Remanufactured PVR501 Vid Mod?

[ReneB64]

Hey guys,
What is the exact purpose of the vid mod? I saw guides for 508/510 but not 501. I have a remanufactured 501 with a yellow card, do i need the vid mod to obtain boxkey? or is it just to back up the TSOP? Will probably wait to see what type of testing comes out, will it be necessary to complete it.

[joesnuffy]

see below

[joesnuffy]

If its a 501 and has a hole in the bottom for a jtag device that is all you should need to obtain box keys. Their are 2 points on the board known as DO points when together they put the recevier in like a sleeper mode making a lot easier to jtag and restore flashes. Make sure you back up your flashes first both 1 and 2 if you monkey around with a jtag on the device. The vid mod was only to allow a blue Rom2-11 to work. The yellow card should work with no mods whatsoever all you need is a subscription or wait to see if a fix comes along for the yellow card.

The vid mod was primarily used to allow the use of rom 2-11 but if you have the DO points together and erase both flashes they won't totally erase it will say that you still have something on flash 2 which is at 7FFFFFAC which is D500 when you do a vid mod you change D500 to 0000. All that is normally needed to rebuild a 501-510 is flash 2 which if you read it you will have you would erase both flashes then flash back flash 2 it won't be empty as I already explained but it will flash correctly if you saved it without the video mod.

In order to totally clear the flashes for whatever the 3 wire vid mod must be done. A lot of remanufactured 501s have the GT eeprom chips now instead of DT chips those are the letters at the end of the chip. If you were going to use a 501 with a blue card then if you have GT chips a vid mod would have had to happened. I sometimes get dyslexic GT or DT one or the other a quick search will tell you. Since blue cards aren't working I don't think a vid mod would be needed for any reason but I have been wrong before.

JOe

[ReneB64]

Thanks Joe, got the idea, I already have a 3900, came with box keys and lock so I didnt have to mess with it. On this new box, dont have any info, is currently subscribed. Your answer clears it up, if and when a fix comes out (atmega etc) then, without the vid mod, i can extract the box keys, install lock and should be good to go. I dont have a jtag, will have to buy one, found one pretty cheap at D**house. Been lucky so far, problems I had with 3900 I just Junkyard fix and it reloaded software, but since I have to extract boxkeys on remanufactured 501 might as well learn to save flash.

[joesnuffy]

For my 501s-510s I build my own jtag using 5 33ohm-100ohm resistors and a parallel printer connector. I use 33 ohm resistors and check all connections with a multimeter once I am finished it is a great safe device. Its called a simple jtag and can be built for less than 5 bucks. Its in the download section under simple jtag. Its a non-buffered jtag I use cat 5 cable and carefully solder the resistors inside the plastic boot that goes on the parallell printer connector. I take the uhf connector out of my rec and let this hang out the back about 2 inches so I can jtag it at will. I anchor it well so if it gets tugged it doesn't pull stuff of the board. If you need help just pm me. I recommend adding a switch also for the DO points. I use a switch that has double sides so that when its on the DO points are together and the vid mod is enabled. When the switch is off the DO points are not connected and the vid mod is disabled. You would need help with that.

I hope this helps,
Joe

[ReneB64]

Thanks Joe, probably will make a move when some sort of cardless (atmega etc.) is found.
Rene