Playback

File Playback

The player supports playback of media files (video, music, photos) in various formats. You can play files from any drives attached to the player, or from network drives.

• To play a media file, select the file in the file browser, and press ENTER.

• To play all media files in the current folder starting with a certain file, select the file in the file browser, and press PLAY. The player will generate a playlist consisting of all media files in the current folder (not including files in subfolders), and will start playback of this playlist starting with the selected file.

• To play all media files in a certain folder (including files in subfolders), select the folder, and press PLAY. The player will generate a playlist consisting of all media files in the folder (including files in all subfolders), and will start playback of this playlist.

• To play a predefined playlist file (in M3U or PLS format), select the playlist file, and press PLAY. The player will load the playlist file, and will start playback of all items in the loaded playlist.

• To play a given set of media files and/or folders and/or playlist files, mark all needed files and/or folders and/or playlist files using RC buttons SELECT and POP UP MENU, and press PLAY.

  • The player will generate a playlist comprising all marked content (including all marked media files, all media files in the marked folders and all their subfolders, and all items from the marked playlist files), and will start playback of this playlist.
  • During playback of a playlist, you can easily navigate through the playlist using RC buttons NEXT, PREV, POP UP MENU.

When playing video or audio files, the player uses so called "file playback mode". Entering and leaving the file playback mode may take some time, and black screen may be shown.

When playing a list of photos, a special photo viewer application is used for nice photo showing with transition effects (see "Photo Viewer" section). When starting playback of a list of media files consisting of both photos and other kinds of media files (video, audio), the player will ask whether you want to show photos or play video and audio files.

In file playback mode, the following RC buttons are available:

• STOP: Finish playback, return to the file browser.

• PAUSE (||): First press: switch to the pause mode.

  • Subsequent presses: frame-by-frame display (switch to the next frame). (NOTE: This function is available only in models based on Sigma Designs media processors.)
  • To exit the pause mode, press PLAY.

• Left/Right/Up/Down/P+/P: First press: switch to playback position changing mode.

  • Subsequent presses: change the playback position:

    • Left/Right: Backward/forward by 10 sec.
    • Up/Down: Backward/forward by 1 min.
    • P+/P.: Backward/forward by 10 min.

  • To exit the playback position changing mode, press the ENTER button (or wait until automatic switching to the selected position occurs after a short period of time).

• 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9: Switch playback position to 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% (from the beginning of the file).

• FWD (>>), REW (<<): Switch to the accelerated forward/backward playback, increase frame rate (switch between acceleration modes 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, 32x).

  • To return to the normal playback, press PLAY.

• SLOW (|>): Switch to the slow-motion forward playback, decrease frame rate (switch between 1x, 1/2x, 1/4x, 1/8x, 1/16x, 1/32x).

  • To return to normal playback, press PLAY.

• INFO: Show/hide information on the current file:

  • File name.
  • Container type.
  • Format (codec type).
  • Resolution of the video stream in the file.
  • Maximum bitrate (statistics of the current session of file playback).
  • Average bitrate (statistics of the current session of file playback).
  • Current bitrate (playback statistics).
  • Duration.

• AUDIO: Show/hide the menu for audio track selection.

• SUBTITLE: Show/hide the menu for subtitles selection.

  • Select "Setup" item to enter subtitles adjustment mode. In this mode, the following RC buttons are available:

    • UP / DOWN: Move subtitles up/down.
    • LEFT / RIGHT: Change subtitles synchronization correction.
    • P+ / P-: Increase/descrease subtitles font size.
    • 1..6: Choose subtitles font color.

• ZOOM: First press: switch to picture zooming mode, display information on current zoom setting. (NOTE: Zoom functionality is limited in models based on Realtek media processors.)

  • Subsequent presses (or SELECT): switch to subsequent picture zooming mode.

  • In case the Special zooming mode is selected, the following RC buttons are enabled: (NOTE: This function is not supported in models based on Realtek media processors.)

    • Left/Right: Zoom in/out (proportional picture stretching).
    • Up/Down: Increase/decrease vertical stretching (proportions adjusting).
    • P+/P-: Increase/decrease the overscan area (useful to compensate for picture cropping by a TV/projector).
    • V+/V-: Move the video area up/down.

  • To exit the picture zooming mode, press ENTER or wait until automatic exit will be performed after a short period of time.

• SETUP: Display picture parameters setup menu (contrast, brightness, hue, saturation).

  • Up/Down: Select previous/next parameter.
  • Left/Right: Decrease/increase the current parameter value.
  • CLEAR: Reset to the default value.
  • To exit the picture parameter setting mode, press ENTER (or wait until automatic exit occurs after a short period of time).

• MODE: Switch the deinterlacing mode used for playback of interlaced content. Modes available: motion adaptive (default), bob, constant blend, disabled. (NOTE: This function is available only in models based on Sigma Designs media processors.)

• A (Red): Switch to the sound synchronization adjustment mode, display information on current setting. (NOTE: This function is available only in models based on Sigma Designs and RTD1619 media processors.)

  • Left: decrease adjustment value ("move" the sound backwards in time relatively to the video).
  • Right: increase adjustment value ("move" the sound forward in time relatively to video).
  • To exit the adjustment mode, press ENTER or wait until automatic exit occurs after a short period of time.

• B (Green): First press: display information on the current status of video frame rate adjustment. (NOTE: This function is available only in models based on Sigma Designs media processors.)

  • Subsequent presses (or SELECT): turn on/off video frame rate adjustment. In case of activated adjustment, the video frame rate increases by a factor of 25/23.976.

• PREV (|<<): Start playback of the current file from the beginning or switch to the previous file from the playlist (if the current playback position is close to the file beginning).

• NEXT (>>|): Switch to the next file from the playlist.

• POP UP MENU: Toggle showing of the browser of the current playlist.

  • The browser displays the current playlist and the current item played.
  • Up/Down/P+/P.: Navigate in the playlist.
  • ENTER: Switch to the selected item in the playlist.
  • REPEAT: Toggle the cyclic playback of the playlist.
  • SHUFFLE: Toggle the random playback of the playlist.

Blu-ray Playback

NOTE: This information is applicable to models having support for Blu-ray.

NOTE: Models which do not have an internal optical drive require an external optical drive or extension module.

When you play a Blu-ray disc, the player uses so called "Blu-ray playback mode". In the Bluray playback mode, various Blu-ray features such as Blu-ray menu, Blu-ray subtitles, BD-J, Bonus View, BD Live are supported.

Note: when playing a Blu-ray disc, a so-called System Storage USB flash drive should be attached. Some player models / revisions may have such flash drive built-in, so there is no need to attach an external flash drive for this purpose. You may check Setup / System Information / System Storage to see whether the System Storage flash drive is recognized properly. For more information on the System Storage, please see System Storage .

To play a Blu-ray disc, navigate to the Main screen of the file browser, and insert the disc into a Blu-ray drive. The player will recognize the inserted Blu-ray disc and enable the corresponding optical drive item on the Main screen. Select this optical drive item and press ENTER or PLAY. The player will start loading the Blu-ray disc. Depending on a particular Blu-ray disc, its loading may take some time (up to several minutes). While a Blu-ray disc is being loaded, you may see a blank screen or "loading..." or a similar message on the screen. After the Blu-ray disc is loaded, the player will start playback of the disc (e.g. will show the disc menu).

In the Blu-ray playback mode, the following RC buttons are available:

• Left/Right/Up/Down/ENTER/RETURN: Navigate the disc menu.

• POP UP MENU: Display an interactive menu of the disc (selection of scenes, switching between titles, additional materials, etc).

• TOP MENU: Switch to the top menu of the disc.

• A (Red), B (Green), C (Yellow), D (Blue): Perform functions specific to a particular Bluray disc.

• STOP: Finish the playback, return to the Main screen of the file browser.

• PAUSE: First press: switch to the pause mode.

  • Subsequent presses: frame-by-frame playback (switching to the next frame). (NOTE: This function is available only in models based on Sigma Designs media processors.)
  • PLAY: Continue the playback.

• SEARCH: Go directly to the desired time position.

• PREV (|<<): Start playing back the current chapter from the beginning or switch to playback of the previous chapter.

• NEXT (>>|): Move to playback of the next chapter on the disc.

• FWD (>>), REW (<<): Switch to accelerated forward/backward playback mode, switching between acceleration modes: 1x, 2x, 4x, 16x.

  • PLAY: Return to the normal playback.

• SLOW (|>): Switch to the slow-motion playback. Switching between modes: 1x, 1/2x, 1/4x, 1/8x.

  • PLAY: Return to the normal playback.

• INFO: Show information on current status of the player:

  • Current operation: PLAY, PAUSE, etc.
  • Type of optical media used currently: BD-ROM, BD-R, etc.
  • Type of sound track: Stream type DD, DD+, DTS, etc.
  • Type of content and current playback time, e.g. "HDMV 00:25:53".
  • Current disc title, e.g. "Title 1/11".
  • Current disc chapter, e.g. "Chapter 8/27".
  • Current bitrate, e.g. "Bitrate 34.43 Mbps".

• AUDIO: First press: display information on current sound track.

  • Subsequent presses (or SELECT): switch to the next sound track.

• SUBTITLE: First press: display information on current subtitles.

  • Subsequent presses (or SELECT): switch to subsequent subtitles.
  • UP / DOWN: Move subtitles up/down.

• ANGLE: Choose the viewing angle (if supported by the particular disc).

• 2nd audio: Turn the secondary audio track on/off, in case such track is present on a particular disc. (NOTE: This function is available only in models based on Sigma Designs SMP8642 media processors.)

• PIP: Toggles showing the picture-in-picture content, if such content is present on a particular disc. (NOTE: This function is available only in models based on Sigma Designs SMP8642 media processors.)

• ZOOM: First press: switch to the picture zooming mode, display information on current zoom settings. (NOTE: Zoom functionality is limited in models based on Realtek media processors.)

  • Subsequent presses (or SELECT): switch to subsequent zoom setting.

• SETUP: Switch to the picture parameters setting mode (contrast, brightness, hue, saturation).

  • Subsequent presses (or SELECT): select the next parameter.
  • Left/Right: Adjust the selected parameter.

NOTE: If after pressing an RC button, the INVALID KEY indication is displayed, it means that the procedure assigned to this button is currently disabled, or not supported for this disc.

DVD-Video Playback

NOTE: Models which do not have an internal optical drive require an external optical drive or extension module.

When you play a DVD-Video disc, the player uses a so called "DVD playback mode". In the DVD playback mode, DVD features such as DVD menu and DVD subtitles are supported.

To play a DVD-Video disc, navigate to the Main screen of the file browser, and insert the disc into a DVD drive. The player will recognize the inserted DVD disc and enable the corresponding optical drive item on the Main screen. Select this optical drive item and press ENTER or PLAY. The player will start loading the DVD-Video disc.

Depending on a particular DVD-Video disc, its loading may take some time (up to several minutes). While a DVD-Video disc is being loaded, a blank screen is shown. After the DVDVideo disc is loaded, the player will start playback of the disc (e.g. will show the disc menu). Note: when stopping the playback of a DVD-Video disc, the player remembers the current playback position and automatically restores it when the disc is loaded next time. To start playback of a DVD-Video disc from the very beginning (just as if it has never been played), press CLEAR two times after the disc is loaded.

In the DVD playback mode, the following RC buttons are available:

• Left/Right/Up/Down/ENTER/RETURN (in DVD menu): Navigate the disc menu.

• POP UP MENU: Display an interactive menu of the disc (selection of scenes, switching between titles, additional materials, etc).

• TOP MENU: Switch to the top menu of the disc.

• STOP: Finish the playback, return to the Main screen of the file browser.

• PAUSE: First press: switch to the pause mode.

  • Subsequent presses: frame-by-frame playback (switching to the next frame). (NOTE: This function is available only in models based on Sigma Designs media processors.)
  • PLAY: Continue the playback.

• Left/Right/Up/Down/P+/P. (during playback): First press: switch to playback position changing mode.

  • Subsequent presses: change the playback position:
  • Left/Right: Backward/forward by 10 sec.
  • Up/Down: Backward/forward by 1 min.
  • P+/P.: Backward/forward by 10 min.
  • To exit playback position changing mode, press ENTER (or wait until the automatic switching occurs after a short period of time).

• 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9: Switch to a DVD-Video chapter with the specified number. You may select a two-digit chapter number by entering both digits consecutively. If it's a one digit number, please wait shortly after its input. All these operations should be performed during the playback. Also these buttons allow to select DVD-Video menu item.

• PREV (|<<): Start playing back the current chapter from the beginning or switch to playback of the previous chapter.

• NEXT (>>|): Move to playback of the next chapter on the disc.

• INFO: Display/hide the information on played DVD:

  • media (file/folder name; optical drive)
  • type of media container
  • format (codec type)
  • resolution of video stream in the file
  • maximum bitrate
  • average bitrate
  • current bitrate
  • duration

• AUDIO: Show/hide the menu for audio track selection.

• SUBTITLE: Show/hide the menu for subtitles selection.

• ZOOM: First press: switch to the picture zooming mode, display the current zoom status. (NOTE: Zoom functionality is limited in models based on Realtek media processors.)

  • Subsequent presses: change zooming mode.

• SETUP: Display picture parameters setup menu (contrast, brightness, hue, saturation).

  • Up/Down: Select previous/next parameter.
  • Left/Right: Decrease/increase the current parameter value.
  • CLEAR: Reset to the default value.
  • To exit the picture parameter setting mode, press ENTER (or wait until automatic exit occurs after a short period of time).

• A (Red): Switch to the sound synchronization adjustment mode, display information on current setting. (NOTE: This function is available only in models based on Sigma Designs media processors.)

• SEARCH, then PLAY: Go directly to the main title.

• CLEAR twice: Start playback the DVD-Video from the very beginning.

Audio CD Playback

(NOTE: This function is available only in models based on Sigma Designs media processors.)

NOTE: Models which do not have an internal optical drive require an external optical drive or extension module.

To play an Audio CD, navigate to the Main screen of the file browser, and insert the disc into the optical drive. The player will recognize the inserted Audio CD and enable the corresponding optical drive item on the Main screen. Select this optical drive item and press ENTER or PLAY. The player will start playback of the Audio CD.

When playing a Audio CD, the player treats each Audio CD track as a kind of an audio file, and performs playback of a playlist consisting of all Audio CD tracks, the same way as if the corresponding list of audio files was played in the file playback mode. The overall player behavior and available RC buttons are the same as in the file playback mode. See "File playback" section for more information.

Internet Radio Playback

The player supports playback of Internet Radio stations streamed using HTTP protocol. For information on using Internet Radio, please refer to Internet Radio .

IPTV Playback and Recording

The player supports playback and recording of IPTV channels streamed using multicast UDP protocol (raw-UDP or RTP-over-UDP). For information on using IPTV, please refer to IPTV .

HTTP Playback

The player supports playback of media content from network using HTTP protocol. This possibility is mostly intended for playback of Internet Radio (see "Internet Radio playback" section), but it can also be used for playback of other kinds of content streamed over HTTP protocol. For example, you if you have an HTTP URL pointing to some video content in a format supported by the player, you can directly play this video content on the player w/o need to download the video content in advance. Besides, when accessing UPnP servers, media content provided by UPnP servers is also played using HTTP protocol.

To manually play a specific HTTP media stream (given that you know HTTP URL of this HTTP media stream), you can prepare a playlist file (in M3U or PLS format) containing the corresponding HTTP URL, and just launch this playlist file in the player in the usual way. The player will start playback of the content streamed from this HTTP URL just like playback of any regular video/audio file in file playback mode. See "File playback" section for more information.

File formats supported for HTTP playback are basically the same as file formats supported for the regular file playback mode (however, there also may be additional specific limitations taking place only for HTTP playback).

Photo Viewer

The player supports viewing photo files as slide shows with nice transition effects. See "File Playback" section on more details on how to select photos for showing.

In the photo viewer mode, the following RC buttons are available:

• RETURN, STOP: Stop the slide show, return to the file browser mode.

• PAUSE: Pause the slide show.

  • To resume the slide show, press PLAY.

• PREV (|<<), Left: Show the previous file.

• NEXT (>>|), Right: Show the next file.

• POP UP MENU: Toggle showing of the browser of the current playlist.

• REPEAT: Toggle the cyclic playback of the playlist.

• SHUFFLE: Toggle the random playback of the playlist.

• ROTATE: Rotate the picture clockwise.

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: Rotate/mirror the picture in different ways.

• INFO: Show/hide information on the current file:

  • Format: file type.
  • Width : picture width (pixels).
  • Height : picture height (pixels).
  • Bit Depth : number of colors.

In the "Applications / Photo Viewer" section of the player settings menu it is possible to adjust the interval of picture switching (slide show) and set the type of the picture transition. If the "random" transition mode is selected, the effects will be used in a random order.

Limitations of Particular Models

Different models of Dune HD media players are based on different media processors and have differences in the supported the supported media playback functionality. Some of the listed functions may not be supported or may be partially supported on some models. Some of the most important limitations:

• Models based on Amlogic media processors: Blu-ray Menu and DVD-Video playback is not supported by the built-on or system player and is only possible via external applications such as SPMC.

• Models based on Realtek media processors: video zoom functionality is limited (it is not possible to zoom-in video in a way that it goes beyond the screen borders).

• Models based on all media processors except Sigma Designs: the following functions have limitations or are absent: fast/slow playback (forward and rewind), sound synchronization adjustment, ANGLE toggle, PIP and 2nd audio toggle in Blu-ray menu, multicast playback, recording of the currently played media stream, Audio CD playback.