Review: Ceton InfiniTV 4 Quad CableCARD Tuner – Part I

[Anonymous]

Well at least there is some good news for some. Glad to hear that

[dpohlma]

Do you know how many cards were sent out? planced purchase w/cannonPC  on 10/7/2010. By the way thanks for all of your efforts in trying to get the review out.

[Anonymous]

Can I safely say that this thread is dead? It does not even show up in recent reviews anymore.

[rekd0514]

Well, where is our review? 😀 I just bought parts for a new Vail server. Didn’t you say it was possible a run a VM on either W7 or the WHS machine and use the Ceton? I double dog dare you to release it the review this week!!!?!?! 😀

[Meester.Rip]

W7 VM on WHS and use a CETON. Is that true? Are any other tuners capable of this e.g. Hauppage 2250 or SD HDHR? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit. I’d be all over that. Assuming extenders could connect just fine also.

[mikinho]

I’ll release something tomorrow to clear this up.

Don’t get your hopes up with VAIL.  Yes it installs but it isn’t of much value [b]at the moment[/b].

[mikinho]

See [url=http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5233&Itemid=2]Ceton InfiniTV 4 Tuner Sharing via Network Bridging[/url]

The beta is one of the reasons Part 2 and 3 and were pushed back.

[Anonymous]

Mikinho

Is it possible that you can release what results from testing that you have, I am getting my card Friday and would like some Guidance on how to setup my system.  I understand your desire for testing new features, but Beta?  We won’t have that stuff for a while, most of us just want the standard configs on the different platforms then you can dazzle us with the extras later.

Please release part 2 soon, you must be sitting on a lot of good stuff over the past 2 1/2 months since you got the card.  Thanks

[mikinho]

@jdoe247 Point taken.  For the next week I’m 100% dedicated to working on something new (and exciting) so I won’t be able to get anything published in that time frame.  But I’ll look to remove what I can’t discuss and start November fresh.

If you do have any questions I’ll be happy to answer them though.  I’ve tested the InfiniTV4 in a very wide range of systems. 

In terms of CPUs I’ve had it in an Atom D510, C2D, C2Q, i3-530, i3-540. i5-660, i5-670, i7-860 and a dual Xeon.  I can tell you that CPU makes no difference with the InfiniTV4 and Live TVRecorded TV.  The CPU % even on the Atom was below 10% while utilizing all four tuners.

Where the CPU really comes into play is if you are using Show Analyzer, which is very CPU bound (some IO as well).  Transcoding tasks will also benefit from a faster CPU.

Personally, my preferred CPU for a [b][i]primary[/i][/b] HTPC is the i5.  It offers my ideal mix of performance, low power consumption and integrated HD Graphics.  I would prefer a quad-core but if I ever feel the system needs a boost I’ll upgrade to a discrete NVIDIA (for CUDA) video card.

I currently do not have an any AMD CPUs to test against, trying to rectify that but it will have to wait until tax refund time  🙁

Honestly, one of the most important features I look for when building a system is the onboard network card.  You can’t go wrong with Intel network cards, even their low-end.  It is a shame that Intel uses Realtek network cards on some of their lower end motherboards.  >:(

[xjboonie]

You tested two different i5 cpu’s – which one would you recommend?

[mikinho]

[quote=”xjboonie”]
You tested two different i5 cpu’s – which one would you recommend?
[/quote]

It is tough to say to be honest.  My preference is the i5-670 out of the CPUs I’ve used but I don’t know if I would necessarily recommend it over the i5-660i5-661.

They are all very similar CPUs with the exception of the i5-661 that has a faster IGP at 900MHz compared to 733MHz on the others.  The i5-661 is also rated at 87W Max TDP compared to 73W of the rest.

In terms of cost, I would recommend the i5-680 over the i5-670.  And the i5-661 over the i5-660. 

For the way I use my HTPC the faster CPU has come in handy and the extra ~$90 has been worth it but I use a lot of background add-ins, ShowAnaylzer and some Home Automation tasks.  I’ve helped build a few HTPCs for friends and I typically get them the i5-661.

[mikinho]

I forgot to add that when using a Core i5, plan on getting a 3rd party heatsinkfan.  The Core i3 comes with a very quiet fan but the stock fan on the Core i5 is too loud for most HTPC duties.

[Andrew Van Til]

[quote=”Mikinho”]
I forgot to add that when using a Core i5, plan on getting a 3rd party heatsinkfan. 
[/quote]

Speaking of 3rd party fans – I just swapped in one of [url=http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3_47_65&mID=341]these[/url] PWM fans for the Nexus I was using on the heatsink.  Been really happy with the results.

[mikinho]

[quote=”babgvant”]
Speaking of 3rd party fans – I just swapped in one of [url=http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3_47_65&mID=341]these[/url] PWM fans for the Nexus I was using on the heatsink.  Been really happy with the results.
[/quote]

Do you have the PWM shared out to the rear fans?  If so, does it work well?  I was really interested in them but have no experience w/ Artic fans so I’ve been a little reluctant to test them.  I’ve been very happy with Noctua, Nexus and Yate Loon.

[Andrew Van Til]

To be clear, I wasn’t unhappy with the Nexus (it worked very well) – someone on AVS was having trouble getting an AC PWM fan working on the board figured it was worth a couple bucks to see if PWM fans were worth it (yes).

I’m not sure that it would be a good idea to mix different size/v fans on the same line so I didn’t share the PWM, it’s just used for the HSF. 

[Author]

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