Newsgroup: it.hobby.satellite-tv
Titolo: DREAMBOX

In the previous part we discussed the first impressions with beta image 04,
in this part we take off with beta image 05 and 06.
Last week I flashed beta image 05 onto the box, and this didn't seem to be
working good. Some bugs were still present, and some new ones came up. Some
of the games were removed, and there were more problems with the CI support;
my Aston 1.05 wasn't recognised, but inspite of this it still worked.
Resetting the CAM took quite some time, and the message "Module Found" froze
on the screen.
During zapping the channels, the decoding process seemed to take some more
time, (the image vibrates during and a few seconds after zapping) and Dutch
Canal+ Blue and Red didn't work anymore. Very strange, since Canal+ 16/9 is
working fine.
Except for some incidental "hangs" of the box, the Dreambox worked quite
good. On several boards I've read many problems and dissapointments of
others, but I had nearly any problems. I organised the usual channels into
the favourites section, and zapping among these there were no problems. (we
only had to miss C+ for a week)
Today (25-11-2002) the first rumours about the finishing of beta 06 arrived.
The duch distibutor indicated on a board that the rumour is true, and that
the beta is on his way, and that all CI's exept for the Aston 1.03 were
working fine with this beta.
This gave me some good hopes on C+, because I've been waiting a while on
Tombraider (the movie, I hadn't had a chance to see it J )
So, I downloaded beta 06, and flashed the Dreambox using my laptop. This
went without any problems, and went nice and fast. After flashing I erased
all settings, and I could scan all transponders on the Astra 19.2E without
any problems or crashes! (this part used to crash often in beta's 04 and 05,
and made me call resetting the box with the three buttons on the front
"Control-Alt-Delete" ;-)
The first impressions with beta image 06, is that zapping works a little
faster. I noticed zapping was a little slower in 05, probably because of the
poor CI detection.
It's clear that the developers/programmers put their focus on fixing the
bugs and problems, because the missing games are still missing. Personally I
think this is a good thing, the games are a nice gadget, but to my opinion
they are absolutely useless on a hobby box such as the Dreambox. Let them
fix the problems first, the games will come later.
All things taken, this beta runs fairly good, en based on reactions of
others, many CI problems are solved. Playing MP3's looks better, and
recording works a little nicer.
There is still a long way to go, but it's clearly getting better! J Testing
is more fun this way, and it givers good hopes for the future.
To be continued,
Jeroen.

Hi,
I have installed the latest 1.02 software for the dreambox and still
have the same problem you mentioned.
At first after flashing the box works fine with 1.05 ASTON module but
after 30 minutes or so some channels fall away, several resets later
the box still has the same problems. i decided to do a channels scan,
right away i had half the channels i had before??? then after
resetting the cam and the box i could read the complete channels list
but stil have a lot of problems with viewing.
If anyone got an idea please feel free to vent it??
JP