Why I will NEVER buy a ceton product ever again

[heffneil]

Guys I had to share a just awful experience I had with Ceton. Let me start by saying I was a loyal customer pre-ordering a InfiniTV4 pcie card when it was first announced. I got that card and used it with sage for a long time. I had one issue with it where I couldn't get it to work and by talking and working with their support I got it back working - all was good.

Being a happy customer I ordered the InfiniTV4 USB product when it was announced. I used that product and got it working. I ended up rebuilding my SageTV server and had so many tuners (I also use HD PVR's with DirecTV) I didn't need to plug it in. The new server was completed quite a while ago and I believe about 27 months ago.

That server was running fine. I open the cabinet a few weeks ago and saw the InfiniTV4 USB product sitting on the shelf and thought well that is a waste so I might as well hook it up. So I hooked it up and found the device and that was about it. I didn't even configure it in Sage at this point.

I attempt to login to my server in person and notice that my mouse and keyboard aren't working. I thought it was odd but blamed the KVM. This machine is in a rack with several others all with redundant power supplies and two UPS's. So finally I need to login and I reboot the server to find out I still have no keyboard and mouse and now my raid card is PO-ed that it was hard rebooted. I finally get one of my usb 3.0 ports on a different hub to work and get past that screen. I quickly discover I have no USB ports working since my HD-PVR's are totally dead.

I find this super odd and do some testing and sure enough the ports are dead. I order a PCI-e usb card, a couple usb hubs and ulimtately a new motherboard. I can't get the USB PCIe card to work in the machine and I can't get the hub to work with the one sporadically working USB port.

I replace the motherboard and the machine is back up and running. I plug all my HD PVR's and the Ceton USB device in to a hub and away I go. One week later the hub is dead. Totally blown the machine can't see any USB devices. It finally dawns on my that the only new device is the Ceton USB device.

If you bothered to read this far down of my diatribe it can be summed up as this: I have offered to send the device back to Ceton for review and for them to tell me if this was the actual cause (Which I think they would never admit because they might think I hold them responsible for a motherboard and hub). They insist it isn't possible unless I had a major power issue or cable grounding issue which couldn't be because the same cable is going to the PCI-e card and again the power us on a UPS with a whole home surge - it isn't power.

A lot of arguing with them has gone back and forth and needless to say im awfully frustrated, disillusioned and done with Ceton. It is a shame because I was going to use the USB product with WMC and purchase some Echo's to watch my cable feed but at this point there is no way in hell I would buy another product. Not because it ruined my system, cost me hundred of dollars and countless hours rebuilding my system but because their support has now totally stonewalled me and isn't even willing to look at that device. They asked me to test it more to which I replied the testing is over. They insist on closing my ticket and sweeping this under the rug. It is really sad. Anyway I guess I will start evaluating the HDHomeRun cable card device....

Off soap box (for now)
Neil

[reggie14]

I've been completely unimpressed with Ceton's handling of the Echo fiasco, so I'm right there with you. It would really have to be a last resort.

I've been very happy with my HDHR Prime. It's been working flawlessly with SageTV since I set it up. I had it going with WMC for a little while before that, when I still had an Echo during the beta.