Guide: Sharing Ceton InfiniTV Tuners with Client HTPC Systems

[mikinho]

[url=http://www.missingremote.com/guide/sharing-ceton-infinitv-tuners-client-htpc-systems]Original Article Link[/url]

Reserved top post for download and updates.

See original article above for tool attachment.

[Anonymous]

[url=http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5268&Itemid=1]Original Article Link[/url]

Great walk through Mikinho! Thanks. We appreciate your help in getting people up and running with tuner sharing!

-Jeremy

[mikinho]

btw, The screenshots were made using IE9 beta.  The Ceton InfiniTV4 beta device webpage nows works properly with Chrome and IE9.

[phoneguyinpgh]

Does Centon have any schedule/date for when the firmware for tuner sharing will go public??  I ordered mine last week so I guess I’ll have it sometime next year.

[mikinho]

Not that I am aware but the latest firmwares have been stable so I imagine it isn’t too far off.

[mikinho]

Please note (and I’ll add this to the guide).  What setting up a static IP address you will need to use a static IP address in your subnet.

For most people this will be in the 192.168.1.x-192.168.1.254 range.  I’ll include instructions on how to determine what IP address and subnet mask to you.  If you are unsure, use the DHCP client.

[Aaron Ledger]

Nice writeup and tool Mikinho!

If I understand correctly, there is no real intelligence behind what tuner is chosen by the network clients so that is why you are recommending disabling shared tuners on the host HTPC?

If this is true, it seems some industrious person could write an app to handle this more gracefully.

[mikinho]

[quote=”swoon”]
If I understand correctly, there is no real intelligence behind what tuner is chosen by the network clients so that is why you are recommending disabling shared tuners on the host HTPC?
[/quote]

That is correct.  If you do not disable the shared out tuners on the Host HTPC you’ll have potentially undesirable behavior.

This may change in the final firmware though.

[quote=”swoon”]
If this is true, it seems some industrious person could write an app to handle this more gracefully.[/quote]

I’ve got something written already that I’ll talk about soon but it is trickier than a ClearQAM tuner due to the OCUR activation.  My implementation is really targeted for my ideal scenario as well so I don’t believe it will be as useful.

[mikinho]

Btw, I did test network tuning two InfiniTVs on the same network and mismatching tuners on different Host PCs.

I had no problems watching Live TV on 8 different PCs simultaneously.  Sadly I no longer have the 2nd InfiniTV.

[Aaron Ledger]

Somehow I knew you were already that “industrious person”  ;). I’m hoping that I can be thankful later this month for my InfiniTV and now tuner sharing  :).

[SikSlayer]

Thanks for posting this guide. News of this new feature is what made me finally decide to buy a Ceton, and not wait on the 3 tuner SiliconDust device. I’ve decided to buy a BD-enabled Atom/Ion or a Core i3 PC in the Spring for the bedroom. I’ll share one of the 4 tuners on that. The ZOTAC ZBOXHD-ID34BR is a front runner.

Extenders never did everything I wanted of it, and now, I won’t have to compromise.

[mikinho]

[quote=”SikSlayer”]
Thanks for posting this guide. News of this new feature is what made me finally decide to buy a Ceton, and not wait on the 3 tuner SiliconDust device. I’ve decided to buy a BD-enabled Atom/Ion or a Core i3 PC in the Spring for the bedroom. I’ll share one of the 4 tuners on that. The ZOTAC ZBOXHD-ID34BR is a front runner.

Extenders never did everything I wanted of it, and now, I won’t have to compromise.
[/quote]

I actually tested the Tuner Sharing on a ZOTAC AtomIon2.  Worked out great.

The only downside is anything not marked Copy-Freely will need to be recorded on each HTPC if you want it viewable from anywhere.  This is honestly not a concern for me since only premium content is marked by Comcast as Copy-Once.  I also don’t archive Recorded TV.

I’ll hopefully have my shared guide implementation released before the beta firmware goes public.

[Mike Garcen]

anyone else frightened when Mikinho says he tested on “8 different computers”? See, as much as i love the guy, he makes me feel like such a weak geek 🙂

[JohnCz]

If you have 4 PCs at home and each assigned a specific Ceton InfiniTV tuner, I’m curious how protected recordings are handled.  

1. For any particular recording, would I be able to playback the content on the other 3 computers that are assigned to different InfiniTV tuner instances than the specific one this was recorded from ??  If not and you are using network storage, you will not want all your recordings commingled under the same folder.

2. Also, if you have a laptop assigned…can you take some of your recordings with you ex. on the plane, even though you are no longer connected to the network tuner ??

Thanks

[mikinho]

[quote=”JohnCz”]
1. For any particular recording, would I be able to playback the content on the other 3 computers that are assigned to different InfiniTV tuner instances than the specific one this was recorded from ??  If not and you are using network storage, you will not want all your recordings commingled under the same folder.
[/quote]

You will not.  Protected content is restricted to the PC it was recorded on and to any extenders connected to it.  Ideally Microsoft would work out an agreement that protected content is shared among a Home Group but that is really just a pipe dream at this point.

Yes, if you transfer your recordings to a network storage device you will want to either partition it or include sub-folders for each client PC.  Fluid Digital actually offers a cool NAS that does this.

[quote=”JohnCz”]
2. Also, if you have a laptop assigned…can you take some of your recordings with you ex. on the plane, even though you are no longer connected to the network tuner ??
[/quote]

If you recorded them on the laptop yes.

[Author]

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