Dreambox

Its firmware is officially user-upgradable, since it is a Linux-based computer, as opposed to third-party "patching" of alternate receivers.

The built-in Ethernet interface allows networked computers to access the recordings on the internal hard disks on some Dreambox models.

In 2007, Dream Multimedia also introduced a non-Linux based Dreambox receiver, the DM100, their sole to date, still featuring an Ethernet port.

The numbers are suffixed with -S for Satellite, -T for Terrestrial and -C for Cable: The DM 7000 is based around the IBM STB04500 controller, featuring a PowerPC processor subsystem and hardware MPEG decoding, has 64 MiB of RAM, 8 MiB of NOR flash memory (directly executable), a Common Interface slot, a dual smart card reader, a CompactFlash card reader, a USB 1.1 port, and an IDE (also known as PATA) interface for attaching an internal 3.5 in hard disk drive to convert the unit into a digital video recorder.

It is based around an IBM STBx25xx Digital Set-Top Box Integrated Controller, featuring notably a 252 MHz PowerPC processor subsystem, hardware MPEG-2 video and audio decoding and smart card interfaces.

It has the standard features of a free-to-air (FTA) satellite receiver, plus extensive Fast Ethernet networking connectivity and a single smart card reader.

Changes were also made on the software side, utilizing Open Embedded for the base Linux operating system.

The DM 7025 is similar to the DM7020 but with the ability to add a second "snap-in" tuner that makes it possible to watch one program while recording another.

Internally, it features a Xilleon 226 system-on-a-chip from ATI, integrating a 300 MHz MIPS CPU core instead of the traditional PowerPC found in other models, and has 128 MiB of RAM.

The DM 7025+ model features an Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display instead of an LCD one, an eject button on the Common Interface slot and improved power supply.

The main differences of the DM800HD se compared to the DM 800HD are a 400 MHz MIPS processor, a HDMI connector and a color OLED display.

[citation needed] In June 2012, Dream Multimedia announced the discontinuation of the DM 8000 HD PVR because several electronic components are no longer available.

According to Dream Multimedia, it is a "totally new hardware and software product, combining all the features of the successful Dreambox series, and indeed will go beyond that".

In addition, unofficial third-party conditional access software modules (CAMs or emulators) are widely circulated on the Internet that emulate the CA systems developed by NDS (VideoGuard), Irdeto, Conax, Nagravision, Viaccess and other proprietary vendors.

Clones also exist of DM500, DM800, DM800se and DM800se V2 built around the same commodity IBM SoC chip and hence having identical or slightly superior features they are also sold without the Dreambox brand name (e.g., the Envision 500S, with 48 megabytes of RAM instead of 32, also available in a 500C cable version, the Eagle box or the Linbox 5558, or Sunray DM800se).

In April 2008, Dream Multimedia allegedly introduced a time bomb into their latest flash to disable the boot loader on counterfeit models.

Other developers of unofficial firmware groups would find boxes to be affected by this if they use the latest drivers, providing another time bomb is to be introduced.