Dreambox DM500HD arrived in UK - shipping next week, currently in customs.

[shumifan50]

FYI.
I am getting a DM500HD Monday next week (if customs clear properly)
Really looking forward to it - hope it doesn't disappoint like the DM100 did.

NOTE: I found Dream Elite Black Hole 1.0 for the DM500HD. It looks like it has a fan (might keep it cool), which will explain the eSata rather than Sata disk interface. Look here for the image:
_http://www.dream-elite.net/forum/showthread.php?1124-Dream-Elite-Black-Hole-1-0-DM500-HD

My download failed with firefox but worked fine with IE.

 

[KMM123]

I was looking for one last week, just ordered, only £319 seems to be the same price all over the world. I always buy my electronics in the uk. When i get my box next week i will use that image you have shown.
Thanks for the info mate

 

[elcostis]

Guys we are waiting for impressions on Dm 500hd!

 

[shumifan50]

Well I'm on my way to pick up my DM500S HD from Surrey right now. I will post my initial findings later today.

 

[shumifan50]

OK. First impressions:
1. The hardware is very similar to the DM800, picture quality and sound included, just a lot quicker and it lacks the OLED display.
2. The USB looks like it is a client USB only - no flash drive, but I have not tried it yet as it needs a mini-USB connector.
3. The exterior is like a shiny DM600 and leaves fingerprints everywhere, but it looks nice so long as you don't finger it too much.
4. It does not have a LNB-out (loop-back), so no daisy chaining LNBs.
5. No DVI out; it has HDMI instead.
6. The exact hardware details can be found on the dream multimedia website.
7. The standard image is a typical DreamMultumedia image with no extensions.
8. Image support is still a bit thin. Currently Dream Elite and OpenPli (note that you have to build your own OpenPli).
9. Built in fan and software fan control through setup screens.
10. It has a ON/OFF SWITCH.

I tested it with the standard image to ensure the hardware worked and then loaded Dream Elite Black Hole.
Comments on Dream Elite Blackhole:
1. It seems stable; even more stable than the Dm800.
2. It has ALL the features:
a. A good selection of EPGs including Rytec EPG which downloads in seconds.
b. It supports permanent timeshift (works like Sly boxes where you can rewind any live program you are watching).
c. Good CAM support, installation and information.
d. Good selection of plugins.
e. Good drive mapping support by panels.
f. Boots fairly quickly.
3. Navigation is quite different from other images.
4. Testing did not include too much recording and time-shifting as I am waiting for my hard drive. Once it is installed, I will report back. Note that any form of timeshifting or recording requires a mapped drive as a minimum.
5. The EPG works, even without a hard drive.

Downsides:
1. Fixed tuner.
2. No possibility to mount an internal hard disk, has to be external eSata disk.

Overall:
I like the STB very much and the Dream Elite image seems great. I think it is a better STB than even the DM800.
I also think Dream Elite is the most complete image I have seen for dreamboxes.

 

[healeydave]

I know its faster, but I had hoped it would be a lot cheaper than the DM800 considering its not got a display and we are only talking £70 difference.

It makes it look cheap (like the SD DM500) with just a plain front, but at £319 its certainly not!

 

[shumifan50]

I have now had a look inside:
1. Nothing amazing to see. Just a large fan attached to the lid and controlled from the motherboard.
2. The tuner is not soldered; it is plugged on a DIL plug. The tuner is also a Dream special and I think it is an attempt to block clones as they would have to build their own tuners. If Dream controls the sale of tuners, it will be much more difficult to clone the box.
3. I installed an eSata disk drive (2.5" Samsung 500GB spinpoint in a AKASA enclosure). This causes some freezing of the picture ocasionally, but the box remains stable. When the freeze happens there is a significant amount of disk activity. I had also set up swap, so it might be that. I will remove swap and see if the problem goes away.

 

[shumifan50]

The occasional freezing is not related to the hard disk or the image. I am also experiencing it on OpenPli, with ot without hard disk fitted. The funny thing is if the box has been running a while, the freezing stops. It might actually be running too cool. I will experiment with the fan control to see if it behaves different at different fan speeds.

As a matter of interest: I have now built OpenPli (with the help of the team at OpenPli - there is a complete thread) on my own dev environemnt and I am running it on my DM500HD. To enable plugins, you have to set up the DM500HD to look on your dev environement for the plugins available. This is also documented on the thread at OpenPli. The image is stable and pretty much supports the same functionality that OpenPli for the DM800/DM800 does. I am sure the beta will be available for download from OpenPli soon - they didn't have a box to test on.

 

[jungly]

FYI.
I am getting a DM500HD Monday next week (if customs clear properly)
Really looking forward to it - hope it doesn't disappoint like the DM100 did.

NOTE: I found Dream Elite Black Hole 1.0 for the DM500HD. It looks like it has a fan (might keep it cool), which will explain the eSata rather than Sata disk interface. Look here for the image:
_http://www.dream-elite.net/forum/showthread.php?1124-Dream-Elite-Black-Hole-1-0-DM500-HD

My download failed with firefox but worked fine with IE.

Where can i buy the dm500 (whats the cheapest its going for)? and ships to america

 

[shumifan50]

I got mine from SMS (_www.************.co.uk) - currently in stock.

BE CAREFUL there are both DM500 and DM500HD boxes available and they are VERY different.

 

[oldfart]

Tried a OCX pen drive eSata 'Throttle' - I coudn't get it to work consistently - all worked fine with an Icy dock with a 'spare' 1Tb drive I had floating around.
If you have a DM8K - its much smaller & only has 1 tuner - but its quite quick & works!
Really needs USB or CF.

 

[shumifan50]

oldfart - I also thought I would miss USB/CF, but it has enough memory so swap does not get used and as I never set up multi-boot (bad idea), I have no other need for USB/CF. The only thing the USB would have been useful for would have been to power the external eSata drive, but I tried powering it from the USB ports on a DM800 (both ports) and it did not work, so most likely it would not have worked on the DM500HD.

 

[oldfart]

External drive useful for EPG