End of ReplayTV Electronic Programming Guide Service - Page 3

But you can program replays from DVA just like programing a replay itself. If the guide is there and DVA functions the same way, then I can program everything from there and it will be pushed to the replay like it is now, which can change the channels of the cable box if the ir blaster codes are in the hard drive as a previous poster suggested.

Schedules direct seems to be "down" for new accounts?

Thanks, Henry -- will do. On the plus side, there will hopefully be lots of new folks so I won't be the only new person struggling

Questions, and their replies, are flying by "Fast-and-Furious". So, I trust that you're correct.

But, AFAIR, I do not recall the "Use Web Proxy?" option - I will look into it.

Thanks!

P.S. My ISP, Comcast, went down for SEVERAL minutes - confusing me and adding to the delay in my reply.

Schedules direct is back "UP" for new accounts.
Thanks for the help, everyone!

GOOGLE:

• DD-WRT
  and
• TOMATO

You can UPGRADE the features of your WRT54G (depending on the version) for FREE!


How about a second hand laptop from a relative, friend, CraigsList?

IMHO, at this point in time, from everything I've read, using WiRNS is inevitable.

THANK YOU Glenn, Ryan and Henry!


Yep!

Yes & No. The computer needs to be on when the replay decides it wants to do a connection to update the channel guide. I say no because there is usually 14 days worth of guide data (mind you that something could change in the guide from one day to the next)

+1

Although I'm sure it is unlikely, I think the most graceful, goodwill-building exit DNNA could make from ReplayTV would be if they open-sourced the software and made available whatever development-, support- and deployment- tools they have and just let the community tear into it and figure out ways of extending the life of the remaining boxes until hardware attrition and waning interest brings things to a satisfying end. As is all too typical, they would likely resist any such suggestion on the basis of "they paid good money for those rights so why should they just give them up" (and gee, just any minute they might find a new business model which will make them want to jump right back in, or they will find someone who wants to pay big money for the rights to a dead product,or . . .), but clearly, the main reason they bought into it was to milk the subscription service as long as they could, and that surely has met their expectations. If they are ready to call it a day, clinging to their rights to software they are never going to use or sell, is pointless, but giving it away to the community could buy them a lot of goodwill. Admittedly, that goodwill might not have that much value for them as I don't know, realistically, how great a potential for crossover business to other products they could expect under even the most ideal conditions. Even if the value of that goodwill is peanuts, though, unless there is some pretty innovative tech in that software which they could (and would) apply to other projects or sell outright, the value of the ReplayTV software is most likely zero except in the context of an active ReplayTV business which they (and their predecessors) have been slowly abandoning for years. They might as well opt for peanuts.

- Les

I'm not so sure about this. I've had several instances where the DVA schedule guide listed a show that did not yet appear on the Replay schedule giude. I was not able to schedule a recording thru DVA until the show appeared in BOTH DVA and the Replay program guides. I get a schedule conflict error when this occurs, but there is no conflict.

Paul

Just a couple comments on things I've seen in this thread.

DVA gets its guide data from the same place the replays do. In NO WAY does DVA "push" its guide data into the replay (in the situation where DVA has data and the replays do not).

Regarding the DHCP bug... With any router I've dealt with, I haven't had issues with 1) let the Replay get a DHCP'd address. 2) change the Replay to manual settings identical to what was DHCP'd, except change both DNSs to the WiRNS box. When the replay stupidly asks for an IP address, it will get the one the router originally gave to it, however since the OS has the manual settings (with the same IP address, mind you) it works. I happen to have a Cisco which lets me give different devices different settings (DNS included). Way cool. Changing to a data card and a cradlepoint router if it ever quits being backordered--jury is still out on that one.

Regarding WiRNS and the electricity it takes, etc. First, come on, turn on a computer for overnight every few days costs too much money? In that case the replays cost too much too. Do you eat only bread and water? That aside, how about a virtual XP box on your mac. If the mac is on all the time then it'll take a fraction of the CPU to run an almost-idle virtualized XP with WiRNS on it. If not, the mac needs to be turned on overnight every few days, just like a PC would.

I have often wondered about an off-site WiRNS server. Then I could run one computer for multiple family members or someone here could run one for the setup-challenged people or some such. Seems possible, but I don't have a fixed IP, so it would be pretty difficult. I can't put in a dynamic DNS name for my DNS settings. =) The place it would be useful for me is my grandma's place. My parents stay there a month a year, there isn't a desktop around and maintaining wirns on it would suck anyway just like it would on the laptop they bring. Not sure what I'm going to do there.....

The Replay guide update process was once explained in one of the forums (can't find it now). The Replay apparently gets the new guide data and goes through a "combine" process that adds the new days and channels and updates only the next day. If something changes three days out, the Replay won't reflect that until the day before (DVA shows the update immediately).

One way around this is to "Clear" the program guide on the Replay and force it to re-populate the guide with current data (and there will probably be a bunch of "not a valid channel" messages to clear out afterward).

Good information on update process. Clearing the program guide may be a fix, but my post was intended to show that the DVA guide is not a workable substitute for the Replay guide.....you need program guide info on the Replay in order to schdule thru DVA.

Paul

If guide info comes from the same place, it sure seems odd that I can have several days where the DVA and replay guide are different.
I've only noticed this problem on one network ...Centric TV (Comcast).
The Replay guide doesn't agree with the DVA guide until a day or so before show is scheduled.

Paul

The DHCP bug is that after setting the IP that was assigned dynamically as static, it doesn't realize it as that IP and gets a different one when it stupidly asks again. So just putting the one in place that it just got does not eliminate the problem that it will eventually get another one assigned. You can even see this with normal dynamic behavior. My computers, if they remain active on the network, get their IP leases renewed over and over, so they rarely change IPs. The replays change IPs every few days although they are constantly renewing too. That's the bug - it won't get the same one.

I own two powerbooks, two macbooks, an IMAC with Bootcamp, my old XP box and a really old XP laptop. The XP box was so loud and so expensive to run that I was happy to finally move to a dual boot Mac. I was hoping one of the Macs could serve as WIRNS with the XP in virtual mode. Can that work?

I also don't want to just load tv guides once every two weeks. If you haven't noticed, there are mistakes all of the time - my cable box one is different than the replay which is different than Titan TV and the networks website (I have even had to call Tribune Media to get them to fix a few). They sometimes catch up/fix the mistakes (sometimes), but you have to run the guide practically daily to get them to fix it all.

Another new thing that sux. They have completely taken down all the support info on their site. Yesterday you could still get there through "forgot password," but today it transfers you to RIO and you can't log in at all (the password they send doesn't work). (Although I just did find another way to those pages, for now, but knowledge base is gone.)

I think they are not planning on supporting anything anymore, including repairs, tech support, and updating the units on their network for things other than the guide, like the clock.

If we switch to WIRNS, will there still be the time delay issue suggested by a previous poster? Don't you need to have the DNNA servers connecting to keep the units viable? No one is suggesting that WIRNS can take over for what DNNA provides in total, right?

I'm a bit concerned here. Didn't the ReplayTV use some sort of PKI encryption/signing and WinRS proxy'd that to the real ReplayTV servers? Last I knew (and I'll admit I did not keep up to date on this) you could not use WinRS to make an unactivated ReplayTV unit functional.
If my memory is correct, I'm very concerned that WinRS won't be a functional option after the official servers are shut off.

The monthly unit that I have now says "Activated". Someone else reported they tried activating an unactivated unit & it activated just fine with no problems.

I should add that even on my lifetime units where it said "one time fee paid", now just say "Activated"

Right now I believe one of the big issues will be the time setting, since Wirns gets the time from RTV server itself.

I was worried about that. Last night after posting, I tried to log in to see the status of my monthly unit and verify charges. I thought I had forgotten my password and I received the temporary one, but it didn't work. Tried to reset the password again and it still does not work. I'll call them in 10 minutes, after they supposedly will open and see what the deal is.

That's not always possible - depends a lot on who "owns" the rights to code that they licensed from others to use! But it's nice to wish for

Sorry, but that's not how it works. All DVA can do is to tell the RTV what show to record from the RTV's guide. So, if the RTV doesn't have any guide data, then it won't be able to accept recording schedules...

Also, I don't think that DVA has the ability to schedule manual recordings (actually, DVA doesn't have much support for manual recordings in the first place). I'm not sure that the RTV itself has much support for remote scheduling of manual recordings...

So, as I said, you have to have guide data on the RTV, and then you can use DVA to give you a nice interface to it...

Henry

I'll still be more than willing to try to help you get it going! I didn't give up on you last time!

Henry

I copied it from the configuration screen, which is why I put it in quotes, including the question mark...

I've used it several times to make sure it operates properly. In fact, WiRNS has configuration options specifically for operating as the guide server for DVArchive...

Henry

I started out thinking the same thing, but immediately realized that they would have two concerns. Number one, there is proprietary technology in their code, which I think they sold to DirecTV, so they may not even be in a position to reveal it. Much less that I doubt that they would want to allow their proprietary technology be used by anyone for anything. And, two, I would think they might be concerned that someone else could use their technology for making money, such as starting a subscription based guide server...

Henry

This is an excelent idea as long as the router never reboots. Unforutnately, after the router reboots, you can't control the order that it will hand out DHCP addresses such that the RTV will get the same DHCP address that it did previously. So, if the router rebooted and the RTV got a different DHCP address, then you'd have to change its fix address to the new DHCP address...

And, even if you used a UPS on the router, it is quite common for them to reboot after chaning configuration options. Or, maybe you just have to reboot them every once in awhile because they start acting "strange"...

Henry

I'm acutually doing this to serve my home and my two daughters individual places. I use VPNs and DDNS to get the fixed connections that I need...

Henry

The RTV doesn't update the guide data for every day, but it keeps a rolling 14-day guide (actually, 13 days) with the more current days being acurate. So, it isn't that it's three days out in particular, that happens to be one of the holes. Four days out, for example, is up to date, as is two days out...

Henry

Well, they DO come from the same place, however they don't use the same algorithm for downloading the guide data. The RTV uses a scattered "rolling" two week window and DVA always updates however many days that you configure it for. So, DVA can have the very latest guide information for every day that you've configured, whereas the RTV always has "stale" days of guide data unless you clear the channel guide, which forces it to re-download the entire guide...

Henry

Acutally, that's also a function of the DHCP server. Renewing leases and requesting leases aren't the same thing. When the RTV reboots every week, it asks for a new lease, just like your laptop or PC would do if you reboot it. However, the RTV requests the same lease it had last time, which your laptop and PC do as well, and it depends on the DHCP server if it wants to grant it the same lease it had previously. Many DHCP servers keep track of the last lease of every device and when they ask for a new lease, they give the their old one automatically. But, since the protocol has in it for devices to tell the DHCP server what lease they would like to have, if your DHCP server had that lease available and didn't give it to that device, then it would simply be that it wasn't implemented...

All of these things with leases are all part of the spec. The problem comes from very simply implemented DHCP servers which don't provide for the full features, but still do a reasonable job of giving out addresses...

Henry