If you have tried the Ceton 6tuner ETH and or the Silicon dust prime 3tuner device and had pixelation issues, give this one a try. I have used all weekend without the pixelation issues I had on the network style tuners.
Tuners tried: Ceton PCIe 4tuner (no issues),Ceton USB 4tuner (no issues),Ceton ETH 6tuner (had pixelation issues),Silicon Dust Prime 3tuner (had pixelation issues), and the Ceton PCIe 6tuner (no issues, and 6tuners!).
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Going to break this down in two versions short and sweet and long and detailed.Short version: It was easy as pie. No external add-ons needed, no beta drivers. Works GREAT definite must buy.
Here's the long(er) version.
I bought this on my wife's account from Amazon and I installed in last Sunday (it's now Thursday). I have an HP desktop pc (DVR) that I installed it on. I was a little nervous because I'd heard that there was a four tuner limit/restriction on Windows Media Center and that there was something like Tuner Salad or something or other that you had to use in order to get the six tuners recognized. I'd read elsewhere that you could get a beta driver from Ceton and it would take care of the issues.
Well, let me put all that to rest and also back up a step I was coming from a SiliconDust 3 tuner external model. It's worked great, but what with Football season and the CW putting out some great shows, HBO yada yada there were definitely times when I needed at least four tuners simultaneously on my Verizon Fios connection in Northern Virginia. I debated getting the four tuner version and avoid all the potential risks of Windows Media Center having issues finding the 5th and 6th tuner and saving the $100 would be nice too but, I bit the bullet and took the risk. Worst case, I could always send it back. The existing 5 star reviews gave me some confidence, and I am hoping my review encourages other DVR aficionados like myself to take the plunge. ;)
I didn't need to use an external program, I just installed the card on the existing PCI slot (it was a little one too, by the way like a one inch wide PCI connector to the motherboard.) When you follow the one page instructions from Ceton, it gives you the contact numbers for the larger CableCard providers as well as their own support number, just in case you have any trouble. I definitely got the impression that they'd go to bat for you if you ran into any trouble. They WANT to make the install as easy as possible on you. Oh, and I have my public firewall on, but my private one off. Use the settings you're comfortable with/your own risk, but firewall settings have been known to cause issues.
So, took the side panel off the PC, installed card, put the panel back on, connected the adapter to card, grabbed an RG-6 cable to extend the connection to my PC-DVR, and re-plugged everything back in. (Quick note about the RG-6 cable it COULD be an issue for you if you have some old coax cable in your house. Just in case, and I didn't want to have my bandwidth throttled, I just went to Home Depot and bought RG-6. I also made it as close as possible to the run I expected, since excess cable lengths can degrade your signal...) So, all told, that was like 10 minutes. Except for the Home Depot trip. ;)
In Windows 7, I went to the website given in the documentation from Ceton, installed the driver, and re-ran the WMC setup. I'm happy to say that it didn't lose any of my data, and it found the tuners right off the bat! That was so cool.
One thing I did discover during this experience was how to check your tuners from within WMC (I always used the Tuner app to see them in the past). If you go into the guide, you can RIGHT click on ANY program and click "Edit Channel" and then "Edit Sources" which, btw, is how I discovered before this purchase that somehow, my WMC had lost one of the three tuners from my previous Silicondust and I had to re-run the setup again to fix that. You can isolate each program to show up on each tuner in other words, if you have six tuners, you should see them listed as options to show the channel you're editing.
Make sense? You may need to scroll down(once you've done the above steps to "Edit Channel" and "Edit Sources" to see all six). If you only see four, or two, then something's wrong.
Anyway, as mentioned without any "beta" driver or external add-on, it went smooth as glass. Obviously, what used to be a beta driver from Ceton has now been tested enough and it's their production level driver. I haven't checked this or not, but it wouldn't surprise me if Ceton's driver actually makes whatever registry setting is necessary in order to change that four turner limit within WMC to six.
The only trouble I ran into was with the CableCard activation. (Isn't this always the case? ;) ) Even so, it wasn't really that bad. I did it on Sunday evening (and yes, Verizon FIOS IS open pretty much 24/7! Nice.) After a few passes with the tech (and following the Ceton Instructions/configuration application over the phone with the guy), I saw all the channels except for HBO (which always seems to have a weird encryption issue.)
After several more attempts and about 45 minutes with the very patient FIOS tech trying to get the HBO working, I just had him submit a ticket and have someone from the day shift call my wife back. They had the install fixed in like 2 minutes on Monday. The hiccup came when trying to get the green check mark next to the CCV code and/or the "Initialization" signal from the provider. Seemed odd, since I was getting all but one channel (HBO). (If you're having this issue, you'll be looking at your "Ceton InfiniTV Diagnostic Tool" and you'll get a series of green checkmarks with two red circles...)
The trick was something I saw on a forum you're supposed to tell the tech to "manually" enter the numbers (Cablecard ID, Data, etc) and the first tech was just getting it automatically, I guess and I couldn't seem to get that across to him.
But, overall, considering how many times I've seen providers have to come out, install cards, replace cards, and all that, this was a breeze.
So, to sum up, remember these steps:
1. Follow the instructions included in the box.
2. Download the driver from Ceton.
3. Re-run the WMC Setup (as stated in the included instructions) and don't worry about losing settings. The only piece that I lost was my favorites, which is an easy fix. They say you are going to lose everything, but you don't.
4. You WILL need to contact your provider. The CableCard needs to be paired with the new equipment and you cannot do this yourself. (So, if you have some cable provider that has weird hours, be sure to allow your self some time so that you don't lose programs you want to record.)
5. If there are activation issues, have the tech "MANUALLY" enter the CableCard ID's, host ID's, data ID's, serial #'s.
6. Enjoy the awesomeness of 6 tuners!
A few thoughts -
I really liked SiliconDust they have one advantage that Ceton does not have and that they've got a product that's compatible with the PS3 and PS4 I don't believe Ceton does.
Having said that, Ceton REALLY built some goodwill with me when they released their Android app for controlling your WMC, regardless of what your hardware is. That thing is AWESOME and I wrote a review about that as well. I still use it.
I know I've only had the thing installed for less than a week, but it's REALLY awesome seeing four and five programs recording at once! The clarity has been fine. I have seen absolutely no picture difference between the two devices, I have seen no lag of any sort. I heartily give this thing a full recommendation nor do I see any reason NOT to get six tuners going for the price of one $3.99 CableCard from my provider.
Hope this eyebleeder proved helpful! Feel free to comment if you need some info, I'm pretty good at responding to email notifications quickly...
Best Deals for Ceton InfiniTV 6 PCIe - 6-channel Internal Cable TV Tuner
This card is great. I use Win7 media center and 3 XBOXs as extenders. We don't get On Demand video but because we can DVR up to 6 channels I have no problems with that. I have Verizon FIOS and so far all works great. I will upgrade my hard drive to a better and bigger one. The PC I'm using has 8 GIG memory, Quad Core ADM, 2 GIG mem HDMI video card and 1 Terra Hard Disk. The faster the Hard Drive speed is the better. With this setup I can remotely connect to my Media Center when I travel and watch live or recorded TV. If I want on demand I can go to Verizon website, sign in and I can watch it there. The Media Center guide has more info and is updated better than FIOS guide. Now I only pay $4.99 monthly for the cable card and not $12.99 ea for 3 receivers.Just Love it!
Honest reviews on Ceton InfiniTV 6 PCIe - 6-channel Internal Cable TV Tuner
This device is amazing. Picked up my Cable Card from my provider and 30 minutes after of getting home I had windows media center / the guide / recording setup and 6 tuners at my disposal. With plenty of Xbox 360s laying around (ordered 2 slim 4GB models there cheap and great extenders with a remote). I have noticed no degradation in viewing compared to my cable boxes. At 15 a month for 4 DVRs this card will pay for itself in no time. (cable card is 2 bucks).Hardware.. This product WORKS great if you have the network and hardware able to run it. Do not expect this to work if your using an old dual core windows vista pc. I am running a i7 Extreme 32GB ram and a massive raid array for storage. Now this is overkill. My friend was able to successfully run the same setup on a i3 standard desktop that is 2 years old and has a single hard drive. If you AMD from 2004 is able to run this call me I will send you a cookie. (I suspect people buying this are experienced / educated users)
Network: USE WIRED... If you complain that this does not work and your using wireless connection to your extenders cry me a river I have no sympathy for you. With a 1G multiple switch wired home network (100mbs will be able to handle most activities) with 6 active extenders all on HD channels this is just a small blip on the network consumption chart. Now I have used wireless in one room in my house (as a test) and it did function ~properly (wireless N or better needed) I did notice a slight lag with the remote over wireless but it was minimal at best (I can tell the difference between 30ms and 60ms ping when I game)
Summary: This product is a serious device for power users. It works amazingly well and is a way to save some $$ from renting DVR/Cable boxes. I have set custom channel maps (make ESPN channel 1, FOX channel 2,... etc) / deleted channels / set recordings / commercial removal for dvr shows. Average Joe who understands how networks / windows media center works should be able to get this running with a couple Xbox extenders in an hr.
*Note to Ceton I love to test / re-view products feel free to send a few more of these cards my way I will build a dedicated Tuner Server and put it to the test. Should advertize these to sports bars could save them 1,000s.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Ceton InfiniTV 6 PCIe - 6-channel Internal Cable TV Tuner
This device is INCREDIBLE! I had some initial issues setting it up (device installed in a network server rig, so I had to share tuners... Google search The Green Button, Ceton Card Installation). Since then, I have been recording to my hearts content. It works really REALLY well. I'd recommend this to anyone with savvy into HTPC and server builds.
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