Blog: Getting your Ceton InfiniTV 4 this week? Some hints to a successful install…

[DBayPlaya2k3]

[url=http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5084&Itemid=1]Original Article Link[/url]

When you had your cable card paired to the Ceton Tuner did you tell them it was for a media center computer or for a Tivo. I know that since your in Houston what worked best for you will likely work the best for me as well.

[mikinho]

I didn’t.  I ignored the question.  I simply told them I had a CableCARD I needed paired with a corresponding Host ID.  That I had the serial number, CableCARD ID and Host ID available.  The CableCARD ID was not needed though.

[xjboonie]

How do you know if your area uses SDV?

[sgtpokey]

regarding pairing,

Actually this was going to be a question but then realized that you are not “all-knowing” 🙂

So I’ll turn it into a statement and intention:
I’m not sure if all cable providers pair the cablecard to a Host ID.  There were some early posts in the the monster Ceton thread on TGB regarding this subject if I recall correctly (I believe erkotz himself did not need to re-pair his existing cablecard with the pre-production ceton).  When I get my ceton delivered (this friday acording to FedEx), I’m going to try and pop in my existing cablecard without unpairing / pairing and see if it just works.  If it does, great!  If not then I’ll do the dance with the local comcast to get it set up…

I’ll report about it for any others using Comcast in Dublin, CA

[mikinho]

I believe all providers require you to activate the CableCARDs.  Verizon FiOS customers only need to activate it, after that it can be used with any Host without re-pairing.  Comcast, Charter and TWC, as far as I know, require pairing between the CableCARD and Host (the tuner device).

Report back and let us know though!

[Mike Garcen]

there is almost no chance the card that’s already activated to another device will work without un-re-pairing it to the new device. I’ve paired over 50 cards in the last couple years here in the Bay Area with Comcast and only had it work that way ONCE, and it was basically because the card was mis-paired to begin with (some channels didn’t work).

By all means doesn’t hurt to try, just mentioning my experience 🙂

[Anonymous]

Had to call Comcast to re-pair my card.  The whole install probably took me 20 minutes including the comcast call.  Working great so far.

[Meester.Rip]

I’m fine with first orderdfirst shpped but they should give an expected date. I’ll keep waiting for a hard date or SD to show up.

[sgtpokey]

Actually I can confirm that Comcast Dublin, California  (Digital), at least in my system… worked flawlessly without having to unpair/re-pair. 
Scenario:
* I had 2 mcards in 2 external ATI DCTs on my vista media center.
* My cable package is HD with no premium channels, Comcast here does not use SDV
Today got the ceton 4 tuner delivered.
1. I turned off my old vista machine and hauled out my new Win 7 machine.
2. Previously I had already run the Digital CAble Advisor
3. I took out one of the mcards from one of the ATI DCTs
4. I installed the infinitv into the win7 machine and booted, installed drivers and also had to do a quirky thing with the Win Media Center Receiver and Scheduling services (had to switch the service startup to use local account instead of Network account… not sure why but they weren’t starting up)
5. I ran through the Win 7 TV setup process,  and just skipped the part about calling the cable provider
6. Tested live tv and recording 4 channels at once and it worked.  I have no premium channels so could not tell if any channels are blocked.

In the past I had accidentally swapped mcards between the ATI DCTs so I was pretty sure it would work…

[captain_video]

Well, I got my Ceton CableCARD tuner on Friday the 13th and received this letter from Verizon the day after.

[quote]August 12, 2010

Dear Verizon Customer:

As part of our ongoing dedication to provide excellent service, Verizon continues to enhance and maintain its network to deliver you premium service.  We are writing to inform you that Verizon will be performing maintenance on its FiOS TV network on or after September 15, 2010, which may impact your ability to use your CableCARD compatible devices to access Verizon’s FiOS TV service.

It is important to read this notice in its entirety to avoid any potential service interruptions.

Certain older televisions and other consumer electronics devices may fail to properly communicate with the CableCARD and lose the ability to tune most FiOS TV channels after the network maintenance is complete.  Please contact Verizon to discuss alternative equipment options to avoid any potential service interruption.  We can be reached Monday through Friday from 8am-6pm at 888-329-5568.

Also, CableCARD compatible TiVo used to access FiOS TV should not be impacted but you should ensure that your TiVO box has recently connected to the TiVO service.

Thank you for choosing Verizon as your entertainment provider.

Sincerely,

Verizon[/quote]

The way I’m reading this is that whatever Verizon is doing to the FiOS service may only affect older CableCARD devices and not any current ones like the latest TiVos or Ceton tuners.  I’ll be giving them a call on Monday to find out more details as well as set up an appointment for getting a CableCARD installed in my Ceton tuner.

[mikinho]

Someone over at tgb asked what good signal levels were for the Ceton InfiniTV4.

According to the OpenCable specifications the tuner must be able to tune in the -15 to +15 dBmV rms (75 ohms) range.  Ideally you’ll want your signal level between -12 to +12 dBmV, the closer to 0 the better.

I consider the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) to be the more important of the two measurements. SNR ratio is basically the power ratio between a signal’s meaningful information and the unwanted background noise. If you have a great SNR it can make up for a weak signal level in many cases. For SNR it should always be above 30db but the higher the better, a good SNR is around 34db and great around 37db.

If you are a cable modem user and you don’t have your InfiniTV4 yet a good way to get a rough estimate of your signal levels is your cable modem diagnostics webpage.  Most cable modem provide their diagnostic webpage via [url=http://192.168.100.1/]http://192.168.100.1/[/url].

It is only a rough estimate though as the relevant signal frequencies are different and each device measures the information at a different level of accuracy.  But if you are waiting for your InfiniTV4 then something to check ahead of time.

On my particular setup my cable modem reads a signal level of 4 dBmV and SNR of 38 dB.  The  The Ceton InfiniTV 4 reads a signal level of -3 dBmV and SNR of 36 dB.

[jrandeck]

One thing I haven’t seen mentioned much, but got tripped up on is to be sure to disable any third party firewalls.  The full installation instructions on Ceton’s site mention this, but the quick installation guide does not. 

I had to disable Norton’s firewall completely to get the Ceton card to work.  I’m still looking for the correct settings so I can turn it back on.

[mikinho]

I believe you’ll need to allow two programs:

1- “Digital TV Tuner device registration application” (%SystemRoot%ehomeehPrivJob.eve)

2- “Host Process for Windows Services” (%SystemRoot%System32svchost.exe)

And the below ports

– Incoming UDP: 5001-5006, 1900

– Outgoing UDP: 5757-5772, 1900

– Incoming TCP: 2869

– Outgoing TCP: 2869, 554

If you have need tuning adapters then you may need to allow additional ones.

For most users I recommend sticking with the native firewall and Microsoft Security Essentials.

[mikinho]

btw, We had a family emergency last week so we were out of the country.  Trying to get caught up and publish my remaining items.

[Author]

Posts