Dreambox 500C in India

[raulb]

Hi Guys,

I have spend the last week trying to understand Dreambox and boy is it complicated and I am pretty familiar with tech. This has by far been the most time consuming distraction since I started mucking about with Linux ages ago. I found this forum 2 days ago and it seems it has most of the answers I need. I have been all over the place and read hundreds of forum posts and the information is scattered and difficult to understand for a newbie.

I am not really a TV buff and honestly hardly watch it nowdays, the more I think about why I am spending so much time on this the more I realise how much of a time waster over useless hacks I don't really need I have become.

I have both satellite and digital cable TV. I am located in Pune, India. I recently got the cable set top box which is a Dizipia 33001R with IRDETO ZETA Version 5.3. I got in into my head to build a PVR but all the outputs are analog which doesn't make much sense. After a bit of research the only way to capture digital output would be something like a Tecnotrend DVB-C cable card/Skystar DVB-C card with considerable hackery or a stb like dreambox. That was a week ago and I am pretty exhausted trying to understand dreambox.

I don't want to share the card or get cable for free or anything like that, I want to use the IRDETO card to get the cable I am subscribed to through the dreambox so I can capture the mpeg streams for the few programs I watch nowdays but mainly I have to confess because of the novelty of the hack. I am just fascinated by the possibilities.

There is no way for me to get a genuine dreambox here, I have located a local source who will sell me one but I suspect it will be a chinese one for around 80 pounds. I know I have to get a Gemini image, 4.1 or 4.2 (4.3 will destroy the box apparently) and use some sort of combination of emulators and readers to read the irdeto card and descramble the digital channels.

Most of the folks here seem to have custom gemini images with known transponder ids and cable.xml files for UK which I will not have because this is in India, and a relatively new cable service. The only information I have is they are using irdeto zeta V5.3, the CAS card is type 0606, the physical card has a 11 digit number starting with 4026. I also suspect the box and card are paired. I also get these sets of information while surfing for different bouquets in the EPG for instance 434.0/6900 256QAM, 386.0/6900 64QAM, 418.0/6900 256QAM. I have tried to get the boxid but not succeeded so far.

The main problems I see is since this is a new service how do I find the channels without the cable.xml file. Second the Dizipia STB may be paired, I did see some card pairing information messing abut with the menus while looking for the boxid which I couldn't' find. And third will the dreambox accept the irdeto zeta card. Most of the forums I have read say that its possible with a combination of tools like emus but what about the keys that are regularly updated and available for instance for UK cable users online with 'toolbars' and such. (Do I have to use an emu if I don't want to cardshare and just use my physical valid card- can't I just slip it into the dreambox)

I would really appreciate any help from you guys in figuring out whether I will be able to use Dreambox 500c to receive the qam encrypted digital cable channels before I spend money getting the Dreambox and more time trying to make it work with the card.


Thanks a ton
Raul

[kagon]

Hi Guys,

I have spend the last week trying to understand Dreambox and boy is it complicated and I am pretty familiar with tech. This has by far been the most time consuming distraction since I started mucking about with Linux ages ago. I found this forum 2 days ago and it seems it has most of the answers I need. I have been all over the place and read hundreds of forum posts and the information is scattered and difficult to understand for a newbie.

I am not really a TV buff and honestly hardly watch it nowdays, the more I think about why I am spending so much time on this the more I realise how much of a time waster over useless hacks I don't really need I have become.

I have both satellite and digital cable TV. I am located in Pune, India. I recently got the cable set top box which is a Dizipia 33001R with IRDETO ZETA Version 5.3. I got in into my head to build a PVR but all the outputs are analog which doesn't make much sense. After a bit of research the only way to capture digital output would be something like a Tecnotrend DVB-C cable card/Skystar DVB-C card with considerable hackery or a stb like dreambox. That was a week ago and I am pretty exhausted trying to understand dreambox.

I don't want to share the card or get cable for free or anything like that, I want to use the IRDETO card to get the cable I am subscribed to through the dreambox so I can capture the mpeg streams for the few programs I watch nowdays but mainly I have to confess because of the novelty of the hack. I am just fascinated by the possibilities.

There is no way for me to get a genuine dreambox here, I have located a local source who will sell me one but I suspect it will be a chinese one for around 80 pounds. I know I have to get a Gemini image, 4.1 or 4.2 (4.3 will destroy the box apparently) and use some sort of combination of emulators and readers to read the irdeto card and descramble the digital channels.

Most of the folks here seem to have custom gemini images with known transponder ids and cable.xml files for UK which I will not have because this is in India, and a relatively new cable service. The only information I have is they are using irdeto zeta V5.3, the CAS card is type 0606, the physical card has a 11 digit number starting with 4026. I also suspect the box and card are paired. I also get these sets of information while surfing for different bouquets in the EPG for instance 434.0/6900 256QAM, 386.0/6900 64QAM, 418.0/6900 256QAM. I have tried to get the boxid but not succeeded so far.

The cable.xml file is really just a shortcut to get people up and running quicker. Given that you know the frequency and symbol rate pairing and the modulation for your cable network it should be easy to manually scan for channels using those particular settings.

434.0/6900 256QAM is for example:

6900 symbols per second at 434MHz using quadrature amplitude modulation with a 256 point data grid.

The main problems I see is since this is a new service how do I find the channels without the cable.xml file. Second the Dizipia STB may be paired, I did see some card pairing information messing abut with the menus while looking for the boxid which I couldn't' find. And third will the dreambox accept the irdeto zeta card. Most of the forums I have read say that its possible with a combination of tools like emus but what about the keys that are regularly updated and available for instance for UK cable users online with 'toolbars' and such. (Do I have to use an emu if I don't want to cardshare and just use my physical valid card- can't I just slip it into the dreambox)

You don't have to use a softcam/emu per say but you do need a cam daemon to interact with the Irdeto Zeta smart card as *something* needs to actually speak to the card and get it to decrypt the channels. As I recall from previous research into which cam daemons support what, cccam does a good job of supporting the Irdeto Zeta.

I would really appreciate any help from you guys in figuring out whether I will be able to use Dreambox 500c to receive the qam encrypted digital cable channels before I spend money getting the Dreambox and more time trying to make it work with the card.


Thanks a ton
Raul

Hope that was helpful. I'm sure if I've left anything out or got anything wrong one of the other forumites will swoop in to correct me.

[raulb]

Thanks kagon, that was really helpful. I have all sorts of information in my head from all the reading but since I don't have the Dreambox yet not verified. Good to know I am somewhat on the right path. What about this box pairing business? And why do the UK guys need constantly updated keys I read about in some forums?

At the moment the cable operator has just shifted to digital and is a relatively small operation limited to some parts of Pune. There is no pay per view or VOD, he just broadcasts everything including NVOD and HD channels and everyone can receive it, though he now has the technology CAS has not yet been implemented.

[jimbo69jones]

CCcam with a default config should allow you to use your original card no problems. On the UK sky system, CCcam will allow a sky card to operate, and will write the necessary keep alive codes back to the card. The reason people keep needing keys is when they are decoding channels for which they do not have a valid subscription card.

I think your safe to get the dreambox and give it a whirl. The fun is in the learning

With regards finding transponders, you could always do a brute force scan, or seeing as though you have a reference frequency, (someone correct me if i'm wrong here, I don't have cable) but you could manually scan in 8mhz increments and add those frequencies later on into your own cable.xml file.

You'd be wanting to do regular scans anyway as new services come and go all the time on most cable systems.

Hope that is useful

[raulb]

Ok that's settled then. I have ordered the thing, should be here in a few days. Should I go for Gemini 4.2 or DW 2.1, which it seems is tailored for UK cable and the Dreambox 500 C and may be better?

Glad I found this place, it seems because of some legal issues even legit cable related info is very difficult to find and though I located this forum earlier in my search I unfortunately just started reading it 2 days ago, having spent a long long time on at least 10 or more sat related forums and getting lots of complicated information on other things with emus and stuff.

But its been quite fascinating getting this info all the same. However just reading this forum would have done it for me and be less time consuming and easier to understand the issues. Thanks guys.

[jimbo69jones]

Should I go for Gemini 4.2 or DW 2.1, which it seems is tailored for UK cable and the Dreambox 500 C and may be better?

Don't put the latest Gemini image on there or you'll corrupt the box. DM have taken steps to deactivate clone boxes, so be warned.

I reckon you'll be grand with DW. It has pretty much everything you need in there.

[krazylegz]

i wouldnt put gemeni on at all m8. you will need a emu to read the card, mgcamd1.30 with newcs1.50 will read it so will CCcam, CCcam is the easies to get running tho

[raulb]

Thanks for the heads up, that sort of info can be critical to keep someone from destroying their box. You guys and this forum have been really helpful. I read the 4.3 Gemini bombs the clones, that would be harsh even it came from the manufacturer, but from third party developers inexplicable and unnecessarily vindictive. One would think a warning would suffice.

Apparently Gemini 4.2/4.1 are ok but I am going with DW 2.1 as per the members consensus here so that doesn't matter. I have version 2.0 but 2.1 is proving more difficult to get hold of, a search in the usual places dreambox stuff has returned zilch. Hoping someone here can pm me a link.

Is there any a particular emu that works best for Irdeto Zeta 5.3, from my reading so far it appears just for using the card on a single box Scam is good, but people seem to prefer cccam for functions beyond that. I also read about evocamd, newcs and mgcamd and most of the stuff goes over my head at the moment, perhaps once I start using the box I will get a clue. Any insights here?

[krazylegz]

if you have a official card which you said you have m8 just use CCcam its the easiest to get working

[foxhill]

dw 2.1 image

well I am also in search of DW2.1 image
b great if anyone can send to me pls.

yeah.. sounds funny when u say its fun in learning.
mostly ppls here for some reason not for fun from my experience with DM. I found eur vox much easier to fix and much support for them.
may b I m novice here, but would like to know which box is better erovox or DB?
thanks

[krazylegz]

dreambox is a far superior box to a eurovox m8. a eurovox is easier to set up and get going but has limited 'things' it can do

[kagon]

"Better" really is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to these things. As krazy has already said, the Dreambox is a far superior technical platform but the Eurovox is easier for a novice to get running. To each his own really. It all really comes down to what you want to use the box for and whether or not you treat it as just a device or a hobby.

[Curious123]

well I am also in search of DW2.1 image
b great if anyone can send to me pls.

yeah.. sounds funny when u say its fun in learning.
mostly ppls here for some reason not for fun from my experience with DM. I found eur vox much easier to fix and much support for them.
may b I m novice here, but would like to know which box is better erovox or DB?
thanks

Try this post if you are after an image.

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3189&page=2

I have had Eurovox and a dreambox and it is really dependant on your requirements. If all you want to do is plug it in and watch tv than Eurovox is your best bet. The dreambox has a lot to offer but some people just don't need everything so there is no point in complicating things unecessarily.

[kagon]

Keeping in mind the vast range of retail pricing what'd a Eurovox set you back? 100 GBP? 200 GBP?

[foxhill]

Hi guys
Thnks for replies
yeah I agree that it really matters what are u upto.
i sorted out eurovox with much ease comapred to Drmbox. my worse experience with DB was ftp settings, I was able to connen one DB500c to my pc via ftp using DCC2.6. and made it work. but then 2nd DB is nightmare I never able to connect it to my pc via ftp using DCC2.6. I believe I m doin basic mistake.
I m looking trough all other related posts, so
hopefully I ll sort out soon with the help of all u guys.