Dreambox : How to

1 Introduction :

For many years, I've been into TV broadcasting via satellite. I started out with analogue TV in D2MAC format. For a
couple of years now, the satellite world has been changing and switching over to digital broadcasts in the DVB-S
format. The first satellite receiver (Set top Boxes, AKA demod) generation had to be rented from satellite TV channel
providers. Such hardware "featured" low quality components, with very slow zapping speed, quite ugly OSDs, no
digital audio output, poor reception sensibility, low quality MPEG2 decoding and a locked firmware, that only your
provider could update (whenever they felt like it). A few low priced digital receivers also appeared, but they were often
not (entirely) compatible with the special services satellite TV providers offered (e.g. Electronic Program Guide AKA
EPG, Pay Per View AKA PPV°etc.).

The second generation of satellite receivers was equipment like the Xsat 310/410 and the Aston Xena series, which
opened the door to the Of-The-Shelves Set Top Boxes (STB), independent from providers, compatible with official
decryption cards. Such devices would allow you to reconfigure the position of each channel, manage favorites from
your PC and even flash firmware with a serial cable.

Today, we can get the 3rd generation of settop boxes. The Dreambox is one of the popular 3rd generation boxes.
Based on a powerful IBM PowerPC (not PC !) with an MPEG1/2 hardware decoder, this box is FULLY open, with an open
source Linux operating system. The Dreambox not only offers high quality video and audio, but also has a variety of
connections to the outside world: Ethernet, USB, PS2, Compact Flash and two Smartcard readers. The box can handle
any dish configuration, an unlimited number of channels or satellites, has a very fast channel scan, allows for direct
digital recording, etc. To receive encrypted channels, you need the proper decryption card from the appropriate
organization and a PCMCIA CAM which supports your card. Alternatively, you can load a firmware that enables the
built-in smart card readers to handle your decryption card. As the Dreambox is more a computer than a consumer
electronic device, it can hang some time and it takes a bit of time to learn how to use its full potential.

1.1 Target audience of this tutorial

The goal is to provide you with a guide to have your Dreambox fully running with a first software image, and set up
multiboot, allowing you to test different software combinations. This includes a working network, and channel setup (both
free to air and encrypted ones).

1 Introduction : 5 Image Example : MisterX installation

1.1 Target audience of this tutorial 5.1 Basics
1.2 Equipment Needed 5.2 Emus
5.3 Config Customizations
2 : Installation
2.1 Dish Positioning 6 Digital Video recording & Playing
2.2 Satellite & Channel Configuration 6.1 Recording on Dreambox' HDD or PC's HDD
2.3 Network Configuration 6.2 Playing back on PC
6.3 Playing back on DVD Player
3 : Operational basics 6.4 Other Formats
3.1 Basic Communications 6.5 Broadcasting over the LAN
3.2 Editing channel lists and favorites 6.6 Playing DivX and other formats on the Dreambox
3.3 Flashing an image
7 Conclusion
4 : Multiboot from HDD or USB memory stick 7.1 Tips & tricks
4.1 HDD multiboot setup 7.2 Final words
4.2 USB memory stick multiboot setup
4.3 Managing Images

1.2 Equipment Needed

A Dreambox !

The first Dreambox DM7000 revision suffered from several hardware problems,
solved in the 2nd revision of the V1 (except for a limited power supply). The v2 is a
modified V1 revision2 (2 extra capacitors have been added to the power supply).
Both revisions have a blue LCD display.
V3 has a new PCB that includes corrections for the power supply, plus perhaps other
minor, undocumented changes. V3 has an Amber LCD and a serial number
3xxxxxxxx.
I personally bought a box from a German site (Dreambox MK4) but cannot find any
documentation about this version. It seems it just a revision 3 unit.

- A Harddisk to integrate into the Dreambox : Not Mandatory. I personally have no disk. Harddisks create more noise
and use more power. You can begin without a harddisk and buy one later anyway. Be aware though that you cannot
use every type of disc.

- A USB memory stick 128 Mb : Highly recommended if you have no harddisk, and mandatory to use this guide. I use
a Dane-Elec one, USB2.0, which causes no major compatibility problems. Just be wary that several USB key have write
protection turned on by default, and need to be unlocked under Windows with a special software provided by the
manufacturer.
- A Null modem serial cable is highly
recommended. It allows you to still access
the Dreambox if flashing fails or if you kill
the network.
You can buy such a cable at a store, or you
can build one on your own. Use a good
shielded cable that is not too long. The cable
shouldn't be longer than 2 meters,
recommended is 1 meter.

- A PC with a 100 mbit/s Ethernet card. You can connect your PC directly to the Dreambox using a crossover Ethernet
cable, or connect both PC and Dreambox to a hub/switch using regular Ethernet cables.

2 : Installation

2.1 Dish Positioning

This step is only necessary if your satellite dish has not been set up yet. It is a quite involved procedure, so you might
want to get somebody who has already installed a satellite system before to help you, or buy an installation and
mounting package from the place you got your setup from. If you think you're up to doing it by yourself, here's how.

2.2 Satellite & Channel Configuration

I assume that your dish is now installed and working. At the first boot of your Dreambox, you have to choose your
language, Time Zone and then your dish configuration: Basic (one LNB/One dish), Medium (several LNB/Dishes with
DiseqC switching), or complex (a motorized unit). Then you need to add at least one satellite.

Now it's time to scan at least one satellite for channels. The Dreambox has an impressively fast scan, based on a XML file
containing all transponders available on the chose satellite. Keep in mind that it is normal if some transponders do not have
any digital channels, as several are still used for analog broadcast, or temporary feeds. Press the blue button to access next
page :
 Press the
blue
button,
then select
automatic
scan, then
the
progress
screen will
be shown:

2.3 Network Configuration

Now, it's time to configure the network. Press the small dream
Button on the remote, then select Setup - Expert Setup -
Communication Setup.

I suggest to use 192.168.0.24 for the Dreambox as more and more

OS images have this value built-in. Set the Gateway to the IP
address of your local Internet gateway (usually 192.168.0.1 if you
have a router or do Internet connection sharing from your primary
PC). Set the Netmask to 255.255.255.0. Note that if you use a
residential gateway (DLS or cable router), then your IP addresses
will be in the 192.168.1.x range and you have to assign the
appropriate IP to your Dreambox. The netmask stays the same, but
the gateway will usually be 192.168.1.1.

The Name server to be used is the one you use for your PC, once
connected to Internet.

If you are currently not connected to the Internet, establish a connection now and then go to the Start Menu, select
run, then type “command” for windows 98 computers and “cmd” for windows 2000 & XP. Then type "ipconfig /all" to
get a listing of the configuration of all your network interfaces. Note the two DNS Servers as marked in the screenshot.
Also, make sure that the IP address for your Ethernet card is in the same subnet (192.168.0.x) as the Dreambox and
that other computers in your network can access the Internet. This requires either a hardware router (that's most
definitely the best solution and also gives you some additional security), or an active Internet connection sharing
(search google for more information on Internet Connection Sharing). Having done that, your Dreambox can now
access the Internet to download updates. To check if everything is working properly, try pinging the Dreambox:
If pinging 192.168.0.1 (in this case your PC) does not work, your PC is not configured properly. If you have a software
firewall running, try disabling it for a test, and make recheck your network settings. If pinging 192.168.1.24 (your
Dreambox) does not work even though your Dreambox is turned on and you've properly configured it, check the
cabling.

3 : Operational basics

3.1 Basic Communications

Once the network is all set up, we will initiate a and an ftp session. Telnet is the old fashioned way to access a remote
computer. It only supports commandline applications. To establish a Telnet connection, go to the start menu, select
run and type "telnet 192.168.0.24". When asked for a login, it's root and the password is Dreambox.

To establish an FTP connection to your box, use your favorite FTP client or the commandline FTP Windows provides
(it's the same procedure as with telnet, but instead of "telnet 192.168.0.24" you type "ftp 192.168.0.24". Both login
and password are the same as for telnet).

3.2 Editing channel lists and favorites

It is now time to import the list of satellites and channels we have previously created. The best way to do this is using
DreamboxEdit. Install this software and launch it. Then click on the FTP icon, and enter a directory to save your
channels and favorites. Then click on Receive Files from Dreambox, and after a few seconds, all your channels are
listed in DreamboxEdit. In the rightmost part of the window, you can create and sort your TV and radio favorites, and
add channels by dragging and dropping selections from the leftmost part to the center partfrom. Sorting is available as
well, by any criteria you like.
To send your changes back to the Dreambox, click on the FTP icon, then click on send to Dreambox. After the upload is
complete, click on reload settings on Dreambox, and all the changes will be visible on your Dreambox.

To access your Favorites, just press the up or down arrow on the remote, then the blue
button, then navigate and then OK. To move between channels of the selected User-
bouquets, just press left or right. Here's an example of a list of favorites:
3.3 Flashing an image

It's time now to start working with "images". I refer to a piece of software that contains the operating system and
applications to watch TV, record, etc. On other equipment (Divx standalone player, other set-top-boxes, DVD burner
etc. ) we speak about firmware, but in the Dreambox world, the term image is commonly used. A Dreambox image
contains the Linux operating system for the hardware, and applications to watch and record TV.

You can download the latest official image from the Dreambox manufacturer website. The most recent version as this
guide is written, is v1.07.4, and should your Dreambox have a lower version, you should definitely upgrade as the
multiboot plugin 1.3b requires this version. To flash the image, you can use the dreamUp software (available from the
manufacturer) using a serial cable(safe but slow), via LAN (not recommended) or using the root.cramfs method. The
last method, the author's preferred one, involves uploading the image to the /tmp directory on your Dreambox via
FTP, then rename it to root.cramfs, then go to the setup menu of your Dreambox, select Software Update, then
manual update.
Make sure you use the proper image, or you risk turning your Dreambox into electronic junk that has to be sent back
to the manufacturer. To erase all personal settings of the previous image in the flash memory (don't do this when
multi-booting from an USB stick), press the up and down buttons on the Dreambox when the boot logo is on screen. A
"Flash erase" message will appear on the LCD, then the Dreambox will reboot. If your Dreambox should freeze during
the process, press the 3 buttons on it to reset the device, or just remove the power cable.

Now you're basically ready for recording. If you're interested in setting up a multiboot environment (to be able to
switch from multiple firmware images), and see an example of a custom image installation, just follow the links in the
text.

6 Digital Video recording & playing back

6.1 Recording on Dreambox' HDD or PC's HDD

All you have to do to start recording is press the two buttons shown below:.

In case you have the on screen display enabled, you'll see a flashing red case once the device is recording. When the
device is recording, you can use the timeshift feature: Press the yellow button to pause playback (recording will
continue), then press the green button to resume when you're back from making more popcorn (or whatever).
However, the timeshift feature is not working perfectly yet. The author found the timeshift feature to be working
properly on the Gutan fat image.

To play back recorded streams, go the file mode, select your file and press OK to play it.

6.2 Playing back on PC

Installing the Elecard decoder should enable you to view the .TS files in your favorite media player. Alternatively, you
can use VideoLAN. VideoLAN is really easy to use, stable and has no problems reading TS files.

6.3 Playing back on DVD Player

As digital TV uses the same compression format as DVD, what is more logical than to put your TV recording on a DVD?
The process involves cutting out the commercials, and author a DVD. Doom9 has written a nice guide on the subject.

6.4 Other Formats

You can obviously convert your recordings into any other formats. If you want to create an SVCD I suggest Doom9's
DVB to SVCD guide, for DivX/XviD conversions I suggest Doom9's DVB to DivX/XviD guide.

6.5 Broadcasting over the LAN

It is possible to broadcast video over the LAN using DreamTV. It is also possible to use VideoLAN or Wingrabber for
this purpose. A guide on this subject is forthcoming.

6.6 Playing DivX and other formats on the Dreambox

The Dreambox hardware is not capable of handling more complex streams than MPEG-2. However, it is possible to
have your PC do an on-the-fly DivX to MPEG-2 conversion and stream this to the Dreambox. This requires a powerful
PC, and the quality will be sub-par as DivX to MPEG-2 conversion always results in a visible loss of quality.

7 Conclusion

7.1 Tips & tricks

To reboot the Dreambox, press the 3 buttons on the front of your Dreambox.

The Dreambox can play MP3 and Ogg Vorbis audio files, and create a slideshow from images located on the Dreambox
harddisk, USB memory stick or Compact Flash cards. These plugins are available on many images through Internet
download, directly from the Dreambox menu. If you put a CompactFlash card into the Dreambox, it will automatically
be mounted as /hdd ont he boot time, so be careful when activating a swapfile.

Pressing the blue button while watching TV will give you some information about the encryption used, and give you the
option to choose the appropriate emu. Certain images will store the selected emu for each channel.

If you point your webbrowser to the IP address of your Dreambox (192.168.0.24 in our case), you can change
channels remotely and access EPG.

7.2 Final words

Well, I spent quite a bit of time writing this all down and I hope you'll find this guide useful and easy to follow. I'd like
to thank people who create Dreambox images like Gutan, RUdream, MisterX, SandBox, Hybrid, Hydra, NedKelly, SF
team, DBF, Ahaustria, Neutrino, PeterPan and others. Thank you for making the Dreambox such a wonderful toy. Many
thanks also to all EMU coders.

I'd also like to encourage you to donate to people who provide tools for the Dreambox for free.

Thanks to people of the Sat-Industry Forums and Dreambox Net Australia to help me getting started with the
Dreambox.
Congrats to the SandBox Team, who runs a French site & forum & created the great sandbox image.
Special thanks to Doom9 to clean up my frenglish style and for his great reference site.

Written by Klona on
17/02/2004,
This Guide shall not be published without my explicit authorization.
Version 2.2 built on
So far, Doom9 and and Klona's Place are the only authorized publishers.
03/04/2004