The DBox is a DVB satellite, terrestrial and cable digital television decoder (set-top box). They were distributed widely for use with Pay television channels. The DBox-1 was the first^{[citation needed]} DVB-capable receiver to be produced and distributed in large quantity. It was commissioned by the Kirch group's DF1, an early German provider of digital television that later merged with Premiere. The hardware was developed and produced by Nokia though later also produced by Philips and Sagem under license. It also enables the receiver to store digital copies of DVB transport streams on networked filesystems or broadcast the streams as IPTV to VideoLAN and XBMC Media Center clients.

The combination of third-party developers and network connectivity which facilitates card sharing, makes DBox2 (and the DBox2 based Dreambox) use particularly common among enthusiasts and those who intend to obtain services without payment. Third-party software for this purpose is neither officially endorsed nor supported by Dream Multimedia and voids the official warranty; however, unofficial web sites support a very large community of enthusiasts.

In 2001, following the bankruptcy of Kirch Media, production of the D-box ceased. However, there continues to be a large number of devices traded second-hand (often using online auction sites) and fairly high prices are paid. This can be attributed to the fact that alternative operating systems can be loaded onto the boxes. For this reason, there are also a significant number of, mostly German language, web sites and forums devoted to the devices.