Oh nice, I hadn't heard of Dreampipe! I'll have to check it out. I mostly just play DC games using an emulator for convenience, but sometimes I feel the urge to use the actual system.
What are you using to connect it to the TV? I have a Dreamcast VGA box from forever ago, and then I bought a VGA-to-HDMI converter. Is there a better setup nowadays?
I'm sorry I ever let mine go. It was a great emulation platform, and I ran all kinds of retro games on it. I also miss Skies of Arcadia, which I've always felt was underrated.
If you care to spend the money they do make optical drive emulators. These will trade an optical drive for an sd card. Kind of like adding an everdrive to a cart systems.