ENGLISH

VERSION

5.0

2001-Sep.-30

Public Beta 1

Contents :

  1. What's ExoTV?
  2. Legal Terms
  3. Changes
  4. Supported Cards (TV Cards / Display-VideoIn Cards) - Hardware Support
  5. Hints for Installation
  6. Run it!
  7. Nagravision/Syster:
  8. Videocrypt
  9. Tools/Frequencytable
  10. The Startdialog
  11. The Menu
  12. The Dialogs
  13. Keyboard Layout
  14. Known Bugs / missing Functionality
  15. Problems
  16. Update
  17. THANKS

Information: This Software has not to be sold. If you have bought it please contact me via the Board of ExoTV.


1. What's ExoTV?

ExoTV is a TV-Player, that have many functions, and also include special picture functions, that are able to modify a picture. ExoTV is a full TV-Player witch has also hardware access for the most cards. Because of the fact that ExoTV use the VfW/WDM Interface from Windows, ExoTV should work with nearly every TV-Card. If someone of you have a card wich is not supported, you can contact me via the ExoTV-Board.

2. Legal Terms

THIS PROGRAM HAS NOT TO BE SOLD

THIS SOFTWARE IS ONLY FOR SCIENTIFICALLY-USE

It should help to discuss with others about the Algorithms of Modification. You use this at your own risk.

Information(German Rights):
If the decoding of an TV-Picture is done by an copyright algorithm and/or masterkey the damaged PayTV Channel have good cards against the Hacker.

(German Law:)
- strafbares Ausspähen von Daten (§ 202a StGB) (Only in German)
- strafbares Erschleichen von Leistungen (§ 265a StGB) (Only in German)
- Schadensersatzpflicht wegen Rechtsverletzung durch Verstoß gegen ein Schutzgesetz (§ 823 Abs. 2 BGB). (Only in German)

ExoTV DON'T USE COPYRIGHTED Algorithms. ExoTV look over all possibility and selected the best ...:-)

CITIZENS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM MAY USE THIS SOFTWARE ONLY FOR CHANNELS THEY HAVE A REGULAR SUBSCRIPTION FOR. (Also for Germany / Pre*****)

Please read also the Germand Help of this Section!!

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3. Changes

4.6:

4.55:

4.5:

4.3:

4.2:

4.1:

4.0:

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4. Supported Cards (TV Cards / Display-VideoIn Cards) - Hardware Support

Card Hardware Support
ATI All in Wonder Pro PCI/AGP
YES
ATI All in Wonder 128 16MB PCI/AGP
YES
ATI All in Wonder 128 32MB PCI/AGP
80% (not Win2k)
ATI All in Wonder 128 Pro
80% (not Win2k)
ATI All in Wonder Radeon
80% (not Win2k)
ATI TV Wonder
? (BT8x8)
ATI ISA TV-Tuner
YES
ATI Rage VIVO
80% (not Win2k)
ATI Radeon VIVO
80% (not Win2k)

ZORAN Satelliten Karten (Technisat,Technotrend, Galaxy ...)
Technisat-PC-Sat, Mediafocus I

YES
MediaFocus II
NO
Voodoo Karten
NO
ASUS Karten
NO
Matrox Karten
NO
Erazor Karten
NO
BT8x8 Karten
(90%)
Siemens MXB Karten
NO
USB Karten
NO

Hardware Support IS NOT needed for ExoTV to work. Al Cards that are here listed does work with ExoTV!!!

 

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5. Hints for Installation

Check that you don't have special charactes at the folder or parent folder of ExoTV.

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6. Run it!

Copy the key.txt in the folder of ExoTV (you can get it from my page). Start your videoplayer select the channel to decode and close the videoplayer. Now start ExoTV. HAVE FUN :o)

For BT8x8 Cards:
Start ExoTV, select BT8x8 Card, Save Config, Push Ok. Now choose the right BT8x8 Card (e.g. Hauppauge WinTV Go ...). If you have a BT878 Card please choose InitPLL too. Push ok. Now you must search with the cursorkeys left & right (< > ) the right Channel. Save it to a Slot (e.g. CTRL + 1). At the next start of ExoTV select "Use StartChannel" and at Startchannel write the slotnumber (e.g. 1 for Slot 1)

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7. Nagravision/Syster:

The program create tables. It save this tables in files with extention ".IDX", because so it must only be calculate once. For each number of testlines an own file is created. The first start can be up to 5 Minutes. 99 Couples are the Maximum (10 the Minimum)

Here are the options for Nagravision / Syster:

Decoding Nagravision / Syster:

Number of Testlines:
This Option represent the Number of Testlines. In dependent of the Testlines the index will be created. This value can be between 10 - 99. If the Testlines are high you have the best change to decode ALL Frames succesfully(you have more keys). 25 is an good standard value. If ExoTV doesn't find the right key the decoding fails.

=> More Index => stable/solid decoding => Less Frames per Second

Row Offset:
This value represent the manual row offset between VfW-Driver / ExoTV. ExoTV is linked with the VfW-Driver. Because of every TV-Card publisher has it's own VfW-Driver the Linktable isn't perfect. But now you can manually select the Row Offset to fix this. You can also increase or decrease this with CTRL + NUM "+" and CTRL + NUM "-" at runtime. If you use Default Row Offset the default Row Offset will be used for the selected TV-Card. (This should be for the most Users the best decision. The Offset is always save at the close of ExoTV. (Look that you have don't select Use Default Row Offset otherwise ALWAYS the default Offset will be loaded / saved.

Use Default Row Offset:
Use the default Row Offset (Look at Rowoffset)

Number of Lines to Hide:
This value represents the number of lines at the upper picture part that are beeing hided.

Hide Black Lines:
Because the Linktable of VfW/ExoTV isn't perfect you can hide the topmost lines.

Use Turbo-Decoder:
With this option you can switch the Turbo-Decoder On/Off. If it is on ExoTV look for black lines and PalPlus. If these things are found ExoTV will works faster Doesn't work with all cards. Also if it is not stable you try to increase your value of brightness if ExoTV have hardware support for your card.

 

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8. Videocrypt

This Description is from No_Operation
Dialog option Key Description
Freeze mode Q Decodes in a endless loop the same picture.
By that, you can observe, how the picture changes if you change some of the decoding parameters.
Render Mode Z Chooses an output mode:

Color output: Shows the picture without the left border and with color reconstruction. The color is reconstructed from the cutpoints.

Color+Border output: Shows the picture with border and color.

Black and White output: Shows the picture in Black&White and without border.

BW+Border output: Shows the picture in Black&White and with border.

Color+BlockDebug output: Shows the picture with color and uses the left border to show informations about the decoding quality and the block splitting:
Red: Possibly bad decoded line.
White: A block of good decoded lines.

Dec. Width   Sets the width of the decoding area. The default value of 986 means, that the decoding width is 98.6% of the capture width. For 720x288, this is 710 pixel (10 pixel border), for 360x288, this is 355 pixel (5 pixel border).
ColorFix1   Fine adjustment of the color constants. Some color constants seem to be hardware/TV channel dependant.

If the picture is jumping left-rigtht and gets 'blue' (means 180 degree color rotation), this value must be adjusted. This effect can be forced by setting the BC-value to 80:20. Usally, the rule is: Jumps to the left: decrease value, jumps to the rigtht: increase value.

The value in the brackets measures the correct value, but is only correct if the picture is decoded error-free for several seconds.

For experimens try using a Softcrypt-encoded TV channel, because the measure function is very good while decoding Softcrypt.

ColorFix2   Fine adjusts another color constant. In this case the measure function is not dependant of the decoding quality, so you just have to set the measured value.
L2 Range   Second of the three B&W decoding steps: Search range of the L2 decoder. The L1 decoder generates a result with a precision of +/- 16 pixels. L2 Range is the search range around that point.
L2 Stepwid.   Second of the three B&W decoding steps: Stepwidth of the L2 decoder. 1 results in a precise, but slow search. 5 is a fast search. Values bigger than 5 get slow again, because, as a result, the L3 decoder needs more time.
Color
Correlation
W With this option you can activate the color correlation decoder.

No CC: Normal, classic decoding.

CC: Just color correlation. By that, the even and odd lines run apart, resulting in a double picture (comb-like errors). 

CC+ADL: Color correlation + ADL correction. (Alternating Differences List)
Searches for comb-like errors and trys to remove them.

CC+ADL+ReCC: Like CC+ADL, but does an additional line correlation after the border detection, to remove remaining errors.

Color Correl./
Color Boost
  Adjusts the mixing ratio for color correlation. 100:0 only uses color information, 0:100 only uses B&W information.
Color Correl./
Search Range
  Determines the maximum search range for the color correlation.
Color Border
Detect
E Activates the color supported border detection.

Distribution / Off: Border detection by the distribution of the cutpoints

Color Match / On: Border detection with addititional color checks and Frame Correlation

Border
Boost
  Adjusts the mixing ratio for color border detection. 
100:0:0 searches the border only by color information.
0:100:0 searches the border only by cutpoint distribution statistics.
x:x:100 trys to set the border simillar to the last frame. (Frame Correlation)
Lines/
Block
  Maximum number of lines for sampling the color information for the color border detection. (per block)
VC Couples   Adjusts, how many lines are used for identifying the correct key for Softcrypt decoding. Even small values result in good decoding. Higher values keep the decoding stable even in difficult situations, but need more CPU power for that.
Key Offset   Vertical alignment of the Softcrypt keys. For Non-BT-Cards, this value has to be adjusted to the TV card.
Block
Decoding
R Block splitting mode.

Single Blk / Off: No block splitting, the whole picture is one block.

Block Split / On: Search for bad decodable lines. Does the border detection in blocks of good decoded lines separately.

Mark ADL
Errors
T Marks all changes done by the ADL correction filter as bad lines and does some additional block splits. On good decoding conditions, it can reduce decoding errors like distortions. On bad decoding conditions, it can also reduce the quality, because it creates too many blocks.
Block limit   Adjusts the sensitivity of the decoding error detection.
Determines, up to which quality value a line is considered as bad.
(Mainly detects errors that result in left-right jumps of parts of the image, like horizontal lines or text blocks.)
See also "Mark ADL Errors" and "Render Mode"
Block Lazy   Adds a lazieness to the error detection system: Lines, that are assumed to be very bad decoded, keep being bad for several frames, getting slowly better. On the other hand, very good lines keep being good for some frames. 0 for off.
Min. Block
Size
  Minimum block size. Determines, how many lines of good decoding are necessary to build a 'good' block.

 

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9. Tools/Frequencytable

With the Diag.exe you can check if you have an VfW-Driver and if it work correctly. Also you can find there informations about your card, select Video Format & Input.

Here you can see the Frequencytable. There you can see all decoded channels of Europe Satellits and there Positon.

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10. The StartDialog

 

Input

Video-In Card:
Here you MUST selected your TV-Card. Only if you selected the right card you will get the correct results.

VfW-Driver:
ExoTV get the Picture from any TV Card with the Video For Windowed Driver. You must have installed such an driver otherwise ExoTV will not work on your machine.

PAL / Secam:
Here you can select PAL or SECAM. There is no Support for NTSC at the Moment. This is only for Nagravision. On Videocrypt decoding this has no effect

Inverse Input:
If this Option is activated the Video-Input-Source will be invertet BEFORE Decoding

Use 288 Lines:
If this Option is activated ExoTV will try to use 288 Lines Mode. This won't work with all TV Cards. It can be also that it work but you have not an decoded channel. (Nagravision / Syster). This Option should increase the FPS for Asus and Voodoo Cards.

Use StartChannel:
If this option is selected the startchannel ExoTV will load automatically the Save Channel that is entered in Startchannel. This option is hardware dependend. Also it is only usefull if you have allready save a Channelnumber to this channel. If this option isn't selected or is no hardware support given the channel of your TV Application is used (the channel you have selected at your TV Application before closed it and started ExoTV)

Startchannel:
Look "Use StartChannel"

Set Optimize Values @ Start:
If this Option is selected some values are set if ExoTv starts. At the past this have been make trouble with some cards. Now you can aktivate/deaktivate it.

Solve 15 FPS Bug @ Zoran Cards:
If this Option is selected ExoTV sets some special Registers at the Zoran Cards. Because of this it is possible to get more than 15 FPS. At the past this have been make trouble with some cards. Now you can aktivate/deaktivate it.

 

Output Menü

Display Mode:
Here you can select the Output Mode. To test different Settings (Nagravison etc.) the windowed mode is the best. If you have an TV-Out activated you can maximum select 800 * 600 (Because this is the maximum of any TV-Out i think, also a TV can only present 768 * 600 pixel)

High Priority:
If this option is selected ExoTV will registerd as "High Priorty Application"

Inverse Output:
If this option is selected the output picture will be inverted AFTER decoding.

Force No DirectX:
If this option is selected ExoTV is forced don't use DirectX Overlay or Surface. The Output is done via DIB Mode.

Mute Line-In after Exit:
If this option is selected ExoTV mutes the Line-In after Exit.

Don't stretch Window(faster):
If this option is selected the Picture shown in Windowed Mode is the Original Size of whitch is captured. This can be different for each card. This Option is suggested for Asus/Voodoo Cards.

 

Decoding Nagravision / Syster:

Number of Testlines:
This option represent the Number of Testlines. In dependent of the Testlines the index will be created. This value can be enterd betwenn 10 - 99. If the Testlines are high you have the best change to decode ALL Frames succesfully(you have more keys). 25 is an good standard value. If ExoTV doesn't find the right key the decoding fails.

=> More Index more decoding / Less Frames per Second

Row Offset:
This value represent the manual Row Offset between VfW-Driver / ExoTV. ExoTV is linked with the VfW-Driver. Because of every TV-Card publisher has it's own VfW-Driver the Linktable isn't perfect. But now you can manually select the Row Offset to fix this. You can also increase or decrease this with CTRL + NUM "+" and CTRL + NUM "-" at runtime. If you use Default Row Offset the default Row Offset will be used for the selected TV-Card. (This should be for the most Users the best decision. The Offset is always save at the close of ExoTV. (Look that you have don't select Use Default Row Offset otherwise ALWAYS the default Offset will be loaded / saved.

Number of Lines to Hide:
This Value represents the Number of Lines at the upper picturepart that are beeing hided.

Use Default Row Offset:
Use the default Row Offset (Look at Rowoffset)

Hide Black Lines:
Because the Link-Table of VfW/ExoTV isn't perfect you can hide the topmost 32 Lines.

Use Turbo-Decoder:
With this option you can Switch the Turbo-Decoder On/Off. If it is on ExoTV look for black lines and PalPlus. If these things are found ExoTV will works faster Doesn't work with all cards

 

General Things:

Ok:
Start ExoTV

Save Config:
Save the current config for the next start

Quit:
Quit ExoTV

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11. The Menu

Here you see the menu

ATTENTION: If an option is grayed, you don't have hardware support with your card. You can't select or change something at this option.

(But this is only for TV card option)

TV Card
Video Source

Here you can select between 4 Video Sources (i. e.. SVHS,Composite ...)

Need H/W Support

Audio Source

Here you can select between 4 Audio Sources

Need H/W Support

Video / VfW Here you can change settings for Input (look at StartDialog=> Input), also you can start / stop the video and get access to some VfW functions.
Hardware

Here you get infos about the selected hardware and can reset the videochip

Need H/W Support

About ExoTV An typical About-Window
Show Keys If you select this option you get an new dialog with all Keys used with ExoTV
Updates You look for an update?
Exit Exit the Program

 

Channels

Next Channel

Here you can Increase/Decrease the Channels-Number

Prev Channel

 

Output

Output Setup

Here you can select output settings (look StartDialog -> Output)

DIB Mode

ExoTV supportet 2 Outputmodes. DIB & Overlay. You can switch between this modes. Attention: Some TV-Cards can only use DIB.If this is given the Option Overlay Mode will automatic be grayed.

Overlay Mode

Toggle TV Screen

If you have been in window mode this switch to Fullscreen Mode with no menu. If you press ALT + Enter you will see again the window mode

Always on Top

If this option is select the ExoTV-Window is over all other Windows (Always on Top) Useful if you look at Window Mode an want to work

 

Plugins
All Plugins Off Switch any Plugins Functions off

 

Nagravision

Nagravision

Switch Nagravision /Syster Decoding On/Off

Nagravision Setup

Here you can change settings for Nagravision (Look for StartDialog->Nagarvision)

Hide Black Lines

With this option you can hide the black lines at the topmost of the picture

 

Videocrypt
Videocrypt
Switch Videocrypt Decoding On/Off
Videocrypt Setup
Here you can select some settings for Videocrypt (Look at the Key-Table 'Q','W','E','R','T' and the Videocrypt section for further information

 

Diskret
Diskret
Switch Diskret Decoding On/Off
Diskret Setup
Here you can select some settings for Diskret

 

Priority
You can switch between the differnt Windows-Priority modes.

 

Exit (F10)
Exit the Program

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12. Dialogs

Input Dialog

Video-In Card

Here you MUST selected your TV-Card. Only if you selected the right card you will get the best results.

VfW-Driver ExoTV get the picture from any TV Card with the Video For Windows Driver. You must have installed such an driver otherwise ExoTV will not work on your machine.
PAL / Secam Here you can select PAL or SECAM. There is no Support for NTSC at the Moment. This is only for Nagravision. On Videocrypt decoding this has no effect
Inverse Input If this option is activated the Video-Input-Source will be invertet BEFORE Decoding
Use 288 Lines If this option is activated ExoTV will try to use 288 Lines Mode. This won't work with all TV Cards. It can be also that it work but you have not an decoded channel. (Nagravision / Syster). This Option should increase the FPS for Asus and Voodoo Cards.
Use StartChannel If this option is selected the startchannel ExoTV will load automatically the Save Channel that is entered in Startchannel. This option is hardware dependend. Also it is only usefull if you have allready save a Channelnumber to this channel. If this option isn't selected or is no hardware support given the channel of your TV Application is used (the channel you have selected at your TV Application before closed it and started ExoTV)
Startchannel Look "Use StartChannel"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Output Dialog

Display Mode

Here you can select the Output Mode. To test different Settings (Nagravison etc.) the windowed mode is the best. If you have an TV-Out activated you can maximum select 800 * 600 (Because this is the maximum of any TV-Out i think, also a TV can only present 768 * 600 pixel)

High Priority If this option is selected ExoTV will registerd as "High Priorty Application"
Show Statistic If this option is selected during ExoTV a statistic bar will display informations.
Inverse Output

If this option is selected the output picture will be inverted AFTER decoding.

Force No DirectX:
If this option is selected ExoTV is forced don't use DirectX Overlay or Surface. The Output is done via DIB Mode.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nagravision/Syster Dialog

This is written here.

But not the following option:

Select Key File:
With this Option you can choose the key-file that ExoTV used for Nagravision.

 

Videocrypt Dialog

This is written here.

 

 

 

 

The following Dialogs are only for information. The User can't edit here anything:

 

13. Keyboard Layout

You find the these Dialog above (if you are in windowed mode) @ Menu => Mode/File => Show Keys

 

Key
Name
Function
ESC Break Stop the Play of the Video
F1 StartVideo Start the Play of the Video
F2 N/S DecodeOn/Off Switch decoding Nagravision Syster ON/OFF
F3 Borderplus Increase the border of the Outputwindow (increase speed)
F4 Borderminus Decrease the border of the Outputwindow (increase speed)
F5 Format Cinema Switch to Format Cinema
F6 Format 16/9 Switch to Format 16/9 (Breitbild)
F7 Format 4/3 Switch to Format 4 / 3 (Normalbild)
F8 Save Format Save the actual border permamently
F9 Detect Format Recorgnize the border
F10 EndProgram Leave this wonderful program :-(
F11 Nagra Hide B.L To hide the black lines in the topmost picture (32 Lines)
F12 TurboDecoder Switch TurboDecoder ON/OFF
0 - 9 LoadChannel Load the selected channel
CTRL (STRG) + 0 - 9 SaveChannel Save the channel so the selected slot
INS Brightness+ Increase the Brightness of the Picture
DEL Brightness- Decrease the Brightness of the Picture
HOME (POS1) Contrast+ Increase the Contrast of the Picture
END (ENDE) Contrast- Decrease the Contrast of the Picture
PG UP (Bild auf) Color+ Increase the Color of the Picture
PG DOWN (Bild ab) Color- Decrease the Color of the Picture
Cursor Right Channel right Change to the Next Channel
Cursor Left Channel left Change to the Prev Channel
Cursor Up Connector up Change to the Next Video Input
Cursor Down Connector down Change to the Prev Video Input
CTRL (STRG) + F2
or
ALT + F2
VC Decode On/Off Switch the Videocrypt mode ON / OFF (i. e. Sky)
2x CTRL (STRG) + F2
or
2x ALT + F2
VC Soft-Decode On/Off Switch the Soft-Videocrypt mode ON / OFF (i. e. Cartoon Network)
Q Freeze mode Decodes in a endless loop the same picture.
By that, you can observe, how the picture changes if you change some of the decoding parameters.
Z Render Mode Chooses an output mode:

Color output: Shows the picture without the left border and with color reconstruction. The color is reconstructed from the cutpoints.

Color+Border output: Shows the picture with border and color.

Black and White output: Shows the picture in Black&White and without border.

BW+Border output: Shows the picture in Black&White and with border.

Color+BlockDebug output: Shows the picture with color and uses the left border to show informations about the decoding quality and the block splitting:
Red: Possibly bad decoded line.
White: A block of good decoded lines.

W Color
Correlation
With this option you can activate the color correlation decoder.

No CC: Normal, classic decoding.

CC: Just color correlation. By that, the even and odd lines run apart, resulting in a double picture (comb-like errors). 

CC+ADL: Color correlation + ADL correction. (Alternating Differences List)
Searches for comb-like errors and trys to remove them.

CC+ADL+ReCC: Like CC+ADL, but does an additional line correlation after the border detection, to remove remaining errors.

E Color Border
Detect
Activates the color supported border detection.

Distribution / Off: Border detection by the distribution of the cutpoints

Color Match / On: Border detection with addititional color checks and Frame Correlation

R Block
Decoding
Block splitting mode.

Single Blk / Off: No block splitting, the whole picture is one block.

Block Split / On: Search for bad decodable lines. Does the border detection in blocks of good decoded lines separately.

T Mark ADL
Errors
Marks all changes done by the ADL correction filter as bad lines and does some additional block splits. On good decoding conditions, it can reduce decoding errors like distortions. On bad decoding conditions, it can also reduce the quality, because it creates too many blocks.
Alt (GR)+ Enter Toggle Window/Full If you have been in window mode this switch to Fullscreen Windowed Mode with no statstic or menü. If you hit it again you will see the window mode
Numblock + "," Color Temporation Switch the Color-Temporation ON/OFF
Numblock + "+" Increase Volume Increase the Volume of the Line-In of your Soundcard
Numblock + "-" Decrease Volume Decrease the Volume of the Line-In of your Soundcard
Numblock + "X" (Mal, Multiplier) Tint + Increase the Tint
Numblock + "/" (Durch, Divisor) Tint - Decrease the Tint
CTRL (STRG) + "+" Row Offset + Increase the RowOffset of ExoTV
CTRL (STRG) + "-" Row Offset - Decrease the RowOffset of ExoTV

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14. Known Bugs / missing functionality

- The Tuner/Channelcontrol of some ATI Cards has an Bug.

- Asus Cards have low FPS (but this is not a Bug)

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15. Problems

If anybody have problems ask at my MessageBoard of my Page

Also there are FAQ's and Help Page for the cards

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16. Update

http://ExoTV.de - German

http://Eng.ExoTV.de - English http://Fr.ExoTV.de - French

http://www.ExoTV.org

http://www.ExoTV.cjb.net
http://.now.at/ExoTV
http://.ExoTV.notricks.de
http://www.ExoTV.da.ru

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17. THANKS TO:

Thanks to all who have helped me, without you the program would'nt be so good

Bye Bye,
MrMnemonic

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