Voom should enable OTA permanently!

[bryan27]

rang1995, I agree with you. Having a guide for local channels was just a little icing, but not a must have. I know what is on and when. If I don't know I can go to TitanTV and see.

What would be really nice is if they activate the PSIP data many stations send which includes guide data. In the installers menu there is a place where PSIP can be viewed, but it isn't active and just shows TBD.


Lobstah, I completely agree with you. It would make no economic sense to retrieve the receivers, but look at who we are dealing with here. I wouldn't put it past James to collect the receivers and just dump them in New York Harbor. I don't doubt that Charles would be all for the subs keeping the receivers in a workable OTA fashion, especially since we so passionately fought for him.

 

[whyme]

OTA will work

I for one know for a fact that if they send a kill signal to your box you will still get OTA signals. How do I know this?? Well when my credit card expired and they didnt get a payment in a few months they shut off my box. For a few weeks I watched OTA channels.. Now I will tell you that occasionally you get a Box inactive message however you can just turn the box off and turn it back on and your OTA channels are back..

 

[Aldous]

This may seem like an ignorant question, but according to my wife, I'm full of them. Why would Voom send a kill signal? If they are going out of business and IF they don't collect the boxes, what is the use of a kill signal? Could some body please explain the logic of it? Thanks.

 

[Indy]

This may seem like an ignorant question, but according to my wife, I'm full of them. Why would Voom send a kill signal? If they are going out of business and IF they don't collect the boxes, what is the use of a kill signal? Could some body please explain the logic of it? Thanks.

This is half right. The sending of a kill signal will not happen. The Voom STB needs a periodic stay awake or authorization signal from Voom to stay working and viable. There is an internal clock in one of the memory chips within the STB that keeps track of the "pacemaker" signals from Voom. When one is missed the STB freezes up and requires a "hit" from the emms provider to ubnlock. Obviously that "hit" will never occur so the box will remain dead to the world around it never to awaken to a active state again. Meaning no OTA, no satellite signal, no frigging use past a paper weight.

 

[elocs]

Obviously that "hit" will never occur so the box will remain dead to the world around it never to awaken to a active state again. Meaning no OTA, no satellite signal, no frigging use past a paper weight.

It will work, it won't work--evidently, the most baffling and unanswerable question of our time.
Ultimately, it cannot be both. It can work for awhile, then not work, but in the end it will need to be one or the other. As for me, I am not going to count on an unsupported receiver to get my hd.

 

[Aldous]

OK, so if this is the case, the only way around the freeze up would be to hack the box and either make it think it has gotten a "hit" recently or "stall" the clock?

 

[enoree]

If VOOM has told people with customer owned boxes that they will still work for OTA then why the need for a hit to keep it active in the long term ? Possible class action in that regard.

 

[smeagal]

It's just like a computer, it will execute instructions until such instructions change, it's that simple if it recieves no new commands it will continue to function according to the last command. The only thing we might lose epg if it recieves it from satellite. Not complicated...no doomsday timer involved or anything like that.

 

[lilyarbie]

Hacking the box to keep the OTA tuner alive

Even if the Over-The-Air tuner died, couldn't the box be hacked? I know there are usb ports on the back of each box. Do these ports do both input and output or are they output only signals that were designed to output information to the future DVR? Also, I've seen smart card readers/writers that are available on Ebay. Could these be used to simulate a hit and therefore keep the box functioning in the event that it does shut down due to there being no signal coming from the satellite? Notice: I'm not trying to hack the box to get illegal channels or stuff that I don't pay for, but I figure that if we are going to get stuck with the boxes that we might as well be able to use them for the over-the-air function. Another thing is: Can these boxes be possibly used as a 4DTV receiver to receive those signals that are in the "clear" not those that are scrambled for FTA purposes? I know these boxes use Digicypher 2 technology to decode signals and that 4DTV uses Digicypher technology to decode signals in the Digicypher 2 format that are broadcasted by satellites and that these boxes are made by Motorola which is the same company that produces 4DTV boxes. Notice again: I do not want to get programming that is scrambled or steal programming. I only want to receive programming that is in the clear such as OTA or FTA. A final thing I forgot to mention was that someone had said earlier that these boxes can be changed in a hidden menu to go to different transponders, video and audio PIDs as well as symbol rates,etc.

 

[DCfC]

OTA still working 2 months after D/C date

Hopefully this will be good news to anyone else who bought a VOOM box.
I cancelled VOOM on Feb 14, immediately disconnected the dish cable before they could send any kind of kill signal, but left the OTA antenna hooked up.
Well 2 months later and the OTA tuner is working fine, I even rescanned and added a new channel (WBPH-DT Ch.60 on 9-1 in Bethlehem). The clock is stuck on standard time and the VOOM banner promotes coming attractions from February and of course no program guide, BUT the VOOM box was and still is my best OTA tuner. So, I have a second OTA tuner to feed the picture in picture, or flip over to while the DirecTV Tivo is recording 2 other shows at the same time.

 

[kvchief]

What about non-activated boxes?

I've been thinking about picking one up from eBay, but I'm not sure it's worth the risk. Has anyone been able to get a new box to tune OTA? From what I read, the info seems contradictory.

 

[Indy]

What about non-activated boxes?

I've been thinking about picking one up from eBay, but I'm not sure it's worth the risk. Has anyone been able to get a new box to tune OTA? From what I read, the info seems contradictory.

I have 2 new in the box never activated Voom STB's I will sell cheap. They are as useful as used toilet paper but nicer to look at. You can not access the screen menus needed to use OTA without the STB activation by Voom. Don't waste your money.

 

[T2k]

Hopefully this will be good news to anyone else who bought a VOOM box.
I cancelled VOOM on Feb 14, immediately disconnected the dish cable before they could send any kind of kill signal, but left the OTA antenna hooked up.
Well 2 months later and the OTA tuner is working fine, I even rescanned and added a new channel (WBPH-DT Ch.60 on 9-1 in Bethlehem). The clock is stuck on standard time and the VOOM banner promotes coming attractions from February and of course no program guide, BUT the VOOM box was and still is my best OTA tuner. So, I have a second OTA tuner to feed the picture in picture, or flip over to while the DirecTV Tivo is recording 2 other shows at the same time.

I think it pretty much clears everything - no need for 'heartbeat" and such for pure OTA functions.

 

[Sean Mota]

I think I already posted this, on this thread or in another thread. The OTA will work after VOOM goes dark 4/30. It was confirmed that all boxes can be used as OTA stb if you have the latest software. At this point everyone has it so it should not be an issue.

 

[philhu]

It's just like a computer, it will execute instructions until such instructions change, it's that simple if it recieves no new commands it will continue to function according to the last command. The only thing we might lose epg if it recieves it from satellite. Not complicated...no doomsday timer involved or anything like that.

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.

 

[elocs]

What about non-activated boxes?

I've been thinking about picking one up from eBay, but I'm not sure it's worth the risk. Has anyone been able to get a new box to tune OTA? From what I read, the info seems contradictory.

If you want contradictory info, you have come to the right place.

 

[rkrenicki]

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.

 

[Slick]

Sean and Dcic thanks for your imput, I trust your advice as always, this thread is giving me a headache.. I hate that Voom is going under, I am going to direct tv but man they want you to pay for everything compared to Voom.. Cya Slick

 

[txdude]

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.

Even if this is the case, voom could still send a firmware update by the 30th that permanently enables OTA without the need for a "heartbeat" to remain activated. Whether they would do this is another issue.

 

[Ilya]

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