CableCard tuner for Comcast

[DaveJMathews]

Hey Everyone,

I have given up on DirecTV. I love the picture quality but the customer service has been horrible and honestly they give you no types of deal after your two year contract is up. I am moving over to Comcast for now until other options come to the area.

Currently all i use my WMC for is Movies and t.v. series that I own.

I am looking into getting a 2+ tuner pcie card and so far the reviews have been best for the infinitv cable card tuners.

Just looking for recommendations on what pcie card to get. Looking for something that will work well with comcast at a reasonable price but also decent speeds tuning between channels.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

[mdavej]

I think your only options are Ceton InfiniTV 4 or 6. Channel changes are slow but tolerable, IMO, especially for SDV. All Silicon Dust cable card tuners are external, but change channels faster. Any reason you must have an internal tuner?

[DaveJMathews]

I would just prefer it as the HTPC is a solid unit under the t.v. sharing all the saved media throughout the network. Not a lot of room to work with but i do have some space. I am not opposed to an and external tuner. as long as the size isn't too bad. So far I was just going based on reviews I have seen so far for the cablecard tuners.

The whole home is networked and I have another HTPC in the den pulling from the main in the living room and a couple 360's as extenders in the other rooms.

[mdavej]

I've been very happy with my PCIe InfiniTV 4 for a few years now. The external models aren't very large.

Should be a very easy job since the hard part is already done (setting up your PC and extenders).

[smcmillan2]

I would just prefer it as the HTPC is a solid unit under the t.v. sharing all the saved media throughout the network.
...
The whole home is networked and I have another HTPC in the den pulling from the main in the living room and a couple 360's as extenders in the other rooms.

Be aware that when moving to cable, you will not be able to share protected content between PCs on your network due to the CCI flags. Your 360s will be able to play protected recordings. I believe Comcast protects everything except the locals, just as Brighthouse does over here in Oakland county.

I have an Infinitv 4 USB that has it's own issues, if you require an internal card then as mdavej said, Ceton's 4 or 6 tuner cards are your only option. Personally I would look at the SiliconDust HDHR Prime (networked, 3 tuners) as everything I have researched leads me to believe they are more stable, and their forum presence and support is apparently top-notch (not looking to start an SD vs. Ceton war here, just my observation). There has been talk of SD coming out with a 6 tuner networked unit sometime this year, but I haven't heard/found any concrete release dates.

[DaveJMathews]

i noticed the same thing once i started digging into the external tuners. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOikDU4Fn7s

I think i will go with the HDHR Prime for now just at a pure cost and the fact that other devices can connect to it without being extenders.

I knew that I couldnt use other devices for the flagged programs so I guess I will just have to wait and see. Some people say their local comcast network only flags 1% while others say its well over 50%. I guess I will find out

I like the idea of the HDHR prme with the ceton Echo extenders though. I wouldn't mind getting rid of these loud powerhog 360's for something more energy friendly.

My main HTPC is on 24/7 so i will probably just send the tuners to that and share for now. If i needed more tuners i could always wait for the 6 tuner model or add another 3 tuner prime to it i guess.

Thanks for the input guys

[mdavej]

Echo reviews are very mixed. But I've had 4 of them for a while now and love them (they replaced my Xboxes as well). Start with one and see how it performs on your network. A solid network seems to be the key to success with Echo.

I personally had big problems with HDHR, but those were reportedly fixed months after I gave up on them. They're probably fine now.

[DaveJMathews]

The extenders were a challenge when I first set it up. It is still beyond me that Microsoft has such difficulty with the networking options when it comes to WMC comming from a company that designs servers and is a frontrunner in network topology.

I use to have 3 routers in a chain two where used as AP/Switches directing everything to the main router and I quickly found out that nothing could connect to my HTPC in that setup. I have since changed everything in the home to a gigabit network with standard switches and range extenders. This seemed to eliminate the issues with mapping files and connection to the HTPC. Silly that everything else communicated fine on the old setup apart from WMC.

The Echo looks nice. Price range is a little high but I am sure they probably have some used or dinged deals on ebay by now. Very clean looking compared to the old linksys and HP ones.

[newfiend]

A lot of people complain about ceton here, I have had 2 infiniTV 4's a infiniTV 4 USB, and a infiniTV 6 in my PC over the years and they all have performed very well. The SD tuners are good as well and have good reviews. Either will work well for what you want to do. I also am on Comcast with mine and its been a pleasurable experience.

[epayson85]

I have had a pcie4 and now have the pcie6 along with my prime. I will say the prime is more reliable and its great that any computer can share it. I haven't had to mess with my Ceton since the 2nd most recent beta drivers but the htpc does need to be rebooted once a month or so. Personally I could never do without both. I love having a lot of tuners and the flexibility of using it on any pc. I have Comcast in Mass and only certain sporting events and premium channels are flagged.

[adam1991]

I think i will go with the HDHR Prime for now just at a pure cost and the fact that other devices can connect to it without being extenders.

Can the HDHR Prime dynamically assign its tuners to various computers on demand?

Or is it that once the tuner is assigned to a particular PC, it's assigned to that PC period?

For the record, the Ceton PCIe is technically a network device and can share its tuners out the same way that the HDHR Prime can.

[TeddyR]

Can the HDHR Prime dynamically assign its tuners to various computers on demand?

Yes.. All the SD devices can interoperate and share tuners across multiple computers on demand. I have 2 primes and 2 white HDHRs and with tunersalad, all 8 of the SD tuners are dynamically shared with all computers with WMC. The primes can also expose their tuners via DLNA to devices like the PS3, but in that case (PS3), you have to specifically select the prime to use. Once the device is selected, the tuners are dynamically shared with the PCs as well (so if the PS3 is watching on Tuner0 on the first device, Tuner1 and Tuner2 as well as all three tuners from the second device and the four tuners from the two white HDHRs are available to the WMC PCs. This is why guidetool or selecting the tuner assignments in WMC is useful to maximize tuner/channel availability. I have multiple SD tuners and other tuners (HVR2250 for QAM and analog, TBS S2 QBox5980 for Satellite) on the main HTPC (had to move the Ceton ETH6 to a secondary HTPC since it added some instability to my setup). On the systems WITHOUT the Ceton ETH6 channel changing is 1-5 seconds at most. The system with the Ceton ETH6 is 5-20 seconds for a channel change. Now anxiously waiting for the CableCard transcoding SD device to be released to make the portable DLNA devices happier....

[barnabas1969]

They HDHR tuners dynamically assign tuners. It's true tuner pooling. In my experience, the HDHR Prime is MUCH, MUCH better than the InfiniTV4-PCIe in terms of reliable, speedy tuning... and some other things that were annoying about the InfiniTV - like the spinning donut when you first start Media Center, causing you to wait about 45 seconds before you can do anything (even watch previously-recorded content).

The Echo was abysmal. I sent it back. I have used Linksys, HP, and Ceton extenders. I am now in the process of replacing all of them with XBox360-S's and XBox360-E's. The XBox is by far the best extender. The Linksys and HP both have their quirks, but they are far, far better than the Echo. The Echo has so many problems, I wouldn't even consider going with an Echo. You're much better off buying used Linksys or HP extenders on e-bay.

[barnabas1969]

I forgot to mention... networked tuners are the best of both worlds. You can install the tuner (and the Tuning Adapter, if one is required by your cable company) anywhere in your house. So, you don't need to put them near your PC. You can hide them in a closet. All four of my HD HomeRun tuners (two Prime's and two HDHR3 dual ATSC tuners) are in my wiring closet, along with two TA's, my network switch, router, and other networked gear.

If you use a PCIe (or, even worse, a USB) tuner, your Tuning Adapter will need to sit by the PC. TA's are big boxes, about the size of a non-DVR cable box.

Many people report that the InfiniTV-ETH has a problem that causes the picture to pixelate if you use more than 2 or 3 tuners simultaneously. The USB version of the InfiniTV4 has compatibility problems with many motherboards and/or USB drivers. I don't know about the Hauppauge 2-tuner USB. It is made by Silicondust, so I would expect it to be very good (except that the USB drivers may be written by Hauppauge - and Hauppauge isn't known for excellent drivers/software)... but using a USB port for connectivity creates many variables that could cause problems.

If you go with the InfiniTV, stay away from the ethernet-connected one and the USB version. If you go ethernet-connected (recommended), go with the Silicondust HD HomeRun Prime.

[adam1991]

If you use a PCIe (or, even worse, a USB) tuner, your Tuning Adapter will need to sit by the PC. TA's are big boxes, about the size of a non-DVR cable box.

What if you don't have a tuning adapter?

[mdavej]

Only Cisco TA's are gigantic. Moto TA's are no bigger than a cable modem. I've got so much junk behind my TV, one more box makes no difference.

Every extender has it's own drawbacks. I personally would not pay Echo money for a 7 year old device that can't do WOL among other things. May as well keep your Xboxes.