decrypting using (mcrypt with php) from a vb.net encrypted source

[php_hore]

Gurus help !!!

I am working on a project that uses .net to encrypt form data and save it into a xml file (base64 encoded).

I have 3 methods of encryption and decryption working fine in .net (tripledes,rijandeal128, 256)

the problem is Im needing to decrypt it server side using php by using the same KEY and IV that I used to encrypt the data with.

does anyone know how to use the same byte arrays in php?
all the sources and examples Ive seen are $key="secret pass"

which is fine but .net changes the "secret pass" into a byte array before passing the key. so when I use "secret pass" php side it is not the same.

example of what Im doing (sort of):

vb.net code to encrypt:
Private key() As Byte = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24}
Private iv() As Byte = {65, 110, 68, 26, 69, 178, 200, 219}

Dim tdesProvider As TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider = New TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider()
Dim cryptoTransform As ICryptoTransform = tdesProvider.CreateEncryptor(Me.key, Me.iv)
blah...blah...
Return Convert.ToBase64String(result)

PHP server side code to decrypt:
$key = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24);/?
$IV = array(65, 110, 68, 26, 69, 178, 200, 219);/?

$data = base64_decode("uvoEuC0Ap6ehdrp9Pn6yvQ==");
$iv_size = mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_TripleDES, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB);
$iv = mcrypt_create_iv($iv_size, MCRYPT_RAND);

$crypttext = mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_TripleDES, $key, $data, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, $iv);
echo $crypttext."\n";

~any help would be greatly appreciated!