Dune Firmware Zone

Dune HD Duo 4K

This version is a small update which includes a few new features,
improvements and fixes.
In particular, this version includes some of the changes previously
implemented in the firmware of newer models (in r13 firmware versions).
NOTE: There were a lot of internal changes, so this version probably
includes some bugs (will be fixed in further versions).

This firmware is a minor update for the previous firmware version
(170602_0153_r11) with regression fixes and some other small improvements
and fixes.

• Bugfix: SMB server did not work properly in some cases, e.g. access from
  PC to HDD attached to Dune HD box via SMB using simple
  "\player_ip_address" syntax could not work. The bug was introduced in
  the previous firmware version (170602_0153_r11) when implementing SMB
  server vulnerability fix.

• Bugfix: MOVIES and MUSIC RC buttons were not supported in some cases.

• Bugfix: covers in FLAC files could not be shown.

• Bugfix: music playback crash could occur in some cases when playing a CUE
  sheet with multiple ALAC files.

• Bugfix: HTTP/TS playback dune_param lower_cpu_load:1 could cause severe
  distortions with bitrates more than 5 Mbit/s in some cases. This is
  important for plugins which use this dune_param.

• Bugfix: GUI crash could occur in some cases after returning to the screen
  with on-screen-keyboard UI control.

• Bugfix: GUI crash could occur in some rare cases when stopping playback
  immediately after start.

• Bugfix: wrong PIDs were saved for plugins.

• Improvement: added correct support for adding plugin entry point to
  "Favorites" even if plugin has multiple entry points, and even if entry
  point is on the main screen. So it is now possible to easily add for
  example "My Collection" or "Movies" to Favorites (and enable auto start
  for them, if needed).

• Improvement: TTF font setting is now "Regular" by default instead of
  "Light", to make text more readable on Movie screen and similiar screens.
  This change takes effect after settings reset or when installing r11
  firmware over b9 firmware.

• Improvement: removed unneeded delay in reaction to RC buttons press on
  upgrade confirmation screen.

• Improvement: minor fix for animation over the gap between icons on the
  main screen.

• Some other minor improvements/fixes.

• Solo Lite: Premium Functions (My Collection/Movies/Music and BD Menu) are
  now non-premium, just like on Solo 4K (i.e. available without limitations
  and without the need to have Internet access to check license status).

• New feature: Added support for playback of BD4K images.
   • Only BDLite mode is supported.
   • The player automatically detects BD4K images and automatically starts
     the playback if BDLite mode.

• New feature: Improved support for playback of HDR (HDR10) content.
   • The player automatically recognizes HDR content and automatically
     applies some picture corrections to improve the look of the content on
     TVs without HDR support.
   • If HDR content is recognized, the corresponding status is shown in the
     INFO on-screen-display during playback.
   • Automatic HDR conversion can be enabled/disabled by the new setting
     "Setup / Video / Advanced / BT.202/HDR conversion" (enabled by
     default). When using a TV with HDR support, it is recommended to
     disable HDR conversion on the player and force HDR mode on the TV.
   • HDR conversion can also be quickly toggled during playback using RC
     button "MODE" (on Duo 4K) or "KEYBRD" (on Solo 4K and Solo Lite).

• Improvement: UI animation effects are now disabled by default in video
  modes with low framerate (less than or equal to 30Hz).
   • This is helpful in particular when connecting to a 4K TV and using a
     4K video mode.
   • To force animation effects in all video modes, a new setting "Settings
     / Appearance / Animation Effects / Enabled for all video modes" can be
     used.

• Bugfix: Playback of MP3 files could crash in some cases (this is a
  regression introduced in the previous beta firmware).

• Bugfix: Some DVD images could not be played correctly (playback start
  could fail at some point and DVD menu could not be reached).

• Bugfix: When choosing not to search for community extensions, the
  installation of non-community extensions (e.g. YouTube movie trailers)
  could be skipped in some cases too.

• Bugfix: Video mode setting could be accidentally reset from Auto (EDID)
  to some other value in some rare cases.

• Bugfix: When checking of plugins updates on a clean factory box or after
  settings reset, if Internet connection was not available, a too long
  delay could take place.

• Bugfix: SMB server now includes a fix for the Samba vulnerability
  (CVE-2017-7494).

• Plugins SDK improvements:
   • Improved the handling of cycle_mode_enabled=yes when num_items<3.

• Updated/improved UI translations.

• Some other minor improvements/fixes.

• New feature: Added support for automatic searching and installation of
  Community Extensions -- applications (plugins) developed by the users
  community and extending the functionality of the player with new
  functions. The set of installed and available extensions can be managed
  via the new menu "Setup / Applications / Extensions" (besides, the
  installed extensions can also be deleted like any other plugins via the
  system menu "Setup / Misc / Plugins").

• New feature: Added support for gapless audio playback: when playing a
  sequence of audio files, the audio files are played in a gapless/seamless
  mode (without pauses between files). Supported for the following audio
  file formats: FLAC, ALAC, SACD, OGG, APE, WAV; partially supported for
  MPEG audio (such as MP3).

• New feature: Duo 4K: Added support for showing text in all languages
  (including all EU languages, Chinese, etc) on Duo4K OLED front panel
  display.

• Improvement: Added support for playback of specific Live HLS streams
  which could not be played before; this in particular fixes the problem
  with some YouTube Live streams.

• Improvement: Better support for DVB subtitles in specific MPEG-TS files;
  fixes the problem with late hiding of subtitles in certain specific
  cases.

• Improvement: GUI dialogs listing audio tracks and subtitles improved in
  order to fit more information into the screen (to reduce chances that a
  long track caption is cut).

• Improvement: Better indication of the position of the current playlist
  item (like 1/6) in the INFO OSD: use the current chapter index and the
  number of chapters when the current playlist item is a chapter, and use
  the current file index and the number of files when the current playlist
  item is a file.

• Improvement: When indexing My Collection, downloaded graphics is resized
  in a slightly more optimized way now (for optimized performance).

• Improvement: Better order of icons for new features (Movies, Music, My
  Collection, Recent) in non-default skins and menu styles.

• Improvement: Kartina.TV application updated according to the latest
  changes on the Kartina.TV server and to include some other improvements
  and fixes.

• Bugfix: FullBD: Specific BD images (with wrong BD structure with some
  components missing) could not be played.

• Bugfix: When playing specific MKV files (with wrong PTS timestamps) with
  AC3 or DTS audio tracks, problems with audio track playback could take
  place in some specific cases.

• Bugfix: When playing an audio file, a small first fragment of the audio
  file could not be heard in some cases (because of HDMI audio parameters
  reconfiguration).

• Bugfix: When playing WavPack audio files, seek did not work properly in
  some cases.

• Bugfix: When playing HSL streams and using pause/resume functions, the
  GUI could stop responding to user commands in some rare cases.

• Bugfix: Playback of HLS streams could fail to start in some cases on
  Internet connections with very big latency.

• Bugfix: When playing specific MPEG-DASH HEVC streams, playback crash
  could occur in some rare cases.

• Bugfix: Some specific HDMI equipment may not work properly in some cases.

• Bugfix: PNG icons in non-RGB format (e.g. 8-bit PNG icons) were not
  loaded properly.

• Bugfix: When viewing photos and very quickly navigating from one photo to
  another, a broken picture could be shown on the screen in some rare
  cases.

• Bugfix: In some specific rare cases, when booting the player after
  power-off, GUI may appear with some small extra delay (and an error could
  be shown on the front panel display of Duo 4K).

• Bugfix: When starting EXT2/EXT3 filesystem check function with background
  playback running, background playback was not stopped.

• Plugins SDK improvements:
   • Added more possibilities for plugins to extend the functionality of
     the Movies catalog (used in My Collection and Movies applications).
     Such plugins can integrate movie trailers and video files from
     external sources.

• Updated/improved UI translations.

• Some other minor improvements/fixes.

• Fixed: When playing TrueHD/Atmos audio tracks, stuttering still could
  take place in some cases when OSD or subtitles were shown over video.

• Fixed: Playback of music video clips in Music application and movie
  trailers in Movies application did not work in some cases.

• Fixed: some PHP plugins did not work and may crash in some cases.

• Fixed: some PHP plugins may fail to load EPG information in some cases.

• Fixed: when playing MKV files via PHP plugins, time seek and audio track
  choosing did not work.

• Fixed: During AirPlay playback, playlist window was wrongly available via
  POP UP MENU / ENTER.

• Improvement: the recommendation to use System Storage shown on each My
  Collection indexing was not convenient. Now, it includes more detailed
  information and is shown only once (on first indexing); it can also be
  shown by the new button "Details..." in "Collection Management / Data
  Storage" menu.

• Updated/improved UI translations.

• Some other minor improvements/fixes.

• New feature: The new "Music" application added to the main menu.
   • The application allows you to browse a global database of
     tracks/albums/artists, including browsing by genres and searching by
     titles/names.
   • For each track/album/artist, you can see detailed information, study
     discography, navigate between tracks/albums/artists, etc.
   • For most tracks (almost all popular / well known tracks), Music Videos
     are available and can be played (via "Play..." button in the menu on
     the track screen).
   • (In future, this application is planned to be integrated with the
     planned "My Collection for Music" functionality. Similarly to how
     currently the "Movies" and "My Collection" functionality is
     integrated.)

• New feature: Added support for AirPlay audio streaming (audio only).
   • This feature enables convenient music streaming from mobile
     phones/tables and other devices to Dune HD box. You can do the
     following:
      • On iOS device (iPhone or iPad) or on a Mac, use AirPlay support
        built-in into iOS and Mac OS X to stream music/audio to Dune HD box
        from any iOS or Mac OS X application (or even from any web site in
        a web browser). Just start the playback and choose Dune HD box as
        AirPlay target in the system AirPlay menu.
      • On any device, use 3-party applications with AirPlay support to
        stream music/audio to Dune HD box.
      • On Windows PC, use iTunes application to stream music to Dune HD
        box.
      • On the client device, control music playback in various ways:
        choose tracks, switch between tracks, seek, pause/resume, adjust
        volume.
   • When AirPlay stream is played on Dune HD box, you see the following on
     Dune HD box:
      • On the TV screen: cover art and track/artist/album/genre
        information (when available).
      • For Duo4K, on the front panel display: "Track - Artist".
   • Audio is streamed in the original CD-audio quality (using Apple
     lossless codec at 44.1KHz).
   • AirPlay support can be disabled via the setting "Setup / Applications
     / AirPlay / Enabled".
   • The AirPlay device name can be customized via the setting "Setup /
     Applications / AirPlay / AirPlay Device Name". The default device name
     is "Dune (product_id ID)", where "product_id" is e.g. "duo4k" and "ID"
     is the last 4 characters of the MAC address (e.g. "97EA").

• New feature: Music playback: New GUI design of the music playback screen.
   • The new screen uses improved fonts, improved layout, shows nice
     background image and can show cover art image (when available).
   • A special screensaver version of this screen (with black background
     and moving content) (to prevent Plasma/OLED TV burn-in) is still
     available -- starts automatically on the general screensaver timeout
     (configurable in "Setup / General" menu).

• New feature: Music playback: Cover art image is automatically looked up
  and shown on the music playback screen.
   • Embedded covert art images in music files is supported.
   • External covert art images are supported -- looked up in JPG files
     residing in the same folder where music files reside; any found JPG
     file is used, with preference to JPG files having filenames similar to
     the corresponding music filenames and JPG files having commonly used
     coverart filenames such as "cover.jpg", "album.jpg", etc.

• New feature: Music playback: Extended support for CUE files.
   • CUE files can now be used not only by launching the corresponding
     audio files, but also directly, by selecting them in the file browser
     and pressing "ENTER" RC button. In this case, the playback of the
     audio file(s) referenced by the CUE file is started.
   • If a CUE file references multiple audio files, this is supported and
     handled properly.
   • If a CUE file references *.wav audio file, but the actual audio file
     is *.flac/*.ape/*.wv, this is is automatically detected and handled
     properly.
   • When multiple files are marked (or a playlist is automatically
     constructed by the pressing "PLAY" RC button on a folder or several
     marked folders), and some files in the playlist are CUE files, this is
     also supported and handled properly (even if both audio file and the
     corresponding CUE file are in the playlist).

• New feature: Duo4K: Front panel display: In playback mode, the
  information about currently played content and the current playback
  position is shown on the front panel display:
   • During the first 10 seconds, the information about the currently
     played content is shown: filename, or "Track - Artist" if audio
     tags are available.
   • After that, playback position is shown.
   • If audio tags are available, pressing "INFO" RC button toggles
     showing "Track - Artist" again.

• New feature: "Movies", "Music, "TV" buttons on Duo4K RC can now be used
  to quickly enter the corresponding main menu sections.
   • The corresponding NEC IR codes (can be used for universal RCs or for
     smart home integrations, see more information about IR codes at
     http://dune-hd.com/support/rc ):
      • Movies: 47
      • Music: 58
      • TV: 63

• Improvement: Music playback: Audio tags information from music files and
  CUE files is now extracted with the support for much more tags, much more
  music file formats, and much more file format variations.

• Improvement: Music playback: All extracted audio tags are shown in the
  INFO panel (available via "INFO" RC button).

• Improvement: Music playback: Improved encoding detection and handling for
  audio tags in music files.
   • The setting "Misc / Encodings / MP3 tag encoding" is renamed to 
     "Audio file tags encoding".
   • The new value "Auto" is now available for this setting. When chosen,
     the player tries to automatically detect if the encoding is Unicode
     (UTF-8) or not, and if not, to use the encoding corresponding to the
     chosen UI language ("Setup / General / Interface language").
   • The new value "Auto" is now the default value.
      • NOTE: The new default value will take place after settings reset.

• Improvement: Music playback: Improved encoding detection for CUE files
  and playlists.
   • When "Auto" value of the setting "Misc / Encodings / Playlist and cue
     sheet encoding" is chosen, the chosen UI language is additionally
     taken into account when guessing the encoding based on file content.

• New feature: My Collection: Added "Search" function which allows
  searching for movies in My Collection by movie title. Any fragment of
  movie title can be used. To use it: choose the new "Search" item in the
  My Collection menu or in the genre selection screen.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• New feature: "SEARCH" RC button can be used to quickly search for movies
  in My Collection or in the global Movies database, and for
  tracks/albums/artists in the global Music database.
   • When used inside My Collection menu: searches for movies in My
     Collection.
   • When used inside Movies menu, or at the top level of the main menu:
     searches for movies in the global Movies database.
   • When used inside inside Music / Tracks menu, or at the top level of
     Music menu: searches for tracks in the global Music database.
   • When used inside inside Music / Albums menu: searches for albums in
     the global Music database.
   • When used inside inside Music / Artists menu: searches for artists in
     the global Music database.

• New feature: My Collection and Movies: When viewing the list of movie
  posters, "A" RC button can be used to toggle several view modes:
   • 4x2 + right panel.
   • 6x3 + right panel.
   • 6x2 without right panel.
   • 8x3 without right panel.
   • 5x2 fullscreen.
   • 7x3 fullscreen.
   • 10x4 fullscreen.
   • Vertical list of movie titles + right panel.

• Improvement: When HDMI audio is enabled and HD audio is enabled (in
  "Setup / Audio" menu), analog and S/PDIF audio outputs are now kept
  enabled. This allows e.g. playing movies with HD audio bitstreamed to an
  A/V receiver, and playing music files with decoded audio sent to analog
  and S/PDIF audio outputs, without the need to change any settings when
  switching between these use cases.

• Improvement: My Collection: when trying to play a movie which is located
  on a disconnected storage device, the name of the disconnected storage
  device is now shown.

• New feature: My Collection and Movies: "P+" and "P-" RC buttons can now
  be used to quickly scroll through long lists (e.g. list of persons) on
  the movie information screen.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• New feature: My Collection and Movies: Pressing "UP" RC button on the
  movie information screen when the cursor is on the top menu item toggles
  showing / hiding the menu (can be used to view the fanart background
  image in fullscreen mode).
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• Improvement: My Collection: The setting "Collection Management / Data
  storage / Store photo" is now set to "No" by default, because photo
  downloading often takes a lot of time and occupies a lot of space.
   • NOTE: The new default value will take place after settings reset.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• Improvement: My Collection: Optimized the performance of indexing in some
  cases (especially when slow System Storage is used).
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• Improvement: My Collection and Movies: Improved the GUI compatibility
  with some Dune GUI skins.

• Improvement: System Storage: Added the check if System Storage is absent
  but may be useful when starting My Collection indexing, with the
  possibility to initialize System Storage at this point.

• Improvement: System Storage: Improved the procedure for System Storage
  initialization. When System Storage is initialized, the data used by
  various applications is now copied from Flash Memory Storage (internal
  flash memory) into System Storage, and all applications and background
  services are now correctly deinitialized/reinitialized after that. Some
  other related improvements.

• Improvement: TV GUI fonts extended to include all characters from Kazakh,
  Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani languages.

• Improvement: Some GUI visualization and graphic loading operations
  optimized, to make GUI more responsive and smooth in some cases.

• Improvement: Solo4K and SoloLite: Default value of the setting "Misc /
  Power Management / POWER button action" changed from "Power off" to
  "Software standby".
   • NOTE: The new default value will take place after settings reset.
   • NOTE: For Duo4K, this value was already the default in the previous
     firmware version.

• Improvement: The information about background playback status, mute
  status, volume control status (in the right bottom corner of the screen)
  is now shown on more screens of the main menu (previously it was not
  shown on some screens).

• Improvement: Playback of HTTP/MP4 and HTTPS/MP4 media streams optimized
  (improved buffering) for faster playback startup.

• Improvement: When playing HTTPS media streams, more SSL ciphers are now
  supported, which can lead to faster playback startup in some cases.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• Improvement: When pressing PLAY on a folder (or on several marked folders
  -- to build the playlist of all items in these folders and their
  subfolders), and the resulting playlist includes both music/media and
  photo/image files, the default choice in the "Choose Action" dialog is
  improved: now it depends on the number of files of diferent types in the
  playlist; e.g. if the playlist consists mostly of music files with only a
  few photo/image files, the default choice is now "Play media files".

• Improvement: Duo4K: Front panel display: When navigating through the main
  menu, showing the currently chosen menu item caption on the front panel
  display and menu navigation via front panel buttons is now supported in
  more cases (in particular, on all screens of My Collection and Movies
  menus). Showing better captions in some cases. Some related improvements.

• Improvement: Duo4K: Front panel display: Improved the font used to show
  HH:MM clock in standby mode and HH:MM:SS position during playback.

• Improvement: Duo4K: "DISCRETE POWER ON" IR code is now supported not only
  in software standby mode, but also in hardware standby (power off) mode.

• Improvement: Duo4K: if the firmware of the front panel microcontroller
  chip is damaged for any reason, it is automatically recovered on player
  boot.

• Fixed: Duo4K: Click sound could be heard when starting/stopping audio
  playback in some cases.

• Fixed: Duo4K: Read-only SD cards with NTFS filesystem could not be
  mounted.

• Fixed: When 4K video mode was configured and TV or HDMI receiver was
  switched off/on, various problems could take place.

• Fixed: When "Auto" video mode was configured and TV or HDMI receiver was
  switched off/on, various problems could take place.

• Fixed: FullBD: Playback of BD images in FullBD mode did not work in some
  cases when BD image was launched from a specific location.

• Fixed: DVD: When playing DVD images, DVD menu could not be shown properly
  in some cases, and crack sounds could be heard in some cases.

• Fixed: Specific MPEG-TS files was not played correctly.

• Fixed: Some specific MP4 files could be played without audio.

• Fixed: External subtitles in ASS/SSA format could not be played when
  ".ssa" file extension was used and the new ASS/SSA subtitle renderer was
  enabled in player settings.

• Fixed: Playback of MPEG-DASH video streams (such as YouTube streams)
  could not work properly when network or server error occured in some
  cases.

• Fixed: Playback of HTTPS/MP4 video streams did not work in some cases.

• Fixed: When playing a media file or stream with unknown duration,
  playback position (always 0) was shown in INFO OSD.

• Fixed: The warning about potentially unsupported video stream format was
  wrongly shown in some cases.

• Fixed: When adjusting the volume control related settings (in "Audio"
  setup menu) during playback, the changes was not applied correctly and
  lead to wrong GUI behavior in some cases.

• Fixed: My Collection and Movies: On movie information screen, when movie
  description did not contain whitespaces (e.g. Chinese text) it was not
  line breaked.

• Fixed: Recent menu: When playing some kinds of content which is not
  supported of Recent menu (e.g. Internet radio streams), items were
  wrongly added to Recent menu. Some other related improvements for Recent
  menu.

• Fixed: The function of hiding system files did not work properly in the
  root folder of a storage device in some Dune GUI skins when certain Dune
  main screen style was used.

• Fixed: It could be impossible to start the web browser again (or start
  HTML based applications) after the web browser was launched once.

• Fixed: IP Control: start_file_playback IP Control command did not work
  when the player was in playback mode and the playlist was played (with
  more then one item in the playlist).

• Fixed: DVD: When playing DVD images with specific AC3 or DTS audio
  streams, audio loss or desync could take place in some cases.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous

• Fixed: When playing MKV files with specific AC3 or DTS audio streams,
  audio loss or desync could take place in some cases.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• Fixed: When playing MP4 files with 44.1KHz audio, a short audio hiccup
  could be heard on playback start in some cases.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• Fixed: Playback of specific MPEG-DASH streams did not work properly in
  some cases.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• Fixed: Playback of specific HLS streams with some errors in the streams
  did not work properly in some cases.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• Fixed: Kartina.TV application: Playing TV channels and TV channels
  archive using HLS streaming standard did not work properly in some cases.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• Fixed: The player was not able to format 10TB HDDs into EXT2/EXT3
  filesystem.
   • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
     firmware version.)

• Plugins SDK improvements:
   • Added new media_url parameter "http_mp4_allow_other_formats:1" which
     can be used (together with "http://mp4://" URL schema) to optimize the
     playback of video streams which are most probably HTTP/MP4, but may be
     of other formats as well.
   • Added new media_url parameter "http_headers" which can be used to pass
     custom HTTP headers when playing HTTP/HTTPS media streams.
   • Added new media_url parameters "protocol:rawpcm",
     "rawpcm_sampling_rate:N", "rawpcm_bits_per_sample:N",
     "rawpcm_streaming:1" which can be used to integrate 3-party audio
     playback software into Dune HD box (using this feature, for example,
     3-party audio playback software running on Dune HD box can stream PCM
     data into "named pipe" file, which can be played by the playback
     engine e.g. via "start_file_playback" IP Control command).
   • Added a possibility for an external 3-party audio playback software to
     send audio tags and cover art images to the audio player
     (/tmp/audio_player_tags.properties and /tmp/audio_player_cover.jpg
     files).
   • Added new features to the on-screen-keyboard UI control.
      • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
        firmware version.)
   • Added some possibilities for customizing INFO OSD block in plugin
     TV/VOD playback mode.
      • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
        firmware version.)
   • Added some possibilities for customizing EPG menu and for forcing EPG
     update in plugin TV playback mode.
      • (For Duo4K, this change was already included into the previous
        firmware version.)
   • Enabled "socket" and "pctnl" PHP extensions.
   • Added some other new features to PHP plugins API.

• Updated/improved UI translations.

• Various other minor improvements/fixes.