Question 1

I am a comcast customer who wants to get rid of the monthly rental bill for the cable box.  Will this tuner card eliminate the need for that box?  Digital cable with DVR

Accepted Answer

I am a Comcast Colorado customer who did just that. I purchased this card and installed it in a PC with Windows 7 Home  Edition and used the included Windows Media Center software. You will need to trade in your rented Comcast DVR for a CableCARD, which Comcast will provide ONE of at no additional charge over your standard bill. The initial activation required a call to Comcast and some explanation, but I was able to get everything activated with a single 30-minute phone call using the latest Ceton software and drivers from their site.

My original HTPC system specs were a dual-core AMD CPU with 4GB of RAM, an AMD RADEON 5750 and a 500GB hard drive. I connected via HDMI out to my TV and was quite happy with the results. It is Windows so occasional reboots are necessary and it's not quite as bullet proof as the DVR software, but for the benefits of having a full-blown, real PC attached to the TV all the time it was worth it to me.

I have not played with any of the Media Extenders but if you want to use the card to supply content to more than one TV additional hardware will be required.

Question 2

I am trying to make a htpc. (I'm a definite newbie, so I apologize in advance if necessary) I've spent several hours researching on the internet, but still unclear. Trying to get rid of high cost of dish. I have purchased antenna & get several ota channels. I need dvr features such as rewind, pause live tv etc. Also would like to have at least 2 tuners (three or four would be better). I have an older Dell Optiplex 755 with 2gb RAM, 2 duo cpu's, 3.0ghz. I can use that computer solely for a dvr so if I need to remove everything and start new that's ok. It currently has vista but I could put windows 7 on if that would work better. It looks like I would want to use windows media center as my user interface (based on what I've read on net). I also have an unused ext. hard drive for more memory. I will want to use "dvr" on lg smart tv and an older sd tv. (I already have splitters wired for this). Can you advise if this would be a good product for what I'm looking to do? Or let me know if there's something better. Obviously I'd like to keep price down if possible. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you Holly T

Accepted Answer

Hello Holly,

First of all, keep in mind that this is actually a digital TV tuner, whereas I believe OTA is an analog signal.  If OTA is the route that you want to take, make sure to search for analog tuners instead.

However, if you want a digital signal which has much more channels and much higher video quality, unfortunately you are still at the mercy of the cable/dish provider.  You can get this tuner, but then you have to rent a card from the provider to decrypt their video signal.  The card is installed in the slot you see in the photo.  This is what I do, and I pay ~$2 per month to rent a card instead of ~$10 to rent a box.  I still have to pay for the subscription of course.  If you want to go the digital route, this is 100% the TV tuner that I would recommend in terms of quality, price, and number of tuners.  I will let you decide whether the ~$8 per month savings from renting a box is worth the upfront investment and setup time.

As for your HTPC setup, it doesn't sound too bad.  Only a few things that I would recommend:
- Increase RAM to 4 GB if not more
- Make sure that your motherboard accepts PCI "express".  Some computers that are on the older side only have PCI
- Either Vista or Windows 7 would be fine.  I agree that Windows Media Center is the way to go, and it looks and behaves the same in every operating system

Question 3

How does this function with multiple inifiniTV cards in the system?  I was thinking about doing this and getting 2 cards for 8 Tuners of recorded goodness.  However, I assume I'll have to get two CableCards since they probably cannot share one?

Can these be extended to other machines in the home.  Say two cards in the HTPC in the livingroom, the one in the bedroom doesn't have a card but can it be extended from one?  What kind of performance hits on the sharing system?

Anxious new home owner

Accepted Answer

Hi Jeremy A
What you are trying to do is possible by buying ONE card and ONE Windows Media Center extender. OR You can add multiple TV tuner hardware devices that enable you to receive high-definition TV. For example, you can have two digital TV tuners that support a digital signal (such as ATSC or ClearQAM), and two digital cable tuners if you are using your Windows Media Center. You may do it with other Cable guides, but I cannot speak on them.

I love this card! I Love it so much that I have one in my desktop, connected to a samsung 32 inch in my bedroom. The other one is in a desktop connected to  to my 55 inch Samsung 3D HDTV within my livingroom. Yes I have a cable card in each of them from Fios! How ever, You do not need the DVR or Cable box if you use your Windows Media Center Guide. There is also a WMC remote control if you want that natural transition from a cable box.

Now that said

Question 4

Looking for clarification. I know Holly asked this in Nov, but the response was questionable, as I understand FFC requires all signals to be digital since 2009.

Will this card take a signal from an antenna? It has a coax adapter. Has anyone tried an antenna?

I'm only looking to get my local channels and not have anything to do with cable or satellite.

I'm looking at this for the four channel recording due to scheduling conflicts of local programs while I'm at work. I could get away with 2, but 4 is all the better.

Can anyone tell me if Windows Media Center supports recording from multiple single tuner cards at the same time?

Accepted Answer

I have not tried a digital antenna connection without a cable card.  However, based on the specs from Ceton I would say no.  It needs a cable tuner card and .  I would recommend Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Media Center Kit Dual TV Tuner w/ IR Remote PCI-E x 1.  It will work from a digital antenna and will provide you with 2 tuners.  I have used Hauppauge products and are very reliable.  The Ceton tuner works well and their tech support staff is great.
I have had a home theater pc for over 6 years and 30 years experience in PC's.

Ceton's Minimum system requirements:
•One Multi-stream CableCARD™ (M-Card), available from your cable TV provider
•A TV display with HDMI input, or HDCP-compliant DVI input and separate audio input
•A Tuning Adapter from your cable operator might be required if your cable TV provider uses Switched Digital Video technology. Please check with your cable operator.
•Digital cable TV subscription from your local cable TV provider. HD package required to receive High Definition TV channels

Question 5

In the system requirements section it says that it requires Windows 8 Pro. Does it really have to be Pro? I am planning a new build and want to put this card in, but I'm planning on using Win 8.1 64-bit.

Accepted Answer

Hi Ben

I am using the Ceton 4PCIe board in a Win8.1 64-bit system.. The drivers support 8.1.  I upgraded from Win 8 64-bit.  I am using Windows 8.0/8.1 *Pro* because it includes media center which I use recording and streaming.  I am very happy with the setup.

Question 6

I would like to be able to record HD video from cable and eventually burn it to blu ray.

Can this card help me do this?

Accepted Answer

This unit allows the decoding of digital cable. I only know how it works with my setup.... win7 ultimate, WMP (Windows Media Player), Roxio Creator NXT Pro2.
This does record HD in the .wtv format. This is not like the Tivo format that is propitiatory. You can easily convert to what ever format you want and burn it to a DVD. This also allows you to record 4 shows simultaneously.

Question 7

Will the card work with an outdoor hdtv antenna?

Accepted Answer

This is a digital cable tuner, and only works for digital cable.

Question 8

How do I play sound from the tuner directly to my sound card?

Accepted Answer

Since the computer which houses the tuner is processing the signal from the tuner, the sound card should already have the sound signal and you can simply hook up to the sound card normally. You may have to change your computer's sound settings to send sound via the sound card instead of the HDMI output of the tuner card.

Question 9

I have a Xonar STX Essence sound card. I want to route the sound from the tuner through my sound card and bypass any other sound processing.  Can I do that?

Accepted Answer

I can't say with 100% certainty but the sound should go through whatever audio device you have set in your OS whether that is onboard audio, PCI-e soundcard, etc. It doesn't have any audio outputs of it's own (HDMI, digital, rca, etc) so it must traverse the OS.

I have the ceton in my Media center "hub" which records and distributes TV to the rest of the house (using MediaPortal). The TV directly attached to this computer is output through HDMI of an ATI graphics card to the TV. The TV (Toshiba) says the signal is PCM. Another computer in another room has the same setup but adds a Soundbar and that has a Dolby Digital light that turns on.

Hope that helps.

Question 10

Has anyone had an issue with live tv pausing then media center not being able to change channels because all 4 tuners are in use? Interestingly recording still works, but you can't start watching until the recording has ended.

Accepted Answer

If you're wondering why you can't change to a 5th channel you are already using the 4 tuners available, if you are trying to change to a channel being recorded I've not had any problems with that. I'm only phrasing my answer like this to let you know it should work. You may have to ask Ceton about it.

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