Dune Firmware Zone

Web Browser

General Information

NOTE: All recent Dune player models based on new Sigma Designs 864x/865x/867x/875x platforms (Dune BD Prime 3.0, Dune HD Base 3.0, Dune HD Max, Dune HD Duo, Dune HD Smart H1, Dune HD Smart D1, Dune HD Smart B1, Dune HD Lite 53D, Dune HD TV-101, Dune HD TV-301, Dune HD TV-102, Dune HD Connect, Dune HD TV-303D, Dune HD Base 3D, Dune HD Solo 4K, Dune HD Solo Lite, Dune HD Duo 4K) include browser based on a different engine. This web browser version has some differences (in particular, it does not support handling of torrent files).

Some Dune player models (models Dune HD Ultra, Dune HD Mini, Dune BD Prime, Dune HD Center, Dune HD Base, Dune HD Base 2.0) have a support for browsing Internet web sites directly on the player-attached TV using the built-in web browser. The web browser is not part of the main user interface of the player; it is a dedicated application, that should be launched separately (besides, the installation on an extra software package may be needed before the web browser may be used).

The web browser is based on Mozilla/Gecko web browser engine and provides a similar level of compatibility with web sites. It is quite a general purpose web browser, allowing to browse general Internet web sites (including web sites using rather advanced HTML and JavaScript features), rather than just very simple web sites or web sites specially developed for the usage with the player.

However, since the web browser is a very general and advanced software application, and the player hardware is rather limited, the performance of the web browser is rather limited too (both the performance of initial startup and the performance of loading and working with web pages). Besides, not all web sites are supported; in particular, complex web site may be unsupported due to memory limitations (web browser may even crash on an attempt to view such complex web sites). So, the web browser is only useful in specific scenarios, given that all of the following takes place: it is highly desired to work with a web site on the player-attached TV, the web site is well supported by the web browser, and the limited performance (slow response to user actions) is acceptable. It should be taken into account, that the web browser of Dune players is not a substitution/alternative to web browsers on personal computers, and its performance/limitations are rather different from those of web browsers on personal computers.

Web Browser Installation

If you use Dune BD Prime or Dune HD Center player, perform the following steps:

• Ensure that System Storage is attached and Extra Applications are installed. More details.

If you use Dune HD Mini or Dune HD Ultra player, perform the following steps:

• Determine the "primary" drive of the player. The "primary" drive is: internal HDD if it is installed; first recognized USB drive if internal HDD is not installed. If the drive has multiple partitions, the last partition is used as the "primary" drive.
• Ensure the "primary" drive has EXT2 or EXT3 filesystem. If it is not, reformat it, e.g. using the player's built-in drive format function (press INFO button on a drive in file browser, then choose "Format Disk" or "Format Partition").
• Download the following ZIP archive: WebBrowser.zip (NOTE: this archive is needed and is suitable only for Dune HD Mini and Dune HD Ultra players, it is not needed for other player models).
• Using a PC, extract the ZIP archive to the top level of the "primary" drive of the player in the following way:
  • Connect the player and the PC to the local network (Ethernet or Wi-Fi), ensure network settings are properly configured on the player and on the PC.
  • Determine the IP address of the player: Setup / Information.
  • Open the "primary" drive of the player on the PC by typing "\\ip-address\internal_hard_disk" in Windows Explorer (substitute "ip-address" with the actual IP address of the player).
  • Extract the content of the ZIP archive into the "\\ip-address\internal_hard_disk" folder.
  • After that, you should get "WebBrowser" folder at the top level of the "primary" drive of the player.
  • NOTE: it is potentially possible to transfer the content of ZIP archive to the "primary" drive in other ways. However, not all ways may work correctly. It is very important to (1) preserve the case of all characters in all filenames and (2) ensure that all resulting files have "executable" attribute set; otherwise, the web browser will not function properly and will refuse to start. In particular, you should not use FAT-formatted drives as an intermediate storage for the content of the ZIP archive. So, it is recommended to use exactly the way described above (extract the ZIP archive directly to the "primary" drive of the player via network).

Web Browser Usage

To launch the web browser, press "URL" button and type any web site URL you want (e.g. "http://google.com"). After that, the web browser will be launched. Web browser startup may take up to 10-30 seconds. You can also keep the URL field empty, then the web browser will start with an empty page shown.

Besides, you can configure the player to show the web browser item on the main screen (Setup / Applications / Web Browser), and just press the web browser item to launch the web browser (in this case, it will start with an empty page shown).

To work with the web browser, the following input methods can be used:

• Remote control in the "keyboard" mode.
• Remote control in the "mouse" mode.
• USB mouse. NOTE: You should connect USB mouse to the player before launching the web browser.
• USB keyboard. NOTE: You should connect USB keyboard to the player before launching the web browser.

When working with the web browser, you can use the following buttons on the remote:

• "POWER": Exit the web browser.
• "MODE": Toggle between "keyboard" and "mouse" modes.
• "UP", "DOWN", "LEFT", "RIGHT:
  • In "keyboard" mode: move keyboard focus to a neighborhood element.
  • In "mouse" mode: move mouse cursor.
• "ENTER":
  • In "keyboard" mode: submit a form, press "OK" in a dialog.
  • In "mouse" mode: left mouse button click.
• "RETURN", "PREV", "REW", "SlowREW": Go back (exit the web browser if at the first page).
• "NEXT", "FWD", "SlowFWD": Go forward.
• "ROTATE", "REPEAT": Reload the current page.
• "STOP": Stop loading page, press "Cancel" in a dialog.
• "SEARCH": Open "http://google.com" URL.
• "URL": Move keyboard focus to URL field.
• "Subtitle": Move keyboard focus to browser area.
• "PLAY", "PAUSE": Submit a form, press "OK" in a dialog.
• "1" .. "9":
  • If a text field is active: enter a character.
• "0":
  • If a text field is active: enter whitespace character.
  • If a button is active: press it.
  • Otherwise: scroll page down.
• "CLEAR":
  • If a text field is active: delete a character.
• "P+", "P-" (and "V+", "V-"):
  • If a text field is active: move caret.
  • If a select field or radio button is active: change value.
  • Otherwise: scroll page up/down.
• "CAP/NUM": Switch between small letters, capital letters and numerals.

Limitations

Not all features of regular PC web browsers are supported. In particular, the following features are not supported:

• Flash.
• Java
• Files downloading (there is one exception: there is a special support for downloading and handling ".torrent" files, see below).
• Playback of media streams.

Hints

Here are some additional hints:

• The performance of web browser may depend on the configured video output resolution. Decreasing the video output resolution (e.g. use 720p instead of 1080p) may speedup things.
• When clicking on a hyperlink pointing to a ".torrent" file, the torrent file is automatically downloaded and submitted to the player's torrent client. NOTE: The torrent client should be running.