My experience with HD HomeRun Prime vs. Ceton InfiniTV

[TeddyR]

As someone that has used and installed both types of units I now believe that the issue is more than just "Ceton stuff is junk". This is of course only focusing on the Tuners and keeping the feelings towards the Echo and MyMediaCenter separate.

Although I prefer the SD Devices in the long run. I believe that the issue is two fold:

1) Faulty flash chips on the USB line and some of the PCI lines. Even though Ceton never admitted to the issue.

2) previously UNDOCUMENTED issues with both Cisco and Moto Cablecards and TAs with 4 or 6 tuner devices. The issues are mainly TA related, but the version of the CC also matters.
Lately these issues seem to have surfaced with the Tivo 6 Tuner Romeao devices as well. Unfortunately the exact combination that works/does not work is still a hit an miss situation for many. Cisco has released a possible fix, but VERY few cablecos are on the fixed versions. The latest moto CC and TAs may still be affected.

Since the SD primes are 3 tuner only with a different internal flash design and other programming design items like not having a static IP that has to update and be stored in nvram it explains why the issues above do not affect them (nearly as much).

[richard1980]

I had the same opinion before I bought an HDHRP. That said, my opinion of Ceton is influenced by more than just a single product.

[mdavej]

My first Homerun Prime was terrible, giving me bogus no tuner available errors constantly. It was essentially unusable. My Ceton has performed far better. I've actually had 4 Silicon Dust tuners and 4 Ceton. So my experience is also influenced by more than one product.

[slowbiscuit]

My first Homerun Prime was terrible, giving me bogus no tuner available errors constantly. It was essentially unusable. My Ceton has performed far better. I've actually had 4 Silicon Dust tuners and 4 Ceton. So my experience is also influenced by more than one product.

Yes and as you've been told (repeatedly), the SD firmware was finally fixed a year and a half ago so the Prime is not giving those errors now.

As richard said, the issue with Ceton is way more than that their tuners are inferior to SDs. It's what happened with the Echo and that they've essentially given up on the retail market from what I can tell.

Having said that, the new SD transcoding tuners are still MIA and who knows whether this market even has a future given the fiasco with Win8 and MS also giving up on WMC.

[blueiedgod]

As richard said, the issue with Ceton is way more than that their tuners are inferior to SDs.

Do you have any evidence to support that Ceton uses different tuners than SiliconDust?

It would be absolutely insane for a small company (either of them) to use proprietary and specialized tuners, when there are commercially available tuners already available for STB's, DVR's, and TiVO's?

[PlainEric]

They could be using the exact same chips. The difference would be with how the design is implemented on the board and the firmware used to drive the chips.

A bad batch of flash chips might be unfortunate if true, but S* happens. Own up if that is the case and "Do The Right Thing (extend the warranty/have a way to determine if the device can be affected based on serial #s/etc)..

Bad programming on the drivers or software where the software causes the flash chip to fail due to too many writes as a result of bad design or as a result of not anticipating that some providers send a cable map update once per hour that gets written to flash instead of as needed/once a week is another story. If that is happening then it should be a quick fix once they admit it to themselves that they may have an issue.

[STC]

...and MS also giving up on WMC.

The silent killer

[barnabas1969]

In regard to the quality of the tuners as mentioned above, I don't think that the HDHRP necessarily has a better tuner (the actual PLL tuner module on the board). I did not see a big change in the reported signal strength and SNR between the InfiniTV and HDHRP. The difference was stability and speed of tuning. I got a lot more errors on the InfiniTV than I get on the HDHRP. I don't know if it's due to hardware design or drivers/software. The simple fact is that there IS a difference, and the HDHRP does a better job.

[Ed]

Yeah, whether the problem is components chosen/engineering or software/firmware development on the tuner/driver side or quality assurance (whether lack of or not extensive enough testing) - it's a solely Ceton problem nonetheless. That much is obvious from all the given accounts. It has definitely turned me off from every trying a Ceton tuner. The Echo didn't help any. They still have the MMC app going for them at least.

[barnabas1969]

They still have the MMC app going for them at least.

Well, sort of. The Android app hasn't been updated since December 2013 (minor bug fixes), and there doesn't appear to be any chance that the features which we were told were "on the road map" will ever arrive at their destination.

[Ed]

I meant more along the lines of it's stable/functional at the very least. Feature complete is another matter. But the feature set that is currently implemented works well.

[barnabas1969]

I meant more along the lines of it's stable/functional at the very least. Feature complete is another matter. But the feature set that is currently implemented works well.

Yeah, I agree with that. It's a handy app. I don't use it often, but it's nice to schedule a recording while away from home.

In my experience, the InfiniTV wasn't terrible, it was "just OK". The HDHRP was/is much better. The Echo was terrible. Glad I sent it back before the warrantee was up.