[abhi_web]

Hi all,


First of all thanks to all of you for all the great help you guys are providing. It's awesome to see the knowledge and experience of forum members. Its even more wonderful when I see people like you share that wealth so freely with newbies and people like me.


I need your help on choosing a media player and bluray player solution for me.


But before that here is little bit of background information which may be helpful in understanding my needs.


I'm presently trying to simplify and integrate the digital media content in my home w.r.t storage and delivery. I've started putting contents on the Synology DS209 NAS (which is really working great for my expectations). I've also laid out a gigabit ethernet network throughout my house.

Now only thing missing is a decent media player and a bluray player.


(BTW I don't have any blu ray collection as of now but intend to start buying BluRays once infrastructure is in place).


Expectations from Digital Media Player

------------------------------------------

1. Extensive support for media type/codecs/containers.

2. Playback 1080p media (captured by my camcorder) sitting on the NAS.

3. Playback bluray media rips from NAS.

4. Has better internet content availability (e.g. YouTube,Netflix...etc.) I know, I can't desire it to have everything, but looking for whatsoever best is available.

5. Want stutter free experience. Wish that streaming from NAS to TV is as smooth as possible.

6. Ease of use (Better GUI) (Better organization and display of contents).



Expectations from BluRay Player

-----------------------------------

1. Wish that the BluRay player has capability to play any or all bluray media.

2. Faster load times, lesser noise.



Now here is my dilemma.

1. Initially I started looking for blu-ray player. Found that Oppo has best reputation in the industry. But then I had no idea about which media player to go for.

2. Then came across BDI Dune Prime 3.0. This seems to be very good reputable media player and has a BluRay player too.

3. So it made sense to me to go with Dune Prime, rather than separate mediaplayer/bluray player combination.

4. Now I'm not sure how good is DunePrime's BluRay player feature w.r.t Oppo or any other standalone bluray player.

5. Also found that Dune Prime has gigabit ethernet port but sigma chip inside doesn't support gigabit. That leaves me confused

I've enough money to be able to purchase Prime 3.0 right now. Or any other standalone media player + good quality BD player. But I don't have enough money to be able to continuously upgrade my setup.


I thought of putting it all out here and ask for the help from the Gurus of this forum.


What do you think will be best solution to my requirements.


Dune Prime 3.0 or some BD player + popbox/PlayOnHD/PCH-A200/C-200/.....and so on?


I'm quite a bit novice in this. I know tons of information is spread across various threads in this forum. But the more I read, the more I'm getting confused.


I really appreciate all your help in narrowing down my choices.


Thanks

Abhi



============================================================ ===============================

Denon AVR-1910, Definitive Tech ProCinema 800. Synology DS209 NAS, Gigabit LAN network. Panasonic 54G10

 

[mlknez]

Hello and welcom abhi_web,


The Dune 3.0 Prime is a very good player and will hit the majority of your expectations.


Youtube, Netflix, etc. are really not directly supported right now, but UPnP play is. Software such as play-on ( www.playon.tv ) will use this ability to server up things like Hulu, CBS, Netflix, Youtube, Amazon VOD and others to the Dune Prime 3.0. In my opinion, the Dune Prime 3.0 does the best job of network streaming Blu-ray. The latest shipments of the product have very quiet blu-ray drives in them as well. The GUI that ships standard is very basic but can be enhanced quite simply with free software ( www.mymovies.dk ).


You would have no need to have a streamer with over a 100Mbps network connection as you plan on having your files on a NAS device and the highest bitrate files are currently under 60Mbps. In real world testing, the Dune supports throughput of approximately 88Mbps over it's 10/100 port. Keep in mind that the processors on these devices are not very powerful for general calculations, so a higher speed ethernet interface would generally put a higher load on the processors which would slow other more important operations.


The video and audio quality of this device is very good and will be more constrained by your output device than by this source device in most cases. Remember this is a $450 device not a $4000 one.

 

[saiga6360]

You can try it the other way around and get a blu-ray player that can do media streaming. The LG BD390 is a fairly mature product that can do almost any of your requirements except perhaps ISO, and the GUI is nothing to write home about. You can probably find this fairly cheap now since LG is coming out with a newer model with a built-in hard drive (BD390 has 1 GB flash drive).

 

[abhi_web]

mlknez, thanks for helping me buildup more confidence on dune prime.


saiga, Thanks for making me think other way around. Not sure why I am not able to get confidence on LG (or other off the shelf) product from retail stores vs. Dune/PCH kind of products. I guess it might me my own prejudice or the lack of information and lack of user community involvement for these products. But I would certainly look into these products. Thanks for the great help.

 

[abhi_web]

Hi all,


Just a quick question, other than DunePlayer.com, who else are reputable n reliable re-sellers for dune 3.0 prime?

DunePlayer.com is currently out of stock with these. Wondering where else can I buy these from?


Thanks,

Abhi

 

[ChrisMilne]

Unfortunately it seems like all of these things are not for the masses as you have to get on a waiting list (not very high volume production). I guess it would be easy to sell though if you dont like it.


I've also been weighing these options, but with 3D around the corner and having a 5.1 reciever that needs analog inputs makes the decisions even harder (i know the Dune has multichannel analog outs but it can't mix 7.1 to 5.1 - though i honestly don't know if thats standard in typical Bluray players either). I was thinking of going with the cheaper Oppo blurday and the Dune Base...but if i get the new Samsung 3d TV I guess ill be getting a 3D bluray player package. I'm not really that sold on 3D but if i'm going to pay big soon for a TV i don't want to be immediately outdated. Technology sucks!

 

[SilverBlade]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisMilne /forum/post/18355777


Unfortunately it seems like all of these things are not for the masses as you have to get on a waiting list (not very high volume production). I guess it would be easy to sell though if you dont like it.


I've also been weighing these options, but with 3D around the corner and having a 5.1 reciever that needs analog inputs makes the decisions even harder (i know the Dune has multichannel analog outs but it can't mix 7.1 to 5.1 - though i honestly don't know if thats standard in typical Bluray players either). I was thinking of going with the cheaper Oppo blurday and the Dune Base...but if i get the new Samsung 3d TV I guess ill be getting a 3D bluray player package. I'm not really that sold on 3D but if i'm going to pay big soon for a TV i don't want to be immediately outdated. Technology sucks!

It would actually be very hard to compete with the Dune Base in terms of features, and I don't think you would be outdated immediately if you purchase it.


For one thing, not every movie has a 'proper' 3D version out. Only those movies recorded in 3D will look 'proper', like Avatar. Any older movies that are put out in 3D will be 'fake' 3D. The Dune players will only be 'outdated' once the entire movie industry goes to 3D filming - which won't happen for a while due to the expensive cameras needed.


Also, 3D TV's coming out will ALSO display non-3D content.


So, don't worry about buying this and fearing it'll be outdated immediately. It won't be outdated for a while.

 

[abhi_web]

Hi all,


Thanks a lot for all the help during this phase.


I recently purchased Dune Prime (which I'll receive tomorrow) and suddenly realized that I made a mistake few months back while purchasing a laptop.


Whole idea of getting Dune was that it will be able to play back blu-ray rips smoothly from the NAS.


Now I realized that the laptop I purchased few months ago doesn't have a blu-ray drive.

(


How do I start ripping the blu-ray and move to NAS?


Are there any good external blu-ray drive options available? If yes, what are those? What should I look for while purchasing a blu-ray drive for media playback (as against data storage drive)?

Are there issues with USB based Blu-ray players? Will the ripping s/w read the contents smoothly and save accordingly?


Sorry for so many questions.....just that got bit worried about lacking this feature.


Thanks again for all the help.

-- abhi

 

[HSD]



Hello and welcom abhi_web,


The Dune 3.0 Prime is a very good player and will hit the majority of your expectations.


Youtube, Netflix, etc. are really not directly supported right now, but UPnP play is. Software such as play-on ( www.playon.tv ) will use this ability to server up things like Hulu, CBS, Netflix, Youtube, Amazon VOD and others to the Dune Prime 3.0.


SD- Hi I am trying to get you tube working on Dune 3.0

do i have to purchase playon.tv? I am trying to save the link of youtube and trying to run it as a url link. But it comes up with a message that it requires Adobe flashplayer/flash players etc

How can i get around it if I didnt want to purchase playon.tv?