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Ceton Announces New Partners, Rebate Through June

post #1 of 7
Thread Starter 
Ceton announces price cuts, rebates, more providers for their InfiniTV digital cable TV solution..wow. And the war for the next gen media center is ON

Read about the Ceton InfiniTV 4 price reductions.
Quote:
KIRKLAND, WA — June 6, 2011 — Ceton Corporation today announced that their best-selling line of InfiniTV digital cable TV solutions is now available for immediate purchase through four additional retail partners. Micro Center, the Microsoft Store, Newegg and Velocity Micro join existing retailers Amazon, Cannon PC, Fluid Digital and Zones as authorized retailers for Ceton solutions. In addition, the company has added D&H Distributing as a distribution partner for retailers, systems builders and OEMs who wish to offer Ceton products. In celebration of its expanding retail footprint, Ceton also announced a special $100 promotion for new InfiniTV purchases made before June 30, 2011. Anyone purchasing a new InfiniTV 4 product through one of the authorized retailers listed above between June 6 and June 30, 2011 will receive a $100 instant rebate at the time of purchase.

“The addition of leading PC and consumer electronics distributors and retailers like D&H Distributing, Micro Center, the Microsoft Store, Newegg and Velocity Micro to our roster of partners is indicative of the broad interest we’re seeing in bringing multi-tuner digital cable TV to the PC. We’re excited to offer a special customer promotion to celebrate this important milestone,” said Gary Hammer, president and chief executive officer of Ceton Corp. “In addition to selling our currently-shipping InfiniTV 4 product, these partners will be well positioned to meet the demand expected for our upcoming InfiniTV 4 USB and InfiniTV 6 solutions in the coming months.”

A Ceton InfiniTV-equipped PC with Network Tuners enabled makes exciting new entertainment scenarios possible in the home, including:

Up to 4 different PCs, or TVs using Media Center Extenders, can each receive live HDTV cable programming from a single InfiniTV 4-equipped PC, all from one cable TV coax connection (up to 6 PCs will be supported by the company’s upcoming InfiniTV 6 model).
Live cable TV programming can be delivered to laptops, Tablet PCs, and All-in-One PCs without a PCIe slot. Now premium cable TV movies and programs can be recorded on the laptop or Tablet PC and watched later on the plane, in the car, at the airport, or on the go.
Connect your Xbox 360 as a Media Center Extender for whole-home entertainment. Watch part of a recording in one room, pause, and begin right where you left off in another room.
Additional tuners can be added to the home entertainment environment by adding additional InfiniTV devices, in either internal or external form factors, to the home network.

About Ceton Corporation

Ceton Corporation is developing the next-generation of in-home digital entertainment and communication solutions. Combining stellar hardware and software engineering capabilities with market-making, patent-pending technology, Ceton aims to help unlock the potential of the digital home to unleash a new generation of in-home connected entertainment and communication services for PC and device makers, software developers and consumers. More information about Ceton and its solutions is available at http://www.cetoncorp.com.

This is a FANTASTIC announcement. Combined with more retailers, discounted price, if you've ever thought about a Ceton, NOW may be the time.

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post #2 of 7
Thread Starter 
Links to where you can buy the Ceton InfiniTV at the new price:

NewEgg

MicroCenter: (289 after rebate, I called and confirmed)

Amazon:


So, $299 is now the official price. Great news for those wanting a do-it-all media center at a lower cost.
post #3 of 7

Outstanding!  Thanks Matt.  I may finally have to swap out my 4 ATI Tuners.

post #4 of 7

Hi all,

 

First post here but I've been reading for a couple of weeks now. I can't say enough good about the Centon tuner. Install was easy and it works well. Even the cable guy got the card paired up fairly quick. He was pretty impressed with it. I'm a bit bummed though, I just ordered mine last Monday from Amazon. I wish I would have waited another week and saved $100. Oh well, it's still worth the $399. I'm recording a bunch of mandatory kid shows and then I have the pleasure of dumping my two DVR's off at the cable company.

 

Steve

post #5 of 7

While I was running an incubation team at Microsoft for Windows Media Center, we did extensive performance testing with these tuner cards in an eight tuner configuration.  This is when we were participating in the now defunct Media Center Integrators Alliance (MCIA). 

 

If you are interested in getting to eight tuners, there is a "solution" out there called Tuna Salad that will allow you put two of the bad boy Ceton's in your HTPC!

 

What we tested was very specific to be able to handle eight tuners:

 

In today's terms it would be the following (WMC/HTPC was a dedicated machine, was not used to display video-headless -- all video was coming from XBox 360's as MCX's).

 

CPU:  iCore 7 (any SKU will work)

Memory:  8gb RAM minimum

Network:  Intel 1gb NIC (we had problems with other brands)

Switch: Netgear GS116   -- be more than happy to have a seperate thread on why you need this switch

GPU:  Not important because HTPC is headless

HDD:  SATA for storage of HD video files, SSD for W7 drive (trust me, it's worth having a 128GB SSD for W7 files)

 

 

post #6 of 7
Just what I was waiting for. Ordered all the parts, including the Ceton card, yesterday for my HTPC. Gonna put it together this weekend and hopefully by late next week, I'll be enjoying some four tuner goodness. smile.gif
post #7 of 7
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Collins View Post

While I was running an incubation team at Microsoft for Windows Media Center, we did extensive performance testing with these tuner cards in an eight tuner configuration.  This is when we were participating in the now defunct Media Center Integrators Alliance (MCIA). 

 

If you are interested in getting to eight tuners, there is a "solution" out there called Tuna Salad that will allow you put two of the bad boy Ceton's in your HTPC!

 

What we tested was very specific to be able to handle eight tuners:

 

In today's terms it would be the following (WMC/HTPC was a dedicated machine, was not used to display video-headless -- all video was coming from XBox 360's as MCX's).

 

CPU:  iCore 7 (any SKU will work)

Memory:  8gb RAM minimum

Network:  Intel 1gb NIC (we had problems with other brands)

Switch: Netgear GS116   -- be more than happy to have a seperate thread on why you need this switch

GPU:  Not important because HTPC is headless

HDD:  SATA for storage of HD video files, SSD for W7 drive (trust me, it's worth having a 128GB SSD for W7 files)

 

 


That's a pretty high end configuration there.

Really, for the Ceton, and most readers, I've found this is the general logic from all my testing:

Figure 1GB of RAM over a 2GB Base for each Extender. So, you can power 2 extenders at 4GB (which should be the minimum) and more as you go.

If you are using your HTPC as a livingroom unit (with a TV as a head), which most users are doing, you can safely record about 5 programs at once on a decently fast 2TB HDD as your video drive. Keep your video drive and your boot drive seperate. While SSD is nice (and does make the experience better) it's not a requirement. A decent HDD will handle you just fine - just remember to NOT have your recordings on the same HDD as your OS. that is the single most important thing.

If you're going to share your network, remember XBOX360s are 10/100, but that doesn't mean you want your HTPC or switch to be 10/100. Gigabit switches are very worthwhile! I'm very interested in your thoughts on the Netgear..

Measure your throughput! I have no trouble transferring files between my WHS and my HTPC @ about 50-85MB/s, which is about where I should be on a gigabit network; a little bit less then ideal, but with multiple devices on our network, I tend to view it as acceptable.

High end processors HELP but even basic shipping processors will control a Ceton. I've had no trouble with an AMD Fusion E350 (Zacate) or Intel Atom+Ion handling a Ceton. My personal recommend right now is an Intel I3-2100 + an H67 Motherboard. It's a good fit, low power usage, and it's nice and stable.. the onboard video may not cut through games, but QuickSync is a great transcoder, the HDMI successfully manages DTS/DD/DTS-MA/DD-HD, and it has enough get up to do what I want quickly.

Value a GOOD CASE. A GOOD CASE helps make your HTPC look right in your living room. Going cheap makes it look like a PC in your livingroom. A great case makes it look like a piece of audio equipment.

Two of the most beautiful cases (to me) are the Moneaul and the Zalman

500

500

500

Good cases look good in your livingroom, they look like AV equipment, and because they are correctly designed, it's easier to keep them quiet. The bane of a HTPC is a LOUD PC which deters the fun of watching a film.
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Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Other Diversions › Computers and HTPC › Ceton Announces New Partners, Rebate Through June