Update: Dune

by Damian on July 31, 2013 · 17 comments

in News

First off, I am still alive :D . Obviously if you follow this site there has been very little writing of late. Work and family life has just taken control of me of late, not necessarily in a bad way but much of my free time to play around with my tech hobby has disappeared. Kid #3 will be arriving any day now, so I don’t expect things to free up anytime soon, but I still have some articles lined up to publish (first will be my Windows Server 2012 Essentials build which looks like I finally turned the corner and resolved the  one outstanding issue I was having).

More importantly though, I have some Dune news worth posting. I spoke with Mike at Duneplayer.com and he confirmed that one final Smart D1 (you can see my Smart D1 review here) run will be done, with approx 1,000 units being produced from some remaining Sigma 8642 chips. He hopes to have stock in about 4-6 weeks, so figure end of August or early September. There will also be a small run of Maxs available as well (probably 100 at most). Now of course some people may be asking why anyone would want a media player running a chip that has been around for what seems like ages. Well, the Dune Smarts are a dying breed of media players that support full BD menus, and imo are the most reliable/stable players on the market. They don’t support Blu ray 3D if that is of interest, but otherwise this will be a great opportunity to get the last stock of Dune Smarts

Additionally, the Dune 3D Max/Pro is still in the works with a realistic target by early next year. Assuming Dune is able to deliver, the new player will provide full BD support (2D and 3D) along with a UI that offers XBMC or the standard Dune UI / jukebox combo.


Article by

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://www.adigitalhomeblog.com or follow me on twitter


{ 17 comments }

Scott Horton July 31, 2013 at 6:36 am

Damian: OT but what’s your last Server 2012 E issue? I’m about to upgrade mine, now I’m worried :)

Damian July 31, 2013 at 6:43 am

Well, initially I ran into some driver issues, but that was more related to the chipset/mobo I went with. The last issue I had been trying to resolve is getting remote access and VPN to work properly. I have a VPN set up on my desktop PC, and when connected I could not access any of the shares on my WS2012E server. Shut off the VPN and I regained access. Likewise I could not get remote access to work.

Turns out the issue for both was my NIC. My mobo came with dual NICs so I set up NIC teaming. For whatever reason the NIC teaming (which worked great otherwise) was blocking this. This weekend I shut off NIC teaming and now everything is working as expected.

Scott July 31, 2013 at 7:29 am

Thanks Damian. My server is a Dell R210 rackmount, I haven’t collected the current drivers yet, hopefully they are compatible.

Gus July 31, 2013 at 12:34 pm

Time to try to sell the TV303D I’ve got and save up for another D1.

Damian July 31, 2013 at 12:36 pm

I forgot to mention as well, I think duneplayer has refurbs at a discount price if anyone is interested (for example a B1 where the ROM drive does not work but as far as streaming works no different then any other Smart).

thetoad August 1, 2013 at 11:45 am

I don’t see refurbs anywhere online at their site. you have to call in for them?

Damian August 1, 2013 at 11:48 am

Yeah, don’t believe they are on the site. You have to contact them. I think most refurbs are the B1 where the ROM drive won’t work (so if you have no need for a ROM drive you would still get the full streaming functionality at a reduced price)

Gus August 1, 2013 at 11:53 am

The question is how much is the price reduced by?

Damian August 1, 2013 at 12:00 pm

Don’t know specifically, but would think it would be a nice haircut. It would have to be less then the H1 new

thetoad August 1, 2013 at 1:35 pm

could you yang out the rom drive and stick in a replacement sata drive? could you remove the broken rom drive and just stick in a HD mount?

Damian August 1, 2013 at 3:23 pm

Honestly not sure. I am sure you can open up the case and take stuff out/replace. However, I have never done this nor do I plan on using my B1 to experiment :D I am sure Mike at Duneplayer can give more color on what can/can’t be done.

Jon August 1, 2013 at 4:51 pm

Not sure how nobody has said this yet, but hopefully everything goes well with your third child! I’m still debating the Smart (plus 3d bd player when needed) vs 303 vs an Intel NUC (w/ XBMC). I doubt Ill ever decide…

Damian August 2, 2013 at 5:46 am

Thanks Jon, it will definitely be interesting when the 3rd arrives. My wife will finally get her girl though, so that is it for me and special requests :)

It will be curious to see if Dune can come through with the rumored Max3D that would have the full BD support, 3D Disc support, etc … The only fear is it will be priced at quite a premium

Cheers
Damian

SHSPVR August 17, 2013 at 9:20 pm

Yup Damian it has petty much has dry up with TV PVR market even hauppauge and other are shifted to other area now SageTV gone and soon even MCE will be lose cause.

TrackZ August 29, 2013 at 8:09 pm

Been using an A-400 for a while thinking that 3D would be a draw. My wife is fairly resistant to 3D though. Been ripping main movies to MKV on my Synology. I’m thinking now that if I wanted to skip 3D, I’d rather be running an older player capable of real BD menus off a full disc rip to ISO and just pay for the extra storage to keep the extra features on the discs.

Would the best bet for that be an older Dune Smart series player?
Do those players have any issues with playing the most recent BD releases?
Will those Dunes handle forced subs properly in a full disc rip to ISO?
Will those Dunes handle seamless branching without any stutter in a full disc rip to ISO?

Thanks!

Gus August 29, 2013 at 9:32 pm

Dune Smart Series is probably the best 2D and ISO media player. I don’t believe any media player supports forced subtitles correctly. If they don’t come up, you will have to turn them on manually.

Good luck trying to find a Dune Media Player since they have been discontinued. I believe Duneplayer.com was going to have one last batch of 1000 Dune D1 for about $380. So, you might be able to preorder one.

Vidkun June 22, 2014 at 7:12 pm

Hey Damian,

Any thoughts on the Dune HD Max?

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