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Ceton's InfiniTV 4 CableCARD tuner delayed again
Oh man this sucks -- just got word that Ceton has once again delayed the release of its InfiniTV 4 CableCARD tuner. Originally the ability to record four HD channels at once with a single card was going to be delivered in 2009, then it was delayed until the 1st quarter of 2010. The card did go on pre-order in the first quarter, but the ship date was delayed until May 31st. Now with only a week until that date, although the card has already received CableLabs certification, the sad news is revealed that due to some unobtainable flash memory chips and other components, the wonder card will probably ship by the end of June -- but at this point no new hard date is being given. Obviously delays like this aren't good for anyone and although we think the device is worth the wait, the fact that the one and only ATI CableCARD tuner for PCs has been discontinued, HTPC fans are certainly feeling the hurt. Full newsletter with all the bad details after the jump.
Ceton InfiniTV 4 CableCARD tuner review
We don't review many HTPC tuners around here because honestly they usually aren't that interesting; you plug them in and they either work or they don't, what else is there to really say about 'em? But every so often something totally different comes our way, something that does get us excited. The first HDHomeRun was one of those and the new InfiniTV 4 from Ceton easily qualifies. We mean who wouldn't get excited about being able to record 4 HD shows at once and from any channel you want? This is especially true when you consider how difficult it's been for HTPC fans to record premium content until now. Well it seems that for HD loving HTPC fans, your time has finally come, now anyone can build there own DVR that can do things that no other DVR can -- when the tuner starts shipping in May that is. %Gallery-88624%
Ceton's quad CableCARD tuner for Media Center available for pre-order
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.
Ceton CableCARD tuner briefly appears on Amazon flying the InfiniTV flag
It's gone now, but for at least a moment there was an opportunity to pre-order Ceton's quad-tuning CableCARD solution for Media Center PCs on Amazon, a sure sign that it is moving even closer to reality. Branded the Ceton InfiniTV (not to be confused with XFinity) 4 digital cable tuner card, the read link is the now-busted address for your F5ing pleasure -- do it too much and you'll go blind.
Ceton's CableCARD tuner to work over the network too
Weighing yet to be released CableCARD on PC products against each other? Add this tidbit to the comparison: Ceton's MOCUR should work as a networked tuner, according to a post by VP Jeremy Hammer on The Green Button forums. His post indicates that, like the HDHomeRun CableCARD, Ceton's product will be available to other PCs by bridging it with the host computer's Ethernet card, and not blocked as it was with ATI's product. That might help to smooth the $399 price tag when it goes on sale soon, for those still stuck on reply hit the forums with your questions or check out our CES hands on for another look. [Thanks, @brennokbob] %Gallery-82026%
Hands-on with the low profile Ceton quad CableCARD tuner
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. %Gallery-82026%
Ceton's quad CableCARD tuner for Windows Media Center gets a price
We love Windows Media Center but without access to our favorite HD content it just isn't that interesting. So obviously we got excited when we first learned that Ceton planned to release a PCI-E card that would allow us to record four HD shows at once with a single CableCARD, but the question has been, how much? Now we knew it'd be cheaper than the $1200 that ATI would charge us for four digital cable tuners but according to Dave Zatz the yet to be announced price is $399. In addition, he has learned that Steve Balmer will demo the card in the big CES keynote Wednesday -- which of course we'll be covering live. This leads us to believe that there might be some other good news for Media Center fans, and since we're dreamers, we're hoping for some new Extenders for Media Center.
Are CableCARD tuners for Media Center sold out everywhere?
It figures that Microsoft would finally give DIY Windows Media Center users the ability to add a Digital Cable Tuner with CableCARD to their PC and now the devices are no where to be found. Since these devices were never actually available to the public, they've always been a little hard to come by, but we have seen 'em for sale from Dell as well as from Cannon PC and even on Sony's site. This entire situation only makes us even more sure that ATI's days in the Digital Cable Tuner business are numbered. What we mean is that there is no doubt that ATI knew this was coming to Windows 7 long before we did, so any company who actually wanted to sell something would have actually had them available at retail by now. One thing is for sure, there is a pent up demand for CableCARD tuners in the Media Center community and a more affordable, more available, option can't get here soon enough. While we wait for the 1st quarter of 2010 to come, you can pay through the nose for one on eBay in the meantime.
A brief history of Ceton and its 6-tuner CableCARD HTPC tuner
The Seattle Times sat down with Ceton, and the entire Hammer family that founded the company, and uncovered some pretty interesting details about the Kirkland, WA startup. Lucky for Windows Media Center fans -- when Gary and Pamela Hammer's son Jeremy graduated from college with a engineering degree, the entire family decided to start a new company, which designed the first multi-stream CableCARD tuner for HTPCs. Without going into all the details here, we did enjoy learning about the origins of the company as well as the fact that a yet to be announced dual tuner version of the quad tuner card should sell for less than $300. We've been excited about this product since CES 2009, but as we get closer and stories like this surface we can hardly contain our anticipation.
Engadget HD Podcast 155 - 09.15.2009
CEDIA is over so there no better time to wrap up the news than with the Engadget HD Podcast. If you love Media Center, you'll love this episode as we dedicate more than half the show to the topic. We talk new tuners, cost of admission, as well as what might still be announced between now and the official launch of Windows 7. Next up we hit our second favorite topic with Blu-ray's Managed Copy and other Blu-ray player hardware like thee 400 disc Blu-ray changer. We round out the show with a quick chat about HDMI over IP (not just CAT5), the Panasonic 3D demo, the NFL Redzone channel and finally we talk up our reader meetup plus a few reader questions.Get the podcast[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3). p[RSS - AAC] Enhanced feed, subscribe to this with iTunes.[RSS - MP3] Add the Engadget HD Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator[Zune]Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace[MP3] Download the show (MP3).Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh, Steven Kim, Richard LawlerProducer: Trent WolbeProgram00:01:15 - Comments from Engadget HD Podcast 15400:03:25 - Video: Dish Network Media Center tuner in action00:08:36 - Ceton is set to take over the CableCARD PC tuner market00:33:32 - Poll: What's the most you'd pay for a quad HDTV tuner with CableCARD?00:35:00 - Windows 7 to get a better version of Netflix than Vista00:38:55 - Hauppauge to expand its offerings to include a CableCARD tuner00:41:44 - DirecTV's CEDIA booth was all about multi-room viewing00:51:14 - Video: First working Blu-ray Managed Copy demo00:55:45 - Video: Sony 400 disc Blu-ray changer with Gracenote in action00:58:45 - Video: Vudu on the LG BD390 Blu-ray player01:01:08 - Panasonic including DivX Plus HD (MKV) support into next gen Blu-ray players, TVs01:02:10 - Apple TV junkies left out of new iTunes Extra special features01:05:45 - Panasonic Full HD 3D experience eyes-on01:13:07 - Just Add Power introduces Projector Connector HDMI-over-IP solution01:16:23 - It's game day, who's got the NFL RedZone Channel?01:19:14 - Thanks to Atlanta for the great reader meetup LISTEN (MP3)LISTEN (AAC)LISTEN (OGG)
Poll: What's the most you'd pay for a quad HDTV tuner with CableCARD?
Let's be clear right up front, we're not asking you how much you want to pay because we already know the answer; as little as possible. We want to know, what is the most you would pay. Now before you answer, lets put this into perspective. A dual tuner TiVo HD costs $300 at retail (plus subscription), a Moxi is $800 and the old ATI single CableCARD tuners were $300 -- so unlike the Ceton tuner, you'd have to rent four CableCARDs instead of just one. So keeping all that in mind, what is the most you'd pay for a single PCI-E card that could turn your Windows 7 PC and Xbox 360 into the best premium content HD DVR today? %Poll-34362%
Hauppauge to expand its offerings to include a CableCARD tuner
The tuner company that we never seem to be able to pronounce correctly is planning on adding a digital cable tuner with CableCARD to its lineup. No word on price or availability but the initial seemly over ambitions timeframe was this year. Our friends at Geek Tonic were able to confirm the the company's plans for the new tuner, but also learned that there is little hope that the new device will make it to market before the Ceton tuner, and in fact the actual release is still undeterminable. The good news is that there will be some competition in the PC digital cable tuner market which is always a good thing, in fact at this point we wouldn't be surprised if Avermedia was the next to throw its hat into the mix. [Via GeekTonic]
Ceton is set to take over the CableCARD PC tuner market
We can't say we saw this coming, but a little technology company we never heard of until CES '09 is going to not only be the first to market with a multi-stream quad tuner CableCARD device, but will probably be the only one for some time. It is for good reason too, as Ceton (pronounced sē-tən or seaten) has been able to pick up where AMD left off with its ATI Digital Cable Tuner for Windows Media Center and improve it in the best way we can think of. This startup seems to have some special sauce that no one else has, we can't even start to think of how hard it would be to decrypt four HD streams at the same time and re-encrypt them at the same time -- and apparently that is just the beginning. We say this because we sat down with Gary Hammer, the president and CEO, and to say he is on the same page with the Media Center market, is an understatement.
Hands-on with the Ceton CableCARD tuner
We learned all about it this new tuner first thing this morning and were very pleased to see a "technology preview" of the card in action at the Microsoft's booth. As expected, it is a single PCI-E card that uses one multi-stream CableCARD and offers the ability to record four HD channels at once. The tuner shows up as a single network adapter in Windows and still uses UPnP like the currently available ATI tuner does. The configuration and diagnostic interface included tabs for each individual tuner and apparently two Tuning Adapters -- unfortunately there wasn't a working demo of the SDV tuning in action. And in case you are wondering, we did ask about the price and as you might expect we were referred to Ceton for specific product questions. We do already have an appointment with them tomorrow, but we'd be surprised if they were ready to tell us. %Gallery-72441%
Ceton CableCARD PC tuner details emerge
There's no press release or anything, but an eagle eyed blogger noticed that the FAQ for highly anticipated multi-stream CableCARD tuner for Windows Media Center on Ceton's site has been updated. Among the new details is the fact that there will be multiple offerings -- as apposed to just the one version announced at CES -- which will include 2, 4 and 6 tuner versions. The card has also been adapted to work in a low-profile PCI-E form factor, but no word if all three iterations will be available in the shorty version. The bad news is that the new release date has been pushed back from 2009, until the first quarter of 2010. Of course the new tuners also won't be restricted to the OEM requirement and will of course work with Tuning Adapters to add SDV support. The quad steam version is currently geting its stamp of approval from CableLabs so it'll be out first, but we're very saddened to tell you that there is still no word on the price. While we wait for price and availability though, you can look forward to our hands-on just as soon as we work our way to the Microsoft booth at CEDIA.[Via GeekTonic]
