MarkE19
Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2002
- Messages
- 18,074
- Solutions
- 1
- Reaction score
- 2,730
- Points
- 2,902
- Age
- 54
- Location
- Rainham Essex
Dune TV101 Review
As many on this section of the forum will already know I am a happy user of a Dune BD Prime 3.0 media player. So when Dune eventually managed to get the new TV101 to the UK I was asked by graham.myers to do a review of it and see how good (or bad) it is.
Connections are limited on this player, but that does make it less confusing I suppose. There is just the one USB socket which is on the front of the player, but a USB hub can be used to connect multiple HDDs etc. On the back of the player there are sockets for the power supply, HDMI cable, network cable and a breakout cable for composite video & analogue stereo audio which is supplied with the player.
As I have a non HDMI AV processor I was not able to test the audio performance other than through my plasma speakers.
Setup
Connect the power supply, HDMI lead from plasma and network cable from my router and thats it, everything is connected. Other than HDMI you can use the supplied breakout cable for Composite video and stereo analogue audio.
As an existing Dune owner I was already familiar with getting around the menus in the firmware, so it was quick & easy to get the player setup with my TV. New users shouldnt have too much trouble here though as everything is displayed as Tabs along the top of the screen, so using the cursor keys on the remote just move to the Setup tab and from there you can set the player to your TV.
All my media is stored either on my PC or my unRAID server/NAS and is shared already so all I had to do was point the TV101 at the shares. For the PC I could just use the Network Browser on the Sources tab to navigate to the PC, but for some reason the unRAID server is not seen (this is the same as on my Prime) so I had to use the Pop-up Menu button on the remote while on the Sources tab and select Create New Network Folder from the menu options. I was then able to enter the name of the new folder, IP address of my server and select the folder I wanted the link to point to, along with username & password if they had been required to access the server. I then had a shortcut to the server on the Sources tab of the Dune for easy access to my media. I could also add a folder to my PC but didnt worry as it was easy enough to get to via the network browser.
However to be able to create a shortcut to any of the Dune tabs requires System Storage to be setup on the player. To set this up I plugged a 2Gb USB flash drive into a USB hub that was plugged into the player. Then from the Setup tab you can initialise the flash drive, or a locally attached HDD as system storage. This is then used by the player to store shortcuts and store firmware updates while they are being installed etc.
The TV101 I received is Grahams demo/test unit so had previously been installed by him. Being lazy I just adjusted the settings as required and tried playing some test media. With a BluRay rip as soon as the bitrate hit ~40mbps it started freezing up or running slow with constant audio dropouts. So after trying to change a fair few settings such as Fast SMB enabled & disabled without any improvement I bit the bullet and did a full system reset. I then set it up again from scratch and since then everything has played fine phew! All settings were left at their defaults other than the output resolution and refresh rate which were set to best match my plasma.
Media Playback - Streamed
Most of my media is from DVD or BluRay as an ISO or full disc folder structure rip. I do have a few MKV and M2TS rips for testing as well.
DVD The TV101 has a full DVD license so playing a full disc rip gives the disc menu and plays back exactly the same as it would by putting the DVD into a standard DVD player. Playback of any of my rips was as good as from my Prime with fairly good upscaling to my 1080p plasma screen and even played a multi-angle rip that can be a problem on some media players.
BluRay The one thing missing from the TV101 compared to all the other Dune models (with the exception of the Lite 53D) is a full BluRay license. Therefore on pressing play on a full disc rip the player generates a playlist of all the available video files on the disc and showing the number of chapters for each one. I found that the first option always tends to be the main film with extras being further down the list. Pressing enter on the remote then started the film directly with no options to change audio settings as you would from the discs menu. However once the film has started pressing the Pop-up Menu button on the remote gave any available options such as Play List (i.e. chapter selection), Audio Tracks, Subtitles and several settings such as Zoom and Time Search.
I played several rips with bitrates of up to nearly 50mbps and they all played without judder or audio dropouts. All films could fast forward or rewind and jump chapters easily from the basic navigation buttons on the remote with the player responding quickly to any button presses.
MKV I have a couple of test MKVs created from both DVD & BluRay discs. Obviously these have no menu so the main film just starts when you play the file, but they all played back with no issues. Chapters could be jumped between from the Pop-up Menu options of using the skip buttons directly.
M2TS I have a program called WinX Blu-ray Decrypter that I use to rip a BD to a single M2TS file. These played fine but I was unable to fast forward or rewind and no chapter navigation was possible, I couldnt even pause the film. Im not sure if navigation is disabled by the program I used to rip the disc as a few other M2TS files created by other programs dont seem to have this problem.
Media Playback USB HDD
I connected a USB HDD to the TV101 with a couple of ISO & folder structure rips. One of these films was the high bitrate BluRay version of Avatar and they all played without any problems and in the same way as those streamed from my PC or NAS.
BBC iPlayer
The TV101 is the first Dune media player to be advertised as being able to access BBC iPlayer. So I had a search around the firmware to see if there was an app in there for accessing it, but I found nothing. So I opened the web browser and went to www.bbc.co.uk and clicked on the iPlayer link. This then went to a plain black screen with the web address ending with error.htm
I had not yet installed System Storage on the TV101 so did this and then retried, but the iPlayer website still failed to load. So as far as I can tell iPlayer is not yet available on the TV101 and so must be coming in an updated firmware. The specs for the TV101 do state that it is available via the NetFront web browser, but from what Dune said when they first added the web browser to their firmware it is currently a Mozilla browser that does not support Flash which is required to access iPlayer.
Dune DVB-T TV Stick
The Dune DVB-T TV Stick is yet another USB device that needs to fight for its place in the one and only USB socket on the TV101. Despite the name of the player suggesting that it is a TV device out of the box this is actually an optional extra and the TV101 does not have any TV tuner included in the box. As this is only a DVB-T tuner it wont receive the UKs DVB-T2 Freeview HD channels, but it does work with all the SD channels available from my local transmitter. It is also not an actual Freeview device so the likes of the Freeview red button services are not supported
The first time you plug the stick into the TV101 and then open it in the TV tab of the UI you are asked to select you Country and Local City. Well country is obviously United Kingdom but your local city actually requires you to select your local television transmitter, which for me was Crystal Palace. It did take me a minute or two searching the available list of so called cities to realise this though. But once selected the TV101 scanned the channels and automatically saved the TV & radio stations it found.
Now normally with Freeview you would have channel 1 being BBC1, ch2 being BBC2, ch3 ITV1 etc. but the TV101 lists the channels alphabetically which makes finding the channel you want more difficult than it should be. But you can rename the channels and even create folders and move channels into them as required. You also have the option of copying channels to the favourites tab.
Selecting a channel brought the TV program up quickly and in fairly good quality, but I did notice a bit of motion judder with any fast movement. Pressing the Info button on the remote brought up the Now & Next program information along with the resolution and bitrate of the channel, but it was not the best layout so not always easy to read.
Dune Keyboard
The Dune HD Qwerty is another optional device for use with a Dune media player. It is a Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad that also has all the keys from the Dune remote control. The keyboard is supplied with a very small USB Bluetooth receiver and a USB lead for charging its battery.
So why would you need a keyboard with a media player? Well you dont need one as you can enter alpha numeric characters from the remote in the same was as you would on a non-touchscreen mobile to text. But as the TV101 also has a web browser it makes life a lot easier to have a keyboard to enter web addresses etc. and is also helpful when setting up shortcuts to a NAS or PC.
Old vs New
So how does this new player with the new Sigma Designs 8670 chipset compare to their older models with the 8642 chipset? Well the clock speed is only slightly faster at 700MHz vs 667MHz which in boot times from a full power down about the same for both chipsets at approx. 42 seconds. The new chipset is smaller so produces less heat and uses less power, with the TV101 using 6w in use and 4w in software standby and the older Smart H1 using 8w & 6w and in full power down neither register any power usage. But with a HDD installed the H1 used 18w when playing media from the HDD, but this was using a Samsung 7200rpm 500Gb HDD so a green drive would use less power.
Conclusion
The TV101 is a very small unit that packs a punch for its size and stands up well beside the older but bigger players in the Dune line-up. It does have limited connections available but with the use of a USB hub and an AV system with HDMI it can do all that the other players can, except for its lack of a full BluRay license. But many users will simply want to go directly to the main feature of a disc rip rather than working their way through the adverts and waiting for the Java menu to load so this wont be an issue for many.
So if you are looking for a small media player that handles all the common file types and dont need all the extra connections then I think this would be a great media player to consider. At around £110 there are many media players out there that are cheaper, but you wont be getting the excellent support that Dune offer with regular firmware updates and one of the largest range of features of any media players. Yes they need to catch up with a few things like a built in video wall and access to iPlayer, but there is a new firmware due towards the end of December and I am hopeful that they will be adding these features.
Any questions then please ask
Mark.
As many on this section of the forum will already know I am a happy user of a Dune BD Prime 3.0 media player. So when Dune eventually managed to get the new TV101 to the UK I was asked by graham.myers to do a review of it and see how good (or bad) it is.
Connections are limited on this player, but that does make it less confusing I suppose. There is just the one USB socket which is on the front of the player, but a USB hub can be used to connect multiple HDDs etc. On the back of the player there are sockets for the power supply, HDMI cable, network cable and a breakout cable for composite video & analogue stereo audio which is supplied with the player.
As I have a non HDMI AV processor I was not able to test the audio performance other than through my plasma speakers.
Setup
Connect the power supply, HDMI lead from plasma and network cable from my router and thats it, everything is connected. Other than HDMI you can use the supplied breakout cable for Composite video and stereo analogue audio.
As an existing Dune owner I was already familiar with getting around the menus in the firmware, so it was quick & easy to get the player setup with my TV. New users shouldnt have too much trouble here though as everything is displayed as Tabs along the top of the screen, so using the cursor keys on the remote just move to the Setup tab and from there you can set the player to your TV.
All my media is stored either on my PC or my unRAID server/NAS and is shared already so all I had to do was point the TV101 at the shares. For the PC I could just use the Network Browser on the Sources tab to navigate to the PC, but for some reason the unRAID server is not seen (this is the same as on my Prime) so I had to use the Pop-up Menu button on the remote while on the Sources tab and select Create New Network Folder from the menu options. I was then able to enter the name of the new folder, IP address of my server and select the folder I wanted the link to point to, along with username & password if they had been required to access the server. I then had a shortcut to the server on the Sources tab of the Dune for easy access to my media. I could also add a folder to my PC but didnt worry as it was easy enough to get to via the network browser.
However to be able to create a shortcut to any of the Dune tabs requires System Storage to be setup on the player. To set this up I plugged a 2Gb USB flash drive into a USB hub that was plugged into the player. Then from the Setup tab you can initialise the flash drive, or a locally attached HDD as system storage. This is then used by the player to store shortcuts and store firmware updates while they are being installed etc.
The TV101 I received is Grahams demo/test unit so had previously been installed by him. Being lazy I just adjusted the settings as required and tried playing some test media. With a BluRay rip as soon as the bitrate hit ~40mbps it started freezing up or running slow with constant audio dropouts. So after trying to change a fair few settings such as Fast SMB enabled & disabled without any improvement I bit the bullet and did a full system reset. I then set it up again from scratch and since then everything has played fine phew! All settings were left at their defaults other than the output resolution and refresh rate which were set to best match my plasma.
Media Playback - Streamed
Most of my media is from DVD or BluRay as an ISO or full disc folder structure rip. I do have a few MKV and M2TS rips for testing as well.
DVD The TV101 has a full DVD license so playing a full disc rip gives the disc menu and plays back exactly the same as it would by putting the DVD into a standard DVD player. Playback of any of my rips was as good as from my Prime with fairly good upscaling to my 1080p plasma screen and even played a multi-angle rip that can be a problem on some media players.
BluRay The one thing missing from the TV101 compared to all the other Dune models (with the exception of the Lite 53D) is a full BluRay license. Therefore on pressing play on a full disc rip the player generates a playlist of all the available video files on the disc and showing the number of chapters for each one. I found that the first option always tends to be the main film with extras being further down the list. Pressing enter on the remote then started the film directly with no options to change audio settings as you would from the discs menu. However once the film has started pressing the Pop-up Menu button on the remote gave any available options such as Play List (i.e. chapter selection), Audio Tracks, Subtitles and several settings such as Zoom and Time Search.
I played several rips with bitrates of up to nearly 50mbps and they all played without judder or audio dropouts. All films could fast forward or rewind and jump chapters easily from the basic navigation buttons on the remote with the player responding quickly to any button presses.
MKV I have a couple of test MKVs created from both DVD & BluRay discs. Obviously these have no menu so the main film just starts when you play the file, but they all played back with no issues. Chapters could be jumped between from the Pop-up Menu options of using the skip buttons directly.
M2TS I have a program called WinX Blu-ray Decrypter that I use to rip a BD to a single M2TS file. These played fine but I was unable to fast forward or rewind and no chapter navigation was possible, I couldnt even pause the film. Im not sure if navigation is disabled by the program I used to rip the disc as a few other M2TS files created by other programs dont seem to have this problem.
Media Playback USB HDD
I connected a USB HDD to the TV101 with a couple of ISO & folder structure rips. One of these films was the high bitrate BluRay version of Avatar and they all played without any problems and in the same way as those streamed from my PC or NAS.
BBC iPlayer
The TV101 is the first Dune media player to be advertised as being able to access BBC iPlayer. So I had a search around the firmware to see if there was an app in there for accessing it, but I found nothing. So I opened the web browser and went to www.bbc.co.uk and clicked on the iPlayer link. This then went to a plain black screen with the web address ending with error.htm
I had not yet installed System Storage on the TV101 so did this and then retried, but the iPlayer website still failed to load. So as far as I can tell iPlayer is not yet available on the TV101 and so must be coming in an updated firmware. The specs for the TV101 do state that it is available via the NetFront web browser, but from what Dune said when they first added the web browser to their firmware it is currently a Mozilla browser that does not support Flash which is required to access iPlayer.
Dune DVB-T TV Stick
The Dune DVB-T TV Stick is yet another USB device that needs to fight for its place in the one and only USB socket on the TV101. Despite the name of the player suggesting that it is a TV device out of the box this is actually an optional extra and the TV101 does not have any TV tuner included in the box. As this is only a DVB-T tuner it wont receive the UKs DVB-T2 Freeview HD channels, but it does work with all the SD channels available from my local transmitter. It is also not an actual Freeview device so the likes of the Freeview red button services are not supported
The first time you plug the stick into the TV101 and then open it in the TV tab of the UI you are asked to select you Country and Local City. Well country is obviously United Kingdom but your local city actually requires you to select your local television transmitter, which for me was Crystal Palace. It did take me a minute or two searching the available list of so called cities to realise this though. But once selected the TV101 scanned the channels and automatically saved the TV & radio stations it found.
Now normally with Freeview you would have channel 1 being BBC1, ch2 being BBC2, ch3 ITV1 etc. but the TV101 lists the channels alphabetically which makes finding the channel you want more difficult than it should be. But you can rename the channels and even create folders and move channels into them as required. You also have the option of copying channels to the favourites tab.
Selecting a channel brought the TV program up quickly and in fairly good quality, but I did notice a bit of motion judder with any fast movement. Pressing the Info button on the remote brought up the Now & Next program information along with the resolution and bitrate of the channel, but it was not the best layout so not always easy to read.
Dune Keyboard
The Dune HD Qwerty is another optional device for use with a Dune media player. It is a Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad that also has all the keys from the Dune remote control. The keyboard is supplied with a very small USB Bluetooth receiver and a USB lead for charging its battery.
So why would you need a keyboard with a media player? Well you dont need one as you can enter alpha numeric characters from the remote in the same was as you would on a non-touchscreen mobile to text. But as the TV101 also has a web browser it makes life a lot easier to have a keyboard to enter web addresses etc. and is also helpful when setting up shortcuts to a NAS or PC.
Old vs New
So how does this new player with the new Sigma Designs 8670 chipset compare to their older models with the 8642 chipset? Well the clock speed is only slightly faster at 700MHz vs 667MHz which in boot times from a full power down about the same for both chipsets at approx. 42 seconds. The new chipset is smaller so produces less heat and uses less power, with the TV101 using 6w in use and 4w in software standby and the older Smart H1 using 8w & 6w and in full power down neither register any power usage. But with a HDD installed the H1 used 18w when playing media from the HDD, but this was using a Samsung 7200rpm 500Gb HDD so a green drive would use less power.
Conclusion
The TV101 is a very small unit that packs a punch for its size and stands up well beside the older but bigger players in the Dune line-up. It does have limited connections available but with the use of a USB hub and an AV system with HDMI it can do all that the other players can, except for its lack of a full BluRay license. But many users will simply want to go directly to the main feature of a disc rip rather than working their way through the adverts and waiting for the Java menu to load so this wont be an issue for many.
So if you are looking for a small media player that handles all the common file types and dont need all the extra connections then I think this would be a great media player to consider. At around £110 there are many media players out there that are cheaper, but you wont be getting the excellent support that Dune offer with regular firmware updates and one of the largest range of features of any media players. Yes they need to catch up with a few things like a built in video wall and access to iPlayer, but there is a new firmware due towards the end of December and I am hopeful that they will be adding these features.
Any questions then please ask
Mark.