KGROPPE:

 I am seeing alot of people build HTPCs with SSDs.  This seems like a waste.  The speed benefit of a SSD are not needed on an HTPC.  I would even say 4 GB of ram is wasted as well.  Am I missing something? 

 

I think this is a good sign for Ceton.  Someone obviously sent Amazon a picture for that page. 

People aren't trying to turn thier HTPCs into speed demons . One of the nice things about SSD is that they can wake and resume much quicker then a mechanical hard drive from S3. They load applications much quicker. The system tends to be more responsive because it doen't have to wait for the mechanical hard drive to access the platters. I have a friend that uses an SSD, and there appears to be a notable difference in response time, and they are much more quiet then a mechanical drive as well. I have one that I will be using in my next HTPC upgrade when the Ceton card is available for sale. They behave much more like a CE device.

Ram is so cheap why hog tie yourself to less then 4GB if you run a 32bit system. I bought an HP system just for the sake of having cable card. It came with 3GB of ram, and it runs just fine as far as I can tell, but when I upgrade soon, I'll just add 4GB.

 That makes sense.  I thought you had to record local though before you could ship it to another computer on the network for storage. 

KGROPPE:

 I am seeing alot of people build HTPCs with SSDs.  This seems like a waste.  The speed benefit of a SSD are not needed on an HTPC.  I would even say 4 GB of ram is wasted as well.  Am I missing something? 

The amount of RAM is very dependent on your media library and setup. With extenders and large movie libraries you'll see a big benefit of the extra memory. And the price difference between 2GB and 4GB is minimal, ~$100 for good 4GB of DDR3.

Have you tried a SSD in your HTPC? If not, how can you say it is a waste? 1- Incredibly fast starup\resume\suspend. This is very important to me to match a CED experience. 2- No noise. 3- Very little heat. 3- Faster Media Center GUI response (minimal). The price is high and it is not needed for a good experience but it is definitely not wasted. With a SSD my wife and kids will not noticed the difference between using the HTPC when it is on and waking from sleep.

KGROPPE:

 That makes sense.  I thought you had to record local though before you could ship it to another computer on the network for storage. 

You don't though it is recommended. If your SSD does not have enough room to temporarily store the recordings then a 2nd data drive just for recording is a cheap addition. Any decent SSD drive will out last your computer as long as it supports TRIM.

kurros:

The Amazon listing is pulled. I noticed the CyberEStore.com one was too. Is Ceton doing a cease and desist on these listings or something?

 They removed it from my wishlist too... But I still want it.

Dan

orum:

kurros:

The Amazon listing is pulled. I noticed the CyberEStore.com one was too. Is Ceton doing a cease and desist on these listings or something?

 They removed it from my wishlist too... But I still want it.

 

Dan

Wish harder?!  Either way, I am really getting excited to see all these big name OEM partners.  It really gives the Ceton tuner a better shot at mass market success than the ATI card had the whole time it was supported.  I am not certian it will reach those heights, but they are doing everything to help it.  I am impressed and cannot wait to see what happens.

Jonny561201:

Wish harder?!  Either way, I am really getting excited to see all these big name OEM partners.  It really gives the Ceton tuner a better shot at mass market success than the ATI card had the whole time it was supported.  I am not certian it will reach those heights, but they are doing everything to help it.  I am impressed and cannot wait to see what happens.

 The ATI tuner was never meant to be sold at retail unless it was part of a whole PC.  

rlobianco:

The ceton tuner is going to be delayed. They still don't even have cablelabs certification and I doubt they will start production without that! It would be nice if they gave us some sort of update on when it will actually be released.

Ahhh...only 2.5 more weeks until people can stop with all of the assuming and guessing.  Not sure if Im looking more forward to that or the actual release.  This thread has become pretty silly, for the most part.  Its like Jr. High and boy/girl rumors and gossip.  It's quite entertaining even if its not very informative.

Personally, I'm not going to buy it ON release date.  I'll wait to watch the reports here before I decide to buy.  I've been burned too many times buying the first version of a new product right when it comes out, like purchasing a Corsair X256 SSD based on corporate statements that Trim support will be available at the Win7 release...which it wasn't until last month.  So for over 7 months I had a $800 HD that had to be backed up and reformatted every few weeks to get decent speed out of it until the firmware supplier could come up with an update utility that would enable the trim support.  Lesson learned, never buy anything until you can read end user reviews and see if it really does everything you want it to.  I appreciate all of the early adopters who will be doing that for me.  You rock.

It will ship when it ships.  Even though we are in an exponential period of growth (for all technologies) various factors always come into play.  Put your $399 in a safe place and just wait.

rlobianco:

The ceton tuner is going to be delayed. They still don't even have cablelabs certification and I doubt they will start production without that! It would be nice if they gave us some sort of update on when it will actually be released.

if you're going by the cablelabs certified devices list (which is dated last August 2009) I wouldn't put too much faith in it. They'll update it when they want. You'll notice that there aren't many dates on that page and not a lot of explanations as to what the certifications mean such as "paper". I know that my JVC tv with cablecard was "self-veritfied" and never went thru cablelabs.

Since samples are showing up here and there for review, I'd put more value on it getting close to being put on sale.

John

I'd have to agee with John. I can smell the circuit boards.

KGROPPE:

 I am seeing alot of people build HTPCs with SSDs.  This seems like a waste.  The speed benefit of a SSD are not needed on an HTPC.  I would even say 4 GB of ram is wasted as well.  Am I missing something? 

I will use the SSD as the system drive.  As said, faster startup and shutdown, better GUI performance on MC and extenders, quicker library loads for music and movies, better image caching.  As far as buffering the TV to the SSD, I just don't know.  That's all writes, and writes is not where the SSD shines.  It's random reads where it kicks butt.  No head thrashing when reading registry entries, swap file, and thumbnail files.  I plan to trim down Windows 7 for just Media Center (see www.hack7mc.com), and keep a copy of the SSD image on the HD for recovery if needed.  I may be able to get away with a 40GB SSD, which would save $100.  Plus, I may be able to spin down the HD when not recording TV to save power, heat, and noise.  We'll have to see how well it all works.