Why I love the internet...

I have a RePlay 5060 PVR that I love in a way a man shouldn't love an electronic device. It lets me watch TV without having to schedule my life around watching TV.

Last week, it stopped working. Specifically, it stopped changing channels. The only channels it would seem to record were the Dicovery/NYTimes channel and the Spanish music channel.

A little background - in order to change channels, the RePlay uses a hack called an IR blaster, which attaches to the front of your digital cable box. The IR Blaster mimics a remote control, sending an IR signal from the RePlay to the cable box so it can change the channel. My IR blaster kept falling off, to the point that I had it taped with gaffer's tape to the front of the RePlay.

So I figured that it was the IR blaster. I removed it, used alcohol wipes to clear away the tape goo, and retaped it. Nothing. So I figured it was probably the IR Blaster itself. Ordered a new one off eBay, and figured that I could live without TV for a week, since 1)it was finals week for my summer class and 2)I had 6 and half seasons of Homicide:Life on the Streets to watch (downloaded off of eMule).

Got the new IR blaster Friday - and left it at work, where I had it sent. Brought it home today, hooked it up - and nothing. Same bad channels. I was able to change channels on the cable box itself using the remote, so I figured my RePlay was FUBAR - that it was sending channels to the IR blaster wrong from the unit itself. So I went online, figuring I'd see if anyone on PlanetReplay, a RePlayTV forum, had run into the same problem.

I decided to poke around a little before I posted anything, and quickly found this post -with someone who solved my exact problem. See, Comcast recently "upgraded" my area as well. The problem wasn't with the IR Blaster or the unit, it was with that I had to make a change in the way the RePlay was programed to work with my cable box thanks to Comcast's new channel lineup and guide.

I followed it and I can now change channels, which was more than I could do before. I've haven't had anything record yet, so I don't know if it's working fully, but at least now I know it's a settings issue and not a hardware problem.

And the internet once again shows the breadth of human experience - if you've had a problem, chances are so has someone else, and you can learn from them.