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New GUI |
Screenshots:
Status:
New GUI is currently in development.
Some important functions are missing (planned to be added), such as:
- New functions for My Collection: media info tags (4K, ATMOS, etc), user-editable movie information, etc.
- Possibilities to customize the GUI structure (remove unneeded items, reorder items, etc).
Summary of the new features:
New GUI structure:
- New overall main screen design, which makes the available content visible immediately.
- New main menu at the top of the screen.
- The content corresponding to the main menu items is shown immediately when the cursor moves through the items.
- New "Movies" menu: shows "regular" movies (not TV series) from online services and My Collection.
- New "TV Series" menu: shows TV series from online services and My Collection.
- New "TV" menu: shows TV channels (supported in some regions), or provides access to the favorite TV app.
- New "Applications" menu: combines "Android applications" and "Dune HD applications" submenus.
- The menus "Sources", "Favorites", "Recent", "Setup" are still available and work the same way as before.
- New look of poster walls: each category as a horizontally scrollable row.
- New menu with quick overview of available categories at the left of the screen.
- Netflix-like view with the information about the currently selected poster at the top.
- Netflix-like video preview for the currently selected poster.
- Some of the new features can be configured in "Setup / Appearance / Additional" menu: use Netflix-like view or fill the entire screen with posters, show video preview or not, show the new left menu automatically or not.
- All previous ways how the GUI can look are still available - just choose another GUI skin in "Setup / Appearance / Main" menu.
Online services:
- Content from online services is now integrated as submenus in "Movies" and "TV series" menus.
- More online services are now integrated into these menus, including for example Amazon Prime Video (set of available services depends on a region).
- Online services available in your region are automatically enabled by default.
- You can configure the set of shown online services via POP UP MENU / "Configure Online Services..." and "Setup / Applications / Movies / Configure Online Services...".
- If you change your region (for example, when you use VPN), the set of available online services is adjusted automatically.
- The old view of Movies menu is available via "Applications / Dune HD applications / Movies".
- (NOTE: The work on improving compatibility with APKs for online services is in progress.)
My Collection:
- My Collection is now integrated as submenu into the new "Movies" and "TV Shows" menus.
- My Collection settings are available via POP UP MENU / "Collection Management" and "Setup / My Collection".
- Various improvements in automatic and manual movies matching, especially in respect to handling of TV shows.
- The possibility to manually edit season/episode number ("Edit Movie Information..." / "Choosen association" / POP UP MENU / "Edit Season and Episode...")..
- The server part of My Collection has been upgraded, which solves a lot of "can not find a matching movie" problems.
- The old view of My Collection is available via "Applications / Dune HD applications / My Collection".
- Support for "Movie collections" (also known as "Movie sagas").
- New categories "Continue Watching", "Newly added", "By Name", "By Year".
- Display of watch progress for movies directly in the main menu.
- Improved handling of TV shows, in particular, when resuming playback of a TV show.
Nice looking movies catalog directly in file browser:
- Press "A" button in any folder and this folder will be immediately switched into a Netflix-like view (as in My Collection).
- Movies and episodes in this folder will be automatically recognized and presented correspondingly. Only confirmed matches are shown to avoid showing incorrect matches.
- Press "A" again to switch back to to the default view.
- The latest chosen view is remembered for each folder.
- If the folder contains episodes of a TV series, a special various of this view is used, optimized for TV series.
- The watching progress for each file is indicated.
- If some file is not recognized as a movie, use POP UP MENU / "Edit Movie Information" to confirm the matching movie.
- If some episode has no correct season/episode number, use POP UP MENU / "Edit Movie Information..." / POP UP MENU / Edit Season and Episode..."
- If the folder is a part of My Collection -- this new view is enabled by default.
- It is recommended to add folders with movies and TV series to My Collection and index them. This will improve the performance of this new view and will help to properly recognize folders and subfolders in the file browser in more cases.
Other file browser improvements:
- The watch progress for files is displayed also in the regular file view.
- "Edit Movie Information..." action can be called for any video file directly in file browser.
- Pressing ENTER on an episode immediately starts iss playback instead of showing the TV Series information screen first.
- To show TV series information for an episode, use POP UP MENU / "TV Series Information".
New search function, voice search, voice input:
- The new search function (accessible via "Search" icon at the top menu) provides a new convenient way to search for movies (both in My Collection and in Online Services).
- It can also be accessed by "SEARCH" / "MIC" button on the remote.
- Press "MIC" button (on Bluetooth remotes with built-in microphone) for voice search.
- "MIC" button also allows voice input into any text field in Dune HD user interface.
- (Voice search/input functionality is supported on models with Android 9+ and requires Google Services to be enabled. Use "Android apps / Play Store" icon to enable them.)
Fonts:
- A new better-quality improved font is used now on all GUI screens.
- Some alternative fonts can be chosen using "Setup / Appearance / UI TTF font" setting.
- A custom TTF font can be installed by pressing ENTER on *.ttf file in the file browser.
Background images:
- A new default background image.
- The possibility to easily set a custom background image: choose *.jpg file in the file browser, and use POP UP MENU / "Set as background image".
- To reset to the default background image: perform "Set as background image" action on an empty (zero length) *.jpg file.
- A special function for convenient switching between and testing different background images: create "dune_background" folder in "Storages / Built-in memory" and put *.jpg files into it, then press "ZOOM" RCU button anywhere in the GUI n to toggle through these images (using Dune Control mobile app or a version of Dune remote with "ZOOM" button).
- If "dune_background" folder does not exist, or if the last image in this folder is selected, "ZOOM" button restores the default background image.
Links to alpha firmware builds:
220317_0257_r20:
Changes:
- All models: New GUI: Improved handling of watch progress and playback position resuming in various cases, especially for TV Shows.
- All models: New GUI: Added "Show in file browser" command in POP UP MENU in various cases where a movie object is shown, and also near "Play file from local source" button; allows to quickly jump from a movie to the corresponding location in the filesystem.
- All models: New GUI: Bugfix: On playback stop, visual glitches (some parts of the previously shown screens) should be temporarily shown on the screen.
- All models: New GUI: Bugfix: Poster and other images could not be shown in some cases after some Internet connection problems.
- All models: New GUI: Bugfix: My Collection folders defined as the root of some network folder could work in wrong way.
- All models: New GUI: Bugfix: The new global search function did not work properly in the mobile app.
- All models: New GUI: Bugfix: Wrong GUI layout could take place in "Favorites" menu in some cases.
- All models: New GUI: Bugfix: The setting which disables animation effects did not work in some cases.
- All models: New GUI: Internal performance improvements.
- All models: Added function to automatically spindown connected HDDs after inactivity. This is supported both for USB and SATA HDDs. The period of inactivity can be set using the new setting "Setup / Misc / Power management / Auto HDD sleep on inactivity". By default this function is disabled.
- All models: Bugfix: When a huge exFAT HDD was formatted by the media player, it could be not accessible on Windows PC.
- All models: Bugfix: specific files/streams without audio track could not be played.
- All models: Bugfix: playback could crash on playback stop or channel switch in some reare cases.
- All models: SDK/API: New dune_param 'show_in_recent:0|1' (to control whether to show the item in the "Recent" menu or not).
- All models: SDK/API: Added support for 'sel_id" parameter in "launch_media_url(embedded_app://{name=file_browser})" action.
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Big update of Android audio subsystem (merged a lot of improvements and changes from newer Android versions up to Android 11). This helps to solve some important problems. Note: this is a huge change which may potentially affect a lot of things.
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: More complete solution for the problem that the use of Bluetooth remote can lead to short audio interruptions when Google services are used.
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Use of Dune HD internal player from Android apps: Improved support for various specific cases ("content://" URLs, URLs without MIME type, specific HTTP URLs).
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Use of Dune HD internal player from Android apps: Bugfix: the player could stack at black screen after returning from playback in some cases.
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Use of Dune HD internal player from Android apps: Bugfix: files played by Android apps were wrongly shown in "Recent" menu.
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Use of Dune HD internal player from Android apps: Various other minor improvements.
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Improved the look and behavior of Android system dialogs for choosing Android applications for user actions.
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Improved support for HBO MAX app (fix for the problem with non-smooth playback).
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Specific HTTPS URLs from cloud drives could not be played.
- 1619DR/1619 models: A big reimplementation of CEC subsystem, improved compatibility with various HDMI equipement, added various new CEC functions. The following CEC functions are now supported: Switch off media player when switching off TV; Switch off media player when changing TV input; Switch on media player when switching on TV; Switch off TV when switching off media player; Switch on TV when switching on media player; TV remote controls media player; Media player remote controls AVR volume.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: When using some android applications (such as SmartTubeNext), video playback could hang after pause.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: Audio/video desync could take place when playing audio via Bluetooth or via USB audio in some cases.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: Wrong volume level could take pake place after reboot in some cases.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: Unneeded HDMI reinitialization could wrongly happen when playing HDR video in a preview window and using specific HDR/Dolby Vision processing settings.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: Unneeded HDMI reinitialization could take place a few seconds after the box bootup; could also cause audio output problems if playback starts automatically on box bootup.
- 1619DR/1619 models with simple front panel displays (Pro 4K II, Pro 4K Plus II, Pro Vision 4K Solo, Real Vision 4K): The DSF utility for showing remaining time on the front panel display ( http://files.dune-hd.com/tmp/dune_service_show_remaining_time_enable.dsf) is now supported also when playing BD in Menu mode and when playing DVD-Video in Menu mode.
- Max Vision 4K (revision with ESS DAC): Bugfix: When using Hi-Fi audio output, small audio hickups could take place in some cases on playback stop.
- Real Vision 4K: Bugfix: After settings reset, the media player could refuse to work without Internet connection.
- Ultra Vision 4K, Max Vision 4K, Ultra 4K, Max 4K models: Bugfix: Hi-Fi audio output did not work when connecting specific external USB audio devices.
- SmartBox 4K Plus, SmartBox 4K Plus II models: Bugfix: "P-" button did not work in some cases.
- Minor other fixes and improvements.
220209_0257_r20:
Changes:
- All models: New GUI: My Collection: "All" row is now replaced with 3 rows: "Newly added" (all movies sorted by file modification time), "By Name" (all movies sorted by name), "By Year" (all movies sorted by release year). All other rows are not sorted by name again.
- All models: New GUI: My Collection: On the movie screen for TV shows, "Play" button now shows the choice to resume watching the TV Show (the last played episode at the last playback position), play the TV show from the very beginning, or choose an episode.
- All models: New GUI: My Collection: "Continue Watching" row now shows also objects w/o known playback position (such as Blu-ray mages watched in menu mode).
- All models: New GUI: My Collection: The matrix view (by ENTER button) and "Show All" action are now supported also for "Continue Watching" row.
- All models: New GUI: A lot of various bugfixes.
- All models: Bugfix: Playback could be not stable and hang in some cases. (r20 regression)
- All models: Bugfix: Auto Framerate and Auto Resolution functions could not work correctly after video preview function of NewGUI was used. (r20 regression)
- All models: Bugfix: When playing audio files, external album art was not used. (r20 regression)
- All models: Bugfix: Rememebering of the chosen subtitle did not work correctly properly in some rare cases.
- All models: Bugfix: HTTP URLs pointing to playlist files could not play in some cases (if the HTTP URL contained a query part).
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Added support for the use of Dune HD internal player from Android apps. It is now available as "Dune HD Player" in any Android apps which support external players. It is supported both for files and for streams, and also for playlists. For example, you can now use Androids apps such as NoUIMovie (NUM) + TorrServer (to watch video directly from a torrent) and at the same time get all benefits of the Dune HD player (such as support for Dolby Vision and HD audio on 1619DR models). This function is not supported for older models of Dune HD media players, based on older Android versions (because of some technical limitations of older Android versions, which are important for Dune HD player). Movie titles are currently supported only for playlist items; for individual files they will be supported in the next firmware.
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Sleep timer function is now global, it works now not only in Dune HD UI, but also affects all Android applications (including the warning and countdown function).
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Partial improvement for the problem that the use of Bluetooth remote can lead to short audio interrupts when Google services are used. Now this problem is reduced to the use of "ENTER" remote button only. A full solution is under development and will be available in the next firmware.
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Bugfix: Screensaver could cause problems with Auto Framerate and Auto Resolution functions and HDR mode switching.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: Auto Framerate and Auto Resolution functions did not work properly in Android apps in some cases (for example, the video mode could stuck at the low resoluition).
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: Subtitles were not hidden when screensaver was activated. Now they are correctly hidden, for all kinds of all subtitles in all cases.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: Subtitles are now also hidden when they are in conflict with some on-screen menus.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: Some Blu-ray images stuttered in Menu mode.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: Some Blu-ray images were playing not smooth in Lite mode.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: Some Blu-ray images did not play in Lite mode.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Video playback performance optimizations for SmartTubeNext and for playback of some IPTV streams in the internal player.
- S905X3 models: Bugfix: When playing audio files, they were resampled in a wrong way, which resulted in decreased audio quality.
- S905X3 models: Bugfix: Direct playback of some video files from torrents via TorrServer did not work in some cases.
- S905X3 models: Bugfix: External subtitles in SSA/ASS formats were displayed in a wrong encoding in some cases (when the file with 8-bit encoding was used).
- S905X3 models: Bugfix: IPTV playback: time seek navigation did not work properly when watching archive programs of some specific HLS IPTV streams.
- S905X3 models: Bugfix: IPTV playback: hangup or crash could happen when trying to play currently inaccessible IPTV stream.
- S905X3 models: Bugfix: IPTV playback: some specific HLSv4 streams could not be played. (Note: in general, the IPTV playback engine of S905X3 models has a good support for HLSv4.)
- Note: all other models also can use the same new IPTV playback engine (for HLS/TS streaming) as used on S905X3 models (including HLSv4 support). Currently it is available in experimental mode only -- by adding "engine:1" "dune_param" parameter ("URL|||dune_params|||engine:1") to the playback URL (if the stream playback is started by a PHP plugin, the use of this function requires to change the PHP plugin). This can be helpful when the native IPTV playback engine does not work good in some cases.
- 1295 models: Bugfix: When using IR remote, it was possible to exit software standby mode not only by POWER button, but also by RETURN and POP UP MENU buttons.
- 1295 models: Bugfix: When playing MKV files with a lot of chapters, various problems could take place.
- Minor other fixes and improvements.
220115_0258_r20:
Changes:
- New GUI: In Movies/TV Shows sections, in My Collection subsection, "Continue Watching" row is added, which shows all recently watched movies / TV shows.
- New GUI: In Movies/TV Shows sections, in My Collection subsection, watch progress is now shown (on posters and at the top). For TV shows, the watch progress of the latest watched episode is shown.
- New GUI: In Movies/TV Shows sections, when the cursor is in the left panel, "ENTER" button now opens "Show All" screen for this row (to move to the right panel, use "RIGHT" button).
- New GUI: On Global Search screen, movies belonging to My Collection are not only grouped at the beginning of search results, but are also indicated by a special sticker at the top right corner of the poster.
- New GUI: Various other small fixes and improvements.
- Bugfix: Automatic enabling of subtitles did not work in some cases.
- Bugfix: The new DTS-CD decoder did not play some DTS-CD WAV files in some cases.
- Bugfix: When resuming playback of some files (using the remembered playback position), pressing PAUSE immediately after this could not work in some cases.
- Bugfix: Video playback sometimes did not stop correctly in some cases, such as quick navigation between posters in Netflix-like view of New GUI with video previews enabled.
- Bugfix: Screensaver settings could be lost after reboot in some cases.
- Bugfix: GUI could hang for 60 seconds in some rare cases.
- Bugfix: In Recent menu, chapter title could be wrognly shown instead of movie title in some cases.
- 1619DR/1619 models: Bugfix: When pausing the playback of a video file, bad things could happen in some rare cases (auto play of next chapter, playback crash).
- 1619DR models: Bugfix: When resuming playback of some DV files (using the remembered playback position), playback could stutter in some cases.
- S905X3 models: Bugfix: When Google services are enabled and Bluetooth remote is used, file playback sometimes could crash when pressing a remote button.
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Bugfix: When using IR remote, it was possible to exit software standby mode not only by POWER button, but also by RETURN and POP UP MENU buttons.
- Minor other fixes and improvements.
211229_0258_r20:
Changes:
This firmware combines all features and improvements from the following firmware versions and branches:
- Firmware version 211031_0532_r18 (New GUI).
- Firmware version 211225_0317_r19 (Magic 4K models).
- Firmware version 211224_0317_r17 (all models prior to Magic 4K).
Now all Dune HD media player models dated 2018+ share the same common firmware (with differences related to different hardware / SoCs / SDKs).
This new firmware also adds the following new features and improvements:
New GUI related (for all models):
- Now New GUI is supported on all models, including the latest Magic models and the oldest S905X models.
- A lot of bug fixes and stability fixes (in particuar related to the added support for new models).
- Various optimizations for more stable operation and better performance on boxes with small amount of memory (including boxes with 1GB RAM) or in cases when background apps consume a lot of memory.
- Minor improvements of the visual look of some screens.
- My Collection: All sections are now sorted by the last modification time. So it is not easy to see the latest added files. (In next versions, the user will be able to choose various sorting methods.)
- Netflix-like view: Added display of original movie title.
- File browser: File browser now supports mark/unmark/cut/copy/paste operations also when Netflix-like view is used.
- My Collection: Background auto-reindexing is now enabled by default (with period of 3 days).
- My Collection: More robust detection and handling of disconnected network folders.
- Search/MIC button launches the new global search screen (or launches voice search on 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models when Google services are enabled, see below).
- Added "Setup / Appearance / General / Appearance" setting allowing to easily switch between the old GUI, the new GUI, and custom GUI settings.
- Added possibility to hide unneeded sections of the main menu via POP UP MENU.
- Parental control function (POP UP MENU / Set Password) now is better supported when New GUI is used and is supported in more places in the main menu (Android apps, Dune HD apps, Favorites).
Other:
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Added support for voice input and voice search using Bluetooth remote. Requires Google services to be enabled (use "Android apps / Android TV" icon to enable them). Google account is not needed. MIC button on the remote can now be used: to enter text into any text field; in the global search screen; in any other screen of Dune UI (triggers global search). The voice recognition language is the same as the user interface language (with fallback to English).
- 1619DR/1619/S905X3 models: Added automatic firmware update for the new Dune Remote R3 Bluetooth remote (which is now shipped with these models). It fixes the problem that the POWER button of the remote could misbehave in some cases.
- All models: New audio decoder for DTS-CD music files, which supports more exotic file variations.
- All models: Built-in SMB server uses "oplocks = no" option for better handling of file caching.
- Minor other internal changes and improvements.
211031_0532_r18:
Changes:
- Various bug fixes in New GUI (for file browser and My Collection; in particular, fixed some problems with large folders and large collections).
- Bugfix: SACD ISO playback was broken.
- Bugfix: Chinese language support was broken.
- Bugfix: Storage devices could be shown two times in some cases on RealBox 4K.
211013_0532_r18:
Changes:
- A lot of various fixes and internal changes and improvements related to the New GUI. In particular, fixed the following bugs: My Collection indexing not working in some cases, some GUI skin colors not properly used by the new font engine, dune_folder.txt wrongly ignored in My Collection folders, many issues related to the new "Nice looking movies catalog directly in file browser" functionality, and many other bugs.
- Various improvements not related to the New GUI - same as included into the latest r17 alpha firmware (including "Dune HD extensions for VS10" for Vision models).
- Added function of periodic automatic background reindexing of My Collection (enable it in Setup / My Collection).
- Left menu extended with items corresponding to My Collection folders.
- Support for "movie collections" (aka movie sagas, movie groups, such as "Harry Potter Collection") in My Collection and in the new Netflix-like view of File Browser. Movie collections are recognized automatically.
- Initial (incomplete yet) implementation of the new Global Search function.
- The following functions are in development and are expected to come in next versions: media information (such as codecs and resolution) in My Collection, additional useful menu categories (such as Continue Watching), menu customization possibilities (such as hiding/reordering of menu items), possibilities to manually edit/provide custom information about movies and manually create/modify movie collections, voice search, various other improvements.
210804_0531_r18:
Changes:
The first alpha firmware version with New GUI.
Feedback:
Send you feedback, suggestions, bug reports to the email support _at_ dune-hd.com.
Please add "NewGUI" to the email subject.