Impresisons and/or videos of Dune Hd players with MyMovies
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MyMovies works well for the Dune but has many limitations:
1. Only made for movies, not TV series, music, photos or other media
2. Designed only to work with a single disk volume thus will not combine disks into a single index
3. Currently doesn't work well with fan art backgrounds
4. Requires $100 in donations to use all featurees
There are several more
Currently, it is the only game in town. Several other programs are currently under development to supplement the features that MyMovies is lacking. For right now, I will continue to use MyMovies until something better comes along, or the developers overcome the many limitations. Please keep in mind that MyMovies works best for Windows Media Center, not the Dune.
1. Only made for movies, not TV series, music, photos or other media
2. Designed only to work with a single disk volume thus will not combine disks into a single index
3. Currently doesn't work well with fan art backgrounds
4. Requires $100 in donations to use all featurees
There are several more
Currently, it is the only game in town. Several other programs are currently under development to supplement the features that MyMovies is lacking. For right now, I will continue to use MyMovies until something better comes along, or the developers overcome the many limitations. Please keep in mind that MyMovies works best for Windows Media Center, not the Dune.
That's more negative than necessary.
1. Works fine for tv series like Sopranos or Firefly DVDs. Just throwing some divx titles in a folder won't identify well automatically but you can manually select the movie and that will work too.
2. True the index won't combine into one master index but you can monitor several drive letters or shares working at once no problem, I am using four at once. On the dune these are presented as four separate resources on the main page.
3. You get what they give you or you go manual and add your own. Can be done easily though.
4. Free version gives you everything you could want with the Dune player except for the background image which will cost $20 for the 720p versions. The other higher cost features have nothing to do with the dune integration like automated movie ripping etc. Also if you add movies that are not in the my movies master database you can EARN these points, you are not required to pay money for them. Really that is a good system IMO.
That's more negative than necessary.
1. Works fine for tv series like Sopranos or Firefly DVDs. Just throwing some divx titles in a folder won't identify well automatically but you can manually select the movie and that will work too.
2. True the index won't combine into one master index but you can monitor several drive letters or shares working at once no problem, I am using four at once. On the dune these are presented as four separate resources on the main page.
3. You get what they give you or you go manual and add your own. Can be done easily though.
4. Free version gives you everything you could want with the Dune player except for the background image which will cost $20 for the 720p versions. The other higher cost features have nothing to do with the dune integration like automated movie ripping etc. Also if you add movies that are not in the my movies master database you can EARN these points, you are not required to pay money for them. Really that is a good system IMO.
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Well of the 5 players I have the Dune, so far, seems to be the best in terms of playing whatever I try and playing it the "logical" way. Now "logical" is subjective but as an example, if I rip a entire DVD I would like a networked media player to play the ripped content in the same way a hardware player would a play physical DVD (menus, chapters, all that stuff). The Dune does this. Not all players do.
MyMovies is a fair addition. It doesn't perform magic but it does simplify the creation of the index. You can create a index by hand but it would be tedious and error prone to maintain.
MyMovies does more then I need (such as maintain a list of cast/crew for each movie) but I'm sure some people like that.
MyMovies currently creates some entries in the dune_folder.txt files that are incorrect in the eyes of many of us. I resorted to writing a little utility to address this problem. Anytime after I update the index with MyMovies I run this utility and it corrects these entries.
All in all I am very satisfied with the Dune player and think that the technology has finally reached the point where I believe I can deploy a system in my home and the family can actually use it without (many) problems.
Well of the 5 players I have the Dune, so far, seems to be the best in terms of playing whatever I try and playing it the "logical" way. Now "logical" is subjective but as an example, if I rip a entire DVD I would like a networked media player to play the ripped content in the same way a hardware player would a play physical DVD (menus, chapters, all that stuff). The Dune does this. Not all players do.
MyMovies is a fair addition. It doesn't perform magic but it does simplify the creation of the index. You can create a index by hand but it would be tedious and error prone to maintain.
MyMovies does more then I need (such as maintain a list of cast/crew for each movie) but I'm sure some people like that.
MyMovies currently creates some entries in the dune_folder.txt files that are incorrect in the eyes of many of us. I resorted to writing a little utility to address this problem. Anytime after I update the index with MyMovies I run this utility and it corrects these entries.
All in all I am very satisfied with the Dune player and think that the technology has finally reached the point where I believe I can deploy a system in my home and the family can actually use it without (many) problems.
OK cool. I guess I meant to emphasize I was looking for impressions of the player more than MyMovies- I just could not find anyone on the MyMovies forum that had a Dune player yet. I know that the Dune guys have sent Brian a player so he can work with it, so I would imagine the fan art backgrounds and the other issues will be fixed before long. As for th donations issue, I have long ago exceeded that- I moderate over at the forums and have been talking with Brian since about version 1.2.
My hopes are that the Dune can be interfaced with so that a combination WHS and dune player can get to the Kaliedescape experience with Blu Ray. I couldn't care less about DIVX, or any other file formats- I buy DVDs and only rip the ones I own.
As for TV series, the only ones I own are DVD collections of them and that is where one major feature I have wanted of a long time could come in: Direct chapter access. Kaliedescape has this and it allows you to jump to an episode on a multi-disk tav series season compilation directly, ignoring what disk it is on, bypassing any menu, and taking you right there. Great for 24 and things like it. It would also be awesome for movies- just click the chapter selection button and be taken to exactly where you want to go, like with Kaliedescape.
Could anyone youtube the experience with Dune, from power up to movie playing? Can you skip the menu and just start the movie in all cases? Anyone here using a WHS box with it?
Thank you.
OK cool. I guess I meant to emphasize I was looking for impressions of the player more than MyMovies- I just could not find anyone on the MyMovies forum that had a Dune player yet. I know that the Dune guys have sent Brian a player so he can work with it, so I would imagine the fan art backgrounds and the other issues will be fixed before long. As for th donations issue, I have long ago exceeded that- I moderate over at the forums and have been talking with Brian since about version 1.2.
My hopes are that the Dune can be interfaced with so that a combination WHS and dune player can get to the Kaliedescape experience with Blu Ray. I couldn't care less about DIVX, or any other file formats- I buy DVDs and only rip the ones I own.
As for TV series, the only ones I own are DVD collections of them and that is where one major feature I have wanted of a long time could come in: Direct chapter access. Kaliedescape has this and it allows you to jump to an episode on a multi-disk tav series season compilation directly, ignoring what disk it is on, bypassing any menu, and taking you right there. Great for 24 and things like it. It would also be awesome for movies- just click the chapter selection button and be taken to exactly where you want to go, like with Kaliedescape.
Could anyone youtube the experience with Dune, from power up to movie playing? Can you skip the menu and just start the movie in all cases? Anyone here using a WHS box with it?
Thank you.
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