healeydave
Member
- Joined
- May 7, 2009
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Age
- 56
- My Satellite Setup
-
IT: 1 x iMax 27" Quad Core, 2 x iMac 24" (running OSX & OSX Server) 1 x Macbook Air
AV: MacMini Plex Media Centre, SpearNZB Episode Downloader, DM500, DM8000
- My Location
- uk
Ok, I am getting fed up with these boxes now.
If anyone wants an honest verdict on these boxes, here it is and I'll warn you, I'm not one to hold back.
Far too many people for my liking are reluctant to criticize the boxes they own, whether its to save face or an embarrassment thing, I don't know but I'm not one of them.
I have spent around £1500 on linux receivers in the last few months and they are all a pile of crap!
With the DM8000 costing around £1000, I initially felt (like a lot of people) that was taking the p**s, so i opted for one of the next most expensive boxes, the CubeRevo Twin HD (aka IPBox 9000) at around half the DM8000 price. On paper, these boxes have a great specification and indeed produce excellent picture quality when they work.
Unfortunately, the IPBox/CubeRevo have flaky software and poor emulation support as this manufacturer opted for an ST processor set. Hell, the internal card readers can't run a UK NDS card and struggle to run other cards too, so you are forced into a situation of running an external reader or Card Sharing just to get you valid local subscription card working!?!?!
So I tried to perceiver with the CubeRevo for a few months hoping the driver would be fixed to run my genuine local card, hoped for more reliability in other area's too. I could list a load of issues but to cut a long story short, I gave up and decided to cut my losses and go with a genuine Dream Multimedia box.
I had a DM500 which I used to serve up my uk NDS card to the CubeRevo through CS. I only bought that box for that purpose, but whilst I'm at it, I might as well say that although that box worked fine for doing CS, in operation, that box suffered lip sync issues after a period of time, so wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination either!
I have been the (not so) proud owner of a DM8000 for a few weeks now. The software does appear to be a bit more stable on this box but for the money, I am far from happy!
I'll start with a few gripes that are logistical as opposed to issues, at just under £1000, DMM don't even install a £30 DVD drive as standard which quite frankly is appalling!
Whilst we are on the subject of scrimping, DMM have made provision for additional cooling (in the HDD bay) which again they see fit to let the user add on if they see fit!
What has really prompted this rage tonight though is its inability to play media through the media player. I got so annoyed at the Cube Revo because it has lip sync issues with its media player. Tonight, I tried to sit down and watch a movie with the wife. We have waited ages to watch this movie and I made sure it all worked (so I thought) so it wouldn't be ruined.
I had issues getting the subtitles to work but I thought I had nailed that. We don't need subtitles normally, I feel sorry for anyone that does, trying to use these boxes!
This is one of those films where the subtitles only come on when non-english language is being spoken.
It turns out the DM8000 is only capable of playing a movie with subtitles if its all running from the start. If you try to do anything like fast forward or affect the running time of the movie, the subtitles either stop working or become out of sync (pathetic!).
About 25 mins into the movie the box just stopped playing with the strange symbol in the left corner of the screen indicating its busy doing something. After several minutes we had to power the box off as whatever it was doing interfered with the remote operation too.
Having restarted everything, I used the seek function to get back into the film where we previously got to. After 4 mins of watching, the subtitles start but of-course they are running as if the film was only 4 mins in, so we are seeing subtitles for dialog 4 mins into the movie when there shouldn't be any subtitles. This of-course means that when we get to a point where we need the subtitles again, they will be catching up later....OMG!
Anyway, after around another 20-25 mins, the box did exactly the same thing, just decided to stop playing the movie. I can play this and other files on my computer fine before anyone try's to suggest it was a bad file. It seems the media player on the DM8000 is just as bad as the one on the CubeRevo, it fails in different ways, but which ever way you look at it, its useless.
Now that I've got this rant off my chest, I think I need to make plans to get rid of this stuff, its simply not fit for purpose, perhaps I will cool down in the morning, but I really don't want to waste another couple of months playing with this kit only to find its another experience like the CubeRevo, promising the earth but never quite getting there.
If anyone wants an honest verdict on these boxes, here it is and I'll warn you, I'm not one to hold back.
Far too many people for my liking are reluctant to criticize the boxes they own, whether its to save face or an embarrassment thing, I don't know but I'm not one of them.
I have spent around £1500 on linux receivers in the last few months and they are all a pile of crap!
With the DM8000 costing around £1000, I initially felt (like a lot of people) that was taking the p**s, so i opted for one of the next most expensive boxes, the CubeRevo Twin HD (aka IPBox 9000) at around half the DM8000 price. On paper, these boxes have a great specification and indeed produce excellent picture quality when they work.
Unfortunately, the IPBox/CubeRevo have flaky software and poor emulation support as this manufacturer opted for an ST processor set. Hell, the internal card readers can't run a UK NDS card and struggle to run other cards too, so you are forced into a situation of running an external reader or Card Sharing just to get you valid local subscription card working!?!?!
So I tried to perceiver with the CubeRevo for a few months hoping the driver would be fixed to run my genuine local card, hoped for more reliability in other area's too. I could list a load of issues but to cut a long story short, I gave up and decided to cut my losses and go with a genuine Dream Multimedia box.
I had a DM500 which I used to serve up my uk NDS card to the CubeRevo through CS. I only bought that box for that purpose, but whilst I'm at it, I might as well say that although that box worked fine for doing CS, in operation, that box suffered lip sync issues after a period of time, so wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination either!
I have been the (not so) proud owner of a DM8000 for a few weeks now. The software does appear to be a bit more stable on this box but for the money, I am far from happy!
I'll start with a few gripes that are logistical as opposed to issues, at just under £1000, DMM don't even install a £30 DVD drive as standard which quite frankly is appalling!
Whilst we are on the subject of scrimping, DMM have made provision for additional cooling (in the HDD bay) which again they see fit to let the user add on if they see fit!
What has really prompted this rage tonight though is its inability to play media through the media player. I got so annoyed at the Cube Revo because it has lip sync issues with its media player. Tonight, I tried to sit down and watch a movie with the wife. We have waited ages to watch this movie and I made sure it all worked (so I thought) so it wouldn't be ruined.
I had issues getting the subtitles to work but I thought I had nailed that. We don't need subtitles normally, I feel sorry for anyone that does, trying to use these boxes!
This is one of those films where the subtitles only come on when non-english language is being spoken.
It turns out the DM8000 is only capable of playing a movie with subtitles if its all running from the start. If you try to do anything like fast forward or affect the running time of the movie, the subtitles either stop working or become out of sync (pathetic!).
About 25 mins into the movie the box just stopped playing with the strange symbol in the left corner of the screen indicating its busy doing something. After several minutes we had to power the box off as whatever it was doing interfered with the remote operation too.
Having restarted everything, I used the seek function to get back into the film where we previously got to. After 4 mins of watching, the subtitles start but of-course they are running as if the film was only 4 mins in, so we are seeing subtitles for dialog 4 mins into the movie when there shouldn't be any subtitles. This of-course means that when we get to a point where we need the subtitles again, they will be catching up later....OMG!
Anyway, after around another 20-25 mins, the box did exactly the same thing, just decided to stop playing the movie. I can play this and other files on my computer fine before anyone try's to suggest it was a bad file. It seems the media player on the DM8000 is just as bad as the one on the CubeRevo, it fails in different ways, but which ever way you look at it, its useless.
Now that I've got this rant off my chest, I think I need to make plans to get rid of this stuff, its simply not fit for purpose, perhaps I will cool down in the morning, but I really don't want to waste another couple of months playing with this kit only to find its another experience like the CubeRevo, promising the earth but never quite getting there.
