$15 price drop. Newegg with Ceton has the Ceton 5100.01-DCT04IN InfiniTV 4 Quad-tuner PCI-Express x1 Card for $199 - $15 off with coupon code 24HRSALE418K [Exp 4/18] = $184 with free shipping. Watch and record four live channels of SD or HD TV simultaneously on your PC.
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I've spent the last two days, several hours on the phone, trying to activate the CableCARD in one of these. On the verge of returning it. Not sure if the problem is the Ceton or Comcast.
^ If DSLReports manages to get back online before your 'egg product return period is over, you might search or ask there in the forums about potential issues.
http://www.dslreports.com/front/shutdown.html
Activating your cable card should take less then two minutes. If it is taking any longer then that you have someone on the phone on the other side that has no clue what to do. Hang up and get someone else. On their screens there is a section to "activate" or "pair" or setup the Cable Card. They enter in the below three numbers and press a button and it pairs your card in less then 30 seconds.
Simply give your
CableCard ID
Host ID
Data ID
If you take your Cable card out to put in another Ceton card or reinstall your OS then one ore more of these numbers may change and you will have to re "pair" your card with the TV companies systems.
I use a Ceton Infinity TV4 with an Xbox 360 as my extender. It does not work perfectly all the time. However it works well enough for me to be able to send back my set top box.
Do not expect that your setup is going to work perfect right out of the box. There will be many issues that you will have to troubleshoot and investigate. Ceton's site has a lot of answers in the knowledge base and FAQ. Many of the problems that people have are not because of the actual Ceton card.
Problems like:
PCI-e power saving features.
NIC flow control or auto negotiating.
Switch that does not have Jumbo Frame support or larger buffer size.
Wireless v. LAN.
Win 7 MCE v. Vista MCE v. XP MCE (Win 7 recommended by far)
360 Optional Media Update for ACC? or Divx support.
How to play mkv containers with DivX Plus.
MCE plugins: Media Browser
Getting the correct remote control to control 360 extender and TV. (Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote) http://www.buy.com/prod/bacon-universal-media-remote-microsoft-b4o-00001-remote-control/201975285.html
If you stick with it you can get a nice stable solution.
Knock on wood I have been happily using this solution for about 2 months of 3.
The first month learning while cursing Ceton understanding now that the issues I was having were not because of…
Thanks for the advise. I haven't given up yet. In prior I had a Hauppauge (non-CableCARD) that worked. I suspect that when the cable guy tried two different CableCARDs during the initial set-up something got screwed up. Initially we where having the card not recognized because of Norton, after I removed Norton and switched to Windows Security Essentials the card was recognized by Media Center. Now the problem is the CableCARD won't pass "validation" (which I think is different than "pair") which entails accepting a CCV signal from the cable company. I will post my outcome after I'm finished.
I have provided the cable company with the proper ID numbers necessary for "pairing" a few times.
If the card is not Validating then recheck your numbers. Write them down.
CableCard ID
Host ID
Data ID
WOW how could anyone have time to set up one of these. Especially with bacon challenged working for the cable companies. Just buy a slingbox.