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Excellent Hacks to the ReplayTV 4000

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the hardware-I-lust-after dept.

Hit the link below to find links to assorted hacks done to the extremely cool ReplayTV 4000 PVR. Thanks to jptsetme for submitting links to hacks like hard drive upgrades, software to download mpegs, edit the guide, and systems under development to automate create of VCDs and DVDs from Replay's. It's exciting seeing so much headway being made so fast, and evidence that this is one heck of a machine. "The Replay hackers at AVS forum have done an amazing job on the new ReplayTV 4000's. You can now do some very cool things with this new PVR.

You can increase recording space (by either replacing the existing drive, or adding an additional one.) This has, of course, been done with Tivos and older Replays in the past. Not only has this hack been adapted for the Replay4000 model (including custom sized photo partitions and preserving existing shows), but Replay has also recently released new software that removes the previous 137G per drive limitation, so you can now turn any ReplayTV4000 into a 320G model with a couple of 160G drives and a PC (Linux, Win2k, XP, or with a Linux boot disk on an x86 box with a good enough BIOS to recognize the drive size.)
http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net/

But, you might decide you don't need to open the box at all, since you can now offload your shows to your PC and then serve them back to the ReplayTV4000 with your PC masquerading as another ReplayTV4000 on your local network, giving you nearly limitless storage capacity. [Note: this does not use the internet sharing feature, which is so slow over typical broadband as to be practically unusable. This is streaming the show in realtime from your PC back to your Replay4000, using the same mechanism two Replays use to stream shows back and forth over your local network.]

ReplayPC (C/C++, Windows, Linux, Mac. A simple text mode utility for extracting mpg files from ReplayTV4000 PVRs via TCP/IP)
http://replaypc.sourceforge.net/

Replayer (Pure Java. Java GUI utility allows you to extract mpg files from your ReplayTV 4000 to your PC)
http://www.forbesfield.com/replayer.html

Replay Server (built on PHP for Apache. Allows you to serve downloaded shows to a ReplayTV (on your LAN only) from your PC as if your PC was a ReplayTV)
http://206.124.140.12/rtv/

SwapDV (J++, windoze only. Allows you to download shows from your ReplayTV 4000, serve downloaded shows as if your box was a ReplayTV 4000, and edit the "guide" provided by your PC. i.e. capabilities of both Replayer and Replay Server, but only for Windows.)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&a mp;threadid=116035

A number of users are also working on burning shows to VCD, SVCD, XSVCD and DVD, with moderate success.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&a mp;threadid=115338
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&a mp;threadid=106437

Lastly, there has also been a hack developed to remove macrovision from the old Panasonic Showstoppers (effectively transforming them into ReplayTV3xxx machines.)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&a mp;threadid=118170."

6 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Why use a PVR? by Mattcelt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Has anyone worked on an emulator yet to use a PC as a Tivo or ReplayTV? It seems with all the work done so far, they're using the TIVO's a lot to go to a PC for output/modification anyway, so why not just go straight to PC?

    1. Re:Why use a PVR? by hexa00 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      that's what I did , just bought a ATI All In Wonder Radeon 7500, let's you record shows in mpeg 1 or 2 or someother codec.

      And of course you can select wich shows to record from a TV Guide.

      It let's you encode in vcd compatible format.. so burning to cd is ez.

      It even has a RF Remote control :)

      No need for a PVR with this

      --
      Do what you wilt shall be the whole of the law Love is the law, love under will Capital drives the will of mankind
  2. Why not simply use your PC? by Graabein · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Why buy another box, why not just use your PC?

    There are several products out there which allow you to use your PC as a TVR and record directly to VCD. Just one example: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR (no affiliation, yadda, yadda).

    Anyone tried this product or others like it? Experiences: Good, bad, indifferent?

    --
    And remember kids: Never trust a computer you can actually lift.
  3. My Wishlist Hack - Canada by Outlyer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ok, I have just one request. Someone hack these things to support Canada. It still boggles the mind that while TIVO supports the UK, they ignore Canada. I mean, it's more than just igloos and hockey up here, eh?

    In all seriousness, this is the machine (more so than the TIVO) that seems to be the perfect machine to "fake" guide support on. Unlike the TIVO which dials up and grabs guides from TIVO, the ReplayTV can use your broadband connection. If someone could figure out the host (ideally the hostname) that it connects to, we could trick it into going to a substitute host, grabbing the listing there.

    Yeah, I'm simplifying it slightly. For one, who knows what format the data is in. And whether it uses some sort of encryption. However, unlike TIVO, ReplayTV doesn't sell subscriptions, so they'd have no financial interest in protecting the guide format.

    (By the way, if anyone can confirm this, my theory about the lack of TIVO and ReplayTV support in Canada is that it's due to the rather strict Canadian privacy laws, and rules around Canadian Content.)

    --
    ----------------- "I have a bone to pick, and a few to break." - Refused -------------------
  4. Internet Sharing by imuffin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I really like the internet sharing feature of this box. I understand that a lot of people have capped upstream bandwidth from home, and that because of this it would take forever to send a show to someone... But hopefully these draconian restrictions will be lifted... When we all have decent broadband, which might happen in the not-so-distant future, this will be a really cool feature.

    Now:
    Me: Dude, I missed Futurama last night! Can you capture it, encode it, and then put it on your server so I can grab it?
    Friend: "I guess..."

    The Future:
    Me: "Dude, I missed Futurama last night!"
    Friend: "No problem... " hits a couple of buttons.. "You'll have it in an hour."

  5. We are trying to do this, wanna help? by fons · · Score: 5, Interesting



    http://davedina.apestaart.org

    With a couple of friends we are trying to make a linux based home entertainment system. Eventually we want te be able to:
    - play mp3's and serve them on our lan. (works)
    - have a nifty audio database with webinterface (almost works)
    - serve a webcam (works)
    - play dvd's (works)
    - rip dvd's (kinda works)
    - play divx-cd's (works)
    - watch tv (works) and decode pay-tv :-) (almost works)
    - record from tv (works, but no automated TV-guide)
    - serve recorded DVD's and TV-shows on lan (works)
    - burn recorded stuff onto cd's
    - play games (works)
    - create a nice interface so we can control it with a normal and simpel remote.

    We can still use some help. If you're interested go to our site, read the faq and download what we already have.