New user: getting a dreambox in the next few days ... few Qs

[grantsmith82]

Hi All,
after doing a lot of google searches this forum came up a lot so figured it be a good site to register onto.

Over the past week or so ive been looking into dreamboxs and thinking about getting my own. i see quite a few on ebay already setup for "plug and play" with free "gift" etc..

however i would quite like to have mine from scratch so i can learn and know exactly what has and hasnt been done/programmed/ touched on it.
(though i will prob live to regret it )

after looking at the boxs i think i am set on getting the DM800SE box good recommendations, and also has hdmi out (not dvi) and seems to be a newer model to the dm800hd. However i think i will have to get a clone (they around £150 mark??) whereas original about £400 looking on ebay etc..

ideally i would have liked a box with 2 tuners so i can record one programme while watching another but i think i am looking at the 8000's or 7020hd and looking online they are about £500 ish (again out my budget)

so couple of questions....

any disadvantage of getting a clone ? (most people seem to rate them)

can someone recommend me a reliable Uk supplier? ( maybe someone can PM me some companys?)

is it possible to upgrade the box with 2 tuners (to watch one ch and record another)?

reading on tuners i see dvb-s1/s2 what the difference? and also dvb-c/t

any difference betwen dm800se and dm800 pvr?

also to start with im going to be using a fixed dish at 28e.
in regards to setting the box up and from my research i beleive i will need a image to load onto the box? as the preloaded one isnt very good
can anyone recommend a good image?

what else is required ? need to load a cam to programme a c-line into?

was also reading about sim i beleive the dm800se could come with sim 2.10 what exactly does the sim do? from what i read and if i understand correctly was it a piracy countermeasure by makers of dreambox to stop cloned box's? however this has managed to be hacked and used on clones however when dream update firmware users with clones need to wait for the update to be hacked before they can update???

any other info people can give in terms of what else i need etc would be great.
look forward to some of your replies and PMs and getting myself setup asap.

 

[halfman halflager]

if you want a twin tuner then look at the vu duo or technomate tm twin both under £300 the duo at the moment has more support both are enigma 2 like dreambox but you have twin tuner if that is what you want
do not own either box but there is subsections on forum for both models,
there are also vu duo clones on the market but there are reports of power supply issues these are around the £200 and under mark i think if you go direct to china you can get for about £160 to £170 so you have a few more choices it depends on your budget and what you want to do
personally i would stay away from plug and play with gift as these are normally the £40 500s sd clones with agift that is oversubscribed to and probably will not last a year and boxes will be password protected so you can not do your own thing unless you reflash loasing all the info that is pre installed

hope it helps

 

[jamesyboyjim]

It's good to see a new user who's done a bit of homework first if it's a reasonably priced twin tuner your after then it has to be a vu duo and if not get a dm800se clone. Once you decide then we can advise you further how to set it up


Sent from my telephone.

 

[grantsmith82]

can you recommend any websites / sellers where i can purchase either DM800SE clone or a vu duo .

 

[jamesyboyjim]

can you recommend any websites / sellers where i can purchase either DM800SE clone or a vu duo .

pm incoming!

 

[jamesyboyjim]

Tried replying to your other pm mate but your inbox is full


Sent from my telephone.

 

[grantsmith82]

just checked looks like my inbox can only hold 2 mails (i have you original PM and my sent one) is this normal to have PM box so small???

just cleared it out so u should be able to send now...

 

[IAmATeaf]

If you're going to get a vu duo then I'd recommend getting an original, you can pick one up for around £260 from amazon.de and you'd get a 2 year warranty. That's not to say the clones are bad, I myself have a duo clone but as said above some do go pop as the PSUs can be pot luck. On the clone side, I've read reports of the newer clones coming with a revised/updated PSU but somebody posted a pic of a revised PSU on another forum and I have to admit it looked very much like the one in mine.

I've also had a dm800se and a dm800hd, both clones and both were very good boxes, couldn't fault them to be honest. The only thing I would say is that if going for a dm clone then for me it would have to be the dm800se every time as it has a faster CPU and the box responds a lot better to remote control commands whereas the dm800hd can be sluggish.

 

[grantsmith82]

Hi IAMATEAF,

thanks for the info i did read about the VU PSUs thanks for the tip about trying amazon.de

from you personal experiance which would you say is a better box VU Duo or DM800SE (clone) are they both as easy to programme and setup and have support.

i did see someone on a youtube vid being able to stream his VUduo via his PS3 - pretty cool.

maybe you could pm me where you got your 800SE clone from. ideally somewhere in UK or Europe. US seems to have really high shipping charge.

 

[Abu Baniaz]

just checked looks like my inbox can only hold 2 mails (i have you original PM and my sent one) is this normal to have PM box so small???

Only for users with less than 10 posts.

 

[grantsmith82]

thanks for that.. will have to keep posting then lol

looking at the vu+duo this looks more promising for my needs dual tuner plus also has HDMI and component out so i could hook it upto a tv and a slingbox to stream to my pc/ipad. not sure how i would do it with the dm800se ( it would only be sd as there is only a hdmi) unless it does into a splitter box or something???

 

[IAmATeaf]

All my boxes have been direct from China, no point paying a premium for the possibility of maybe getting some support from a UK based supplier.

When I got my Duo I have to admit I hated it as for me the dm800se just worked but now that I've got the Duo setup and running I've sort of starting to like it. Teh clone I had also had a shockingly noisy fan which I also had to swap out whereas when the dm800se arrived it was chose an image and away you go. I've still not found a skin that I like on the Duo and am constantly trying differing skins much to the annoyance of my family.

 

[Pimpur Crack]

thanks for that.. will have to keep posting then lol

looking at the vu+duo this looks more promising for my needs dual tuner plus also has HDMI and component out so i could hook it upto a tv and a slingbox to stream to my pc/ipad. not sure how i would do it with the dm800se ( it would only be sd as there is only a hdmi) unless it does into a splitter box or something???

The clone dm800se have both scart and HDMI outputs active at the same time so you have one HD and one SD. If you wanted to get component from the scart output there are RGB to Component converters available that take the RGB from a scart and then convert and output as component. Using a splitter box to split a single source output into two source outputs could degrade the quality of the signal unless you add an amplifier.

The Vu+ Duo clone does have it's attractions including the option to load a ViX image, however, there have been a few reports of PSU problems and the Vu+ Ultima clones are supposed to be just round the corner which might affect any resale value. Personally, at this point in time I would go for the dm800se as it is an established and very well supported clone.

Whatever receiver you get, if you are going to stream it onto the internet outside of your home network you will need a decent upload speed from your ISP otherwise the quality will be poor and jerky, especially if you are thinking of streaming HD.



Cdmt
Pimpi

 

[grantsmith82]

Thanks for the advise PIMPUR CRACK, can i ask what is a vix image? i did hear VU+duo clones had unreliable PSUs. i think if i was going to go for the VU+duo i may got for an original. My broadband is on BT Infinity i get 30mb download and about 5.5mb upload. not sure if that would suffice for streaming?


IAMATEAF, is the VU+duo more difficult to setup from new? now you have used both which do you prefer overall?

 

[Pimpur Crack]

Thanks for the advise PIMPUR CRACK, can i ask what is a vix image? i did hear VU+duo clones had unreliable PSUs. i think if i was going to go for the VU+duo i may got for an original. My broadband is on BT Infinity i get 30mb download and about 5.5mb upload. not sure if that would suffice for streaming?


IAMATEAF, is the VU+duo more difficult to setup from new? now you have used both which do you prefer overall?

A ViX image is one of the more popular images and it is available for Vu+ receivers but is not available for the dreambox receivers. Your BT Infinity is fast enough upload speed for streaming, if you want to increase it, upgrade it free of charge to BT Infinity2 if it is available in your area?



Cdmt
Pimpi

 

[grantsmith82]

Pimpur Crack, dont get me started on that... lol i put the request in may to upgrade to "infinity2" 80mb service it all went through ok and i had no speed increase at all.
had bt out 2 or 3 times trying to see why looks like copper under streets in my aera is poo i only live 700 meters from the cab and from the cab to the pole it looses about 50meg. so at my pole im getting about 35mb then about 32mb in real speed.. my only hope is FTTP (and i dont live in a virgin cable area either)

 

[Pimpur Crack]

Pimpur Crack, dont get me started on that... lol i put the request in may to upgrade to "infinity2" 80mb service it all went through ok and i had no speed increase at all.
had bt out 2 or 3 times trying to see why looks like copper under streets in my aera is poo i only live 700 meters from the cab and from the cab to the pole it looses about 50meg. so at my pole im getting about 35mb then about 32mb in real speed.. my only hope is FTTP (and i dont live in a virgin cable area either)

Ah well, your current upload will be fast enough anyway. I have streamed HD in 16:9 aspect encoded in flash format and it only runs at ~1.2mbps. If you are not encoding into flash format it will probably take up more bandwidth but you should still be OK with your 5.5mb upload.

I am not sure how good a slingbox is at streaming full screen HD over the internet, I have never tried it as I always use a video capture card in a PC then encode to flash. With a slingbox you are restricted to one remote viewer as far as I am aware and not multiple viewers which might be something to consider. If it's only for your own personal viewing then the lack of multiple viewing is not a factor. I keep meaning to look around for a cheap 2nd hand slingbox to see how good they are.



Cdmt
Pimpi

 

[grantsmith82]

i guess i would use a pc/laptop to view the slingbox or maybe (reluctantly) pay £20 for the ipad/iphone app (least you can share the app with upto 5 more devises so only pay once) but poo you can only view one at a time be nice to be able to watch it on ipad and a pc at same time

 

[IAmATeaf]

For just watching TV both the Duo and dm800se clone do their job. All the while that I had a single tuner box I never really envisaged that I'd make much use of a dual tuner box but now that I have it my son always has something on record knowing that his sister or mum can't come along and disrupt the recording.

I'm using the Vix image on my Duo and did have an arse clenching moment today, the box signalled that there was an online update so I updated as I've done previously except this time the box just remained forever on starting... Had to flash the box with an old OpenPLi image before putting Vix back on to get it working again.