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Television Media Hardware

Dreambox DM7000: Hackable DVR 161

Posted by michael from the soldering-iron-not-included dept.
An anonymous reader copies-and-pastes "The Dreambox DM7000 from Dream-Multimedia-Tv (DMM) is a $395 Linux-based digital radio and digital TV (DVB) satellite (or cable) receiver with digital video recorder (DVR) functions and PC connectivity. It is implemented using IBM's STB04500 set-top box chipset, which provides the necessary DVB functions like transport stream demultiplexing and MPEG2 decoding inexpensively. A minimalistic, GPL'd Linux-based software implementation has made the DM7000 popular with Linux programmers and TV device hackers."
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Dreambox DM7000: Hackable DVR More

Dreambox DM7000: Hackable DVR

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  • Or just use your PC (Score:2, Informative)

    by Brahmastra ( 685988 )
    http://dvr.sourceforge.net/html/main.html

    • Re:Or just use your PC (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      myth tv is better

      www.mythtv.org

    • Re:Or just use your PC (Score:4, Informative)

      by The Kiloman ( 640270 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @05:55PM (#7186175) Homepage
      There's also MythTV [mythtv.org] and Freevo [sourceforge.net].

      Both are fairly immature, but moderately stable. MythTV in particular is feature-rich, but most of the features don't behave quite right.

      I'd recommend giving them a try, and maybe contributing of any one is interested, but I don't see any OSS replacing the TiVo quite yet.

    • Clickable link (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      http://dvr.sourceforge.net/html/main.html [65.118.246.110]

      Please use the A tag, Linux's copy and paste mechanism SUCKS, and its a PAIN IN THE ANUS to copy and paste URLs that havnen't been hyperlinked.

  • Woo (Score:2)

    by rf0 ( 159958 )
    Now I can be super l33t and hax0r my TV and record all the p0rn.

    Rus
  • The back of the unit looks like it has 2 Scart-interfaces. I guess this is the PAL version? Do they make one with S-Video and/or composite video inputs?
    • Those are outputs. Its a DVB box not an analog TV box.
    • how about you just buy a scart->composite/svideo+l&r-audio converter?

      it's not like they're more than few bucks. and single big connector like scart is is preferable to most consumers.. just one connector to hook up instead of 3.

    • Re:Scart-interfaces? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      This is DTV, DVB uses MPEG2 component video thereforing makeing PAL obselete, so you don't need to worry about old analogue formats, a SCART interface outputs composite/s-video/component RGB/YUV along with stereo sound and various switching signals for 16:9 and auto switching.

      I reguarly watch 'NTSC' digital broadcasts without any problems, note that nothing is actually encoded in NTSC or PAL but their legacy scan rates still persist, but my TV is capable of scanning at 60Hz anyway.
      • You still have to get the video to your display device and in Europe SCARTS are far more useful than a bunch of phono sockets. Especially when the order of decreasing quality is RGB, YUV, Y U+V (S Video), Y+U+V (Composite).

        Europe hasn't bothered with HD television because on most standard broadcasts the gain in quality isn't significant enough. On the other hand having a nice switching system, support for inter equipment comunication and widescreen switching is.
    • SCART is a 21-pin connector that has all those signals on it. You can make or buy a conversion cable between SCART and S-video, composite video, component video, or whatever you need.

  • Little correction, partial GPL (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 10, 2003 @05:50PM (#7186129)
    Dreambox software is partial GPL the kernel modules which drives many devices are closed source and developed by IBM... IBM was the company defending the GPL open way? err...
    What a flash-back

  • Still doesn't support HDTV *sigh* (Score:5, Informative)

    by YetAnotherName ( 168064 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @05:53PM (#7186160) Homepage
    Look, it's pretty simple:

    1. Jennifer Garner of Alias has lots of super-cute freckles.

    2. Those super-cute freckles are only visible on the local HDTV broadcast.

    3. This box doesn't do HDTV.

    Luckily, there is an ATSC receiver [pchdtv.com] card that's for Linux only that does do HDTV. And Jennifer Garner. And her super-cute freckles. And yes, it's quite hackable, and source is included.

    'nuff said.
    • Well since it is a DVB box and not an ATSC box they could hardly support HDTV.

      • Re:Still doesn't support HDTV *sigh* (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Well bugger me senseless, here I am in Australia watching 1080i HDTV over DVB-t, either the picture before my eyes is a fiction or you don't have your facts right.

        Btw, HDTV is on satellite DVB in Europe.
        • It is only experimental, there is no standard yet.
          At the moment there are test transmissions using MPEG2 and a windows codec. There is no hardware decoder available in Europe, not as PCI card or STB.
          The only thing you can do is decode it by software on your PC, if it is fast enough. The dreambox is rather old hardware (almost 2 years old) so unless they update it there won't be HDTV on this box.
          I guess you could stream HDTV from the dreambox to a PC though.
    • Maybe with the included source you could compress the video or something.

      HD = mad pixels

      Mad pixels = Huge Filesize

      Huge Filesize = ???

      ??? = profit
    • My wife has freckles, so Jennifer Garner isn't necessary. Further I download all the HDTV feeds of Alias, Smallville, and 24 off USENET. Yeah I wait a day, but it works great. I have a cron task that downloads the episodes I need.

      I do have a question though. Comcast is doing HDTV but I believe all the Linux HDTV cards only support over the air broadcasts. Anyone know if there are any cards that word with cable or dish HDTV broadcasts? (For those HDTV Animal Planet shows)

      • > Further I download all the HDTV feeds of Alias, Smallville, and 24 off USENET. Yeah I wait a day, but it works great. I have a cron task that downloads the episodes I need.

        I assume this is a joke.. 8GB/hr HDTV data streams, uuencoded then fragmented onto usenet. Yeah, that must work great. A $30 UHF antenna and an HDTV PCI card does the job for me.

        > Anyone know if there are any cards that word with cable or dish HDTV broadcasts?

        There is a community closed source project that is enhancing the
        • No joke. Check out newsgroups like alt.binaries.smallville, alt.binaries.multimedia.smallville, alt.binaries.multimedia.alias etc. If you use the newsgrab perl script as a cron job then there really is no hassle. I just check my directory the following day and there is the MPEG of the HDTV feed. (Typically only 1 GB with commercials removed and remember that the stations don't broadcast in anywhere near the highest HDTV resolution)

  • Death to TiVo (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Another nail in the coffin of TiVo and their fucked business model. Even if this box doesn't offer all the functionality, it's just the tip of the iceberg of the no service fee required PVRs that are on the way out.
    • Yeah, it boggles the mind that they can sell you a box AND charge you to use it even though it costs them nothing when you use it.

      • Re:Death to TiVo (Score:4, Informative)

        by smackjer ( 697558 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:06PM (#7186252) Homepage
        Actually, you can use a Tivo without paying the monthly (or lifetime) fee. You don't get the program guides, season pass functionality, and suggestions, but it works as well as a VCR when you schedule to record at a date/time/duration (without tapes), and still lets you pause and replay live TV.

        The monthly/lifetime fee gets you the premium services, which are all based on having the program guide available. Well worth the cost, IMO.
        • you can use a Tivo without paying the monthly (or lifetime) fee.

          Really? I asked them about that, as I live outside of the Tivo service area, and they told me it wouldn't work.

        • Actually, you can use a Tivo without paying the monthly (or lifetime) fee.

          I've heard this a lot on /.

          Half the people say it's true, the other half say it's false... I won't believe it until someone posts a link to a difinitive source (like tivo.com) which say, without a doubt, it is true.

          • Re:Death to TiVo (Score:4, Informative)

            by crt ( 44106 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @09:29PM (#7187165)
            The answer is "both". It used to work fine without the subscription, and that was allowed under the EULA for the software on the device.
            However, at some point (around 2.3?) they changed the EULA and stated that a subscription was required to use it - at all.

            They grandfathered in everyone who purchased before that date, so you can still buy a used TIVO that works without the subscription, but new ones technically require one. There may be a way to work around it on the new ones, but it's not going to be supported by TIVO.

            All that being said... get the subscription. It's worth it for all the time it saves and the number of times it "catches" changes that you would miss if you had to do it all manually. If you can't stand monthly, get the lifetime and pretend the device is more expensive.

            • get the lifetime and pretend the device is more expensive.

              No thinks, I'll stick with my PC. Straight to MPEG4/Divx, easy to edit commercials out, uses any remote I wish, burns CDs at will, etc. Probably costs less than the lowest-end model Tivo, with no subscription, no limitations on what I can do with it, nothing happening behind my back, no chance it will stop working if Tivo goes out of business, no tying up my phone-line, etc.

              Right now I am putting in the times/dates myself, but I'm looking into w

            • There are now also DVD video recorders that offer free "Tivo Basic" service. This includes 3 days of program info, TV pause, timer recording, but lacks some of the fancier features like season passes and wish lists.

      • Re:Death to TiVo (Score:3, Insightful)

        by sl0ppy ( 454532 )
        even though it costs them nothing when you use it

        how does it cost them nothing? let's break it down:

        o guide information has to come from somewhere. in tivo's case, they outsource

        o bandwidth for guide information needs to come from somewhere, also outsourced

        o upgrades, bug fixes, and new versions of the OS need to come from somewhere. things still cost money

        it's obvious that it costs them nothing to me, how about you?
        • I see... I don't own a TiVo and mistakenly assumed that the functionality of the box was limited to recording programs and "pausing" live TV. Thanks for the info!
    • Why no free/easy way to download TV listings?

      Who would it hurt to let you just download the listings without a ton of horseshit, like TV guide provides a stream and specs to retrieve 'em. Use them in your homebrewed PVR, on your PDA, or whatever.

      That annoys me to no end.
  • No where I can see, so far. Their U.S. distribution [dream-multimedia.us] is handled out of South Africa?

    Does sound like a great box to play with though...

  • Hackable (Score:3, Informative)

    by smoyer ( 108342 ) <smoyer64@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:06PM (#7186250)
    I work with Scientific Atlanta and Motorola set-tops every day and can tell you that there are serious limitations to the hackability of any unit like this.

    Each vendor has their own proprietary encryption format (for the content) and will only work with QPSK and QAM headend equipment that they manufacture. There is very little unencrypted content on CATV networks as digital service is generally an extra charge service. You also need to be provisioned in their billing system.

    I suspect that the hackability of this unit stops at controlling the behavior of the device. I would be very surprised if anyone managed to receive free pay services the way those who built sync inverters, tone strippers, etc to receive free analog pay channels.

    Please let me know if anyone has success!

    • Re:Hackable (Score:2, Informative)

      by tzanger ( 1575 )

      Each vendor has their own proprietary encryption format (for the content) and will only work with QPSK and QAM headend equipment that they manufacture.

      I thought that's what the CAM was for? I am probably being overly naive about the whole procedure but I had throught that the system provided the CAM with the questions, the CAM responded with the answers (typical ZK tests) and if the answer was correct the signal came through. I know that the CAMs are relatively low-speed devices (if you pull the CAM o

    • Yes, I know it's tacky to respond to your own post. First, I don't work for a cable company, I just have business ties, so please don't kill me because I can talk about the technology.

      I didn't say that you couldn't hack the unit ala videocipher for SAT broadcasts. I said I'd be surprised if you could receive on most cable networks. It WOULD be wonderful if the card reader could provide you the necessary keys to decrypt the signal. The cable industry itself desparately wants an open standards based set

    • I can think of plenty of good hacks for this thing that don't involve content-ripoff.

      Just think: A SHAREWARE/OSS Market for Television. i.e., apps start springing up that are designed specifically to help you manage your television viewing experience.

      I'd like to write an app which strips the laugh-track, for instance. Does this thing have the DSP for it?

      Why? Because when you strip the laugh track, you can peer directly into the propaganda and social agenda of most modern television shows without bein
    • I own a DM7000s, and out of the box it does not support anything else than free-to-air channels (no encryption).

      But hackers are releaseing their own versions, which support almost all types of subscription cards (via2, seca2, irdeto, crypto, conax etc.) in the built in card slots.

      The scrambling systems are also completely hacked, so there is a software cam and software card in the firmware, and you can receive all hacked channels for free (need no CAM, no card). If you don't have management keys, just go to

  • This sounds like the absolute Slashbot's dream. I can just see the engineers who designed this lurking on an Ask Slashdot forum on "What should the ideal set top box be capable of?"and writing down the system features list from user comments.

    * It should run Linux, of course.
    * It has to connect to my PC so I can write all those recorded movies to DVD-R.
    * Oh yeah, and a satellite or cable decoder, so I can HAX0RS it and "share" free movies and stuff.
    * And I'm sure the hard drive won't be big enough, so I sh
  • If so, what sort of a connection would be available?
    • Just use the 10/100 Ethernet port. Not being a Mac user I don't know of any Dreambox apps for Mac, but the web and samba server interfaces will still work. And if you have an NFS server running on your Mac, you can use that instead of buying a hard disk for the Dreambox - that avoids the noise of hard drive bearings in your living room.
  • . It can store video on an internal hard drive (not included),

    $400 without a harddrive!? Can't you build a small AMD PC for the same price, with a 80GB hard drive?
    • An 80GB hard drive can be had for $71, shipped. An HDTV tuner card runs $200-$300. Which is cheaper?
      • An 80GB hard drive can be had for $71, shipped. An HDTV tuner card runs $200-$300. Which is cheaper?

        Irrelavant, as "HDTV" is nowhere to be found in that article. Therefore I assume it doesn't support it. I can configure a PC with a standard TV tuner and MythTV for about the same price. Granted, I don't get a remote, but I get a lot more functionality.

        I can appreciate the "proof of concept" of these packaged Linux DVR boxes, but the manufacturers are not offering anything "above and beyond" for the re
        • You're right, this isn't HDTV. However it is DVB, AKA Digital Cable, though it's vague on what Cable providers it supports. There are few, if any, decoder cards that can be had for a standard PC that do digital cable. If you can find one at all, I doubt it can be had for less then $200
    • It can store video on an internal hard drive (not included),

      But thats like saying (car ad): It can go places with an internal motor (not included)

      I mean, I can always get inside and listen to the radio, but...

  • So what can this do? I didn't see pictures of the interface. Is it like mythtv? Can this browse pictures, play music, play movies from the hard drive? Or does it only perform dvr functionality? I really wish they would get one of these with a dvd player in it. Is it that you can't buy a license for the dvd decoding algorithm if you plan on using it on linux?

    Anyway, it seems interesting. I'd be interested if I was more sure of it's capability. I keep seeing things come out that do a few things here

  • "Your DVD player is readily and easily modifyable to illegally recieve our signal, decrypt it, and use it as a replacement for our and other recievers. Your buisness is illegal, we'll sue.".

    The cards are on the table, lets see if they bluff or if they throw down their hand.
    • I know just what's going to happen to this...

      "Your DVD player is readily and easily modifyable to illegally recieve our signal, decrypt it, and use it as a replacement for our and other recievers. Your buisness is illegal, we'll sue."

      Alternatively they could embrace it - by licensing a manufacturer to make a closed (and sealed) plugin to hold a smartcard (or whatever), manage authorization messages from the downlink, and decrypt the signal.

      This would be an especially good move for Dish Network (which do
  • The Dreambox can also quite easily be fittet with software that lets a user share his decoder-smartcards over the internet (600000 users can share one card simultaniously). The Dreambox is a fuly user-customisable decoder, with few/nonexistant restrictions of what you can implement.

  • Or, hack your TiVo - A challenge is more fun.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jkeegan ( 35099 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @07:08PM (#7186588) Homepage Journal
    This looks like it has potential, but it still comes with a huge downside - the device isn't a TiVo.

    There's a reason that TiVo is the most popular. The user interface is a pleasure to use. A lot of the fun of hacking your TiVo is that you're making that cool box better..

    Plus, there's something unexplainably more-fun-than-it-should-be about modifying a device that wasn't designed for it..

    If you want to play around with this but still want to be able to enjoy a great DVR, consider buying a TiVo to hack instead (or hacking the TiVo you already have).

    Might I also humbly sugest picking up a copy of the book Hacking TiVo [amazon.com] , which ships next week. (In all fairness, I am the author, so I might have a bit of a bias). You can also go to the web on your own to find everything, but this acts as a nice guide from your initial tinkering through to the development of your own hacks.

    Hacking this device instead could definitely be interesting - it's just sad that you'd be stuck using it if it was your only DVR.
  • From http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/Bereiche/Produkt e/DM7000_featurelist.php [dream-multimedia-tv.de]

    USB:
    USB 1.2 connector

    Uh... I've never heard of USB 1.2. Can someone shed some light on this mysterious standard? Also, is it full speed, high speed, ultra-high speed or l33t speed?
  • The writeup was a little short on details. Does this work with Dish network accounts? i.e. does it store the MPEG feed of Dish without the D->A->D mess and loss? Exactly how well does it integrate into say Comcast digital cable?

    I was intrigued but wanting more information.

    Also, I notice Comcast is finally doing HDTV feeds. How do HDTV cards handle that? I assume they don't include software/controls for handling channel switching easily. (I recognize that the box that is the topic of this art

    • It's built for the European market. European satellites, and European TVs (it has SCART sockets). Oh, and it's PAL only....no NTSC here.

      -psy
      • The latest firmware does NTSC.
        • The latest firmware might well do NTSC, but you still gotta contend with SCART connectors and European-centric features! :-p

          -psy
          • Recently I have been looking for an A/V amplifier to be used as a home theatre system (combined with a screen, speakers, DVD player, DM7000 etc).

            Unfortunately there are not many that offer SCART connectors. IMHO they are the best solution. Who wants to use those flimsy RCA connectors or even worse: S-video? I want many RGB video connections.

            It seems the US video world has invented something incompatible with the industry standard RGB: component video. Probably to force the customer to buy new stuff.
  • The one thing I found unfortuanate, is that it looks like it only accomodates a 2.5" hard drive.

    While they work fine for notebooks, they do not have the capacity of 3.5" HDDs, nor the speed, nor the durability you want in something that is going to be spinning constantly for long periods of time. Even though I appreciate the power savings, I wouldn't use 2.5" in anything unless it's meant to be mobile, and that's obviously not the case with this thing.

    Not that it matters too much to me. I'm here in NTSC
  • Anything is hackable. Some things just aren't worth the trouble. The useful distinction is whether it rewards hacktivity with deep and abiding satisfaction.

    For the majority of readers who are not hackish, that means that having hacked it, you can make it do cool stuff that the original designers not only didn't think of, but never would have in a million years. It's even better if the next regular release does that stuff too.

  • hate to say this, but Linux is only "cool" when it's cheaper than the dominant player. A $400 Linux DVR that doesn't even include a hard drive isn't "cool" anymore than if the Linux OS cost double what a competing Windows OS costs and if Linux software cost $$$.

    I'll be flamed for saying this, but I hope this $400 Linux DVR goes no where... except down in price. Call me when it hits $199.

  • between a PVR and a DVR?

    I think too many acronyms are being thrown around here.
  • ANyone know if it has access to program guides? Does it take it from the digital cable stream? Does it need a subscription? Or, is it just "dumb" like a VCR?

    How about Tivo features like "record all Star Trek Enterprise" shows...?

    I'd love one... if it has these features!

    MadCow
    • It is not at all a DVR, it is a satellite (DVB-S) receiver with recording functionality.
      It cannot record anything from external sources.

      It has access to program guides transmitted in DVB, but most program guides cover only the current/next program and sometimes a couple of days. When there is a program guide, it can record an item from it. But only when you can select the item at the time you program the recording (there is no "record all items that have star trek in the title" function. of course you c
  • This with any 'hackbox' seems to be missing the ability to do the same thing a $49 box can do:

    Record two shows at once, while playing back a 3rd from it's HDD.

    I know people want to "hack a PVR"*** but really, when the most basic of features are missing, it's not really worth all the fuss. Especially not worth the money they are charging.

    Yeah, it runs Linux. I've got several PC's doing that now, and they do what I need them to do. I've also got a UTV PVR that does more than these over-priced things will e

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