IR Code for Comcast DC50X DTA? - Page 3

In this case, extract_rtv5 will extract files from the second partition (the MPEG partition), which isn't what you want. The -p1 option needs to be used to extract a file from the first partition (system partition):

extract_rtv5 -p1 -e /name/system/user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irCodeset/C0237fi.rid


It defaults to the source name, but even though it's not in the help screen (I need to add it), you can specify a destination path after the source path:

extract_rtv5 -p1 -e /name/system/user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irCodeset/C0237fi.rid C0237fi.rid


Without specifying the partition it will prompt for the partition, which is partition 1. To alleviate the prompt for the partition, the -p option can be used:

extract_rtv5 -p1 -w /name/system/user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irCodeset/C0237fi.rid C0237fi.rid


Actually, all extract_rtv5 without a device name does is to iterate the operating system's hard drive device names for you looking for an RTV hard drive. It is very specific about finding an RTV hard drive, so it would be very unlikely for it to discover the operating system's boot drive or any of the operating system's hard drives as RTV hard drives (just like RTVPatch). So, adding the partition specification, this would look like:

extract_rtv5 -p1 -w /name/system/user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irCodeset/C0237fi.rid C0237fi.rid

Henry

Hmm, it really has been years since I've used that program!

Thanks for clearing that up, hdonzis. I felt compelled to post some kind of step-by-step for alternate methods, but had hoped not to butcher it quite so badly. Now I'm reluctant to clean-up my previous post (which only took 3 days to approve) for fear of further adding to the confusion. OK, I've now corrected my previous post.

On the plus-side I've now achieved that transcendent 3-post requirement for including URLs in my messages (Thanks spammers!). (Oh, I forgot about 1 of my posts. That hurdle was already cleared.)
Keep your eyes peeled for some whiz-bang edits of my former URLs! LOL

-eslave

Quite honestly, I thought your post was great! And, technically, I only corrected one small mistake in your entire instructions, which was extracting the backup RID file. So, I think the best thing would be to leave your post as is (with your comments about specifying the device, although I don't know if a noobie would understand how to specify the device) and just fix the command line for extracting the backup RID file and overstoring the RID file with the -p1 option. I wouldn't even bother to mention about putting a different destination path on backing up the RID file and just go with it storing the file in the current directory and then you can move it or rename it or whatever...

You can decide about specifying the device name or not. I usually instruct people just to run with the command options because extract_rtv5 does all the work of detecting the RTV hard drive and makes it easy for everyone. I myself rarely specify the device name unless I am testing something...

And, now that you can post URLs, as long as you are editing the post, you can update the SourceForge links!

Henry

Guys like dontcareavs (aka eslave) and hdonzis are what makes the RTV community so special! Thanks a million for sharing your deep expertise.

Would this work?:

Can I take my 300 gig IDE hard drive out of my RTV 4504, mail it to some kind RTV soul, who can add the Pace IR blaster codes to help get my RTV 4504 up and running with this new Comcast Digital Box?

I was able to ... update my hard drive, before I got ride my my PC. Now, all I have is my old G4 Mac.

Happy to help pay for the service too if it can be done that way.

Please email with details if you can help. I'm on west coast (oregon)

cheers
avespdx@gmail.com

Extract_rtv5 and extract_rtv run fine on the Mac. So, you can follow dontcareavs' excellent instructions for putting the RID file on the hard drive using your Mac (the device name is different on the Mac, but you can just let extract find the drive for you by simply leaving out the device name)...

Henry

What's the easiest way to do it over the network from a Mac?

The biggest problem with using a Mac is getting the copy command to execute. Get the RID file on the RTV over the network from a Mac is a piece of cake. But, I don't know what else besides WiRNS can remotely execute the copy command because the net connect has to be intercepted. There are Ian's scripts for intercepting the net connect, so that may be possible. Short of that, using PTVIO serially is the only OS independent way to go. But, that is also a catch-22 because you need to execute some commands on the RTV to get the terminal operating...

Maybe someone else has some idea how to execute the copy command from a Mac?

Henry

My replay now works with the pace box. The director structure on the replay is different than in your instructions. Mr .rid file was in

extract_rtv5 -p1 -w /user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irCodeset/C0237fi.rid C0237fi.rid

There were no name or system folders before the user folder.

extract_rtv5 -p1 -w /name/system/user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irCodeset/C0237fi.rid C0237fi.rid

I extracted the entire 1st partition to my c drive to examine it, and found this out. Then the file copied fine as before I had an error.

Thanks for all your work.

Maybe this will help some people out. I don't know why mine would be different.

Dtportnoy

Yours isn't different, your path is correct. I think that "/name/system" came from the shell command and I didn't notice that when I critiqued it the first time...

Hopefully dontcareavs will go back and update his post...

Henry

Thanks to all for the instructions on how to get the Pace DC50X working with my Replay(particularly dontcareavs for the working files). I used the one file method and successfully have one of the two Replays working.

The only thing preventing me from getting the second Replay working is the lack of an IR Blaster. Does anyone know if the blasters that were included with the DC50X can be modified to work with the Replay? Is the only difference the stereo vs. mono plug?


Thanks again.

Mark

The device packed with the DC50X is not an IR blaster. It is an IR receiver.

I think you're right, dtportnoy. I seem to remember stumbling over a path issue at one point ... many years ago - its all gone foggy now.

I'm guessing the mount-point for partition 1 is '/name/system', which is why the shellcmd works with the full path. Since extract_rtv works with raw partitions you'll need to drop the prefix.

I'll update the instructions.

-eslave

I installed both the C0237fi.rid and C2009fi.rid files using the edited iso file, however, I have no joy. The 0237 code seems to not work at all with my DC50X, and the 2009 code only partially works. (Clearly, I made an error somewhere since I've verified that except for the differences between the values 237 and 2009, the files are identical, so they should behave identically.) I did get the clock and cpu toggles, so I think the script ran to completion. The 2009 code appears to send only the last digit of the channel to the DC50X. E.g., if I set the ReplayTV to channel 56, the DC50X only shows the 6, if I set it to 104, the DC50X only shows the 4 (and changes the channel accordingly). Curiously, the 2009 code seems to send "7" in place of "8" and "8" in place of "9". I've played with the fine tuning parameters setting the inter-character timing anywhere from 50ms all the way up to 1000ms. As I recall, it didn't work at all with values less than 200ms, and values above that had no effect on the fact that only the last digit makes it into the DC50X.

I constructed my own IR Blaster using the LED from an old control. Since I don't know that it's working properly (though I see it blinking with a digital camera), I've ordered a commercial IR Blaster which should arrive near the end of the week. Could my kludged IR Blaster be the culprit? How sensitive are IR receivers to the frequency of the transmitter? Do IR transmitters/receivers use widely varying frequencies?

If you can give me an idea for something else to try, I'd be grateful. Thanks to dontcareavs for providing the files and instructions and to everyone who posted their success (or failure) stories which give me some hope that this can be solved!

I reloaded the files and now the 0237 code works (and doesn't work) just like the 2009 code. I'm wondering if there are multiple revisions of the DC50X? The one I have has a part number of B3748416000.

Is there some easy way to copy the .rid files back to the photo directory in the shellcmds file? Here's the file I'm using:

AppShell ToggleClock
cp -f /name/storage/Photo/install/ircodes /name/system/user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irbdata/ircodes
cp -f /name/storage/Photo/install/ircodesRaw /name/system/user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irbdata/ircodesRaw
cp -f /name/storage/Photo/install/C0237fi.rid /name/system/user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irCodeset/C0237fi.rid
cp -f /name/storage/Photo/install/C2009fi.rid /name/system/user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irCodeset/C2009fi.rid
AppShell ToggleCpuMeter
In order to see if the file was somehow corrupted, I tried adding this line just after the ircodesRaw copy, but it caused the script to fail:

cp -f /name/system/user/mirror/sys-setup-gaea/data/irCodeset/C0237fi.rid /name/storage/Photo/install/X0237fi.rid
Any idea why?

cdobson2000, that's the same part number (B3748416000) of the DTA's I'm working with. Unless your RTV's HDD is corrupting files then each copy should behave identically - depending on your fine-tuning adjustments. BTW, you only need one copy of that RID on your RTV, but having more shouldn't hurt. My only guesses off-hand are bad IR angle, poor wiring, or an IR LED that needs more/less power than the RTV is providing.

With respect to wiring I once connected my RTV's IR-blaster port directly to my computer's serial port in order to use winLIRC with a tuner card (the computer's TV output going into the RTV's s-video input). After spending an embarrassing length of time troubleshooting I realized that tying LEFT/RIGHT together over a 30 foot stereo extension was cutting the effective power throughput in half (~1.7V). After rewiring to keep the left-side signal separate from the right there was enough power for winLIRC to properly detect my RTV's IR-blaster output. (I guess RS232 TTL levels are 3.3V+)

Not all LED power requirements are equal. Some older LEDs require more voltage/current before radiating any light. The over-priced Radio-Shack LED's (part# 276-0143) I used for both of my RTVs only needs 1.2V@100mA to do its thing. This made initial polarity testing with a AAA battery very easy (but only keep it on for less than a second or it may burn-out without a load resister - a circuit consisting of only a battery and diode is technically a short-ciruit). I've read the DC50X's built-in IR receiver may be overly sensitive (to Tivo) and that some people have experienced success using the DTA's included extender. I personally haven't bothered fiddling with the thing.


I'm not certain, the RTV command-line is very unforgiving (as in stupid). Typically either the source path/file didn't exist or the target path didn't exist. Maybe WiRNS sent the shellcmds with a DOS style CR-LF instead of UNIX style? Nope, all my old shellcmd files have CR-LF's in them. I agree that copying the file off your RTV for comparison would be a good check. Maybe your HDD really is corrupted? Hard to tell from where I'm sitting, but I eventually got so frustrated with repeatedly net-connecting to WiRNS just to test one thing or another that I finally enabled PTVIO.

-eslave

edit: I've thought of a few other possible failure points:

The RID file was corrupted by the ISO editor, CD burning software, or Linux CD-ROM/network driver

(I've personally seen a unix network driver issue which reliably clobbered the 40th data byte of random packets),
the Photo partition was possibly full or damaged,
an unshielded IR-blaster cable running alongside AC power cables (lots of RF noise),
external IR noise from other remotes or a nearby window (try testing the DC50X's extender eye/dome, maybe covered with something to block any stray IR signals from getting in.)

Have been following this thread in an attempt to find functioning Pace DC50X IR codes that cause the IR Blaster on my Panasonic EH75 HDD recorder to change the Comcast Cable channels.

No luck. Tried all the suggestions here - Scientific Atlanta codes, Motorola Codes, Pace codes. Nothing but frustration.

I finally substituted the DC50X with the Motorola DCH70 that I had been using on my living room TV. (The Pace had been attached to my home gym TV).

Finally, after attaching the IN3 line from the Motorola to the back of my Panny, I was able to instruct the Panny to search for the Moto codes to change the cable box using the Panny-supplied IR Blaster. Recording finally works after the "upgrade" to Comcast digital. Thought I was going to have to break down and order Comcast TiVo. The EH75 lives on!

Still, couldn't find a workaround directly with the Pace. Guess if it had RCA jacks I could have performed the same operation I did with Motorola cable box.

Perhaps this box swap will work for others.

Are these the best instructions for enabling PTVIO?

http://www.darkwoods.com/mirrors/replaytv/websites/Replay%20_%20PtvioShell.htm I assume the "ptvio on" shell command can be executed just like the "cp -f" commands?
Is the serial port really wired in a non-standard way with pins 1,4,5 on the ReplayTV connecting to pins 3,2,5, respectively, on the computer?

If you have a better reference, please point me to it.

Thanks!

Yes, just replace (or add) the command-lines in your shellcmds file. Incidentally, did you get a chance to "...read the README.TXT file..." from the first archive I posted (containing C2009fi.rid)?

I use a pair of serial to RJ-45 adapters and any old length of telephone cord or straight network patch cable (not crossover) to make the connection. I prefer the flexibility of 8 wires for various projects instead of the 4 wires offered by RJ-11 (though I rarely use all 8). The adapter looks more-or-less like this and this (I am totally unfamiliar with either vendor, I got mine at the local geek shop for about $1.50 each.) You may also want to get the "Insertion/Removal Tool" for another $4 or $6 because there is no easy way to pull the copper sleeves out after insertion. (The 'insertion' end is straight and the 'removal' end is supposed to be slightly bent - do not 'fix'/straighten it!) Ordinarily I would recommend triple-checking the cable's connections with a continuity test of some kind before plugging it into your machines, but in reality its pretty hard to electronically damage a serial port at RS-232 voltage levels.

After you've found a way to string together the custom serial link you may realize that your OS utterly lacks serial communications software of any kind. If you're on Win98/ME/NT/XP/Vista then get yourself a copy of HyperTerminal (broken link?) and let the good times roll. (An older version of HyperTerminal is actually included on the Win9x CD's in INF-install form, though few ever installed it.)

-eslave

Has anybody had success getting this to work on the showstopper 2000/3000? I will need to do this soon (thanks to Comcast) on my 3000.

Also...for anyone who has gotten this to work, even on the newer units...what service provider are you choosing to keep this same lineup? If you choose Comcast Digital and block out the extra channels, do all the channels map correctly?

Mike, contrary to popular belief I am not a JP1 expert. My 'expertise' stems from about 2 days of intensive research, although I was already acquainted with RIDGen and the RTV RID upgrade procedure. (In 2 prior attempts to create/update RIDs I was successful only once.) After reading FlipFlop's notes I noticed that Pronto codes looked suspiciously like irCodeset's hex output. The fact that I was miraculously able to pool together a collection of untested codes (some generated and others discovered in data files) from multiple sources and produce a working RID (with an untested program of my own creation and using a home-made IR-blaster) really surprised me - the way most people are amazed to see a magician produce a large white rabbit from an unexpectedly small container. I figured if I could do all that successfully then maybe I really did have a clue what was going on.

Having said that I should tell you that I know absolutely nothing about the Showstopper 2K/3K models. I have never touched one or even seen one with my own eyeballs. Everything I know about OBJ files was found here and in a few scattered forum posts. I only created the OBJ (the last archive in this post) because it seemed the question would be inevitable. I would not have bothered if The Robman had not posted this. For some reason the data file he posted was saved/encoded as 'Dreambox' protocol. Well, all those details and more are discussed in the README. I won't reiterate it here. I don't have enough familiarity with RemoteMaster to have any confidence in an OBJ built entirely from scratch; which is why I converted The Robman's data file instead.

Of the 31 people who have downloaded the OBJ (at this time) no one has yet responded. Either they're blind data hogs ("download first, ask questions later"), they were unable to perform the upgrade, the OBJ didn't work, or it works but no one has taken the time to respond. By the way, we're always looking for new guinea pigs.
Holy $#17! Lookie what The Robman just posted. (OK, I haven't looked at it yet. Its just strange that he picked the same day to post his goodies.)

For my 5K's selecting "Digital Cable Box" followed by "Comcast" yielded the proper channel list. As far as my line-up is concerned the 79 channels worth keeping in my area are properly described in the RTV's guide. (Yes there are hundreds of channels, but only perhaps 200 clear channels in my area.) After knocking-off TVGuide (LOL), local access/government, home shopping, foreign, and practically 20 kids channels I was left with 79 channels of actual content (not counting the radio channels).


I think we've read some of the same unfounded BS. XMP is not some kind of bleeding-edge hyper-active ultra-mystical IR protocol from the great beyond, but this particular Device.Subdevice code seems to have been unused until recently. Think of the Device.Subdevice code as a unique name or address to prevent different boxes from responding to other remotes that use the same IR protocol. The remote operates at 38.0 kHz, perfectly within the 'normal' frequency range (35-40kHz) of almost every remote control made since 1980, and probably even earlier. The 5K has factory support for some remotes that operate at 100 kHz, but I imagine a 2K/3K should be perfectly capable of spitting out IR bits at 38 kHz.

-eslave

eslave,

Thanks for the clarification...I was suspicious of XMP's status as some type of 'advanced IR technology'...I mean, it's a stupid little cable box, do you really need to re-invent the wheel to make a remote for it?? I guess the big question (according to The Robman) is whether the Showstopper can handle a protocol as big as Dreambox is. The files you mentioned that he posted were actually slimmed down to try to get it to fit the Showstopper.

I understand that the subdevice code hasn't been used before, but all other things being equal, it seems that there's no other reason the OBJ files wouldn't work. I mean, Tivo boxes have the same problem with this box, but Tivo released an updated (probably IR Blaster upgrade), so I think you're right about it not being some next-generation IR nonsense.

Anyway, I don't have the box yet, but I'm going to try both yours and The Robman's OBJ files and see if they will at least load. Maybe I'll hold the blaster in front of my digital camera to see if it will at least transmit using the codes.

If anybody out there has a Showstopper and this DTA box and would like to test it out, I'd be more than happy to walk you through getting the OBJ files into your unit....

I had no idea there was a file size limitation. My OBJ may indeed be too large (with the superfluous button-codes), weighing in at a whopping 272 bytes. I'm guessing the magic barrier could be 256 bytes, as most of the reference OBJs I've found are about 40-50 bytes with some as large as 71 or 138 bytes.

After tinkering with RemoteMaster a little more the smallest OBJ I can produce is 217 bytes, still 9 bytes larger than Rob's. I've tried loading the RMDU he posted, but RemoteMaster showed some wacky key assignments. I suppose a crude compatibility test might be to create your own OBJ file with only partial set of button codes, but unfortunately the protocol upgrade code alone (for Dreambox) is 185 bytes - already bigger than any factory OBJ present in the directory.

Also, regarding your other thread, I think you may need to alter the IRtable text file or choose another code to replace. This is purely a guess, but I think you may need replace an OBJ with a Format String of %d@ or %3d@ or %03d@ assuming they mean (respectively): any number of decimal digits / a maximum of 3 decimal digits / a maximum of 3 decimal digits padded with leading zeros all of which are followed by ENTER (the @ sign). You could also make this change in the IRtable text file, or maybe even add a new entry (though I'm not sure how you would select it through the Showstopper's setup). Though, considering the filesize rules (which Henry reminds me of in the following posts), your final IRtable text file can be no larger than the original - so every byte change will count. Make sure your text-editor uses the same CR style as the original file.

Keep us posted.

-eslave

I think what you DO know is that the file that you put on the SS hard drive can't be any larger than the allocated space for the file it is replacing (since you can only go the extract_rtv route for a ShowStopper). So, that is probably what he is talking about...

Henry

Oh wow, I am totally clueless about OBJ installation on 2K/3K. I thought the install technique somehow tricked the machine in to sucking down a new file from any old URL. I didn't know your only option was file replacement with extract_rtv. Even so, can a file not grow in size (by extending the cluster-chain or tweaking the directory entry)? I thought extract_rtv worked this way for 4K/5K's? Am I wrong? Even if the RTV noticed inconsistencies wouldn't fsck (or its boot-time equivalent) magically mend things? (even though the altered file may not work afterward)

-eslave

Oh, when I saw your comment about using SS hard drive with extract_rtv and Windows XP, I assumed you knew that since they had no networking capability, that was the way to go. They certainly don't have a photo partition for you to put the files on so that you can copy them (at least I can't imagine how they could have a photo partition).


Sorry, just as you cannot create a file, you cannot extend a file. Extract_rtv doesn't mess with the allocation at all, which is also why it cannot create files. Although, FlipFlop told me that he had the code to be able to create and lengthen files and was going to add it to extract_rtv, but it never happened. You are more than welcome to try to encourage him...

Henry

Hmm, good thing the original C0237fi.rid is one of the larger files (5580 bytes, although half the codes contained appear to be gibberish) and my replacement is only 2276 bytes. If I had picked any other RID there might have been a lot of unhappy extract_rtv upgraders.

Do you happen to know the RTV's behavior when it encounters a filesize inconsistency (too large)? Does the file entry get fixed (truncated or extended to the raw clustersize) or simply left as is (in which case I'm guessing the RTV won't read the entire file if larger than the original)? Does the clustermap/superblock get repaired too?

Also, do you know what happened to this line of thinking? Did this method for adding files ever work?
The 2xxx and 3xxx series units have an httpget command that can be used to download a file served from a web page.
using PTVIO (presumably enabled with RnsProxy?). I can't seem to find the FreeSCO/line simulator info anymore.
edit: Found it: Freesco files, forum thread, as well as FlipFlop's old modem-to-serial hack.


I'm not sure the RTV's legs are long enough at this point to pursue that. Besides, I thought the filesize or some other part of the file's directory entry was XOR'ed or ciphered against some unknown. Even if solved how much more mileage could that really give our Replays? (With the notable exception of 2K/3K owners.) A horrendous workaround might be to replace some other file of sufficient size in another directory (perhaps JerroldCableBox) and then very carefully use a hexeditor to move that file's entry into the desired target directory's cluster (space permitting) and change the filename, but I still don't know if all the magic values would properly align to the Replay's satisfaction. Then again, maybe PTVIO would be an easier renaming solution after overwriting with extract_rtv. Come to think of it, if PTVIO was already enabled you could use it to create a bogus target OBJ (copy any file of sufficient size into ...sys1/OS/IRBlaster/someOBJname) before overwriting with extract_rtv.

-eslave

I finally got the C0237.rid to work yesterday! My problem turned out to be that my IR Blasters were overloading the sensor on the DC50X. I bought a new IR Blaster which arrived while I was on vacation last week. The short instructions which came with it noted that it might overdrive the IR sensor, and if it didn't appear to work, I should move the blaster back several inches and try again. That made all the difference! So, with the proper attenuation, which I have yet to try, it should work fine.

Thank you, again, eslave!

BTW, yes, I did read your readme.txt, however I forgot the section on ptvio activation was there a week later when I searched around to see how to enable it. That's one of the hazards of only having a one-bit memory.

There were two Comcast Digital lineups to choose from in my area. The first one was a short list of channels, which didn't include Syfy and many of the channels beyond it. The second one had lots of channels, most of which I had to block out, but the mapping is all correct as far as I've been able to tell so far.

I'm glad you got it working! I should have listed "range" with "bad IR angle". There's only one Comcast digital line-up in my area, hence a more straightforward setup than you experienced in that respect.

-eslave