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Dreambox DM7000: Hackable DVR

Posted by michael on from the soldering-iron-not-included dept.

An anonymous reader copies-and-pastes "The Dreambox DM7000 from Dream-Multimedia-Tv (DMM) is a $395 Linux-based digital radio and digital TV (DVB) satellite (or cable) receiver with digital video recorder (DVR) functions and PC connectivity. It is implemented using IBM's STB04500 set-top box chipset, which provides the necessary DVB functions like transport stream demultiplexing and MPEG2 decoding inexpensively. A minimalistic, GPL'd Linux-based software implementation has made the DM7000 popular with Linux programmers and TV device hackers."

3 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Death to TiVo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Another nail in the coffin of TiVo and their fucked business model. Even if this box doesn't offer all the functionality, it's just the tip of the iceberg of the no service fee required PVRs that are on the way out.

    1. Re:Death to TiVo by sl0ppy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      even though it costs them nothing when you use it

      how does it cost them nothing? let's break it down:

      o guide information has to come from somewhere. in tivo's case, they outsource

      o bandwidth for guide information needs to come from somewhere, also outsourced

      o upgrades, bug fixes, and new versions of the OS need to come from somewhere. things still cost money

      it's obvious that it costs them nothing to me, how about you?

  2. Or, hack your TiVo - A challenge is more fun.. by jkeegan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This looks like it has potential, but it still comes with a huge downside - the device isn't a TiVo.

    There's a reason that TiVo is the most popular. The user interface is a pleasure to use. A lot of the fun of hacking your TiVo is that you're making that cool box better..

    Plus, there's something unexplainably more-fun-than-it-should-be about modifying a device that wasn't designed for it..

    If you want to play around with this but still want to be able to enjoy a great DVR, consider buying a TiVo to hack instead (or hacking the TiVo you already have).

    Might I also humbly sugest picking up a copy of the book Hacking TiVo , which ships next week. (In all fairness, I am the author, so I might have a bit of a bias). You can also go to the web on your own to find everything, but this acts as a nice guide from your initial tinkering through to the development of your own hacks.

    Hacking this device instead could definitely be interesting - it's just sad that you'd be stuck using it if it was your only DVR.

    --

    ..Jeff Keegan
    seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo