Ceton's quad CableCARD tuner for Windows Media Center gets a price
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted January 5th 2010 6:36PM
posted January 5th 2010 6:36PM
posted January 5th 2010 6:36PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
I'll be all over this the first day it comes out like there's no tomorrow.
I just say NO to comcast cable. Free OTA HD for life!
@One Love
I thought that too until I realized that ESPN HD isn't OTA :(
@PBB
you guys watch TV?
400 dollars? my good god. I really want this so my htpc, but its costs more then my htpc did.
i would relistically buy it if it was more in the 99 - 149 range
@TeqPho I should really reread what i write before i click post. I can''t type apparently.
@TeqPho You really should, not only is the grammar and spelling off, but you're being a little unrealistic, a TWO tuner ATSC or QAM tuner costs that much.
@10nisman94 I really don't think its that unrealistic. You can purchase a Tivo for the price that Ceton is asking for.
@10nisman94 An internal ATSC / QAM dual tuner is only 90 bucks BTW.
@TeqPho Yep, and pay TiVO a monthly service fee to use it. That is the reason that they can discount their hardware so much.
@TeqPho Not only is a cable card about 3 bucks a month to use but you can watch stuff all over the house, where ever a PC is attached. Its awesome.
@10nisman94 Four single-tuner QAM cards cost me a total of $80 on Woot. You're telling me I have to spend $320 more simply because Time Warner loves DRM?
@(Unverified) Yea, I realize that, and I have the entire house ready for it (my little Cat5 project the past summer), ive been waiting for Ceton to release this card since the first Engadget article. I just think its too much money.
@Samsara It's not just Time Warner, it's everybody, and its necessary for anything beyond what you can get on locals. a more realistic comparison would be 2 TIVOs with lifetime subscriptions, or 4 ATI tuners @ ~$250 a pop.
@Samsara And do those four have CABLECARD? I think not. A LOT of us are waiting for this CC solution. An external USB 3.0 version would be perfect for the small HTPC's like the Dell Zino HD.
@TeqPho
Those of you comparing the price of CableCARD tuners to regular QAM tuners obviously don't understand the technical differences and are therefore not qualified to critisize pricing. A regular QAM tuner does NOT allow you to receive encrypted cable broadcasts. (i.e. Showtime, HBO, Discovery HD, etc.)
The only product you can objectively compare the Ceton card to is the ATI CableCard tuner and those are $250 per tuner.
Quad!? Hot damn!
Wait, do I also need a multi streem cable card?
@NeoJew To use more than one stream, yes. You need a MOCUR.
Sign me up! Gimme pre-order link, after that all I need is shipping date!
oh wow. this thing cost more than my LCD TV and my HTPC...
@Eraser must be some real shite you got there
@00shitz lol!
@00shitz it's called slickdeals.
@Eraser
400 dollars for a lcd and htpc.....i dont want to even imagine what u are using for that price. regardless of teh "deal" u may ahve received. unless the components feel of the truck you do indeed have shit
Now if we can get a release date, as well as release date/price of the Silicondust CC hardware.
I know, we will find out this week, but still...
Too bad I live in Brazil, and there are no HD cable support to Media Center to our HD Cable stations... This Is a dream to me... mabe one day.. Hoo Lord..
@(Unverified) Does Brazil use the cablecard standard? The reason why we in the US have cablecards to begin with is due to the seperable securities act mandated by the FCC... and since you are not in the US, cable companies are not bound to this law.
@TeqPho, Thank you very much, the problem here Is cable piracy, so they add a difirent codification that only works on the cable company.
Finally FFS
I figured CableCard would be shit canned by the time this hit the ground
@00shitz exactly, i cant believe cablecard still exists considering you cant get ondemand content via it.
I'm with you on the extenders. If they can get a DECENT extender that is both silent and in the $150-200 range, then I'm in for this and three extenders with my left over Christmas money.
@PaulY Acer AspireRevo 3610. Silent, 300 bucks. XBMC. Done.
@TeqPho
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think XBMC can handle DRMed content. That's the point of a media center extender; it can. Live TV is also an area I believe only the extender would be able to handle.
@PaulY I think they should make PC extender software. I see no reason that my laptop shouldn't be able to extend my desktop (with tuner card) media center.
@TeqPho
And how well is that XBMC box gonna work with CableCard and encrypted HD cable? Boom. Done.
I was expecting $499 so this has me pretty excited.... the only thing that could keep me from this now is silicondust and whatever they may have.
Squirt!
Finally! The day this arrives, Tivo is dead to me.
@jesusio
I'm completely with you. I'm tired of paying Tivo $13 a month for almost zero development. It's pretty sad when the cableco's STB UIs are starting to look better. They may not work better, but this isn't the 90's anymore. WMC's UI used to be kind of clunky in the XP days, but in Win7 it really puts Tivo to shame.
@powermatt Yup, I've been thoroughly impressed with win7's Media Center GUI. That said, since I've already got all the hardware all I need is that damn tuner.
Pretty much as they led us to believe. Yeah, it would be great at $299, but they'll probably get my money.
However, if SiliconeDust's network tuner is also 4 stream MOCUR and can be used with multiple HTPCs for similar money....they'll get my dollars. Really have enjoyed using my HDHomeRun with 2 computers. Just not sure if/how CableCard would work like that.
@andysexton It's confirmed to have 4 tuners?
@10nisman94 Which? The Ceton definitely is, but I don't know about the SiliconDust tuner yet. My point was if it also supported 4 streams and was sharable....it would kind of be my dream tuner.
@andysexton The big thing is that Ceton may have a Microsoft Partnership in the works which may make it a more integrated experience.
@GeneralMills I don't see how. It's a tuner with device drivers, etc. Win 7 is an improvement in that regard as well. Not sure how it could get more integrated. It works or doesn't.
The question is network functionality. I think Ceton has said down the road they might be looking at a networked device as well.
My mom has been excited about this for days.
nice....thats not too bad really.....and I'm sure NewEgg and other will have it a bit cheaper.....my HTPC is going to be CRAZY this year.....
@kish coming to a blog to advertise your blog?? yea you will be downvoted to oblivion....
This is the one thing I've been waiting for. I've got to find something to stick it in. I need a small media rack. Gonna have to wire the whole house to get hd to four places simultaneously. I don't think Wi-Fi N can handle it.