This week Josh and I walk through some catch up stuff as well as covering the latest news.  We’ve both made changes to our setups (some more permanent than others) and we get to give our impressions. 

Also, just announced this week, Netflix is headed north.  It’ll be a streaming only service but the company has decided that Canadians want to watch instantly too! 

Josh also runs us through his InfiniTV4 review which you can read here at The DMZ. 

Click Here to download Episode #86!

Show Links:

• Core Temp MC via DMZ

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What happens however when a product comes along and challenges our notions of the HTPC landscape?

Way back in January of 2009 we learned about an exciting product that really deserves the much-overused title “game changer.” Ceton’s InfiniTV 4, a pci-express card that can record up to four simultaneous high-definition television shows at once via a single CableCARD, gave HTPC builders what they have needed for a long time: more tuners, smaller form factor, and a pci-e interface.

Initial Setup

What you haven’t realized yet is that two of us at the Digital Media Zone are reviewing the Ceton InfiniTV 4. Richard decided to reinstall Windows 7 on his Dell XPS 420 to provide Ceton every opportunity to succeed or fail based on the strength of their hardware and software design. I, Josh, took the route that I think many will, to simply install it into my Media Center PC as it stood.

Prior to doing the driver installation I ran the Digital Cable Advisor Tool located in the Extras Gallery within Windows Media Center. This is a requirement to prepare your computer for a CableCARD. The driver installation went smooth for both of us, and of course the hardware installation is a breeze. Physical installation of the card is simple. Just slide it into any available pci-express slot regardless of the size. Then slide the CableCARD into the slot of the back of the card. Don’t be alarmed when the card is still hanging out of the back about an inch. It’s supposed to do that so that you’ll have a way of removing the card. Once the CableCARD is in, simply attach the coax cable to the dongle. While dongles don’t have a great reputation, the one supplied by Ceton is top-notch. It feels very solid and well-built, while still providing flexibility to accommodate any cabling situation. After the driver and card were installed we ran the guided setup within Media Center. If you’ve ever setup a TV tuner within Media Center then this process will feel very familiar to you. The only real difference is that you will eventually be greeted with a screen full of identification numbers for the CableCARD. This screen will instruct you to call your cable company so that the card can be activated for your account. Most likely a cable technician will be sitting in your living room watching you do all of this. This is the one part of the setup that he will actually take part in. Once the cable company has activated the card you can complete the setup as normal. You may need to wait a few minutes for the computer to receive all of the channel maps. Fortunately Ceton even makes this part easy. Just point Internet Explorer on the PC with the InfiniTV 4 installed to http://192.168.200.1. Alternatively you can also click Start, then Computer, then select Network from the menu on the left. Among the listed devices should be one labeled Ceton InfiniTV Mocur. If you double-click it you will be taken to the website also. You will be taken to the web interface for the card. From here you will be able to access all kinds of diagnostic information about the tuner card and the CableCARD. At this point you will want to go to the tab labeled CableCARD. Scroll all the way to the bottom. You are looking for the items labeled “Number of Channels” and “Channel Maps Received.” If these are both zero then the card hasn’t received the information from the cable company yet. Refresh the page every minute or two. If you haven’t received anything after five or ten minutes you should probably call the cable company again. Once the number of channels looks right for your cable subscription you should be all set!

At this point you should immediately go to your guide, filter it by HD programs, and record the first four things you see, simply because you can!

You may also want to play around with the previously mentioned web interface for the InfiniTV 4. From the site you can view information from each of the four tuners, including the current state of the tuner, whether the stream is copy protected, the signal level, the signal to noise level, and even the temperature of that individual tuner. The card also supports Switched Digital Video, so if your cable company requires a tuning adapter you can also view the status of it from the web interface. Neither of the cable companies used during our testing, Buckeye Cable and Comcast, are currently using SDV though, so we were unable to test this. Buckeye is apparently very close to completing their roll-out, so we may be able to test that in the near future.

Obviously Richard and I aren’t the only people in our homes to use Windows Media Center 7. It is the only way anyone accesses television and the rest of our digital media. With that, it was important to make sure that it would work great for everyone, so Richard asked his wife how she liked it in comparisson to their single ATI CableCard tuner. She stated the obvious at first. “Four is better than one”. But she put a finer point on it. “We like to record a lot of shows. We can do this comfortably and still have live events on around the house.” She was absolutely right! Since switching to the InfiniTV 4 I’ve never once been concerned about missing a recording due to not having enough tuners.

CableCARD and Copy-Protection

I’ve seen a lot of mis-information out there about copy-protection, DRM, and how it relates to CableCARD. Many people seem to think that all content that comes via CableCARD is 100% copy-protected 100% of the time just because its coming over CableCARD. That is completely not true. What people are typically confusing here is copy-protection versus encryption. Typically premium channels (like ESPN, Food Network, etc…) are encrypted by the content provider. That just means that, in the case that you’re using a cable company, you wont be able to view those channels with a ClearQAM tuner. If a channel is encrypted you need some other hardware/software to decrypt it before your TV, or TV tuner card can display it. In the case of CableCARD, it is the CableCARD and device that are providing that decryption. Copy-protection doesn’t factor into encryption at all. Most cable companies are now encrypting most of their content, especially the premium channels. That does not mean that they are always copy-protecting it though. In my case, with Buckeye Cablesystem, all of the premium channels are encrypted, but while using CableCARD almost none of those channels are copy-protected. In the end, it all comes down to your cable company. They choose which channels are copy-protected. Most channels will be encrypted, but not necessarily copy-protected. The main advantage that CableCARD provides is the ability to decrypt the content. If the content provider doesn’t copy-protect it, then the Ceton InfiniTV 4 won’t copy-protect it either. On the other hand, if your cable company does choose to mark the content as protected, then the InfiniTV 4 will honor that copy-protection. That doesn’t mean you can’t watch the content. It just means you can’t share it with other computers on your network. You can however still view that content using Windows Media Center Extenders in addition to viewing it from the computer on which it was recorded.

Conclusion

When it comes to watching cable television via the Ceton InfiniTV 4 everything just works. I’ve used the device for a few weeks and I haven’t had any issues at all. This has also been on drivers that should be considered beta, because the card hasn’t been officially released yet, and I know they are working hard every day to make the device better and better. When it comes to whether or not I would recommend the card, the answer is absolutely: yes! If you can afford the $399 price tag then you absolutely owe it to yourself, and the other people living in your house, to put this card into your home theater PC. It can drastically simplify your setup, which in my case also brought with it increased stability. To put it simply, the Ceton InfiniTV 4 is Media Center paradise! I’ve never once been concerned about running out of tuners, and every channel that my cable company provides to me is viewable, even the premium channels in high definition.

Version 2.2.4 of Media Browser is a small step but it looks as though the developers are continuing to push to make it a faster and much smoother application.  If you look below, the changes made will hopefully have a good impact on how quickly Media Browser loads with larger collections like mine.

I’ll be installing the new version sometime this weekend and hopefully all goes well.  If you’ve upgraded, leave a comment and let us know how it went!

Changes in 2.2.4:

• The Media type is now retrieved from locally stored metadata.
• Better support for using MyMovies and Media Browser side-by-side. The user can now set the preferred order of local artwork.
• Watched status indicators are working normally again.
• It is now possible to Clear the Cache from the Media Browser Configuration Wizard.
• Various sort-order bugs for Media Collections have been fixed.
• Lots of other bugs have been fixed.
• You can use SQLite and share playstate settings & display settings.
• Better rotating backdrop support. It is now possible to randomize the order in which they appear.
• Using the custom entrypoints no longer results in a full library refresh.
• Improved installer interface that can create optional shortcuts to Media Browser.
• Overall performance increase due to various changes to the cache mechanism.
• Last but not least, Media Browser can now be localized by theme developers and the community

You can view the complete change log here.

This week, Josh and I were joined by Ben Drawbaugh of Engadget HD along with Craig Scholle to discuss how they run Media Center and why.  The topics are varied so sit back and enjoy this one!

Click Here to download Episode 79!

Keep the emails and voicemails (1-877-856-4933) coming!  We look forward to them every week!
You still have time to enter yourself to win a Ceton InfiniTV 4 from Dragon Global and Show Analyzer.  Skip some commercials and get a chance at a $400 tuner while you’re at it!  You can find contest rules here.

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Back in March we brought you the unfortunate news that Ceton was going to miss their Q1 release date for their much anticipated quad CableCARD tuner, the InfiniTV 4. When Ceton announced that delay they gave everyone a new date of May 31. Unfortunately tonight Ceton has announced that they will be unable to meet this date also.

Ceton would not get into specific reasons for the delay other than noting that in the global recession it is extremely difficult to get all of the 1000 parts necessary for each card in a timely manner, especially when the company is as small as Ceton.

The Kirkland Washington based company did point out that they have received certification from CableLabs. They also highlighted that they are the first company to have a multi-tuner PC card certified, the first quad-tuner device to pass certification, the first 1 GHz cable system device, and one of the first certified Windows 7 devices.

Unfortunately a new date has not been given, but it should be weeks, not months. And if you have already placed your pre-order your credit card will still not be billed until your card ships.

Newsletter:

We know that you have been eagerly waiting for the first shipment of the Ceton InfiniTV 4 digital cable quad-tuner card and want to update you on where things stand.  Unfortunately, we’re not going to make our planned May 31^st ship date as we expected when we announced it in March.  We believe units will ship by the end of June but we don’t yet know for sure.  Rather than waiting, we wanted to let you know what we know at this point.

This is hugely disappointing news.   Trust us, no one is more disappointed than we are.  We’ve been working day and night to meet our May 31^stdeadline but there are some things that simply are not in our control.

What happened? As we told you in our last newsletter, development and testing for InfiniTV 4 have gone very well.  In fact, since we last wrote you in March we’ve officially passed the CableLabs certification testing, which was the final critical step on the way to manufacturing and release.  That was a huge milestone, not only for us but also for the industry.  It’s our understanding that InfiniTV 4 is the first multi-tuner PC card to pass certification, the first quad-tuner device of any type to pass certification, the first device ever certified for 1 GHz cable systems, and one of the first Windows 7 devices to pass certification.  That’s quite a list of firsts for a new company like us and something we’re really proud of.  It’s also indicative of the complexity involved in doing something like this for the first time in the industry.

The next step after certification is to get the product manufactured and shipped.  We’ve seen a lot of funny speculation online about how long it takes to get units produced and boxes shipped from our manufacturer overseas.  It’s actually relatively quick and our products do not in fact sit for weeks on cargo ships crossing the ocean while warding off Somali pirates.  The physical production of the units is fast, and we can airship units to the U.S. cost effectively.  So we’re talking days and not weeks from when our manufacturer starts a production run until units are ready to ship from our retail partners in the US.  That wasn’t the issue here.

The issue was simply parts.  Well, not so simply in fact, as there are more than 1,000 individual parts used in each InfiniTV 4 card.  Unfortunately, the global recession has resulted in manufacturers maintaining low inventory levels of everything, which have resulted in parts shortages across the industry that are affecting everyone from little guys like us to the largest PC and CE OEMs in the world. In our case it boiled down not being able to get the right quantity of a couple of critical parts in time to meet our production schedule.  We’ve been scrambling for a couple of weeks to find what we needed but it was obvious this week that it wasn’t going to happen in time for us to meet our May 31 goal, which is why we’re writing you today.

What’s the new date then? We really hoped that if we had to give you bad news about a delay that we’d be able to give you a new ship date at least.  Unfortunately we can’t do that today as we simply don’t have a solid answer yet.  But we wanted to at least let you know about the May 31 slip, even if we can’t give you a new date.  We’re pretty sure it’s just a matter of weeks and that units should be on their way to you from the retailers by the end of June.

How will Pre-Order Program units ship?  Will one retailer get priority over another? Since we kicked off the InfiniTV 4 pre-order program in March the response has been great and orders have continued to come in at a steady, in fact increasing, pace.  It’s obvious that there is a ton of pent up demand for a solution like this and we hope to be able to fulfill all the pre-order program orders at the same time.  But, depending on how the parts situation evolves and how many units we are able to manufacture at a time, it is possible that we’ll have to ship out units in smaller batches than initially expected.  In that case we will fulfill orders on a first-come, first-served basis, regardless of which retailer you ordered from.  So someone who ordered in March could get units earlier than someone who orders today.  Regardless of where you are in the shipping queue however, your credit card will not be changed until your unit ships.

We understand your disappointment and hope you’ll stick with us as we get these first units out the door.  We promise we’re doing absolutely everything we can to get InfiniTV 4 in your hands as soon as we can and will update you once we have a new ship date!

Thanks for your continued interest, enthusiasm and support.

One of our listeners wrote in and helped a bit as well.  Being new to the US, he had questions related to TV tuners and what can be recorded with what type.  I think we gave a pretty good run down what what to expect when you go to build that first Media Center system.  Enjoy the show!

Click here to download Episode 78!

Links:

• Guide Tool
• Media Center Live TV Buffer Manager

You still have time to enter yourself to win a Ceton InfiniTV 4 from Dragon Global and Show Analyzer.  Skip some commercials and get a chance at a $400 tuner while you’re at it!  You can find contest rules here.

Keep the emails and voicemails (1-877-856-4933) coming!  We look forward to them every week!

	Entertainment 2.0 Subscriptions

MS has been changing that lately and it started with Windows 7.  We suddenly had access to full episodes from CBS, PBS and other content.  Netflix was next and while it’s STILL not available on extenders within the MC interface, it was a great addition. 

Microsoft announced today the addition of more content and it’s not just the US that’s winning this time.  Germany and France will be gaining access to MSN Video within Media Center.  In the UK, Internet TV will be adding over 1,000 hours of full-length TV shows, many in HD.  And we weren’t left out here in the US either.  Select Netflix content will now be available in HD.

While this was announced today, the rollout of the new content may take up to 48 hours to find you.  Once it does though, you can expect to find something new to watch if you live in one of the select areas.

First up though is Michael Crump’s Automatic Playlist Generator.  One of our listeners was recently seeking a way to create video playlists within Media Center and Michael has a solution for you.  Head over and check it out.

Next up was the recent question about recording the live TV buffer.  Apparently it used to be possible but no one knows if it’ll work in Windows 7.  You can read all about it over at TGB.  If you’re feeling brave and decide to try out the process, let us know your results.

We also take time to cover how people use their DVRs and how the FCC has allowed the MPAA to turn on Selective Output Control on first run movies.  Overall, there’s enough here to get Josh and I both going this week so enjoy the show!

As we mentioned last week, Dragon Global, creators of Show Analyzer, are giving you another chance to win a Ceton InfiniTV 4 by the end of the month!  Head over to Dragon Global’s site for all the details.  And while you’re at it, get yourself entered!

Click here to download Episode 77!

Keep the emails and voicemails (1-877-856-4933) coming!  We look forward to them every week!

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Windows Media Center comes baked right into every copy of Windows 7 Premium and Ultimate.  More than likely you have it and don’t even know about it.  The fact is though, there’s a ton of stuff you can do with Media Center right out of the box.  If you never thought about it, take a look at the short video below and learn what Media Center has in store.  If afterward you have questions or comments, contact us and ask away.  There’s always someone willing to answer your questions!
Media Center Intro

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, media center, windows media center, media center-windows 7, story

While pre-built systems offer you convenience and ease of setup, building your own PC offers a lot of benefits.  First is the fact that you built it.  There’s pride involved there, especially if it’s your first project.  Second is the ability to upgrade more easily.  Most PCs bought from companies like Dell or HP are a bit locked down.  While upgrades are certainly possible, you typically have to go back to the same company and they tend to charge a good bit of money for them.  With a self-built system, you have a choice in where you buy your parts and can shop around for the best price.

The PC I’m building isn’t going to be an HTPC and this guide isn’t specific to HTPCs anyway.  This will become my new podcasting rig as well as a video encoder for my Media Center where I’ll flip MKV to WTV.  Also, I’m working within a relatively strict budget and everything you see listed came in under $400 shipped.  That said, this machine will pretty much handle most HTPC functions and get you rolling with Media Center or another HTPC software quickly and easily.

I decided that for this build the best thing would be to pick up a barebones kit from Tiger Direct.  They offer some great kits at good prices and it seemed my best option.  One good part about doing this is that a company like TD takes the guess work out of knowing what parts work with which motherboard, CPU, RAM, etc.  It saves a bit of time on research before the build.

The kit I chose split the difference between power and price.  It’s not the fastest machine on the planet but the PC itself came in at only $250.  Not bad for what it’ll be used for.

The Case

First is the Power Up Black Corporate ATX Mid-Tower Case with 450-Watt Power Supply.  It seems to be a sturdy case that’ll serve the purpose.  Also, I like the fact that it’s a mid-tower as it allows me to easily add hard drives later on.  Something that can be difficult in smaller Micro ATX cases.  As well, the 450 watt power supply should be more than enough unless I plan on adding multiple video cards or an excessive number of peripherals which I don’t.  If you plan on building a gaming powerhouse or running a ton of drives, be sure and do some math to figure out if an included power supply will fit your needs.  (Or use a calculator like this one.)

The Motherboard

Next up is the motherboard.  This kit shipped with the MSI 785GTM-E45.  The motherboard and processor are the main things I take into consideration when I choose a kit and this one had everything I wanted.

Detailed Specs:

Processor Socket: AMD

Processor Interface: Socket AM2+

Form Factor:  M-ATX

Processors Supported:

• AMD Athlon
• AMD Sempron
• AMD Phenom
• AMD Phenom II
• AMD Athlon II

Additional Technologies:  AMD Cool ‘n’ Quiet

HyperTransport Bus:  2.6GHz

Northbridge:   AMD® 785G and SB710 Chipset

Southbridge:  SB710

Memory Type: DDR2

Maximum Memory Supported: 8 GB

Channels:  8 Channels

Audio Chipset:   Realtek® High-End Audio

LAN Type:  10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet

RAID Support:  Yes

PCI Slots:  2

PCI Express X1 Slots: 1

PCI Express X16 Slots: 1

PS/2 Keyboard Connectors: 1

PS/2 Mouse Connectors: 1

USB Ports:  4

LAN Ports:  1

Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s Headers: 6

DVI Ports: 1

HDMI Ports: 1

Length: 24.4cm

Width:  22.9cm

While the board is lacking in things such as the number of USB ports, it’s going to fill my needs perfectly.  Supporting up to 8GB of RAM means it may be worth it at some point to move to a 64-bit OS though for now I’ll be sticking with x86.  The inclusion of the ATI HD Radeon 4200 video chipset means that you should be able to push full 1080p video out of that HDMI port if you’d want to.  The 4200 also supports Hybrid CrossfireX which means if you add another compatible video card, you’ll get to take advantage of both chips.

While I’m happy that this kit came with a larger case, I’m also happy that it includes this smaller Micro ATX board if only because should I ever decide to shrink it down to a slimline or smaller HPTC case, that option will be available.  Get a detailed look below:

The Processor

I’m not a chiphead.  Knowing that processor X is better than processor Y and why isn’t something I’ve ever been able to memorize or even completely understand.  What I do know is that my current setup is a Celeron powered laptop and it’s a dog.  That said, I knew I wanted to jump to a dual core and that I wanted better than average speed.  Doing this within a tight budget isn’t easy but I think this’ll do.

The AMD Athlon 64 X2 7550 processor runs at 2.50GHz, has a 3MB cache and an 1800MHz front side bus.  It fits in a socket AM2+  and is dual core.  This should provide more than enough power for what I want to do.  As well, the motherboard with the kit supports faster processors so I can upgrade easily in the future.

The Memory

The barebones kit I picked up from TD only shipped with 2GB and for now, it’ll work.  At some point (hopefully soon) I’m going to jump up to 4GB which is more than enough for this application.  Anything more than that and you’re going to want to move to a 64-bit OS to take advantage of it.  No matter what you’re purposing the system for however, I do recommend 4GB minimum.  Again, I’m running low now but I intend to correct that as quickly as possible.

The Hard Drive

This is always and will always be up for debate.  If we’re talking about workstation PC in a small business then you shouldn’t need anything more than 250GB.  HTPC?  Yeah, the sky’s the limit.  Seriously, don’t stop until you run out of money because as you get into it you’ll probably find yourself needing more and more.  For me, the 500GB Western Digital that shipped with the kit is plenty.  I’ve got room for recording hours worth of podcasts, room for creating screencasts and even after that, I’ll have plenty left over.  Depending on your usage, you may need more or less.  Dollar for dollar, I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend the Western Digital drives.  I have yet to have one fail on me and the ones in my HTPC have been running basically non-stop for over 2 years now.

Many people won’t think much about the hard drive in their system until they need more space or one crashes on them.  Right at the beginning is when you should be considering it though.  As I stated above, the case wit this particular kit is nice and roomy.  That means that should I decide to repurpose in the future, I have lots of room for drives.  Same thing comes when thinking about your motherboard.  How many SATA headers are you going to need?  It all ties together.

The DVD Burner/Blu-ray Drive

Buying a barebones and sticking to a tighter budget does have it’s downside.  This is one of those cases.  The kit I bought shipped with the LG GH22NS40B DVD Writer.  This again, was a compromise but one I’m willing to make at this time.  It’s a cheap little gadget at only $19.99 but so far it’s relatively quite and with as little as I’ll be using it, a fair deal.  It was important that I have some form of optical media drive that would allow me to burn data and music disks.  Eventually, Blu-ray is in the cards but that’ll come after a RAM upgrade.  If you’re seriously into burning and/or ripping disks though, just save yourself some upgrade time and bang one in there right from the start.

The Conclusion

Will this particular kit give you a top end gaming rig?  Nope.  Is it going to give you a very capable HTPC and general purpose computer?  You bet.  The additional cost I incurred during this build was tied up in a new monitor as well as a CPU fan and thermal paste.  Without the cost of the monitor I would have come in under $300 and would have another TV in my home running a dedicated Media Center.  The build is complete and so far I’m quite happy.  It’s doing everything I need it to do including podcasting, video conversions, Photoshop and myriad other tasks.

Up next is the putting together part of this little tutorial.  That’ll come in a few days.  Unfortunately due to time constraints and needing to be doing four things at once, I didn’t get a chance to take pictures.  Once this PCs tasks are done for the week however, I’ll get it cracked open and show where things go.  Until then, find the rig that’s right for you and get ready to slap it together!