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Dreambox DM7000: Hackable DVR
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."
http://dvr.sourceforge.net/html/main.html
Now I can be super l33t and hax0r my TV and record all the p0rn.
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
The back of the unit looks like it has 2 Scart-interfaces. I guess this is the PAL version? Do they make one with S-Video and/or composite video inputs?
Dreambox software is partial GPL the kernel modules which drives many devices are closed source and developed by IBM... IBM was the company defending the GPL open way? err...
What a flash-back
Look, it's pretty simple:
1. Jennifer Garner of Alias has lots of super-cute freckles.
2. Those super-cute freckles are only visible on the local HDTV broadcast.
3. This box doesn't do HDTV.
Luckily, there is an ATSC receiver card that's for Linux only that does do HDTV. And Jennifer Garner. And her super-cute freckles. And yes, it's quite hackable, and source is included.
'nuff said.
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.
http://dvr.sourceforge.net/html/main.html
Please use the A tag, Linux's copy and paste mechanism SUCKS, and its a PAIN IN THE ANUS to copy and paste URLs that havnen't been hyperlinked.
US-centric?
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Does sound like a great box to play with though...
Each vendor has their own proprietary encryption format (for the content) and will only work with QPSK and QAM headend equipment that they manufacture. There is very little unencrypted content on CATV networks as digital service is generally an extra charge service. You also need to be provisioned in their billing system.
I suspect that the hackability of this unit stops at controlling the behavior of the device. I would be very surprised if anyone managed to receive free pay services the way those who built sync inverters, tone strippers, etc to receive free analog pay channels.
Please let me know if anyone has success!
This sounds like the absolute Slashbot's dream. I can just see the engineers who designed this lurking on an Ask Slashdot forum on "What should the ideal set top box be capable of?"and writing down the system features list from user comments.
* It should run Linux, of course.
* It has to connect to my PC so I can write all those recorded movies to DVD-R.
* Oh yeah, and a satellite or cable decoder, so I can HAX0RS it and "share" free movies and stuff.
* And I'm sure the hard drive won't be big enough, so I should be able to put in a much bigger drive.
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds
If so, what sort of a connection would be available?
. It can store video on an internal hard drive (not included),
$400 without a harddrive!? Can't you build a small AMD PC for the same price, with a 80GB hard drive?
Anyway, it seems interesting. I'd be interested if I was more sure of it's capability. I keep seeing things come out that do a few things here and there. They're a pvr or they can play multiple media types, or they are software and you have to build the hardware, but I still haven't seen something that is built on linux so can be improved and upgraded, functions as a PVR, plays movies from the hard disk, plays DVDs, can do surround sound and hdtv, can play music and sort it in multiple ways, can generate, save, and play music off of playlists, can be used to store, catalog, and show pictures. Plays well with windows and linux computers on the network and is a single package, (no do-it-yourself. You can just plug it in and start using.) I think the first person to come up with such a device at a reasonable price, (say 650ish) is going to get really popular really quick. Get the early adopters, start to whittle away at the price, and finally there is something new that every home theater needs.
I do security
"Your DVD player is readily and easily modifyable to illegally recieve our signal, decrypt it, and use it as a replacement for our and other recievers. Your buisness is illegal, we'll sue.".
The cards are on the table, lets see if they bluff or if they throw down their hand.
Candy-Coated Knowledge
The Dreambox can also quite easily be fittet with software that lets a user share his decoder-smartcards over the internet (600000 users can share one card simultaniously). The Dreambox is a fuly user-customisable decoder, with few/nonexistant restrictions of what you can implement.
Case..... $100
AMD Processor $100
Motherboard $100
512 MB ram $100
80Gb hard drive $150
Linux Distro $50 (or $50 in bandwidth bills if you want to apt-get shit)
Total : $600! Conclusion! SHUT UP NERD!
-----
Case & 350W PS $50
AMD Processor $70
Motherboard $60
256MB ram $40
80GB HD $80
Linux CD $8
Total: $308
-----
Now add a TV tuner for ~$50, NIC for $10, and mouse/KB for $15 and you have a complete PC that you can use for DVR, email, browsing, writing, music, etc for the same price as this box.
I know just what's going to happen to this...
"Your DVD player is readily and easily modifyable to illegally recieve our signal, decrypt it, and use it as a replacement for our and other recievers. Your buisness is illegal, we'll sue."
Alternatively they could embrace it - by licensing a manufacturer to make a closed (and sealed) plugin to hold a smartcard (or whatever), manage authorization messages from the downlink, and decrypt the signal.
This would be an especially good move for Dish Network (which doesn't have the bad blood from DirecTV's attack on purchasers of smartcard programming devices). Make this available and any Linux users still on DirecTV would likely switch - either immediately or as soon as their minimum committment with DTV expired - and DTV can whistle trying to get 'em back. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
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
And the majority of cost is for phone time not for the data that is downloads (ignoring the cost of software upgrades).
If everyone used home network connections to dial in, the monthly fee could drop by quite a bit. That's why some of the other boxes out there (some versions of Replay) required a broadband connection to function.
It's AMAZING how much it costs to provide a local dial in number throughout most of the US.
plus-good, double-plus-good
People with sufficient electronic knowledge have been known to keep track of a given "scene" - this one being that of the obvious. Their time may be considered that time which one would dedicate to any hobby or perhaps in some cases it is professional time which their employer allows them. To pay or not to pay? To me that's rather a foolish question. If THEFT of services is not an issue then why should I pay? Who puts out the information? Every component within a device is normally spec'd somewhere by it's manufacturer. As I said - it usually takes a pretty smart electronics type (of which I am not) to really dig into this type of thing. But once that hard part is done, the word gets out and blam - it might even show up here on /. right!
OR:
This entire article is a direct violation of the DMCA and you are a party to it by simply having read the article. I would be extremely paranoid if I were you particularly because you left a comment, and your IP number has been permanently stored. The "authorities"TM will be asking for your identification soon.
Only if you live in Europe. Unlike the US, they have standards for receiver boxes, so people can make generic boxes for any service.
Dish and DirecTV have proprietary delivery mechanisms and lock out all receiver equipment that they haven't agreed too. And they exert that control in great detail.
Of course, that makes it easier for their tech support people....
plus-good, double-plus-good
From http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/Bereiche/Produkt e/DM7000_featurelist.php
USB:
USB 1.2 connector
Uh... I've never heard of USB 1.2. Can someone shed some light on this mysterious standard? Also, is it full speed, high speed, ultra-high speed or l33t speed?
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
I was intrigued but wanting more information.
Also, I notice Comcast is finally doing HDTV feeds. How do HDTV cards handle that? I assume they don't include software/controls for handling channel switching easily. (I recognize that the box that is the topic of this article doesn't support HDTV)
The one thing I found unfortuanate, is that it looks like it only accomodates a 2.5" hard drive.
While they work fine for notebooks, they do not have the capacity of 3.5" HDDs, nor the speed, nor the durability you want in something that is going to be spinning constantly for long periods of time. Even though I appreciate the power savings, I wouldn't use 2.5" in anything unless it's meant to be mobile, and that's obviously not the case with this thing.
Not that it matters too much to me. I'm here in NTSC-land, so I'm not even a potential customer for the DVB device.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
For the majority of readers who are not hackish, that means that having hacked it, you can make it do cool stuff that the original designers not only didn't think of, but never would have in a million years. It's even better if the next regular release does that stuff too.
I'll be flamed for saying this, but I hope this $400 Linux DVR goes no where... except down in price. Call me when it hits $199.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
between a PVR and a DVR?
I think too many acronyms are being thrown around here.
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
Your new to Slashdot aren't you? This is news for nerds! And its stuff that matters, what matters more to nerds then how to hack a new DVR?
Nowadays you'd have to buy a TiVo clone from - lets say Toshiba - a sytem thats upgradable to full TiVo service. Those come without the monthly fee.
There are now also DVD video recorders that offer free "Tivo Basic" service. This includes 3 days of program info, TV pause, timer recording, but lacks some of the fancier features like season passes and wish lists.
ANyone know if it has access to program guides? Does it take it from the digital cable stream? Does it need a subscription? Or, is it just "dumb" like a VCR?
How about Tivo features like "record all Star Trek Enterprise" shows...?
I'd love one... if it has these features!
MadCow
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
Thanks. I didn't know there were any.
I can think of plenty of good hacks for this thing that don't involve content-ripoff.
Just think: A SHAREWARE/OSS Market for Television. i.e., apps start springing up that are designed specifically to help you manage your television viewing experience.
I'd like to write an app which strips the laugh-track, for instance. Does this thing have the DSP for it?
Why? Because when you strip the laugh track, you can peer directly into the propaganda and social agenda of most modern television shows without being distracted by 'hilarity'... and when you do that, you start to see television in a very, very different way.
I'd like to write that app, for sure. Could this thing do it, maybe not, but the point is - not all hacks are designed to 'pilfer' content...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
But hackers are releaseing their own versions, which support almost all types of subscription cards (via2, seca2, irdeto, crypto, conax etc.) in the built in card slots.
The scrambling systems are also completely hacked, so there is a software cam and software card in the firmware, and you can receive all hacked channels for free (need no CAM, no card). If you don't have management keys, just go to the internet key update menu, and update the keys in 2 seconds and continue to watch.
Ohh, and there is also a feature where you can share your subscription card over LAN or WAN with a couple of friends.
This with any 'hackbox' seems to be missing the ability to do the same thing a $49 box can do:
Record two shows at once, while playing back a 3rd from it's HDD.
I know people want to "hack a PVR"*** but really, when the most basic of features are missing, it's not really worth all the fuss. Especially not worth the money they are charging.
Yeah, it runs Linux. I've got several PC's doing that now, and they do what I need them to do. I've also got a UTV PVR that does more than these over-priced things will ever do due to the dual tuners and native support for DTV compression.
You can get an Xbox to play games on (even tetris). A PC to run Linux on (tetris runs well on this, too!). Your best bet is to get a PVR with the right credentials to make the most of your home theater.
I say this because I have a friend who's got a buddy with a 1st generation Tivo. All I ever hear is "he runs Linux on it, he can access the files over the network and view/archive them on his PC, etc" -- What good does all this do when the Simpsons are coming on but you feel like watching Dragonball Z? With a single tuner you are giving up one of them.. Anyway, who wants to archive TV anyway? It'll all be reruns you'll never watch soon enough anyway. I can't imagine anyone wanting to watch the same TV show more than one or two times, ever. I always thought it was funny when people would record programs on VHS, then have them around taking up space for the next 10 years and never watch them again. Same goes with this, except you are wasting DVDR/CDR media and hard drive space.
For the price of this thing w/ a 60 gig hard drive, you could buy a good dual tuner system, an Xbox + mod chip, and still have money left over to donate to your favorite Open Source project.
*** - It's no longer hacking your PVR when installing a HDD amounts to about the same effort as installing in a PC.