Ceton InfiniTV 6 PCIe - Upgrade

[Crunch]

Just ordered a Ceton InfiniTV 6 PCIe.
How will install be handled? I will be swapping out for a InfiniTV 4 PCIe

[erkotz]

The same as the InfiniTV 4 - put CableCARD in it, pair CableCARD, run WMC setup. If you have really old drivers installed, you may want to update.

[adam1991]

sigh. The thought of running setup YET AGAIN stops me here...

[erkotz]

sigh. The thought of running setup YET AGAIN stops me here...

Why? WMC TV setup takes ~3 minutes.

[foxwood]

sigh. The thought of running setup YET AGAIN stops me here...

Why? WMC TV setup takes ~3 minutes.

Organizing all your channels might take a little longer.

[JohnW248]

sigh. The thought of running setup YET AGAIN stops me here...

Why? WMC TV setup takes ~3 minutes.

Yea for the lucky, I just had to re-run set-up when a tuner went MIA on a USB Ceton and it took 40 minutes to complete start to finish and I rebooted the machine before I started as well. Sometimes it takes longer depending on total number of tuners involved, number of scheduled series recordings, etc. Three minutes is a dream---never seen it happen that fast here.

[RyC]

Odd, I've rerun tv setup with an infinitv 4 pcie, ETH 6, and HDHR prime a TON of times and it never took more than 5 minutes maybe. Getting my custom lineup back was a huge pain, but I paid for guidetool and it takes 30 seconds to get my lineup back now.

[Motz]

sigh. The thought of running setup YET AGAIN stops me here...

Why? WMC TV setup takes ~3 minutes.

Organizing all your channels might take a little longer.

I have done it so many times now at work that I am almost pro at it. I think i have the number ranges memorized. However yes this is the biggest issue i feel with re-running setup.

@John it shouldn't delete your series recordings at all, i have never had to re-set them up.

[werds]

Re-running setup is never a pain, the majority of the time is spent pairing and on the phone with comcast... as for the channel line ups, as was mentioned before. Once I learned about Guide Tool i started practically resetting and re-running tv setup more than I needed to...

http://1geek1tool.com/guidetool

My question was whomever that gets their hands on the pcie6... is the signal drop greater than the 4? Wondering because my signal coming in as it is now is fairly marginal using a pcie4... wondering if the 6 requires a couple decibels more in signal due to the two extra tuners...

[richard1980]

The InfiniTV4 contains a built-in amplifier to compensate for the 7 dB loss due to the 4-way split. So if your signal is marginal at any of the InfiniTV4 tuners, it's because the signal is marginal before it gets to the InfiniTV4. I would be surprised if the InfiniTV6 doesn't contain a similar amplifier.

[xnappo]

The InfiniTV4 contains a built-in amplifier to compensate for the 7 dB loss due to the 4-way split. So if your signal is marginal at any of the InfiniTV4 tuners, it's because the signal is marginal before it gets to the InfiniTV4. I would be surprised if the InfiniTV6 doesn't contain a similar amplifier.

We have been told there is an internal amp, but measurements taken by myself and others say otherwise.

xnappo

[barnabas1969]

The InfiniTV4 contains a built-in amplifier to compensate for the 7 dB loss due to the 4-way split. So if your signal is marginal at any of the InfiniTV4 tuners, it's because the signal is marginal before it gets to the InfiniTV4. I would be surprised if the InfiniTV6 doesn't contain a similar amplifier.

We have been told there is an internal amp, but measurements taken by myself and others say otherwise.

xnappo

I completely agree with xnappo here. Based on my own observations, the InfiniTV4 PCIe does not contain an internal amplifier that compensates for the 7dB loss of the internal 4-way splitter.

[MeInDallas]

I saw on the system requirements that you need at least a 7200 rpm or faster hard drive, so does this mean that we can no longer use a green drive for our shows? I'm using a WD20EURS now with the InfiniTV4.

[Crunch]

Once again a thread on Ceton/WMC product is side-tracked with negative comment. Not fun trying to find info on TGB at times.

Compliment - For us Ceton and WMC works and has done better than HDHR where I was randomly plagued by tuner not found messages. I never see any WMC error messages or hear complaints from family with use of WMC and Ceton product. HTPC is upstairs and we watch via Echo. I use the app to look for upcoming shows via premieres and movies tonight to add some recordings.

My new InfiniTV 6 PCIe.
- Install was a breeze thanks erkotz. I ran software install. All 6 tuners were seen by WMC and put to use.
- Thanks wereds for note on Guide Tool. $5 allowed me to save my lineup and apply it to my 6 new tuners in record time.

The change-out took about an hour including adding 'Guide Tool' ($5) and another 1o minutes needed with TWC.

I ran all 6 tuners in record mode and HTPC seems to be handeling it ok. Happy!

*Is it me? I notice channel change seems faster on the InfiniTV 6 PCIe. Channel up or down and I am viewing in most times within a few seconds or less.

[richard1980]

The InfiniTV4 contains a built-in amplifier to compensate for the 7 dB loss due to the 4-way split. So if your signal is marginal at any of the InfiniTV4 tuners, it's because the signal is marginal before it gets to the InfiniTV4. I would be surprised if the InfiniTV6 doesn't contain a similar amplifier.

We have been told there is an internal amp, but measurements taken by myself and others say otherwise.

xnappo

I completely agree with xnappo here. Based on my own observations, the InfiniTV4 PCIe does not contain an internal amplifier that compensates for the 7dB loss of the internal 4-way splitter.

That's odd...my own testing indicates that there is in fact a built-in amplifier, although it does not seem to apply the same amount of amplification to all four tuners. In my tests, tuner 2 averages 5.5 dB of amplification, tuner 1 averages 4.8 dB of amplification, tuner 3 averages 2.9 dB of amplification, and tuner 4 averages 2.1 dB of amplification.

[barnabas1969]

Once again a thread on Ceton/WMC product is side-tracked with negative comment. Not fun trying to find info on TGB at times.

My comment wasn't negative. It was just stating an observation. My advice for anyone who wants to swap their InfiniTV4 for an InfiniTV6 would be exactly what erkotz said in the 2nd post of this thread. If there are any signal problems after that, then you can deal with it after installing the new tuner. I have no opinion about whether the 6-tuner version will have lower signal strength or not.

[Motz]

I saw on the system requirements that you need at least a 7200 rpm or faster hard drive, so does this mean that we can no longer use a green drive for our shows? I'm using a WD20EURS now with the InfiniTV4.

You should be fine with a Green drive. It is mostly just think about recording 6 shows to one of those at a time. So let's say from the spec sheet that max is 130 MB/s. And lets say somehow your shows are the max of 18 MB/s or something form tv. *6 you are pushing it, and that is if you are hitting that write. I would do a HD Tune: http://www.hdtune.com/ on it to see what you are getting. More of an issue would be if that is also running your OS.

That hard drive's specs.
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/S ... 701250.pdf

[richard1980]

The maximum bitrate is 20 Mbps, which is 2.5 MB/s. So 6 simultaneous streams results in a maximum of 15 MB/s. If a HDD can't do that, it's either broken or it's from the 1980s.

[JohnW248]

it so many times now at work that I am almost pro at it. I think i have the number ranges memorized. However yes this is the biggest issue i feel with re-running setup.

@John it shouldn't delete your series recordings at all, i have never had to re-set them up.

I never had the series recording deleted unless I was forced to run the Media Center Recovery Tool. But with 10 tuners and 4 clear qam tuners on a machine, it took 40 minutes, granted 10 minutes or so was scanning for the clear qam channels but still it takes time on some systems.

The problems may be increase with the total number of recorded tv shows on the system, the number of computers which are "sharing" recorded tv, etc. This system has five Win7 MC and one Win8 Pro MC installations and all computers appear as shared under Recorded TV. So there are lots of indices for all these shows, right now the Dell has 4580 and it was more before I had to reformat one of the San Digital 5x3TB towers recently. Running set-up takes time, MS Update Tuesday is an event here as well.

[kd6icz]

The maximum bitrate is 20 Mbps, which is 2.5 MB/s. So 6 simultaneous streams results in a maximum of 15 MB/s. If a HDD can't do that, it's either broken or it's from the 1980s.

Agreed! I'm using a 3TB WD RED NAS drive which is a "green" drive and it's keeping up with the 6 tuners just fine.

I can't believe how painless the upgrade from my USB 4 to the PCIe 6 was. From power down to watching TV was 40 minutes! Including calling TWC!