Need to Modify Dish PVR 721 Slingbox Remote Codes

joshin · Post by **joshin** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 9:47 am

Hi all,

I need to modify the default settings for the Dish 721 PVR. I stupidly thought that Sling would want their customers to buy more than one Slingbox and would make it easy for them to program new devices. Nope...

Thank goodness this site exists! Otherwise I'd have needed to build a catapult, drive it to Sling's headquarters and return the device to them at a high rate of speed.

My problem is that I have 2 Dish PVRs and they have RF+IR remotes and need to have different "remote addresses" so that one's remote doesn't stomp on the other. Problem is that this also changes how IR is handled which breaks the default Sling configuration...

So, I need to change the 721's (or 501's) entry to use a different remote address (probably just a single hex code) to solve the problem.

Optimally, I'd like to grab Sling's 721 entry with its pretty graphic, modify the entry, save it in whatever format will work, upload the working file to the repository, and live happily ever after.

I've searched the forums, grabbed frhed, sbav-decrypter, RM1.78, and all the files that seemed relevant and am stuck.

I can't seem to figure out how to use sbav-decrypter. When I open it in Excel, I only see the "Binary Input" worksheet so am wondering if I'm doing something wrong (most likely) or if something is missing.

I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks!
-Josh

Post by **The Robman** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 11:39 am

Grab one of the Dish 721 files from the file section and open it using RM. Change the selected remote to the Slingbox (presumably the PL version) and re-map the buttons so that they make sense to you (with the Slingbox). Then save the RMDU file and export the upgrade to a Sling binary file.

This will result in a copy of the bin file that you're currently using.

In order to make a bin file that will work for the alternate address modes, you would first need to change the "remote address" in RM's setup sheet and then give the code a different setup code number than the one you used for the other upgrade.

joshin · Post by **joshin** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 11:05 pm

Thanks for the response! I tried all that you suggested but am still having a problem. I searched the forums so think I know what the problem is but am not sure how to solve.

The problem seems to be related to the "Upgrade Protocol Code ***REQUIRED***" message on the RM 1.78 Output tab.

I did install the RDF's from the slingbox_rdf.zip. Are there newer versions?

I redownloaded the 3 PVR721 RM files, opened each with RM, changed the remote to the Slingbox (JU version since mine is the original classic model), saved the rmdu file, exported it to get a binary file but unfortunately it did not work.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

-Josh

Post by **The Robman** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:13 am

joshin wrote:... changed the remote to the Slingbox (JU version since mine is the original classic model)...

Are you 100% sure that you have a JU box? JU boxes are pretty rare as the JU chip was replaced with the PL chip early on, so currently ALL boxes sold in the US have PL chips, regardless of whether they're "Classic", "AV" or "Pro" or whatever else they might be calling them now. If in doubt, create a JU and a PL bin file and store them both in the SBAV folder.

I'm not sure which zip file you are referring to regarding the RDF, but if you want to be 100% sure that you're using the right one, get it from the main RDF zip file:

https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... le_id=1948

joshin · Post by **joshin** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:12 am

Yes, I'm 100% sure.

Anyhow, I was unable to get the RDF's from the main zip file to work when I changed the remote location. However, I was able to modify the rdf from the slingbox_rdf.zip file and get it to work on "remote address" of 2.

I also mapped more of the buttons on the modified the rdf

I'll upload the RDF as soon as I clean it up (change the name from "721-joshtest4"

) and figure how to submit it.

Thanks for all the help!

-Josh

File now uploaded to the slingbox section

sfhub · Post by **sfhub** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:03 am

I think the RDF files you were using from the Slingbox work directory are old. They don't include protocol ID 00 02 for the JU .rdf.

You should use the latest v1.27 RDFs which should include everything you need:
https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... le_id=1948

joshin · Post by **joshin** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:36 am

I tried those first. They didn't work for me when I went to change the remote location.

I went through every 721 and 921 rdf file from most recently created to least before settling on the original slingbox one. I don't know why they didn't accept the change in remote address and didn't care figure it out.

I did figure that it would be worthwhile to upload the file I modified both to repay the help I got and for someone who knows more than I how rdf's and all work to figure it out if they cared to.

So it is working for me (for now).

-Josh

sfhub · Post by **sfhub** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:20 pm

joshin wrote:I went through every 721 and 921 rdf file from most recently created to least before settling on the original slingbox one. I don't know why they didn't accept the change in remote address and didn't care figure it out.

When you say they didn't accept the change in remote address are you saying the fixed data wasn't changing when you changed the remote address? Or are you saying the fixed data did change, but the Dish STB didn't respond to the IR as expected?

The reason I ask is I tried your upgrade with my unmodified v1.27 RDF and the fixed data was changing corresponding to changes of the unit code.

You already have it working, but I was mainly interested in what was broken to start with because if it was the rdf problem, I should see the same thing you are seeing.

joshin · Post by **joshin** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:08 pm

What I saw is that after I changed the remote address on the RDF, created the bin files, and then installed each one individually as per the instructions for the slingbox only the original old Slingbox RDF worked on remote address of 2 or 3.

I don't know what you mean by changing "fixed data." No matter what I did or set, none of the other RDF's were able to control the Dish PVR when the PVR's remote address was anything other than 1. This is why I wanted to upload my RDF to see if I'm full of something or if there is a difference between the RDF I uploaded and the other ones with respect to codes generated.

Every RDF worked fine when in testing I had the PVR set to Remote Address 1 with the RDF address set to 1. I should probably have checked to see what would happen if I left the PVR on 1 and changed the address in the RDF to 2. My excuse is that I was frustrated and just wanted the problem solved rather than figuring out "why" it was being a PITA.

To make sure that I had all bases covered, I made JU, PK, Pl, and RV bin files for each and every RDF using the exact same procedure. I figured that my lack of knowledge would be partially canceled by semi-intelligently performed brute force.

I'm not sure why it worked only on the last one. Now that I know I can get it to work, if there's any advantage to using a newer RDF, I may revisit trying them.

Heck, until this adventure, I didn't realize how much of a PITA dealing with remote controls was or at least it hadn't penetrated my thick skull.

-Josh

sfhub · Post by **sfhub** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:43 pm

Ok, I'm still confused, let's go back to the original post I had in my head when I responded.

joshin wrote:Anyhow, I was unable to get the RDF's from the main zip file to work when I changed the remote location. However, I was able to modify the rdf from the slingbox_rdf.zip file and get it to work on "remote address" of 2.

Could you provide the changes you needed to make to the RDF file
BINJU (Slingbox with UEI JU Chip).rdf
to allow the remote address of 2 to work? Either upload the file or just post the diff for the changes you made.

joshin wrote: I'll upload the RDF as soon as I clean it up (change the name from "721-joshtest4" ) and figure how to submit it.

The main reason I am confused is you have referred to the file you are changing as an RDF file, but the description of what you changed in the file seems more like a RMDU file and also the file you uploaded is not an RDF file, it is a RMDU file.

So you've basically said you needed to make changes to the RDF file to make remote address work, then proceeded to upload the RMDU device upgrade file w/o including your changes to the RDF file, thus I don't understand how someone would get the RDF file changes to make the RMDU file you have upgraded work properly.

Now if you have been saying RDF when you meant to say RMDU, then that would make more sense, but I'm not sure that is what you are saying either.

If that is the case, could you point to the RMDU upgrade you tried which didn't work. I'd like to see what was broken in that file vs what worked in the RMDU file you upgraded.

Thanks.