Bell Express View... The Rest of The Story

Hey
just in case you wanted to know for the BEV hack on your page
(http://www.hackcanada.com/canadian/scams/bell_xpress_vu.txt)
most of it is right but, some people might get surprises...
Small corrections/updates to apply :

* Disclamer : I pass this to you for informational purposes only as it was
             passed to me.  Whatever you do with is your own responsibility *

* Password is required only if system has been locked by user
  default password is 1234, if you don't know, err remember, password
  you're fucked, almost ( see later)

* The phone line test is required everytime you want to order a pay per view
  wether it be a movie or an event like boxing or whatever.

* All the information about pay per view is included on the smartcard. This
  information is written only when movie is watched, if you don't watch it,
  you don't pay for it.  Be careful however cuz if you order something you
  don't want and go channel surfing, even if you have the channel only for 1
  second it is as if you watched the whole thing.

* That also means that if you loose signal (rain/snow fade) before ppv, change
  the channel and don't go back on it, order it again when everything is back
  up ok, cuz they don't credit anything in that way, even if you're a very
  lucrative customer.

* If all receivers in same account order same ppv on same day at same time, it
  will only be billed once.

* Smartcard has a built-in pay per view limit, should be around 50$ or
  something like 10 movies.  When you plug your phone line, all this is dumped
  to your bill and smartcard counter is reset to zero so you can order again.
  Yes that means you can be billed for stuff ordered over a year ago.

* To know what is currently stored on your smartcard use remote and go to
  "menu - system setup - purchase info" (menu-6-5<4 if receiver is 1000>)


Ok that's all good stuff to know you'll say but what about passwords ?
It would be pretty dumb to have to buy a whole new receiver just cuz you or
your friend lost a password and can't order pr0n anymore !!  Well you'll be
happy to know that techies over there don't do it for nothing.  They ask you
a bunch of questions like PIN (yeah they have that now on some accounts), full
adress, last bill ammount, programming, etc.  That's a lot of info and you
probably don't remember it... but if you do they'll fix you up, set up a new
pass and write it down in your file over there... But it's so much trouble.
Now, they're not gods and can't control your receiver or your tv set over the
phone so how do they reset they password ?  They don't !  They show you how
and 98% of the time you'll forget how to do it again so it's not a big deal.
Technically speaking, you don't reset the password, you "corrupt non volatile
memory" which basically crashes the system and asks you to reboot it,
restoring factory defaults. That means system is unlocked, password is 1!
234, favorites lists and timers have been lost and the remote adress is back
to 01 (now if you changed that before and you can't control the receiver
anymore, remove the smartcard and press "record" on the remote (in sat mode
of course) while on the "important system info" screen. putting the smartcard
back in will just have the receiver reboot again). Now since most of this info
is stored on the smartcard, I don't know if it clears the ppv list as well
(feedback anyone ?).
Yeah that's all good but "HOW" can you do this ????

* Go in "menu - system setup - diagnostics" (menu-5 if 1000, menu 6-3 for all
  other receivers).  Now look at your remote, locate "info" "browse" "themes",
  see them ? no ?  info is under the "big circle" browse is to the right of
  select "small circle", theme is to the left. Now that you know where they
  are, press them in this order : info browse theme, withing 5 seconds. This
  should bring you to "memory dump & device status" window.  Check the 3rd box
  from the left in the top row, they call it "watchdog" and it is the number
  of times your system crashed or had a glitch.  If it is over 6 or has
  letters in it, you might considering replacing the receiver.  Now causing
  that memory crash causes some permanent damage to your receiver/card so do
  it at your own risk.  Ok so while you're on that same screen, press
  "tv/video", it will give you a message asking you to reboot.  Power off the
  receiver from the front pannel, it will turn back on by itself.  If you're
  stuck with a 1000, pull the plug, wait 30 secs and plug it back.  Voila !

Hope this helps you all with your Bell Express View

_Absinth_

p.s. Did you know that they have over a million customers ? WOW ...


12/20/2001