dreambox worth it or not??

[ramsharan]

hi guys,
i use a no brand blind scan receiver called Space,to receive channels off c-band asiasat3.
all is well..now,i want to get more into this hobby and just thought of getting dreambox stb..
is is really worth it??
what will i be able to do with dreambox.i am IT professional guy working in IT field and have good knowlede of linux..since this dreambox is also linux based..what fun can i have with it..
also in oz where can i buy from??
thanks
Ram

[Apsattv]

http://www.dream-multimedia.com.au/

[weirdo]

Hi ramsharan,
The dreambox mainly used for cardsharing. As far as I know it's not blindscan capable so if you like feed hunting this wouldn't be the box for you.
There's also a few other, cheaper brands around that can do pretty much the same job as the Dreambox. Itgate 100 and Relook 200 or 400 to name a couple.

[wiilliiss]

as a dream 7000 owner it wont even symbol rate search,is a bit "deaf" signalwise,takes a fair bit of setup ie; has provider,services,&new found bouquets so when a new channel is searched in look in new found then tranfer to specified boquet.they can be a bitch of a box although having said that would be willing to get a dream 8000 with 4 tuners,hdd,dvd burner.

[leslie]

check around where you can find a ubuntu box which is a copy of the dream 500. then go and look on the web for "gemini project" and download the software. this can make your dream box or ubuntu box a very interesting decoder. i will dig up the site that is in german but the screen shots in english. you will need to use a "network cable" to connect to the box and the stb loader from the gemini site; HERE IS THE SITE HTTP:/ www.bernyR.de good luck and have fun! cheers, les

[bassett]

dreams can be a pain, and there mostly used for CS, which is also limited in OZ. there next to useless for feed hunting.

I sold mine,, But there is a bloke in Thailand who sells ALL the chinese clone versions, if you want one for a cheaper price, No garanttee, on delivery though Phuket Satellite, You will find him on RDI, But a lot of his stuff has been deleted, for reasaons I won't go into..

[ramsharan]

Bassett,
can u please tell me his website(Phukhet satellite)..i would like to buy a cheap chinese clone .. why is there no guarantee on delivery though...has anyone bought from them already???

[bassett]

chaeck your PM system Ram,,,

BUT theres a Dream 500 on e-bay ay the moment,,

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Dreambox-DM500s-Linux-satellite-receiver-with-ethernet_W0QQitemZ160126840322QQihZ006QQcategoryZ1 09897QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[scrappydoo]

Bassett,
can u please tell me his website(Phukhet satellite)..i would like to buy a cheap chinese clone .. why is there no guarantee on delivery though...has anyone bought from them already???

I have a clone one also. it's not a bad decoder for watching TV, it handles widescreen, 4x3 switchover very nicely etc.It has quite nice tools for editing channel lists and it was reasonably well priced. it's also very compact form factor.

I don't do any of the card sharing stuff, so can't really answer how well that works, and this is not the place.

the only downside to it for me is that it doesn't record to NFS/CiFs (or is it playback) very reliabley (however you spell that word). it works but drops lots of frames.

I was looking for nice PVR hard disk system which could also stream video. my suspicion is that the device is somewhat underpowered when it comes to file streaming activities.

[openmedia]

check around where you can find a ubuntu box which is a copy of the dream 500. then go and look on the web for "gemini project" and download the software. this can make your dream box or ubuntu box a very interesting decoder. i will dig up the site that is in german but the screen shots in english. you will need to use a "network cable" to connect to the box and the stb loader from the gemini site; HERE IS THE SITE HTTP:/ www.bernyR.de good luck and have fun! cheers, les

Ubuntu is a version of Linux. I've never seen anything called an ubuntu box that is a copy of a DreamBox. Care to post a link?

[Rentakill]

Hi scrappydoo.

What your experiencing there with Glitchy playback and Frames being dropped is to do with a Frame Buffer rate setting on the Dreambox.

It sounds to me as though you are running a Pli Halenite image.

I found i was having the same issues with my DM500, but rectified it by increasing the Frame buffer rates.

let me know if you need some help.


Cheers:

[scrappydoo]

Hi scrappydoo.

What your experiencing there with Glitchy playback and Frames being dropped is to do with a Frame Buffer rate setting on the Dreambox.

It sounds to me as though you are running a Pli Halenite image.

I found i was having the same issues with my DM500, but rectified it by increasing the Frame buffer rates.

let me know if you need some help.


Cheers:

Hi there rentakill.. not really sure what the cause is, running gemini image, but I've got ngrab installed on a linux box now and that records just fine. It also playsback really well. since it's working so well with ngrab, I haven't really explored it too much else, although I've had some other suggestion to alter the read write buffer size on the cifs share parameters.

[Porkhunt]

G'day Rentakill. I'd like to up the frame buffer on my DM500. Running IOlite 2008? Do you know how?

[weirdo]

One of the best things about the DM500 I reckon is when running PLi images you have the zoom function.
If you type in the IP address of your Dreambox you'll get the Webif page. On the right hand top you'll see the word 'zoom'. If you click on that you'll be greeted with a window showing you SNR, AGC and BER.
This is a great satfinder tool if you were to use this on a wireless connected laptop. No more need to drag a small tv and receiver with powerlead onto your rooftop, just take your laptop and input the frequency you're searching for in your dreambox.

[Grapeape]

That will not work for the Deaf DM7000 or older DM500. But the newer models have the better tuner and it is possible.

As for "is it worth it?" NO. But there are a fun box all the same.
Personally i hate my Humax 5400, it's just so slow and old... Dreams scan fast, zap fast, configure fast, can load Sat Transponders from the net direct to box, etc etc etc