7020 vs 500 - what's the difference

[pete_l]

OK, here comes my idiot question of the day:

I've looked throgh the documentation I can find for these two boxes,
but it's very difficult to make any sense of the alphabet-soup that
is the world of DVB (there, I'm doing it myself, bah!)

So far as I can see, the 7020 has a built-in display and the ability to
slap in a hard drive. (I'm not too interested in the number of SCARTs etc.)

Are these the only functional differences between the two boxes,
or could I do more if I bought a 7020?

Pete

[BGonaSTICK]

The 7020 has more memory, enjoys much better support and has superb connectivity.

The hard drive thing is a big bonus, although the 500 can be setup to use a remote drive via the ethernet port.

The 500 has no CI (CAM) slot, one less card reader slot, one less SCART socket, no USB port (a massive bummer), no display (as you mentioned), no CF slot (7020 can boot from this, as well as USB) and no RF loopthrough.

It does however have the S/PDIF AC3 optical audio output and costs less than half the price of the 7020

You just need to know which of those things you're going to need. Feel free to quiz us endlessly about what each of them give you, and why you can't live without them!

STICK

[Jimdefruit]

What isn't clear from Stick's good reply is the real importance of the usb port.

The dreambox works by using a software image or control system. The 7020, as all dreamboxes, has a flash memory which holds a main image but additional images can be put on a usb memory stick and those images can have lots of addons. The addons can not be put on the flash image due to memory restrictions.

The 500 does not have the usb memory add-on option and hence the options are severely restricted.

IMHO the 500 is just not worth the money even though it is half the price of the 7020. The images for the 500 are cut down versions and can be a pain when you want to go just that little bit further.

The other big advantage of the images on usb memory is that the flash image generally stays uncorrupted by additional addons and hence a system recovery is much easier when you foul things up playing with keys or new settings.

[pete_l]

Thanks for the well considered responses chaps. My big frustation is that the sellers
of these things (you know the websites I mean) all list the features of the boxes. I think
they just pull this from the manufacturers info. None of them have any info about
the benefits.
So yes, while I did miss the C-I (CAM) slot on the 7020 that Stick pointed out, that's
probably because when I looked at the promotional info, nothing told me what a C-I slot
is (yes, I know what the letters stand for, but that doesn't tell me why I may want one).

Same sort of thing with the USB port. Now Jimdefruit has explained why it makes such
a big difference, I can see that it puts the 7020 a long way ahead of the 500.
If only the people who make money from these things would/could explain what they
are selling, it would make my life so much easier ..... they may sell more "stuff" too.

Thanks again, I'm off to think up some more stupid questions
Pete

[BGonaSTICK]

The CI slot allows you to insert a CAM - a gadget designed to incorporate decryption technology in a 'plugable' fashion as opposed to building it into a receiver. With the Dreambox, while this could still be useful, the software inside the box can do virtually everything that a physical CAM can do.

The only real uses I've found for a CAM in the Dreambox are either when a 'hack' comes out on a programmable multi-CAM before a software emulator, or when you want to run a programmable card (as opposed to an original subscription card). It's preferrable to put these into a CAM rather than straight into the cardreader slot as they can get a bit hot, and can damage the built-in reader.

I run a pretty stock image in flash, and have many different images on the USB stick. They can be selected from a tiny boot-time menu installed on the Dreambox, though they all have to be based on the same core image loaded into flash to work properly. The first part of the image is loaded from flash, and the rest from wherever you select, so you can see why they have to match.

STICK