Quite often I am asked what media player I recommend. Often, the question usually turns in to “Would you recommend the PCH C-200 or the Dune Base/Prime?”. Up until now I have been unable to answer this question as I have never used a Dune Base/Prime. Well, thanks to Mike @ Duneplayer.com for providing me with a review unit, I have been able to spend some time with the Dune Prime. I have been following the Dune on AVSForum for some time now, and there seems to be almost a universal praise of the Dune (which when it comes to similar media players is rare), so the question I was hoping to answer when I received the Dune Prime is does it live up to the hype? Now that I have spent nearly 3 weeks with the Dune BD Prime, lets take a closer look at what it brings to the table.
Specs:
There are two models currently, the Dune HD Base 3.0 and the Dune BD Prime 3.0. The Base retails for USD 349.99 and the Prime retails for USD 449.99. The only difference between the Base and the Prime is that the Prime comes with an internal BluRay drive, whereas the Base just comes with an option to add an internal 3.5″ hard disk drive. Both players come with three USB 2.0 ports (one front, two back), eSATA port, Ethernet 100/1000(*) Mbit/s, HDMI 1.3, S/PDIF (optical and coaxial), 7.1 analog audio, 2.0 analog audio, component video, composite video.
Main features:
- SATA HDD compartment for fast and easy HDD exchange (Dune Base)
- Playback of retail Blu-ray and DVD discs (Dune Prime)
- Playback of full Blu-ray structures from HDD and network (with Blu-ray menu, BD-J, BonusView, BD-Live)
- Playback of video, music, photos from any media source (HDD, PC, NAS, etc)
- Optical disc formats (when using an external optical drive): data discs (CD/DVD/BD) (MP3, JPEG, etc), Audio CD (PCM/DTS), DVD-Video (retail and user-authored discs), Blu-ray (user-authored discs)
- Support for modern video file formats (MKV, H.264, VC1, etc) with very high bitrate (up to 50+ Mbit/s)
- Dimensions: 420 mm (width) x 262 mm (depth) x 50 mm (height)
Specification:
- Processor: Sigma Designs 8643
- Memory: RAM 512 MB, system Flash: 128 MB, expandable with a HDD partition or USB flash drive (2GB recommended)
- Media sources: built-in Blu-ray drive (Prime), internal HDD (SATA 3.5″) (Base), internal HDD (SATA 2.5″) (Prime), external HDD (eSATA, USB), external optical drive (eSATA, USB), USB devices (USB fl ash drive, USB card reader, etc), PC and NAS in local network (SMB, NFS, UPnP, HTTP)
- Video codecs: MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, XVID, WMV9, VC1, H.264
- Video file formats: MKV, MPEG-TS, MPEG-PS, M2TS, VOB, AVI, MOV, MP4, QT, ASF, WMV, Blu-Ray-ISO, BDMV, DVD-ISO, VIDEO_TS
- Video output modes: wide range of supported modes and resolutions, including 23.976p, 24p, PAL, NTSC
- Audio codecs: AC3 (Dolby Digital), DTS, MPEG, AAC, LPCM, WMA, WMAPro, EAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), Dolby True HD, DTS HD High Resolution
- Audio, DTS HD Master Audio, FLAC, multichannel FLAC
- Audio file formats: MP3, MPA, M4A, WMA, FLAC, WAV, DTS-WAV, DTS, AC3, AAC
- Pass-through and decoding of HD audio formats, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio
- Picture file formats: JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF
- Subtitle formats: SRT, SUB, text/SSA/ASS (MKV), VobSub (MP4), PGS (full Blu-ray mode)
- Playlist fi le formats: M3U, PLS
- Filesystems: FAT16/FAT32 (read-write), EXT2/EXT3 (read-write), NTFS (readonly)
Other features:
- Upscaling: high-quality upscaling and deinterlacing of DVD and other SD content to HD resolution (up to 1080p)
- Access to network: browser of network shares (SMB, UPnP), user-defined shortcuts to network shares (SMB, NFS), links to HTTP media streams
- NAS function: SMB and FTP access from network to the player’s attached storage devices
- IPTV: direct playback and recording of multicast IPTV streams (raw-UDP and RTP-over-UDP, SD and HD)
- Internet radio: HTTP/MP3
- Powerful file manager (copy, move, delete, rename, etc), built-in FTP and SMB file server (NAS function)
- Photo viewer: slide-show function, picture transition eff ects, picture rotation
- Playlists: music/photos/video, user-defined and automatically generated playlists, repeat and shuffle
- FullHD-quality, fast, convenient, customizable interface (with covert-art and icon browsing support)
Hardware:
The Dune BD Prime 3.0 came with the Dune BD Prime 3.0 (obviously), HDMI cable, IR Remote w/ 2 batteries, and component cables. You can see from the front of the player the Dune BD Prime looks like a Blu Ray player. The BluRay Rom drive is located in the center of the player. To the left of the ROM drive is a small lcd screen and the power button. To the right of the ROM drive are a few player related buttons (such as play, pause, etc…)
From the rear you can see an assortment of inputs/outputs including HDMI 1.3, Ethernet, 7.1 analog audio, and eSATA to name a few
One thing I think is necessary is to have a USB port at the front of the player. Some people complain that this takes away from the aesthetics of the player so Dune has done a nice job of tucking to the side the USB port. (Speaking of aesthetics I would get rid of “Blu-Ray Disc And Network Media Player” logo on the front of the player as I find it looks a little amateurish and takes away from the upscale look of the player).
Along the sides of the case and on the top cover are grills to allow for airflow. As we all know heat rises, so having a place for the air to escape is important.
Here you can get a sense of the dimensions of the Dune BD Prime versus the Popcorn Hour C-200. You can see that the Dune BD Prime is about half the height of the PCH C-200 and has more of a finished look.
Opening up the case you can see a very clean layout. The player is fanless which is very important to ensure a noise free environment.
Overall the Dune BD Prime is a solidly built machine. It is an expensive player, but you definitely feel like you are getting your moneys worth and not some hardware thrown into a cheap plastic case. At no point did I notice any sort of heating issues
UI Appearance:
When you first turn on the Dune you are greeted with the Home page. It is a fairly simple page. I actually like this home page over the C-200 home page simply because there is actually a text description next to each icon. With the PCH C-200 you just get icons so it is not entirely clear what each icon represents (especially since my wife uses the players in my house just as much as I do). You can add shortcuts to other Apps (such as a movie jukebox) which is a nice feature
The setup page is is clearly laid out, and really an area that should not need to be frequently visited.
Navigating through files is nothing special, with a simple Windows Explorer type experience.
Adding shortcuts to the Home screen is very easy. By hitting the popup menu button on the remote should bring up a popup menu. Simply select “New Network Folder” and enter in the network path details (either smb or nfs).
Once done you can see what my Home screen looks like with various shortcuts
Overall I like the clean layout of the UI. However, and I have said this about almost every player I have reviewed, I challenge Dune to step it up a notch and do something to really differentiate the Dune Players UI from the rest of the pack. Having a simple Windows Explorer type navigation is unacceptable, and although very useful, users should not have to rely on 3rd party apps to bring a more gratifying experience.
Also, adding some of the shortcuts such as Zappiti and My Movies shown above require having system storage available. I plugged in a USB thumb drive to the Dune and was able to use as system storage without issue.
Responsiveness:
The remote for the Dune Prime is an IR remote, which means line of sight is required. For the most part I found the remote to perform well. As long as I had line of sight all the remote commands got picked up and I wasn’t constantly pressing the same button 3 times to get a response. Navigating around the Dune Prime was quick, which is what I expected based on my experience with the PCH C-200 using the similar Sigma chip.
Network Performance:
The Dune BD Prime is listed as Gigabyte but it is not recommended to use this. This is the same issue that plagues the PCH C-200, however unless you are transferring files to/from the Dune over the network 10/100 is plenty fine for streaming media. I only had a chance to test out smb performance (you can see how I set up here), and not once did I have issues playing back all my high bitrate content. Poor network performance can definitely dampen a users experience, but with the Dune I don’t expect this to be an issue.
Audio/Video Playback:
As expected this is probably the area that most people care about. If a player cannot play back your content, then any other bells and whistles become moot. I have a variety of files I like to use when testing media players, and I am happy to report that the Dune BD Prime passed with near flying colors. (I tested with both the stable 1555 firmware and the beta 1032 firmware, all results below assumed to apply to both firmwares unless stated otherwise (it shoudl also be noted that the beta 1032 firmware is available to the public). Here is a description of what I tested and the results:
- mkv w/ chapters – chapters are not supported currently (FAIL)
- mkv w/ 480p internal IDX/SUB subtitles (PASS for beta 1032 firmware, FAIL for stable 1555 firmware)
- mkv w/ 1080p internal IDX/SUB subtitles (FAIL)
- mkv w/ internal PGS subtitles (PASS for beta 1032 firmware, FAIL for stable 1555 firmware)
- mkv with DTS(MA) and/or TrueHD Audio Track – bitstreamed without issue (PASS)
- (m2)ts with DTS(MA) and/or TrueHD Audio Track – bitstreamed without issue (PASS)
- mkv w/ VC-1 encoded video – played without issue (PASS)
- BluRay ISO (main movie only) – played with forced subs, chapter support, and bitstreamed HD Audio (PASS)
- BluRay Folder (entire disc) – played with full menus (PASS)
- DVD ISO and/or Folder Structure – played with full menus (PASS)
- 1080p quicktime (.mov) trailer – played without issue (PASS)
- avi/mpeg clips – played without issue (PASS)
The one item that I really hope Dune addresses ASAP is mkv chapter support, as this is a pretty basic feature that I see supported on many players currently in the market. Adding support for 1080p IDX/SUB subtitles would be nice but in the long run probably not important now that PGS subtitle support has been added. Otherwise the Dune played like a champ, with the only hiccup I encountered was due to one of the drives on my WHS crashing (yikes!).
Blu Ray ROM Playback:
I was real curious to see how the Dune BD Prime performed as a BluRay player since using the PCH C-200 as a BluRay player had been hit or miss for me. I tested 3 different BluRays (Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, Gran Torino, and Avatar). Harry Potter and Gran Torino played without issue. However, I did encounter issues with Avatar which I expected as the protection on this disc seems to launch little blue people into your player. When the disc first loads I had to hit the Popup Menu button repeatedly to get to the main movie menu, otherwise the disc would just hang. I had experienced the same problem with Avatar on my C-200 (which is how I knew to hit the menu button). As far as noise the ROM drive was relatively quiet, and I found it very quick to load the disc. With the PCH C-200 you had to install your own BluRay ROM drive, but it turns out that some drives were compatible and some weren’t. Also, since I used a BluRay ROM drive I had installed previously in my PC, the drive was extremely loud in the PCH C-200 and would be quite annoying if I actually watched discs frequently. Having the BluRay ROM drive already included in the Dune BD Prime I found to be a big step up and made me feel like I had a real BluRay player and not a hacked together device.
Online Content:
There is a web browser (which I honestly did not find very useful) and Internet Radio, but not much else. I personally find online content overrated but I understand this is important to other people, so I would hope down the road Dune will spend more time trying to develop this area. For the U.S market Netflix seems to be the most desired feature, and with more devices coming out that are online content friendly (Popbox, Boxee Box, etc…) this is definitely an area Dune should not ignore for too long. I have PlayOn but did not get a chance to test out on the Dune, mainly due to the previously mentioned hard drive crash on my WHS when I was planning on testing out PlayOn.
3rd Party Jukeboxes:
There are several 3rd party jukeboxes available that can help enhance the user experience. I decided to take a look at MyMovies and Zappiti, and at some point also look at yaDIS and Dune Explorer 2. Right now Zappiti is my Jukebox of choice as it supports TV shows and I feel the movie detail screen has a more polished look. I hope to have a Zappiti writeup posted in the coming days. For now see below for some screenshots of both Zappiti and MyMovies.
Zappiti Screenshots:
MyMovies Screenshots:
Final Thoughts:
So lets go back to the question I started this review off with, does the Dune Prime live up to the hype? Well, the short answer is yes, most definitely. From a hardware standpoint it is very well constructed, fanless, and quiet. The Dune BD Prime is the first media player that I received where when I first plugged it in it just worked, plain and simple. The Dune BD Prime played back all my content without issue, and the only issue I ran in to was lack of mkv chapter support, something that I believe should be an easy fix in a future firmware update. I would like to see a little more attention put into taking the stock UI to the next level, not only for videos but also music and pictures. As well, additional focus on bringing in online content would be a positive.
The biggest challenge though that the Dune players face is price. There are going to be potential customers who won’t even consider the Dune simply because it is 2-3 x the price of most other media players on the market. To remain competitive and really spread the Dune brand I believe they need to come up with a sub USD 200 player, a “Dune Lite”, to compliment their premium players. Simply by removing the Blu Ray menus (licensing cost) and some of the inputs/outputs I believe they should have no problem achieving this.
Everyone who follows my posts knows I am an HTPC guy. Most likely I will always be an HTPC guy to some extent as I am too much of a geek to miss out on all the tweaking and trying out different software (and I still get enjoyment from building a PC). However, while testing the Dune I had it set up in my bedroom right alongside my HTPC, and I found myself actually bypassing the HTPC and
using the Dune! The HTPC still offers a better experience when it comes to the UI and there is more flexibility you can use, but the Dune just works and it was simple (and to be honest I could use a little simplicity in my life these days!)
If you are in the market for a media player ready to go out of the box and are willing to pay a little extra, I would highly recommend the Dune BD Prime or HD Base. This is probably the first media player that I have tested where I can actually recommend without stating some sort of caveat which is nice! There are several online retailers that offer the Dune Players, but from my conversations with Mike at Duneplayer.com, the many positive experiences I read about from other Duneplayer.com customers, and Duneplayer.com’s Employee involvement on AVSForum, I would definitely recommend giving Duneplayer.com a look at.
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Article by Damian
Hi, my name is Damian, and I'm tech gadget addict! Although I always had some interest in technology, it wasn't until I got my EX470 and more importantly found Mediasmartserver.net, that my interest became an addiction. My goal, aside from world domination and to see the Mets/Broncos win another championship, is to set up the perfect digital home where all my media is available at the click of a button. When I am not writing for Mediasmartserver.net you can find me over at my blog at http://dbone1026.blogspot.com or follow me on twitter
{ 41 comments… read them below or add one }
Another good write-up Damian, thanks. With the hopefully soon-to-be-released firmware enabling HD audio for the Popcorn A-200/C-200 and the 2.4 firmware on the Xtreamer Pro/Sidewinder offering likewise, the Dune’s price is a little high even with its integrated Blu-ray drive and full BD menus. To me, the PopBox is an okay product and won’t be a serious home theater media player (at least for a while as the firmware matures), so I’m leaning toward the C-200 (as the A-200’s stock case is cheap and adding the aftermarket case brings its cost close to the C-200’s). But, I’d seriously consider the Dune if it was priced less. Not that I can’t pay more, but because it soon won’t be worth more than the C-200 at least. I know I’m comparing different types of media players, but having an optical drive is less important to me, with HD audio passthrough, flawless BD-ISO/MKV playback, decent subtitle support and a decent jukebox are most important.
WOoooooooooooooo. . .Finally, A detailed review of the dune 3.0 that I can’t miss!!! Will use this guide for sure =) Your review really helps in my decision making
@ Brajesh,
Agreed in that the price is probably the biggest roadblock (as I mentioned). Really what it comes down to is to list out what features are important to you, what is the cost you are willing to pay for those features, and then make a decision. This is why I think it is very important for Dune to get a “Dune Lite” into the marketplace. So if the Dune HD Base was priced the same as the PCH C-200 (I think currently it is $50 more) you would seriously consider the Dune?
I am hoping to finally plug in my Popbox today or tomorrow. I downloaded the new 2.4 fw for the Xtreamer and unfortunately bitstreaming does not work for me
It is still beta fw but right now for me it is not a working solution
Good review, Damian, what I hear is that the Dune seems to be that device that is easier to use and doesn’t require as much tweaking which can be a big impediment to less technical or new users.
Nice write up. I have a Dune Base 3.0 and I LOVE it! I had been waiting for a long time to upgrade my players (previously DSM-520s) to full Bluray support w/ menus and the Dune does not disappoint.
My eventual plan is to have the Base unit in the bedroom, a Prime in the living room (to play the odd rented/borrowed disc) and perhaps a Tvix S1 in my home office. I figure I could save some $ by going with the Tvix in my office… I don’t care so much about the Bluray menus in there when I watch a movie like I do in the bed/livingroom
@ Alex,
Yes, I would say that the Dune is very user friendly, in particular to people new to this space or less technical.
@ BrianAZ,
Great to hear everything is working well. Your setup is exactly where I think a Dune lite would benefit. I think we are getting to the point where people want multiple players in their house, and depending on where the player is placed determines how much you are willing to pay and what features you need.
@Damian
Exactly. I would love a Dune lite in the < $200 price range.
Damian,
Another great review. To add on to what Alex said, there are a number of us computer professionals that sometimes get sick of working on our gear and we just want it to work without too much effort. I do enough tweaking at work. I love my Dune which I got last Friday.
@ sfoster4,
Agreed. I am not a computer professional, but I have spent enough time being around the gear that a little simplicity without much effort is what I was looking for as well.
When it says it plays BD ISO without menu support, what exactly does that mean? I recently bought a C-200 that does play BD ISO with menu support, but it is so flaky I’m getting ready to send it back. One ISO that will absolutely not play, and locks up the whole box is Avatar. It was ripped with ANYDVD and plays fine on my PC, so don’t know what the problem is with the C-200.
@ Bryan,
I think I wrote that it plays BD ISOs WITH menu support (not without). All menu support means is that when you play the BD ISO it looks just as if you inserted the actual disc, with full menus. Avatar has caused a lot of problems on everyone’s system. I would recommend waiting for the new fw for the C200 to be released out of beta (hopefully in the coming weeks) as it did fix some of the problems I had. If after the fw release you still are unhappy then look to send back and get a Dune
@Damian
You mention Avatar BDROM playback issues, can I ask if you had the same problems with streamed playback of Avatar (MKV?). I’m considering getting one without the BDRom drive, but am curious about that ability.
MKV is fine as I believe it is the copy protection causing the problems.
As BrianAZ mentioned it is actually the copy protection on the disc that causes the problems. Once you rip to your PC and remove the encryption (whether as MKV, BD ISO, etc…) Avatar plays fine.
hmmm … I wonder why it won’t play well on my HTPC. Probably the stupid Intel drivers from the Clarkdale cpus? It’s like it’s never going to get fixed
Oh well, Thanks for the update.
@ Jason,
What player are you using, MPC HC? Are you getting green blocks?
Yes using MPC-HC
Not getting Green blocks, just “chugging” However, this may be because I’m not able to use the “EVR Custom Press.**” option in the output area. For some reason this causes a lot of particle effects on my screen. When I switch to “VMR9 (renderless) **” I don’t have this problem.
BUT, Avatar just chuggs, like it just can’t keep up or something.
System Specs:
Intel i5: 650
ASUS P7H55D-M EVO
2GB Ram
Windows 7 x64
I’ve always wondered why the EVR Custom Pres doesn’t work on my H55 when it works fine other other PC’s I have …
@ Jason,
The reason for your issue is because the Intels don’t play nice with the internal MPC filters. Supposedly Intel is finally working with the MPC guys to work this out, but for now what you should do is in the MPC external filters section add the Microsoft MS DTV Video Decoder and set it to prefer. This will fix your issue (this is how I do it with my core i5 HTPC). The only downside is that you will lose DXVA for VC-1, but you have plenty of CPU to handle that. I just stick with the EVR custom renderer
Cool, I’ll give that shot (fingers crossed)
Damian
All I want is a Bluray player with high quality DVD upscaling that I can hook a couple of 2 TB USB drives up to to play all of my movies & music. I also want to have the DVD & album artwork show up in a nice display. Is that too much to ask?
Is this that player? Can you load “My Movies” or “Zappiti” onto the LG BD590 (which I alreadt own)?
Thanks for the great review!
@ Scott,
Yes, the Dune BD Prime will give you what you are looking for. As far as the music side, I am not 100% positive how well album artwork shows up, from reading around I believe you would need to have a folder.jpg in each music folder, but unfortunately there is no “Zappiti” like jukebox for music yet
My Movies or Zappiti will not work with your LG BD590
Damian,
I have a WD TV Live that streams my Blu-Ray MKV rips now. It works fine via a USB attached drive but stutters from my EX487 WHS. I was looking at a Popcorn Hour A-200, but this sounds much better. I would get the Base though as I already have a PS3 and Sammy BD5500. How much better does the Dune perform over the network than the A-200? I just need some help justifying the Dune Base at 2x the price. Thanks!
Does this unit have a good video chip for upscaling DVD in it?
Does it upscale as well as the Oppo 83 with Anchor Bay VRS?
Damian,
I have been looking at reviews and some YouTube videos of this unit and have a question. I use MakeMKV to rip my Blu Ray discs to MKV files. I saw a video on YouTube where the reviewer shows the BD Menu come up on a MKV file. Is this possible? I thought you could only access the BD Menu from an ISO? Thanks for your help!
@ Scott,
I honestly have never used an Oppo so I cannot comment on the upscale ability vs. the Dune. I did see someone post on AVSForum yesterday that the upscale of the Dune is very good, but the Oppo is still slightly better
@ Trey,
Regarding network performance I have not had issues with playback with either my A-200 or Dune. When I owned an EX470 I never had issues with playback on the A-110. The benefits of the Base over the A-200 that come to mind:
(1) A-200 has cheap case and somewhat loud fan. The Dune Base has a solid case and is fanless (i.e silent). You can mod the A-200 case (such as I did here – http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/05/24/modding-the-popcorn-hour-a-200-with-a-3rd-party-case/) but that brings the total cost much closer to the Dune Base
(2) As of now there are still issues with the A-200 FW (cannot bitstream from standalone m2ts/mkv, issues with VC-1 mkvs, does not support PGS subtitles in mkvs, etc…). These issues shoudl be fixed when the next fw is released but not sure when that is due out (I would hope within the month).
I think with either the Base or the A-200 overall you will be happy, but the A-200 will require more patience as the fw needs to mature.
@ Trey,
What you saw is probably what is called a “BD Lite” menu, which is different from actual BD menus. For example, if you look at my review here and scroll down to the video playback section you will see what is considered a BD Lite menu in the screenshot (http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/02/04/review-popcorn-hour-a-200/)
first, i just want to say Damian, thank you for your reviews and reports/guides. they are a godsend and for people who aren’t too versed in all things whs, you are definitely the person to go to. please continue to keep up the great work with your knowledge and guides. secondly, the duneplayer ROCKS. i had an a-200 and it was great because it only cost $175 and it played almost everything i had. problem is, i’m very anal about 24p and for some reason, blu ray ios/rips would sometime revert away from 24p. there were other bugs too, one being the whole truehd fiasco. duneplayer has none of those problems and in terms of network speed, seems to me almost twice as fast reading files. never lag/skipping when playing blu rays and to me, that is important. yes, the price is expensive, that is a big drawback, but if i have to pay extra to make sure my home theater enjoyment is not hampered, i’d pay for it. so i highly recommend the duneplayer, it is a great machine right out of the box too, not much fiddling with settings. damian, thanks again, keep up the info!
@ joeychizzel,
Thanks for the kind words, and glad to hear you have found my writeups useful. I am trying to put together my writeup on Zappiti for the Dune, almost got it done. Its a little tricky since the documentation is somewhat scarce and the official forum is in French.
The funny thing about price is that many of us have spent thousands of dollars on our HT setup, yet want the cheapest media player available. I understand if you are looking to purchase multiple players for your house the cost becomes more significant (and why I hope for a BD lite), but if you are looking for that one main player is spending an extra $100 or so really that much in comparison. As I mentioned the Dune was the first player I have ever tested that just worked out of the box, no stuttering, no file issues.
Damian,
Based on your recommendation (as well as those on AVS Forum) I bought a Dune Base from duneplayer.com ! It will be here tomorrow and I really want to set it up right away with Zappiti so that my wife falls in love with it immediately. I know you are working on a Zappiti review, but will your review include details on how to set it up with a WHS? If not, can you point me somewhere that has detailed set up instructions?
Thanks so much for all of your help!
@ Trey,
I was hoping to get the guide posted today, or tomorrow at the very latest. The way I have it setup I have Zappiti installed on my desktop PC. It points to my shared videos on my WHS, and the final Zappiti export goes to my WHS as well for the Dune to access. Everything is set up via smb on my WHS (do you have my link on how to set up smb?)
Sorry it has taken so long to get my writeup for Zappiti posted, things have been a bit crazy between family life/work, and working on 2 hrs sleep today (yikes!)
Damian,
As others have said, thanks for the great writeup.
I have a question about something you stated in your review. You said:
“You can add shortcuts to other Apps (such as a movie jukebox) which is a nice feature”
Can you only add shortcuts to Apps, or can you also create a shortcut to a local HDD folder? Also, you mention being able to “tweak” the ui. Can you explain this from a high level? Meaning, is the UI changed by accessing an app on your network? Or is there a way to change/tweak the UI on the Dune itself? The reason I ask is that I will sometimes move the Dune to another location (not in my network). So, I’m wondering what types of changes can actually be made on the hardware itself.
Thanks,
Doug
Doug,
You should be able to add shortcuts for any folder that you can access on the Dune.
Regarding the UI, there are two things I meant. You can tweak the UI by hiding/unhiding icons. So you can have it where the only icons that show on the main menu are shortcuts if you want. The other tweaking would be using a jukebox like Zappiti or MyMovies in place of the stock UI. However, that is the extent to tweaking of the Dune UI
Thanks for the reply.
Great, I was hoping I could change the shortcuts to whatever I wanted.
I think I understand the jukebox concept a little better now. A jukebox (such as Zappiti or MyMovies) will only work when connected to a network computer running the jukebox. In other words, if I move the Dune somewhere temporarily off my network, the jukebox will not work, correct? I was hoping for a way to tweak the UI that would still work with the Dune as a standalone machine.
Yes and no. Basically the jukebox is broken up into two components. The first component are the generated AAI files, which the Dune will read and display. The second component is that actual playback of the movie file associated with the jukebox. These can be in two separate areas, so for example you can have the jukebox files saved on an internal Dune drive or attached USB Thumb drive. You can then access the jukebox whenever you want, you won’t need to be connected to a network. However, while in the jukebox if you go to play a file the Dune must be connected to whereas that movie is stored. So with my setup all my media is stored on my WHS. I can save the jukebox to a thumb drive attached to my Dune and navigate the jukebox at all times as long as the thumb drive is attached. However, when I select a movie from the jukebox the dune must be connected to my network to play back since the movie is stored on my WHS. Hope that makes more sense, let me know
Ok, I think I got it.
I should have explained more. I run outdoor movies (on big inflatable screens) and I’m looking for a good way to play pre-movie content. I’m looking for a media player to play movie previews, slide shows, music videos, etc. from a device that I move around a lot. That’s why I want to be able to use a custom UI, but also access local content. Which, it sounds like I can do, as long as the jukebox is configured to only look for local files.
One more question and I promise to leave you alone. Do all media players work with jukebox apps as you explained above? I’m looking at the Popcorn Hour C200 as well, and would use it the same way (maybe with YAMJ, but not connected to a network).
@ Doug,
You can add multiple shortcuts, I think though the shortcut would show on the main menu whether or not the actual shortcut was online. From a jukebox standpoint, what I am thinking is that using Zappiti as an example if you have two PCs you can create two Zappiti jukeboxes. One Zappiti jukebox can be for your network based stuff. The second Zappiti jukebox would be for content on your local drive. When you are traveling simply access the local Zappiti jukebox. I should mention that Zappiti or the other jukeboxes only work for tv shows/videos, I don’t know if there is a photo/music jukebox.
As fas as other media players, some have 3rd party jukeboxes while others do not. PCH has jukeboxes such as YAMJ (which you can see my writeup here that I use for my PCH C200/A200 – http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/01/14/guide-setting-up-yamj-yet-another-movie-jukebox-aeon-in-whs/), I think ACRyan PlayOn has YAMJ as well, Xtreamer has their own jukebox
Don’t hesitate to ask any other questions. I live in NY so who knows, maybe one day I will need to rent a big screen for my backyard!
I think I found some jukebox support for music, not sure about music videos or photos.
Thanks again. And hey, we frequently do events in NY, keep us in mind (Super Special pricing for you!).
Depending on the jukebox you use you could cram music videos into the typical video jukebox, just manually managing the metadata/art. I have done this for a few of my music videos that I have
Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking I would do, morph a Movie Jukebox into music videos and/or photos, etc. There’s a “Music Jukebox” for the Popcorn Hour that looks like it would work.
I like the Popcorn Hour for for the backlit/RF remote, good for dark outdoor usage I bet. But, I REALLY like the multi-channel analogue audio outputs on the Dune. Ugh, decisions, decisions!