Difference between revisions of "User talk:Amblinn"

Revision as of 00:42, 9 July 2011

With help from the experts, I'm creating a detailed set of instructions (expanding on the info at http://wiki.xmltv.org/index.php/ReplayTV-FreeSCO), learning as I go, for getting a modem-based ReplayTV (2000, 3000, Showstopper) to get guide listings once the Replay service is turned off on 7/31/2011.

These have NOT been reviewed by the experts, and are still draft form, so use at your own risk. If you are one of the aforementioned experts, please feel free to comment and correct. If you are in the same slightly-confused place that I am, you may want to wait until the set has been fully reviewed, corrected, and published.

Overview

In the ReplayTV 2000, ReplayTV 3000, and Panasonic Showstoppers (referred to here as "Replay"), there's a modem that dials out each night to retrieve guide listings, syncronize the clock, and do a few other odds and ends (like create service notifications and change the graphic on the pause screen). After 7/31/2011, this will no longer be happening.

This set of step-by-step instructions will help you create your own replacement for the guide listings and clock synchronization features. (It also means that if Replay was the only reason you were keeping your home phone / landline, you can now get rid of it.) These instructions are not the only way to get a working solution, but were designed with the goal of keeping additional costs to a minimum.

You will need (in addition to your Replay):

• A Windows-based PC (running Windows98 or later) with always-on internet access (like cable or DSL), which can stay on overnight
• An internal-to-your-own-home static IP address for your Windows-based PC. Most routers support the ability to assign an internal IP address to a particular PC. You will also need to know the internal IP address for your router
• An unused dial-up modem, recommended 28.8K or better (for use with phonelines, not cable or DSL)
• A phone cord long enough to connect the Replay to the PC modem
• (maybe) A device (such as a chat cord) to provide power for the phone line (chatcord requires a phone line splitter and an open USB port)
• A subscription to SchedulesDirect (non-profit group providing listings for personal use for $20/year). Wait until you have everything else working before signing up for this

A note about the modem: your desktop or laptop may already have a built-in dial-up modem (look for a phone port - it's a little smaller than your ethernet port), you may have to dust off an old external modem, or you may need to buy a modem. If your modem is not capable of direct modem-to-modem communication (as is the case with many internal modems), you will also need a device to provide power to the phone line / phone cord. An active phone line has a small amount of power on it (which is why most corded phones don't need a power supply and continue to work during power outages), but you'll be connecting your PC directly to the Replay, bypassing an active phone line. Some modems can compensate for this (such as the US Robotics v. Everything), but many can't (such as most laptop modems). There's no easy way to tell the difference, but it will become clear very early in this process whether you will need a chat cord or not.

The following table lists modems that have been confirmed to work:

There are several stages required to getting everything working. It is recommended that you complete these in order, and that you get each one working before moving on to the next. Each of the following sections provide the step-by-step instructions for that stage. If you run into any problems not described here or have any other questions, the folks at http://www.planetreplay.com and http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=27 (the ReplayTV and Showstopper PVRs forum at AVS) may be able to help.

1. Check your modem access (how do you access it, and does it work?)
2. Make sure your modem is compatible with your Replay (and whether you'll need a chatcord)
3. Set up the FreeSCO virtual machine (converts your dial-up modem into a ethernet connection)
4. Set up SchedulesDirect (which WiRNS uses to get guide data)
5. Set up the WiRNS software (using the data from FreeSCO, replaces the functionality of the servers your Replay used to dial)
6. Some "finishing touches", to save wear and tear on your modem (and your ears)

Before You Begin

On 7/31/11, it is recommended that you DISCONNECT your phone line from the ReplayTV box, and keep it disconnected, even if you haven't gotten this solution working yet. It's not clear when the ability to dial-out will be disabled entirely. If it happens on 7/31 (or if your Replay has already received the message to stop doing this on 7/31), then it's likely going to be a bit more complicated to get everything working again.

Check your modem access

1. If you have an external modem, set it up. Otherwise, double-check that you actually have an internal modem by finding the phone or line port on your PC (the phone / line ports are narrower than the ethernet port)
2. On your PC, open a connection to the modem with HyperTERM or (TODO: figure out how to use PuTTY to talk to the modem) PUTTY if your version of windows doesn't have HyperTERM
   1. In Windows XP, you can find HyperTerm through Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Communications
   2. When it prompts you for a name for the New Connection, hit "Cancel"
3. Type "AT" followed by <ENTER>. The modem should respond "OK".
   1. If you don't see "OK", you're not talking to your modem. It might be the modem is bad, or you might be pointing to the wrong COM port. You can try step #5 in this section (setting up "New Connections") to see if you can find a working COM port
   2. If you don't see "AT" on the screen, but you do see "OK", it means the modem is fine, but characters aren't echo-ing. If you type "ATE1" followed by <ENTER> (tells the modem to echo characters), all subsequent commands will appear on the screen
   3. Alternately, you can also echo characters by going to File -> Properties -> [Settings] tab -> [ASCII Setup] button -> click "Echo typed characters locally". Depending on your modem, and modem commands, this may also cause to you see "double" characters (you type "AT", "AATT" appears on screen). This won't cause any problems, other than making it a little more difficult to read
4. Type "ATA" <ENTER> on the modem. You should hear a high pitched tone, which sounds like a fax machine. If you don't, check your speaker setup. Remember what this tone sounds like. When ready, press a key and you should get "NO CARRIER"
5. Determine which COM port your modem is on
   1. Start -> Control Panel -> Phone and Modem Options -> [Modems] tab. If there are multiple listed, note all of the COM ports, then try the next option
   2. In HyperTerm, choose "New Connection". Type in a name, click "OK". On the next screen, where it says "Connect Using:", select the first COM port on your list from the above step, and click "OK". Click "OK" on the next screen. Type "AT". If it says "OK", then you have a good COM port. If it doesn't seem to do anything, then click the "Disconnect" button and repeat this process for each of the COM ports until you get the "OK" and can test ATA. Make note of this COM port (you'll need it later). When you close HyperTerm (or choose to create a new connection), you do not need to save the previous connection when it prompts you.

Make sure your modem is compatible with your Replay

1. Connect a phone cord from your Replay to the "LINE" port of your PC modem (not the "PHONE" port, if you have more than one port)
2. Open up a HyperTerm (or PuTTY) connection to the modem on your PC using the working COM port; type AT <ENTER> and get the "OK"
3. On the Replay, turn off dial-tone detection
   1. The "LINE" port on your PC does not generate a dial tone. Therefore, the "Wait for dial tone" setting on the Replay, which defaults to "Yes", must be configured to "No."
   2. On the Replay, navigate from Menu -> Setup -> Change Telephone through a series of screens to the "Dialing Prefix" screen, and then press the "Zones" button on your remote. A special screen should appear which will allow you to change the "Wait for dial tone" option to "No."
   3. It's fine to leave it on "No", even if you go back to the normal way that Replay dials out each night, it just means that if you're calling someone on the same phone line as Replay, and Replay dials out in the middle of the night, you'll have unpleasant noises in your ear and the Replay connection will likely fail for that attempt.
4. Have the Replay initiate a network connection
   1. From just about any screen on your Replay, press 2-4-3-Zones on the remote control
   2. This brings up a menu -- arrow down to option 4 ("Net Connect"), and press SELECT
5. When the Replay says "Dialing", type "ATA" <ENTER> on the PC Terminal
6. You should hear the high pitched "Answer Tone" (from when you tested the modem), followed by the Replay trying to sync up.
7. You should get a "CONNECT" message, followed by short periodic bursts of data. That means your PC modem is compatible.
8. If you don't get a CONNECT, troubleshoot the problem before spending any time moving forward.
   1. First suggestion is to provide "talk battery" to the Replay to PC connection. A 9 volt battery in series with a 330 to 1000 ohm resistor should work. You may need to connect two phone jacks back to back to access the two wires, red and green at the jacks, carrying signal. Polarity is not important. This is not a permanent solution because the 9 volt battery will deplete fairly quickly.
   2. A chatcord is another alternative, and will provide a permanent solution. Chatcord requires a phone line splitter and an open USB port

Set up the FreeSCO virtual machine

1. Download and install VMware Player http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
   1. Note that you will have to register in order to download the player
2. Download and unzip the FreeSCO Virt Machine: http://xmltv.org/alpha/FreeSCO_vmware.zip
   1. In more recent versions of Windows (including XP), you can "unzip" by right-clicking on the folder and choosing "Extract All..."
   2. Remember where you put the unzip'd / extracted folder
   3. If you want to learn a little more about FreeSCO (including a lot of stuff that's already been taken care of for you), you can find it at http://www.livinitnaturalstate.com/rtv/FreescoRTV/README.TXT
3. Open the FreeSCO config file in VMWare Player
   1. Start VMware Player
   2. Under "File", choose "Open a Virtual Machine...",
   3. Navigate into your extracted / unzipped folder from above
   4. Choose "FreeSCO.vmx" and click "Open"
4. If your modem is NOT on COM1, then click "Edit Virtual Machine Settings"
   1. Click "Serial Port", then choose the actual COM from the drop-down list under "Use physical serial port:"
   2. Click "OK"
5. Make sure your modem is turned on (if there's an on/off switch)
6. Click "Play virtual machine"
   1. Keep track of the IP addresses when it starts (the virtual machine "boots") -- there will be one for "DHCPOFFER" and one for "default route"
   2. The VMWare player will capture your mouse and keyboard when you click in it or press <CTRL><G>. <CTRL><ALT> will release it.
   3. You should hear the modem attempt to dial every 30 seconds or so
7. Click in the FreeSCO process and log in as root, password root
8. Type "killall mgetty" <ENTER>
   1. This TURNS OFF the modem trying to dial every 30 seconds
   2. During "normal" ongoing operation (not when you're setting things up), you do not want to type this command
9. Type "setup" <ENTER> to enter setup mode.
10. <ENTER> to accept the default color mode.
11. <a> <ENTER> to enter advanced settings
12. <62> <ENTER> to enter "Local networks"
    1. <628> <ENTER> to get to "Set DNS via DHCP"
    2. <n> <ENTER> to set it to "n"
    3. <x> <ENTER> to return to the previous screen (advanced menu)
13. <71> <ENTER> to get to modem settings
    1. <713> <ENTER> to change the init string to an appropriate modem init string, if needed. AT&F1 should work for most modems; ATZ should work also
    2. <714> <ENTER> to change the dial-in IP address. This needs to have the same three numbers from the two IP addresses that you saw in the boot sequence. The fourth number can be pretty much any number EXCEPT the fourth number from the two IP addresses. 100, 101, or 102 are fine choices
    3. <x> <ENTER> to return to the previous screen (advanced menu)
14. <41> <ENTER> to enter "DNS Server"
    1. <n> <ENTER> to disable DNS caching
    2. Primary DNS Address will EVENTUALLY be set to the IP Address of your WiRNS machine (below). If you are following these instructions prior to 7/31/2011, though, it's a good idea to test that you have FreeSCO working by connection to the main ReplayTV servers first. For this, you should set the primary DNS address to match the IP address of your router
    3. leave secondary DNS address blank
15. <x> <ENTER> to exit Advanced settings
16. < s> <ENTER> to save current config and exit
17. Type "reboot" to reboot the FreeSCO machine
18. You should hear your modem try and answer every minute or so. If you don't, your modem may not be compatible
19. PRIOR TO 7/31/2011: To test that your FreeSCO is correct, you can now try a 2-4-3-Zones, arrow down to "4 Net Connect", press SELECT. You should hear the modems sync up. Then, it will likely take a bit longer than what you are used to, but the ReplayTV should now be able to pull down all of the usual information, but running through FreeSCO
20. After confirmation of above, you should change your Primary DNS (as described earlier in this section) to match the IP address of your Windows PC, where you will be running WiRNS

Set up SchedulesDirect

1. Go to http://www.schedulesdirect.org
2. Sign up for an account (there's a free 7 day trial -- it's highly recommended that you get this working first, before spending money on it)
3. Add the channel lineup you want to use in your Replay to your account
   1. In the SchedulesDirect (aka "SD"), you can can customize which channels the Replay will receive from the channel lineup
   2. It's recommended that you perform this channel reduction; on a 14.4 modem, loading 7 days of data for 111 channels took 4 hours
4. Keep track of your username and password (you'll need it for WiRNS next)

Set up the WiRNS software : TODO

This set of instructions got me to the point where I can download channel and guide data into my ShowStopper. There are still a number of less-than-ideal behaviors, however, including long dial-up times (10x longer than going to RTV directly), inability to set up a recording through the WiRNS interface, inability to see what's in the ReplayGuide on the WiRNS interface, and inability to set a custom local phone number (which may cause problems post 7/31). Also, ReplayZones isn't working, but I'm not sure whether that's a limitation of WiRNS or of my setup.

Once these items are resolved, I'll be updating these instructions appropriately... however, if you're feeling desperate and have gotten this far, then by all means, continue :-).

1. Download WiRNS
   1. Go to http://www.wirns.com
   2. Click on the "Installation" menu on the left
   3. Scroll down and click on "Alternate WiRNS Installer"
   4. When prompted, save onto the PC where you plan to install WiRNS, in a directory you can find later
2. Begin the installation process. In addition to the high-level instructions on the WiRNS Installation page, a very helpful step-by-step document (I'm not sure who wrote it, but it's quite helpful) can be found here =>

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B50hcDDdnnfWYjMzMGI5OGItYTI3ZS00MGRmLTk0ZGItY2UwNTE2M2Q0MjJl&hl=en_US&authkey=CKTxpP0M&pli=1

1. 1. Our dial-up machines can only use a subset of the WiRNS functions (for instance, we can't upload our recorded shows onto our PCs). At some point, those will get documented
   2. Also, these detailed instructions are targeted to non-dial-up users. Much of the work is still relevant, so is referenced here. At some point, when everything is working smoothly, I may put together a clean PDF with step-by-step for dial-up, including screenshots. For now, there will be some referring back & forth between the Google Doc and this Wiki page
2. Use the Alternate Installer, as described on the WiRNS Installation page
3. Follow the instructions in the Google Doc UNTIL step #25 (which is the same as the "Configure your ReplayTV to work with WiRNS" step on the WiRNS installation screen). WiRNS doesn't know what Replays you have, since they aren't on the network
4. NEW/DIFFERENT Step #26: Because the our Replays dial in, you probably won't see anything here other than the "WiRNS" Type in the upper portion of the window. So, to enter a new Replay, use the lower half of the new window:
   1. Give it a name (nothing fancy, and doesn't really mean anything)
   2. Enter the serial number (you can get this from your Replay by pressing 4-1-1-Zones on your remote control from just about any screen - it's 18 characters, and may include a "-")
   3. Choose the type (the dial-ins are at the bottom of the list -- if you're not sure, you can look at the back of your ReplayTV unit for "model number")
   4. Click "update". The screen you get will be tailored for features that your unit can handle (so isn't as complex as the screenshot in the PDF file)

Skip steps #31 & #32 for now.

Then do steps #33 & #34. Can also use north-america.pool.ntp.org

Right click on the WiRNS system tray icon (which should be green); choose "Live Logfile Viewer"

Start the Virtual Machine running FreeSCO; at this point, "DNS Server" setting (41) needs to be the WiRNS PC IP address

On the replay, do a network connect.

You should hear the modems sync up. The WiRNS Log Viewer will show some good stuff. (See PDF) The ReplayTV should give you messages about downloading guide data.

Once it's done, you can do steps #31 & #32. Also, go into ReplayTV and choose a different provider. You can do this by...

Steps #35 and on aren't applicable

Turn off local numbers: So, you have two choices:

1. You can turn off NoPhoneNumbers. Easiest way is to go in the registry and edit the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WiRNS\plugins registry section and change NoPhoneNumbers from 1 to 0. Or, you can simply rename NoPhoneNumbers.dll to something else. Either way, after making the change, you need to restart WiRNS...

2. As documented here you can configure phone numbers in the registry so that WiRNS will provide a phone number instead not giving any phone numbers... turn it off.

set # days of data to 7

New String Value

on the plus side, recordings that haven't started yet (and are on a channel that's in your new SD guide) seem to be maintained through the whole process.

ZIP code entry is required

Finishing touches : TODO

1. change the "net connect" time in WiRNS (wherever that field lives) to a time that you won't be using the Replay
2. change the parameters in the mgetty script (or wherever they live) so that the modem is only trying to answer for a short time period
3. change the init string in FreeSCO so that the modem stays quiet. ATM0.
4. MAYBE (if someone is clever) how to get the PC in & out of standby automatically, to save electricity