New Dune HD Max and HD Smart anticipation thread Q3 2010 - Page 271

No reason to scare the man! As long as there's room to copy one disk's worth of data at a time, you should be able to move the disks from a PC to a NAS one at a time, reformatting one and then copying files over the network to fill it up.

Unless you choose to do RAID, that is. Which IMO is totally unnecessary for movie storage.

I used to stream all my media frim my W7 PC, but my collection kept growing. So I built an unraid server, which I use to stream all my media throughout the house without any lag.

Another question: I currently have a Linksys WRT54G router. Will its ethernet connections be fast enough for BR files, or do I need something faster?


Whew! Thanks for that, Scott.

I hadn't consider doing one disc at a time since I do, in fact, use RAID, and consider it to be a very good idea. I don't want to have to re-rip 2TB worth of content a second time.

It should be fast enough, but you will have to test it to find out!

That is what I use and never have had a problem for any bd's. I only use full isos with menus no 720p mkv crap. The wrt54g is a champ!!!

Great, thanks!

How many players do you have - more then one BD at at time?

I run two Dune D1's both cat 6 connected to a Linksys router (about 3 years old). The router is connected to a HP Procurve switch. All movies are either full BD rips in ISO format or just the BD movie using ClownBD and are on a Synology DS1512 NAS.

My kids are constantly fighting over which movie they want to watch and so many Friday or Saturday nights I have my 7 year old downstairs watching one BD and my 3 year old daughter watching another. With this configuration I have never had any issues.

Prior to storing all my movies on one NAS, I used to have a Mediasonic external RAID box connected via USB 2.0d up to one Dune unit storing all of my BD's and a smaller Netgear NAS storing my DVD's, pictures, etc. I was never able to watch two BD's at the same time with this setup as the Dune unit which was not directely connected to the Mediasonic box had horrible video stutter. I could however watch a DVD on one and a BD on the other. Was a configuration nightmare.

I am simplifying my explanation here, but the bottom line is, you don't need a high quality router for streaming BD's throughout your home. A good quality NAS or "unraid" PC configuration housing all of your information is more than enough. Speaking from my experience, keeping all of your moveies, etc in one SMB shared location is key.

Will be adding a third Dune box soon. Will be interesting to see what happens....

Cheers,
Shawn

New Dune firmware 120329_2012 was posted on

http://www.mpcclub.com/forum/showthr...=28327&page=11

^Who wants to be the first canary to try those?

Not me. Lol!

The changelog that was mentioned did not have much in it.

Firmware 120329_2012
Submitted by 04/22/2012 author pavlik
The new version of firmware ( 120329_2012 ) for Dune HD players

- Fixed formatting to NTFS, now the player is properly formats the hard drives of up to 2Tb in the NTFS file system and the computer immediately identifies them correctly.
- Removed not working application ivi.ru, will continue to be added to a separate plugin.
- Fixed a problem with the inability to play the files with some USB HDD volume over 2TB Hard Drive Seagate FlexGo.
- Improved reset: you can select a "full" and "soft" reset.
- Added two new ZOOM-mode (non-linear and nonlinear tensile strain on the entire screen).
- Improvements in initial setup wizard video mode: with HDMI-connected automatically offers the best video mode according to information from the EDID-TV.

I want to know more about those two new Zoom modes. Maybe that will be one-step vertical stretch for CIH projection. That would be sweet. The way it is now, its a multiple button step.

So, it only shows elapsed time, or does it show track/chapter numbers as well, when playing ISO's?

VMat

I recently remuxed all my blurays to mkvs... But now I've noticed that my popcorn hour c200 has problems with the PGS subtitles... The timings are wrong and they hang on the screen too long... For this reason i am contemplating purchasing a Dune Smart D1... My question is, does this Dune handle PGS subtitles in mkvs flawlessly?

I have never had a problem with MKV+PGS on any Dune.

Thank you... Now i wish i would have ordered one before the price hike... I literally had one sitting in my shopping cart days before the increase... Now i have to pay extra due to my procrastination...

Yes it does. I've had no problems with them.

The subtitle issues you're talking about might have something to do with your remuxing, however. Can you play those MKVs with flawless subtitles on your PC? If so, you'll probably be set on the Dune.

I've had a Smart B1 for a number of months. It works great for streaming from my NAS and adequately as a DVD player, but I've had trouble with Blu-rays. I get occasional stuttering or even freezing of both audio and video and more frequent audio stuttering or dropouts. And I had to jump through hoops to get "Hugo" to even load. Since pretty much all the Blu-rays I've watched have been from NetFlix, I thought it might be a problem with the discs. (Blu-ray puts the information layer much closer to the surface than on DVDs -- or HD DVDs, for that matter -- which makes it harder for the player to focus past surface dirt or scratches.) But when I put the most recent problem BD, "The Descendents" in a nothing-special Samsung unit, it played right through without a hitch. Has anyone else had problems like these? If so, are they resolvable, or is the B1 just not a very good Blu-ray player?

Thanks.

Is this via network or via HDD? If its via network, then you may have a weak chain in your network. Either a bad switch or a bad NIC somewhere. Do you have Fast SMB turned on?

I assume since he has a B1, it's actual disks he's having issues with. Netflix definitely has been know to cause people problems. Do you have any of your own disks that are causing you issues?

The remux is fine and subtitles are perfect on VLC PC... The issue is well documented with the popcorn hour c200, and there is no fix on the horizon, including the upcoming firmware update...

What is the best/most recommended jukebox for Dune Smart D1? Its time for me to start doing some research... Currently i use YAMJ + Eversion on C200 and i love the look and fuctionality...

There are no problems with streamed media. My issues are with physical Blu-ray Discs.

I own just a few Blu-rays and haven't watched any of them yet. I was ready to pin the blame on NetFlix until a disc that had been trouble on the B1 worked fine on another player. Also, something glitchy has happened on every Blu-ray I've watched all the way through, which would be ten or so at this point. If it were a problem with the discs, I'd think lots of people would have similar issues and be up in arms. So I'm wondering about the B1 at this point.

Your description sounds a lot like reading issues in the BD drive. Whether that's a result of the discs themselves or the actual drive is the question. With rental discs, it's always prudent to wash and buff the BD and see if that helps. Cleaning the BD drive's laser is another possible option if you feel comfortable fiddling around in those innards. A q-tip and alcohol are all that's needed once you gain access. There will be a metal plate covering the loader, and once that's off the laser is right there. Assuming this is not a dirty disc issue, even a tiny fleck of grunge on the laser can do this.

BD is FAR more finicky with respect to dirt or defects on discs, compared to DVD. Tolerances are extremely tight. As for Hugo refusing to load, that's a separate issue related to programming.

I had almost exactly the same problem. Mike (hope you bought it from him) took great care of me and ended up replacing the whole unit. I now have a new generation unit.

Please reference an earlier post about needed a "fix" for the DTS HD MA audio processing.

My unit was about three months old; but I experienced the problem on two of three BD discs I played (real live physical shiny discs, not stuff on the Synology NAS).

So MD Riggs, it is probably not your imagination. Caveat; my discs were in mint condition; Terminator 2 and the Grateful Dead Movie. I can't vouch for the condition of the Netflix discs.

Mike was not exactly sure if the problem was due to a fault related to the serial ATA bus and/or the BD drive itself. He did ask me to send along my most problematic disc. He eventually replicated the problem on my unit and one other.

Does the Dune Smart D1 respect the force flag for subtitles in MKVs? In the following review, I see that it has failed that test... That would be a deal breaker for me, as the only reason why i need to upgrade my popcorn hour c200 is for better PGS subtitle support. I'm sure this was probably fixed in a firmware update.. Can anyone confirm?

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2011...-media-player/

Force flags are NOT supported in MKV. My solution is to leave subs on all the only use forced subs in my MKVs.

Agh... not happy about this... I've remuxed my 500+ blurays into MKVs and kept english + forced subs for each movie... I then manually added the force flag using mkvmerge gui... I guess i would have to toggle subtitles on/off for each movie for it to "work" for me... I thought this Dune upgrade would be "perfect" for me...

Edit: is there any possibility/rumor that this can be resolved with a firmware update?

You can just toggle the subs button when the movie starts when you see the forced subs mentioned on the OSD. I've done that in the past.

That feature has been on the firmware wish list for over two years. Rumor has it that its a Sigma issue while others say that its a HDi problem. I doubt we will ever see it fixed.