Ceton's quad CableCARD tuner for Media Center available for pre-order
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted March 13th 2010 10:23AM
posted March 13th 2010 10:23AM
That's right, you can now reserve your place in line to be the first to record four HD cable shows at once on your Windows 7 Media Center. The bad news is that ship date for the InfiniTV 4 is now May 31st. Ceton wasn't willing to share a specific reason for the 60 day delay, but we suspect CableLabs is to blame -- Ceton refuted this and insisted CableLabs has been very helpful, but we don't buy it. The other big news -- for those that were concerned with noise or fitment options -- is that the latest version of the PCI-E card pictured above no longer includes a fan. The InfiniTV name was the result of over 1000 submissions to Ceton's naming contest, of which Gary Petro came up with winner -- the name is not to be confused with Comcast's XFINITY. Future tuners in the line will share a variation of the name, so the dual external tuner would be the InfiniTV ex2 -- for example. But Gary isn't the only one receiving a free tuner, as two more submitters were deemed worthy. Rus Sanchez submitted 94 different product names, while Charles Fraser earned his free card with the funniest submission; Wicked Super, Super Duper, and Super Duper Alleyoopder. The last bit of news out of the Kirkland startup is a littler clarification in regards to the network capabilities of the card. Although you can share the tuners with a small form factor PC on the network, the bad news is that it gets paired per CableCARD, so all four tuners have to go to the same PC. Oh we almost forgot, the best news of all is that we received our review sample, so stay tuned for a full run down.
@Adidas4275 We're very sorry to hear that but let me clarify a couple of things:
(1) The price is $399, there is no price increase. Unfortunately the retailer, Zones.com, went live with a typo on their site. That's being fixed.
(2) The tuner pairing issue will be the same regardless of which CableCARD-based tuner you're using. It's not a technical limitation of InfiniTV 4 but rather a requirement of the specification that we and every other CableCARD tuner solution have to adhere to in order to be certified and to work on cable systems.
Trust me, no one is more disappointed than we are in the change in ship date and we're sorry for that. But our goal is to ship a great product and if that means delaying things a but then we believe that's the right thing to do.
Grr....
2 months more? I was excited about the preorder. But I really don't want to wait that long. :sigh:
$400 is way too much money, I would pick this up for $200
@LowSky
not even a single ATI tuner goes for that price...
I just want to know which one of you owns the nice TAG I notice in the picture.
Shipping May 31st? God dammit. In my area Comcast is switching to encrypted QAM for all but the major networks on April 14th.
I was hoping to have a solution before then. Oh well, I guess I won't be watching much TV for a few months.
Who's the n00b touching the gold contacts?
What four shows would I ever need to record simultaneously?
ordered!! thank you ceton, ps hire me! i live next door!
PRICE IS $399 - Zones has now corrected their error.
For those of you balking about the price, you may want to check out ATI single-tuner CableCARD tuners right now. Several this week have been going for $250-a-piece. Just to reiterate, the Ceton card does FOUR times as much, and the user only has to deal with ONE flaky CableCARD, not four, and two flaky tuning adapters, not four.
Another advantage is that my current rig (2 ATI tuners, 2 Tuning adapters, and 1 HDHomerun) involves FIVE power plugs, and my cable signal is split FOUR ways. With one Ceton card, I'll only need TWO power plugs (for tuning adapters) with NO split signal.
For those of you balking at the need for 4 tuners, this is quite necessary in a system with one computer and 4 extenders, like I have. If you don't want to go with extenders, then perhaps you shouldn't be trying to rig up a house-wide network based on Windows Media center. It wasn't made for "softsled" functionality. Name a system that handles CableCARD that _is_. It's not perfect, but it is so head-and-shoulders nicer than anything else out there, I'm willing to go with it as designed.
maythetechbewithyou, If you are a married sports fan with children, you'll know exactly why 4 tuners are needed.
I just wish that ZunePass could be integrated into MediaCenter so I could play anything from my ZunePass library of favorites from any extender.
The May 31st ship date really bums me out.
Hopefully they will use the extra time to ensure that their hardware and drivers are stable.
The choice of retailer (zones.com) for pre-order is horrible.
They are a no-name retailer among consumers.
Their policies are iffy, the 30% restocking fee on open products is ridiculous.
They charge sales tax almost everywhere including WA, which means I have to pay a 9.5% premium.
They also charge $11.90 to ship it from Kirkland to Seattle via ground, wtf?
I work a mile away from Ceton Corp in Kirkland, I could just pick it up if they sold direct.
The total comes out to $450 with tax and shipping, it would be $400 or $406 total on Newegg.
For the people that are pre-ordering from zones.com, be aware that if you have to return it (not exchange) you will have to eat $120.
I may have to wait till Newegg gets it...
@niteriderxp
I just pre-ordered and you are right. I'm glad you posted this for people to see. I'm going to stick with my order though. While I'm a Newegg fan, I can see this being backordered for sometime after release. I'm willing to pay extra to get my order in early.
I'd hope that if it was defective, they wouldn't charge restocking, esp. if I only need a replacement.
The May 31st ship date really bums me out.
Hopefully they will use the extra time to ensure that their hardware and drivers are stable.
The choice of retailer (zones.com) for pre-order is horrible.
They are a no-name retailer among consumers.
Their policies are iffy, the 30% restocking fee on open products is ridiculous.
They charge sales tax almost everywhere including WA, which means I have to pay a 9.5% premium.
They also charge $11.90 to ship it from Kirkland to Seattle via ground, wtf?
I work a mile away from Ceton Corp in Kirkland, I could just pick it up if they sold direct.
The total comes out to $450 with tax and shipping, it would be $400 or $406 total on Newegg.
For the people that are pre-ordering from zones.com, be aware that if you have to return it (not exchange) you will have to eat $120.
I may have to wait till Newegg gets it...
@niteriderxp
Sorry for the duplicate, Engadget was being slow and I guess it actually posted my initial comment.
Windows Media Center? I don't know what that is, but I would like to have this in my TiVo.
@bija
Media center is the Free version of TiVo that's built into Windows. You pay for the hardware and that's it, no monthly fees.
Just pre-ordered. I was really leaning towards the HD Homerun, but these guys got it out first, and I like the idea of having one less AC plug to contend with.
I do like the idea of the external solution, freeing up my choice of PC case size, but I'll probably go with something conventional anyway just to ensure drive expansion options.
As for the tax/shipping extras, I'm willing to pay for it to get my order in early, I want this thing ASAP. But those shipping charges are pretty high and why charge tax to everyone? I'd love to see if they're actually passing those "tax" fees along to the gov't.
@GlobalCop
I hope you checked that you are not on an SDV enabled network first, otherwise look forward to having another external box with an AC adapter.
Just Pre-ordered today! to replace my Asus tuner.
Here's a question....
I have a ATI WONDER DIGITAL CABLE TUNER External Unit....
Will I be able to slap my existing CableCard into the Ceton InfinityTV4 when it arrives and get all my channels without requiring a Comcast Service Call to install the card again??
As CableCards tend to be device specific/matched to the device using it....I'd have to assume it would require an installation appointment with Comcast...which would suck.
@GoonieGooGoo I believe Ben stated that all he did was take his cablecard out of one of his ATI tuners and placed it in the Ceton and it just worked.
@kangoljas
I have FiOS which doesn't pair the CableCARD, sadly this is not the default. So there is a very good chance you'll have to at least call your cable co and have them repair the card with the new hardware. And of course you have to re-run the tV setup.
Sounds pretty amazing. Now, how does one stay tunned?
Cool and all but taxes. :( Thing is going to cost about $500 after next day shipping. I wish they would pick someone else to use, such as NewEgg. But I still have concerns it's not going to make the May 31st date.
I am wondering if Zones.com charges your credit card now or when the item ships. I don't want close to $500 tied up on my credit card when I won't even have the product yet.
@Brian
Looks like I found my answer. They do not charge until it ships.
I want to replace my PVR with this, but I have the 2 tuner HDhomerun and the HD quality is not as good as the PVR. hopefully they improved the output.
Is there a dvb-c equivalent that'll be usable with the foxtel subscription network in Oz?
Or does Tel$tra (unsurprisingly) deliberately restrict users from using capturing devices other than their own?