We caught up with Gary Hammer from
Ceton this morning and snapped some pictures of the low profile quad CableCARD tuner that will be the first version to reach consumers. The card includes a little RG6 dongle so that it'll fit in either a full or low profile PCI-E slot and will be available
late in the first quarter for $399 -- an exact date wasn't given, but we believe this means March 31st. The other new tidbit is that there is a new fan on the card that helps keep things cool. The tuner will at least be available for purchase on Ceton's new website via Amazon, but we're told there's plenty of interest from other retailers to carry the product when it launches. Ceton's intention is to offer this to the mainstream, so the initial product will be in a retail package and will also be bunlded with new PCs. We tried to get Gary to tip his hat in regards to other configurations that might reach the market and although he's on the same page with our dreams, he wanted to focus on the initial offering for now, but did promise multiple configurations are in the works and expected in 2010.
posted January 7th 2010 2:51PM
Sorry but maybe i'm not reading this right, but doesn't "late in the third quarter" mean this fall?
@JonathanRN
I'm sure that was just a typo by Ben. He meant the "end of the first quarter" which would be March 31st.
Also, there's a blower fan? Do you have any idea what the RPMs are going to be on that thing? I see only two wires going to it.. that most likely means it's not an adjustable-speed fan. Any more details Ben?
Good pictures!
is the fan sucking air from in between the sandwich of boards? i don't see what it is ventilating?
@ohpleaseno
Yes, I'm confused about this fan. It's in a very odd place. I would definitely like more details.
I'm also concerned about the noise of this. I don't want a $400 part that makes audible noise in my HTPC.
@ohpleaseno
The fan blows air between the two boards and is optional if you the case has enough ventilation. And I doubt Ceton would put a loud fan on it.
I think the third quarter thing is a typo because it is followed by we belive this means march 31st. I am sure that it is still going to be late quarter one of this year.
@ohpleaseno I'm guessing it pulls air in over the CableCARD, through the board stack, and exhausts it into the case. CableCARDs (M-cards especially) and tuner modules get VERY HOT. Ever touch the RF shield on some ATI TV Wonder cards? It can leave blisters. This thing has four of 'em. My ATI DCT actually has warnings to not touch the unit while in operation. And we're talking about the external model!
I'm hoping there's a temp sensor on that thing somewhere, otherwise that fan is going to turn into a whiny little b**** in a couple of years.
I'm not too keen on the mini connector/dongle nonsense. I guess it's nice that it can take up a single slot in a low profile case but I would have preferred they just used a standard connector in the empty space of the full size bracket that could be removed and moved to a secondary low profile bracket.
@Wiseblood
I agree. I'm not sure why they would have switched from the full size connection they were showing before. Seems like the have to use a different mounting bracket, why not just make the connector plug in on the card and different size plug on each.
It says by March 31st on their site:
http://cetoncorp.com/buy.php
Ben, any word on if they will be taking pre-orders?
Any comments on the noise that comes from fan?
The minimum required specs are pretty steep - certainly seems to rule out using ATOM and ION boards as an HTPC. I wonder if there are disk I/O issues trying to record 4 HD streams to a singe SATA dive (especially since the new crop of 'green' disks have 5400 to 5900 spindle speeds).
Hopefully a 2 tuner version with lower system req's and a 33% lower price is on the near horizon.
@NDLunchbox From what I've read, Ion+Atom is pretty sluggish in Media Center navigation anyway. You can still build a pretty cheap/small/quite box for just a bit more (less than the cost of this card).
Did the say why the delay? I mean personally I'm probably not going to wait and I am just goin to buy more ATI tuners, 2 more to add to the 2 I have now.
@Brian
There is no delay... There was an error in the story that Ben corrected. It will likely be coming out on March 31st... 2+ months away.
@Kev110382 I'm talking about what Ceton has said in the past, nothing that Engadget reported. Even to me directly when I was talking to someone over there on a personal level, but that was about a year ago now and lots can change in that time as they did.
@Brian Then I have no idea what you are specifically speaking of. Ceton has never said there was gonna be a delay. Since Sept 10, they've consistently claimed a Q1 release date.
There hasn't been a single word about any delays- I even just looked through every article I could find and every single one says Q1.
Which is why I'm confused about your post... you mention a delay when there hasn't even been a whisper of one so far. Even the ones they're showing at CES are full production models.
@Kev110382
CES, 2009, they stated it would ship in 2009. That is the first public statement.
Here are a couple of links that states this:
http://hd.engadget.com/2009/01/09/centon-corp-announces-multi-stream-cablecard-tuner-for-windows-m/
http://www.mediacenterblog.net/general/ceton-announces-m-card-cablecard-tuner-at-ces
And there are more if you Google about it.
I'm with Brian on this one. Not going to say that it won't happen, but I'll believe it when I see it.
So I can buy this for $400 to save $5 a month on my cable bill by not renting their set-top box?
@NeonGerbil
RCN charges me 12.95 or so for an HD DVR that records two stations at once...so it would cost ~$25/month to duplicate this functionality...but with much worse UI and two big boxes with tiny hard drives. This is not at bad deal IMO.
Alternately, for the $400 that this card is expected to cost you could just get yourself 2 Hauppauge 1212's and not be married to TW or Comcast.
Is it just me, or is anyone concerned about the length of this card? Low profile is neat, but what's the point if it makes it longer than my video card?
Maybe the pictures are misleading, but still.
I'm going to go ahead and recommend what everyone else is thinking: Ceton needs to hire a booth babe for next year's photo shoot.
This thing is quickly becoming vapor ware. Looks like Silicon dust will beat them to the market if their (ceton's) "manufacturing" delays keep happening. I'm going to give them a few more weeks and then cancel my pre-order.