Ever since CableLabs approved CableCARD devices to enable tuner sharing owners of the Ceton InfiniTV 4 have been waiting for Ceton to release the firmware that would turn this functionality on. While it hasn’t been released to the public yet, beta testers of the quad tuner CableCARD device can now do just that. Tonight I installed the latest beta firmware, bridged the connection between the tuner card and my ethernet adapter, and setup a secondary PC to use the InfiniTV 4. Once everything is setup on both ends, you simply go through the standard guided setup process on the secondary PC(s) to setup the tuners, as you would any other tuner device. After that it works just like any other tv tuner. I was able to instantly start watching live HD television immediately, without any noticeable lag from the streams being broadcast across my network.
Again, this is currently only available to Ceton beta testers, but this is definitely good news. Hopefully it means that the firmware, and corresponding software, will be released to the public very soon.
This is a game changer. I didn't want to have to use an extender for the bedroom, because it limits me too much. I'm not interested in re-ripping my media just to have it in a format an extender can use. Not only that, there's a number of things that just don't work, well enough, or at all, via an extender.
With this, I can just use a cheap ION box, and get all my media streamed from the main HTPC in the living room, and share its tuner.
could you share the beta firmware?
That's great! Can you control how many tuners are shared or is it all 4 or nothing? Ideally, I'd like to dedicate 3 tuners to the main HTPC that does the recording, and have one tuner available for live TV on the secondary HTPC.
Yeah, that's exactly what I'd like to see. Being able to dedicate one tuner to another PC………..but how does the HD HomeRun handle it?
Nice. So does this allow you to only 'assign' tuners to various PC's – or could I theoretically have 5 pc's sharing/being able to access the 4 tuners?
Josh,
I have the 1.0.1.38 beta firmware from ceton. How did you do this? How did you bridge the connection between the tuner card and the ethernet adapter?
@digitalcoder i definitely can't share the beta firmware.
@dmccall if you're in the beta program then they should be able to provide you with the instructions to get everything setup. Currently there is more to it than just bridging the network.
As far as “dedicating” a tuner, I'm not sure about the specifics of that. You can certainly limit the number of tuners available per pc though. Just like any other tuner, when you go through the guided setup you have the option of un-selecting tuners from the list of total available tuners.
“Game changer” doesn't even do this justice. This is the holy grail for HTPC enthusiasts.
I finally received my Ceton card just TODAY, after ordering back in April, and can't wait to get it set up. Now, how to get in on this beta program in order to obtain this firmware? 🙂
everyone needs to remember that “beta” means “not necessarily stable” but also keep in mind that the current “stable” firmware is VERY stable