hi i can answer part of your? dreambox is an advanced fta box. are you from nort america. fta are popular here they can get manny sat. channels. ihave a few & now testing dreambox. very complicated & not much support compared to viewsat. well hopes this help i have cp to db problems goto go.

Hi caretaker,

the Dream Settopboxes' pupose is to convert digital mpeg2 streams into analog TV signals (PAL, SECAM, etc). It is available as sat-only (DVB-S:7000, 7020), as xor (DVB-T xor DVB-S xor DVB-C(able): 500, soon also 600) or as twin-hybrid (DVB-S/C/T: 7025). Next year, there will be the 8000-HDTV (DVB2-C/T/S: 2 internal tuners + 2 plug'n'play tuners).

As I don't live in the States anymore, I am not sure whether the 500C or 7025CC would work with US cable networks. Simply go ask your cable provider or Dream Mulitmedia TV directly. They have a subsidiary in the States.

The card slots are there to accept the dreamcrypt cards. I don't believe there is a bouquet in the States that would use fire-/dreamcrypt. There are more expansion slots for mediator cards. You may have a chance to get one that would work with your cable network. I guess you need to go look for a supporter community in the States.

You don't have to connect your dreambox to your PC, but not doing it would mean you miss the point of it. The dreambox is based on linux, so you can do many wonderful things with it such as web browsing (only limited), e-mail, NAS, getting weather information. But that is a whole other story ...

Mamba

Zitat

Thanks.I live in the uk, so im not shure of the dreambox capabilities as far as the uk goes.

If you are in the UK, you can use the dreambox with DVB-T (also known as freeview) and DVB-S (Satellite FTA channels)

If you live in an area where you can have both, the 7025 model allows you to access both systems in one box. If you get only satellite, you will not be able to watch Channel4 and Five, as these are encrypted.

The big advantage of having a dreambox is that you get to record on your harddisc without having to pay a monthly fee to Sky. Plus you get to access all recordings in data, so you can turn your recordings into broadcast quality DVDs which is not possible with Sky+.

The big disadvantage is that you do not get the nice Sky EPG (electronic programme guide) so programming TV shows is a bit complicated. While you can watch BBCi interactive TV with some hassle, you can't use their menu system and interactive text. There's no CEEFAX either, as the BBC decided to drop it off satellite. You can have page 888 subtitles, though.

Programming a show means that you have to enter channel, date and times manually. You will get incorrect recording titles if you are to lazy to rename your recordings correctly. This can be blamed on the BBC + ITV as these channels only transmit proper EPG data for the running and the next showing programme. The dreambox is geared towards an European audience, where most channels provide a full weekly EPG.

I'm really happy with the dreambox. Most of my TV viewing is BBC1-4 and ITV. Being able to record those easily is worth more to me than the "stupid" expensive Sky channels. Depending on your TV habits you might not like it as much as me.