Dune BD Prime 3.0 (V1.1)

Dune BD Prime 3.0 (V1.1)
Hi-Jack
There are four players that kept people hostage in 2009 of which everyone has raised
expectations. The PopCorn Hour C-200 based on Sigma SMP8643, the Dune BD Prime 3.0 based
on Sigma SMP8642, the DviCo TViX M-6600N based on RealTek 1283 and not in the least the
YuiXX based on Intel’s chip. With the Dune BD Prime 3.0 on our table we have three of the 4 most
exciting players at the moment. HDI has grown in respect over time despite a rough start right
here at MPC but in the end with updates managed to become to easiest player without limiting
the user with a great interface and good options. It went into history as the first Hybrid that could
handle BD as well, original sources and backed up sources. With the HDI 3.0, the competition with
the C-200 from PCH becomes reality and if Dune BD Prime can perform well and keep things
simple (unlike the C-200 which is mixing too much for my personal taste), the HDI certainly will
have a chance to surpass the C-200 is some ways. Let’s get the ball rolling…
www.mpcclub.com
Dune BD Prime 3.0
Dune BD Prime 3.0 is like the earlier model looking
as a standard DVD or BD player. That’s already one
of the benefits of the unit as mostly we get square
or rectangular boxes (Mede8er, DviCo, Xtreamer),
2 story high blocks (C-200). Occasionally there’s
something normal reaching us and that’s the BD
Prime models.
Sleek and sexy looking, the Dune BD Prime 3.0
integrates a little display and power button on the
left frontal fascia and operational buttons on the
right. A proud Blu-Ray drive is sitting in the middle.
The rear end will impress with its 7.1 analog
output besides the more usual optical and coaxial.
HDMI 1.3, gbit network (no more module adding
costs), 2 USB hosts and an eSata connector,
component + composite make up for your
possibilities to hook up the unit to TV or AVR. The
power supply is integrated which avoids the need
of an adapter which we like as well.
The GBIT operation is experimental
considering Sigma does not officially
support GBIT networking however we
seen it operate on earlier models and
newer models just fine. The advanced
playback accelerator in the player
consists of enhancing code for
streaming in the SDK and the firmware
so performance for streaming is
brilliant and fluent on a 100 mbit
network which caused HDI months of
time to develop, according to the info.
On the right side of the unit, as with the earlier
model, there’s USB connection available. On the
opposite side of the player is room for a small fan
which can be added however seems unneeded
given the unit comes standard as a passively
cooled system.
Setup and Menus
HDI stuck to its simple interface as far as menus
are concerned. The main menu icons and layout
are unchanged and that’s good as the interface
was one of the strong holders of the earlier
models.
For box contents, we get the player, batteries,
remote control, HDMI cable and composite cable.
A quick start guide and manual shall be included
(earlier units don’t have these guides and can
download these online).
The unit’s is powered by Sigma SMP8642 running
at 667MHz, 512MB memory, 1GB flash system
flash and an extra 1GB flash for playback of BD –
Live titles.
Size of the unit is standard player size, 42xm
width, 26cm depth and 5cm height. Overall the
unit is good as quality is concerned, we see no
obvious mistakes. Cooling is inactive as there is no
fan by default however, if you prefer, one can be
fitted inside the unit. The units are however sealed
and void warranty if you would attempt this. This
is kind of an open invitation to break the warranty.
The setup section contains the categories where
we can alter settings and these are quite deep
however several do not contain many options to
change. The overview is clear and well organized.
The unit can be fitted with a 2.5” hard drive
however also here, the modification should be
provided by the reseller instead of doing it
yourself to prevent damage or loss of warranty.
Unlike the earlier models, there’s no room for
expansion slots like we had before however
internally there’s still a mini PCI slot available. I
wonder if support for Wireless will be supported
by USB sticks or by this mini PCI add-on. We’ll try
and answer that along the review.
The power button in front can be toggled on and
off and everything feels firm. While the player has
no “wow” factor in design (pretty much standard
look), it’s beautiful and attractively simple.
General settings contain
the interface language
and Screen Saver timeout
interval which can be set
from 10 seconds up to 1
hour. The languages
available include English, French, German, Dutch,
Russian and 1 other language I can’t read since
HDI decided to use the original language on the
interface.
What is most unique is there’s a setting to load
“custom” languages. If you thus prep a file the unit
can load with your language, it seems that can be
done. (Procedure available here)
Aspect ratio and video connection can be selected
here as well between analog and digital outputs.
Blu-Ray Audio, which can be set to Best Quality
and PiP support.
Nothing fancy in the
network settings besides
the usual DHCP or fixed
IP address that can be
chosen
and
the
activation of wired or
wireless
operation.
Wireless is not integrated by default and requires
a USB Wlan dongle which is supported by HDI.
(Currently DWA-140 D-Link only)
When using wireless, you can set security from
none, the simple 64 and 128 WEP encryption up to
the more advanced WPA2 AES/TKIP. What does
not happen is scanning for available Wireless
connections yet. The SSID must be manually
entered.
Video sections allow the
usual settings for output
ranging from PAL and
NTSC up to 1080p. What is
well done is the settings
for 24p and on top of that
auto frame rate can be set as well which more
advanced users will please.
Audio settings include the
activation of digital and
analog output. Good to
know is that the Dune BD
Prime 3.0 is capable of
DTS down mixing in case
you don’t own an AVR.
Even more important for an HD player is the fact
Dune BD Prime 3.0 can handle multichannel
decoding of all HD audio formats that really matter
including DTS-HD HRA, DTS HD Master Audio and
Dolby TrueHD both over the 7.1 outputs or as
PCM.
Indirectly, this is important for the PiP functions
and secondary audio features which require
decoding two streams so this makes the Dune BD
Prime 3.0 a full 7.1 audio capable BD player.
Something the competition is not capable off due
to having made different choices.
Settings are easy when you know what you’re
doing however I rather see auto scanning for wlan.
Applications are important
on every player and I made
myself famous for stating
“not to make a media
player a weak replacement
for PC” by adding too much
stuff into the unit which
draws away attention from its main core. HDI in
my opinion found the perfect balance in what to
do and what not to do despite demand from a
small group of users.
IPTV, Internet Radio, Torrent program, Photo
Viewer and Network Browser are the applications
that are available for which several settings can be
made.
and advanced mode. This system allows other
programs to prepare images for all your movies
and few systems have made their name being
MyMovies, iDune and then some… We
recommend looking at the forums for information
as it makes the system quite a bit more appealing
to browse…
For the Photo Viewer, we can set an interval
ranging from 1 second up to a whole day and
select between 14 effects that spice up our
slideshow.
IPTV can be enabled and disabled as far as
showing it on the main screen is concerned. These
options prevent the main screen from clutter for
items you do not wish to use. Great stuff! Same
option to show up on the main screen or not is
here for the Internet Radio application and the
Network Browser. This last one, the Network
browser is important to scan for shares on the
network automatically.
Torrent options, the service can be started or
stopped in case you want to use it. Selection to
show on the main screen is available, can start
when the player is powered on, deactivate
download on startup, port setting, max number of
peers and finally max download and upload.
Appearance has become
more important than ever
and HDI build further upon
the
system
introduced
previously with allowing icon
view or list view in simple
Besides the selection of icons or lists for browsing,
the same selection can be made for the setup
menu or the main menu along with some other
minor options on how the interface should look.
This setting contains no less
than 5 subcategories we run
over briefly. Encodings is
where we set the encoding
for the player, optical drive
options allow setting auto
start for BD and audio CD or DVD. We can enable
time sync with an online server or change some
system settings which include:




Fast Disk Access
BD PlayBack improvements
BD bitstream improvements
Experimental GBIT operation
Last option is the “advanced” settings although
these should not scare you at all. The Dune BD
Prime 3.0 integrates the ability to make
screenshots with the player and the button used
for this is the EJECT button. This button can be
toggled in the advanced settings to either eject the
tray or make a screenshot on the internal hard
drive or attached USB should no internal drive be
used. Moreover, the screenshot type can be set to
PNG or BMP, whichever you prefer.
The info screen shows the usual firmware version,
free memory for the 2GB internal FLASH drive and
the IP address. What is lacking is HDD status for
the internal hard drive. I also not found any
formatting options and tools that allow me to
check for errors but we can find HDD info
elsewhere…
changes are including more buttons for functions
as repeat, shuffle and dedicated BD activities. The
remote has however not only gained buttons, it
has lost the fluorescent buttons which helped
operating the unit in the dark better. Other than
that, we are totally satisfied.
As with the earlier units, the HDI makes use of
popup menus for administering your shares and
connected devices, copy files and so on… When
using this menu on the hard disk, following are the
options.
Other settings in the advanced section:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Hide System Files
Enter button on file (Play file / playlist)
Play button on file (Play file / playlist)
Enter on DVD folder (Play DVD / Open
folder / Ask User)
5. Enter button on BD folder (Play DVD /
Open folder / Ask User)
6. Power button (Stand By / Off)
7. Remote control Type
Finally, there’s the option to
read up on some information
for your player on the
information screen.
We can check the partition, format the partition,
format disk so the items needed are covered and
that’s just plain good thinking to have everything
ready when needed. We consider this crucial
considering the end user is not supposed to take
out the drive… Format supported is limited to
EXT2 only.
That concludes the setup options where we mainly
miss out on audio settings separately for DTS, AC3,
WMA Pro and then some… Other than that,
everything is here we can think off and is
considered “must have”. Hardware wise we are
satisfied except for the remote which has become
a bit less quality compared to the earlier model. It
has become smaller but has gotten more buttons
which are placed differently than the earlier
models and might have a little learning curve for
users acquainted with the Dune BD Prime 1. Main
We leave it up to you if you owned an earlier
model to decide if you think it is better or not.
Tastes vary.
Blu-Ray and DVD
The Dune BD Prime 3.0 is capable of playing back
Blu-Ray and DVD both commercial and backed up
titles from storage in raw folders (BDMV and
VIDEO_TS or ISO (BD_ISO and DVD_ISO).
Navigating the disk is fast and easy. The player
responds well to the commands although remote
needs pointing at the player (no RF).
menu, pressing left arrow removes it again from
screen. Also the popup menu button does the
same.
We tried over 15 titles of each and found no issues
at all in loading or playing files. Even streaming
over a 100mbit network went flawless using a NAS
and BDMV as a source. Not a single hiccup was
detected and HD Audio is neatly passed on to the
receiver.
Update: During verification rounds we noticed
minor issues we know of the earlier units. Few
disks cannot play properly and we came across 1
I/O error which we could not reproduce.
Occasional a disk may fail. No issues streaming
were found.
Search function is provided on BD and DVD
however does not integrate with chapters. Only
time search is shown where you can enter hours,
minutes or seconds. You have to press one extra
time to reach the “search” marker and activate the
time entered. We rather had a window integrate
chapters and time, and then press enter to apply
instead of extra navigation needed.
Up to profile 2.0 which used the internal memory
provided for BD Live content, loading of the disks
is fast (15 seconds or less) and the same
performance is measured for streaming. This is
amazing considering HDI does use some buffering
scheme inside its so called “enhanced playback”. I
don’t even care anymore what it is they done, I
only care that it works so well done.
In a single occasion we saw some weird failure for
playing the disk claiming something about security
but we could not reproduce it and clicked away
the screen too fast. Other than that, we can only
remark a little noise on the drive when loading
disks.
While on regular playback the navigational
buttons are used for a different thing, during BD
playback, pressing right arrow brings up the BD
Skipping chapters is working fine as are the fast
forward and rewind functions on the player
running at 2X, 4X and 16X. Did we forget 8X here?
Player reacts fast within half a second and clearly
is up to the task of navigating BD including the
trick play options.
Now, what is missing? I could not find either
function that bookmarks the BD or DVD on
command or automatically. This is something that
belongs on a new generation player where
bookmarks can be made on all type of files and
recalled from a pop up window up to 10 titles
bookmarked.
On BD titles that support it, we can enable second
audio and video stream (also called PiP, Picture in
Picture). We found a way to call up the window
however both stated “off” and I’m not sure how to
toggle it on other than doing so in the setup. Here
again, also select button on remote seems to call
the same function as the URL/Second Audio
button.
Pressing the ZOOM button also yields no reaction
from the player during BD playback. We get a
“forbidden” sign on our screen so likely it is by
design. Understanding “why” would be nice.
We leave this function for you to play with while
we move on to the regular video section now. I’m
sure we have good and some other stuff to say
about it.
Slow playback over BD and DVD, not a problem.
Four levels are provided ranging from half the
speed ½ to a quarter 1/4th of normal speed and
even slower to 1/8 and 1/16.
Video Playback
Let’s start by getting the major points out of the
way first. As with BD and DVD playback, no
bookmark support and that’s a shame. We failed
to play RMVB files which most new generation
players are capable of when based on Realtek
however Sigma does not include this format. HDI
must look to add this to match the need of
overseas market and slowly but surely, the use of
RMVB in Europe is growing. After all, you don’t
want to fall behind on supporting certain files
often used which can be an extra reason to choose
this player over the competition, even RealTek
based.
That said, we found the same functions as with
DVD concerning trick play being FF, RW and slow
playback.
What works differently are the search functions.
As with the earlier units HDI stuck to using the
navigational arrows to move up and down a video
playing.
Pressing left or right moves up or down 10
seconds inside the video, up and down moves up 1
minute in either direction. The page + and –
buttons add or distract ten minutes. This is very
functional however we noticed, regular time
search is not working and we rather have both
enabled.
Reference testing where we check out heavy
scenes we know cause players to struggle often to
keep up went flawless. Both Batman Begins
famous bird scene and BDD Planet Earth Bird
Scene passed flawless in 1080p over a 100mbit
Dune BD Prime 3.0.
While both embedded and external subtitles are
supported on the player, default these are
disabled and we already gave HDI few months ago
notice this is a feature that bothers us and a lot of
others. This must be addressed soonest possible.
Luckily HDI already committed to changing this
however has not done so over the last few months
and we do want to rush them for it a little bit since
it concerns “every” movie we play and therefore
limits the convenience quite a bit.
Subtitles are selected from a popup window
(something similar we’d like to see for bookmarks
later on being added to the player). Both
embedded and external subtitles will be loaded in
this virtual list for selection.
Zoom functions is something I really like and push
towards manufacturers do implement properly
considering we often want to remove black
borders from top and bottom or left and right.
Dune BD Prime 3.0 features a ZOOM function that
does all that without becoming complex featuring
predefined zoom options and an advanced custom
zoom option that progressively zooms in on the
image.
except off course the subtitles. In addition, I
repeat, bookmark and GoTo functions are required
as a cherry on top of the cake.
For specifications about supported formats in
video, subtitles and audio, visit the HDI web site
specifications. We concur the major formats
claimed supported are working.
http://dune-hd.com/hd_players/111-dune-bdprime-3.0.html
This is one fine and easy video player that has
quite a few slick options to enhance on top of the
decent video playback. For instance, the ability to
add video folders onto your screen with external
applications like this:
First item on the list is “Setup” which takes us to a
place where we can change the font size and
position of the subtitles including making changes
to colors and sync the subtitles. While these are
needed on a player, we feel syncing subtitles
should be possible without going through all these
windows directly.
The options include
by default normal
zoom (actual size),
enlarge, and make
wider and taller,
cut edges and
finally custom ZOOM.
It’s simply a pleasure to see such easy and good
working features provided on a player without
going thru extensive clicking and menus to get the
job done and that counts for about everything
(We recommend iDune or MyMovies tool)
Please check the forums for information.
Music playback
The music section was not pleasing me at first and
I needed the help of HDI a little to find the
features. After starting a music file all we saw was
initially a black screen showing with the title
played. This seemed later to be a screensaver
function for Plasma TV’s.
The player supports recurring folders and allows
selecting files and folders to build your own
playlist selected from a list.
Will we find an equally good picture section
compared to the music section? No we don’t.
Slideshow kicks in properly and the transition
effects are working fine. Rotation works as well
but there’s no ZOOM featured on this section and
therefore also no way to pan the image and zoom
into a section of the image.
Using the Pop Up Menu button on the remote
revealed the goodies we needed showing a list
window that can be browsed during playback and
revealed both shuffle and repeat options are
provided.
Pressing “Enter” on a file will start the file only as
where using the play button will prompt you to
play images or music if mixed inside a single
folder. No option is provided to start a slideshow
with music in the background and the play button
functions as a way to start the directory for
playback.
Information can be called upon. Maybe one small
remark to make is the volume does not work on
the list view here.
Overall, safe to state after the initial impression
thinking nothing is there, we end up being quite
satisfied on these functions. The only missing
feature would now be supporting simultaneous
slideshow and music to be used with the power of
all these transition effects supported.
Vote for features: http://dune-hd.com/features/
Picture playback
There is a shuffle and repeat function thought the
missing music in the background makes the
picture section limited to be fun and this is
something we feel HDI must concentrate on a little
too in the near future to add some spice…
Sharing and Performance
Important on the next generation of players is the
performance. We want more than the poor 3 – 4
MB/s we seen before as the chip is capable of
more if done properly. The internal drive is
formatted in ext2 because the unit cannot handle
NTFS Read/Write operations so on NTFS only read
operations can be achieved (and for that also
limits administering files of attached storage
formatted in NTFS).
The SMB function applies to the internal HDD
drive. We connected a USB drive to the USB host
on the left side of the unit and a hard drive in the
rear (without power supply) and both came active
properly on the player.
MB a second more on read performance leading
to 3.5 MB/s. Copying the same file as before now
took just over 4 and a half minute now performing
at almost 3MB/s. The ATTO benchmark results are
thus confirmed.
It does however not pop up as a network drive
until we reboot the player completely. Then both
attached devices are shown up over the player’s IP
address, and a printer which I can’t place really.
The hard drive is named using a certain identifying
number attached to it which makes it slightly
inconvenient to map it as a drive on the PC.
While usually we only calculate the performance
copying a file and then divide it into a certain
MB/S translation, we decided to take it one step
further on the Dune BD Prime 3.0 and run
IOMETER tests on both wired and wireless
connection along the generic translation of
copying files.
Copying a regular Divx file took a total of 1 minute
and 20 seconds averaging towards almost 10MB/s.
100MBIT test Cable Network
While we failed to get an IP address over DHCP
previously, we decided to try again enabling the
gbit network in both DHCP or Fixed IP mode.
While DHCP still could not connect to the player
properly, we managed to enter IP details manually
however resulted still in failing to use the player in
GBIT mode replying to a ping but stating
“destination host unreachable”. This has nothing
to do with the cable as far as I am concerned.
I read online someone reporting to only get 2-4
MB speed on both read and write actions and
gotten worried. Luckily our results show quite
different numbers.
Over cabled LAN we achieved a maximum read
speed of 8MB/s and write performance capped
just over 10MB/s. These results are expected on
the 100Mbit network. Copy performance by the
way was really static at 10MB/s not fluctuating in
our tests while the read performance kind of went
up and down in performance averaging towards 5
– 6 MB/s while the write performance average
remained at 10MB/s consistently.
GBIT performance Cabled Network
Wireless test Network
We do the same for wireless using the D-Link
adapter connecting to our router over Wireless N
using WPA2 security. We measured an average
speed of 3.0MB/s on write performance and a half
Would be interesting to measure the same
performance over GBIT and see if at all it yields
any benefits.
Longest conclusion ever
Dune BD Prime 3.0 definitely belongs to the
players that impress me about their status of
maturity in video playback and partially for music
too for a newly released player on a new platform.
After our verification round, we decided the
corrections made throughout the review showing
it has a reasonable music section on top of the
video performance carried us a long way to award
the Dune BD Prime 3.0 with the Editor’s Choice
award… (knowing bookmarks and the subtitle
issues will be soon resolved as well)
Bookmarks, GoTo function on other video than BD
and DVD chapters integrated into GoTo function
and then some options we discussed during the
review should be added to complete the player
where mixing music with images is a feature we’d
want as well…
So the Dune BD Prime 3.0 goes home in my
opinion as an extremely simple and great player
that offers something for everyone and is the right
choice for less geeky environments (families). I’m
also glad despite numerous requests; HDI did not
go into the same direction as the competition
stashing the player full of complex applications
that breaks the benefit of HDI’s convenience and
would render it into a weak “pc” more than a
media player. It goes without saying there’s
demand for such complex players but they do cost
points in convenience never the less and
applications are paid for, used or not. So what if
we were to choose between, let’s say PCH and
HDI? Oh common, I know you want me to go there

Ok, I’m not afraid of getting hammered
everywhere for my opinion so here goes… To
make it easier, we will run the comparison from
few angles…
Price Wise: Dune BD Prime 3.0
If we bring the C-200 up to the level of Dune BD
Prime by adding the BD drive, checking the price
balance would bring the Dune BD Prime 3.0 on top
only due to being a complete package where we
don’t have to add a modular BD drive and start
fiddling inside the system to make it to what it’s
supposed to do.
Off course we can discuss how some components
on C-200 are adding expense to the system which
explains the difference in price (display, RF
remote), it’s not the point. For example, RF
remote is as much a benefit as a burden, for
universal remote users for instance being forced
to purchase an IR (optional) which is attached
externally and less convenient… Just goes to show,
how good options can be “not so good or even
inconvenient” from a different perspective.
The cost of the PCH C-200 with a BD drive comes
out higher than the Dune BD Prime 3.0, no matter
what reason.
Technical / Hardware / Software: PCH C-200
From a technical perspective, so for advanced and
geeky people, we feel PCH C-200 is a better fit.
Also from hardware point of view a big display, RF
remote and full ATX power supply are benefits
over the Dune BD Prime 3.0. Software wise the C200 is a step ahead of the Dune BD Prime 3.0 as
well and I don’t mean on firmware for video, more
on NMT apps integrating all kinds of things. In my
opinion it’s not a benefit (as it adds to complexity
and unfriendly home use to add too much geeky
stuff) but many advanced people love it and we
must recognize other’s opinions as well.
Convenience: Dune BD Prime 3.0
Due to the same complexity that earns the PCH C200 the title in technical / hardware / software
section, it causes them to lose the title in
convenience. A lot of actions need taken and the
complexity of software setup bring it down the
ladder as a family player. To me, the HDI is clearly
a winner in that department by keeping things
simple and still get the job done, even in better
ways sometimes (7.1, streaming over 100 mbit
perfectly).
Trust level: PCH C-200
Our trust to bring the player up to a certain level
within its possibilities makes PCH C-200 the winner
again as honestly Syabas releases more and bigger
firmware releases even though lately it often
comes with bugs like on the initial release of the
products. This can work towards a better player or
making it worse, however history shows Syabas is
quite fast and regular releasing updates where HDI
makes progress at a slower pace.
Performance: C-200 and BD Prime 3.0
Playback performance measured between the C200 and BD Prime 3.0 leads to different results. In
copy performance and GBIT performance the C200 clearly is faster than the BD Prime 3.0. IN
playback however the C-200 struggled to perform
on a lot of files (due to driver problems and NFS)
whereas the HDI just waltzes thru the heavier files
we threw at it including BD and MKV 1080p. So
both take a point here in a different segment of
performance.
First Impression: Dune BD Prime
Although hardware wise the C-200 was leaving a
great impression on me during the time we
reviewed the unit, we could not surpass the fact
the firmware on all three sections was poor and
inadequate of even reaching the level of their
earlier models. HDI does that, it reaches the same
level of the earlier models without too much extra
though so it’s not all sunshine for them either.
The fact is however everything Dune BD Prime 3.0
must do now is to improve where the C-200 must
work still towards reaching the same levels as their
earlier units.
Conclusion preference: PCH C-200 BD Prime 4.0
I know it does not exist but in an ideal world both
HDI and Syabas would sit together and make a
player that combines the best of both worlds. I
can’t make a preference on either player clearly as
I prefer to get any one of these for different
reasons.
Combine the easiness of HDI’s interface and audio
abilities with the more advanced hardware and
software apps the C-200 has and we get a PCH C200 BD Prime 4.0. Now that would be my
preference of an “all in one” device although they
would have to work both on picture and sound
section a bit more… Do I see anyone think of YuiXX
as the solution now?
That’s too premature. Both C-200 and Dune BD
Prime stand their grounds on what makes them
better than the other although honestly, I’m more
impressed with the Dune BD Prime 3.0 than I was
on the C-200 earlier as a first impression. This can
easily be changed with a firmware releases… so it’s
not the most important thing to remember out of
this review.
I can without a doubt recommend the Dune BD
Prime 3.0 as an easy family player which is
advanced enough for the geeks (without
application needs) and simple enough for the kids,
grandma and off course… natural blonds. 
Info that clears up things
GBiT is not officially supported by Sigma and the
company does recommend not using Gbit due to
driver issues and more when using the player in
certain environments or ways. The “accelerator”
feature on the Dune should prevent any need for
higher speeds. Although we agree with that
statement (and verified it is capable of streaming
properly), we still feel benefit for GBiT never was
about streaming but more about reaching higher
transfer speed copying data over the player’s
network abilities.
Region free… the unit is not however, we tried the
old patch that existed for the earlier models and
guess what… it still works on the newer models as
well… Use at your own risk, off course.
The fact ZOOM is not working on BD is a limitation
designed by Sigma on their BD support on this
platform.
Subtitles disabled by default will be addressed in
the next upcoming firmware in less than 14 days.
In addition, bookmark function will be added over
the course of the next few updates. Initially
bookmarks will be made and recalled; in a second
stage a recall window will be provided.
Additional features that HDI will concentrate on to
bring soonest possible include goto on regular files
(there is a method but not a time search method),
maybe could look into RMVB support.
That concludes about everything I want to say
about the unit. Only 2 days later providing this
kind of review is hard work (late hours). However
that comes off course with the possibility some
things written are not well explained or need
changes in the near future… Either way, this is a
decent introduction to what you should expect of
the BD Prime.
BD players like the C-200 and Dune BD Prime 3.0
are software based BD players and not the same
as full BD players. Occasionally, issues might pop
up with certain disks failing to player properly.
That’s the price of the game we have with a Hybrid
unit that can do it all like these two.