First I must apologise for asking a question that has probably been answered before, but I am unable to find answers here, and my German is not good enough to trawl through other sites. Also I wanted to ask in a Swiss focused group, so am posting here not a DreamBox related one.
I currently subscribe to Cablecoms DTV service and have the HD recorder. My words to describe that are not suitable for this forum. The EPG is slow and sometimes refuses to clear from the TV. About once a week it needs to be unplugged to reset. Occasionally we get the message that we are not subscribed to the current channel, requiring we unplug the box and walk away for half an hour. So I am not happy with the Cablecom box.
I was wondering how much of an issue it would be to switch to the DreamBox? I do think I’m a little tech savvy and a competed Linux user, but I have some questions around this.
Can a DreamBox be used with Cablecom fairly easily?
Most of the postings I have read about the box decode channels in a dubious way. Can I put my current cablecom card in the box? Or is my card tied to the current box, which would mean I need to do dubious things too?
Looking at the specs for the DreamBox 8000 it comes with two Sat receivers. So I would need to also buy a cable module. Would one of these allow recording of one channel while viewing of another, or do you need a second cable module for that?
Thanks in advance for any help, and apologies for asking such questions here.
Unfortunately, there is no legal alternative to that cablecom box. Cablecom uses a system which is not standard (don't know the exact details), but their cards will only work in their own boxes.
If you use a dreambox, crack it, install all the decryption keys, you will get most of the channels. I tried this once and I got all but the HD channels. I believe those use Nagra2 encryption which is only crackable using card-sharing. But since you can't put a cablecom card in a dreambox, I don't see any way to do card sharing. I wasn't too happy with the dreambox either though, so I ended up returning it. I had the DM800 which couldn't record one thing and play something else at the same time, so that was a major turn-off for me, and the dual-tuner dreamboxes are quite expensive.
Looking through some of the recent posts here, people are saying that their dreambox is able to play fewer channels, possibly implying that they're switching non-hd channels to Nagra2? I don't know.
The way that I solved this problem was by sending back the cablecom box, having the cable socket sealed to save 25chf/mo, then ordering Bluewin TV and I couldn't be more satisfied with my decision.
Anyone considering a DM for Cablecom today might want to wait until the new encryption is rolled out (so my mate tells me).
Nagra2, the encryption that they're moving to, is considered compromised and so you may find that it will be open for some time to come on more sophisticated linux boxes like the DM.
What you might find is the new generation of Cablecom boxes are better in the fact that they can, I believe, record two channels at once.
The one I had can record 2 channels and you can watch a 3rd. That part of it is good. Everything else about it makes you want to throw your remote control at it. It's the biggest piece of junk that I've ever had to use. Even the "info" on a show only shows a brief outline. No actors, genre, year, etc. which the SD recorder shows. No search. Frequent crashes. etc. etc. etc...
Here's a nice bug that my box had. Clicking record on any program which is not on the first page of the guide will schedule the recording, but also crash the EPG. So if schedule something to record tomorrow, you have to start all over again to see what else is playing tomorrow. SO frustrating because you can't just go through Film4 (for example) and schedule all the films playing in the coming week without having to start over after each click.
It's like they were in a hurry to get this box out and forgot to test it and add the required features.
Hello-Help-we have a dreambox and love it!! -,replaced the cablecom nitemare also -BUT-as of yesterday,nothing works .Cant use it anymore.Anyone know anything to do,retune it or something..??!! Thks,Wendylynn
DM800 plays HD channels fine, been viewing them for months.
The encryption has changed, thus your old keys dow not work. You will need to investigate this for yourself and wait for the proper keys for the new encryption to be uploaded by someone to the interweb, and then install them on your box.
Don't want to deviate from the original question in this thread but cannot help saying how complicated all this sounds just to get TV channels one needs in Digital quality!
I mean, in comparison to Germany where you don't even need a receiver at home (unless you want to record, etc...) You can plug a TV in every room and enjoy your Digital channels (think of the useless amount of DreamBox we save the world)
I often have the impression CH, in comparison to other European countries, is in stone age in the domain of Internet, Digital-TV and Telephony.
I am so glad we discuss alternatives/solutions in this Forum and appreciate the useful hints of EF’ers ;-)
Just hang in there - later this year they'll switch to CI+ and will rent out CAMs and smart-cards that can be used in any CI+ capable HD receiver / recorder: