The great Dreambox recording experiment

[rickets]

Thanks. Another flawless 600 recording, and a very long one too. I think that about settles it, and it's safe to say the 600 rocks, and the 500 sucks.

Mate here is obsessed with recording, got his hands on a 600 - said its perfect. Worth dipping into the wallet for.
Cant tell if its a recording at all.

 

[dweeb4]

Here you go - a short recording from 500 but enough to see a lot of errors.

I will do the caps mod & do another recording from the same channel. I know it's not exactly scientific as it's only one recording but if there is a significant drop in errors I think it will prove something about the caps mod

Osborne82 could you send me a larger image to make sure I'm changing the right caps - I'm sure I can identify them but it's a double check

 

[señor ding dong]

Here you go - a short recording from 500 but enough to see a lot of errors.

Yes, that's consistent with what we've seen so far.

I will do the caps mod & do another recording from the same channel. I know it's not exactly scientific as it's only one recording but if there is a significant drop in errors I think it will prove something about the caps mod.

Excellent. You're a brave man. Good luck, I look forward to seeing the results.

 

[señor ding dong]

Mate here is obsessed with recording, got his hands on a 600 - said its perfect. Worth dipping into the wallet for.
Cant tell if its a recording at all.

Yes, that's what's so good about Direct recordings, as opposed to the crappy consumer-grade compressed garbage you get from DVD recorders. The 500 should be able to produce the same results as the 600, my old Dbox2 does, but it's obvious that something isn't quite right with the 500 hardware. Hopefully dweeb4 will have some success with Osborne's fix.

 

[pt-1]

Have you guys tried the same with a FTA Image only whilst trying to record FTA.

Maybe it is the EMU that put's the extra strain on the processor....

I am a bit suprised that the low bandwidth UK recordings cause these kind of crappy recordings ...

I would Imagine that anyone in Germany trying to record ARD or ZDF would end up with a pile of crap ...

 

[osborne82]

what are peoples mount settings that are providing the recording logs for sdd ?? inparticlure what have peeps got for the "options rsize=4096,wsize=4096" as this could also affect the outcome of recordings, would be worth while getting a complete overview of peeps settings to help solv this problem

cheers

osborne82

 

[Devilfish]

Sorry for late reply Senor. Been really busy this week and will be for the rest of it.

I have a recording, just need to put it through the program. Hopefully get it up soon but the results so far seem conclusive.

 

[señor ding dong]

Have you guys tried the same with a FTA Image only whilst trying to record FTA.

It was one of the first things I tried. Didn't make any significant difference, though my own recordings with Cryo's Neutrino 0.9b image are much better than the Enigma recordings I have tried and seen samples of here, and server based recordings also seem to reduce the number of errors greatly, but still nowhere near as reliable as my old Dbox2.

I am a bit suprised that the low bandwidth UK recordings cause these kind of crappy recordings ...

I would Imagine that anyone in Germany trying to record ARD or ZDF would end up with a pile of crap ...

Yes, considering how active the German scene is, I would have thought the problem would have been more widely reported, though like I said, I have seen posts on Dream's forum complaining abut stuttering or unstable playback, which is often caused by corrupted recordings.

If there is a real difference between UK and German results, perhaos it could be explained by the often repeated suggestion that the Dreambox's tuner isn't well suited for UK cable, which certainly seems to be supported by the fact that so many people need boosters. I haven't needed a booster myself, and my recordings are considerably better than the samples posted here, even running Enigma images, but then again, boosters may seem to help people's general stability, but so far, there's no indication it has improved the recording issues.

what are peoples mount settings that are providing the recording logs for sdd ?? inparticlure what have peeps got for the "options rsize=4096,wsize=4096" as this could also affect the outcome of recordings, would be worth while getting a complete overview of peeps settings to help solv this problem

I've been playing with those settings quite a bit, and I didn't see much of a difference. I've tried the range from 512 up to 16384, though someone told me most protocols only support up to 8192.

Sorry for late reply Senor. Been really busy this week and will be for the rest of it.

I have a recording, just need to put it through the program. Hopefully get it up soon but the results so far seem conclusive.

No problem, DF. The results so far have been depressingly predictable, if not worse than expected.

 

[pt-1]

@Senor and all other users

I just spoke to Ghost from Dream and there is nothing you can do.

The capacitators are a myth !

It is the Demux Chip not powerfull enough !

PT-1

 

[Devilfish]

I take it Dream have redesigned the DM600 with a different Demuxer and that's why it's better?

 

[señor ding dong]

@Senor and all other users

I just spoke to Ghost from Dream and there is nothing you can do.

The capacitators are a myth !

It is the Demux Chip not powerfull enough !

PT-1

Thanks, I guess that's official confirmation that the 500 is a bit useless for recording, then.

Let's hope dweeb04 hasn't wrecked his yet trying the capacitators fix.

 

[dweeb4]

Ah, guys - just picked up the email from Osborne82 with pics of cap mod and was planning to do it this afternoon - are you sure about this info?

Osborne82, you seemed to report that your recordings from 500 were flawless - what do you think? The cap mod makes sense to me - as I posted before less than optimal bypassing of power supplies (that's the role of the caps) would cause Power supply fluctuation issues & unknown affects. Where does the cap mod come from? Is there a thread somewhere I missed. Would like to read some more before I go into my box (so to speak) with a hot soldering iron - it's tight in there and easy to make a mistake soldering to SMD components

 

[dweeb4]

This cap mod seems to have been around the net for awhile.

I just read the original thread from which the cap mod pictures came - they're from another site. the thread was from a DB user who's internet connection was intermittent. After the mod he seems not to have had any connection problems.

So who do we believe - Dream, the manufacturers who don't give out schematcis or technical info about the box or end users who have nothing to gain?

I'm going to try it and report my findings here

 

[frenchman]

This cap mod seems to have been around the net for awhile.

I just read the original thread from which the cap mod pictures came - they're from another site. the thread was from a DB user who's internet connection was intermittent. After the mod he seems not to have had any connection problems.

So who do we believe - Dream, the manufacturers who don't give out schematcis or technical info about the box or end users who have nothing to gain?

I'm going to try it and report my findings here

LOL, thats the spirit it's the finding out that's the fun bit, even though there is naff all worth recording it's still gota be right hehe.

Good luck.

Frenchman

 

[mullo]

recording

Hi guys I have just recorded a bit of the football on skysports at moment I played it on my daughters laptop it looks perfect picture very clear on it

 

[Ebro]

Mullo, run the test prog on you output. We need to understand how many errors you get. We know it might look good, but there will still be errors.

 

[dweeb4]

Here it is - proof positive that the caps mod works - although it's a short recording (the hour is late) - I believe that it has no errors (there is one but I don't know what it is). I will do a longer recording tomorrow.

I put two 3.3 uF Sanyo Os-con caps (low ESR i.e. good for digital PS bypassing) accross the existing 1uF SMD caps observing the correct polarity. A bit tricky but very do-able for those with any soldering skills.

So anybody that wants their DM500C modded, I'm open for business hehe.

Well done Osborne82, I never doubted you for a minute even though the inmates turned against you.

Now does anybody know how to do timed recordings?

 

[wiiman]

if it is an enigma based image then go to multi epg and press green to do timed recording. Can you up some high res pics of your mod i'm very interested in carrying out this mod, I gave up on recording to my nasdrive along time ago, I couldn't stand watching recordings that would freeze or jump every 30 bloody seconds.

 

[simonk1969]

Attached is a screen shot of the mount settings that I have on my 500, which was used to record the examples earlier in this thread.

I would be very interested in doing the capacitor mod, any chance someone could point me in the right direction for some detailed instructions ?

 

[rickets]

Here it is - proof positive that the caps mod works - although it's a short recording (the hour is late) - I believe that it has no errors (there is one but I don't know what it is). I will do a longer recording tomorrow.

I put two 3.3 uF Sanyo Os-con caps (low ESR i.e. good for digital PS bypassing) accross the existing 1uF SMD caps observing the correct polarity. A bit tricky but very do-able for those with any soldering skills.

So anybody that wants their DM500C modded, I'm open for business hehe.

Well done Osborne82, I never doubted you for a minute even though the inmates turned against you.

Now does anybody know how to do timed recordings?

Any chance of a pic of the soldering skills ?