DBox2
Encyclopedia
The DBox is a DVB satellite
and cable
digital television
integrated receiver decoder (set-top box
). They were distributed widely for use with Pay television
channels. The DBox-1 was the first DVB-capable receiver to be produced and distributed in large quantity.
It was commissioned by the Kirch group's DF1, an early German
provider of digital television that later merged with Premiere
. The hardware was developed and produced by Nokia
though later also produced by Philips
and Sagem
under license. It also enables the receiver to store digital copies of DVB MPEG transport streams on networked filesystem
s or broadcast the streams as IPTV
to VideoLAN
and XBMC Media Center clients.
The combination of third-party developers and network connectivity which facilitates card sharing
, makes DBox2 (and the DBox2 based Dreambox
) use particularly common among enthusiasts and those who intend to obtain services without payment
. Third-party software for this purpose is neither officially endorsed nor supported by Dream Multimedia and voids the official warranty; however, unofficial web sites support a very large community of enthusiasts.
In 2001, following the bankruptcy
of Kirch Media, production of the D-box ceased. However, there continues to be a large number of devices traded second-hand (often using online auction sites) and fairly high prices are paid because of the ability to gain services illegally without payment. For this reason, there are also a significant number of, mostly German language, web sites and forums devoted to the devices.
has been available for the predecessor of the Dbox2, the Dbox. This was DVB98 (later DVB2000), developed by a single programmer. Despite programming the hardware directly using machine code, DVB2000 is superior in many respects relative to the original software.
For the DBox2, an effort was created to port the Linux
operating system. This is now the most popular choice. Installation involves first putting the box into its debug-mode, a mode intended for internal development. It is then possible to take a backup copy of the original operating system (including vital micro-code images for the MPEG decoder chipset) and flash an image based on Linux to the device.
In addition to the Linux kernel and drivers, a significant amount of code is needed to allow the DBox2 to function as a digital receiver. This code is all maintained under a single open-source project - TuxBox. There is, however, a choice of user-interfaces that can be used, the most popular being Neutrino and Enigma. Enigma is also used on the Dreambox
.
The Dbox2 has grown in popularity among home hobbyists due to the ability to use softcams to enable it to decrypt channels without the need for the physical access card
to be present in the box, or with the use of a pirated
key, without any card at all.
Originally DBox2 use and development was limited the Germany and Austria, the market area of Kirch Media. Enthusiast groups outside Germany have however developed localized software versions for the DBox2 in Finland
and the United Kingdom
, usually buying their boxes over eBay
.
" module can be attached to the internal com port
(disabling the internal modem
) to enable the card reader
s to support multiple conditional access
cards. Software support exists for many CA systems, including Conax
used in Scandinavia
The DBox2 does not have a hard disk
or other internal storage. Modules have however become available for attaching IDE hard drives and SATA
hard drives and MMC
and SD
flash memory card
s. Support for these is included in some software distributions.
An infrared keyboard is optionally available. Originally, the dBox was designed as a "multimedia terminal", with applications such as pay-per-view ordering, e-mail, and home banking in mind so support for a keyboard was a design consideration.
DVB-S
DVB-S is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Satellite; it is the original Digital Video Broadcasting forward error coding and demodulation standard for satellite television and dates from 1994, in its first release, while development lasted from 1993 to 1997...
and cable
DVB-C
DVB-C stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable and it is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable...
digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
integrated receiver decoder (set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
). They were distributed widely for use with Pay television
Pay TV
Pay television, premium television, or premium channels refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by both analog and digital cable and satellite, but also increasingly via digital terrestrial and internet television...
channels. The DBox-1 was the first DVB-capable receiver to be produced and distributed in large quantity.
It was commissioned by the Kirch group's DF1, an early German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
provider of digital television that later merged with Premiere
Premiere (pay television network)
Sky Deutschland AG, branded as Sky, is a German media company which operates the first pay television platform in Germany and Austria, offering several channels of digital content via satellite and cable....
. The hardware was developed and produced by Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
though later also produced by Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
and Sagem
SAGEM
SAGEM was a major French company involved in defence electronics, consumer electronics and communication systems.In 2005, Sagem merged with SNECMA to form SAFRAN...
under license. It also enables the receiver to store digital copies of DVB MPEG transport streams on networked filesystem
Network File System
Network File System is a network file system protocol originally developed by Sun Microsystems in 1984, allowing a user on a client computer to access files over a network in a manner similar to how local storage is accessed. NFS, like many other protocols, builds on the Open Network Computing...
s or broadcast the streams as IPTV
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...
to VideoLAN
VideoLAN
VideoLAN is a project that develops software for playing video and other media formats across a local area network . It originally developed two programs for media streaming, VideoLAN Client and VideoLAN Server , but most of the features of VLS have been incorporated into VLC, with the result...
and XBMC Media Center clients.
The combination of third-party developers and network connectivity which facilitates card sharing
Card Sharing
Card sharing, also known as control word sharing, is a method of allowing multiple clients or digital television receivers to access a subscription television network with only one valid subscription card...
, makes DBox2 (and the DBox2 based Dreambox
Dreambox
The Dreambox is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial and cable digital television receivers , produced by German multimedia vendor Dream Multimedia.- History and Description :...
) use particularly common among enthusiasts and those who intend to obtain services without payment
Pirate decryption
Pirate decryption most often refers to the reception of compromised pay TV or pay radio signals without authorization from the original broadcaster...
. Third-party software for this purpose is neither officially endorsed nor supported by Dream Multimedia and voids the official warranty; however, unofficial web sites support a very large community of enthusiasts.
In 2001, following the bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
of Kirch Media, production of the D-box ceased. However, there continues to be a large number of devices traded second-hand (often using online auction sites) and fairly high prices are paid because of the ability to gain services illegally without payment. For this reason, there are also a significant number of, mostly German language, web sites and forums devoted to the devices.
Linux on the Dbox-2
Since 1997 an alternative operating systemOperating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
has been available for the predecessor of the Dbox2, the Dbox. This was DVB98 (later DVB2000), developed by a single programmer. Despite programming the hardware directly using machine code, DVB2000 is superior in many respects relative to the original software.
For the DBox2, an effort was created to port the Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating system. This is now the most popular choice. Installation involves first putting the box into its debug-mode, a mode intended for internal development. It is then possible to take a backup copy of the original operating system (including vital micro-code images for the MPEG decoder chipset) and flash an image based on Linux to the device.
In addition to the Linux kernel and drivers, a significant amount of code is needed to allow the DBox2 to function as a digital receiver. This code is all maintained under a single open-source project - TuxBox. There is, however, a choice of user-interfaces that can be used, the most popular being Neutrino and Enigma. Enigma is also used on the Dreambox
Dreambox
The Dreambox is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial and cable digital television receivers , produced by German multimedia vendor Dream Multimedia.- History and Description :...
.
The Dbox2 has grown in popularity among home hobbyists due to the ability to use softcams to enable it to decrypt channels without the need for the physical access card
Conditional access
Conditional Access is the protection of content by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to this content...
to be present in the box, or with the use of a pirated
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
key, without any card at all.
Originally DBox2 use and development was limited the Germany and Austria, the market area of Kirch Media. Enthusiast groups outside Germany have however developed localized software versions for the DBox2 in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, usually buying their boxes over eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
.
Hardware upgrades
A "MultiCAMConditional access module
A conditional access module is an electronic device, usually incorporating a slot for a smart card, which equips an Integrated Digital Television or set-top box with the appropriate hardware facility to view conditional access content that has been encrypted using a conditional access system...
" module can be attached to the internal com port
Serial port
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time...
(disabling the internal modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
) to enable the card reader
Card reader
A card reader is a data input device that reads data from a card-shaped storage medium. Historically, paper or cardboard punched cards were used throughout the first several decades of the computer industry to store information and programs for computer system, and were read by punched card readers...
s to support multiple conditional access
Conditional access
Conditional Access is the protection of content by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to this content...
cards. Software support exists for many CA systems, including Conax
Conax
Conax is a global technology company that provides conditional access solutions for digital television. Based in Oslo, Norway, Conax has subsidiaries in the USA, India and Germany and sales & support offices in Russia, Singapore, China, South Korea, Brazil, and Canada.- Overview :Between 1986 and...
used in Scandinavia
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
The DBox2 does not have a hard disk
Hard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
or other internal storage. Modules have however become available for attaching IDE hard drives and SATA
Sata
Sata is a traditional dish from the Malaysian state of Terengganu, consisting of spiced fish meat wrapped in banana leaves and cooked on a grill.It is a type of Malaysian fish cake, or otak-otak...
hard drives and MMC
MultiMediaCard
The MultiMediaCard is a flash memory memory card standard. Unveiled in 1997 by Siemens AG and SanDisk, it is based on Toshiba's NAND-based flash memory, and is therefore much smaller than earlier systems based on Intel NOR-based memory such as CompactFlash. MMC is about the size of a postage...
and SD
Secure Digital card
Secure Digital is a non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Card Association for use in portable devices. The SD technology is used by more than 400 brands across dozens of product categories and more than 8,000 models, and is considered the de-facto industry standard.Secure Digital...
flash memory card
Memory card
A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles...
s. Support for these is included in some software distributions.
An infrared keyboard is optionally available. Originally, the dBox was designed as a "multimedia terminal", with applications such as pay-per-view ordering, e-mail, and home banking in mind so support for a keyboard was a design consideration.
See also
- DreamboxDreamboxThe Dreambox is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial and cable digital television receivers , produced by German multimedia vendor Dream Multimedia.- History and Description :...
- HDHomeRunHDHomeRun-General Details:There are currently 4 HDHomeRun models on the market: a single-tuner ATSC/clear QAM model, a dual-tuner ATSC/clear QAM model, a dual-tuner commercial ATSC/clear QAM model, and a dual-tuner DVB-T/unencrypted DVB-C model. All models are designed to receive unencrypted digital...
- Monsoon HAVAMonsoon HAVAMonsoon Multimedia is a company that sells video streaming and place-shifting devices that allow consumers to view and control live television on PCs connected to a local network or from remotely from a broadband-connected PC or mobile phone....
- SlingboxSlingboxThe Slingbox is a TV streaming media device made by Sling Media that encodes video into the VC-1 format for transmission over the Internet and provides an infrared blaster. The video encoding and IR blaster can both be operated remotely over the Internet...
- LocationFree PlayerLocationFree PlayerSony's LocationFree is the marketing name for a group of products and technologies for timeshifting and placeshifting streaming video. The LocationFree Player is an internet-based multifunctional device used to stream live television broadcasts , DVDs and DVR content over a home network or the...