User talk:Compcyz

Welcome to XMLTV! We hope you will contribute much and well. You will probably want to read the help pages. Again, welcome and have fun! rmeden 01:53, 14 July 2011 (EDT)

Hello Replaytv people.

I have got my extra ReplayTV 55xx unit to be activated and the clock set.

The hard part was that it had a defective modem and ethernet.

I figured that since after the end of July it could not dial up or net connect anyway I might as well make it work as best as it could without connections. Like timer record etc.

First I had to get it to think it was activated.

First I tried to install the hard drive from my 50xx unit.

Well it came on and even said it was activated but did not playback or record etc.

Likely because the hard drive had the serial number not matching the main board.

To make it work I had to connect to the ReplayTV service with my 50xx unit containing the EEPROM and hard drive from the 55xx unit, making it think it was the other unit and actiing like a 55xx unit does.

After connecting the service does something to put the correct serial number on the hard drive allowing it to function afterwards.

Then transfer the hard drive and EEPROM back to the 55xx unit and it works but the clock is not set correct, it defaults to 12/31/2001 at 6:00 pm.

The incorrect clock setting causes the guides to showup blank and the timer record would be difficult to use this way.

Annother thing I noticed was the clock backup capacitor in the 55xx unit is in bad shape only running the clock for a short time if any when unit was unplugged.

I needed to make it be able to function for more extended time while unplugged.

So I found on the main board a backup capacitor a 5 volt 0.1 farad and a diode near it connected to the 5 volt supply on one side and the capacitor + on the other side.

I connected a resistor and a diode to the diode going to a rechargable battery to give it more capacity.

A lithium battery might last longer but you would not need the charging resistor.

Next I saw the clock chip on the board and looked up the data for it.

I then connected the clock chip to my functional 50xx unit via wires and connected to the service and set the clock on the non fully functional 55xx main board.

After repowering up the 55xx unit with the newly reset time the menus came on and the clock was correct like it had connected and reset.

There remains to be the problem that after the end of July you wwould not be able to connect to the ReplayTV service to set the clock even in a fully working ReplayTV DVR.

This might be fixxed by others with their software patch and Wirns.

Why not allow manual setting of the clock with the patch???

I think a small hand held computer or a chip programmer could be used to set the clock once you figure out what data needs to be in the clock chip data registers.

This would not even need to use the Replay TV box software to work.

You just need to maintain the clock voltage to keep it from resetting to default once you get the registers filled with the correct data in what ever way is chosen.

A manual clock set function would be the easiest as no connections or elaborate configurations would be needed once you got the software patch installed.

This would be very good for those units with no connective ability phone or network.

These units would still be good even without the guide for repeat timer record of TV series.

The ReplayTV units allow renaming the shows so you can tell what they are one thing the Tivos can't do.

One other thing these people selling upgrade hard drives may need to change how the set them up.

The would need to put your serial number on the drive or supply a matching EEPROM with the drive,

Which would be hard to deal with if you main board had no socket.

They would also need to make sure all the activation stuff is on there or have Wirns be able to activate it, which would be hard to do if your ethernet and phone connections are dead.

Someone may be able to use this information for something good, and I hope they get a manual clock set patch in the works.

It might be nice to figure out where the serial number is on the drive so if you swap drives they will still work. Or make them ignore the serial number on the drive.

Thank you.