5504 with Commercial Advance!!! - Page 2  

even tho the knowledge that the hacks are there, there are many devices around that continue to be hacked and more importantly, supported and advocated, thus boosting their sales.

Replay is under no obligation to retrofit their sold units to do anything. Microsh*t certainly is allowed to have all kinds of loopholes all the time.

Replay made an un-necessary good faith gesture to stop IVS and CA, and like almost all electronics of this era, there are loopholes that get found.

Look at what Apex did to the DVD player market and now almost every DVD player can be hacked to various ends.

Spend less words on the paranoia and hear the words and let it pass. Someone off the list will keep the information going. Clever Googling can find wonders.

The affectionato market is the best advertizing a mfg can have!

Replay is one of the best products ever!

The softwares for the 5xxx and 55xx are reportedly identical. The CA and IVS items are merely configuration settings, similar to .ini files or the Windows registry. I long thought that these settings were handed down by the RTV mothership and, thus, would be lost each net connect. However, it appears that this is not currently the case.

A ReplayTV's IVS ID *is* its MAC address, only converted from its hex form. As I understand it, every MAC address is and must be unique. So, I don't think that is a problem.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of other problems with this whole thing--namely, the legal implications and the steps DNNA might take to avoid any trouble when this gets to be easy and widespread (which will happen since most of the necessary info has been hinted at here by various posters). I'm all for CA and IVS on the 55xx but not if it ultimately results in the removal of the feature from all units INCLUDING the "grandfathered" 5xxx ones.

j.m.

Yeah, I didn't assume the software itself was different. Using the method I stated is just an inarguous way of doing it. Upon the next software update, the configuration file may also be updated to a 55xx config file resulting in the same thing.

I'm not disputing anything you say, just splitting hairs.

The IVS ID could simply be the mac, or it could be the mac spliced with some other information(Hardware Revision #, whatever) to make the IVS ID. Essentially the mac is the IVS ID either way.

..and I agree with your legal implications thing. It's just sticking a foot that can be stepped on. It may not even hurt DNNA as much as it hurts people who mod(us). It may attract more regulation on what and how things can be modified. It's hard to tell if avoiding these mods will even help our case. The extra time might just give the opposition to form a better case.

When a tribe reaches the first shore they've ever seen, should all the people just start playing in the tide? or wait till the chief decides who can be on the shore and when?

cow

Legislate and censor all you want. Where there is a will, there is a way.

You are told what the IVS ID is and you continue to speculate on what it is... how dumb is that?!?!?!

It IS the MAC, it's an ascii string version of the 6 byte hex MAC. Take the ascii string and make use that as a decimal string into the windows calc. Then press F5 (if in scientific mode, if you are a geek you should be running this way) and you'll get the hex version. Prepad with hex 00's and you'll have you MAC address. Then to verify if you want run etheral and see that your converted value matches the packets when you are using DVA or something to talk to a replayTV.

And MACs must be unique or you'd run into problems where any two devices could have the same MAC and if that were the case you'd have problems becuase of duplicate MACs.

Someone test this theory please. Restore a pre Alcatraz 5040 image to a 5504. And see what happens to CA & IVS after it's been Alcatrazed.

My theory(that could be wrong) is that the difference between 50XXs and 55XXs is only the serial number and that when someone gets a software update the replay does a fresh install of the new software checking the serial number along the way.

I looked back through this thread and saw that the guy said his 55xx lived through some software updates so I donno. I don't know if he knows what he's talking about because it's the first time he's tried it.

It's funny that noone has figure this out. The main reason is AVSers just get the 50XXs anyway so there's noone to do the tests.

cow

I'm a little confused ... but I have a 5040 sitting in a box because the noise was too much for a bedroom.

If people with the 55xx machines want to go back to 50xx images, why not just buy 50xx machines? Was there no compelling feature in the 55s that made them worth having? I knew they took a big feature out in CA, but why are people buying those at all?

There aren't many 50xx series boxes to be found in stores now. I've heard only Radio Shack has them, if they have any at all. So their only choice is to buy the 5500 series boxes.

I will verify it is the way stated.

I am new to replay and wanted to upgrade the drive anyway. I had an 80 gig laying around so started reading how to do it and also found this thread. I tried the 3 file images but had problem with the other 2.

I have CA on my 5504 now and it stays unless I do the 3-8-2 zones reset. The problems are there are no option to redo any setup such as network or time zone. The network is set manually and needs 192.168.123.XXX to work. Any other netwrork address freezes the unit if a patch cable is plugged in. The time zone seems to pacifc. There is no option to change it. I have done the software updates and multiple connects.

The remote control for the 5040 and 5504 are the same except for the lable on the CA/input button. The 5504 input button turns on and off the CA with the 5040 image file in question.

So it appears there is a config file (maybe like demo mode) that contains this info that is not changed when connecting for updates. We need someone who knows which file and how to modify it.

I missed this originally. Very cool.

Did you notice anything like what cybert19 reported?

'cuz that just sounds so wierd. cybert what image did you use & what was the source of that image?

Slack has PM

A few weeks ago someone requested a show from me and supplied an ISN# with letters in it...kinda resembling a MAC address after reading this thread. I then learned that he was trying to get a show on his new 5504 unit. Do the new units have these different ISN#'s or did this guy just have the wrong number? If so, then I don't know of any way of sending shows to people with letters in the ISN# field.

P.S. I found a place to buy a brand new 5080 replay for $399....think it's a fair price for a new one?

Most likely the guy had the wrong ISN #.

$399 with lifetime is pretty good. Without, not so good.

Sounds like he gave you a SN not an IVS number. The SN has letters the IVS address is just the mac address converted from a string of 6 hex characters to a decimal value and then segmented into groups of 4.

ie
Mac of
00:00:00:00:02:00
would be
512 in decimal
and
0000-0000-0000-0512 as an IVS address

And I forgot to mention... this subject might want to be kept "quiet" DNNA might not care about us using it, but if studios get pissy (regardless of the EFF suit results) they might force DNNA to change the way this works.

I started lurking here before I made the leap. That said, for any other lurkers, I think refurb is the way to go. The problems have already been fixed. I got the 5040 lifetime ( or 3-year, it's hard to be sure with this goofy company) sitting in this box for around $330 on that Replay Ebay site.

So if people know where to look they're easy to find.

I would welcome the studios getting pissy. The recent EFF lawsuit you refer to ended because the court was convinced that the studios have no plans to file suits against CA users. You may know, EFF wanted to expand the suit and add one new ReplayTV user to represent the entire class. Although the suit was ended, it can still be filed again if necessary and I believe the studio's would not win.

I was the person the EFF wanted to add to represent the class, and if the studios want to stir this pot again, I will again offer to represent us in the class action, if EFF needs me to volunteer again. I was a bit disappointed that we were unable to go forward as a class action, but the studios have said they do not intend to bring suit against any of us.

Please visit the web site at http://www.eff.org and support this important group that does such a fine job of defending our rights.

I've signed up. Damn them all, but i have a right to make a backup copy of anything I buy, timeshift what I want to watch, and ignore commercials!

Before REPLAY I just pissed and got beer during commercials. Oh crap! I think I drink less beer now that I have replay!!!



John

I've signed up. Damn them all, but i have a right to make a backup copy of anything I buy, timeshift what I want to watch, and ignore commercials!

Before REPLAY I just pissed and got beer during commercials. Oh crap! I think I drink less beer now that I have replay!!!



John

The problem with this is that DNNA might just decide to close the loopholes that allow CA and IVS on the 55xx (which they could easily do). Or, worse, DNNA might decide to remove CA and IVS entirely from new software for both 5xxx and 55xx. In any case, if DNNA did that, there would again be no "actual case or controversy," and the EFF would have no standing to litigate the case. It would be dismissed (again), and we would be in a worse position than we are now.

The 'actual case or controversy' could then be defined as 'dnna being coercied into removing functionaltiy' to avoid suit.

John

That would not cut it, I'm afraid. The rules governing standing are fairly rigid (and for good reason). Unless DNNA stood its ground, the case would be moot and almost certainly be dismissed for lack of standing.

Thanks cybert19,
I was planning on giving this a shot sometime soon. I'm glad I waited, since I am in the central time zone.

kurhurdler

You might try it anyway. You may know something I do not or something may load different. I am in central also and will probably reset in a day or 2 and go back to 5504. I never did get the other images to work. One kept restarting and the other would freeze on bootup. I learned how to swap and backup hard drives so it was not a loss.

I also show the video sharing 15 digit internet ID but do not know how to test it. I wonder if if the ID would work once I go back to 5504 even though it is not shown.

When it did all the updating the only noticeable change to me is the loss of the activation "one time fee paid" that is shown in the 5040 image. I do not show any activation after the update just like I did with the original 5504 image.

IMHO I think some people know how to set this up but are not sharing the info publicly. Other threads mention this thread and say to be careful. I have probably already said too much also. Good luck to all.

Sounds like there is a magic file setting on the image. Maybe someone can do a diff between two drives to compare them. Assuming same software version etc.

Anyone that is pulling a 5500 drive for any reason, could you make a backup and have it put on the image ftp site? I'd like to see what's on the drive. =)

bradbomb

You have PM.