Introducing myself and advice please.

[mcgeezer]

Hello everyone,

I've been looking all over the place for decent information on upgrading my cable system and it looks like I've found it.

I was wondering if someone could give me some sound advice on what sort of system to buy to plug in my cable.

I've heard about the dreambox from a number of people but there seems to be quite a few alternatives and before I go and buy a system I'd like to make sure I get the right one that suits my needs and level of competence.

My day time job is AIX/Linux system administration so I'm very comfortable with the likes of FTP/TFTP and flashing firmware etc and have a good knowledge of networking and PC's. What I have no a clue about is anything cable tv related which is what worries me.

As I understand it the basic capabilities of these boxes are simply to allow you to watch all the tv channels broadcast by the cable co.

What is the general setup process of getting things up and running? Do I simply plug the box in and I'll have all the channels available or will I need to login to the system and setup software CAM emulators etc?

In addition what other capabilties do the boxes offer, I'm interested in things such as...

Recording channels to an internal/external harddrive and playback?
Watch a channel while recording another?
High definition capabiltities?
Streaming capabiltities i.e. from my PC or from over the internet? - I currently use Xbox media centre for this and it's pretty good - however I get no bloody football!
I cancelled my Sky contract however the dish is still on the wall, could I put this to any use with a dreambox system.

Since I've been reading the board I've noticed alot about Eurovox and I'm trying to ascertain how Dreambox and Eurovox are linked, i.e. are they two different systems or does Eurovox run as software on a Dreambox?

Any assistance anyone could give I would really appreciate it.

Regards,

Graeme

[telecom69]

Hi there and welcome to the site I can only talk about the Euro-vox maxV 2008 as thats the box I have and I cant see how you can better it ....provided you have some sort of basic subscription to Virgin media all you need to do is buy the box and plug it in,then let it scan for channels....you should pick up between 200 and 250 depending on where you live (myself I get 238) this includes all the movie and sports channels (football galore ) never seen so much football lately or cricket for that matter,get stuck for choice more often than not it has nothing at all to do with Sky and it wont work with that,its all about Virgin only....its not compatible with High definition...I got my box from Ebay and if you want the name of a very reliable seller on there,email me and I will provide you with details,he delivers next day service ...