2 Ceton InfiniTV 4 Tuners w/Windows 7

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nrnelson

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2 Ceton InfiniTV 4 Tuners w/Windows 7

#1

Post by nrnelson » Thu Aug 25, 2011 1:11 am

I currently have 2 Ceton InfiniTV 4 tuners in my Windows 7 HTPC. I have the latest firmware and drivers from Ceton (official, not beta) and have their network tuner sharing software installed.

I go into their diagnostic tool and can see each of my cards in the drop down menu and the first one is set to DHCP 192.168.200.1 and the second is DHCP 192.168.201.2. Upon starting WMC and running Ceton's network tuner sharing wizard and selecting tuners 1-4 to be available to Windows Media Center (on the first card) I configure WMC to work with a cable card device.

Unfortunately I get the following error when I try to view the channels:

"There is currently no TV signal detected for this channel. The channel may be temporarily off the air, or you may need to adjust or reconnect your TV antenna."

And if I let it sit there long enough I get this error:

"This channel is temporarily unavailable. Try again later. (SDV error: 1)"

I have 2 Cisco STA1520s hooked up. They have the newest firmware so they support 4 tuners each. I can see both Ceton cards in control panel device manager as well as my two Cisco STA1520s.

When I go to the tuner's IP in my browser each tuner pulls up a page but the tuning adapter links appear not to work. I don't know if each TA is being used, if one is being used or neither is being used.

I do have it configured as they recommended with NOT using the passthrough ports on the tuning adapters and each card and TA has it's own connection back to the splitter. Also, I've purchased TunerSalad and ran it because I've read it's not possible by default to run more than 4 tuners of a single type in WMC.

For what it's worth, I can watch TV using tuner card 1 only in the PC and TA #1 plugged in only OR tuner card 2 only in the PC and TA #2 plugged in but not both in the system at the same time so I know the cable cards/activation/TAs work. I'm also on Time Warner Cable Cincinnati.

Thanks!

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Scallica

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#2

Post by Scallica » Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:13 am

I think you are trying to do too many things at one time!

Start with one tuner card and no tuning adapter. Try to tune a local broadcast channel (CBS, NBC) and verify that it works. Then, try some premium channels. Then, add a tuning adapter and try to tune a premium channel again.

In the tuner diagnostic page, what is the signal strength for your channel? Your signal strength must be between -10db and +10db. Your Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) should be in the 35 range.
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nrnelson

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#3

Post by nrnelson » Thu Aug 25, 2011 3:17 am

Alright back to the basics. I've re-ran Tuner Salad, reset to stock settings. Uninstalled Ceton network tuner sharing software. Ran the Ceton diagnostics tool and reset network and card settings to factory. Went into device manager, removed all Ceton cards/Cisco TAs (hidden & active) and rebooted.

Windows found the Ceton InfiniTV card and configured it. Went into WMC and setup the Ceton and tuned (all HD) to local FOX, local CBS, Discovery, TLC, History Channel and all worked without the Cisco TA connected. Checked out a channel I thought to be on SDV (Science Channel) and get "There is currently no TV signal detected for this channel. The channel may be temporarily off the air. Try again later."

Plugged in Cisco TA #1 only, powered it on and Windows detected it in Device Manager. TA status light is blinking at this point. Started up WMC and tuned to Science Channel again but still get the same error. Launched Ceton diagnostics and see that there is an error that there aren't enoguh tuning adapters connected to handle all the InfiniTV tuners. Launched the diagnostics website and clicked the "Tuning Adapter" tab only to see the TR Status as "Waiting for initialization." Rebooted PC.

Now the TA light is solid green and I am able to watch Science Channel in WMC.

So right now I have basic Ceton drivers/software installed, one Ceton InfiniTV card installed and one Cisco TA installed. While watching Science Channel I visited http://192.168.200.1/ and saw tuner three was locked onto the channel with a signal level of "-4.9 dBmV" and the SNR is "36.2 dB" which I believe is acceptable.

Everything seems as expected up to this point, right? What should my next steps be to add in the second Ceton card, second CIsco STA1520 TA and configure the tuners for network sharing?

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Scallica

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#4

Post by Scallica » Thu Aug 25, 2011 11:32 am

nrnelson wrote: Everything seems as expected up to this point, right? What should my next steps be to add in the second Ceton card, second CIsco STA1520 TA and configure the tuners for network sharing?
Good work so far. Install the second tuner and tuning adapter. Re-run the WMC TV setup wizard and only enable the newest 4 tuners, disable the first 4 tuners for now. We want to make sure the second tuner card is working without a false positive from the first card.

If the error reappears, perhaps there is an issue with the second tuner or tuning adapter. If the error does not appear, you can re-enable the first four tuners.

Configuring network sharing should be your very last step.
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sccrgoalie1

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#5

Post by sccrgoalie1 » Thu Aug 25, 2011 5:33 pm

I can tell you that you are going to have to play around a little to get the tuning adapters to link correctly. I have two cards as well and a tuning adapter for each. A typical cycle is to reboot the pc, unplug the tuning adapters, and then plug back in. This usually gets them to link up correctly (one to each card). Ceton is working on the issues with multiple cards and adapters, and it has gotten a lot better but still not perfect.

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#6

Post by erkotz » Thu Aug 25, 2011 5:51 pm

sccrgoalie1 wrote:I can tell you that you are going to have to play around a little to get the tuning adapters to link correctly. I have two cards as well and a tuning adapter for each. A typical cycle is to reboot the pc, unplug the tuning adapters, and then plug back in. This usually gets them to link up correctly (one to each card). Ceton is working on the issues with multiple cards and adapters, and it has gotten a lot better but still not perfect.
This should be resolved on the newest firmware and drivers. If you are still having problems, open a support ticket.
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#7

Post by STC » Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:06 pm

erkotz wrote:This should be resolved on the newest firmware and drivers. If you are still having problems, open a support ticket.
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#8

Post by sccrgoalie1 » Thu Aug 25, 2011 9:07 pm

erkotz wrote:
sccrgoalie1 wrote:I can tell you that you are going to have to play around a little to get the tuning adapters to link correctly. I have two cards as well and a tuning adapter for each. A typical cycle is to reboot the pc, unplug the tuning adapters, and then plug back in. This usually gets them to link up correctly (one to each card). Ceton is working on the issues with multiple cards and adapters, and it has gotten a lot better but still not perfect.
This should be resolved on the newest firmware and drivers. If you are still having problems, open a support ticket.
I've got a long standing open ticket, their aware that the functionality still isn't working perfect. I have the latest beta drivers and firmware. No doubt it is way better than a few months ago!

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#9

Post by erkotz » Thu Aug 25, 2011 9:41 pm

sccrgoalie1 wrote:
erkotz wrote:
sccrgoalie1 wrote:I can tell you that you are going to have to play around a little to get the tuning adapters to link correctly. I have two cards as well and a tuning adapter for each. A typical cycle is to reboot the pc, unplug the tuning adapters, and then plug back in. This usually gets them to link up correctly (one to each card). Ceton is working on the issues with multiple cards and adapters, and it has gotten a lot better but still not perfect.
This should be resolved on the newest firmware and drivers. If you are still having problems, open a support ticket.
I've got a long standing open ticket, their aware that the functionality still isn't working perfect. I have the latest beta drivers and firmware. No doubt it is way better than a few months ago!
PM me the ticket number and I'll find out what's going on with it
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nrnelson

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#10

Post by nrnelson » Thu Aug 25, 2011 11:34 pm

Alright so I added the second card into my system and opened the Ceton diagnostics. I looked at each card's diagnostics checklist and at one point it was showing card 31:48 had enough tuning adapters to satisfy all tuners but card 2D:37 did not. I unplugged the tuning adapters, switched their USB ports around and re-launched the tool. Both cards were registering enough tuning adapters available to satisfy the request.

I launched WMC7 and re-setup the TV tuners but only 4 of a tuner type was supported. I exited, ran Tuner Salad and increased the maximum to 12. Rebooted, launched WMC7 and setup all 8 tuners between the 2 cards. I went out to the diagnostics screen for the digital tuners in WMC7 and clicked each tuner for each card and then went to the signal option and recorded the following results:

Channel 1132 (Science Channel HD on SDV):

Card 31:48
Tuner 1 - SNR 36.4 dB, Signal Level -4.5 dB
Tuner 2 - SNR 36.2 dB, Signal Level -4.8 dB
Tuner 3 - SNR 36.4 dB, Signal Level -4.4 dB
Tuner 4 - SNR 9.0-17.0 dB, Signal Level 7.9 dB

Card 2D:37
Tuner 1 - SNR 6.2-12.7 dB, Signal Level 8.1 dB
Tuner 2 - SNR 6.5-23.9 dB , Signal Level 7.3 dB
Tuner 3 - SNR 5.2-12.3 dB, Signal Level 7.9 dB
Tuner 4 - SNR 4.6-24.4 dB, Signal Level 8.0 dB

So only 3 of the tuners of the 8 actually locked onto the channel. I also tried a non-SDV (local Fox HD channel 1003) with the same results on the failed tuners.

I would have expected an entire card to fail but not 1 out of the 4 on one card... I also have a ticket open with Ceton for a week or so now with no progress. They keep asking for the same diagnostics log as days ago despite nothing changing.

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#11

Post by TheOsburnFamil » Sun Aug 28, 2011 1:56 pm

nrnelson wrote: I would have expected an entire card to fail but not 1 out of the 4 on one card... I also have a ticket open with Ceton for a week or so now with no progress. They keep asking for the same diagnostics log as days ago despite nothing changing.
My FIRST Ceton card last year had one bad tuner chip on the card. The diags I sent to Ceton confirmed it and they overnighted/crossshiped me a new one.
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#12

Post by erkotz » Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:45 am

nrnelson wrote:Alright so I added the second card into my system and opened the Ceton diagnostics. I looked at each card's diagnostics checklist and at one point it was showing card 31:48 had enough tuning adapters to satisfy all tuners but card 2D:37 did not. I unplugged the tuning adapters, switched their USB ports around and re-launched the tool. Both cards were registering enough tuning adapters available to satisfy the request.

I launched WMC7 and re-setup the TV tuners but only 4 of a tuner type was supported. I exited, ran Tuner Salad and increased the maximum to 12. Rebooted, launched WMC7 and setup all 8 tuners between the 2 cards. I went out to the diagnostics screen for the digital tuners in WMC7 and clicked each tuner for each card and then went to the signal option and recorded the following results:

Channel 1132 (Science Channel HD on SDV):

Card 31:48
Tuner 1 - SNR 36.4 dB, Signal Level -4.5 dB
Tuner 2 - SNR 36.2 dB, Signal Level -4.8 dB
Tuner 3 - SNR 36.4 dB, Signal Level -4.4 dB
Tuner 4 - SNR 9.0-17.0 dB, Signal Level 7.9 dB

Card 2D:37
Tuner 1 - SNR 6.2-12.7 dB, Signal Level 8.1 dB
Tuner 2 - SNR 6.5-23.9 dB , Signal Level 7.3 dB
Tuner 3 - SNR 5.2-12.3 dB, Signal Level 7.9 dB
Tuner 4 - SNR 4.6-24.4 dB, Signal Level 8.0 dB

So only 3 of the tuners of the 8 actually locked onto the channel. I also tried a non-SDV (local Fox HD channel 1003) with the same results on the failed tuners.

I would have expected an entire card to fail but not 1 out of the 4 on one card... I also have a ticket open with Ceton for a week or so now with no progress. They keep asking for the same diagnostics log as days ago despite nothing changing.
If you want to put the logs on pastebin or similar for both tuners showing the paste requests, I'll look at them
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#13

Post by nrnelson » Mon Aug 29, 2011 4:33 pm

OK once I get home I will post the log file. I realize this is a sub-question somewhat unrelated but I have some confusion as to IP addresses, etc. It seems like the actual TCP/IP settings within Windows 7 is set to DHCP and within the card itself through the web interface it has settings for static or DHCP.

These are separate settings, correct? Given that my network is 192.168.5.x / 255.255.255.0 what should I be setting each tuner's IP to (both in Windows TCP/IP settings and the web interface). Also, should they be bridged at all to my LAN NIC?

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#14

Post by erkotz » Mon Aug 29, 2011 4:58 pm

nrnelson wrote:OK once I get home I will post the log file. I realize this is a sub-question somewhat unrelated but I have some confusion as to IP addresses, etc. It seems like the actual TCP/IP settings within Windows 7 is set to DHCP and within the card itself through the web interface it has settings for static or DHCP.

These are separate settings, correct? Given that my network is 192.168.5.x / 255.255.255.0 what should I be setting each tuner's IP to (both in Windows TCP/IP settings and the web interface). Also, should they be bridged at all to my LAN NIC?
The InfiniTVs actually are "miniature networks" - the card has a static IP of 192.168.200.1, but it hands out IPs via DHCP to clients (your PC). This means your PC (by default) will get handed 192.168.200.2 (so it can talk to the InfiniTV) but the InfiniTV itself uses 192.168.200.1

Unless you are bridging, you should not need to change the IP, and in fact changing them to the same subnet as your home network (without bridging) may break things. There is no need to bridge unless you are using tuner sharing. The problem you are experiencing cannot be caused by a IP address issue.
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#15

Post by sccrgoalie1 » Tue Sep 06, 2011 2:36 pm

Just wanted to say thanks to erkotz. My ceton ticket has now been closed and both my tuning adapters are properly linking in after multiple restarts!! Version 1.0.3.2.

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#16

Post by erkotz » Tue Sep 06, 2011 4:17 pm

sccrgoalie1 wrote:Just wanted to say thanks to erkotz. My ceton ticket has now been closed and both my tuning adapters are properly linking in after multiple restarts!! Version 1.0.3.2.
Glad to hear it's working for you now 8-)
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