in a few months i wil most likely be building 1 master Tuner box.

as COX is about to raise rates again, and im paying out $40 for 2 DVRs that have limited space and Tuning ability.
(only 2 tuners in each box, limited to 160GB in each box (limited by Cox in the Firmware, expansion ports are disabled)

I will prolly be building one with the Ceton Tuner (4 tuner w/ Cable Card), and set it up with a smaller water cooler, and put it next to the main TV in the Living Room/Den, from there My PC and my brother's will use the tuner via Networked Tuner (GBit/LAN) So I'll bite the price of building a 4 or 6 core PC for like $500, and drop $42.50 for 2/dvrs for a $4.99 Cable Card charge, and also have the ability to tune directly on my PC instead of being forced to the 2 tvs with DVRs, the 2nd HDTV is in the secondary/back Den where my brother's PC is, it'll be no problem moving HDMI from his Screen to the HDTV's when he wants to watch TV. Also will only be limited to space on the HDD, which will prolly be 1TB or 1.5TB.

We're happy with our setup.

The configuration we've been using almost since the beginning:

Wife's system has Ceton tuner with 2 tuners assigned to her computer. TV room HTPC has one tuner assigned -- used with plasma HDTV. My gaming system (one I'm on now) has one tuner assigned (rarely used). We can use all 4 tuners at once -- and we have.

As I mentioned above, occasional split-second artifacts in a picture -- particularly the computer connected using WiFi when the other tuners are also in use. They're normally a thin band that flashes across the screen for a second -- and they're a similar color to the image on the screen (like momentary scrambled pixels) so they don't "glare" at you. I'm to the point that I tune the occasional artifact out of my mind -- they were never a distraction to me.

I notice the Ceton price dropped to $200. They also have a USB box in place of the card also for $200 last time I looked. I'm sure it tries to work the same as the card; but, I don't own one so I don't know how well. Time/Warner cable was specifically set up for Ceton on their web page -- and a customer service person I worked with indicated it was a good unit in their opinion.

The issue is set up. Should be easy -- run Ceton software and it integrates with Media Center. But, Time/Warner had me going in circles on their end. Eventually, as mentioned above, they supplied a standard installation package with a tuning-adapter that works with 4 tuners simultaneously (no extra cost or hidden cost -- $3 a month total cost for the cable card). They were friendly over the phone but were confused on their end during activation. Hopefully, your cable company will make things less time consuming. I notice in customer comments that a lot of people have the same issue getting that first setup in place.

Repeating, overall, we're quite satisfied -- my wife loves it -- I'm sure she's watching right now on her system

what are the videos encoded too AVI? MP4?

They are encoded to wtv. wtv has a strong DRM that no one seems to have cracked for the public.

Most of the good stuff is DRMd. For example, if its something you can buy on a DVD or BluRay, its probably DRMd (e.g. movies and prime time series are DRMd, not sports usually). So, one can watch DRM only on the computer where it was recorded. You can move the DRM file to another computer, but it won't play. You can try to stream it using Media Center, but it won't play. Only way to play DRM content on another computer or TV in another room is with an "extender box" (XBox functions as an extender) or a long HDMI or DVI connector from the GPU to the monitor or TV.

Thus, the Ceton tuner comes with 4 tuners. Each tuner can be assigned to a different computer (even though the card is in only one computer). That way each computer in the house (up to 4), can record and playback the "good stuff".

Many daily shows are NOT DRMd and can be copied, moved, or streamed to other computers. Watching those on other computers is VERY easy because Media Center is designed to watch media located on other computers on the LAN. Those are also in wtv format -- but the DRM is not active. Those can be easily converted from wtv to AVI or MPG with free converter software.

I’m looking at prices and making a "wishlist" on new egg, im at about $540 ish,
The main board I chose has an onboard GPU, but i dont know if it will be strong enough to do HDTV streams.

this prolly wont happen till summer, as Im still working on finishing my system (the rest of the screens etc). and I need a new TV for the living area anyway.

But one $500 unit controlling 4 tuners, I'll make that price up in a year of not having to pay $42 for the 2 Motorola boxes.

I dont think any tuners will be in use for WiFi, i may assign 2 tuners to the living area TV, and 1 to each PC on the GBLan/Router.
We have an Xbox 360 hooked to another TV on the same router that we can use as an extender.

As for Artifacts, I get those aplenty with the Motorola boxes we have now, a few channels have been unwatchable for almost a year now, but cox says the signal levels are fine, and My tests say the same thing, But These boxes have been part of Cox’s fleet since 2004, and I seriously doubt a Firmware update will make S.D.V. work on them as sometimes the channels work, but most of the time the Motorola Box says they are off air or they show like 1 frame with a scrambled image.

Cox has been promising to activate the eSATA/USB2 ports for years to be used as external storage, but it never happens. They've switched the On Screen guide provider at least 3 times since 2008.

I'd be happy with Windows Media Center Guide, and have Internet TV, Live TV, Recorded TV on 1 system.

Then Again, they have these coming out soon:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/ceton-announces-multi-room-dvr-and-echo-extender-hands-on/


Main Box, 6 Tuners
http://cetoncorp.com/products/ceton_q/

Media Extenders:
http://cetoncorp.com/products/echo/

I've usually bought MB with on board video (can't get on board video with 9xx series chips).

On board video does work with TV in my experiments (many games are slide-shows). I have read that on board cannot provide the highest level of Blu-ray -- which seems to need the decoding speed provided by a separate video HD5xxx and above card. Blu-Ray plays, but features of the codec may not all be available. So, those with golden eyes might be disappointed with on board video when playing the highest resolution movies. I have not tried Blu-Ray with on board video.

On two of our HDTV, to cover myself, I simply bought the cheapest AMD HD5xxx graphics card on sale ($30 to $50 -- now one would be looking at HD6xxx). The most recent HTPC, I splurged on the HD7750.

P.S. That Ceton product looks interesting. Hopefully, the technology will continue to improve.

it looks good, but determining factor is price, if its over $500 then i can just build my own.

funny, when i posted on cox's boards my plans, they were the ones that recommended the Ceton Q/Echo boxes.

The Q is the main box w/ 6 tuners, Windows Media Center Core, 2TB HDD, BluRay Player etc.

The Echo is the Extender that works with Live TV and Recorded shows,

the Q and Echo's both Link with any available Windows 7 PCs Libraries.

Tried Blu-Ray yesterday (watched a recent movie on our 54" Plasma). Looks just as good as playing it with our Panasonic Blu-Ray player -- directly to the Panasonic Plasma.

Used the PowerDVD 9 software that came free with the LG Blu-Ray DVD optical drive. No problem.

LG Blu-Ray Optical Drive

The drive only cost me $40 delivered because of a $10 "promo", a $10 gift card, and free shipping that day. Bargain of the century (slightly exaggerated ) for an HTPC optical drive. Even at the regular price, I think its worth it (not selling them ).

is there an online guide for setting tuners to the LAN on the USB Version?
(EDIT: Found the PDFs on Ceton's Site......)