SageMCTuner - anyone have this working with cablecard?

[Deacon Crusher]

So, when you are pulling 4 streams off your Ceton through 7MC and into Sage How real time does it feel? How much lag between what's actually available in your cable box and what you can see in Sage?

Also, how buys does your system get under that load? CPU utilization? How responsive do multiple extenders feel?

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

So, when you are pulling 4 streams off your Ceton through 7MC and into Sage How real time does it feel? How much lag between what's actually available in your cable box and what you can see in Sage?

Live TV takes roughly 13 seconds from when I hit watch to when I see video.

The .mpg file used by Sage is created within 2 seconds of hitting watch with a 0 byte filesize. I see 7MC's .wtv file after about 5 seconds. As soon as I see a filesize on the .mpg, it starts playing in Sage. I'm pretty sure the actual stream is captured almost immediately though because I can fast forward 10+ seconds into the video after it starts playing. I don't know if something can be tweaked to reduce the delay or not. I don't watch live TV, so I haven't really investigated.

Also, how buys does your system get under that load? CPU utilization?

CPU is minimal except when ComSkip is running (which is set to low priority so I don't notice it anyway). Most of the load is I/O on the drives.

How responsive do multiple extenders feel?

I use one PC client and two HD200s. They're all just as snappy as they were when I was using multiple HVR-2250s.

I did find an issue with NetBIOS recently. I was getting a weird 8 second pause at random intervals on both the PC client and extenders. It works great now that I put static entries in the LMHOSTS file and disabled NetBIOS on the NICs. I don't know if this is a Windows 7 issue or not, but it didn't happen to me on XP.

[mayamaniac]

Mythikal, who's your cable/satellite provider? Was it easy to get a cablecard from them? How many channels were you able to tune with the Ceton?

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Mythikal, who's your cable/satellite provider?

Comast.

Was it easy to get a cablecard from them?

Yes. It was about a 2 minute phone call. They wouldn't just send me the card though. They sent a tech out, but I ended up doing the physical install.

How many channels were you able to tune with the Ceton?

Every channel that is playable in 7MC is playable in Sage. If you're looking for the number of HD channels, it's about 40. I don't subscribe to any premium channels though.

[Kirby]

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).

Actually if you have a cable box (I'll say Motorola, but might work on SA also) then you can get into the diagnostic screens for the box, and check the CCI status of each channel you are in question about.

I can tell you that here in W. Michigan, Charter has all channels set to CCI=0x00, which means everything is good to go! 0x01 might be present on some of the premium channels (hbo, showtime, starz etc) but I dont sub to those or have interest in them, so never checked.

Also a thing to note, with the Charter system here at least, cable cards are not paired to the device like they should be (or could be). I was told years ago that the S-cards were not because it wasnt supported, however that the M-cards would be paired to a specific device. Having my Tivo Premiere get fried by lightning, I put my M-card into the replacement and everything worked just fine, no re-pairing required. So its possible for anyone like myself that already has an M-card in house, no truck roll (and consequential fees) needed! I'm going to order one of these cards pronto, unless someone has one they dont want and wants to sell it!

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Kirby

Actually if you have a cable box (I'll say Motorola, but might work on SA also) then you can get into the diagnostic screens for the box, and check the CCI status of each channel you are in question about.

Yeah, that's my problem.. I don't HAVE a cable box, as I don't currently HAVE cable.

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Yeah, that's my problem.. I don't HAVE a cable box, as I don't currently HAVE cable.

Ah gotcha... Neighbor/friend maybe?

[Fuzzy]

Nah.. i don't have friends either.. :-)

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Nah.. i don't have friends either.. :-)

Then fabricate up a official looking Charter outfit, and go to a nearby house and tell them you need to check their cable box!

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by Mythikal

Comast.


Yes. It was about a 2 minute phone call. They wouldn't just send me the card though. They sent a tech out, but I ended up doing the physical install.


Every channel that is playable in 7MC is playable in Sage. If you're looking for the number of HD channels, it's about 40. I don't subscribe to any premium channels though.

Thanks, I have Verizon FIOS and just learned that all their channels work well with the Ceton. Its great to know that the SageMCTuner is working well. Time to save up some money for a Ceton.

[src666]

Originally Posted by heffneil

Is that card low profile? Thanks!

The Ceton card is low-profile, and ships with both a short and tall bracket. It is longer than most low-profile cards though, so it may have trouble in really tight cases.

[dfitz43]

I am as excited about the Ceton CC/Sage thing as anybody, but just to point out that the CCI flag can change arbitrarily and at least per this engadget post, is not under control of the provider but rather the content creator. So, like the stock market, past performance is certainly no guarantee of future results. That said, I have Fios too, and would really love to get this going. Just hope it doesn't get locked down prematurely by the whole CCI thing.

http://hd.engadget.com/2010/10/21/ve...blecard-users/

[jasoninva]

Originally Posted by Mythikal

Live TV takes roughly 13 seconds from when I hit watch to when I see video.

Just to clarify, is the 13 second lag for four streams running together or is this also the case for just one or two? Also, this sounds like this would negatively impact channel surfing if I'm reading you correctly. Is it really 13 seconds between each channel change?

Thanks!

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by jasoninva

Just to clarify, is the 13 second lag for four streams running together or is this also the case for just one or two?

13 seconds to tune one channel on one tuner. If I'm watching live TV and I change the channel, it's 13 seconds before I see video on the next channel.

Also, this sounds like this would negatively impact channel surfing if I'm reading you correctly.

Yes, but why go channel surfing when you have a program guide? I don't watch live TV anymore though so it doesn't impact me at all.

Is it really 13 seconds between each channel change?

Yes. And for comparison, it takes 5-7 seconds to change channels in 7MC.

[heffneil]

So I had comcast come out yesterday to install my cablecard. They didn't offer a self install. Also they charge $40 for the install! Anyway On the phone with the rep from comcast making the appointment I just said I had a Tivo. I didn't want to get in to the whole "you have a what?" I didn't think I could explain to the non-technical operator that I had a computer that uses a cable card. That was kinda a mistake and hopefully I can help someone else learn from it to a degree. See Comcast usually provides two single stream cablecards to tivo customers. There are supposedly two slots in the tivo. Never owning a Tivo I had no idea whatsoever. Regardless the two single stream cards the tech brought out weren't compatible with the ceton card. The tech had to reschedule with a multistreaming card. He will be back or another tech will be here on Monday with the proper card. So the moral of the story is request a multistreaming card. I read a little about it but didn't know I had to request it. The tech said that comcast was experiencing trouble with their multistream cards and always defaulted to the singles!

Also when speaking to him he thought the multistream would only support two streams. I think this might have been discussed here or in other forums here but it is a bit disappointing considering the card itself is capable of 4 streams with one card...

Neil

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by heffneil

Also when speaking to him he thought the multistream would only support two streams. I think this might have been discussed here or in other forums here but it is a bit disappointing considering the card itself is capable of 4 streams with one card...

Neil

I believe that M-cards (at least Moto's) can actually do 6 streams from 1 cable card. Tuning adapters cant do 6 though, only 4 for Moto I think. And SA cards I would think would be 6 streams, but their TA's it seems like only handle 2 or 3.

[vorius]

Originally Posted by Mythikal

13 seconds to tune one channel on one tuner. If I'm watching live TV and I change the channel, it's 13 seconds before I see video on the next channel.

Yes, but why go channel surfing when you have a program guide? I don't watch live TV anymore though so it doesn't impact me at all.

Yes. And for comparison, it takes 5-7 seconds to change channels in 7MC.

Darn, this right there is the death of this idea for me. I mean, it sounds like a pretty involved setup to get it working plus I'd have to buy windows media center just for this (Does that mean my current WinXP server has to be reformatted and installed with WMC?) That would suck..

I had imagined with an internal card handling the tuning that the response time would be near instantaneous as if you were flipping channels on the box itself - but 13 seconds is huge. I currently use an R5000 unit and I complain that it takes 5-7 seconds to change channels.

Maybe if SageTV ever supports the Ceton card so you dont have to jump through the hoops of WMC it will be a great alternative?

[Fuzzy]

As mentioned previously, tunning delay is of little/no concern for most sage users, as everything is watched post-live, and certianly never 'channel-surfed'.

[heffneil]

I channel surf with Sage.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by heffneil

I channel surf with Sage.

I did say most... obviously, it's possible.. I, for one, never really found a point to 'channel surfing', even before I had a DVR - now that I do, I REALLY don't see why anyone would. Channel Surfing, to me, is the same as saying "hmmm.. I don't know what I want to watch, so let me just flip through watching a little bit of things in progress, until I see something I like, so I can watch the last half of it, then start over again."