceton card informed me that all 4 tuners were being handled by that one tuning adapter. So apparently the CS rep I spoke with was incorrect (not surprising as it's a fairly recent firmware upgrade from what I understand). Anyway, I have an extra tuning adapter for backup now.  All 4 tuners did indeed display all the SDV channels I attempted to view, so it would appear my initial foray into cable-box-less cable has proven successful. I already did a stress test a couple days ago (recording on all 4 tuners at once) and will repeat that tonight using SDV channels to test the tuning adapter. Other than the inability to watch a copy-once program on another Windows 7 PC (which still makes no sense to me) everything is working well. |
|
|
|
Post by hurnik on Sept 20, 2011 10:30:39 GMT -5
Thanks for the info!
Regarding the multiple pc's thingy. How does that work? So you have one pc with the Ceton in it, and you like what, stream the other channels or the recordings to the other pc?
|
|
|
|
Post by UsualNoise on Sept 20, 2011 11:33:34 GMT -5
Basically, yes. Ceton is itself a network adapter. When you configure for network sharing it bridges with an available ethernet adapter to serve one or more tuners. I have it configured so that the PC it is installed in is assigned two tuners and my upstairs living room PC is assigned the other two tuners. Using a gigabit wired network I've seen no issues with bandwidth, even recording on all 4 tuners at once. It's a pretty nice piece of hardware actually.
The only downside is that at present (and probably forever) you can't record copy-once content on one computer and watch on another. Of course, this is no worse than having a cable box upstairs and downstairs so I can live with it. Plus, it's easy to record on both computers if I really want the program available in two places. Also, this is only copy-once content; anything on clear channels (e.g. broadcast networks) CAN be viewed on any computer.
|
|
|
|
Post by hurnik on Sept 20, 2011 16:18:35 GMT -5
So anything TW set to CCI byte 0x02 I think cannot be watched on the other PC? (like TNTHD or something)
Or does the Windows Media stuff do "streaming" in that case?
Sorry for the dumb questions, just curious as the Ceton site didn't quite explain the tuner assigning real clear to me.
|
|
|
|
Post by UsualNoise on Sept 20, 2011 23:52:40 GMT -5
So anything TW set to CCI byte 0x02 I think cannot be watched on the other PC? (like TNTHD or something) Exactly. The only exception is if you have a Windows Media Extender, like an XBox. For some reason you can stream to an XBox but not to another Windows 7 PC. That's the part that most people are annoyed by; it's a limitation that is completely self-imposed ... Microsoft could make it possible in Windows 7 but doesn't seem to care enough to do it. |
|
|
|
Post by hurnik on Sept 22, 2011 13:16:02 GMT -5
OMG, that's so stupid. (MS not allowing to stream to another windows 7 device). Stupid TW and their CCI bytes. Of course, if you had FIOS (I don't, but I can, but they still don't have several HD channels I watch regularly) . . .
Thanks again for the info!
|
|
|
|
Post by xzi on Sept 22, 2011 22:02:13 GMT -5
So anything TW set to CCI byte 0x02 I think cannot be watched on the other PC? (like TNTHD or something) Exactly. The only exception is if you have a Windows Media Extender, like an XBox. For some reason you can stream to an XBox but not to another Windows 7 PC. That's the part that most people are annoyed by; it's a limitation that is completely self-imposed ... Microsoft could make it possible in Windows 7 but doesn't seem to care enough to do it. It's because the Extender/XBOX360 is just that, an extension of the PC. It is being used as a remote display to the PC that was originally used to record the content. At it's heart, it's almost an RDP (Remote Desktop) connection back to the PC--just with a dedicated audio/video channel. Since you aren't actually moving the file to a different PC, and since RDP is a secure encrypted path and the XBOX360/Extender platform is closed, the whole path adheres to HDCP and it must be enough to appease the gods of digital content |
|
