When the Ceton arrived, I connected it to my network without a cablecard and used the Ceton Diagnostic software (available on their site) to download and install the latest BETA firmware and drivers.
Why the beta firmware and drivers? Because the beta firmware and drivers are required for the tuner pooling feature. Tuner pooling allows other computers on the network running Media Center to auto-select and use any available tuner among the six tuners the Ceton InfiniTV 6 provides. Without tuner pooling, tuners need to be specifically assigned to various computers; an inflexible and less than ideal setup.
The instructions said to install and activate the cablecard before connecting the tuning adapter, but in my case, the cablecard would not activate without first connecting the tuning adapter with the supplied usb cable. Once Oceanic Time Warner Cable successfully activated the cablecard, the Ceton Diagnostic software verified the activation and its ability to lock in channels. Despite all the green check marks, Media Center kept displaying a message indicating the selected channel was unavailable for every channel I switched to. I had to reboot the Ceton device and reconfigure Media Center before we were watching tv. The entire process took about an hour, partly because after first inserting the cablecard, it began downloading firmware and that took about 15 minutes.
Probably the most frustrating thing was the tech's lack of experience with cablecard and tuning adapter installations. At first, she kept saying "So you don't need a tuning adapter!" She also kept saying "I think the usb cable is supposed to connect to your computer." I think she thought the Ceton device was a tuning adapter. I had to repeatedly tell her that I did, in fact, need it and what its purpose is. She looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language when I explained about Switched Digital Video. And she basically ignored my suggestions as she spoke to other techs on her cell phone asking them for help. In the end, I sent her on her way even before I got Media Center to display tv channels. Once I knew the Diagnostic software saw the cablecard and verified it had been activated and that it was finding channels, I knew I'd be able to get the rest to work and that there really wasn't anything for her to do at that point. Ten minutes after she left, we were up and running.
The Ceton device works great. I have Media Center running on our HTPC as well as on my work computer in an adjacent room WIRELESSLY. The recording feature works flawlessly and I can watch recordings made by the HTPC on my work computer and vice versa. Also, I'm running Windows 8 Professional on both, not Windows 7, so Windows 8 users need not worry the Ceton won't have tuner pooling--it does!
I was also concerned about picture quality with this networked device but the quality is superb with no pixelation, even over the Wireless-N network. Highly recommend the Ceton InfiniTV 6 ETH for anyone with some tech savvy and the patience to deal with your local cable company.
Customers also viewed these products
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Reviews with images
The only thing worse than this tuner is Ceton Support
This tuner is nothing but problems. The tuner resets itself for no apparent reason at all.Ceton admits in their knowledge base that the computer(s) used to access the tuner(s) need to be rebooted AFTER the tuner resets for any reason. They are unable to tell me if the internal card will do the same thing, without a diagnostic generated from a computer that is having issues with the external unit. This diagnostic needs to be run BEFORE the computer is rebooted, and since I was able to temporarily resolve my problem by rebooting the computer before I submitted the trouble ticket, I have been accused of REFUSING to submit the required diagnostic. A diagnostic that when run after the computer was rebooted, would show no problems at all.It was a week since my last failure, and it just failed again. I have run the required diagnostic, but I am expecting nothing more than "reboot your computer and all will be fine"--------------3/27/15 Update:I never dreamed support could be so arrogant. Rather than telling me to reboot my computer, they did far worse. They told me I was not entitled to support because my system did not meet minimum requirements for 6+ tuners. My system does meet minimum requirements for 4 or less tuners, and I have never had a need to use more than 3 at a time from my computer.The product description clearly states that if the product is not sold by Ceton, there is no warranty. From my experience, there is no warranty even if it is sold by Ceton.--------------------------4/30/15 UpdateI am having more problems. Ceton doesn't want to hear about them. They have disabled my account.
