New Router=NO Error Popups & Pixelation Free! InfiniTV6ETH

[shortcut3d]

Last night was particularly bad for me with more than 4 recordings on the ETH. I've had tickets go unresolved on 4 tuners in use on the same channel since release. Ceton has never acknowledge the issue. Several others are seeing similar behavior now.

Yesterday, I noticed very high CPU utilization. It's back down now. Only Ceton apps and drivers are installed.

[JazJon]

They asked me to manually tune all six tuners to the same channel and capture/send in another diagnostics. (just sent it in minutes ago) I'll let everyone know what they find if anything. I just had several recordings throw errors at 7:58PM (had 6 shows starting at 8PM) I picked channel 712 since it was one of the errors.

[JazJon]

They asked me to manually tune all six tuners to the same channel and capture/send in another diagnostics. (just sent it in minutes ago) I'll let everyone know what they find if anything. I just had several recordings throw errors at 7:58PM (had 6 shows starting at 8PM) I picked channel 712 since it was one of the errors.

Wow look how bad channel 712 is tonight! (CW, Whose Line is it Anyway's) Other channels are fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf2OxVsh5tk

[shortcut3d]

If you need the tuners back, cold boot the ETH. You can try to tune / record 6 different channels through WMC, then stopping them in WMC

[barnabas1969]

This is another topic where I've been holding back...

Your router is firmware/software based. In many/most cases, even the connection between two LAN ports on a router goes through the firmware/software. The firmware/software layer slows down the communication.

For the best performance between your PC/tuners/extenders, it is best to use a network switch instead of a router... so that the traffic is routed at the hardware layer, and not at the firmware/software layer.

I don't know if this applies to your specific problem, but if you have any doubt... use a SWITCH and not a ROUTER between your PC and your tuners and/or extenders.

Also... your network switch needs to have a buffer that is large enough to handle traffic between a gigabit and 100megabit network. In my experience, it needs to be at least a one megabit buffer.

[JazJon]

This is another topic where I've been holding back...

Your router is firmware/software based. In many/most cases, even the connection between two LAN ports on a router goes through the firmware/software. The firmware/software layer slows down the communication.

For the best performance between your PC/tuners/extenders, it is best to use a network switch instead of a router... so that the traffic is routed at the hardware layer, and not at the firmware/software layer.

I don't know if this applies to your specific problem, but if you have any doubt... use a SWITCH and not a ROUTER between your PC and your tuners and/or extenders.

Also... your network switch needs to have a buffer that is large enough to handle traffic between a gigabit and 100megabit network. In my experience, it needs to be at least a one megabit buffer.

I agree, but I'm already using that configuration. I would never use a Router or PC as a Switch, no way
I'm not sure on my 24 port gigabit switch. (I think it's a D-Link I need to double check)

(Garage)
My Cable Modem goes into the WAN port em0 of my PfSense Router (gigabit)
My PfSense Router's LAN port re0(also gigabit) goes into a 24 port Gigabit Switch
The Ceton is plugged into the 24 port Gigabit Swtich

I have a line connecting the 24 port Gigabit Switch to an 8 port Gigabit switch next to my HTPC.
My HTPC plugged into the 8-port Gigabit switch.

[STC]

Oooo, layer 2 and layer 3. Yummy

My 2c.-
Whilst what barnabas says is technically correct, today there are many decent home routers out there that certainly can switch packets well.
With only a few devices, using a routers switch ports solely for your LAN can and does work for streaming applications, as long as you do your homework, set things up properly, use known good firmware etc.

[shortcut3d]

Not to push Ubiquiti, but their EdgeRouter POE has three of five switch ports that can be configured to bypass the MIPS router processor.

[JohnW248]

They asked me to manually tune all six tuners to the same channel and capture/send in another diagnostics. (just sent it in minutes ago) I'll let everyone know what they find if anything. I just had several recordings throw errors at 7:58PM (had 6 shows starting at 8PM) I picked channel 712 since it was one of the errors.

I've forgotten if you have SDV in your area or not. Some of these errors also turn up if the TA is slow in sending a CCI back to the tuner.

Failure to roll to another tuner when four are recording and one doesn't return a signal looks like MC has forgotten how many tuners it has. To check this, go to the guide and pick a channel and right click on the number and choose edit channel and then edit sources. Then uncheck all but one tuner, save, save and then tune. Repeat until you've manually tuned all six tuner through Media Center. The Ceton is valid, but it just checks the tuner itself and not the complete circuit.

[barnabas1969]

The Ceton is valid, but it just checks the tuner itself and not the complete circuit.

John, I'm not sure what you mean. Can you explain?

[JazJon]

Nope, they don't use TA in San Francisco for Comcast here.

Here's the latest, they want a WireShark capture. I'm setting it up now and will send it to them asap.

"Would it be possible for you to setup a test for us? We would like for you to schedule 6 recordings at once, gather a Wireshark capture and try to catch the issue as its happening?"
Here is an updated share file link: xxxxxxx"

I have experience with WireShark in the past from the v1 PCi version. This time I'll capture the Ethernet interface I guess. I'm going to setup a Ring buffer of 45 with 2GB per "next" file. I set reminders to start the wireshark a few minutes before each grouping of 6 recordings start. Hopefully I capture one soon first test was "good" so nothing to send in. I'll try again tomorrow.

[shortcut3d]

Nope, they don't use TA in San Francisco for Comcast here.

Here's the latest, they want a WireShark capture. I'm setting it up now and will send it to them asap.

"Would it be possible for you to setup a test for us? We would like for you to schedule 6 recordings at once, gather a Wireshark capture and try to catch the issue as its happening?"
Here is an updated share file link: xxxxxxx"

I have experience with WireShark in the past from the v1 PCi version. This time I'll capture the Ethernet interface I guess. I'm going to setup a Ring buffer of 45 with 2GB per "next" file. I set reminders to start the wireshark a few minutes before each grouping of 6 recordings start. Hopefully I capture one soon first test was "good" so nothing to send in. I'll try again tomorrow.

Maybe they will believe you. Seems that Ceton has written me off in this community. I did the same suggested steps for months on a couple tickets. Nothing was ever resolved. Oddly, we are both in the San Francisco Bay Area on Comcast.

[Crash2009]

My PfSense Router's LAN port re0(also gigabit) goes into a 24 port Gigabit Switch
The Ceton is plugged into the 24 port Gigabit Swtich

I have a line connecting the 24 port Gigabit Switch to an 8 port Gigabit switch next to my HTPC.
My HTPC plugged into the 8-port Gigabit switch.

What results do you get when you bypass the 8-port switch entirely? What I am suggesting is....

Ceton ----> 24 port switch
Router ----> 24 port switch
HTPC ----> 24 port switch

Garage huh? Only one line to it. Need some looooooong patch cables.

[JazJon]

Damn I thought I just got the PERFECT Wireshark Capture when 8 shows clobbered each other at 8pm tonight, and then discovered my settings were wrong. I'm gong to try again for 9PM. I've been putting this off for other things but can focus on my tv setup once again. I'm getting tired of clearing dozens of error messages just to get to my recorded tv. I need to get support a good capture.

My PfSense Router's LAN port re0(also gigabit) goes into a 24 port Gigabit Switch
The Ceton is plugged into the 24 port Gigabit Swtich

I have a line connecting the 24 port Gigabit Switch to an 8 port Gigabit switch next to my HTPC.
My HTPC plugged into the 8-port Gigabit switch.

What results do you get when you bypass the 8-port switch entirely? What I am suggesting is....

Ceton ----> 24 port switch
Router ----> 24 port switch
HTPC ----> 24 port switch

Garage huh? Only one line to it. Need some looooooong patch cables.

I'm not sure I can easily bypass the 8-port switch. The 8-port switch is in my bedroom. This town-home has Cat 5 to every room in the place, I'm on the third level.
From the 8-port switch it feeds my
-HTPC(mac min windows 8)
-Zotac Server (Windows 8 again, 20TB via StableBit DrivePool)
-Slingbox 500
-Apple Airport Express (for wifi)
-Lenovo Laptop Docking station (prefer ethernet since I can)
-XBox 360 (not used often).

Actually you know they have TWO cat5 cables going to each room. One is a for phone (RJ11) but I can easily punch down an RJ45 at both ends. Ok I'll try that just to see what happens and take away an extra swtich. (good idea, seemed impossible until I re-thought about it again!)

[glugglug]

Most SOHO routers operate under the assumption that you are using them more for Internet than for your LAN, and that said internet is not all that fast. It is common for them to be severely underpowered and inefficiently coded. Best to have a dumb switch instead of a router for the local LAN. Really doesn't cost all that much. Example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833166058

[JazJon]

I agree, when I had a linksys router, I made sure not to use the built in switch of the router. I dumped port 1 directly to a real switch.

Now that I'm using a mini PC with PFSense as my router, it only has 2 Netowork ports. (1 for the WAN, 1 for the LAN) so LAN goes directly to the Switch again.

The few times I tried to Wire Capture the problem it failed. (WireShark locks up with not responding) My system has been surprisingly stable the past few weeks. (so I'll keep waiting for another bad week)