Dreambox DM800 HD se

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april 2011

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Dreambox DM800 HD seCould the successor to the DM800 HD be the world’s smallest self-contained PVR?

Just over two years ago, Dream Multimedia launched its DM800 HD – a hi-def receiver into which a 2.5in hard drive could be fitted, thereby

turning it into a single-tuner pVr. We were reasonably impressed with the overall

functionality of this compact unit, which occupied much the same volume as a large paperback. running the popular Enigma2 firmware, its replacement capitalises on two years of technology progress. a key difference to its predecessor is that the processor has been upgraded from 300MHz to 400MHz, which should aid responsiveness. The OlED display has been upgraded to colour, and you now get a ‘true’ HDMi port instead of DVi.

Appearance and connectivityin other respects, the two receivers are very similar. The

DM800 HD se is slightly larger than its predecessor (225mm x 145mm x 52mm) although both are rounded off with near-identical glossy frontages. as only a standby button is provided, you’ll need the UEi-made handset (which is also compatible with many brands of TV) to operate the unit. The presence of that tiny display, which is bright but can only be read close up, does allow you to sequence through radio stations without having to power up your TV. Under a flap is the twin card-reader – which, by default, supports the Dreamcrypt conditional access system. With different firmware or plug-ins it could support different CaMs; no Ci slot is present.

The DM800 HD se is powered by an external 12V mains unit. an advantage of this separates approach is cooler running, and that the receiver could be powered from a suitable 12V DC source – a moot point for

Enigma2 offers a fair degree of flexibility in satellite scanning but stops short of allowing PID entry or blind search. We hope plug-ins will follow

Enigma2 enables recording and timeshifting to eSATA or SATA-connected drives. It’s a shame you can only obtain single-tuner cards at present

EPG data can be displayed for one channel at a time or you can see what’s on several channels in the same time slot. Recordings can be set up here

n www.dreamboxshop.co.uk n SMS, 01276 20916 n £429 (no HDD)

The OppositionIcecrypt S4000 n This significantly cheaper pVr is twin-tuner and with a 320GB HD pre-installed (can be bought without one). linux-based and multi-CaM but plug-in support comparatively limited

AZBox Premium HD+ n linux-based, twin-tuner and networking at a similar price. Firmware can be replaced by ‘port’ of Enigma2 but few plug-ins at present

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FeaturesNo. LNB inputs: 1LNB loopthrough: NoDiSEqC: 1.0/1.1/1.2/USalSNo. channels: Firmware/plug dependent (64MB flash memory available)Selectable FEC: YesSymbol rate: 1-45,000Blind search: NoLinux: YesCAM: Dreamcrypt. Emulation of others possible with third-party firmwares/plug-insCommon interface: NoneTeletext: DVB decodedEPG: DVB now-and-next and 7-dayTimer: limited only by available memoryHard drive: Optional (internal 2.5in or external via eSaTa/USB) UHF modulator tuning: N/aSoftware upgrade: USB/networkData ports: Ethernet, 2x USB, mini-USB (firmware only), eSaTaVideo output: TV Scart (composite/S-video/rGB/component), HDMiAudio output: Stereo audio via Scart, optical digital audio (Dolby Digital bit stream-compatible), HDMi

travellers. That said, there’s a quiet top-mounted cooling fan whose running speed can be changed in the setup menus.

The single tuner, as before, is pluggable. You get a single DVB-S/S2 tuner which can be

replaced with a digital terrestrial or cable one. indeed, Dream supplies a replacement rear-panel for this very eventuality. What a pity that the included satellite tuner lacks the loopthrough output of the original DM800 HD – that surely ranks as a downgrade?

The limited rear panel space bristles with connectivity. it’s possible to switch the (single) Scart output between composite, S-video, component (up to 1080i) and rGB – all accompanied by stereo audio. Then there’s HDMi, which is recommended for the best results with modern displays. in addition to the usual modes (720p/1080i – no 1080p here) are resolutions optimised for pC monitors. if for some reason you don’t want to install a hard drive inside the machine, operation with external drives is allowed. To this end, we’re provided with an external SaTa (eSaTa) terminal and two USB ports (the latter cannot be used for recording). a third mini-USB port is intended solely for ‘service’ functions like firmware upgrades – the rS232 port of the old DM800 HD is gone. Finally, we have Ethernet, an analogue modem jack and a digital audio output.

setup installing a hard drive is a five-minute job – not least because only a single power/data connector needs to be plugged into your 2.5in SaTa drive, which screws to an

LNB input

Mini USB service port

HDMI port

‘A key difference to its predecessor is that the processor is upgraded from 300MHz to 400MHz to aid responsiveness’

internal bracket. as mentioned, the DM800 HD se is preinstalled with the Enigma2 firmware. a series of wizards painlessly guides you through the process of installing the receiver. They cover language, TV system, time zone, initial dish/DiSEqC configuration and searching for channels – all parameters that can be modified later if desired.

a key advantage of the Dreambox/Enigma approach is its plug-in architecture. There are many of these, serving a range of different applications. among those included out of the box is a handy test-pattern generator to help you optimise display contrast and brightness. another is dedicated to positioners. indeed, the DiSEqC capabilities are good; in addition to 1.2, this receiver supports USalS and simple 1.0 switchboxes. all of the usual controls for dish movement are present.

Searching can cover single transponders or complete satellites – you can also tell the receiver to search for all channels or just FTa ones. There’s also an included satfinder plug-in that boasts large signal strength/quality bar graphs for the chosen transponder.

Manual searching facilities are somewhat sparse; although FEC can be modified, Enigma2 doesn’t allow piD entry. also regrettable is the lack of blind search. it’s a pity that no plug-in yet exists for this. automated multiple-satellite searches are, however, permitted.

Other menus cover different aspects of configuration. in the aV menu you can choose various resolutions, refresh rates and aspect-ratio defaults – lip-sync, audio modes and upscaling sharpness are also adjustable here. Then there are functions like parental-control, plug-in-installation, user-interface customisation and readying (formatting) the HDD for recording.

Basic useas with other Enigma-based receivers, channels are arranged in lists known as bouquets. These are accessed in a channel selection menu, from which the list can be sorted alphabetically, by satellite/provider bouquets, or ‘favourites’. it’s easy to modify bouquets according to preference. after selecting a channel, pressing the ‘info’ button yields an EpG-derived description of the current programme. a cool feature here is that you’re alerted to ‘similar broadcasts’, depending on the available EpG data.

Talking of which, an EpG (another plug-in) which

Ethernet port

Modem input

Optical digital audio output

DC power switch

eSATA port

Tech DataFTA scan, Astra 1: 4m 15s

FTA scan, Hot Bird: 5m 56s

Full scan, Astra 1: 2m 16s

Full scan, Hot Bird: 5m 16s

Power consumption: (with mains power unit) in use: 17W (11W in media player mode with HDD – tuner presumably turned off)Standby: 10WCommon interface supports: N/a

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12V DC supply inlet

2x USB 2.0

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supports now-and-next and seven-day schedules, is also accessible from here offering two modes. The first focuses on one channel’s schedule, while the other allows you to see what multiple channels are offering within a given time slot. if the relevant EpG data is in the machine, the name of the programme currently being broadcast by the channel is presented adjacently – together with a running-time ‘bar graph’. recordings can be scheduled via the EpG – manual timer programming and ‘instant’ recording are offered as alternatives.

PVR and multimediaWith one tuner on board, you can watch and record different channels provided that both are on the same transponder. in the channel list the restricted number of available services are highlighted. Not as flexible as a full-blown twin-tuner pVr, but worthwhile, nevertheless. When a recording is in progress you can view either this or an existing one – the ‘video’ button displays the list of available recordings. Timeshifting is engaged by pressing pause; playback can be resumed at your convenience, and the transport controls used to skip ads.

another of the included plug-ins is a powerful media player. Content stored on USB media can be played – or you could transfer multimedia files across to the HDD via FTp. another plug-in adds network browsing/file streaming. it may be compatible with a wide range of content that includes DivX/XviD, MpEG, mkv/x.264 and Mp3 audio, but the media player isn’t perfect.

Some content doesn’t fill the screen because it’s being displayed at native resolution, and there’s no zoom function. Quite unintuitively, a separate ‘pictureplayer’ plug-in is required for photos. Moving back to the positives, another key advantage of Enigma2 is the web interface plug-in. Channels can be remotely selected from here – you can also start or stop recording, access EpG info and schedule timer events. if you have VlC Media player installed on your computer, then you can remotely view the currently tuned channel in a window.

Existing recordings stored on the external HDD can

also be streamed or downloaded via the network – even while the machine records another programme. Other plug-ins cater for a wide range of possibilities. among them are YouTube, internet radio, video editing, Google Maps and aV sync adjustment. However, we couldn’t manually install any from the relevant ‘manage extensions’ menu and none of the currently available plug-ins will synchronise the receiver’s clock to a user-defined TV channel or internet time server. That’s a pity, because the review unit’s clock ran so spectacularly fast that its timer was close to useless. it gained a shocking 20 minutes overnight!

PerformanceShoddy timekeeping, recalcitrant plug-ins and media playback scaling issues apart, the DM800 HD se performed well. as with the DM500 HD, the tuner reliably held onto channels from astra 1x and Hot Bird. Not much of an issue, you might think, but the test in question involved a 45cm dish, multi-lNB and weather that was less than ideal. The user interface, menu system and channel selection were all found to be

very responsive – a benefit of the faster processor. Searching was reasonably fast,

although there were occasional pauses. We suspect that there’s a connection with DVB-S2

services here. aV quality, from SD and HD channels, is excellent – especially via HDMi n Martin Pipe

A huge variety of plug-ins are available online, including YouTube and Google Maps. Some, such as a Satfinder and web interface, are pre-installed

The Media Player plug-in handles many of the most popular file formats. You can also transfer files from networked storage devices

Recordings are accessed as a list giving the show’s name, summaries and date and time. A web interface plug-in allows for remote viewing on a PC

VerdictWith its faster processor, less erratic behaviour, genuine HDMI port and colour front-panel display, this ‘se’ is an improvement over the original DM800 HD in all respects save the sacrificed loopthrough output and annoying glitches that can, we hope, be tracked down to a sample peculiarity. We’re particularly taken by the potential customisation that’s available with plug-ins. Then there’s the unparalleled Linux networking functionality, such the web interface, and streaming and file-transfer capabilities. If Dream Multimedia were to work magic and cram a dual-tuner onto one of those plug-in cards, then our most significant criticism – that the DM800 HD se is rather expensive for what is, after all, a single-tuner PVR – would be addressed.

The remote is familiar from previous Dreamboxes

RatingsPLUSn Networking functionality/plug-in potential n Strong AV qualityn Very compact self-contained HD PVR n Responsive in use

MINUSn Refused to manually install plug-ins n More memory needed for plug-ins/satellitesn No hardware blind search

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