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I downloaded and installed the latest version of DivX Plus for Windows.  Included in the package is a converter that takes mkv files and transcodes them to an mkv file that my extenders can play.  There does appear to be a small amount of degradation, but that’s based on one sample file and I don’t recall how it looked to begin with so there may actually be little or no degradation with a better quality file (i.e., garbage in, garbage out).  Overall, the quality appeared good enough to play via an extender connected to one of the smaller TVs scattered throughout my household.  It’s not the perfect solution but at least it’s something.

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I downloaded and installed the latest version of DivX Plus for Windows.  Included in the package is a converter that takes mkv files and transcodes them to an mkv file that my extenders can play.  There does appear to be a small amount of degradation, but that’s based on one sample file and I don’t recall how it looked to begin with so there may actually be little or no degradation with a better quality file (i.e., garbage in, garbage out).  Overall, the quality appeared good enough to play via an extender connected to one of the smaller TVs scattered throughout my household.  It’s not the perfect solution but at least it’s something.

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Time shifting makes up about 80-90% of my viewing time.  The remaining 10-20% consists of live sporting events and movie rentals from NetFlix.  I don’t use VOD or any of the online services.  I will, on occasion, download a missed episode of a program via bittorrent sites in mkv format.  Other than that, I avoid the online providers with extreme prejudice.  I also find their quality severely lacking.  I don’t mind paying Verizon for quality content in HD on FIOS.  I just wish they’d be willing to sell me a bundle of channels that I’d actually watch.

Wideband providers have been placing a cap on downloads for years.  They just don’t inform their customers until they spot excessive use of bandwidth.  Talk about baiting and switching!  They try and entice you to use their services and then threaten to cut you off if you use them too much.

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Time shifting makes up about 80-90% of my viewing time.  The remaining 10-20% consists of live sporting events and movie rentals from NetFlix.  I don’t use VOD or any of the online services.  I will, on occasion, download a missed episode of a program via bittorrent sites in mkv format.  Other than that, I avoid the online providers with extreme prejudice.  I also find their quality severely lacking.  I don’t mind paying Verizon for quality content in HD on FIOS.  I just wish they’d be willing to sell me a bundle of channels that I’d actually watch.

Wideband providers have been placing a cap on downloads for years.  They just don’t inform their customers until they spot excessive use of bandwidth.  Talk about baiting and switching!  They try and entice you to use their services and then threaten to cut you off if you use them too much.

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Is there a way to get mkv files to play back on a media extender?  I’ve got a lot of shows in mkv format but it seems to be hit or miss getting them to play with both audio and video on an extender, if at all.  I’ve had no problems getting them to play in Media Center on the main PC.  I’ve got the Shark007 codec pack installed with Gabest’s media splitter as opposed to Haali per the recommended setup at the AVS Forums.

The latest version of DivX Plus will supposedly allow mkv files to play on an extender but so far it doesn’t seem to be doing much for me.  Could there be a conflict between the Gabest splitter and DivX that’s preventing DivX Plus from working?  I’m not sure if I should be changing the settings in the Shark007 setup utility.

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Is there a way to get mkv files to play back on a media extender?  I’ve got a lot of shows in mkv format but it seems to be hit or miss getting them to play with both audio and video on an extender, if at all.  I’ve had no problems getting them to play in Media Center on the main PC.  I’ve got the Shark007 codec pack installed with Gabest’s media splitter as opposed to Haali per the recommended setup at the AVS Forums.

The latest version of DivX Plus will supposedly allow mkv files to play on an extender but so far it doesn’t seem to be doing much for me.  Could there be a conflict between the Gabest splitter and DivX that’s preventing DivX Plus from working?  I’m not sure if I should be changing the settings in the Shark007 setup utility.

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Like most franchise movies, Death Wish was good for the first one and went horribly downhill after that.  I also had not heard of Harry Brown but I saw it on the Rotten Tomatoes website with good ratings so I added it to my Saved Netflix queue a while ago.  I like to check critic’s review websites like RT for lots of good movies that don’t get much attention at the box office.  My Droid has an app that lists all of the current movies with RT ratings listed so I can keep my NetFlix queue loaded with all kinds of good flix.  Now if I only had the time to watch them all.

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Like most franchise movies, Death Wish was good for the first one and went horribly downhill after that.  I also had not heard of Harry Brown but I saw it on the Rotten Tomatoes website with good ratings so I added it to my Saved Netflix queue a while ago.  I like to check critic’s review websites like RT for lots of good movies that don’t get much attention at the box office.  My Droid has an app that lists all of the current movies with RT ratings listed so I can keep my NetFlix queue loaded with all kinds of good flix.  Now if I only had the time to watch them all.

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I watch just about everything listed above, with but a few exceptions, as well as numerous others:

White Collar
Covert Affairs
Breaking Bad
Mad Men
The Good Wife
Big Love
Hung
Entourage
Friday Night Lights
Dexter
Weeds
United States of Tara
Deadliest Catch
After the Catch
True Blood
The Closer
Medium

and no doubt others that slip my mind at the moment.  Some of the shows I watch just because my wife likes them and it’s the only time we watch TV together.

Yes, I do watch too much TV.  I haven’t made my final decisions which shows I’ll either add or drop during the new fall season but no doubt I’ll end up with more shows than I have time to watch.  The two shows I’m looking forward to are Boardwalk Empire (HBO) and The Walking Dead (AMC).

FWIW, my wife and I love Modern Family.  The episode where the guy tries to teach his wife how to use the TV remote is absolutely priceless and could not reflect my household more accurately if I had scripted it myself.  I’m sure many of the rank and file here can relate once they’ve seen it. 

I rarely find sitcoms all that funny, especially when they are laden with laugh tracks.  I find it pathetic when the director has to tell the audience when something is supposed to be funny (and it usually isn’t).  My wife has almost no sense of humor but she and I both enjoy Modern Family immensely.  The Hispanic kid is an absolute hoot (and his Mom is pretty hot, too).  Definitely at or near the top of my recommended list.  Our other favorite sitcom is The Big Bang Theory.

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I watch just about everything listed above, with but a few exceptions, as well as numerous others:

White Collar
Covert Affairs
Breaking Bad
Mad Men
The Good Wife
Big Love
Hung
Entourage
Friday Night Lights
Dexter
Weeds
United States of Tara
Deadliest Catch
After the Catch
True Blood
The Closer
Medium

and no doubt others that slip my mind at the moment.  Some of the shows I watch just because my wife likes them and it’s the only time we watch TV together.

Yes, I do watch too much TV.  I haven’t made my final decisions which shows I’ll either add or drop during the new fall season but no doubt I’ll end up with more shows than I have time to watch.  The two shows I’m looking forward to are Boardwalk Empire (HBO) and The Walking Dead (AMC).

FWIW, my wife and I love Modern Family.  The episode where the guy tries to teach his wife how to use the TV remote is absolutely priceless and could not reflect my household more accurately if I had scripted it myself.  I’m sure many of the rank and file here can relate once they’ve seen it. 

I rarely find sitcoms all that funny, especially when they are laden with laugh tracks.  I find it pathetic when the director has to tell the audience when something is supposed to be funny (and it usually isn’t).  My wife has almost no sense of humor but she and I both enjoy Modern Family immensely.  The Hispanic kid is an absolute hoot (and his Mom is pretty hot, too).  Definitely at or near the top of my recommended list.  Our other favorite sitcom is The Big Bang Theory.

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[quote=”robinhoody”]
[quote=”Meester.Rip”]
Maybe Comcast will wake up and lower their prices if enough people drop the extra services, but most likely they’ll just screw us and raise the internet rate.
[/quote]

I can def see cable companies raising internet prices if they continue to loose customers.  One way or the other the consumer is getting screwed.
[/quote]
Comcast already charges you a premium for internet if you decline their other services.  I was paying about $60 per month just for wideband when I could have gotten both internet and basic TV from them for less than $40.  How does that make any sense?

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[quote=”robinhoody”]
[quote=”Meester.Rip”]
Maybe Comcast will wake up and lower their prices if enough people drop the extra services, but most likely they’ll just screw us and raise the internet rate.
[/quote]

I can def see cable companies raising internet prices if they continue to loose customers.  One way or the other the consumer is getting screwed.
[/quote]
Comcast already charges you a premium for internet if you decline their other services.  I was paying about $60 per month just for wideband when I could have gotten both internet and basic TV from them for less than $40.  How does that make any sense?

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[quote=”Ugadata”]
Or seeing the dollar signs in the eyes of the Cable Provider pondering the additional income for “Third Party Equipment Connection Charges”.
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That wouldn’t be much of an incentive when you consider that the installation of a Ceton card in my house will eliminate the need for three additional CableCARDs and two standard and one HD set top box.  I’m pretty sure many people buying the Ceton are thinking along the same lines.  We’re not trying to completely cut the cord, just soften the impact on our monthly budgets.  I’m pretty sure most of us signed up for cable or FIOS with the idea of getting the programs we want and didn’t go into it with the notion of having to rent extra hardware.  It was a necessary evil at the time but that time is quickly drawing to an end.

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[quote=”Ugadata”]
Or seeing the dollar signs in the eyes of the Cable Provider pondering the additional income for “Third Party Equipment Connection Charges”.
[/quote]
That wouldn’t be much of an incentive when you consider that the installation of a Ceton card in my house will eliminate the need for three additional CableCARDs and two standard and one HD set top box.  I’m pretty sure many people buying the Ceton are thinking along the same lines.  We’re not trying to completely cut the cord, just soften the impact on our monthly budgets.  I’m pretty sure most of us signed up for cable or FIOS with the idea of getting the programs we want and didn’t go into it with the notion of having to rent extra hardware.  It was a necessary evil at the time but that time is quickly drawing to an end.

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I just had a CableCARD installed in my Ceton tuner yesterday.  I had previously gone through the setup with a CableCARD I had picked up on ebay, but obviously I could not activate it on the FIOS network.  I just went through the entire setup and, even though I did not activate the CableCARD, I was still able to download the guide data for FIOS in my area.  According to the Ceton installation instructions it says that guide data cannot be downloaded until the card is activated, which is apparently not true.

I removed the card after going through the lengthy install process.  I also have four ATSC tuners connected to my HTPC so it took some time to search through all of the channels for the TV signal setup.  When it came time to setup the CableCARD I was pleasantly surprised that it skipped past the initial setup phases and jumped right to the CableCARD screen.  The Verizon tech copied down the info and headed out to his truck to connect to the mothership with his laptop.  He had to come back and recheck the data because it was asking for a POD entry that confused us both.  I assume he contacted the home office and got it straightened out because I had live TV from FIOS up and running in about 15 minutes.

The point is, if you want to streamline your Ceton installation, go ahead and run through the complete setup before the CableCARD installer arrives.  When it asks you if you want to set up a CableCARD just say Yes and then click Next.  The actual card activation is never verified and it will let you download your guide data.  When you get the CableCARD just insert it and begin the TV signal setup.  You’ll be prompted again if you want to set up a CableCARD.  Click on Yes and then Next and you’ll be taken to the CableCARD info screen where the tech can get the info he needs to activate the card.  When activation is finished you’ll be prompted to scan for more channels.  You can either say yes or decline and exit the setup.  I ran the extra scan ahead of time so I didn’t see the need to do it again.

One caveat is that I did have a CableCARD uinstalled in the tuner for the initial setup so I don’t know how it would affect the process if you do it without a card installed.  I don’t see how it would cause any problems so give it a shot and see how it goes.  It will make the actual installation and activation much quicker and easier.

FWIW, the tech had never done a CableCARD install in an HTPC before so he was intrigued by the setup.  I gave him a quick tour of Windows Media Center and showed him a Blu-Ray streamed from my server.  I then took him upstairs and showed him the FIOS feed through the Ceton via one of my media extenders.  Needless to say, he was more than just a bit impressed.  I could see his eyes light up with each new feature I demonstrated.

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