Dreambox killer? HD PVR with swappable twin tuners

Zaphod

AB IPBox 9000 HD : record 2x HD channels while watching a third - impressive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp_lsqKAK4c

byte

Seems OK, though remote looks a bit tacky or cheap.

I noted it comes with DVB-S2 tuner as well as a DVB-C tuner, though the latter can be changed for a DVB-T tuner. No mention of being able to have a second DVB-S2 tuner, though I'd presume it's possible?

Didn't hear mentino of watching a third HD channel, while recordign 2 others, but does allow to view a previous recording while recording 2 channels.

mayto

being out a month or so but very expensive @600euros

Abcom/Ipbox/Relook (all the same) have a load of cheaply priced linux receivers but dont seem to get much attention. This is meant to play divx/xvid aswell but wont sell many if they dont decrease the price before the dreambox 8000 finally comes out.


Tuners are plug and play, so you can have 2 dvb-s2, 2 dvb-t or 2 dvb-c or any combination

cormacl

I think the €600 price looks like its for 1 DVB-S2 and 1 regular DVB-S tuner.. www.hm-sat.de lists two variants, one at €599 and one at €649. The €649 version has 2 S2 tuners.

While the elusive DM8000 is expected to retail between €750-€800, its standard spec of 2 S2 tuners and slots for 2 more (-C/-S/-T) makes it a better choice IMO for a combined sat/dtt solution. You have the added benefit of being able to really record and watch 2 sat or DTT services at the same time. Of course I'm thinking here in terms of an FTA solution where you would need sat/dtt combination to get Irish and foreign/UK TV.

Overall I'd still feel safer paying top dollar for a dreambox above other brands simply because of the flexibility and community behind it.. it seems to guarantee progress... there's a lot of stuff out there that is just mediocre and you may get landed with something that is just not going to improve over time and justify what you paid for it.

But in fairness some of the IPBOX range and other brands now have legit Enigma1 ports.. which is great to see happening as its in the spirit of open source. Bear in mind this is not the same as the illegal dreambox clones.

So maybe the IPBOX9000 will go this route also with an enigma2 port (enigma1 unlikely to support multiple tuners).. Then you start to get the same flexibility from cheaper non-Dreambox kit using the same software base... might also help keep Dream prices in check.

watty

Except Enigma may itself be illigitimate.

Interesting box. Pity a bit expensive. I've still more testing to do on Lygnbox (HMDI, SCART, HD downsamples to SCART & SD upsamples to HDMI, 4 x USB host for photos, extra disks etc, 2 x CI, ethernet, Sat DVB-s2 + DTT, MPEG4 on DTT, slot for second tuner(s) module. OLED concealed display.

cormacl

Except Enigma may itself be illigitimate.

I saw that comment from you some days ago from you.. I just don't believe that it or any OSS component could be considered illegit.

I think more the distribution of a receiver with a modified version of enigma, prepped with soft cams and keys.. i.e clearly for illegal reception of services.. now thats the dodgy part.

If it were the case that the legality of an OSS receiver application was in doubt, DMM would have had to abandon it long ago or would have felt the wrath of the German authorities. And thats not the case.

What is the verdict on the Lyngbox so far?.. does it work?.. crash often?

watty

No doubt DMM has molified the authorities by only offically distributing the version that by default doesn't steal Pay TV. Enigma is NOT designed for user friendly Granny use, It was designed to make paytv hacking easy, hence the name (The name of supposedly unbreakable German Code system the British broke).

OSS is nothing to do with it. SW can be legit or not, used legit or not, all independent of if it is Closed or Open.

The lyngbox only crashes when I feed it VERY broken home brew DTT signals I make myself. It restarts on same channel. It's been rock solid on Satellite and Three Rock MPEG2 FTA and MPEG4 SD test. The HD test was FTA for a short while.

It's not a very reciever friendly thing to change Guard band, FEC, QPSK/QAM level, 2K/8K or frequency while the receiver is decoding the SD MPEG4 in the MPEG2 TS. Also some of my MPEG4 encoding was somewhat broken with "bad /incorrect PCRs"

cormacl

think you're speculating there watty!

Enigma, while the name may conjure up some thoughts, was derived from tuxbox and took much of its influence from Neutrino which was the alternative OS built around the dbox2 after Kirsh went bottom up and the market was flooded with unsold units. Its an embedded Linux system built around the Linux DVB API and (at the time) related hardware that was supported under that same DVB API using MonteVista kernel drivers.

It wasn't designed to break any encryption and all the modifications made to it to do so were not by Dream.

Some good details can be found here from an interview with Felix Domke way back in 2003.. http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7482684956.html

Felix is one of the main developers and well known in the embedded Linux circles.

But back to the Lyngbox.. seems like it is a good system then. Did you try anything with the Ethernet port?.. can recordings be accessed etc?

Robxxx7

Have to say that was my impression regarding Enigma, Most of the Linux satellite boxes that use enigma are purely FTA boxes with the addition of either Card readers or CAM slots (to use official cards etc) ... Its only when third party developers get their hands on the source code that the box becomes something that enables it to do other things ...

All the Linux box manufacturers that i am aware of supply the equipment and software in its 'virgin' state ... Dreambox, Technomate etc

AP Ipbox looks quite nice, i have a Kathrein UFS910 on the way to me to try out, but i'd be interested to have a look at this one

yellabelly

I have to say I'm very happy with the Clarke Tech 500C I picked up for €300.
It isn't Linux based and lacks some of the features of the Dreambox but it will do fine while the HD Linux STB market settles down.