Yeah! Ceton USB

Ask fellow members about Ceton's infiniTV tuners here.
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EmirOfGroofunkistan

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Yeah! Ceton USB

#1

Post by EmirOfGroofunkistan » Thu Aug 18, 2011 5:27 pm

http://cetoncorp.com/press/?p=548

I may have to go in for one of these...

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STC

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#2

Post by STC » Thu Aug 18, 2011 7:25 pm

Nice!

Now if only they could start to manufacture the InfiniTV6 PCIe. I could do with 2 more tuners, and have no room for another InfiniTV4.

Jeremy! Hear my calls!!!!
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#3

Post by richard1980 » Thu Aug 18, 2011 7:44 pm

I'm surprised...I thought for sure the USB version would be a few dollars more than the PCIe version.

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NizZ8

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#4

Post by NizZ8 » Thu Aug 18, 2011 9:37 pm

I love seeing all of these new CableCard options for MCE Users... about dang time! :)

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#5

Post by wmcinmilwaukee » Fri Aug 19, 2011 1:06 am

I am actually thinking about purchasing the Silicondust Prime HD http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun/prime/
I think it offers alot more flexibility.

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#6

Post by richard1980 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 1:31 am

What are you calling "alot more flexibility"? The only advantage the Prime has over the other products on the market is it doesn't require a host PC.

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STC

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#7

Post by STC » Fri Aug 19, 2011 1:49 am

Agreed.
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#8

Post by wmcinmilwaukee » Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:07 am

Yes, I do like the fact that the Prime is standalone unit, and 6CC model has 6 tuners.

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#9

Post by EmirOfGroofunkistan » Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:07 am

the only thing I can think of that is more flexible for the hdhomerun prime is how it shares tuners dynamically, but for 50$ bucks more I'll take the 4th tuner.

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#10

Post by richard1980 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:52 am

I could see the 6-tuner argument, except the 6CC model is overpriced by $51 (InfiniTV + DCR-2650 = 6 tuners for $448 instead of the $499 for the 6CC...plus there's the option of 2 InfiniTV's for a total of 8 tuners for only $99 more than the 6CC). Dynamic tuner sharing isn't really an advantage, as it creates its own problems.

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#11

Post by mcewinter » Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:59 pm

richard1980 wrote:What are you calling "alot more flexibility"? The only advantage the Prime has over the other products on the market is it doesn't require a host PC.
That IS an advantage if you don't want to see or bury a USB tuner not to mention SD has dynamic sharing licked. It may intoduce problems only if there is a heavy amount of TV usage in the house but with the right amount of tuners it's non-issue.

I can only see the USB tuner being handy if you use a laptop as a HTPC or simply don't care what your setup looks like.

Losing a host PC is pretty advantageous though IMO.

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STC

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#12

Post by STC » Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:39 pm

Still not sold. The right amount of tuners never covers prime time in my environment and I have 4. The fact that it's pot luck whether your show will record without any prior warning of a conflict is the deal breaker for me.
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#13

Post by mcewinter » Fri Aug 19, 2011 7:51 pm

stonethecrows wrote:Still not sold. The right amount of tuners never covers prime time in my environment and I have 4. The fact that it's pot luck whether your show will record without any prior warning of a conflict is the deal breaker for me.
Family size and TV habits definitely could make or break it. If you are also a recording addict that also matters. Three digital tuners plus four QAM is going to be hard to max out in my household, adding three more digital tuners would be easily justified if/when the time comes.

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#14

Post by richard1980 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 10:50 pm

mcewinter wrote:
richard1980 wrote:What are you calling "alot more flexibility"? The only advantage the Prime has over the other products on the market is it doesn't require a host PC.
That IS an advantage if you don't want to see or bury a USB tuner not to mention SD has dynamic sharing licked. It may intoduce problems only if there is a heavy amount of TV usage in the house but with the right amount of tuners it's non-issue.

I can only see the USB tuner being handy if you use a laptop as a HTPC or simply don't care what your setup looks like.

Losing a host PC is pretty advantageous though IMO.
I think it is advantageous, but the words "alot more flexibility" imply to me that there is a significant difference between the two items, which there isn't. As for the dynamic tuner sharing issue, it doesn't take much to run into a problem. STC brings up the biggest complaint I have about it...there's no warning when too many tuners are in use or will be in use. Each computer thinks it has 3 or 6 tuners, whichever the case may be, and the computers don't communicate with each other to figure out that there's a conflict. I would be fine with the dynamic tuner pooling concept if all the computers could communicate together and notify the user of tuner conflicts. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen, and that's why I wouldn't go with a dynamic tuner pool until this is resolved. Even with 4 tuners, I can't count the number of times WMC has warned me that I've scheduled too many recordings and gave me the option to pick a different time to record something. It even did this for me automatically with Mythbusters this past season, as all 4 of my tuners were in use during the first airing...so WMC recorded the 2nd airing instead. With a dynamic tuner pool, there's no warning...you just miss your recordings and that's the end of it.

Luckily, the HDHRP can be statically assigned if you manually configure the tuner assignment at each computer during live TV setup. Because of this, the HDHRP still remains as a viable option in my book. But the pricing is what turns me away from it.

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#15

Post by mcewinter » Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:21 pm

The only time dollars per tuner really mattered to me is when the Ceton card was four hundred bucks. If they changed the price before SDs announcement it's likely that I would have one by now. Two Primes for five hundred or one six tuner device for the same price isn't unreasonable. Ceton owners make the point of having four tuners as if it were alot and talk down the Prime for only having three as if three tuners are useless.

Added: You are right though, at the end of the day they all (will) do the same thing with verly little difference in functionality.

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#16

Post by rantanamo » Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:41 am

I got my Ceton for $220. There are lots of InfiniTV deals out there.

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#17

Post by carljanderson » Sat Aug 20, 2011 2:12 am

rantanamo wrote:I got my Ceton for $220. There are lots of InfiniTV deals out there.
sweet.

I have to rebuild my PC and my choice of motherboards has now changed. I no longer need additional PCI-express slots if I need to go beyond 4 tuners.

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#18

Post by kingwr » Sat Aug 20, 2011 2:53 am

I really wish they would announce an extender. That would get me excited.

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#19

Post by richard1980 » Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:15 am

mcewinter wrote:The only time dollars per tuner really mattered to me is when the Ceton card was four hundred bucks. If they changed the price before SDs announcement it's likely that I would have one by now. Two Primes for five hundred or one six tuner device for the same price isn't unreasonable. Ceton owners make the point of having four tuners as if it were alot and talk down the Prime for only having three as if three tuners are useless.

Added: You are right though, at the end of the day they all (will) do the same thing with verly little difference in functionality.
I try not to talk down on any one particular device, as I appreciate what all of them do. That said, I also think the prices for all the devices should be somewhat aligned. Ceton and Hauppauge prices are aligned at about $75 per tuner, while SD is still $83 per tuner. IMO, SD needs to align prices with Ceton and Hauppauge. I said the same thing when SD first announced....I said Ceton should drop their price (at that time they were still $100 per tuner). I would expect SD and Ceton to be aligned and both devices to cost slightly more than the Hauppauge tuners, simply because of the added feature of network sharing. But if Ceton wants to match Hauppauge, I think SD should do the same.

As for the tuner counts, I personally prefer the highest number of tuners I can get with a single CableCARD....which just happens to be 4 and 1 with the InfiniTV. Additionally, 3 tuners is not enough for me....specifically because it takes 2 tuners to record back-to-back shows with appropriate padding, leaving only one tuner available. At a minimum, I need 4 tuners, although 6 is definitely better.

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#20

Post by carljanderson » Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:40 am

kingwr wrote:I really wish they would announce an extender. That would get me excited.
now you're just talking crazy..

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