Friday, May 15, 2009

Dreambox HD


Every once in a while something comes along that really impresses me, my Blackberry was one of them, Virtual Machines another, my WD 1 Terabyte Mybook and now dream box HD has just been added to that list.
The dream box is a Linux based set-top box with a MIPS processor, a Satellite card , gigabit Ethernet card, USB slot digital audio out and DVI / HDMI out .(dependiing on the model you buy)
connected to a motorized satellite dish, you can receive thousands of Satellite channels available under the Sky, as you can imagine , there is no shortage of choice of channels,
The HD channels I must say are awesome to watch, and by installing an internal 500GB Sata drive, you can pause live television, and record 77 hours of HD television in HD.
Were the Dream box comes into its own, is the pluggins that are available for it, and the fact that it is a Linux O.S connected to your home network and the Internet, means that it easily serves as a HD media center for all of your Multimedia content. and the possibilities are endless. My current setup allows me to stream television to every PC or Laptop in my house, I can change channels from the web interface available to every PC laptop in my house, my dream box also accesses my WD 1 terabyte Mybook drive were all my HD home video is stored, as well as all my digital pictures, which I can now enjoy in the comfort of my lounge in full HD and in 5.1 surround sound. My MP3 collection is now served up to my HiFi set and my Media tomb UPnP stream is also accessible via the Dreambox. I can access my dreambox from a blackberry, veiw the program guide and setup a recording from a Blackberry or any 3G phone.
the dream box has been the missing link that I've been waiting for that has made complete media convergence for the home in HD now easy to achieve.
the dreambox 8000 HD can take up to 4 tuners , which means you can record 3 different channels at the same time whilst watching a 4th, provided they are all on the same Satellite.
Now to find the time to do anything Else.