Handle With Linux

This is the Dreambox, a Linux powered price winning digital television receiver. While it may not look like much at first, wait till you hear what special features it supports (some unofficially) .

Dream multimedia, the german company selling these devices sells several different Linux powered satellite and digital cable television receivers.

The software running on the Dreambox was originally developed for the DBox2 a device distributed by KirchMedia for their pay TV services. The bankruptcy of KirchMedia flooded the market with unsold boxes which was great for Linux enthusiasts who could get the Nokia manufactured devices at greatly reduced prices. The current dreambox models are still based on this hardware design.

Looks are ok, features rock!

The back of the HD model

Here comes the good part

This device is a Linux computer and its firmware is officially user-upgradable, this means you are actually expected to hack this thing. But it's not just a Linux computer it's a full featured multimedia machine which also happens to run Linux. Some models support PVR functionality and as you can easily run a fully functional remote shell, you are in control from wherever you are.
All models have full network support and this allows for features like streaming IPTV to VideoLAN and XBMC clients. Digital receivers use a conditional access system for decrypting of pay-tv channels, the Dreambox modules support Dream multimedia's own DreamCrypt system but there's software emulation possible of many other conditional access systems. This means you can decrypt television channels and stream the content over the network.

Wait, it gets even better!

The feature I believe this system is most popular for, is not officially supported it even breaks your warranty and is not promoted by Dream multimedia. Unofficial third-party conditional access software modules (CAMs or emulators) are widely circulated on the Internet that emulate the CA systems developed by VideoGuard, Irdeto Access, Conax, Nagravision, Viaccess and other proprietary vendors. Many Dreambox owners use these softcams together with special software for card sharing. Card sharing is when you buy one card for pay-tv and share de decryption codes generated by the card over the network. This allows for watching the pay-tv channels on other systems not equipped with a card. While this practice may be illegal in some jurisdictions, it's obviously very popular.

Plug-ins

There are lot's of third party addons and plug-ins available for the dreambox, which make new functionality available and turn the device in to a real geek dream machine.

official features

Here are some of the official features of the High-definition top model:

Main features are a 400 MHz processor the dreambox DM 8000 supports the Linux TV API

* MPEG-2 / h.264 decoding
* 10/100MBit compatible Ethernet Interface
* DVD support
* Twin-DVB-S2 tuner
* optional DVB-C or DVB-T
* mixable, plug & play
* big size OLED display

small, but powerful this little baby

Technical data

* 400 MHz MIPS Processor
* Linux Operating System
* brilliant big-size OLED - Display
* MPEG-2 /H.264 Hardware decoding
* TWIN DVB-S2 tuner
* 2 x Plug&Play tuner sockets
optional for DVB-S, DVB-C or DVB-T
* 4 x DVB Common-Interface Slot
* 2 x Smartcard-Reader (Dreamcrypt CA)
* V.24/RS232 Interface
* Integrated Compact Flash and SD Card Slot
* 10/100 MBit compatible Ethernet Interface
* 3 x USB 2.0 (1 x front, 2 x back)
* S/PDIF Interface for digital bit stream out (AC-3)
* 2 x Scart-interfaces
* S-Video
* YPrPb (Component)
* DVI
* Audio/Video cinch out
* 128 MByte Flash, 256 MByte RAM
* 2 x integrated SATA
- support for internal HDD 3,5" in any capacity
- support for SATA SlimLine DVD
* embedded WiFi (Mini-PCI device inl. antenna)
* unlimited channel lists for TV/Radio
* channel-change time < 1 second
* automatic service scan
* directly bouquet-lists
* EPG (electronic program guide)
* Videotext Decoder
* multiple LNB-Switching control (DiSEqC)
* OSD in many languages and skin-support

more info at the dream multimedia site