Network Tuner Pool on demand sharing to other Computers?

[JazJon]

I know the Ceton and HDHomeRun both work as network tuners. My question is, do you have a dedicate tuners per PC permanently? (fixed once, no on the fly changes possible?)

Or... Can you have it shared in an on demand pooled kind of way?

Example, say I have two Ceton quad USB tuners hooked up to one primary HTPC.

I have another secondary PC in the garage and a third PC in the guest room I want occasional live TV access on.
(recorded tv is easy, since you just share the primary HTPC recorded tv folder for all computers)

Can I Share a tuner from the HTPC to be used on the Garage PC, and Share this same tuner to the Guest room pc?

Last time I read up on this, I'm pretty sure it was a fixed thing, but hopefully their is a way to share tuners without giving them up permenently from the HTPC. For example, I wouldn't want only 6 of the 8 tuners available on the HTPC forever.

EDIT: just re-searched and found this, is it still the current info?
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... pool#p9698

[adam1991]

what you want is extenders, not PCs.

[JazJon]

Well I have other reasons not to use extenders for the two rooms talking about so that's why I'm exploring the tuner sharing option a bit deeper. The bedrooms have Xboxes

[STC]

Can I Share a tuner from the HTPC to be used on the Garage PC, and Share this same tuner to the Guest room pc?

With Ceton, I believe you can share one fixed tuner over more than one client HTPC although you have to keep good tabs on things.

[richard1980]

Adam is correct. The ultimate solution is to use extenders, not multiple PCs. That said, you can create a dynamic tuner pool with with the HDHRP, with the risks detailed in the linked post.

Can I Share a tuner from the HTPC to be used on the Garage PC, and Share this same tuner to the Guest room pc?

With CetonSiliconDust, I believe you can share one fixed tuner over more than one client HTPC although you have to keep good tabs on things.

Fixed it for you. The InfiniTV's tuners must be statically assigned to a specific PC.

[STC]

I stand corrected. When Ceton first introduced tuner sharing, you could assign one tuner to more than one PC. I was unaware they changed that, sorry.

Richard, you can still select one or more tuner from the pool to go to each PC though right? It does not have to be all tuners available.

[richard1980]

I am not aware of a dynamic tuner pool ever being possible with the InfiniTV. This was one of the reasons many people waited for SD to release the HDHRP.

You can share one InfiniTV device (which has 4 actual tuners) with more than one PC. But the individual tuners in the InfiniTV device have always been restricted to static assignment. So for a single InfiniTV card, you could assign (as an example) 3 tuners to the PC hosting the InfiniTV, and 1 tuner with a different PC. However, the 3 tuners assigned to the host PC cannot be accessed by the 2nd PC, nor can the host PC access the 1 tuner assigned to the 2nd PC. This can of course be changed by going back through the tuner setup process.

From Ceton's Network Tuners Setup Guide: "Network Tuners setup must be run on each client PC to configure the PCs for receiving cable TV. Only tuners which have not been previously selected for use on other PCs will be available. Tuners previously selected are grayed out with the PC assigned to each tuner shown."

[JazJon]

Hmmm it's too bad the HDhomerun only offers a triple tuner instead of a quad.

Well, hopefully the new Ceton extenders coming out, will fill the gaps & shortfalls of the xbox. (like NOT having to subscribe to xbox live for access to normally free add-ons) I'll see my xboxes and get that if it's above and beyond. I also hope the ceton companion ios app is above and beyond the old remote potato app, beta videos look promising.

[richard1980]

SiliconDust offers a pseudo-6-tuner device (it's actually 2x 3 tuner devices in one box).

[JazJon]

SiliconDust offers a pseudo-6-tuner device (it's actually 2x 3 tuner devices in one box).

Well yeah, but you still need a cablecard per 3x tuners. (and Astound charges like 6 bucks per card per month, sucks) I already own two quad ceton's so expensive to switch around and I'm pretty loyal to Ceton after all the beta testing for them. (although I was an original first generation non-cablecard hdhomerun user years ago)

[mcewinter]

SiliconDust offers a pseudo-6-tuner device (it's actually 2x 3 tuner devices in one box).

Well yeah, but you still need a cablecard per 3x tuners. (and Astound charges like 6 bucks per card per month, sucks) I already own two quad ceton's so expensive to switch around and I'm pretty loyal to Ceton after all the beta testing for them. (although I was an original first generation non-cablecard hdhomerun user years ago)

...and they don't offer it anymore.

http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13236

[richard1980]

"The cost to make and ship the 6CC is much higher than 2 3CCs (mostly due to the metal case), and as the price dropped on the 3CC, the 6CC couldn't follow."



I hope they learned their lesson.

[STC]

I can't even understand what they mean. Sell it for a premium then. There would still be buyers for it who prefer the neatness of one box, one PSU etc...

That reminds me, how's that infiniTV6 doing Ceton?!

[mcewinter]

"The cost to make and ship the 6CC is much higher than 2 3CCs (mostly due to the metal case), and as the price dropped on the 3CC, the 6CC couldn't follow."



I hope they learned their lesson.

It would be real easy to modify two Primes to be mounted in a rack. I also agree with STC though, those with a rack set up will probably pay a few more bucks for cosmetics.

[STC]

It would be real easy to modify two Primes to be mounted in a rack..

Indeed. It's called a 1 or 2U rackmount shelf!

[richard1980]

I agree that people would pay more, but I have never agreed with SD's logic WRT the 6-tuner device. IMO, the correct answer would have been to create a true 6-tuner box, not just slap 2 3-tuner devices into a single box. They were just trying to save money, and in doing so, they shot themselves in the foot. I have a feeling that if they had created the true 6-tuner device to begin with, the 6-tuner device would probably still be in production.

[JohnW248]

I agree that people would pay more, but I have never agreed with SD's logic WRT the 6-tuner device. IMO, the correct answer would have been to create a true 6-tuner box, not just slap 2 3-tuner devices into a single box. They were just trying to save money, and in doing so, they shot themselves in the foot. I have a feeling that if they had created the true 6-tuner device to begin with, the 6-tuner device would probably still be in production.

Possibiliy, but a six tuner device with a single cableCARD requires a new design that can handle the six streams AND it has to undergo cable labs certification. Putting two 3 tuner devices in a box (with two cableCARDS and two Tuning Adapters) didn't require certification. That alone saves a bundle of money not to factor in the engineering, etc. Also SD doesn't have the unique Silicon that Ceton designed to operate the cableCARD so they are using other methods to run their devices.

[barnabas1969]

I'll start by saying that I love my two 3-tuner HDHRP's. I chose two 3-CC's because it was cheaper than one 6-CC.

I also really love the ability to simply install the drivers on any Windows 7 PC and watch TV. No special settings necessary... just install the drivers and go.

Also SD doesn't have the unique Silicon that Ceton designed to operate the cableCARD so they are using other methods to run their devices.

Can you elaborate on that, John?

[STC]

^^ IFAIK he means Ceton produced their own chipset whilst SD use off-the-shelf chips that come in at higher cost.

[erkotz]

I agree that people would pay more, but I have never agreed with SD's logic WRT the 6-tuner device. IMO, the correct answer would have been to create a true 6-tuner box, not just slap 2 3-tuner devices into a single box. They were just trying to save money, and in doing so, they shot themselves in the foot. I have a feeling that if they had created the true 6-tuner device to begin with, the 6-tuner device would probably still be in production.

Possibiliy, but a six tuner device with a single cableCARD requires a new design that can handle the six streams AND it has to undergo cable labs certification. Putting two 3 tuner devices in a box (with two cableCARDS and two Tuning Adapters) didn't require certification. That alone saves a bundle of money not to factor in the engineering, etc. Also SD doesn't have the unique Silicon that Ceton designed to operate the cableCARD so they are using other methods to run their devices.

SD would have to re-cert if they added more tuners. Additionally, (this is based off my memory from 2 years ago, so I do not promise this is 100% correct any more) they are using the fastest CPU from Ubicom in the line they are using - most likely they ended up at 3 tuners due to CPU horsepower limitations, and would not be able to do more unless Ubicom has introduced a faster CPU, or they switch to a new platform.