Dune HD media players have always occupied a special place in the market for these devices. They embodied the maximum
The Base 3D model is the successor to the media playerBase 3.0, and in the manufacturer’s line it is adjacent to the Dune HD Max (now Max 3D) and Dune HD Duo models. It differs from the first in the absence of a Bluray drive, and from the second – the presence of one bay for a 3.5-inch drive instead of two. The manufacturer's recommended retail price for the new product is 300 euros (about 3,000 hryvnia), but at the start of sales, sellers are still skimming the cream by selling Dune HD Base 3D with a price tag of 3,500 hryvnia. In a month or two the price should drop to that very 3000.
Technical characteristics of Dune HD Base 3D
Dimensions and weight
430x252x55 mm, 2.45 kg
CPU
Sigma Designs SMP8673
Hard drive bay
1.3.5 inches
Memory
RAM 1 GB, ROM 4 GB
Connectors
HDMI 1.4, USB x3, SD, optical, coaxial, composite, component, Ethernet
Wi-Fi support
There is
Equipment
Remote control, HDMI cable, Ethernet cable, video cable “tulip”. wifi antenna
Technical characteristics of such a playermaximum for such devices – There is not a single parameter that is not supported in this model. The buyer of such a new product has the right to count on any connections and any types of media – from SD cards to external and internal hard drives. There is support for Ethernet and Wi-Fi and all types of connections to the home video system – everything is provided.
The package includes an HDMI cable,Ethernet (a bit short, in my opinion) and component video cable. There is an antenna module to enhance the Wi-Fi signal, a standard Dune HD remote and a set of plug adapters for the power cable.
Appearance
The body looks strict, massive and reminiscent of the times of VCRs and then DVD players. Those who use component audio-video systems at home will appreciate the appearance.
The hard drive compartment allows you to extremely aesthetically place terabytes of your favorite video inside the media player.
Remote control in comparison with the remote of our office TV. Looks a little less.
The front panel has a headphone output,SD card slot and USB port for easy connection of “guest” temporary flash drives (no need to pull the player out of its “shelter”), risking pulling out all the connected wires.
The player uses active cooling, no need to complain about the noise of the cooler.
On the left side of the rear panel there is an output for an external antenna, an additional two USB ports, an HDMI output and the entire immodest set of other video and audio connections.
More of a fashion statement and part of style than reasonablenecessity – separate power switch. It reminds me more of a laser printer, but it’s damn nice to press it, feeling its own importance, and it all really works to create the image of an expensive device for an equally expensive home video system.
Interface
The media player interface is nice with bright colorsicons. Various design themes are supported, but these are more likely marketing enhancements. Special thanks (not even a thank you, but a bow to the ground) is the ability to take screenshots, integrated by the developers. This function can be assigned to one of two buttons: power or disk eject. The main menu consists of 5 items: favorites (customizable by the user), online services, settings, connected sources and online TV channels. The ribbon of icons scrolls, the cursor with the icon's signature always remains in the center of the screen.
The most interesting, of course, is the settings section. I have never seen such a detailed menu in any other media player. I believe that such things do not exist in nature.
In addition to the Russian language, the interface also supports Ukrainian.
Date and time are adjusted automatically – there would be an internet connection. A trifle, but nice. And such “trifles” Dune HD has dozens.
Video settings allow you to select the video output source.
No less detailed sound settings. Just a pleasure to see, honestly. Yes, you can see for yourself.
In addition to Ethernet, there is support for Wi-Fi.
To enter a password, a virtual keyboard is used, which must be navigated using the navigation keys on the remote control.
Cyrillic layout is supported. It is useful for, say, Twitter and entering search phrases on online services.
The list of applications includes a browser (as I understand it, one of the Opera versions on WebKit with support for Flash Lite 3 is used), there are Internet radio services. You can use the Samba SMB server.
In the design section, you can choose not only a theme, but also enable/disable some icons. Such a “designer” I think you won’t find the interface anywhere else either.
It would seem that such a not very complicated thing as the settings for subtitles and audio tracks, selected by default, is also done beautifully.
In order not to list all the settings from the subsection“Other”, I’m just giving their screenshots. I would like to say separately, perhaps, about two cool things. Firstly, after turning on the player, it was already found to have more recent firmware (which suggests that the developers are constantly working on it). And, secondly, the display on the front panel is more informative than usual – it displays all the current names of the menu subsections you are in, and when playing – file names. In this case, in standby mode, as is customary in video equipment, the display shows the current time.
The current version of the firmware.
In the “Applications” section arepopular video services, as well as applications written in Flash (with the A icon in the upper left corner of the icon). I see no point in dwelling on them in detail.
There are simple flash games for those who like to brighten uptime. Although in our time of information technology, people are more accustomed to consuming information in their free time. And there are more than enough such possibilities in this device – from applications of specific services to the browser. Probably, it would be possible to interest and distract a child with Tetris and Snake, but very young children will not be interested in this, and older children, if offered such entertainment, will most likely give you a contemptuous look and take a smartphone with Angry Birds out of their pocket.
The television channels section allows you to watch 24 channels, Rain TV, as well as two sports channels of the “Surface TV” group via the Internet. The Divan.TV service requires registration.
TV channel 24 has long been engaged in its presenceon the Internet, therefore in this application there is an opportunity not only to watch broadcasting, but also thematic releases of programs. As well as individual news stories.
Service oll.tv is relatively new, but already has its own interesting features, for example, in addition to films and TV series, it allows you to watch live broadcasts of sports matches. Much of the content is free, some is available only to subscribers. The subscription price starts from 1 hryvnia – users are taught to pay for legal content in very modest increments. The menu itself does not look very aesthetically pleasing – It’s clear that the application is still being refined and refined, but the service is only at the beginning of its journey and I’m sure it has a good future. By the way, next week the service begins showing the second season of the excellent TV series “Kitchen” – episodes will appear immediately after their premiere broadcast. Highly recommend.
The online service looks even more interestingMegogo. The last time I saw his app on a console, it looked much less interesting and less attractive. In this application, the catalog is more convenient, the information is better structured. There are selections of TV shows, including movie news with trailers, new computer games, and even 100-second episodes from our colleagues from keddr.com. The collection of licensed films is constantly growing, most of them are available for free viewing. Movie lists have three presentation options – in the form of large icons, small icons and text lines. In general, use such a service on a TV, and not on a computer connected to the Internet – pure pleasure. If only because monitor diagonals end at 27 inches, and decent TVs only start at 32 inches.
Finally, the main section, for which everythingstarted – file playback. Everything here is like clockwork – connecting to the media server does not create any issues. However, these technologies have long been standardized and work equally well on any media players.
In the dry residue
Of course, at a price of 3000-3500 hryvnia,The device turned out to be what is called “not for everyone”. But it was done so correctly that there is no doubt – behind the development are people who perfectly understand what the most sophisticated users of such systems want. A huge number of settings, support for everything possible to the maximum, and even work with 3D films – the last stronghold of high technology has fallen. It is possible to install a hard drive, a separate external antenna, support for global and domestic video services – everything is done for the most comfortable viewing and listening. Even the appearance of this player works to create a pleasant experience – made “expensive” and what is called “in a rich way”. From what could cause irritation – non-obvious control of return from video playback. Out of habit, when I selected the button to return to the previous menu level on the remote control, I was thrown into the main menu. Until I accidentally started pressing the “stop” key, which led exactly one menu level up. It would seem – A Blu-ray drive is not enough for complete happiness, but the whole world is already switching to digital video distribution – all carriers are in fact already dead or will soon be completely dead. And the world will be ruled by video on demand, online subscriptions to services, and torrents, of course. And the Dune HD 3D player is as ready as possible for all this, and in the future, with the advent of new firmware, it will be even more ready. Which allows us to give him the highest awardgg– “editor's choice”.
5 reasons to buy Dune HD Base 3D:
- perfectly complements the home audio-video system;
- the ability to install a 3.5-inch hard drive;
- wide range of settings;
- 3D support
- Maximum support for Ukrainian video services (Megogo, oll.tv, divan.tv).
2 reasons not to buy Dune HD Base 3D:
- high price;
- requires a lot of space.
