Dreambox users - what's your setup?

Barack Obama

I'm two months into my Dreambox and because it's so very, very configurable I'm just interested in what people's setups are. What are you happy with and what could do with improving. I'll kick things off -

Model: 800HD
Image: Dream Elite BH 1.3
HD: 500GB WD - Quiet & cool
EPG: Rytec UK

I used this as my starting point for setting up the bouquets then used DreamBoxEdit to chop and change things to make it nice and neat. I'm very happy with the DM in general and especially the fact that I can access all HD channels (no more SD for me!). The recording side of things is a bit clunky and could certainly do with refinement. The EPG is correct 90% of the time...

A twin tuner would be nice but the 8000HD is just so damn expensive Also - the internal fan is pretty noisy (well, I have it outside the cabinet at the moment so it's noticeable - it's about the same as a Sky box). I'm looking into replacing or removing this.

fish fingers

Im not saying your posting in the wrong spot, but you will probably get more response if you ask in the foreign sat section.

garrycann78

Dreambox 500S - PLI Jade 3 Image
Technomate TM500 - Gemini Image
Technomate TM2200 Motor
Ubuntu Server
90cm Dish
Picking up 28.2E,26E,19.2E,16E,13E,4.8E,0.8W,4W,7W,8W,30W

Manc-Red

Dreambox 800 HD running on Gemini very smoothly.

Barack Obama

Manc-Red wrote: »

Dreambox 800 HD running on Gemini very smoothly.

Manc - What version of Gemini are you using and how is the EPG? It was one thing that turned me off the image even though it seems to be the most popular for the DM800 - I couldn't find a good EPG for it!

snaps

Just becarefull lads what your posting.

snaps

garrycann78 wrote: »

Dreambox 500S - PLI Jade 3 Image
Technomate TM500 - Gemini Image
Technomate TM2200 Motor
Ubuntu Server
90cm Dish
Picking up 28.2E,26E,19.2E,16E,13E,4.8E,0.8W,4W,7W,8W,30W

Your getting 4 and 7 west?? Where are you?

Zardoz

I have a Dreambox 600 running Open Pli as my main receiver .
It has a 160Gb Hard Drive in it and I'm using the Rytec EPG .
Very stable receiver and far superior than the Dreambox 500 I previously had.
I have a Dreambox 500 as my secondary receiver .

big_moe

dm800hd with Dream Elite 1.3. using a WD 320GB hard drive. i have my irish sky card in the internal reader and a UK FTA card in a Smargo reader. i also have a cooling pad ontop of the dreambox to keep it cool. using the satmat_UK epg and its the business

Barack Obama

snaps wrote: »

Just becarefull lads what your posting.

We are posting the technical setup of satellite receivers. What's the problem?

Barack Obama

big_moe wrote: »

dm800hd with Dream Elite 1.3. using a WD 320GB hard drive. i have my irish sky card in the internal reader and a UK FTA card in a Smargo reader. i also have a cooling pad ontop of the dreambox to keep it cool. using the satmat_UK epg and its the business

Hey Moe - how does that EPG work for you (I take it that it is an add on?) and how does it compare with the built-in Rytec-UK?

Also, your fan - do you have an internal one as well? I've been looking at a couple of external options to replace the internal -
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dreambox-cooling-fan-cooler-base-dm800-HD-Kuhler-Pad-/170507239596?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_ConEle_SatCableFreeview_RL&hash=item27b30600ac
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-2-fan-PC-Dreambox-Cooling-Cooler-Pad-Folding-CUT08-/260627457439?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_LaptopAccess_RL&hash=item3cae9b659f

Thanks

big_moe

The satmate epg is on the DE image by default as well. I've never used the rytec one as satmate hasn't let me down yet!

Yeah the cooler I have is this same as the 1st link you posted. I have an original dreambox so it doesn't have a fan. The clone 800hd had a fan but not the original. I have the cooling pad on top of the box blowing down into it as opposed to underneath it

Adam

Barack Obama

big_moe wrote: »

The satmate epg is on the DE image by default as well. I've never used the rytec one as satmate hasn't let me down yet!

Yeah the cooler I have is this same as the 1st link you posted. I have an original dreambox so it doesn't have a fan. The clone 800hd had a fan but not the original. I have the cooling pad on top of the box blowing down into it as opposed to underneath it

Adam

I had a look in my EPG panel and the only satmate that is available is satmate_sky.IT. Surely this is for an Italian setup or am I missing something?

big_moe

hmmmm, very strange... mine has satmate IT and satmate UK listed. yes the IT is for italy only. i didnt add UK as an extra source, it was just there when i upgraded from BH 0.12.

on a different note, i have a great plugin called BitViewer. if you're a nerd like me (it is a dreambox after all!) it shows you the current bitrate for the channel you're watching! some of the digital GOLD/Bravo channels etc are rubbish!! the highest i ever got was 19 MBps on Sky News HD launch night!

Barack Obama

big_moe wrote: »

hmmmm, very strange... mine has satmate IT and satmate UK listed. yes the IT is for italy only. i didnt add UK as an extra source, it was just there when i upgraded from BH 0.12.

on a different note, i have a great plugin called BitViewer. if you're a nerd like me (it is a dreambox after all!) it shows you the current bitrate for the channel you're watching! some of the digital GOLD/Bravo channels etc are rubbish!! the highest i ever got was 19 MBps on Sky News HD launch night!

19 MBps on a feckin news channel?? :eek: Were they showing explosions or something!

Jeez - a good 1080p rip will be about 10Mbps...

Windbox

Sitting Room
DM800 running BH.12
320GB Hard Disk
Running 1.2m Triax dish (TM motor) (full arc)
External Laptop Fan
Kids Room
DM800 running DreamElite
250GB Hard Disk
Connected to 60cm Astra2D dish
External Laptop Fan
Bedroom
DM500 - Gemini 4.6
Connected to 60cm Astra
Running Sky card in internal reader

I noticed the DreamElite image didn't have the Satmate_UK epg details, you can just add them manually.
SkyNEWS HD bitrate is unreal!

Barack Obama

Windbox wrote: »

I noticed the DreamElite image didn't have the Satmate_UK epg details, you can just add them manually.

That's some setup Windbox! I'm probably going to pop for a 500 for the bedroom as well - no need for recording there. Why did you go for the separate dish setup?

Any idea how you manually add the Satmate_UK epg? There is the option to all in the epg panel but it looks for a server name or http location

Windbox

Barack Obama wrote: »

That's some setup Windbox! I'm probably going to pop for a 500 for the bedroom as well - no need for recording there. Why did you go for the separate dish setup?

Any idea how you manually add the Satmate_UK epg? There is the option to all in the epg panel but it looks for a server name or http location

There are only 2 dishes on the house. One is a standard 60cm Sky dish with an quad LNB. This feeds the DM500 and one of th DM800s. The other 1.2 dish was added later and just feeds the DM800 in the sitting room from a singal LNB (although I am looking at chaning this as the wind load on this dish makes it un watchable on some windy days!)

The epg details can be added either through an ssh/telnet session to the box or, might be easier, throught the epg panel on your image. I just copied the details from the BH image and used that on the DreamElite image.

I acutally have the DM500 recording to my PC (which acts as a media server) using Ngrab so I can recored and watch on it too. Gemini also have a Upnp client on their image so I can stream to it too!

givecredit

With these boxes can you have the channel order as you want? Delete Channels not wanted and add more than one ITV region, Eg ITV london, UTV and Stv on channel list with full 7 day epg?

Could i have,

1 BBC1 HD (wHEN AVAILABLE)
2.BBC2
3.BBCHD
4.itv1 hd
5 ch4 HD
6. 5 hd
7. STV HD
8 ITV2
etc

or do i have to keep channels in certain order for epg to work?

joe250

Here is my setup

Main tv
VU+ duo running DreamElite
connected to 1tb NAS hardrive(in attic)
1.1M triax on motor 28.2east to 30west

SKY + connected 60cm triax

Kid room and bedrooms
3 Dreamboxs 500 running PLI image
Connected to 1tb NAS hardrive(in attic) which i can record to
60cm triax

Windbox

givecredit wrote: »

With these boxes can you have the channel order as you want? Delete Channels not wanted and add more than one ITV region, Eg ITV london, UTV and Stv on channel list with full 7 day epg?

Could i have,

1 BBC1 HD (wHEN AVAILABLE)
2.BBC2
3.BBCHD
4.itv1 hd
5 ch4 HD
6. 5 hd
7. STV HD
8 ITV2
etc

or do i have to keep channels in certain order for epg to work?

You can setup the EPG whatever way you want with an windows app called DreamEdit. It's not the easiest application to get your head into but once you do it's great. There is also a guy on another site who has a satellites file to mirror the Sky EPG, so if you type in 408 you'd get Sky Sports HD etc, just like Sky UK.

big_moe

yup 19mbps! it was the sky news leaders debate in the uk, month or 2 ago now, picture was unreal... never seen anything like it before on tv and probably never will!

some of the sky news hd in studio is up around the same level but i've never seen it as high since

cormacl

I've a DM8000 with both S2 tuners feeding off 28.2, 19.2, 13.0 from a multiswitch. An additional DVB-T tuner is fitted for Irish DTT from 3-Rock. I've a samsung 1Tb drive installed. Getting UK FTA HD services and also a few from Germany (wife is German and a little depressed at the moment after the match!).

I have an internal fan installed over the PSU. Keeps the sensors reporting temps no higher than 42C. If the fan is disabled, this will easily rise upto 54C. The fan is generally quiet but because the receiver is inside a closed cabinet, it tends to slightly amplify the hum of the fan. But you don't notice it unless there's complete silence in the room.

Using the latest Gemini 5.0 .. sort of stuck with Gemini back since my 7025 and 5620 days. I have the integrated Freesat EPG enabled which gives 7-day EPG for all Freesat services. It sources data from satellite feeds directly. I Prefer it over any of the XMLTV-based plugins simply due to the CPU overhead post-processing the feed data.

An aside I suppose.. but I do on occasion convert recordings to/from the TS format used by the receiver. I use txmuxer (http://www.smlabs.net/tsmuxer_en.html) to quickly refit HD video camera footage into TS format.. plays perfectly on the dreambox with full 5.1 support. The same application can be used to convert dreambox HD recordings into Blu-Ray format. When I do this, I first have the same app, split the TS into separate files of 4.5Gb each. Then each of the files is rendered into a Blu-Ray directory structure. Then these are burned onto normal DVDs. They will playback perfectly on Blu-Ray players. The conversion process is quite fast as it is not actually re-encoding the files, but rewriting headers to just to change the container format.

big_moe

nice setup!

yeah i've used tsmuxr as well, fantastic program

Zardoz

Windbox wrote: »

You can setup the EPG whatever way you want with an windows app called DreamEdit. It's not the easiest application to get your head into but once you do it's great. There is also a guy on another site who has a satellites file to mirror the Sky EPG, so if you type in 408 you'd get Sky Sports HD etc, just like Sky UK.

Yes its great the way you can customise the channel lists ,bouquets and channel order to suit your taste.
You can watch all the channels that would have to be added in the Other channels section on a Sky box ,like ITV,ITV2 etc.
You also dont have to wade through junk channels to get to good channels like on the Sky epg and you can group the timeshift channels beside the standard channels instead of having a gap of up to 40 channels like on the Sky EPG.
Unfortunately this has drastic sideffects too ,like the recent addiction of the missus to ITV1 and ITV2 ,something that was unknown to her on the Sky epg.She has also created her own Bouquet of channels which she religiously watches.I fear I have created a monster :eek:

Barack Obama

Cormac - looks like you are a veteran! You may well have one of the first 8000's in the country. Is it an original? When I went looking a few months back, they were about €1k! :eek:

cormacl

Barack Obama wrote: »

Cormac - looks like you are a veteran! You may well have one of the first 8000's in the country. Is it an original? When I went looking a few months back, they were about €1k! :eek:

It is an original.. I wouldn't buy a clone.. breaking the law is not my thing. Also I work as a software developer.. if someone cloned my work, it could cost me my job.

Barack Obama

cormacl wrote: »

It is an original.. I wouldn't buy a clone.. breaking the law is not my thing. Also I work as a software developer.. if someone cloned my work, it could cost me my job.

Fair enough mate. Are you happy with the 8000 in general (especially considering the price)?

cormacl

Barack Obama wrote: »

Fair enough mate. Are you happy with the 8000 in general (especially considering the price)?

Hugely happy with it.

Several years back I bought a Dreambox 5620 that the wife loved because its UI was usable and stylish.

Then when I upgraded to a 7025 and were able to record stuff etc, she thought it was the best thing I ever bought.

Then when it came to HD and MPEG4 DTT etc, I didn't want to pay €1000 for a DM8000 and was instead thinking of the Qbox as an enigma-based cheaper alternative.

It was the wife that said that I'd be furious if I found it didn't work or had restrictions.. as it turned out this was true.. the Q-boxes were very unstable and AFAIK, the watch one record-one is still not yet working.

The DM8000 on the other hand worked perfectly. There was 1 bug where a DTT scan did not save any of the Irish services.. a support email to DMM and they had a solution back to me in a day. I was able to hack a python script and it worked. Later releases had the official patch in place. They were trying to be smart on what service IDs they treated as TV services and just got the list wrong, omitting SD mpeg4.

So all in all, the DM8000 is a fabulous receiver. The OSD is very good and easily changed to any of the myriad of Enigma2 themes. The Freesat EPG is a joy to use and we have unified channel lists that are ordered our way and intermix DTT and sat services with no issue.

I realise there's an element of DMM tax on these boxes.. they are more expensive than others.. but they are equally way better.

stephendevlin

DM800HD
Niablo Sat Blackhole
Samsung 500GB HDD
EPG
Satellite Booster
External Fan (From a old PC wired to USB)
Ordinary Sky Dish
(I have a diseqc with a 1.2m Dish which I have yet to set up with DM800) :cool:

Is there any other cool features we should know about?

JDxtra

Very useful information in here so far. One question - can the DM8000 access and use the series link information, which I assume is part of the Freesat EPG?

cormacl

JDxtra wrote: »

Very useful information in here so far. One question - can the DM8000 access and use the series link information, which I assume is part of the Freesat EPG?

Not at all sure what they transmit with the Freesat EPG to infer series-links.. but AFAIK there is no equivalent in the Enigma2 EPG. So presumably, its reading from one format and writing to another and losing the detail in the process.

However.. I bring up the EPG, select my desired program and can them set the timer to repeat daily or select a given day set or weekly.. thats fine in most cases.

Then for progammes that don't keep to a strict schedule.. we just remember to program them during the week.

One example we had was CSI NY on Five.. was on Sat nights but had the time continually varying.. so we just ended up doing timers manually from the continually updated EPG data. The easy part is that the Enigma2 EPG can be shown per service and sorted by time or alphabetically.. so finding your show is real easy.

There is also an auto-timer plugin that can be programmed for the given channel, days etc and string to search.. never tried it, but its probably a candidate for a poor-mans series link

Windbox

They are unbeatable boxes as far as I'm concerned. I often get people saying the sky boxes are better but you can't do the following on a sky box:

I wrote a simple python script to connect to my dreamboxes and check the recording directories. It will quickly cross reference a small mysql database to see if the recordings are already there. If not if will parse the directory and pull any new recordings into my media centre then update the SQL database. I then either mux the files but usually transcode them to any other device in the house, ps3 usually (savage HD on it). The script also generates a php web page front end so the wife can easily see what's recordered across all devices and run the video locally or remotely. Try that on a sky box!!!!

stephendevlin

Is there any way of streaming from dreambox to ps3 over local network?

Windbox

stephendevlin wrote: »

Is there any way of streaming from dreambox to ps3 over local network?

Yep, there are a few plugins to do it, I have tried a couple over the years and they are OK-ish. You can also open your PS3 browser and point it at the Dreambox web interface and port number etc.

And in a round about way you can stream if from a PC with a PC app that "restreams", called WebStreamer Plugin

EDIT> PSStreamer was the name of one plugin I heard of IIRC.

Barack Obama

OK here's one - is there any way of programming the unused buttons to perform tasks in certain menus? For example, in the movies menu where you see your list of recordings, can you program the red button to delete a recording instead of having to go into the menu?

garrycann78

Snaps,

I'm just outside ballina. Picking up 4,7,8 perfectly.about 87% most of the time.only ever dropped to 83%.

Zardoz

garrycann78 wrote: »

Snaps,

I'm just outside ballina. Picking up 4,7,8 perfectly.about 87% most of the time.only ever dropped to 83%.

You are picking up 4w and 7w in Ballina on a 90cm dish ,thats impossible Garry.
Those satellites are only receivable on a huge dish ,prob 3-4m .

garrycann78

no. i have amos on 4w and nilesat on 7w.

Zardoz

garrycann78 wrote: »

no. i have amos on 4w and nilesat on 7w.

On a 90cm dish ?

garrycann78

yes. i set my motor to 8w on set up, I drive the motor to 7 or 4 west. i added in transponder frequencies from kingofsat from a nilesat package. i dont get osn though

Barack Obama

I'm still not set on wheather I'm going to take the extra step of getting a motorized dish - it adds a level of complexity that I don't think I need. At the minute I'm happy with the standard Sky dish but I would like to be able to pick up a couple of particular satellites for footie matches though.

I've been recommended this option - it's a fixed dish that can pick up to 4 different satellites. Has anyone got any experience setting something like this up?
http://www.hm-sat-shop.de/antennen-wavefrontier/wave-toroidal-t90-p.html

Here it is with 4 lnb's thrown in -
http://www.hm-sat-shop.de/antennen-wavefrontier/wave-toroidal-t90-p.html

joe250

Barack Obama wrote: »

I'm still not set on weather I'm going to take the extra step of getting a motorized dish - it adds a level of complexity that I don't think I need. At the minute I'm happy with the standard Sky dish but I would like to be able to pick up a couple of particular satellites for footie matches though.

I've been recommended this option - it's a fixed dish that can pick up to 4 different satellites. Has anyone got any experience setting something like this up?
http://www.hm-sat-shop.de/antennen-wavefrontier/wave-toroidal-t90-p.html

Here it is with 4 lnb's thrown in -
http://www.hm-sat-shop.de/antennen-wavefrontier/wave-toroidal-t90-p.html

These are great buy extra holders so you can add more then 4lnb's.
Not to bad to setup either

Barack Obama

One thing that is bugging me about the DM800 - it must be currently tuned to a channel for the standby button to work. I've a Logitech Harmony remote and when I want to change activities and (for example) it's in the Video menu, the DM stays on.

A little picky, but still a pain...

cubix

Lads, just went to hook the DB-800HD up to a HD TV and realized there is no HDMI connection on the DB. Will now go hunting for a DVI to Hdmi cable but wondered are they like HDMI cable's in the sense that you don't need to spend whacky money to get a good one as long as you are buying the normal length (1.5meter). IF so where did everyone get theirs.

Thanks

big_moe

my dreambox came with a dvi-hdmi cable. you can by cables in the usual... arnotts, peats, maplins etc. about 20 or 30 quid i've seen them for

cubix

Cheers BM, just noticed a dvi-hdmi in the box. Did a little bit of reading and it says dvi does not carry sound, so do I have to take a feed from the scart for sound?.

big_moe

99% of devices dont do sound over dvi but lucky the dreambox WILL do sound over dvi to hdmi!

MisterAnarchy

Barack Obama wrote: »

I've been recommended this option - it's a fixed dish that can pick up to 4 different satellites. Has anyone got any experience setting something like this up?
http://www.hm-sat-shop.de/antennen-wavefrontier/wave-toroidal-t90-p.html

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You can get alot more than 4 different satellites on it.
It has a 40 degree span so it can cover alot of satellites.
I am considering getting one myself to add to my motorised dish.
A motorised system just isnt suited to the Irish climate,high winds continuously bashing it.
I have to readjust my positions manually via the software every so often.
Its effective but I have lost a few weaker satellites and its time consuming.
The Toroidal dish allows you to switch satellites instantaneously and you dont have to worry about realignment.
The only drawback is the amount of cabling involved ,the weight of them (they weigh a tonne ) and the fact that they are rust buckets.
I would have to mount it on the back of my house and I dont know if they are suitable for that.

Barack Obama

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

You can get alot more than 4 different satellites on it.
It has a 40 degree span so it can cover alot of satellites.
I am considering getting one myself to add to my motorised dish.
A motorised system just isnt suited to the Irish climate,high winds continuously bashing it.
I have to readjust my positions manually via the software every so often.
Its effective but I have lost a few weaker satellites and its time consuming.
The Toroidal dish allows you to switch satellites instantaneously and you dont have to worry about realignment.
The only drawback is the amount of cabling involved ,the weight of them (they weigh a tonne ) and the fact that they are rust buckets.
I would have to mount it on the back of my house and I dont know if they are suitable for that.

I found some images of the dish with a 'few' extra lnb's. Mental!!
http://images.foren-city.de/images/uploads/26528/wavefrontier30-30_127.jpg
https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/214935/89740.jpg
http://www.satellite-heaven.de/testberichte/data/wavefrontier/t90-2.jpg

I've been told that you have instant switching with a diseqc switch and only 1 cable coming back to the receiver, but I'm not 100% certain what this means. More investigation needed

MisterAnarchy

Barack Obama wrote: »

I've been told that you have instant switching with a diseqc switch and only 1 cable coming back to the receiver, but I'm not 100% certain what this means. More investigation needed

If you place the Diseqc switch near the dish or outside then you only need one cable going back to the receiver.
Each lnb has a cable leading from it to the switch (Generally a 4 or 8 way switch ) and the output of that goes to the receiver.
The dreambox can then choose which lnb to use,so you get almost instantaneous switching.
I'm tempted to get one but the size of it is putting me off (Actually its putting the missus off and I wont be allowed put it up )