anyone got a dreambox 800?

VH

am curious about these, thinking about getting one for bbc, itv and channel 4 hd..

few questions:

- is audio carried on the dvi-hdmi cable that dm supply with it?

- can it switch the tv over to the appropriate input when its switched on like most devices do? (hate having to manually change inputs)

- can the above channels be received on it- i heard of people having problems with itv hd in general cos its in a 222 stream and not 264 (anyone know why?)?

thanks

cormacl

don't own one but can confirm that audio is not carried on the DVI out. You need to use the analog or optical audio outputs to feed the audio to the TV.

Update: audio is carried on the DVI output!.. see below.

Nehaxak

Hi, Yes I have a DM800 and the answer is yes to all your questions with the only exception being ITV HD which you can get in but it's a bit of an arse.
The ITV HD is classed as data on freeview accessible only via the red button, so the DM800 images at the moment seem to skip over it and not class it as an actual TV channel. You can though enter in the channel details manually and with a bit of farting about you can get ITV HD in.

There are some problems with the DM800, most notably that the unit itself gets very hot and because of this it seems to crap out and hang or restart at times, particularly so on HD channels.
I thought it was a Hardware fault myself until I tried the latest experimental official image from Dream and the problems with HD channels and hangs/restarts lessened an awful lot.

There's also some issues with positioners being reported though I've not experienced it myself, mine seems to be fine and I got myself up and motorised in about an hour.

Another problem is that the SNR display of signal strength seems to be way out of whack, showing very low signal even though the same signal on my older DM7000 was at 90% or more.

Anyway, all seem to be teething issues with early image builds and drivers though Dream will accept returns of units that have overheating issues and do seem to be replacing them with no problems at all.

Stores in Ireland don't seem to be charging an awful lot more than reputable sources in the UK, maybe 50 euro max more than what you'd pay in Sterling and converting back to Euros but the 800's are still fairly expensive I have to say, you'd be lucky to get one here for less than 500 euro.

Other than the teething problems being experienced (they are after all relatively new units to the market) the DM800's are a fantastic little piece of kit. I'm sure official (and as such unofficial) images will only improve over time to knock out the problems.

Oh and HD reception is flippin' lovely

Give us a shout if you've any particular questions on the units and I'll try answer for you as I know they're an expensive purchase, so nice to ask any questions before you dive in.

Nehaxak

Oh and audio is carried on the DVI out ? At least for me it is and working perfectly fine. The cable they supply (DVI to HDMI) with the box is also top quality and picture is crystal clear, as is the audio.

cormacl

Nehaxak wrote: »

Oh and audio is carried on the DVI out ? At least for me it is and working perfectly fine. The cable they supply (DVI to HDMI) with the box is also top quality and picture is crystal clear, as is the audio.

Cool!.. I was convinced that audio was not being channeled on the DVI.. thats excellent to hear.

Pity about the overheating mentioned.. my 7025 had similar issues and I had to replace the PSU. Its been fine ever since.

I had hoped the software itself would be stable as its derived directly from the same enigma2/openembedded repository used for the 7025.. which at this stage is very stable.

BTW: Have you tried the Gemini image for the DM800.. they are usually fairly up to date with CVS images and have some nice skins, plugins etc. When I got the 7025, I jumped to the Gemini image as soon as it surfaced.. staying on the factory image was driving me mad as it was very unstable etc. and DMM, while they update CVS all the time, seem to take a long time to release image updates.

Nehaxak

Hey, yeah have tried a ton of different images but still revert back to the Gemini as it seems to be the most stable out of them all so far.
I have a 2GB USB pen drive stuck in the back of the DM800 and use that with different images, use Barry Allen to multiboot between them and all works great.

The power supply on the DM800's is an external Chinese made generic unit and is exactly the same model PSU I was provided with when I purchased an external backup/media drive from the US when I was there earlier in the year, literally exactly the same model ! Wasn't impressed with that now to be honest but sure...

So the heat anyway seems to be generated from what I can tell so far, from the chipset (broadcom?) and the tuner itself. The broadcom chip is right under the tuner, only adding to the heat generated.
Maybe the chip isn't clocked right and some future driver update will drop down it's rate to in turn drop down the heat generated from it. I dunno, would hope anyway that they fix the overheating problems soon.

Some users have been resorting to using the HardDrive type enclosure fans, like the Akasa models, sit them on top and invert one of the fans to make sure it pushes in cold air and pulls out the hot - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/SY-002-AK_200.jpg

That seemed to work for people but seems a bit too much messing about to me, especially for a unit you've paid a hefty price for.

Could also buy one of those Laptop cooling units that sit underneath but still, all a bit to much messing about just to cool down a receiver.

VH

spot on Nehaxak, thanks for that. I reckoned the audio was carried on that cable as I dont see anything in the manual to suggest otherwise.

Am very temped to get one, but still having trouble with the price:eek:

Nehaxak

No probs, glad to help.

BTW I seem to have sorted out the problems with the DM800 crashing on HD and other channels this evening - I was copying config files into the /etc folder on every image on the USB stick rather than just /etc on the main flash image on the box itself. So used to having to do this on the DM7000.
Anyway, so far so good, no stuttering of picture, no restarts needed, no hangs/crashes and everything working pretty sweet now.

Unit still heating up for sure but at least now it's not causing any problems for me, so far anyway.

smithojohn

Hi,

MODEDIT: Read the rules.

RuggieBear

you should probably read the charter.

smithojohn

Hi again, sorry about that, didnt think I was breaking the rules.