Mother of all Media Players !!!

[soundsgreat]

Hi,

I've been reading a tonne of posts on these new age media players !! although most of them seems just about average there are some which are good !

But none of them have what I want (or folks like me want) Support for HD Formats (not just passthrough but also onboard decoding ) and such !

So I've been doing some research on them,I found this player a month back or so but thought someone will post but haven't seen anyone doing so ! So Am doing it myself !!

As the title says THIS IS IT,One true player to kick all other media players butt ! but wait thats not it,it also supposed do some serious butt kicking of Blu-Ray players aswell with inbuilt Blu-Ray Drive !!

Its called HD-Dune and model is prime 3.0 !!

Now what more you want ??

Here are the complete details and spec's of it !! sad news is although its available for a measly 450$ in US here in India one has to shell out approx 40K !! Pune fellow and some other have imported them and are quoting that price !!

The Web Link offcourse :

Dune BD Prime-3.0l


Hope this is as good as it comes,for me it certainly is :yahoo: !!

Regards.

 

[srinisundar]

Yes it is one of the good media player and cannot be compared with any other cheaper ones... But price is equivalent to One BD player + One WDTV + One Extreamer....

Any cheapo version comes it will help

 

[soundsgreat]

Hi,

Yes it is one of the good media player and cannot be compared with any other cheaper ones... But price is equivalent to One BD player + One WDTV + One Extreamer....

Well you are wrong my friend !! very very wrong !!

Give me the name of one BDP with 7.1 Analogue output less then 30K (above 30K there are couple but very few or almost none do Analogue HD audio) !! as with WDTV, Am not sure bout that aswell coz,

This uses Sigma Designs latest and top of range chip as opposed to normal one from Realtek used WDTV !! Extremer again do I need to ??

Even with india pricing Am not sure how you'll get a 7.1 Audio out BDP+ WDTV+ Extremer within 40K !!

So even with the indian price its hard to beat in any terms,US pricing ? well it takes the cakewalk without breaking a sweat !!

Any cheapo version comes it will help

Don't we all need such ?? but then again once the price is dropped there will be drop in quality aswell so thats sort of rules out the whole idea :sad: !!

Regards.

 

[srinisundar]

Give me the name of one BDP with 7.1 Analogue output less then 30K (above 30K there are couple but very few or almost none do Analogue HD audio) !! as with WDTV, Am not sure bout that aswell coz,

7.1 ,,,OK Never noticed it..... How many BD's Sorry RIPS will have 7.1 surround... Still have to catch it..... This is only an Media Player and have DTS-HD/ TRU-HD and priced more in the market( Prime have drive but over priced as such nearing $500) All market leaders are now into 3D this wil be outdated soon within few months.....

Who is going to watch a 25GB/50GB dowloaded rip in Dune.. Wonder....All rips with 4GB to 7GB will have only 5.1 DTS surround . Am i correct?

 

[spirovious]

Looks like oppo finish,
some reviews-

Review: HDI Dune BD Prime 3.0 (Updated) - MPC Club Community Board
Dune BD Prime 3.0 - AVForums.com

 

[ajinkya]

Hi Soundsgreat,
Good find. But it still does not mention playing SACD and DVD-A formats. Maybe with Blu-ray, these will be defunct in the future but for now, it does not seem like a universal player yet.

 

[srinisundar]

One silly question, whether i am right or NOT???:sad:

If the receiver is not having HD sound support / whether 7.1 analogue out support will help to get the sound.:sad:

 

[svenkateshsmart]

One silly question, whether i am right or NOT???:sad:

If the receiver is not having HD sound support / whether 7.1 analogue out support will help to get the sound.:sad:

Hi,

Your AVR receiver must also have 7.1 analog input for the 7.1 analog output so that you can hook up the BDP and the AVR receiver and enjoy the HD audio.

Cheers!

 

[spirovious]

Hi,

Your AVR receiver must also have 7.1 analog input
Cheers!

Remember ,this yr ONK has removed that feature.

 

[sam9s]

Correct me if I am wrong 7.1 is simply DTS-ES Discrete or DD-EX 5.1 in 6 channel mode. There are no inherent 7 channel encoded movies. So having a 7.1 analog out renders the discuession pointless.

 

[spirovious]

Correct me if I am wrong 7.1 is simply DTS-ES Discrete or DD-EX 5.1 in 6 channel mode. There are no inherent 7 channel encoded movies. So having a 7.1 analog out renders the discuession pointless.

LOTRS ,Xmen 3 is encoded in 6.1.

 

[nitinbose]

Yes it is one of the good media player and cannot be compared with any other cheaper ones... But price is equivalent to One BD player + One WDTV + One Extreamer....

Any cheapo version comes it will help

I believe a better idea would be an HTPC with the Xonar card! You can play any media.

Any opinions?

 

[soundsgreat]

Hi,

Correct me if I am wrong 7.1 is simply DTS-ES Discrete or DD-EX 5.1 in 6 channel mode. There are no inherent 7 channel encoded movies. So having a 7.1 analog out renders the discuession pointless.

Sam you are indeed wrong !! although what you say (the DTS-ES or DD EX) holds good for DVD it doesn't for Blu-Ray !!

You see in Blu-Ray they have a superior sound in form of DTS_MA (Master Audio) and DTS-HD and similarly Dolby True-HD !! they are 7.1 ch (if not every single one many of them) and if you have a capable system can enjoy the same !!

So thats the reason why I've stressed on those points,so the discussion is not at all pointless !!

Regards.

 

[santhosh]

Nice find Sreekanth. The product looks very good.

But like Srini mentioned, all you need is a BD Player and one Media Player like Xtreamer/WDTV Live or AC Ryan's Playon. BD player for watching Blu-rays and a Media Player for watching Rips. If the rips have HD audio, xtreamer can give you HD audio (the new firmwares allow it to do so). Let me explain how.

HD Audio formats like DTS Master Audio HD and Dolby Tru-HD are indeed superior as they are lossless formats as against 5.1 formats by Dolby and DTS which are compressed. The only way to transmit HD Audio to the AVR\Surround Sound Processor is via a HDMI Cable (High Definition Multimedia Interface). The 7.1 analog outs are useful only to someone who does not have a HDMI capable receiver. But still HDMI is the preferred interface if you want lossless audio.

BTW, HDMI cable is the only interface which allows you to transmit Full HD Video(1080p). Technically, even Component cables can transmit HD Video but there are certain regulations(HDCP) which prevent it from doing so. More on HDCP can be found here.

For High Definition Movies, we need to stop thinking analog now.

You see in Blu-Ray they have a superior sound in form of DTS_MA (Master Audio) and DTS-HD and similarly Dolby True-HD !!

 

[cmsajith]

Correct me if I am wrong 7.1 is simply DTS-ES Discrete or DD-EX 5.1 in 6 channel mode. There are no inherent 7 channel encoded movies. So having a 7.1 analog out renders the discuession pointless.

HD audio can be in 7.1

 

[venkatcr]

The India distributor for Dune brought along a piece and demonstrated it a couple of days ago. Though I did not see the demo, I was told the output is good. My concern is that Dune is made by a HK company. In my mind it will be better for us to wait for the initial rush to be over and for the product and the company to stabilize.

There are a number of options available. One of the easiest I can think of is a PC that acts as a central server having a Blu-ray drive and card from Asus. Asus has two cards - the Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe, and the Xonar HDAV1.3 Slim. Both deliver high performance.

I am sure all the other NMT manufacturers will start delivering their reference models with Blu-Ray player built in.

Cheers

 

[sam9s]

Sam you are indeed wrong !! although what you say (the DTS-ES or DD EX) holds good for DVD it doesn't for Blu-Ray !!
You see in Blu-Ray they have a superior sound in form of DTS_MA (Master Audio) and DTS-HD and similarly Dolby True-HD !! they are 7.1 ch (if not every single one many of them) and if you have a capable system can enjoy the same !!
So thats the reason why I've stressed on those points,so the discussion is not at all pointless !!
Regards.

Now since you have quoted me wrong with such conviction, let me adress this confusion in a bit explicite way.

Though I started with "correct me if I am wrong," infact I am pretty much right in saying that 7.1 "DISCRETE" channel sound does not exist. Pay attenten to the word discrete. The closest we have is a 6.1.

What the current recievers do is take the center surround channel (present in 6.1 setup) and dividing it in 2........it doesnt make it 2 different discrete channels

No movie is encoded in 7.1 discrete channels, they just use the cross-channel encoding also referred to as matrix encoding to split the rear center surround channel in to 2 (surround left and surround right)

Check out the following article for your (and every bodys) reference......

Surround Sound Formats - Dolby Digital, dts, THX Surround EX, dts Extended Surround - TimeForDVD.com

Pay attention to the following extract taken from the same article....

Both THX Surround EX and DTS-ES Matrix surround sound encode the surround back channel information into the surround left and surround right channels (similar to the way the center channel is encoded for Dolby Surround Pro-Logic). This cross-channel encoding is referred to as matrix encoding, since the surround back channel is encoded and later decoded (or derived) from those of the surround left and surround right channels. Because of this matrix encoding scheme, the surround back channel is not a true discrete channel and is technically considered a 5.1- channel format. And for this reason, they are sometimes referred to as "Dolby Digital 5.1 EX" or "DTS 5.1 ES". To refer to these matrix encoded Extended Surround formats as 6.1-channel would be wrong. (When we use quotes, as in the "7.1-channel" reference above, we are recognizing that it may not be a true discrete 7.1-channel system.)

So the discuesstion indeed renders pointless here.....

Regards
Sammy

 

[cmsajith]

No movie is encoded in 7.1 discrete channels, they just use the cross-channel encoding also referred to as matrix encoding to split the rear center surround channel in to 2 (surround left and surround right)

......So the discuesstion indeed renders pointless here.....

Regards
Sammy

Please try to read carefully before denying a comment from somebody. What he told was correct. Your argument holds correct only with DVDs not w/ BluRay. There are lot of BluRay movies (and rips also) in 7.1, but not all. The 7.1 format will be either DTS-MA or DD-TrueHD, not the DD or DTS.

The point is that whether the Dune has a DTS-HD or DD-TrueHD decoder builtin so that you dont require a HD capable AVR. I think it has. Also it has a BlueRay drive. But the limiting factor is the price. For the same or lesser price we can have a fully capable HTPC with all the features, but at the cost of configuration pain and power consumption or we can have an HD capable basic PC w/ BlueRay drive and a normal media player like WDLive/Xtreamer/ACRyanMini. Together it will definitely cost less than 30K.

 

[doors666]

an LG bd 390 will give you most of the functioanlity at less than 250$. It can output analog outs, it can play NTSC formatted disks connected thru USB, it can play mkv files also. It still leaves you with 200$ to play around with.... So what functionality dune has that is missing? with the 200 saved, get a network media player with a hard disk and still save money.:lol:

 

[sam9s]

Please try to read carefully before denying a comment from somebody. What he told was correct. Your argument holds correct only with DVDs not w/ BluRay. There are lot of BluRay movies (and rips also) in 7.1, but not all. The 7.1 format will be either DTS-MA or DD-TrueHD, not the DD or DTS..

DTS HD/MA or DD TrueHD does not necessarily meant the movie would be encoaded in 8 discrete channels, if you pick a BR say Star Treak 09, you would find the soundtrack as Dolby-TrueHD but still encoaded in 5.1. Its about the Bit rate and sampling rate that counts more.
But yes I agree there ARE still few title that has discrete 8 channels, but there are really very few, infact could only dig up 20,30 titles when searching, so the argument still holds with the fact if it is worth a 7.1 effort.