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VCRCODE.DOC
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1992-10-03
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VCRCode, Version 1.00
A Program for IBM-PC Compatibles
to Generate 1 to 6 Digit VCR Plus+ PlusCodes
This program is brought to you by
The Good Doctor
It is based on information appearing in Shirriff K,
Welch C, Kinsman A, "Decoding a VCR Controller Code,"
Cryptologia, 16 (#3, July 1992), 227-234.
VCR Plus+ and PlusCode are trademarks of the Gemstar
Development Corporation. Gemstar claims copyright and patent
protection on the PlusCode numbers and software to create
them. However, Gemstar had no involvement in this program,
which is provided at no charge, for home use only. The Good
Doctor had no access to any of Gemstar's employees or its
software.
The Program VCRCode
VCRCode generates 1 to 6 digit VCR Plus+ PlusCodes. A
quick check of the TV listings will show that this covers the
vast majority of codes that anyone is likely to need. The 7
and 8 digit codes occur primarily with odd starting times. A
simple work around is to pick an earlier starting time on the
hour or half hour and adjust the duration accordingly. The
VCR Plus+ itself can be used to add multiples of 15 minutes to
any program duration by pressing the ADD TIME button under the
VCR Plus+ cover (1 press for each 15 minutes).
In some locations, the programs of certain UHF stations
routinely end up with longer codes. The VCR Plus+ includes a
channel mapping capability that can be used to overcome this
difficulty. Suppose local channel 67's programs often have
longer codes and channel 3 is unused. Use the VCR Plus+ to
map channel 3 to 67 (or, more properly, the channel assigned
by the VCR Plus+ to over-the-air broadcast channel 67). Then
use VCRCode to generate the appropriate PlusCode for channel
3. This will not affect your ability to use codes printed in
local listings since channel 67 still maps to itself.
Why was VCRCode written? For three reasons: (1) The
VCR Plus+ will not accept codes for shows after their air
date. Thus, an old PlusCode can't be used to initiate weekly
taping. (2) The ease of locating a TV listing decreases with
the need to obtain a PlusCode. Computers, for the moment, are
less mobile and tend to stay put. (3) Not all TV listings
contain all PlusCodes.
Using VCRCode
Enter VCRCode at the DOS prompt and then follow VCRCode's
prompts. The starting date (mm/dd/yy) must be entered with
slashes interspaced. The starting time (hh:00|30 a|p) is more
flexible than the prompt suggests. If minutes are omitted
they are assumed to be 00. A hyphen or a space may be used in
place of the colon. There need not be a space before the
am|pm indicator, which may be typed in upper or lower case.
For example, '7:00 p' could be be entered as '7 00P' or '7p'.
Press Enter at the starting date prompt to end the
program.
The File CHANNEL.MAP
When the VCR Plus+ is used with cable or when there are
many station in a broadcast area, the channel number assigned
by VCR Plus+ may be different from the cable channel or over-
the-air channel number. When you set up your VCR Plus+, you
went through Step 4 which established the mapping between
channel numbers. The file CHANNEL.MAP makes it possible to
establish similar mappings so that over-the-air or cable
channel numbers can be used instead of the VCR Plus+ assigned
channel numbers in VCRCode.
CHANNEL.MAP is an ASCII file created by using a text
editor or word processor that can save ASCII files. The EDIT
program in DOS 5.0 is perfect for the job. Even EDLIN may be
used. Each record contains two numbers separated by one or
more spaces. In keeping with VCR Plus+ setup, the first
number is the channel assigned by VCR Plus+. (See local
listings. In TV Guide, the information may be found on the
white page immediately before the first page of listings.)
The second number is the over-the-air or cable channel number.
For example, suppose the VCR Plus+ assigns channel 14 to
over-the-air broadcast channel 67. Then one line of
CHANNEL.MAP should read
14 67
If VCRCode finds the file CHANNEL.MAP in the current
directory, it uses the information in the file to translate
cable channel or over-the-air broadcast channel numbers into
VCR Plus+ assigned channel numbers. If there is no such file,
VCRCode processes channel numbers as entered in response to
its prompt. In the previous example, if there were no
CHANNEL.MAP file, channel 14 should be entered to create
PlusCodes for broadcast channel 67.
----------------end-of-author's-documentation---------------
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