Dune Firmware Zone

Dune HD Sky 4K Plus

NOTE: The main feature of this firmware update is the support for the new
mobile app ("Dune Control"). It does not include the support for BD4K menu
and the support for CUE in the internal player -- these features will be
included into next versions.

- New feature: Added support the new mobile app ("Dune Control"):
    - Main new features of the new mobile app:
        - Navigator (new):
            - Browse and choose media content via Dune UI shown directly on
              your mobile device.
            - Access local and network sources, Favorites, Recent, My
              Collection, Movies, Dune HD PHP plugins, etc.
            - The menu shown on the mobile device mirrors the menu shown on
              the TV screen.
            - Enter text into text fields in Dune UI using native keyboard
              on your mobile device.
            - Photo viewer mode: view photos from the Dune HD device on the
              mobile device, control photo slide show.
        - Now Playing (new):
            - See the information about the currently played media content,
              including (when available) movie poster, movie title, music
              cover, music album/artist/track information.
            - Control the playback (play/pause, stop, previous/next,
              playback position, volume).
        - Remote (similar as in the old mobile app):
            - Fully replaces the standard IR remote control.
            - Uses Wi-Fi to connect to the local network.
            - Automatically searches for Dune HD devices in the local
              network.
            - Allows to control multiple Dune HD devices and easily switch
              between them.
    - More information and mobile app download:
        - http://dune-hd.com/dunecontrol/

- New feature: Added support for music tags and covers (same as it was
  implemented previously on Sigma-based models.

- New feature: Added support for chapters in MKV files (same as it was
  implemented previously on Sigma-based models.

- New feature: Added simple parental control mechanism for file browser.
  Put "pin_code = NNNN" line into "dune_folder.txt" file in any folder to
  protect this folder by the specified pin code.

- New feature: It is now possible to add the following items to Favorites
  menu: network folders, storages, "Internal Memory" folder.

- New feature: Recent menu now shows movie posters for files which are
  recognized as movies (works when the file was recognized as a movie when
  the file was added to Recent menu).

- New feature: When viewing Movie description in the Movie screen, it is
  now possible to move focus into the description area by pressing RIGHT
  button, and then scroll through the description via UP/DOWN buttons.
  (Helpful when using remote controls w/o P+/P- buttons.)

- New feature: Realtek models: Added automatic detection of the encoding of
  external subtitles, similarly to how it was implemented previously on
  Sigma-based models.

- New feature: Realtek models: The setting "Setup / Audio / Digital audio
  output mode" now have 3 possible choices: "Auto", "PCM (decode)",
  "Original (bitstream)" (default is "Auto").
    - "Auto": use PCM or Bitstream on HDMI output based the capabilities of
      the connected HDMI equipment (automatically detected via HDMI EDID);
      use Bitstream on S/PDIF output.
        - This choice should be suitable in most cases.
    - "PCM (decode)": use PCM on both HDMI and S/PDIF outputs.
        - This choice is useful to force PCM on HDMI output when the
          connected HDMI equipment works incorrectly and provides wrong
          EDID information, or when the connected S/PDIF receiver does not
          support bitstream audio formats (Dolby/DTS), or when it is
          desired to decode bitstream audio formats (Dolby/DTS) on the
          media player side for any other reason.
    - "Original (bitstream)": use Bitstream on both HDMI and S/PDIF
      outputs.
        - This choice is useful to force Bitstream on HDMI output when the
          connected HDMI equipment works incorrectly and provides wrong
          EDID information.

- New feature: Realtek models: Added new setting "Setup / Audio / Maximum
  digital outputs sample rate" with possible choices "Auto" and "192 KHz"
  (default is "Auto" when "Digital audio connector" setting is set to
  "HDMI", "192 KHz" when "Digital audio connector" setting is set to
  "S/PDIF").
    - "Auto": the system automatically detects the maximum allowed sample
      rate based on HDMI EDID information.
        - This choice usually should be used when audio is output via HDMI.
    - "192 KHz": the system allows output of up to 192 KHz sample rate via
      S/PDIF even if HDMI EDID information does not allow 192 KHz.
        - This choice is useful when outputting video directly to a HDMI TV
          (which does not support 192 KHz) and simultaneously outputting
          audio via S/PDIF to an A/V receiver, given that the used A/V
          receiver and the used S/PDIF cable support 192 KHz.

- Improvement: Movie posters are now always displayed with the
  correct/original aspect ratio (previously movie posters could be slightly
  stretched); GUI layout of the screens with movie posters is slightly
  modified correspondingly.

- Improvement: The special support for launching playback via an external
  SPMC/KODI application can now be used not only with SPMC version 16.x (as
  before), but also with SPMC version 17.x and with KODI of any version. If
  any of these alternative SPMC/KODI versions is installed by the user (and
  no other SPMC/KODI versions are installed), the installed version will be
  used (instead of automatically installing SPMC 16.x, as took place
  before). NOTE: The default SPMC 16.x should not be installed or should be
  deleted (if it was installed) in order to use this feature.

- Improvement: Improved support for USB keyboards.

- Improvement: My Collection: when choosing a folder to add to My
  Collection, "Add to collection" action is now always available via POP UP
  MENU. (Helpful when using remote controls w/o SELECT button.)

- Improvement: RC button presses are now better handled during initial
  setup wizard in some cases.

- Improvement: Kartina.TV application updated to include some new features,
  improvements and fixes which were previously implemented in Kartina.TV
  STBs.

- Improvement: Ultra 4K: In Audio Setup, in ESS DAC source setting,
  "Internal source" renamed to "Media player" for better clarity.

- Bugfix: Ultra 4K and Max 4K: When Hi-Fi audio output (XMOS) is used,
  Hi-Fi audio output may become not working in some cases when using
  HiByMusic external app and after that using another player.

- Bugfix: Ultra 4K and Max 4K: When Hi-Fi audio output (XMOS) was enabled,
  and "Digital audio output mode" setting was set to "Bitstream", Hi-Fi
  audio output did not work for bitstream audio formats (Dolby/DTS). Now,
  when Hi-Fi audio output (XMOS) is enabled, the media player automatically
  decodes bitstream audio formats (Dolby/DTS) not depending on "Digital
  audio output mode" setting.

- Bugfix: Realtek models: Stability improvements. Fixed the problem which
  could cause frequent "Application stopped" errors and other system
  instabilities in some cases.

- Bugfix: Realtek models: When Bitstream audio output was enabled, output
  of AAC audio could not work in some cases.

- Bugfix: Realtek models: It was impossible to configure some 4K video
  modes when using specific 4K HDMI equipment which does not fully support
  all HDMI 2.0a features (such as Epson 8300/9300 projectors).

- Bugfix: Realtek models: Switching subtitles could not work in some cases.

- Bugfix: Realtek models: Some HTTP/TS streams could not be played
  correctly (playback restarts and hangups could happen) in some cases.

- Bugfix: Realtek models: When CEC was enabled, TV wakeup could not work
  properly on exiting software standby mode in some cases.

- Bugfix: Amlogic models: Fixed problem with unneeded CPU usage when CEC
  was disabled.

- Bugfix: Amlogic models: Fixed problem that an external storage could not
  be mounted in some cases (because of a problem when attempting to check
  it for filesystem errors)

- Bugfix: Amlogic models: Fixed problem with DHCP client working
  incorrectly in some cases (network connectivity could be lost after a
  while in some cases).

- Bugfix: Amlogic models: Fixed problems with playback of network streams
  in some cases.

- Bugfix: Amlogic models: Some HEVC video files could not be played.

- Bugfix: Amlogic models: When video mode was set to Auto (EDID), this
  could work incorrectly when auto framerate was used in some cases.

- Bugfix: Amlogic models: Extra unneeded HDMI reinitialization could take
  place during boot.

- Bugfix: Traveler: Battery status could be indicated wrongly after
  power-on in some cases.

- Bugfix: When playback was started by IP Control command and screensaver
  was active, screensaver was not cancelled.

- Bugfix: Errors during playback of catchup TV streams could be handled
  wrongly in some cases (restoring Live TV playback instead of restoring
  catchup TV playback).

- Bugfix: Some HLS streams could not be played.

- Bugfix: Fixed problem that navigation buttons (left/right/up/down) did
  not work via IP Control in mouse emulation mode.

- Bugfix: Fixed problem that long-press of POWER RC button was wrongly
  detected faster than in 2 seconds in some cases.

- Bugfix: POP UP MENU could work wrongly in text edit fields in some cases.

- Bugfix: "Play with..." function could work incorrectly in some cases and
  could crash in some cases.

- Bugfix: When Composite video output was used, Setup menu could crash in
  some cases.

- Bugfix: Office files (such as .xlsx) were wrongly not recognized as
  office files in some cases.

- Bugfix: Icons shown in Favorites menu could become incorrect in some
  cases.

- Bugfix: "dune_firmware.dff" file was wrongly highlighted as audio (SACD
  DFF) file.

- Bugfix: GUI hint about D button could be shown incorrectly in some cases.

- Improvements for PHP plugins and PHP API:

    - New feature: Added support for color button actions without captions
      in control folders and regular folders.

    - Bugfix: Parameters for handle_user_input in control dialogs could be
      handled wrongly in some cases.

    - Bugfix: P+/P- buttons could not work correctly in control dialogs in
      some cases.

    - Bugfix: Restoring GUI state in could work wrongly in some cases.

    - Bugfix: When the playback of the current playlist list item (e.g. TV
      series episode) finished in plugin playback mode, and the main menu
      was shown, the system wrongly did not automatically start the
      playback of the next playlist item.

- Improvements in IP Control protocol:

    - IP Control protocol extended with a lot of new features to support
      the new mobile app. In particular, added support for getting detailed
      information about the current UI state, and for controlling the UI
      state, to allow external applications to implement external browsers
      for Dune UI. For more information, see the description of protocol
      version 5 here:
        - http://dune-hd.com/support/ip_control/dune_ip_control_overview.txt

- Updated/improved UI translations for some languages.

- Some other minor improvements/fixes.

This version is a big update from r12 to r13 development branch and
contains a huge number of changes.

This version includes all general changes (except changes specific or
exclusive to RTD1295-based models) which were previously implemented in the
latest firmware update for RTD1295-based models and which are included into
the firmware version 181123_2042_r13 for Dune HD Pro 4K; see here for more
information:
    - http://dune-hd.com/firmware/pro4k_tv292a/

Besides, this version includes the following Amlogic-specific changes:

- New feature: IP Control functionality, including the possibility to
  control media playback, is now supported also for Amlogic-based models
  (same as for RTD1295-based models and Sigma Designs based models).

- New feature: "Software Standby" standby mode, with OS and background
  services running in background, is now supported also for Amlogic-based
  models (same as for RTD1295-based models and Sigma Designs based models).

- New feature: Old Amlogic-based models now also support the new IR remote
  controls shipped with the new models (these new remote controls have new
  IR codes in order to reduce chances of conflicts with remote controls for
  other equipment).

- New feature: The setting "Setup / Video / Advanced / Noise reduction" can
  be used to fine-tune picture quality by enabling or disabling video noise
  reduction function of Amlogic media processor. By default, it is now set
  to "Disabled", which provides the best picture quality in most cases.
  (This setting was previously available only on the new Amlogic-based
  models, and now it is now available on all Amlogic-based models.)

- Minor other improvements/fixes.

- New feature: When working with Movies or My Collection functions, on
  Movie screen, the new section "Similar" shows the list of
  similar/recommended movies. NOTE: To eanble this feature for movies which
  are part of My Collection, they should be reindexed (remove indexed data
  and then perform indexing again).

- New feature: Fast forward (FF) and fast rewind (REW) are now supported in
  Dune HD internal player.

- New feature: IP Control functionality is now partially supported.
  Currently, only the possibility to emulate RC button presses is supported
  ("ir_code" command).
   - The protocol is the same as was previously used in Sigma based Dune HD
     models: http://dune-hd.com/support/ip_control
   - NOTE: When the player is in standby mode, IP Control can not be used
     when "Sleep" or "Power off" mode is used (in these modes, CPU and OS
     are not running and can not handle IP Control commands), it can only
     be used when "Software standby" mode is used. "Software standby" mode
     is currently supported only for Pro 4K model and old Sigma based
     models; it is currently not supported for Neo 4K, Neo 4K T2, Neo 4K T2
     Plus, Sky 4K Plus models. So, for Neo 4K, Neo 4K T2, Neo 4K T2 Plus,
     Sky 4K models, IP Control can only be used when the player is not in
     standby mode.

- Improvement: When working with Movies or My Collection functions, the
  performance of loading movies information improved (especially when using
  slow Internet connection).

- Improvement: The UI for choosing time zone in the initial setup wizard is
  now more convenient.

- Bugfix: Some ISO files (with 16-bit filenames encoding) were not
  recognized and could not be played.

- Bugfix: When working with SMB shares which require user/password, files
  on these shares could not be accessed in some cases.

- Bugfix: When connecting via SMB to a host which has multiple IP
  addresses, wrong IP address could be used and thus the host could not be
  accessed in some cases.

- Bugfix: Wi-Fi connection to a network without a password did not work.

- Bugfix: Adding Android applications to "Favorites" menu did not work
  properly in some cases.

- Bugfix: When working with Movies or My Collection functions, when
  navigating through the UI, there were various minor bugs in the shown
  information in some rare cases.

- Bugfix: When starting a plugin which requires network connectivity, the
  system could hang in some rare cases.

- Bugfix: When starting a plugin which uses icon archive functionality, the
  system could hang in some rare cases. Also, the performance of icon
  archive downloading improved.

- Bugfix: After settings reset, when the initial setup wizard id shown, and
  a local storage device with *.dsf or *.dff files is connected, a special
  service dialog listing these files could be wrongly shown.

- Improvements for PHP plugins and PHP API:

    - New feature: New action "RESTART" is introduced, with parameter
      "reboot" (possible values "yes" and "no"), which allows the plugin to
      request GUI restart or full reboot. 

    - New feature: "PLUGIN_OPEN_FOLDER" action is extended with the new
      parameter "sel_id", which can be used to preselect the given item in
      regular folders (value is media_url of the item to preselect).

    - New feature: A possibility to emulate RC button presses (same as in
      Sigma based Dune HD models) is now available for PHP plugins.

    - New feature: "android_platform" parameter is now available via
      "/tmp/run/versions.txt" and "/firmware/config/android_platform.txt".

    - Bugfix: Loading images via HTTP URL which redirects to HTTPS URL did
      not work in some cases.

- Updated/improved UI translations for some languages.

- Some other minor improvements/fixes.

This version is the same as 180420_0153_r12, but supports Sky 4K Plus
model.

- New feature: Playback of BD4K images is now supported in Dune HD internal
  player (both BDMV and BD ISO are supported).

- New feature: Decoding of DTS audio tracks (stereo downmix) is now
  supported in Dune HD internal player.

- New feature: Decoding of DTS HD HRA, DTS HD MA, DTS:X audio tracks
  (stereo downmix) is now supported in Dune HD internal player (for MKV,
  M2TS, BD images; DTS core is extracted and decoded).

- New feature: Decoding of TrueHD and Atmos audio tracks (stereo downmix)
  is now supported in Dune HD internal player (for M2TS and BD images, not
  for MKV; DD core is extracted and decoded).

- New feature: DD decoding quality is improved and it now supports Dolby
  DRC (Dynamic Range Control). (DRC mode can be adjusted via "Setup /
  System" menu.)

- New feature: Remembering and restoring playback position is now supported
  in Dune HD internal player (same as on Sigma models). Remembered playback
  position is shown in Recent menu.

- New feature: When starting file playback and there is a remembered
  playback position, a question is asked to resume playback from the
  remembered position or to start from the beginning. The new setting
  "Setup / Playback / Preferences / Resume playback" allows to control this
  behavior, with the following options: Yes, No, Ask user. The default is
  "Ask user".

- New feature: REPEAT and SHUFFLE functions for playlists are now
  implemented (same as on Sigma models).

- New feature: Subtitles visualization settings (vertical offset, color,
  font) are now remembered (same as on Sigma models).

- New feature: Added setting "Setup / Misc / Encodings / Subtitles
  encoding" which allows to specify subtitles encoding (same as on Sigma
  models).

- New feature: Sleep timer is now implemented (same as on Sigma models,
  works only when working with Dune HD GUI). By default it is disabled. It
  can be enabled via the new setting "Setup / Misc / Power manamenent /
  Sleep timer".

- New feature: Added support for HFS+ (Mac OS X) partitions on storage
  devices with GPT partition table (in addition to previously supported MBR
  partition table).

- New feature: Added support for storage devices with hybrid MBR/GPT
  partition table.

- New feature: Added support for storage devices formatted without
  partition table.

- Improvement: EXT2/EXT3/EXT4 and BTRS partitions on storage devices are
  now mounted more correctly (with full read-write permissions).

- Improvement: Storage devices are now mounted more robustly, even if they
  were not correctly ejected last time.

- Improvement: NFS browser now searches for NFS servers on all network
  interfaces when both Ethernet and Wi-Fi are enabled simultaneously.

- Improvement: Automatic detection of subtitle encoding now works more
  correctly.

- Improvement: In initial setup wizard, if the connected TV supports 4K, 4K
  resolution is now recommended by default.

- Improvement: In initial setup wizard, the suggested by default timezone
  is now automatically detected based on GeoIP (when Internet is
  accessible).

- Improvement: When Community source is enabled in Dune Store and there are
  a lot of applications to choose, applications are split by categories (as
  on Sigma models).

- Improvement: "+" item in "Android applications" menu can now be removed
  (hidden) via "Delete" command in POP UP MENU, and then restored via
  "Restore hidden applications" command (i.e. same way as for other
  built-in applications).

- Improvement: When UI Type 1 is used, "Android applications" section is
  now also available.

- Improvement: When UI Type 2 is used, the "Applications" tab now has a
  proper title "Applications" (rather than "Dune HD Applications").

- Improvement: The hint about possibility to use "POP UP MENU" RC button is
  now shown on other main screens where it was not previously shown, but
  the button actually could be used.

- Improvement: When performing "Reset Settings" action, a message is now
  shown while the system is handling it.

- Improvement: Kartina.TV application includes now some new minor
  improvements.

- Bugfix: In initial setup wizard, when booting w/o HDMI cable connected,
  the wizard crashed.

- Bugfix: Playback crash could happen when stopping or finishing playback.

- Bugfix: Starting audio playback immediately after player boot could cause
  playback crash.

- Bugfix: Playback could hang when switching TV channels very fast.

- Bugfix: Playback problems or crashes could happen in some cases after
  long use of the player or after a lot of switching between TV channels.

- Bugfix: Subtitles could become not working till player reboot in some
  cases.

- Bugfix: Playback of TS files and streams could hang in some cases when
  teletext subtitles substream is present in the stream.

- Bugfix: Pressing NEXT RC button could cause playback crash.

- Bugfix: Wrong information about the index of the current playlist element
  could be shown in INFO panel.

- Bugfix: BD ISO with quotes in filename could not be played.

- Bugfix: Plugin auto-resume and auto-start could not work in some cases
  when booting or when exiting standby mode.

- Bugfix: Storage devices could not detected correctly when existing from
  standby mode in some cases.

- Improvements for PHP plugins and PHP API:

   - New feature: For TV plugins which support TV archive (catchup),
     LEFT/RIGHT RC buttons can now be used to switch to archive mode and
     seek in the archive even in Live TV mode. For TV plugins which do not
     support archive, LEFT/RIGHT RC buttons are now correctly ignored in
     Live TV mode.

   - New feature: "PLAYBACK_STOP" action now supports the following
     additional parameters: "plugin_vod_stop_position",
     "plugin_vod_duration", "plugin_vod_start_tm", "plugin_vod_stop_tm",
     "plugin_vod_prebuffering_end_tm".

   - New feature: Added the possibility to use different fonts for the
     information shown in the right panel. The following new commands are
     now supported for "%ext%" syntax in
     "ViewItemParams::item_detailed_info":
      - "%ext%%fN%": use font size N (0..2) for the current text line.
      - "%ext%%f+%": increase font size for the current text line.
      - "%ext%%f-%": decrease font size for the current text line.

   - Improvement: In skins w/o glasses ("disable_glasses" set to "yes"),
     such as "Silver" or "Black" skins, a bit more space (30 pixels at the
     left and 30 pixels at the right) is now allocated to show useful
     information in the right panel.

   - Improvement: When loading images from HTTPS, the performance is now
     improved.

   - Improvement: When PHP plugin uses auto-resume functionality,
     "ip_address_required" setting is now enabled by default for this
     plugin.

   - Improvement: folder ".platform.android" can now be used to store
     Android-specific versions of platform-dependent plugin files (such has
     native executables) in the plugin (similar to ".platform.87xx" folder
     that can be used for SMP87xx-specific files).

   - Bugfix: "/tmp/run/ext_command.state" was not implemented; now it
     contains the information about current playback state (same as on
     Sigma models).

   - Bugfix: Playback timer did not work.

   - Bugfix: Saving/restoring playback position during auto-resume and
     setting initial playback position using
     PluginVodInfo::initial_position_ms did not work properly.

   - Bugfix: In "PLAYBACK_STOP" action, in rare cases,
     "plugin_vod_series_ndx" and "plugin_tv_channel_id" parameters could
     contain wrong information.

   - Bugfix: When switching to playlist item N, the next item (N+1) was
     actually wrongly used.

   - Bugfix: In TV OSD, crash could occur in some specific cases when
     trying to scroll through the list of TV channels.

- Other minor improvements/fixes.

The first version that was recommended for Neo 4K, Neo 4K T2, Neo 4K T2
models.

This version adds Dune HD internal player, Google Play services, DD
decoding, built-in shortcuts to popular Android applications, integration
of SPMC application as DVD playback engine (and as optional file playback
engine) with automatic installation and configuration, and many other
improvements and fixes.