Ceton Tuner and HTPC VM

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Wed, 08/31/2011 - 7:32pm

welchwerks

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Joined: 10 Jan 2010

Ceton Tuner and HTPC VM

Is it possible, has anyone tried it?

before i go yanking my ceton out of my HTPC that is working great, im interested in the possibility of putting it in my 2008 R2 monster server and mapping it to my HTPC VM that i use for commercial skipping now. thanks Andrew. M.R.

i already have the HTPC vm output the xml's to the WHS 2011 recorded tv folder and have the DVRMS add-in run on the client htpc works great. Thanks Missing Remote.

so i gues the short question is has anyone passed thru the ceton to a VM of Windows 7 Ultimate ?

Thu, 09/08/2011 - 11:14am

rew22

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Joined: 27 Jan 2011

I have a Ceton card installed on R2 with W7 Ultimate VM as my HTPC. I've been using it this way for over a month now but I have had a couple of issues.

I get the 'service unavailable' error a couple of times a day and need to reboot the vm in order for the tv to work again.

On playback every couple of minutes the playback (recorded tv only) would slow down and I would need to do a quick skip fwd and play to get it back to normal. I switched to have the shows archived to WHS and the playback from there has been much better.

I've read where others have it working without these problems but that's been my experience so far.

I have the Ceton card networked and that's how my VM accesses it. I only playback via xbox extenders so I don't think I need it networked but haven't successfully been able to pass the card directly to the VM without the network bridge yet.

Thu, 09/08/2011 - 10:27pm

(Reply to #2) #3

welchwerks

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Joined: 10 Jan 2010

Thanks, for the confermation, ceton pcie in 08 R2 and network sharing them to the VM. next time i do a bare metal ill be giving it a try.

Thu, 09/08/2011 - 10:29pm

Michael Welter

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Joined: 19 Mar 2007

The pass-through does give better performance but network tuner setup is easier. If you do use the network-tuner model then bridge it with an internal or private virtual network work so there is no risk of latency from the network.

Mikinho | Missing Remote | Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

Tue, 10/25/2011 - 5:06pm

FantaXP7

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Joined: 10 Mar 2011

I have a linux server. I have been trying to find info on intel VT-D and it is interesting. I hope that I can setup a windows virtual machine and use VT-D to use the ceton card there. I would like to keep it in my server since it is on all the time.

Tue, 10/25/2011 - 6:33pm

(Reply to #5) #6

Michael Welter

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Joined: 19 Mar 2007

You can also take a look at our Linux drivers: http://cetoncorp.com/infinitv_support/linux-drivers/

Mikinho | Missing Remote | Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

Tue, 10/25/2011 - 6:38pm

(Reply to #6) #7

FantaXP7

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Joined: 10 Mar 2011

mikinho wrote:

You can also take a look at our Linux drivers: http://cetoncorp.com/infinitv_support/linux-drivers/

Thanks for the reply and link.

I remember seeing linux drivers however I thought that cable card channels wouldn't work? Also could this stream to my HTPCs? I run windows on those...

Wed, 10/26/2011 - 10:05am

(Reply to #7) #8

Michael Welter

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Joined: 19 Mar 2007

You can get Copy Freely channels, just not protected content. This may or may not be useful depending on your cable provider and market.

You can setup network bridging in Linux using bridge-start but it isn't officially supported and I can't comment on the reliability as I haven't done it myself.

In terms of Windows VM usage and bridging my biggest recommendation is use Intel network cards, just not the Intel PRO/1000 GT (a horrible, unsupported network card).

There are a couple issues with Network Bridging, most have to do with network card drivers not implementing all the interfaces needed for proper bridging.

Mikinho | Missing Remote | Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

Wed, 10/26/2011 - 12:17pm

Aaron Ledger

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Joined: 6 Aug 2010

If you wondering whether your provider applies Copy Once to anything, check out our list of providers and status. We don't have every market yet, but maybe yours is already there.

Senior Editor | @swoon_

Thu, 10/27/2011 - 4:41pm

(Reply to #9) #10

FantaXP7

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Joined: 10 Mar 2011

Thanks for the great info guys.

I think I might have to give up on this, or consider switching to a windows server.

I feel like the Ceton card in my HTPC slows it down just a little bit. I am running a core i5 with 8gb of memory so it's a decent system...So maybe it is the I/O of the NIC card?

Thu, 10/27/2011 - 4:50pm

(Reply to #10) #11

Michael Welter

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Joined: 19 Mar 2007

In what way do you see a slowdown? The NIC only comes into play if you are using Network Tuner usage. With just about any NIC other than an Intel (and not the Intel PRO/1000 GT) then it is possible that it slows it down some due to crappy drivers.

Mikinho | Missing Remote | Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

Thu, 10/27/2011 - 7:54pm

(Reply to #11) #12

FantaXP7

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Joined: 10 Mar 2011

mikinho wrote:

Thanks for the response.

Yes I am using that HTPC to stream to others in the house. I am confused with how you worded your statement about NICs. So all Intel NICs are good except the one you list above? Could you possibly suggest a certain NIC that I should get?

Thanks

Thu, 10/27/2011 - 8:23pm

(Reply to #12) #13

Michael Welter

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Joined: 19 Mar 2007

I'm sure there are other crappy Intel NICs but the majority are good. Below is my preference:

Below is the list of Intel network cards I recommend in ascending price order

PCIe - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033

PCIe - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106011

Dual PCIe - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106071

Mikinho | Missing Remote | Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

Thu, 10/27/2011 - 8:52pm

(Reply to #13) #14

FantaXP7

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Joined: 10 Mar 2011

Cool, I appreciate it. I'll probably try out the last one. I never thought much of NICs for home servers and my HTPC with Ceton distributing through the house.

Fri, 10/28/2011 - 11:16pm

(Reply to #14) #15

lowry

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Joined: 30 Dec 2010

FantaXP7 wrote:

Cool, I appreciate it. I'll probably try out the last one. I never thought much of NICs for home servers and my HTPC with Ceton distributing through the house.

You are using a Linux based server, right? So, I'm guessing you are using KVM as the virtual machine platform? If that's the case, you want to use VIRTIO drivers for your NIC and disks in any Windows based VM. It gives near native performance in the Windows VM.

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 11:27am

(Reply to #15) #16

FantaXP7

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Joined: 10 Mar 2011

lowry wrote:

FantaXP7 wrote:

Cool, I appreciate it. I'll probably try out the last one. I never thought much of NICs for home servers and my HTPC with Ceton distributing through the house.

Thanks for the response. So that would solve possible NIC related issued. So to recap, I would have the windows KVM utilize the Ceton Tuner via Intel Virtualization VT-D and use VIRTIO drivers so that network I/O is good? Would this setup theoretically work? I think I would rather go this route as setting up with Linux sounds to be a pain.

On the other hand I could maybe install another NIC just for that windows KVM and use Intel VT-D.

I have never played around with Intel VT-D but it intrigues me with it's possibilities...

Thu, 02/09/2012 - 8:55am

#17

FantaXP7

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Joined: 10 Mar 2011

Ok I have another theoretical setup.

What about a USB version of the Ceton tuner? I would think you could skip Intel VT-D this way and use VIRTIO drivers.

Sat, 02/11/2012 - 7:03pm

(Reply to #17) #18

Michael Welter

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Joined: 19 Mar 2007

It works but I haven't found the VIRTIO drivers to be very stable in my limited experience. Have you tried it out?

Mikinho | Missing Remote | Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

Ceton Tuner and HTPC VM

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