Dreambox is a series of

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

-powered DVB

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

and

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

receivers (

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

es), produced by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

multimedia vendor Dream Multimedia.

History and description

The Linux-based production software originally used by Dreambox was originally developed for

DBox2 The DBox is a Digital Video Broadcasting, DVB DVB-S, satellite and DVB-C, cable digital television integrated receiver decoder (set-top box). They were distributed widely for use with Pay TV, Pay television channels. It was commissioned by t ...

, by the Tuxbox project. The Dbox2 was a proprietary design distributed by KirchMedia for their

pay TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

services. The

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

of KirchMedia flooded the market with unsold boxes available for Linux enthusiasts. The Dreambox shares the basic design of the DBox2, including the Ethernet port and the

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

processor. Its

firmware In computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, h ...

is officially user-upgradable, since it is a Linux-based computer, as opposed to third-party "patching" of alternate receivers. All units support Dream's own DreamCrypt

conditional access Conditional access (CA) is a term commonly used in relation to software and to digital television systems. Conditional access is an evaluation to ensure the person who is seeking access to content is authorized to access the content. Access is man ...

(CA) system, with software-emulated CA Modules (CAMs) available for many alternate CA systems. The built-in

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

interface allows networked computers to access the recordings on the internal hard disks on some Dreambox models. It also enables the receiver to store digital copies of DVB

MPEG transport stream MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS, MTS) or simply transport stream (TS) is a standard digital container format for transmission and storage of audio, video, and Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) data. It is used in broadcast syst ...

s on

distributed file system A clustered file system (CFS) is a file system which is shared by being simultaneously Mount (computing), mounted on multiple Server (computing), servers. There are several approaches to computer cluster, clustering, most of which do not emplo ...

s or broadcast the streams as

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

VideoLAN VideoLAN is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization which software development, develops software for playing video and other media formats. It originally developed two computer program, programs for media streaming media, streaming, ...

and XBMC Media Center clients. Unlike many PC based PVR systems that use

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

type of DVB receiver cards, the built-in conditional access allows receiving and storing encrypted content. In 2007, Dream Multimedia also introduced a non-Linux based Dreambox receiver, the DM100, their sole to date, still featuring an Ethernet port. It has a USB-B port for service instead of the RS-232 or mini-USB connectors found on other models. Unlike all other Dreamboxes, it features an

STMicroelectronics STMicroelectronics Naamloze vennootschap, NV (commonly referred to as ST or STMicro) is a European multinational corporation, multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the largest of such companies in Europe. ...

CPU instead of PowerPC or MIPS.

Dreambox models

There are a number of different models of Dreambox available. The numbers are suffixed with -S for Satellite, -T for Terrestrial and -C for Cable:

Table

* **

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary digital interface used to transmit high-quality video and audio signals between devices. It is commonly used to connect devices such as televisions, computer monitors, projectors, gam ...

via DVI to HDMI adapter. * Remark: The new 7020hd v2 has a new Flash with another structure, that is why you need a different Linux Image. All new v2 Modells have a new TPM module inside. The rest of the Hardware is identical with the older one.

DM 7000

The DM 7000 is based around the IBM STB04500 controller, featuring a PowerPC processor subsystem and hardware MPEG decoding, has 64

MiB The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

, 8 MiB of

NOR flash Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use ...

memory (directly executable), a

Common Interface In Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), the Common Interface (also called DVB-CI) is a technology which allows decryption of pay TV channels. Pay TV stations want to choose which encryption method to use. The Common Interface allows TV manufacture ...

slot, a dual

smart card A smart card (SC), chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card), is a card used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an Embedded system, embedded integrated circuit (IC) chip. Many smart ...

reader, a

CompactFlash CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994. CompactFlash became one of the most successful of the e ...

card reader, a

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

1.1 port, and an IDE (also known as PATA) interface for attaching an internal 3.5 in

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

to convert the unit into a

digital video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR), also referred to as a personal video recorder (PVR) particularly in Canadian and British English, is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SS ...

. Accepts only 230 V AC power. Because the boot loader resides in flash memory, this model may require the use of a

JTAG JTAG (named after the Joint Test Action Group which codified it) is an industry standard for verifying designs of and testing printed circuit boards after manufacture. JTAG implements standards for on-chip instrumentation in electronic design ...

in case of bad flashing which destroyed the boot loader. However, a bad flash will occur under rare scenarios, and rarely, almost never, will you need a JTAG.

DM 5600, DM 5620

There was a DM 5600 and also a DM 5620 model. The only difference being that the DM 5620 included an Ethernet port. Otherwise, the DM 56X0 models were a cut down version of the DM 7000 without an IDE interface. They did, however, include an

RF modulator An RF modulator (radio frequency modulator) is an electronic device used to convert signals from devices such as media players, VCRs and game consoles to a format that can be handled by a device designed to receive a modulated RF input, such ...

allowing them to be used with older TVs that lack a

SCART SCART (also known as or , especially in France, 21-pin EuroSCART in marketing by Sharp Corporation, Sharp in Asia, Euroconector in Spain, EuroAV or EXT, or EIA Multiport in the United States, as an EIA interface) is a French-originated standard ...

connector.

DM 500, DM 500+, DM500HD

The DM500 is the successor to the DM5620 and is the smallest and cheapest Dreambox. It is based around an IBM STBx25xx Digital Set-Top Box Integrated Controller, featuring notably a 252 MHz

processor subsystem, hardware

MPEG-2 MPEG-2 (a.k.a. H.222/H.262 as was defined by the ITU) is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods ...

video and audio decoding and smart card interfaces. The DM500 features 32 MB of RAM and 8 MB of NOR flash memory, of which 5 MB are used for read-only firmware (

cramfs The compressed ROM/RAM file system (or cramfs) is a free ( GPL'ed) read-only Linux file system designed for simplicity and space-efficiency. It is mainly used in embedded and small-footprint systems. Unlike a compressed image of a convention ...

and

squashfs Squashfs is a compressed read-only file system for Linux. Squashfs compresses files, inodes and directories, and supports block sizes from 4 KiB up to 1 MiB for greater compression. Several compression algorithms are supported. Squashfs is ...

filesystems), 256 kB by the boot loader and the rest by a writable

jffs2 Journalling Flash File System version 2 or JFFS2 is a log-structured file system for use with flash memory devices. It is the successor to JFFS. JFFS2 has been included into the Linux kernel since September 23, 2001, when it was merged into th ...

filesystem. It has the standard features of a free-to-air (FTA) satellite receiver, plus extensive

Fast Ethernet In computer networking, Fast Ethernet Ethernet physical layer, physical layers carry traffic at the nominal rate of . The Classic Ethernet, prior Ethernet speed was . Of the Fast Ethernet physical layers, 100BASE-TX is by far the most common. ...

networking connectivity and a single smart card reader. It does not feature a 7-segment LED display, normally found in other FTA decoders. Also has the ability to be used on Digital satellite, cable and terrestrial broadcasts (also known as DVB-S, DVB-C, DVB-T). The DM500+ model has 96 MB of RAM instead of 32, and 32 MB of NAND flash instead of 8 MB of NOR flash. This makes it similar to the DM600 PVR model. It is only available in DVB-S versions. The new DM500HD was announced in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

on May 26, 2009. The price will be between and .

DM 7020

The DM 7020 is essentially an updated DM 7000 with 96 MiB of RAM, 32 MiB of

NAND flash Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...

(disk-like) and an RF modulator. Changes were also made on the software side, utilizing Open Embedded for the base Linux operating system. Because the flash memory of this model is not directly executable, the primary boot loader resides in ROM and can recover corrupted secondary boot loader in flash by loading from the serial port. There are some Enigma 2 (beta) images already available for this model.

DM 7025, DM 7025+

The DM 7025 is similar to the DM7020 but with the ability to add a second "snap-in" tuner that makes it possible to watch one program while recording another. It is possible to change the tuner module, selecting between any two of Satellite, Terrestrial or Cable versions. Internally, it features a

Xilleon Xilleon is a brand for a family of SoCs combining a low-power CPU with ASICs for accelerated video decompression and further functions for major worldwide broadcast networks (including PAL, NTSC, SECAM and ATSC) targeting digital television ( ...

226

system-on-a-chip A system on a chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that combines most or all key components of a computer or electronic system onto a single microchip. Typically, an SoC includes a central processing unit (CPU) with memory, input/output, and dat ...

from ATI, integrating a 300 MHz MIPS CPU core instead of the traditional PowerPC found in other models, and has 128 MiB of RAM. It uses Enigma 2, this is a complete rewrite of the original Enigma GUI, and is still going through growing pains as features that were present in Enigma are added to Enigma2. Enigma2 is

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (prog ...

-based instead of C code. The DM 7025 has the ability to decode MPEG-2 HD as well. Unfortunately, it must downconvert this to 480i or 576i to display it. The DM 7025+ model features an

Organic light-emitting diode An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in respon ...

(OLED) display instead of an LCD one, an eject button on the Common Interface slot and improved power supply.

DM 600 PVR

The DM 600 PVR is the same small size as the DM 500 but includes an IDE interface allowing to add an internal 2.5 in laptop-type hard disk drive, the box will only recognise 5600rpm drives. On the outside it adds an

S-Video S-Video (also known as separate video, Y/C, and erroneously Super-Video) is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video, typically at 525 lines or 625 lines. It encodes video luma and chrominance on two separate chann ...

output connector and an analog modem port. It is built around the same IBM STBx25xx integrated controller, but features 32 MiB of flash and 96 MiB of RAM, of which 64 MiB are user-accessible. It is possible to change the tuner module, selecting between Satellite, Terrestrial and Cable versions. There is still just one SCART connector and no 7-segment LED display, just 2 status LEDs. The provided remote control unit is the same one supplied with the 7000, 7020 and 7025 and allows one to control the TV set as well.

DM 800HD PVR / DM 800 HD se

This is essentially a high definition version of the DM 600 PVR, featuring a single pluggable DVB tuner ( S/ S2, C or T), a 300 MHz MIPS processor, 64 MiB of

Flash memory Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...

, 256 MiB of RAM and room for an internal

SATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard ...

2.5 in disk. It also features one DVI to HDMi Cable, two

2.0, one

eSATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard ...

and one 10/100 Mbit/s

interfaces. It has an

OLED An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in respon ...

display. DM 800HD se was introduced in late 2010. The main differences of the DM800HD se compared to the DM 800HD are a 400 MHz MIPS processor, a HDMI connector and a color

display. Another difference is the improved system chip in DM800se providing native DIVX support among other improvements.

DM 8000 HD PVR

This is the high definition PVR. Like the DM-7025, it supports pluggable tuner modules. In addition to High Definition, it has an upgrade for a DVD drive (slot in). And it has USB 2.0. Physically on the box it has one DVI-port, but with the supplied DVI to HDMi Cable you get HDMI video. Originally announced to become available in the beginning of 2007, its release date was pushed back. The product then began shipping on 12.12.2008. The planned features were revised as well. Originally, this model was supposed to have 128 MiB of RAM (now 256), 32 MiB of flash (now 256 MiB) and a 300 MHz processor (now 400 MHz Broadcom 7400). Other Linux-based HD receivers became available in the meantime. In June 2012, Dream Multimedia announced the discontinuation of the DM 8000 HD PVR because several electronic components are no longer available. It was also announced, that no direct successor will be developed since Dream Multimedia is already working at "Project Goliath".

"Project Goliath"

"Project Goliath", announced in June 2012, is supposed to be a possible successor of several Dreambox models. According to Dream Multimedia, it is a "totally new hardware and software product, combining all the features of the successful Dreambox series, and indeed will go beyond that".

Alternative firmware and plug-ins

The factory-installed distribution on the Dreambox is mostly available under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

(GPL) and uses standard Linux

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

's, including ''Linux DVB API'' and ''Linux Infrared Remote Control'' (

LIRC LIRC (Linux Infrared remote control) is an open source package that allows users to receive and send infrared signals with a Linux-based computer system. There is a Microsoft Windows equivalent of LIRC called WinLIRC. With LIRC and an IR rec ...

). Several models (7025, 800 and 8000) use

GStreamer GStreamer is a Pipeline (computing), pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows. For instance, GStreamer can be used to build a system that reads files in one f ...

as a multimedia framework. This configuration encourages enthusiasts to modify its functions, particularly in the form of so-called images.

Plug-ins

There are also many third party addons and plugins available that will extend the functionality of the Dreambox. Some plugins are model specific, while others run on all boxes. Plugins such as Jukebox and SHOUTcast playback, also external XMLTV guides, a

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

are available, and a

VLC media player VLC media player (previously the VideoLAN Client) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source, software portability, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media Server (computing), server developed by the Vide ...

interface for on demand

streaming media Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a Computer network, network for playback using a Media player (disambiguation), media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of Network packet, packets from a Server (computing), ...

. Games are also abundant like

Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...

and

Tetris ''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...

. In addition, unofficial third-party conditional access software modules (CAMs or emulators) are widely circulated on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

that

emulate Emulate, Inc. (Emulate) is a biotechnology company that commercialized Organs-on-Chips technology—a human cell-based technology that recreates organ-level function to model organs in healthy and diseased states. The technology has applications ...

the CA systems developed by NDS (

VideoGuard VideoGuard (sometimes referred to simply as ''NDS''), produced by NDS, is a digital encryption system for use with conditional access television broadcasting. It is used on digital satellite television systems – some of which are operated by ...

), Irdeto,

Conax Conax develops television encryption, conditional access and content security for digital television. Conax provide CAS technology to pay TV operators in 85 countries. The company has offices in Norway (headquarters), Russia, Germany, Brazil, t ...

Nagravision Nagravision (or Nagra Kudelski or simply Nagra) is a company of the Kudelski Group that develops conditional access systems for digital cable and satellite television. The name is also used for their main products, the Nagravision enc ...

Viaccess Viaccess is a conditional access system developed by Orange S.A. There are six versions in use today, Viaccess PC2.3, Viaccess PC2.4, Viaccess PC2.5, Viaccess PC2.6, Viaccess ACS3.x/Prime Sentinel, Viaccess ACS4.1, Viaccess ACS5.0, and Viaccess A ...

and other proprietary vendors. Some Dreambox owners use these ''softcams'' in conjunction with

card sharing Card sharing, also known as control word sharing, is a method of allowing multiple clients or digital television receivers to access a subscription television network with only one valid subscription card. This is achieved by electronically sharin ...

software to access pay TV services without a subscription card inserted in every connected box. This practice may be illegal in some jurisdictions and third-party software for this purpose is neither officially endorsed nor supported by Dream Multimedia and voids the official warranty.

Clones

Clones of the DM500-S are wide spread. As a result, Dream Multimedia introduced the DM500+, with changes to try to prevent further counterfeiting. Clones also exist of DM500, DM800, DM800se and DM800se V2 built around the same commodity IBM SoC chip and hence having identical or slightly superior features they are also sold without the Dreambox brand name (e.g., the Envision 500S, with 48 megabytes of RAM instead of 32, also available in a 500C cable version, the Eagle box or the Linbox 5558, or Sunray DM800se). They have a retail price approaching that of non-Linux receivers, generally a fraction of the Dreambox 500 price. Since they contain a copy of the copyrighted original DM500 bootloader program, the legality of these devices is questionable. In April 2008, Dream Multimedia allegedly introduced a time bomb into their latest flash to disable the boot loader on counterfeit models. An unofficial firmware group called Gemini who used the latest flash drivers in their firmware, found that flash corruption would be caused on clone DM500-S receivers. Other developers of unofficial firmware groups would find boxes to be affected by this if they use the latest drivers, providing another time bomb is to be introduced.

References

External links

Dream Multimedia GmbH

Codeproject Open Source FTP Downloader for Dreambox

Open Vision image
{{Home theater PC (application software) Satellite television Set-top box Television technology Digital video recorders Linux-based devices