Any Ceton Echo Reviews?

M

Madcodger

Active Member
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
 
I notice that the most recent reviews / comments of the Ceton Echo MCE extender are from about March, and very limited.  Have any Cocooners been using this product?  I installed an InfiniTV PCIe device several weeks ago in an effort to get rid of my Verizon Fios set top boxes and am very pleased with its operation using MCE on a Windows 7 machine built just for this.  But to replace the three other STBs in our house I'll need to use either Xboxes or something like the Echo.  I hope to avoid the Xbox as we're not gamers and it's both more expensive (Echos can be had for almost 50% off) and a greater consumer of power.  Any thoughts on how well it works, though?
 
Thanks!
 
 
I have a pair of Echos and overall they've been good.  I've started having problems but I think it is primarily due to my Comcast signal being weak.  I have two Ceton InfiniTV PCIes, one of which is from the initial batch.  I've been having problems with signal quality (digital artifacts during recording) and when I compare signal strength, the two InfiniTVs show differing signal strength.  So I think one of my InfiniTVs is having issues and I purchased a pair of SiliconDust Primes to replace and see if they are better (they at least use a full size coax connection).  I just need to do that. 
 
To answer you directly, I've had issues but not with the Echo.  I find it to be just as good or better than the Xbox 360 that is now sitting unplugged in my living room.
 
David
 
Unrelated to OP but related to migration from tuner cards to HD Homerun devices.
 
Here I utilize both kinds of HD Homerun devices (cable and OTA) with my MythTV box. 
 
I have now removed the OTA tuner inside of the MythTV box as the HDHomerun boxes work very well these days.
 
The  live TV / recording stuff on XBMC works well these days relating to live TV streaming and recording.  I have also been using little Aopen Digital Engines for my XBMC boxes running these with SSD's.
 
David and Pete,
 
Thank you for your replies and comments.  I'm finishing my testing of the InfiniTV and WMC this weekend, and if all is still good will order 3 Echos this week.  Will keep you posted!
 
Sorry for the slow response on this.  I was out camping all weekend.
 
I too have experience with the Infinitv 4 pcie, and a recent transition to an HDHR Prime.  The prime is MUCH faster to change channels.  I never had the need for the 4th tuner, but I got the Infinitv before the prime came out (when it cost me $400!!!).  My other issue with the ITV4 pcie was the tuning adapter always dropped after resuming from sleep.  I went through all the suggestions to prevent it, but it never worked right.  I haven't had a problem yet with the prime.  If you spend any time at thegreenbutton.tv, you'll see others have the same experience.
 
As far as your Echo question, I'd also suggest spending some time at thegreenbutton.tv.  They have an entire forum dedicated to it.  The summary is it works great as an extender (live tv, etc).  But it can have issues with ripped movies, depending on what settings you use.  I'm no expert on the Echo, as I don't own one... though I would own one if I felt more confident in Ceton.  They spent a lot of capital on trying to develop an android interface for the Echo and eventually abandoned the project.  Allegedly, there were some hardware components that wouldn't play well.
 
From a customer service standpoint, they used to have a pretty good dialogue on tgb.tv.  Ever since they started the Echo/Android project (Jan/Feb), I don't think they've released any firmware upgrades and they've been pretty hush-hush about future improvements to the Echo.  I believe most people's impression at tgb.tv is they don't expect any more improvements on the current hardware.
 
So, it comes down to how you plan to use the Echo.  If you're just into Live/Recorded TV, you should be fine.  If you are ripping blu-rays and experimenting with different encoding settings, you should probably do a little more homework.  - Good luck.
 
TheHoff - Fantastic stuff - thank you !

I hadn't even heard of HDHR Prime... I ended up with a PCIe 4 and just ordered two Echos, due to arrive today. Will try over weekend and if not workable Amazon is good about returns. My only goal is to replace my Verizon STBs, with DVR function in two of the four. Almost all TV is Verizon and Netflix for us, with almost no DVDs. I don't like the Verizon remotes, and the $ I spend are outrageous...

Will keep all posted.
 
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