Upgrade Fortec Ultra to Dreambox, but will it do HDTV?

[imported_Frosty]

Hi there.

I'm looking to upgrade my system in time for the BBC coverage of the World Cup in HD.

I have my eye on one or two TV's that'll do 1080, but can't decide on a satellite box. It needs to do HDTV (probably) with HDMI but which one?

Will any of the Dreamboxes handle HDTV? I see they all only have a scart socket. Is this the limiting factor?

Thanks for any help

Kev

[BGonaSTICK]

Most satellite receivers (and other HD components) have HDMI connections these days.

SCART was certainly not built to handle High Definition TV, and yes it has limited video capability - which is why DVI and HDMI were introduced as the new standard AV connections.

The Dreambox tuner is capable of receiving and forwarding an HD/MPEG4 signal with no problems, but the CPU in all but the 7025 isn't up to the job of decoding it. The 7025 also can't ship HD quality video to your TV due to the SCART limitation above.

You CAN get HDTV out of a Dreambox though, but only via steaming using VLC to your powerful PC. The PC then takes the load of performing the real-time decoding.

Don't think that's what you're after though.

Sorry, but there's no clear-cut direction for those folks with your requirements yet (and I'll be right behind you in the queue when there is).

My advice is to sit tight for as long as possible before you make your pre-World Cup purchase.

That's if your nerves can stand it!

I might see if I can get hold of a Sky HD digibox, as the BBC have already said that you can watch their transmissions this way. I suspect that the Sky box will be backward compatible, i.e. do both DVB-S and DVB-S2.

STICK