Dreambox 7000 - Hints and Tips

Hardware

Q. What do you get in a DM7000?

A. For full info you can go to the official site but to summarise:

• DVB Satellite tuner. (In future, you may be able to buy Cable and DTT versions too, but the mainboard does not seem to have front-end module slots, so my guess is Cable and DTT will need their own motherboards. So you would need two Dreamboxes to get DVB and DTT, for example.)
• Loop-through connectors for LNB and SCART. This makes it easy to start using the DREAMBOX before you're ready to disconnect your old receiver. The SCART loopthrough may also help if your TV does not have enough SCARTs for all the devices you have. (WARNING: I have not yet succeeded in getting the LNB loop-through to work!! It seems that the loop-through is just a "T" connection; that is, only one receiver may be switched on a time. For some setups it might be better to use an external satellite signal switchbox e.g. from Global Communications.)
• PowerPC CPU with 64 MByte RAM. The RAM does not look expandable, so 64 is the max.
• Hardware MPEG decoder.
• 10/100 Ethernet port.
• Cables/brackets for IDE hard disk. NB there is NO HARD DISK as standard - you need to add one if you want to use the PVR timeshift functions (timed recordings from radio and TV), unless you use a remote hard disk shared via the Ethernet network with NFS. If you buy an internal hard disk, choose one which is quiet, and doesn't take too much power. For Dreambox, 5400 RPM is better than 7200 RPM, and < 500 mA of power from 5V and 12V is best. Interface is IDE ATA 66, max capacity supported is 120 GBytes.
• USB port
• SPDIF audio output as well as analog (phono sockets). AC3 support is included.
• RS232 9-pin serial port.
• Intelligent Remote Control. This can control your TV as well as the Dreambox.

Firmware

Q. What are Enigma, Traveller, Dr. Matrix etc?

A. Enigma is the standard firmware that comes in the box when you buy it from the shop. Enigma is open-source, so you can take the latest source-code from CVS on the internet, and cross-compile it on your PC (see later). The Enigma code is also known as "tuxbox" and runs on other platforms too, such as "dbox2". The "tuxbox" code is under rapid development at the moment; the CVS version changes almost every day. From time to time, the Dream Multimedia team identify a stable version, and release a binary image on their website, which can be downloaded quite simply and flashed into your dreambox. But of course if you like, you can build the latest CVS version for yourself (again, see later).

Quite often, expert coders such as Traveller and Dr. MatriX will take the latest CVS of Enigma, add their own special features, and then release a special binary image that you can flash into your dreambox in place of the official Dream Multimedia image. Some of the special updates from these guys are bugfixes; some are new features which are not yet stable enough to go into the main CVS source tree. Some authors also include "Emu's" - Emulations of smartcard systems (subscriber viewing cards) which make it possible to view encrypted satellite channels if you have access to valid key files. Using key files to gain unauthorised access to pay channels is against the law: it's not a grey area any more, even for foreign channels which won't sell you a genuine viewing card, so for legal reasons I will not discuss this aspect any further. Please, DO NOT SEND ME EMAIL asking questions about Emu's and Keys - I do not know, and in any case I will not answer any questions about pay-TV piracy! I recommend that you steer clear of piracy, as the law is now very clear on the subject, and copyright owners are willing and able to sue for huge damages if they catch you.