I've had a prototype Ceton MOCUR in my HTPC for the last ~4 months or so.  After yesterday's announcement, Ceton cleared me to talk about it publically, so I'm opening this thread up to answer questions.  To start off with a few questions:

-The unit seems to work well now

-It seems more sensative than the ATI units

-I don't even use my ATI units (they are unplugged) anymore

-It is scheduled for release in Q1 2010

-I do not have any pricing info that I can share

-SDV support works (I am using it)

-No, there is no way you can join the beta/buy a unit today

Beyond that, fire away

Adding a FAQ section due to requests:

Pricing and Availability
Q. What is the official name of the card?

A. The official name is the Ceton InfiniTV 4 

Q. How can I join the beta program?

A. The Ceton MOCUR's beta program is closed at this time

Q. How much does the Ceton InfiniTV 4 cost?

A. The Ceton InfiniTV 4 will retail for $399

Q. Where can I buy the InfiniTV 4?

A. Retailers are just beginning to take preorders.  The only site known to currently be accepting preorders is Zones.com.  It is expected that Amazon, CannonPC and others will be accepting orders soon.

Q. When is the InfiniTV 4 expected to ship?

A. The expected shipping date is May 31, 2010.

Provider Compatibility

Q. Will this work with (my cable provider)?

A.  The Ceton InfiniTV will work with any cable provider which provides CableCARDs and will pair them in consumer-owned devices.  This means any cable provider in the US including Time Warner, Comcast, Charter, FiOS and others. 

Q. Will this work with UVerse?

A.  No.  UVerse is an IPTV solution and does not use CableCARD.

Q. Will this work with Satellite providers like DirecTV or Dish Network?

A. No.  It will not work with satellite providers.

Q. Will this work in Canada?  Other countries?

A.  Generally no.  If your cable provider uses CableCARD and is willing to activate it in your own device, there is no reason it wouldn't work, however there is no legal requirement for them to do so (outside of the US).

Q. Does the Ceton InfiniTV support Switched Digital Video (SDV)?

A. The Ceton InfiniTV supports SDV through the use of a Tuning Adapter.  Scientific Atlanta/Cisco headends require one Tuning Adapter for every 2 channels (2 for the quad-tuner card).  Motorola headends require only 1 Tuning Adapter.

Q. What kind of CableCARD do I need?

A.  The Ceton InfiniTV requires a M-card (Multistream card).  S-cards are not capable of decrypting more than one channel at a time and are not supported.

Features

Q. How many channels can I watch/record at once?

A. The first Ceton InfiniTV tuner to be released will be a four-tuner model capable of recording 4 digital channels at once.  Ceton has indicated they have designs to support 2 and 6 simultaneous channels, but has not outlined their release plans for them.

Q. Does the Ceton InfiniTV tune analog channels?

A.  No.  The Ceton InfiniTV is a digital-only tuner.  Most cable providers simulcast analog channels in digital form, so for most customers, this is not an issue.  If your provider does not, traditional analog tuners can be used in conjunction with the Ceton InfiniTV.

Support and Requirements

Q. Does the Ceton InfiniTV work in Windows Vista?

A. The Ceton InfiniTV is only supported in Windows 7.

Q. Does the Ceton InfiniTV work on Mac or Linux?

A. OSX and Linux have not undergone the necessary CableLabs certification to support CableCARD devices, such as the Ceton MOCUR.

Q. Does the Ceton InfiniTV work with PVR software other than Windows Media Center?

A. No other PVR software has undergone the certifications necessary to support CableCARD devices.  Some other software (SageTV) may support using Windows Media Center to schedule recordings, however these recordings will still be tied to the PC they were recorded on unless they are marked "Copy Freely".

Q. Can I install more than one Ceton InfiniTV in the same PC?

A. Windows Media Center limits you to 4 tuners of the same type without the Advanced Entertainment Pack 2.0 (AEP 2.0) installed, so more than one InfiniTV 4 tuner will not be supported by Windows Media Center.  In addition to the limt of 4 CableCARD tuners, you can have tuners of other types (up to a limit of 4 each), such as ATSC, NTSC, ClearQAM, etc.

Q. Where can I get the Advanced Entertainment Pack 2.0?

A.  The AEP 2.0 is not available separately.  It is only available with the purchase of a PC from select OEMs.

Physical and Environmental

Q. Does the Ceton InfiniTV 4 have a fan?

A. The Ceton InfiniTV 4 does not have a fan.  Prototype versions did have a fan, however the shipping product will not have a fan.

Q. What interface does the Ceton InfiniTV 4 use?

A. The Ceton InfiniTV 4 is a low-profile, PCIe x1 card.  It will fit in larger (x4, x8, x16) slots, however there is no benefit.  There are no plans for a PCI model.

Q. What are the physical dimensions of the Ceton InfiniTV 4?

A.  The Ceton InfiniTV 4's dimensions are 7.85″ (L) x 2.535″ (H) x 0.68″ (W). << card should now be shorter due to removal of fan.  Awaiting updated dimensions from Ceton.

Networking

Q. Can I share the Ceton InfiniTV 4 over the network?

A. The InfiniTV 4 shows up as a network card on your PC and can be bridged to a network, just like any other NIC.  While this functionality is not officially supported, in general, it should work.

Q. Can I share the Ceton InfiniTV 4 between multiple PCs over the network, similar to how I share my HDHomeRun now?

A. No.  CableLabs requires that the entire OCUR device negotiate DRM pairing with only one PC at a time.  This limitation will apply to all MOCURs and is not a Ceton-specific limitation.  You can have multiple InfiniTV cards in a single machine and share them all out over a network to different machines, but each card can only pair to a single PC.

How hot does it get?  ATSC tuners seem to get rediculously hot, and frankly it would be a deal breaker for my slimline systems.

 (dumb question, I know, but if the thing works it's frankly my only concern)

1 tuner = 4 tv streams correct?

I do not have an answer for how hot it gets - my hardware is a prototype based on an FPGA.  Production hardware will use an ASIC and is supposed to run much cooler from what I've heard.

My unit is a prototype - the main unit sits on the PCIe bus and takes the CableCARD and also has 2 tuners.  I have 2 daughterboards on it that each hold 2 tuners, for a total of 6 (the maximum configuration).  Again, this is prototype hardware, not the production board.

That said, it is my understanding that the primary configuration the production units will be sold in is 4-tuner.  2 and 6 tuner configs are also possible, I'm not sure what Ceton's plans are to sell them though.

Great

1.  Does DRM maintain the access rights or does MCE control the CF type flags.  In other words can you share content with other devices in your house (specifically other PC's, excluding extenders)

2.  WHat's the minimal hardware config (assume cheapest)?

3.  Can you add additional tuners later after initial purchase?

4.   Channel change speed?  Faster/slower than ATI DCT.

5.  If #1 is maintained correctly, have you tried post processing apps like show analyzer.

6.  How mature is the firmware?

7.  Did you have to order new cable cards or did you reprovision your current card(s).  

8.  Can you run both Ceton and ATI DCT's on same PC?

Thanks in advance

erkotz:

My unit is a prototype - the main unit sits on the PCIe bus .......

Is this going to be like the ATI internal cards, needing USB and power or will this work off the PCI-E slot it sits in ?

Can you get me a copy of that "advanced entertainment pack" ? ...one can dream at least

What kind of resistance should I expect from the wife with this product?  

Does it work all the time, everytime or should I expect a call in the middle of the day saying the cable is out again?

When you say "It seems more sensative than the ATI units", what does that mean?

I have had great success with Vista set up with 8 tuners (6 analog and 2 HDHomerun) and had very few problems.  Is this is going to be something I have to tinker with every day or week? 

Will this be something that needs to "have the power cycled" often like the ATI units?

I am able to play CF content recorded with the Ceton MOCUR on other PCs

I don't know what the minimal hardware config is - my signature says what I'm running it on though.  I doubt going too much lower than that is a good idea.

Theoretically it is possible to add more tuners after the initial purchase - I do not know what Ceton's business plans are for this though.

Channel change speed is no faster or slower than the ATI units that I can tell, but it's been a while since I used the ATI units.

I have not yet tried any post processing apps, but I will give them a shot, hopefully this weekend

The firmware is getting to be pretty mature and based on my current experience, I fully expect it will be at least as reliable as the ATI solution (and likely more based on how responsive Ceton's engineering group has been to me).  This is my only tuner in my primary MCE and I would say we're pretty much at the point it passes the WAF test.

I used an M-card that I had in an old OCUR when I got this - I had to re-pair, but other than that, nothing new.

The Ceton MOCUR will coexist with ATI units just fine, however keep in mind the 4-tuner limit.  Both the Ceton and ATI units are considered the same type, so you will need the AEP (or a lot of trickery) to get more than 4 tuners working.

The Ceton card actually uses the PCIe bus (a x1 slot) - it does not use USB.  My card also uses a power connector for the daughterboard, but I do not believe the production cards will require this.

Nope, can't get you the AEP 2.0 :-)

By "more sensative than the ATI units" I mean I have tried everything under the sun to get the ATI units to not have signal quality issues, but once in a while I would still get video breakup.  The same feed does not have this problem on the Ceton unit.

I would expect that once this is released, you can set it and forget it.  Ceton's engineering group has taken issues I've reported very seriously and worked to fix all of them, and has done a good job of it.  My logic has pretty much been to beat the card up as hard as I can, because if I report the issue now it will be fixed and I won't have to deal with it.  I have a unique "ability" to break/crash things just by touching them it seems, so I'm hoping you guys will benefit from this with a stable card.   Based on my experience, I feel the card is getting pretty close to release-ready as far as stability goes..

To sum it up, based on using the card for 4 months, I would definately purchase a Ceton MOCUR at retail when they come out for the price range I expect to see them at.

I know its closed but how did you get into the beta?

Ultimately I got in the beta through my work.  I had been beta testing the SDV support of the ATI 1.19.12 firmware for a while and they hooked me up with the Ceton unit mainly because I had an SDV setup to test that.

 Thanks for all the responses.  A few more.

1.  Who  is your cable provider?

2.  How well does your cable provider support cable card.  Charter in South Cali is horrible.  They usually only have one or two when they come to install.  The install usually never works.  Since you already had one, it must have been much simpler.

3.  When asking about the minimum config, I was referring to the Ceton Tuner?  Two tuners is the minimum correct.

4.  Do you get overall performance  when you are recording on all tuners (i.e. bad recordings or media center is slow/sluggish).  Maybe a CPU meter number would be nice.  In my house, we can record four channels while simultaneously watching in another room.

Thanks.  Just waiting to purchase.  I am hoping this year.  hate to wait till CES!

1. Time Warner

2. They mostly "tolerate" them.  They insist on sending installers out for installs, but the installers generally have no training.

3. As far as I know, 2-tuners is the minimum config.

4. I've never hit a CPU limitation as far as recording/playing back TV (and I have one extender).

With 6 Tuners, how many have you had streaming to TVs concurrently?

 <-Very Jealous BTW.

What's the most you would value this tuner at (how much would you pay) from your experience with it?

I've recorded 6 HD streams while watching one of them on the local console.  I don't think I tried the extender while doing that, but I'm pretty sure I've done watching on extender + watching locally + recording 3 streams.  Never occured to me to try more.

I'd offer to test, but I'm actually down to 4 tuners at the moment - one of my TAs went bad and Time Warner says they are backordered :-(

As to value, I don't totally know to be honest.  For me, 6 tuners is overkill.  4 tuners is likely all I would pay for (unless the last 2 tuners were super-cheap...less than $100 more).

Given that right now a single tuner OCUR is almost $300 retail, if this were in that same price range it would be a no-brainer.  I would like to see (and this is purely me speculating, there is no fact to this whatsoever) it cost NO MORE than $200 for the base (2-tuner) model, plus $75/tuner (ie 2 tuners for $200, 4 for $350, 6 for $500).