Voom should enable OTA permanently!

[Dvlos]

There is no "heartbeat". (For OTA anyway.)
VOOM is not going to disable the OTA functionality. No need to worry!

Is this confirmed Ilya? THis helps as I still dont know who I want to go with.

 

[T2k]

Did you read above posts.

STB boxes usually have a heartbeat fallback

If they do NOT get a 'i'm ok' message from the provider over the data stream every x days or weeks, it WILL STOP. THe code you are referring to DOES look for a heartbeat. If it does not get them, off it goes.

I am not saying this is true in this case at all, but your logic for programming in general, is flawed.

No more than yours about OTA broadcast reception - there's no need for any "heartbeat" and such crap.

 

[lilyarbie]

Questions about the OTA tuner.....

Somebody mentioned earlier that the Over-the-Air function of this box would work perfectly as long as a factory reset isn't done. What if a factory reset has to be done? I know there's been a few times where my boxes have locked up after testing multiple frequencies on the antenna testing screen. Could there be a possibility of a software update coming out that would keep it functioning in the event the boxes do lock up? Also, it's been stated that the guide information comes strictly from the satellite, could an update be implemented to the box to pick up what guide data there is in the PSIP stream?

 

[SKrueger]

Could there be a possibility of a software update coming out that would keep it functioning in the event the boxes do lock up?

Always a possibilty, but I really doubt they'll be updating code.

Also, it's been stated that the guide information comes strictly from the satellite, could an update be implemented to the box to pick up what guide data there is in the PSIP stream?

I'm sure in the long run it's possible, but it would require a major code rewrite and I don't see them laying out the money to engineers to rewite the code. Also if they were planning on doing that, they would have had to start months ago to write, test, and debug. Come the 1st no more service, no more updates. Wouldn't want to be stuck with buggy code.

 

[spahoose]

Deactivation

Unless Voom has a central switch to send a deactivation hit to all boxes I think it is highly unlikely that the receivers will be turned off this way. Normally it requires disconnecting the service from within your account and then sending a hit to the box for an immediate shut off. Another way is to create a disconnect work order and complete it, once completed, a hit is automatically sent to the box. With 40,000 + receivers out there it would be more feasible to just drop the signal.

 

[spahoose]

Not authorized

I just bought 4 new in box Voom recievers, to use specifically for OTA.. I cannot get past the "not authorized" screen at this moment, and I called voom (as I was a prior subscriber) to see if they would hit them just to get past this screen.. the poor guy on the other end of the phone sounded like he really wanted to help me, but his software wouldnt let him do it.

After about 15-20 minutes of messing with it, he finally said "Mabey on the satellite guys forum, you can find a way around the authorization warning." funny, since I didnt even mention this forum, or any others.

I have some electronic skills, and some minor programming skills, and I am going to take a whack at getting this to work. I should also check with my father, who works for Motorola service, perhaps he can put me in touch with someone over at the big M to get into some service modes and programming data on the DSR550 STB.

That was me that you talked to. Glad you took my advice. One of the things that I could not mention on the phone was that I am not allowed to talk to anyone that is not a Voom customer, even previous customers, concerning anything Voom related, unless it is to inform them that Voom is shutting down and no longer taking new orders.
From my end it would be impossible to send a hit to your box, you would have to have an active account. In order for you to have an active account, in your case, you would have to reopen your old account and re-add your equipment to it, impossible to do at this time. Realistically, it is going to be impossible to remove the "Not Authorized" message from your screen since it requires not only a hit to the box but also one to the access card. Hope your father has some work arounds for you on this problem. My apologies for not being able to help you. Good luck.

P.S. If possible, check your software version, Voom button, help, info, NEP #, it has to be at least 600 or you won't be able to scan for locals with those boxes, maybe your father has a way of updating the software on them if they are not up to date.

 

[rkrenicki]

P.S. If possible, check your software version, Voom button, help, info, NEP #, it has to be at least 600 or you won't be able to scan for locals with those boxes, maybe your father has a way of updating the software on them if they are not up to date.

Well, The unit itself has a DiskOnChip, meaning that there is a legitimate filesystem, that can be read by another computer. My guess is that this unit runs on VxWorks or some other similar *nix based OS (since it has a boot time, and the fact that it uses Broadcom and Xylinx processors) I have been pouring over the board looking for some test points to gain access to the DOC, and once that happens, its hacking time.

If worst comes to worst, then the chip'll be coming out, and onto a DOC board for ease of access

I dont see where it would a huge problem just tricking the box into activated mode, its simply a file or setting somewhere in the box saying "Activated = YES/NO", now if that switch is digitally signed or not, is a whole nother story.

As for the smart-card, I have never messed with NDS cards before, only GemPlus authentication cards for networks (they keyboard I am using has a ISO reader/writer for that purpose) Since the reciever will not be used for decryption anymore, I think that wont be too much of a obsticle either.

Since I have 4 boxes, I dont feel too bad about killing one or two in this process. I will shoot an email off to my father right now, see if he can get me in touch with someone at Motorola BCS that may have more information for me.

 

[techweb]

Somebody mentioned earlier that the Over-the-Air function of this box would work perfectly as long as a factory reset isn't done. What if a factory reset has to be done? I know there's been a few times where my boxes have locked up after testing multiple frequencies on the antenna testing screen.

The normal cold or warm reboot is not the same as factory reset. The factory reset is in a hidden menu (I won't give the secret code here so people don't kill their boxes). It was useful on early firmware revisions for curing several ills including restoring the OTA map for some people.

 

[Ilya]

Is this confirmed Ilya? THis helps as I still dont know who I want to go with.

Yes, this is confirmed. (Unofficially though ) The official announcement on this and on whether the rental boxes will need to be returned or not is expected next week.
And yes, stay away from the Factory Reset! Reboot should be no problem.

 

[rtt2]

I don't know if Voom ever moved to the NDS smart card. They planned on doing so eventually I know. They originally started out with the the Digicipher II encription. That is built into the chipset.

Someone might beable to tell you if the NDS Smartcard is functional or just passing through.

 

[rkrenicki]

I don't know if Voom ever moved to the NDS smart card. They planned on doing so eventually I know. They originally started out with the the Digicipher II encription. That is built into the chipset.

Someone might beable to tell you if the NDS Smartcard is functional or just passing through.

It may just be there for authentication, simply for the number, in which case it wont really matter. I just need to get to that DOC before I can really say for sure.

Unfortunately, I did not bring the reciever with me to work today, so I wont be able to work on it. In the meantime, I guess I will do some reading up on the DOC, and its interface methods.

It would be nice to find some technical documenation on the IRD.. I am thinking that will be my first goal

There may also be some sort of JTAG interface or something similar to it, like an I2C or LPC bus. There are a few header ports near the DOC chip, that may be used for this purpose.

I think I may make a new thread for this discussion, since this is 10 pages into someone elses thread, and I dont want to threadjack.

 

[enoree]

I bought a box from someone on E-Bay, it boots up lets me do installer menu, scans for channels ok and lets me view them all ok. The only downside is a faint scan line that sweeps across the screen from left to right, it looks like it has a searching for satellite message with it that you have to look at really close to see. I hooked my dish coax to it and it pulled in all the va va voom stuff, but still had scanning line. I primarily want to use it for OTA for my girl friends HDTV as her cable co. has squat but OTA is plentiful at her address. Any ideas about eliminating the faint scan lines?

 

[spahoose]

Nds

Smart cards moved to NDS a couple of months ago Remember when you started getting Access Card error messages and some of your Voom channels started telling you to call to upgrade? Bingo. That was the move. Channels were being re-encrypted to NDS.

 

[rkrenicki]

Smart cards moved to NDS a couple of months ago Remember when you started getting Access Card error messages and some of your Voom channels started telling you to call to upgrade? Bingo. That was the move. Channels were being re-encrypted to NDS.

I have moved this discussion to the following thread, to prevent Threadjacking

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=63687

 

[bryan27]

Also, it's been stated that the guide information comes strictly from the satellite, could an update be implemented to the box to pick up what guide data there is in the PSIP stream?

I think the receiver is already capable of receivng guide data from the PSIP, but wasn't activated. If you look at the Installers Menu in the area where look at the signal levels of the local stations there is a list of 14 PSIPs and if you press the yellow button you get a "detailed" look of the PSIP data. However, all the PSIP data says TBA.

This makes me believe that PSIP guide data from the locals was incorporated into the last major software upgrade, but was never activated. Perhaps it will be activated a few days before the signal goes dark.

 

[T2k]

I think the receiver is already capable of receivng guide data from the PSIP, but wasn't activated. If you look at the Installers Menu in the area where look at the signal levels of the local stations there is a list of 14 PSIPs and if you press the yellow button you get a "detailed" look of the PSIP data. However, all the PSIP data says TBA.

This makes me believe that PSIP guide data from the locals was incorporated into the last major software upgrade, but was never activated. Perhaps it will be activated a few days before the signal goes dark.

STB is capable for PSIP, that's correct. However I am not sure it could be fully functional, due to either Voom or the OTAs...

 

[bryan27]

It would have been a nice function especially for when new stations poped up so that you could have gotten the guide data (if the station was sending it) while you waited for VOOM to add the station to the channel map.

 

[Underdog]

Yes, this is confirmed. (Unofficially though ) The official announcement on this and on whether the rental boxes will need to be returned or not is expected next week.
And yes, stay away from the Factory Reset! Reboot should be no problem.

How confident are you in your sources now? Its been a week since you posted this. I was just on the phone with a CSR and they still have no word on anything yet...In fact they told me not to expect any new news until after the shutdown. Yes I know the CSR's are more misinformed then anyone; but this is crazy that they keep everyone in the dark till the final day. Cablevision has been planning this shutdown for months and to not have any information to give to their subscribers is really poor management. It comes across as they are deciding things on a day to day basis and that they are not in any rush to make anything public.