THE REPLAY BOX

The Owners Handbook

This guide is intended for owners of the Replay Lite :

And the Replay Box (with Hard Drive option)

A laymans guide to the setup and maintenance of your Replay Unit

“Compulsive reading – doubt I’ll be paying my subs from now on” – Richie Branston June 07

“We could hardly believe the new charges would ever be accepted – now we know why – a big thumbs up to CA for this invaluable guide”

– Virgin Media ‘Retention Centre’ spokesperson

Guide provided by © Cable Assist 2007. **This guide is for educational purposes only**

Reproduction or distribution for profit is prohibited!

Table of ContentsLegal Stuff........................................................................................................3Installing Software on your Replay Box............................................................4

Unlocking the Replay................................................................................5Scanning for channels......................................................................................6Setting up your ‘Favourites’..............................................................................8How the Auto Search Works............................................................................9(Learn this bit – it’s important)..........................................................................9

I’ve lost some channels – how do I get them back?..................................9Why so many movie channels and what is this ‘HID’ thing?...........................10Cloning the Replay Lite..................................................................................11Backing Up Your Data....................................................................................12REPLAY LITE – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ’s)....................13

Legal Stuff

Let’s make sure we’re clear before I go any further....

If you’re using one of these to view cable TV which you do not pay for - you are breaking the law. I’m not judging – just reminding you.

What’s also important is that these types of boxes may receive all the channels when you first set them up. You may find they lose some (I’ll deal with this later) and MOST IMPORTANTLY – if you buy one of these units – you are doing so at YOUR OWN RISK.

Just because you bought one today – you have ABSOLUTELY NO GUARANTEE that it will work tomorrow. If you buy one and the cable company manages to switch them off – THAT IS YOUR PROBLEM.

It has nothing to do with the person/website/eBay etc that you bought the unit from. Remember that you bought it to specifically steal TV channels. So neither the seller, the police or Virgin Media will be interested in your bleating..

AND – it’s your bloody responsibility to learn how to use the box. The user manual will not tell you how to steal UK cable TV. If you have a Replay box – don’t expect to be spoon fed by whoever you got it from. The Internet has hundreds of forums where you can get all the help and advice you need. Don’t be a lazy sod!

OK – now that’s clear I’ll get onto the useful stuff.

Installing Software (via PC) on your Replay Box

Before you start you must have the following:

1. A Null Modem RS 232 Cable2. A PC with a free COM Port (9 pin male port) – new Laptops DO NOT

HAVE THIS PORT – WHERE POSSIBLE USE A TOWER PC3. An RF Adaptor (you should have got one with your box)4. Software STBlink5.20 (Client) : (the program used for updating the

software on the Replay or Lite Box)5. The latest software for the unit– either V752 for the Replay Lite Box or

V751_PVR for the Full Replay (the larger box with room for a Hard Drive). This guide will be out of date soon – so these versions may be updated – check before you proceed.

Open up the Stblink5.20 Client on your PC. You should get a screen like this :

Plug in the null modem lead, PC & Replay Box. Switch on Replay Box and press the Setup Com button. If it’s connected a blue line will move from left to right confirming that a connection has been made.

Then press the Upgrade Software Button and choose the appropriate file for your box. The Lite file is currently (June 07) Version 752, Full Replay Unit is V751.

This is important : when you are updating a Lite unit the LED on the front of the unit will change from Red to Green about every second. The PC will show that the software has successfully been installed. It takes another minute to install fully on the Lite unit. Wait and be patient – when (and only when) the LED starts blinking rapidly (noticeably much faster than before) has the software successfully downloaded. If you reset the box too early you will have to start from scratch. Just wait the extra few seconds. .

The Full Replay Box (which has the hard drive option) should always be flashed (flashing is just the term used to describe updating the software on the unit) with the hard drive disconnected.

You often get away with upgrading with the drive still installed – but if you lose all your recorded TV – don’t say you weren’t warned!

When the Full Replay is finished loading the new software – it will display the word ‘GooD’ on the front panel.

Switch off then five seconds later switch back on.

Unlocking the Replay

Your box now has the latest software. However, by default the unit shows Free to Air programs. You need to unlock the box so that you can access all the other channels.

You can tell if your box is ‘locked’ by the error message you see at the top left of your TV screen.

0000 Scrambled means – locked and not going to decode your favourite sports channels (or any encrypted channels for that matter – you’ll see a $ sign next to the encrypted – and unviewable - channels)

1800 Scrambled means – the box is updating the ‘keys’ information which it needs to get from your cable provider to show these channels. It shouldn’t take more than a minute or so to update.

Unlocking the box is easy. Do the following:

1. Menu2. User Installation3. Parental Lock4. Overtype the current password (it’s highlighted for you already) by

keying in 7777 on the remote5. A box will pop up with the words Access Denied – simply press OK6. This will take you to the Key Manager screen7. Now use the Exit button twice to get back to your TV screen. You’ll see

the 1800 Scrambled message for a short time – then the additional channels will come on

Scanning for channels

Your unit should be flashed and ready to use.

You’ll need to do a channel scan if this has not already been done.

If the box was brand new when you flashed it you’ll see a splash screen with the language selection. The blue button (NEXT) takes you straight to the Auto Search Screen.

If you’re updating an existing box your old channels will still be there.

IMPORTANT – learn about this section as it’s important and will save you time!

Auto Search can be accessed through, Menu, User Installation, Auto Search.

Although Virgin Media is the new brand name you will have previously had a service from either NTL, ex C&W or Telewest.

By DEFAULT – the Replay Software will scan across the whole range of providers. You can half the time of this search if you put in the correct ‘Symbol Rate’ for your provider

These are not 100% definitive but a very good rule of thumb. If you don’t the channels you want – choose the other option

If you used to be with NTL or ex C&W – use the remote to change the DEFAULT SYMBOL RATE setting of 6887, 6952 to ONLY 6887 (right arrow until you get the correct number then use the down arrow next to OK. Move down to search and press OK).

If you used to be Telewest change to 6952 ONLY. If you search on both it will take twice as long.

Scanning for channels continued....

It’s worth noting that there are no channels I know of below frequency 290 MHz – so you can shorten the search time even more by changing the start frequency from 162.0 to 290.0 using the remote.

Once the scan has completed you could have anything from 200 to 300+ channels. There are a lot of duplicate, test and other ‘useless’ channels.

Once the channels have been found you can make life easier by sorting them alphabetically. Go to Menu, Channel Manager, TV Channel and using the yellow (SORT) button, sort them by ‘Channel Name’

Depending on your particular area not all channel names will be pulled in correctly. You may find Sky Sports 1 & 2 but not 3.

It’s not that you can’t get it – you’ll find it (along with any others) usually in the TV CH bundle of channels which are always found.

Although it may seem like a tedious process it is worth taking the time to sort your channels into ‘Favourites’. You can do this as a single Favourite with only the channels ‘you’ watch or be more adventurous and sort them into logical groups like Sport, Movies etc. I’ll expand on this later.

Sorting your channels into favourites is useful because:

1. The Replay Lite has a brilliant ‘clone’ one box onto another facility. If you do one (and only one box properly) you’ll not have to do it again. You simply clone your ‘neatly ordered favourites box’ onto new ones. This avoids having to re-scan and re-sort. I’ll detail this later on.

2. If you only have one box you can use the same program ‘STB Client Link’ to save your favourites onto your PC.

Setting up your ‘Favourites’

1. Press the menu button2. Navigate to the Channel Manager Section (top of screen)3. Go to the TV Channel section and press OK4. The TV Channel Manager is now available5. By default you are now on Favourite 1 (pressing the RED button will

take you through favourites 1-8).6. Pressing the GREEN (edit) button allows you to ‘Rename the Favourite

1 Menu’ to something more appropriate. For example favourites 1-8 as follows:

1. Popular TV2. Movies3. Sport4. Factual5. UK TV6. Music7. Kids8. Your Choice

7. When you press the Green Button you will have the option to RENAME FAV (navigate to this and press OK). You can now manually rename the Favourite to what you want,

8. As you scroll through the channel listings you can add your favourites as follows. If you have a favourite called Popular TV you may want to add the standard Freeview channels. When you navigate to BBC 1 press the OK button and a Smiley Face will appear next to the channel – this means it has been added to this favourites menu.

9. When you have finished (with for example – Popular TV) press the RED Button and you will now be on Favourites 2 (pressing the RED button will scroll you through each of the EIGHT Favourite menus). If as suggested above you’ve renamed Favourites 2 to Movies you can add Sky Movies, Favourites 3 to Sport add Sky Sports and so on..

10.When you are finished with your favourites – press exit and the data will be saved.

How the Auto Search Works

(Learn this bit – it’s important)

The way the cable companies send the channels down the line is quite simple. They use different frequencies (measured in Megahertz or MHz) to store groups of channels.

So – although you didn’t know it – when you do (or did) your first Auto Search the box worked out where the channels were for your area by searching all the frequencies.Individual frequencies can have several channels on each one.

(e.g. Frequency 435 MHz might have BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC News 24 and CBBC etc on it).

** That doesn’t mean BBC1 will always be on 435 Mhz – I’ll explain later **

I’ve lost some channels – how do I get them back?

As above – quite naturally the cable providers aren’t best pleased about you thieving there subscription channels. So every so often they shuffle things about just to keep you on your toes.

BBC1/2/News 24 and CBBC may all have moved to (for arguments sake to 619 MHz).

As your box is looking for what it thinks is BBC1 on 435 MHz you’ll get an error message like ‘No Signal’, ‘Service Unknown’ or the Virgin Media ‘Enter your PIN’ screen. Don’t panic!

This is why the basic understanding above is important. All you have to do is re-scan your box and you’ll find another BBC1/2 etc. ** Worth noting it’s a good idea to delete the old one on 435 MHz and update your Favourite to show the new one on 619 MHz. If you don’t you’ll end up with lots of duplicates.

Why so many movie channels and what is this ‘HID’ thing?

Back in early April it was agreed that numbering Sky Movies 1/2/3/4 etc had some limitations.

People want to see films rated 12, 15 & 18 before the 9pm watershed. By using the PIN on the movie channels it means that the children can’t watch adult or scary films during the day (theoretically!)

Also – Sky 1/2/3 etc didn’t really mean much. So they renamed them by genre – so you now have channels called Sky Family, Comedy, Modern, Scifi Horror. This means you’re more likely to find the type of movie you like by accessing the new channel name (and presumably help reduce the chances of accidentally catching the bloody “Karate Kid” trilogy again!)

When you do your first Auto Search (or a re-scan to pick up any new channels) you will find a whole host of movie channels.

For example :

Sky Movies 9 & 10, Sky Mov 9 & 10, Sky SciFi Horror, Sky SciFi HID

The old channel names still appear but no longer work. Ditch them if you can be bothered. The MOV channels were newer links to the channels that did require a PIN.

More importantly the Sky SciFi Horror and Sky Scifi HID are the two worth noting.

Why the ‘HID’ version?

Imagine you’re a decent, honest fully subscribed cable user. Try harder that was pathetic – lol

When you decide to sit down and watch a Sci Fi horror movie – your real box will display the PIN screen remind you that this movie may not be suitable for all the family and that as a precaution you should enter your PIN to confirm that you are over 18 etc. When you enter your PIN the real box will then jump to the horror movie you wanted to view. (Remember what we learned about channels being on different frequencies?)

Virgin need two channels to do this. One for the PIN Screen and one for the HIDden channel which is where the movie is showing.

So – in most instances you can delete the channel with the whole name (i.e. Sky SciFi Horror) as you can now rename the HIDden channel to that one.

Cloning the Replay Lite

One of the best features on the Replay Lite is the easy way to copy (clone) an entire box from one to another. This means you can copy a ‘set up - working’ box without having to use a PC.

Simply switch on the set up (master) box (i.e. the box which has already been scanned and you want to copy from) – attach a null modem cable to the back. Take the new box, put it on top of the master, plug in the null modem lead THEN FINALLY plug the power into the second unit. It will then start cloning from the master. When the red/green light starts blinking very rapidly – it’s cloned

Remember to remove the null modem lead before re-booting the newly cloned box! (Or it will start the cloning process again!)

COM Port (for Null modem lead on back of unit)

Master (Already set up) box Switched on FIRST with cable attached to the socket at the back

Null Modem Lead

New unit (to be cloned from MASTER unit above) – Null modem cable in back. Put the power lead in LAST (after the MASTER unit has Power and Null Modem

in!)

Clone will start as soon as the power goes into the new unit. Remember to WAIT until the Green/Red Light changes from a slow blink to very fast.

.

Backing Up Your Data

As I’ve dealt with upgrading the software on your box (flashing) using the STB Client link it’s worth pointing out that you can also save the data (like your favourites) using the same program.

Plug the null modem cable into the PC & Replay and power the unit up.

Check the PC and box are talking to each other by clicking on the Setup Comm button. If your connection is established – then you can copy the files from your box onto your PC using the Read User Data button shown below.

You’ll be asked where you want to save the file and what it should be called.

By default this type of file is a text file and is called Factory_Data.txt

I’d recommend renaming something more useful like replaybackup100607.txt as it’ll be easy to find later.

You can share your Favourites with others in the same area also. If you send them your file they would repeat the process above but use the Write Factory Data option instead of Read User Data. This means that the PC will send the (your) file onto their Replay unit.

REPLAY LITE – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ’s)

Question Number One: Can I use this box with my Sky Dish?

Answer Number One:No you bloody well can’t (and stop asking this ridiculous question you baboon!)If I had a pound for everytime I’d been asked that ludicrous question I’d be yachting round Monte Carlo dripping in Playboy centrefolds! OK – got that - great? Now go and tell your friends with ‘Sky only’ that these are ‘CABLE Receivers and can’t be attached to Sky Dishes!

Thank you – I feel a whole lot better now

Q2 : I’ve flashed (upgraded the software) and now all I have as a RED Light and can’t use the remote.

A2 : This is usually caused by switching the box off ‘before’ the whole software update has finished. YOU WILL have to re-flash the box again from the start OR clone it from a working box (see above for instructions). The Replay Lite is very unlikely to be broken (about 1 in 1000 have an actual fault). If you are struggling to get the software back on – try using an earlier version with the suffix A (i.e. Version 738A or 742A as this has some additional data which will fix the ‘RED LED’ problem). You can then upgrade to V751/752 after this to get the latest versions **Note – as this is written in June 07 the later versions may have higher numbers – these are the ‘current’ latest versions**

Q3 : Whats in all those TV CH channels?

A3 : There could be any number of useful (and useless) channels in there. Generally theres some test channels, some adult preview and some completely non working channels. Unless you are missing something important (or are just plain curious) then you should find everything elsewhere

Q4 : Can these boxes show High Definition programs?

A4 : No – there’s not enough high definition channels on cable at present to justify this (for now).

Q5 : Why can’t I get Pay Per View Movies?

A5 : Often asked question. Pay per view requires something called ‘talk back’. That’s where your box contacts Virgin requesting the film or event. This allows Virgin to know who you are, where you live and obviously to increase your bill.

These units simply take what is coming down the cable lead – they don’t send any information whatsoever back. That’s why the Cable Police aren’t beating your door down as you read this.

Q6 : How long will these boxes work for?

A6 : Who knows? Suffice to say that it’s unlikely that the Virgin can afford to make any massive changes to the platform which they currently use. If you get three months out of it – then it’s probably covered its cost. You know the day you buy one it could last an hour or forever. The risk is yours to take – just remember that if they ever do switch them off.

Q7 : You talked about ‘KEYS’ – what are they?

A7 : Without getting too technical, there are two ‘Hex’ numbers ‘aka’ Keys ( it’s short for Hexadecimal and ‘not witches’) which your box uses to unscramble encrypted channels. In a nutshell – if you have the right ‘keys’ your box will allow you to see these channels. If you don’t they’ll all be scrambled. All the well supported boxes have people who work out how to make sure your box always has the ‘right’ keys/numbers. You may have seen the words ‘Auto Update’ – which just means ‘if today’s numbers/keys change – your box will automatically change them for you. Many boxes have problems doing this – which means only get Free to Air channels. The Replay series does have the Auto Update capability - leaving you free to discuss why you have 200+ channels and nothing to watch

The box is good – but it’s not actually made by Carlsberg....

Enjoy and distribute this guide if you think it’s made your understanding of your box clearer. The more feedback – the better it’ll get.

And finally (an admittedly unrelated) quote from our benefactor:

“”We've got an engaging, edgy, vibrant, fun product, ... It may or may not work, but we're going to give it our best shot.” – Richie Branston.

(**Disclaimer** – this may not actually be attributed to this specific product –but it’s difficult to argue with that ethos – reap what ye shall sow..! lol )

© Cable Assist June 07