SageMCTuner - anyone have this working with cablecard?

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Mythikal

Ceton obviously doesn't think so, and it looks like they might make a few $$$ because of it.

Based on the FCC's comments this morning I suspect that CableCard will be around for a while.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Mythikal

7MC and it's extenders are DRM compliant and can therefore play the protected content whether it's flagged as copy freely or copy never.


Ceton obviously doesn't think so, and it looks like they might make a few $$$ because of it.

Maybe considering it tool them over 4 years in development and now they can't meet demand or even close to demand. I doubt they have had any positive cash-flow yet.

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Maybe considering it tool them over 4 years in development and now they can't meet demand or even close to demand. I doubt they have had any positive cash-flow yet.

Which means the demand is there! That's the exciting part. That's the point I was trying to make. Cablecard ISN'T dead. Don't count it out. I wasn't really trying to argue for the viability of the Ceton Corporation or their InfiniTV tuner (although I do hope they do well).

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Maybe considering it tool them over 4 years in development and now they can't meet demand or even close to demand. I doubt they have had any positive cash-flow yet.

How long is the backlog?

[SCPRedMage]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

How long is the backlog?

I ordered mine May 6th from CannonPC. Just got a notice last week that they're supposed to get a new shipment in this week, and that my card should be in it.

So I'd say about, oh, five months long.

[joe0628]

http://www.cannonpc.com/cetonstatus.html

According to this page, Ceton is expecting regular shipments from india now and all backorders should be caught up by Thanksgiving. With this news and the other thread that SageMCTuner is a working solution, I ordered mine last night from Fluid digital (they had the cheapest shipping with no tax).

[jlawrence70]

Mythikal, any chance you could post the steps you followed to install and configure your setup? Even something quick-and-dirty would be helpful. A description of you setup would also help. Granted, it'll be a while before I get my Infinitv4, but I'm guessing I'm not the only one who would be interested in knowing what you did to be successful.

[Fuzzy]

Pretty expensive proposition for people to get into, with no real way of knowing what your provider has been doing for flagging. I could see mylself going this route IF it was working with my local Charter - but I really have no way of KNOWING that it is even working now, let alone in the future. This is why I wouldn't be purchasing it until I can watch the DRM'd content as well (even if it's limited to JUST my main server/client).

[ranger]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Pretty expensive proposition for people to get into, with no real way of knowing what your provider has been doing for flagging. I could see mylself going this route IF it was working with my local Charter - but I really have no way of KNOWING that it is even working now, let alone in the future. This is why I wouldn't be purchasing it until I can watch the DRM'd content as well (even if it's limited to JUST my main server/client).

Fuzzy - I've been wondering about this too. How do I know if I'll be able to use the files once they are recorded?
What about firewire? Would this method give me the same DRM'd / not DRM'd output as a cablecard? I haven't been using firewire because I switched to Win7 64bit, but I could hook up something temporary to test IF I knew the results would be useful.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by ranger

Fuzzy - I've been wondering about this too. How do I know if I'll be able to use the files once they are recorded?
What about firewire? Would this method give me the same DRM'd / not DRM'd output as a cablecard? I haven't been using firewire because I switched to Win7 64bit, but I could hook up something temporary to test IF I knew the results would be useful.

There is nothing that explicitly makes the flags the same. So there's no guarantee that it'll tell you anything - or it could show you exactly what to expect. No way to know. there may be a way to see the flags in the service menus of some cable boxes, but as I don't currently subscribe to cable, that's not an option for me either.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Mythikal

Which means the demand is there! That's the exciting part.

It would be interesting to know just how many they've shipped so far. Especially compared to say the HD PVR.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

It would be interesting to know just how many they've shipped so far. Especially compared to say the HD PVR.

I'm sure new HD-PVR orders are down quite a bit. The news of self-installs takes away some of the animosity many had about going cablecard. If you're a cable user, and a 7MC user, the ceton (and then the HDHomeRun also) are no-brainers at this point.

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by jlawrence70

Mythikal, any chance you could post the steps you followed to install and configure your setup? Even something quick-and-dirty would be helpful. A description of you setup would also help.

System info:
Windows 7 Pro x64
AMD Athlon II x4 635
6 GB RAM
Onboard ATI video
2 1TB WD Black in a RAID 0 (For 7MC recordings. Green drives proved to be too slow for 4 HD streams.)
1 1TB WD Black for each tuner (This could be overkill.)
Ceton tuner

The setup:
After you get and install the Ceton tuner and cablecard, you must set it up in Windows Media Center. I won't go into detail about this as it's pretty basic, but it's a typical Windows type install: Are you sure you wanna do this? Are you really sure? Are you extra double super secret sure to the infinite power no take backs?...

SageMCTuner:
1) Install Avivo (Known working version: 9-11_vista_win7_32-64_xcode.exe)

2) Download sagemctuner.zip and extract the files. I put mine in the SageTV folder to be consistent with the rest of my plugins, but it doesn't have to be there to work.

3) Install the SageMCTuner service. The install.cmd in the zip file didn't work for me. I ended up installing it from the command line.

From an elevated command prompt:

cd \path\to\sagemctuner.exe
"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\InstallUtil.exe" SageMCTuner.exe
regsvr32 FileDump.dll

Keep in mind that your InstallUtil.exe could be in a different location. Also, 'regsvr32 FileDump.dll' was not in the install instructions, but I found that you must register that DLL for SageMCTuner to work.

4) Allow the SageMCTuner service to interact with the desktop (see attached pic). The inital run requires that you allow SBEConvert to run.

5) Stop the SageTV service/close SageTV. Edit your sage.properties file so it can use the Ceton tuner. The tuner portion of my sage.properties file is attached. The main line to look for is mmc/encoders/12345/encoding_host=mycomputer\:6969. 12345 must be a unique number for each tuner. mycomputer\:6969 is the hostname of the computer that the Ceton card is installed on and the listening port.

6) Run SageMCTunerConfig.exe (included in sagemctuner.zip) and configure the ports that you specified in the sage.properties file for the tuners.

7) Start the SageMCTuner service. When prompted, uncheck "Always ask before opening this file" and click on Run to suppress further prompts about running SBEConvert.

8) Start the SageTV service (if applicable).

You should now be able to watch TV in Sage using the Ceton tuner.

[jlawrence70]

Mythikal, you're awesome. Thank you very much. Now to wait six to ten years to get my hands on a card...

[Spectrum]

Originally Posted by Mythikal

Are you sure you wanna do this? Are you really sure? Are you extra double super secret sure to the infinite power no take backs?...

I just about blew tea all over my monitor

[heffneil]

What type of a machine are you running for wmc? I just got the email my card shipped and I have no machine to put it in

Is that card low profile? Thanks!

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by heffneil

Is that card low profile? Thanks!

I doubt it, I don't think the cablecard itself would fit on a low profile card.

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by heffneil

What type of a machine are you running for wmc?

HP Pavilion p6522f
Specifically:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0335963

Is that card low profile? Thanks!

Yes:
http://www.cetoncorp.com/support_faq.php#faq_108

[Deacon Crusher]

Maybe a silly question but from your description it almost sounds like you are running 7MC configured just for your ceton on the same box you are running Sage? Is that possible?

Either way great help/info. And how many simultaneous streams have you managed to pull from 7MC into Sage?

thanks

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Maybe a silly question but from your description it almost sounds like you are running 7MC configured just for your ceton on the same box you are running Sage? Is that possible?

You are correct sir. One box running both 7MC and SageTV.

And how many simultaneous streams have you managed to pull from 7MC into Sage?

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