[mythtv-users] Ceton vs HDHomerunPrime?

[Phil Bridges]

On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Steven Adeff <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 7:17 PM, Ronald Frazier <ron at ronfrazier.net> wrote:
>> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 3:45 PM, Phil Bridges <gravityhammer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Thanks for the response.  .26, maybe, for official Ceton support?
>>
>> The OCUR recorder has been pushed back and won't make it for 0.25.
>> I've been asked about the possibility of including my Ceton patch in
>> 0.25 as a temporary measure until the OCUR recorder is ready for 0.26.
>> I've been working on porting it over and I just got it fully working
>> in trunk last weekend. This weekend I'm making improvements and doing
>> some more extensive testing. I should be done with it soon. Whether or
>> not it will actually be included in 0.25 I can't say for sure yet. If
>> they decide not to include it, then I'll certainly make it available
>> for anyone that wants to patch it themselves.
>>
>> As far as the devices themselves, it's a bit of a tradeoff. Having the
>> 4th tuner for just a slightly higher price is definitely a huge bonus
>> in my case. There have been plenty of times when 3 tuners wasn't quite
>> enough. But I suppose that's going to be highly dependent on your
>> personal recording tendencies. Another advantage of the Ceton is that
>> it's internal, so there's no network activity. Even with gigabit
>> networking, I'd often have trouble where my HDHomerun (original, not
>> Prime) would crap out and drop packets when there was very high
>> network activity. To be fair, I can't say whether it was the fault of
>> my router, wiring, network card, OS, or what. With the ceton being
>> internal, I haven't had any problem like that.
>>
>> Advantage of the Prime is obviously that you can install it external
>> to your box, so nothing to do other than plug it into the network and
>> install the software. The ceton isn't much more difficult...plug it
>> into a slot, install the drivers, and reboot. Though obviously you
>> need to have a PCI-E slot available, there's always the possibility of
>> heat problems, and a few users have had things like DMA issues (though
>> I think those were mostly easily solved once identified). I read the
>> Silicon Dust forums for the first couple months after release and a
>> handful of users there were having issues with things, though much of
>> it was Windows DRM issues, and the rest I suspect were just initial
>> production issues (the Ceton's been out quite a bit longer so those
>> issues have been better worked out).
>
> I've got a Ceton with Ron's excellent patches and work. Flawless for
> me. I can't rave enough about the combination. I use all 4 tuners a
> lot (I have 4 housemates). I also like that it doesn't require a
> network connection or a wallwort. It's increased the usability of
> MythTV by leaps compared to firewire connected cable boxes.
>
> Also, newegg has it on sale right now for $259 + free shipping,
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815706001
>
>

$219 now.