Ceton or HDHomeRun Prime

[profit]

I need to add the ability to tune additional non-clear QAM channels. As far as I can tell my choices are:

Another HDPVR - not thrilled about that, requires a $10 month cable box

Ceton - no real feedback

HDHomerun Prime - some kind of freeze issues?

Cable card is $2 month so that is no big deal. I'm paying $10 for a HD cable box.

I've also been thinking of migrating to WMC using Xbox 360's as an extender. I know some have made the switch. Xbox is definitely a better netflix experience for instance.

If anyone has some feedback here it is appreciated.

Aaron

[Dargason]

I just bought one of these: Hauppauge DCR-2650

I haven't tried it yet (it arrives today) but it has been used successfully with SageDCT as reported here.

It's a bit cheaper than the other alternatives you mentioned.

[profit]

I'm a bit skeptical of hauppauge at this point. 90% of any issues I've had with Sage are because of the hdpvr. My silicon dust hdhr has been power cycled about 3 times in 3 years. My hdpvr - about 100 times.

Let me know how it goes. I'm still much more interested in the other devices and willing to pay a premium for stability.

[Dargason]

Yes, that's my exact concern too... After a lot of fiddling, my HD-PVR runs fairly stable, but I've never been able to completely eliminate the video glitches, which happen about 3 times per hour. And I find it unacceptable that they have not only not fixed these problems, and instead keep releasing new products with the same problems.

The HD-PVR runs much better with no SPDIF and using 2-channel stereo, by the way, if you haven't tried that yet.

Regarding the DCR-2650, my understanding is that the hardware is manufactured by Silicondust and is basically the same as an HD HomeRun Prime, minus 1 tuner. Of course, this may mean that it will have some of the same issues that the HD HomeRun has and it would be up to Hauppauge to make firmware fixes.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/24264...le_to_use.html

[ruwackd]

Not sure who your provider is but if the channels are not flagged copy freely you won't be able to record from the cable card tuners with Sage and would have to use WMC. I know Verizon FIOS tends to have all their channels flagged this way but other providers seem to vary by region.

[makutaku]

Originally Posted by profit

I've also been thinking of migrating to WMC using Xbox 360's as an extender. I know some have made the switch. Xbox is definitely a better netflix experience for instance.

If anyone has some feedback here it is appreciated.

Aaron

I took the risk, bought a Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe and sold my Colossus.
If Comcast flagged the content as no copy, I was ready to move to WMC.
I was lucky I didn't have to. Even luckier that SageTV has never been so stable, even with 4 simultaneous HD non-stuttering recordings.

Keep in mind that WMC doesn't support multiple recording directories (although there are probably hacks around that), and XBox360 may be too noisy for your taste (at least it is for mine).

[Dargason]

I received my DCR-2650 yesterday and spent most of last night installing it... ran into some of the usual issues with trying to get the device drivers installed correctly, but eventually got it working. I still don't think I have the tuning adapter working, but I seem to be getting all the channels I care about. I'll mess with that another day if I find a reason to.

I watched a couple hours of television that I recorded, and everything appears to be working great. No stutters, glitches, or audio sync errors. It's recording in 5.1 stereo and I've got closed captions now. I'm very happy! Time will tell if I run into any stability issues down the road.

[Dargason]

Well, I found a few channels that I couldn't get without the tuning adapter, so I decided to fiddle with it. I think the problem with it was not related to the tuner, rather it was something with the service provider. I made another call to them and they pinged it or whatever they do and reenabled the channels or whatever... anyway, it's all working now.

BTW, I found that the tuner doesn't work when I plug it into a USB 2.0 port. I think a lot of the initial problems were because of this. I happened to have a PCIe card that gives me 2 USB 3.0 ports and it is now plugged into that and working fine.

[gplasky]

Unless the USB port on the DCR-2650 has a blue color inside the port, it is USB 2.0. Maybe the issue is your port on the computer. Also the device will appear to be a networkable device so make sure any firewall or other software doesn't block it from functioning.

Gerry

[Dargason]

I got some feedback from Hauppauge support:

We have been looking into issues with the device in general with certain USB controllers on certain machines. The device should work on USB 2.0 ports but sometimes after a few days it could just disappear and requires a reset. We have seen though on some customers with add-on USB 2.0 or 3.0 cards that the unit behaves much better.

He also confirmed that there is an issue with their diagnostic tool and I shouldn't worry that it says I haven't run the DCA.

[profit]

Anyone else have feedback on converting to xbox extenders for a 4 tv setup? Any limitations I should be aware of?