Dune HD Base 3.0
Version "100706_1032_beta"
(BETA version, not well tested, may contain critical bugs and broken
functionality; not recommended unless you really want to try)
Changes since 100630_2131_beta:
- Bugfix: removed misleading setup option "Cinema mode".
- Bugfix: "Add to main screen" function did not work in most cases.
Version "100630_2131_beta"
(BETA version, not well tested, may contain critical bugs and broken
functionality; not recommended unless you really want to try)
Changes since 100413_1555:
- Much faster start/stop of playback of video and audio files, w/o video output reinitialization.
- NOTE: If autoframerate feature is used, video output reinitialization may still be performed.
- NOTE: Playback of DVD/Blu-ray discs/images still requires video output reinitilization in any case.
- Added support for launching Flash applications (Flash Lite 3).
- To launch a Flash application, just launch ".swf" file in file browser.
- More information about Flash applications support is here.
- Added Web Browser feature.
- The web browser is based on WebKit engine and supports HTML4, CSS, JavaScript (including DHTML and AJAX). Flash and Java are not supported.
- Various Internet web sites can be viewed, even rather complicated ones (e.g. Google Maps is working).
- To launch the web browser, use "Web Browser" item on the main screen or press "URL" RC button.
- A new Setup section (Applications / Web Browser) allows to control various web browser related settings.
- The web browser can be controlled via RC, USB mouse, USB keyboard. USB mouse/keyboard should be connected to the player before the web browser is started.
- It is recomended to run the web browser with System Storage attached to the player (in such a case, the web browser will create and use "swap" file on the System Storage);
the web browser can work w/o System Storage, but complicated web sites requiring a lot of memory may work worse w/o System Storage.
- There are some limitations and issues; it is not guaranteed that all Internet web sites work or work properly; sometimes, there are some
- Added a support for DVB-T TV (using Dune TV USB dongle). Supported features:
- A new "DVB-T" item on the main screen (can be disabled via the setting "Setup / Applications / DVB-T / Show on main screen").
- Scan for available frequences/channels (is started automatically when the accesses "DVB-T" item on the main screen for the first time).
- Rescan frequences/channels: press MENU on "DVB-T" item on the main screen, choose "Scan".
- View the list of available channels and start watching: open "DVB-T" item on the main screen, choose a channel, press PLAY.
- Switch between DVB-T channels when watching: use MENU, P+/P-, PREV/NEXT RC buttons.
- View EPG and other information about the current program: use INFO RC button.
- Record the currently watched channel: press PLAY to start/stop recording (ensure there is a storage attached).
- Background/concurrent recordings (when two Dune TV USB dongles are attached): press "C" RC button to start/stop background recording of the current channel;
the background recording uses the second Dune TV USB dongle, and you can concurrent watch or record any other DVB-T channels using the first Dune TV USB dongle.
- Each recording is saved into its own file inside "DVB_recordins" folder in the main storage.
- Added a possibility to record Internet radio stations (HTTP/MP3 and HTTP/AAC).
- Recording of Internet radio works exactly the same way as recording of IPTV:
ensure there is a storage attached, and press PLAY RC button to start/stop recording during playback.
- Each recording is saved into its own file inside "InetRadio_recordins" folder in the main storage.
- Added a special support for watching (and also recording) network/Internet video streams which use HTTP protocol and TS format, with improved buffering approach.
- To start watching such a video stream, launch a special "http://ts://......" URL in the player (e.g. using dune_folder.txt/media_url).
- During watching, press PLAY to start/stop recording (ensure a storage is attached).
- Each recording is saved into its own file inside "MTS_recordings" folder in the main storage.
- Added a possibility to sort files in the file browser.
- Usage: press MENU, choose "Sorting", choose sorting criteria and direction, press "OK".
- NOTE: Saving the sorting setting is not supported yet.
- Added support for APE ("monkey audio") audio files.
- Added support for OGG/Vorbis audio files.
- Added support for Vorbis audiotracks in MKV files.
- Added support for external OGG/Vorbis audiotracks.
- Added support for PGS subtitles in MKV files.
- Added support for VobSub subtitles in MKV files.
- Added support for WMA audiotracks in MKV files.
- Added support for correct playback of specific 120fps MKV files.
- Added support for external SSA/ASS subtitles (file extensions ".ssa", ".ass").
- Added support for playback of TS files with ".mod" and ".tos" extensions (used by some models of digital camcoders).
- Added support for specific TS files which were previously unsupported (audio-only files, files with certain information missing, etc).
- Added a new zoom preset for file playback: "fill screen" (convenient for watching 4:3 broadcasts with nonlinear stretching to 16:9).
- Added a possibility to put link to any folder/file/media resource directly to the main screen.
- Requirement: system storage should be attached (it is used to store the list of links and the associated icons).
- Usage instructions:
- Select any folder/file/media resource in the file browser, press MENU, choose "Add to main screen" in the popup menu.
A new item will be added to the main screen.
If the added item has an associated custom icon, the icon will be copied and used when showing the item on the main screen.
- To delete the added item from the main screen: choose it in the main screen, press CLEAR or choose MENU / "Delete Shortcut".
- Added support for simplified chinese, traditional chinese, and japanese characters (fonts extended).
- Added support for BIG5 and GB2312 encodings (in all places -- subtitles, playlists, etc).
- Added dune_folder.txt feature: a possibility to specify the initial playback position in the playlist for media_url pointing to a playlist.
- Syntax:
- media_url =
- media_start_index =
- NOTE: This feature is useful for implement series support in movies-collection management solutions.
- Added dune_folder.txt feature: a possibility to specify scale factor not only for the primary icon, but also for the selected icon.
- Syntax:
- icon_sel_scale_factor = ...
- NOTE: This feature allows to implement the "selected icon has bigger size" effect w/o need to prepare two different icons.
- Added dune_folder.txt feature: a possibility to force "list" and "extended list" view modes for a folder.
- Syntax:
- use_icon_view = list
- use_icon_view = exlist
- Added dune_folder.txt feature: a possibility to specify what to do when media_url refers to a folder: open the folder for browsing, start playback of folder content, or ask use.
- Syntax:
- media_action = browse|play|ask_user
- Added dune_folder.txt feature: support for showing "virtual" items on the screen.
- The dune_folder.txt in a folder can define a list of virtual items, which are shown in addition to the files/subfolders actually residing in this folder (if any).
- Syntax ( is the index of the virtual item: 0, 1, 2, ...):
- item..caption = ...
- item..media_url = ...
- item..icon_path = ... (NOTE: HTTP links to images can be used)
- item..<...> = ... (any other parameters affecting the look and behavior of the media item)
- Added support for working with external catalogs of resources ("virtual filesystems") in the file browser.
- When dune_folder.txt/media_url points to a HTTP URL using "dune_http://..." syntax instead of the normal "http://..." syntax,
such a HTTP URL is handled by the player as a "virtual folder", which can be opened and navigated similarly to how local and NFS/SMB folders can be opened/navigated.
- The "dune_http" HTTP URL should return dune_folder.txt describing the content of the virtual folder using the mechanism of "virtual items".
- Each virtual item can be either a reference to a particular media resource, or a "dune_http" reference to a nested virtual subfolder.
- Extended support for VBR MP3 files (added duration detection and seek possibilities).
- Extended the lists of supported encodings for EXT2/EXT3 and NFS (added all encodings supported in other places).
- Improved detection and handling of files which have unsupported file format or can not be opened.
- Now, when encountering such a file, the player shows a message for a several seconds before skipping the file. Fixed some other bugs with handling of unsupported file formats.
- Improved DHCP client behavior: when the player send a DHCP request, it announces it as "Dune" (instead of using an empty name).
- Improved compatibility with some Blu-ray discs.
- Improved seek performance in specific MKV files.
- Improved LPCM output over HDMI when playing TS files (some issues fixed).
- Improved zoom handling for file and DVD playback: pressing CLEAR resets zoom settings to the defaults.
- Improved online upgrade function: more robust deletion of temporarily downloaded files.
- Improved TOP MENU RC button handling: it now allows to go to the main screen also from Setup.
- Improved antialiasing algorithm used for text rendering.
- Improved file browser responsiveness and performance in specific cases.
- Included the fix for the problem with media playback/reading pausing for several seconds.
- Improved handling of low-bitrate audio (less than 32Khz) during file playback (some issues fixed).
- Improved autoframerate: allow to switch to 23.976/24p from interlaced video modes when 24/50/60 autoframerate mode is used).
- Improved Internet radio playback: implemented more robust handling of HTTP connections.
- Improved component video output (prefering "SMPTE" standard instead of "M2"; should fix the problems with bad colors when component video output is chosen in Setup).
- Improved support for output of high quality PCM audio though digital audio outputs (S/PDIF and HDMI):
- Relaxed software limitations on the sample rate (to the level allowed by the hardware).
- Introduced a new setting allowing to limit maximum sample rate for compatibility with particular S/PDIF cables and A/V receivers.
- NOTE: For compatibility with all S/PDIF cables and A/V receivers, the limit is set to 48 Khz by default.
- Bugfix: in Blu-ray playback, 1921x1081 scaling was wrongly used, leading to slightly decreased picture quality.
- Bugfix: huge BD ISO could not be played properly (problem at ~40 min).
- Bugfix: network folders of different types (e.g. SMB and NFS) and having the same names did not work properly.
- Bugfix: some PCM WAV files were playing with a slight noise in the beginning.
- Bugfix: opening SMB share using guest account could not work in some cases.
- Bugfix: when reading/playing content from a SMB share, an error could occur in some rare cases.
- Bugfix: default choosing of internal audiotrack in TS files could not work (manual audio track switching could be required).
- Bugfix: external subtitles could be not available when starting file playback in specific ways (e.g. via network browser).
- Bugfix: UTF16-encoded external subtitles could be handled wrongly in specific cases.
- Bugfix: wrong information about audiocodec could be displayed when playing ASF/WMA file in specific cases.
- Bugfix: AC3 audiotracks in TS files could be decoded wrongly in specific cases.
- Bugfix: FIP button presses could cause duplicate actions in specific cases.
- Bugfix: loading invalid/corrupted user-created icon files (via dune_folder.txt) could be handled wrongly.
- Bugfix: during file playback, if specific zoom settings were used, switching to the next file in the playlist could cause wrong zoom settings/handling.
- Some menu languages added/updated.
- Various other minor fixes and improvements.
Version "100413_1555"
(the latest recommended version)
Changes since 100307_2100_beta:
NOTE: This version has very few differences (mostly bugfixes) from the
previously released 100307_2100_beta version. This firmware version is
considered to be the most stable and bug free version in comparison with
any previously released firmware versions, and thus is recommended to
everyone. New big features and further improvements will be included into
future beta versions.
- Some menu languages updated/improved.
- Minor improvements in the player boot procedure; popup dialog for
choosing menu interface language is now shown when booting the player for
the first time (when player settings are not initialized yet).
- Bugfix: white vertical line consisting could be visible on the right side
of the screen in some cases.
- Bugfix: switching to another item in the playlist could lead to playback
crash (e.g. when switching between IPTV channels).
- Bugfix: picture adjustments could be handled in a wrong way during file
playback when autoframerate was used.
- Bugfix: specific TS files could be handled wrongly.
- Also includes the changes from 091023_1444_update1 (ensuring
compatibility with the latest Dune player batches, shipped starting with
Aprile, 2010).
Version "091023_1444_update1"
Changes since 091023_1444:
NOTE: This version is exactly the same version as 091023_1444, but adopted
to the minor hardware changes taking place in the new player batches. This
version is shipped by default with Dune players starting with Aprile, 2010.
NOTE: it is not recommended to install any previous firmware versions to
these new player batches; this is the first firmware version compatible
with and recommended for these new player batches.
Version "100307_2100_beta"
(BETA version, not well tested, may contain critical bugs and broken
functionality; not recommended unless you really want to try)
Changes since 091229_1411_beta:
NOTE: This firmware version includes quite a lot of internal code changes,
and, despite a lot of preliminary testing performed, there are good chances
that some functions may not function correctly under specific
circumstances. The most probable areas where things may be broken are:
- File browser (working with network shares, "dune_folder.txt"
mechanism, and any other file browser features).
- File playback.
- DVD and BD playback (especially when autoframerate is switched on).
- USB WiFi.
- Improvements for autoframerate:
- Implemented autoframerate also for DVD-Video and Blu-ray content (in
addition to autoframerate previously supported for files only).
- Supported for both optical discs and disc images.
- For DVD-Video, supports switching between 50 and 59.94 framerates
(no support for switching to 23.976 on NTSC pulldown content).
- For Blu-ray, supports all framerates (including 24p).
- If a disc consists of multiple fragments with different framerates,
framerate switching is automatically performed also when switching
between disc fragments.
- Bugfix: autoframerate did not work for specific TS files.
- Improvements for HDMI output:
- Added a new Setup option (Video / Advanced / HDMI color depth)
allowing to switch between 8-bit / 10-bit / 12-bit HDMI output signal.
8-bit is now used by default to ensure the best compatibility with
various HDMI equipment and cables (this solves the problems with noise
on HDMI output).
- Added a new Setup Option (Video / Advanced / HDMI CEC) allowing to
enable/disable HDMI CEC. HDMI CEC is now disabled by default to ensure
the best compatibility with various HDMI equipment (this solves the
problems such as unneeded messages shown by TV on HDMI
reinitialization, wrong switching of HDMI input, etc).
- Bugfix: The setting "HDMI audio = off" could cause severe problems with
HDMI output (such as wrong picture/colors, no picture at all). Now, these
problems are fixed. NOTE: For file and DVD playback, using this setting
still, as before, may enable DVI output mode for HDMI output (with RGB
colorspace) instead of HDMI-native output mode (with YUV colorspace),
that may have some effects on the picture, depending on a particular used
equipment; this issue will be addressed in future firmware versions.
- Bugfix: Blu-ray playback could hangup when disconnecting/reconnecting
HDMI cable, switching off/on the attached HDMI equipment, or switching
HDMI input on the attached HDMI equipment.
- Improvements for subtitles support:
- Added support for PGS (Blu-ray) subtitles in M2TS/TS files. It is now
possible to use Blu-ray subtitles not only playing full BD-images, but
also when playing individual M2TS files.
- Added support for external subtitles in SUB/IDX format.
- Added support for UTF-16 encoding in SRT and SUB (MicroDVD) external
subtitle files.
- Improvements for USB WiFi support:
- Finally fixed the support for USB WiFi adapter D-Link DWA-140 rev.B2
(in addition to the previously supported rev.B1).
- Included WiFi driver for RALink RT3070 chipset (the latest available
version 2.1.2.0), and allowed the use of all USB WiFI devices
supported by this driver (31 USB-IDs in total).
- Upgraded WiFi driver for RALink RT2870/RT2770 chipsets to the latest
available version 2.3.0.0, and allowed the use of all USB WiFi devices
supported by this driver (66 USB-IDs in total).
- See here for more details on the
supported USB hardware.
- Improvements for working with network shares:
- Added a new function "Add to Main Screen" for SMB shares in SMB
browser. Allows to easily add a new network folder corresponding to a
SMB share to the main screen. NOTE: Supported for the SMB shares only,
not supported for other items in SMB browser (SMB workgroups, SMB
servers, or folders inside SMB shares).
- Implemented a better scanning for available SMB workgroups and hosts
in SMB browser. Now, there are more chances that SMB resources are
found immediately, w/o the need to wait or restart network components.
(This should fix the problems such as certain SMB workgroups sometimes
visible, and sometimes not visible.)
- In SMB browser, all printer shares are now excluded from the list of
SMB shares (previously, some printer shares could be shown).
- Added showing drive information (total/used/available space) in the
"Information" dialog for network shares (the network share should be
in the "connected" state).
- Added a possibility to explicitly "disconnect" (i.e. unmount) a
mounted NFS or SMB share. Press INFO on a connected network folder, or
on a connected SMB share in SMB browser, and then choose "Disconnect".
- Bugfix: Iw was impossible to access SMB shares on a SMB server after
deleting some files from another SMB share on the same SMB server.
- The Setup option "Fast SMB Access" (introduced in the previous beta
firmware versions) is now disabled by default (since some users
reports problems when using this options with some SMB servers).
- NOTE: When upgrading to this firmware version from one of two
previous beta firmware versions, the value of this option is kept.
If you experience any problems with SMB access from the player,
please manually disable this option.
- NOTE: Even w/o this option, on Dune 3.0 models, playback of any
content via SMB should work w/o any problems under normal
circumstances, so it is safe to keep it disabled (unless you have a
specific setup/requirements.
- Improvements for bookmarks:
- Reenabled a simple support for bookmarks when using playlists (the
initial version of such a support introduced in 091211_1311_beta was
disabled in 091229_1411_beta, and now a more reasonable implementation
is provided):
- When starting playing a playlist (e.g. by presssing PLAY button on a
file in a folder containing several files), the bookmark is
checked/used for the initial file in the playlist.
- When stopping playing a playlist, the bookmark is saved for the
current file in the playlist (so, by pressing PLAY on this file, the
playback can be later resumed from the saved bookmark).
- When switching between files in the playlist, bookmarks are neither
checked/used nor saved (as in the previous firmware version).
- The Setup options for disabling autoresume for video/audio files
influence both individual files and playlists.
- NOTE: Full-fledged support for playlist bookmarks (remember
bookmark for the entire playlist) is still absent; will be
addressed in future firmware versions.
- Improvements for IPTV support:
- Added support for viewing the list of audiotracks and switching
between them when watching IPTV (multicast UDP) channels.
- Added online firmware check/upgrade function:
- A new Setup section "Miscellaneous / Firmware Upgrade" allows to
conveniently check for the presence of new firmware version directly
from the player, and, if a new version is available, automatically
download and install it (w/o the need to use a PC to download the
firmware upgrade file).
- Also, if the player is connected to Internet, the player periodically
automatically checks for the new firmware updates, and when one
becomes available, informs the user about it and proposes to
download/install it.
- System Storage or any other attached storage can be used as a
temporary location to download a firmware from Internet; if no
writable storage with enough free space is found, the user is prompted
to attach one.
- When downloading a firmware from Internet, progress is indicated, and
a possibility to stop/cancel the download is provided.
- Advanced users can fine-tune various online upgrade settings via Setup
menu: enable/disable checking for non-stable (beta) versions,
enable/disable automatic checking.
- "dune_folder.txt" mechanism improvements:
- Added support for "smb://...", "nfs://...", and "network_folder://..."
media_url values, allowing to reference media content on SMB and NFS
network shares.
- Syntax:
- "smb://[user[:password]@]host/share/path"
- "user" and "password" are optional.
- "host" can be IP-address, DNS-name, or SMB-name of SMB server.
- "share" is SMB share name.
- Example: "smb://10.0.0.1/MYSHARE/folder/file1.avi"
- "nfs://host[:/export-path]:/path"
- "host" can be IP-address or DNS-name of NFS server.
- "export-path" is optional; when omitted, the player tries to
automatically deduce it from the specified "path" (by
analyzing all NFS-exports of the NFS-server). For better
performance and correct working, it is recommended to always
explicitly specify "export-path".
- Example (w/o explicitly specified "export-path"):
"nfs://10.0.0.1:/MYSHARE/folder/file1.avi"
- Example (with explicitly specified "export-path"):
"nfs://10.0.0.1:/MYSHARE:/folder/file1.avi"
- "network_folder://network-folder-name/path"
- "network-folder-name" is the name of network folder
econfigured in the player.
- Example: "network_folder://MYSHARE/folder/file1.avi"
- So, it is now possible to use "dune_folder.txt" to organize links
(e.g. Media Collection Indexes) pointing not only to any locally
attached storage devices, but also to any network resources
accessible via NFS or SMB.
- Network URLs are supported for all kinds of content: regular media
files (video, audio, photo), DVD-images (VIDEO_TS, ISO), BD-Images
(BDMV, ISO).
- Such network URLs are also supported in playlist files (M3U, PLS).
- The network shares are automounted by the player on-the-fly as
needed; when using "smb://" and "nfs://" URLs, there is no need to
manually configure the corresponding network folders.
- When playing a playlist consisting of items pointing to different
network shares, the player automatically unmounts/mounts network
shares as needed (in particular, it correctly unmounts a SMB share
before accessing another SMB share pointing to the same SMB server,
in order to avoid the limitation that Linux kernel can not work
with multiple SMB shares of the same SMB server simultanesouly).
- Added the following new "dune_folder.txt" parameters:
- "system_files = {pattern1}[,{pattern2}...]".
- Allows to specify which files should be treated as system and
thus hidden (when "Hide system files = Yes" option is enabled in
Setup).
- Each "pattern" can be the exact name of file/folder, or a
pattern including wildcards ("*" means any sequence of
characters, "?" means any single character).
- "media_url_check = (yes|no)" (default is "no").
- Allows to specify whether the player should try to check if the
"media_url" is valid and points to an existing file when
painting the item corresponding to this media folder, and also
determine a suitable icon to show (e.g. video file, audio file);
if the "media_url" is not valid, the item is painted in the
"dimmed" way. Such a check may reduce browsing performance, so
it is now disabled by default, and this new parameter allows to
reenable it.
- Added support for specifying "dune_folder.txt" parameters which affect
not just the current folder, but also subfolders.
- This allows to provide custom look for the entire folder
hieararchies (e.g. all folders on a HDD) just by creating a single
"dune_folder.txt" file in the root of the folder hierarchy.
- Almost any "dune_folder.txt" parameter can now be prefixed in the
following way:
- "direct_children.{parameter} = {value}"
- "level2_children.{parameter} = {value}"
- "all_children.{parameter} = {value}"
- When "{value}" is a relative path to some file, the following
syntax can be used to specify how the relative path should be
resolved:
- "rel_path://{relative-path}": treat path relatively to each
particular subfolder (default).
- "cur_path://{relative-path}": treat path relatively to the
parent folder (i.e. the folder where "dune_folder.txt" file is
located).
- Other improvements and bugfixes:
- Improvement: Windows 7 Recycle Bin folder is considered to be system
file and is hidden by default.
- Minor improvement for the "Hard Disk" icon.
- Improved progress indication when preparing to play and building large
playlists.
- Bugfix: Audio could be absent when playing specific TS files.
- Bugfix: When accessing Dune from a Windows PC via SMB, "dir" command in
Windows shell could work wrongly (filename case sensitivity problem; now
Dune's SMB server treats all filenames w/o case sensitivity).
- Bugfix: Photo viewer could hang up in specific rare cases.
- Bugfix: Optical disc eject was wrongly allowed when running file read
test on a file located on the optical disc.
- Bugfix: JPEG images (assigned via dune_folder.txt) could be displayed
wrongly in the right panel of the file browser (when using "Extended
List" view mode).
- Bugfix: screensaver could become non-functioning after using photo
viewer.
- Added Thai characters into fonts (adds support for Thai language in
filenames and subtitles).
- Added more menu languages: Greek, Danish, Czech. Some other languages
updated/improved.
Version "091229_1411_beta"
(BETA version, not well tested, may contain critical bugs and broken
functionality; not recommended unless you really want to try)
Changes since 091211_1311_beta:
- Bookmarks improvements:
- File bookmarks are disabled when playing playlists, they are used only
when playing individual files (press ENTER on a file).
- The setting "Miscellaneous / Playback / Autoresume video files" allows
to completely disable bookmarks for video files.
- The setting "Miscellaneous / Playback / Autoresume audio files" allows
to completely disable bookmarks for audio files.
- The setting "Miscellaneous / Playback / Autoresume DVD" allows to
completely disable bookmarks for DVD discs and DVD-folders/ISO-images.
- Added a support for tags in audio files (MP3, FLAC, WMA, M4A).
- When tags are detected, they are automatically shown for the currently
played file during music playback. The supports tags include: title,
artist, album, track, year, comment.
- The setting "Miscellaneous / Playback / Audio file tags" allows to
disable reading and showing the tags (could be helpful e.g. if it does
not work properly for some files).
- Both Unicode and 8-bit tags are supported. The setting "Miscellaneous
/ Encodings / MP3 tag encoding" allows to force the specified encoding
for tags in MP3 files.
- When music playback starts, a hint about INFO and MENU buttons is
displayed (INFO -- show details about the current track, MENU -- show the
playlist).
- Added preliminary (untested) support for USB WiFi adapter D-Link DWA-140
version B2 (previously only version B1 was supported). UPDATE: according
to user's feedback, this firmware version still does not work with
DWA-140 version B2.
- Added full support for discrete power-off and power-on IR commands.
- IR hex codes:
- DISCRETE-POWER-ON: 00 BF 5F A0
- DISCRETE-POWER-OFF: 00 BF 5E A1
- The DISCRETE-POWER-ON IR command is handled exactly as POWER RC button
when the player is in the standby mode, and is ignored when the player
is turned on.
- The DISCRETE-POWER-OFF IR command is handled exactly as POWER RC
button when the player is turned on, and is ignored when the player is
in the standby mode.
- If the player is configured to perform full power-off instead of
entering software standby, the DISCRETE-POWER-OFF and
DISCRETE-POWER-ON commands perform full power-off and power-on.
- Added a possibility to easily format a non-initialized drive (e.g. HDD)
just by pressing ENTER of the drive item on the main screen.
- "dune_folder.txt": "background_order" parameter now supports the
following set of values (instead of "first" and "last" as took place in
the previous firmware version):
- "before_all": the same as "first" in the previous firmware version.
- "before_icons": the same as "last" in the previous firmware version.
- "after_all": a new option, allowing to paint the custom background
after everything else (including file icons).
- "dune_folder.txt": added a possibility to hide file icons (w/o using
dummy fully-transparent icon). Syntax:
- "paint_icons = no" (default is "yes").
- Added more menu languages: Hungarian, Polish. Some other languages
updated/improved.
- The configuration of built-in FTP server adjusted to allow "FXP"
transfers.
- Added support for playback of video files with ".trp" extension (no more
need to rename them).
- Improved the speed of startup of specific MKV files, which previously
could take too long to start (that could even be considered by the user
as hangup in some cases).
- Bugfix: playing a file with an unknown length (such as MP3 with VBR
bitrate) caused playback crash (this bug was introduced in the previous
beta firmware version).
- Bugfix: playing/reading files from SMB share could crash in some cases
(the bug introduced by SMB optimizations in the previous beta firmware
version) (plus some other SMB-related bugs fixed).
- Bugfix: returning to file browser (e.g. after playback) caused crash if
current folder had dune_folder.txt with custom background image.
- Bugfix: specific Blu-ray images could not be played in some cases.
- Bugfix: after switching to TrueHD audiotrack in MKV file, stuttering
could take place in specific cases.
- Bugfix: "dune_folder.txt" / "paint_captions = no" did not work properly
in some cases (when the filename was too long and scrolled, it was shown
despite this setting).
Version "091211_1311_beta"
(BETA version, not well tested, may contain critical bugs and broken
functionality; not recommended unless you really want to try)
Changes since 091023_1444:
- Added more conveniency for working with subtitles and audiotracks during
file and DVD playback:
- Added the setting "Misc / Playback / Enable subtitles by default for
files" which allows to choose one of the following settings:
- "No" -- do not use subtitles by default.
- "Yes" -- always use subtitles by default if any subtitles exist
(internal or external).
- "Internal only" -- if internal subtitles exist, use them by
default.
- "External only" (default) -- if external subtitles exist, use them
by default.
- Added the setting "Misc / Playback / Default subtitles preference"
with choices "Internal" and "External" (default), which controls which
kind of subtitles have priority if "Enable subtitles by default for
files" is set to "Yes" and both internal and external subtitles exist.
- Added the setting "Misc / Playback / Quick toggling of single
subtitles" (enabled by default), which enables special behavior of
SUBTITLE RC button when there is only one subtitles track: instead of
showing the usual subtitles menu, the SUBTITLE RC button allows to
quickly toggle this single subtitles track (select / deselect it). To
enter the subtitles setup, press SUBTITLE and then SETUP.
- Added a new possibility to conveniently and quickly show/hide the
currently selected subtitles track (even if there are multiple
subtitles) just by pressing the RC button "D" (blue).
- When a subtitles track is selected, the "D" RC button toggles the
visibility of the currently selected subtitles.
- When selecting a subtitles track from the subtitles menu, the "D"
RC button allows to select the subtitles track but hide it
initially (until the "D" RC button is pressed during playback to
show the subtitles).
- Added the setting "Misc / Playback / "ENTER" closes subtitles/audio
menu" (enabled by default). When enabled, selecting a track from the
menu of available subtitles/audio tracks (by pressing "ENTER" RC
button, or also "D" RC button for subtitles), automatically closes the
menu (instead of keeping it shown).
- Added bookmarks functionality also for file playback (previously worked
only for DVD playback).
- Bookmarks work similarly to how they work for DVD playback: when
stopping playback of a file, the current position is remembered and
then automatically resumed when the file is played again; the bookmark
is automatically deleted when the file is played till the very end;
bookmarks are remembered for up to ~200 files.
- NOTE: you can press "0" (jump to 0%) to quickly start file playback
from the very beginning, if bookmark was used.
- NOTE: there is no yet ability to disable bookmarks or confirm bookmark
usage, possibility to review recent bookmarks, etc.
- NOTE: still no support for generic Blu-ray bookmarks (only standard
bookmarking possibilities provided by some Blu-ray discs on their own
are supported).
- Added zoom functionality for photo viewer.
- Instructions:
- Use P+/P- to zoom-in/zoom-out.
- Use arrows to scroll through the zoomed picture.
- Use ZOOM to toggle through "fit to screen", "pixel to pixel", and
"custom" zoom modes.
- NOTE: Any zoom action shows ZOOM information box, which is
automatically hidden after some period of user inactivity. Press
ENTER or RETURN to hide it immediately.
- NOTE: Any zoom action pauses the slideshow. To resume the
slideshow, press PLAY.
- NOTE: When working with photos having very high resolution (much
bigger than FullHD 1920x1080), photo viewer initially loads photos
with a reduced resolution (minimal resolution which is enough to
ensure excellent photo quality on FullHD display, in order to speedup
things); after zooming into the picture, photo viewer initially shows
the already loaded version of the picture (with reduced resolution),
and then automatically loads and shows the version of the picture with
full resolution in background (so it may take some seconds to show the
best quality photo in zoom mode).
- Added time search (go to HH:MM:SS) functionality also for file playback
and DVD playback (previously was provided only for bluray playback, while
for file/DVD playback it was only possible to use +/-10sec/1min/10min
navigation).
- Instructions:
- Press SEARCH, enter HH:MM:SS, then press ENTER.
- When entering HH:MM:SS, the following RC buttons are available:
ENTER, RETURN, CLEAR, LEFT, RIGHT.
- NOTE: the "Quick Play" feature is still available, the same way as
before: quickly press SEARCH, then PLAY.
- Added more font sizes for text subtitles (file playback) in addition to
"small" and "medium": "large" (+25%), "x-large" (+50%), "xx-large"
(+100%).
- NOTE: This feature is intended primarily for relatively small screens
(or for relatively big viewing distance).
- Added a possibility to switch between Internet Radio stations, IPTV
channels, or other streamable media (where time search is not supported)
via P+/P- buttons. Instructions:
- Launch the playlist with streamable media sources in the usual way,
then use P+/P- buttons instead or in addition to the usual NEXT/PREV
buttons.
- Various playback and file format compatibility improvements:
- Performance of network playback from SMB servers further improved
(effective data transfer rate is now up to 20% bigger, and may be even
comparable to NFS, so even playback from problematic SMB servers
should work better now).
- Bugfix: specific Bluray images could not be played properly.
- Bugfix: specific DVD-Video discs with MPEG audio streams could not be
played properly.
- Bugfix: specific DVD-Video discs could not be played properly.
- Bugfix: playing TS files in a loop (more than 40 repeats) could cause
playback crash or hangup.
- General/miscellaneous improvements:
- Added more menu languages: Italian, Romanian, Spanish. Some other
languages updated/improved.
- Added a warning when the user attempts to choose non-recommended
settings in the "System" setup section.
- Improvement: FTP server and SMB server applications running on Dune
consume less processing power during playback now (their "nice" level
increased).
- Improvement: switching directly to the main menu in file browser (via
RC button STOP/REPEAT/TITLE/TOP-MENU) works slightly faster now.
- Change: "IPTV" and "Internet Radio" items are now always shown on the
main screen when they are enabled in the "Applications" setup section
(even if their configuration is missing). To remove these items from
the main creen, disable them in the setup.
- Bugfix: setting "HDMI audio" to "off" caused wrong colorspace on HDMI
video output (purple/absent/distorted picture).
- Bugfix: after playing a video/music file from UPnP server and then
returning to file browser, an empty folder content could be shown in
specific rare cases.
- Bugfix: initialization of System Storage during firmware update could
not work for partitionless USB flash drives.
- Bugfix: system storage could not work properly in some cases after
putting the player into standby.
- Various "dune_folder.txt" mechanism improvements:
- Added support for images files not only in Dune-specific AAI file
format, but also in BMP, PNG, JPG, and GIF formats.
- NOTE: For BMP and PNG formats (as well as AAI), transparancy and
alphachannel are supported.
- NOTE: The performance of reading images from various file formats
may differ, depending on the exact file format, image resolution,
and media source kind (e.g. local or network disk). In most cases,
AAI and BMP are the recommended formats having the best
performance. If you need a standard and widely used image file
format with tranparancy/alphachannel support and good performance
on Dune, use BMP.
- Added progress indication during loading of custom background image
when image loading takes a while (could take place e.g. when loading
FullHD 1920x1080 background from a network media source).
- Added a possibility to show just icons w/o captions (filenames) below
them. Syntax:
- "paint_captions = no" (default is "yes").
- Added a possibility to hide the "path box" (the box showing the path
to the current folder at the top of the screen). Syntax:
- "paint_path_box = no" (default is "yes").
- Added a possibility to hide the scrollbar. Syntax:
- "paint_scrollbar = no" (default is "yes").
- Added a possibility to hide the "help line" ("CONTROLS: ..." text at
the bottom of the screen). Syntax:
- "paint_help_line = no" (default is "yes").
- Added a possibility to hide the "icon selection box" (a frame around
an icon indicating that the icon is selected).
Syntax:
- "paint_icon_selection_box = no" (default is "yes").
- Added a possibility to not paint the shaded background for the
"content box" (the area listing icons). Syntax:
- "paint_content_box_background = no" (default is "yes").
- Added a possibility to alter the location and internal padding for the
"content box" (the area listing icons). Syntax:
- "content_box_x = ..." (>=0, -1 means default = auto).
- "content_box_y = ..." (>=0, -1 means default = auto).
- "content_box_width = ..." (>0, -1 means default = auto).
- "content_box_height = ..." (>0, -1 means default = auto).
- "content_box_padding_left = ..." (>=0, default = 20).
- "content_box_padding_top = ..." (>=0, default = 20).
- "content_box_padding_right = ..." (>=0, default = 20).
- "content_box_padding_bottom = ..." (>=0, default = 20).
- Added new options for altering the way custom background is painted.
Syntax:
- "background_order = first/last". Here:
- "first" means paint custom background before "path_box",
"content_box", and "help_line" (i.e. under these elements).
- "last" (default) means paint custom background after these
elements (i.e. over them).
- "optimize_full_screen_background = yes" (default is "no"). "yes" is
reasonable to specify in order to slightly improve the performance
in the following cases:
- Custom background image is full-screen (1920x1080) solid image
(w/o transparent pixels).
- "background_order = first".
- Added a possibility to paint a custom scrollbar using a user-defined
image file. Syntax:
- "scroll_path = {image-path}"
- "scroll_x = ..." (>=0, -1 means default = auto)
- "scroll_y = ..." (>=0, -1 means default = auto)
- "scroll_height = ..." (>0, -1 means default = auto)
- Added a possibility to paint custom "mark" icons (icons used when
marking files via SELECT RC button, e.g. to select items for the
playlist) using a user-defined image file. Syntax:
- "mark_path = {image-path}"
- "mark_dx = ..." (-960..960)
- "mark_dy = ..." (-540..540)
Version "091023_1444"
The first official version ever shipped with production players.