Articles

INTRODUCTION

   Imagine finally getting your hands on a new large inch LCD TV only to find out that its built-in media player is either not powerful enough to playback your entire 4k media library or that it just doesn't offer the best possible picture/video quality. This actually used to be the case 9 out of 10 times up until 4-5 years ago (with Full HD content back then) but even though things have improved a lot in recent years TV manufacturers are still using mid-end built-in media players, even for most of their really expensive models. For the largest percentage of consumers these solutions are of course more than just sufficient (which is why it makes sense for manufacturers to not increase costs for no reason) but for both video and audio enthusiasts alike however this is usually not the case. Dune HD has been leading the market with their hardware media players for over a decade now and today with me i have yet another one of their models, the latest Pro Vision 4K Solo.

   Dune HD is recognized as a global leader in high-performance digital media players. We received more awards than any other company in the category for delivering the very best in networked digital media devices. Dune HD products support the widest number of digital formats in use today, from Internet-based digital streaming and downloadable content, to disc based formats such as Blu-ray, DVD and CD. Dune HD offers an array of high-quality digital media players for both consumer and commercial markets. The product line ranges from low-cost, compact set-top box (STB) designs to professional-grade universal media players with internal hard drive bays and full internet and content connectivity. Products in the Dune HD line feature the best-in-class chipsets for extreme speed and performance.

   The Pro Vision 4K Solo model is a step up compared to the Pro 4K II i had the chance to review last year (review here) and so it's based around the latest Realtek RTD1619DR SoC (six core Cortex ARM A55 CPU with Mali G51 GPU) which features full support for Dolby Vision content (HDR+ is also supported). Now this might be one of the strongest selling points of the new Pro Vision 4K Solo but that's far from all since it's fully packed and so inside its brushed aluminum enclosure we find 4GB of DDR4 RAM, 32GB of flash memory, Bluetooth v5.0 connectivity (previous models used v4.1), RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11b/g/n/ac 2T2R dual-band WiFi, internal 3.5" rack (with active cooling), HDMI v2.0b output, HDMI audio output, HDMI v2.0 input, 2 USB 2.0 ports, USB 3.1 port, USB 3.1 Type-C port, Optical out (S/PDIF), RCA composite output and a total of 3 removable antennas (2 for WiFi and 1 for Bluetooth). In terms of software the new Pro Vision 4K Solo model features a hybrid Linux/Android v9 OS and fully supports 4kp60 decoding/output, HDR/HDR10+/Dolby Vision, 3D, VP9/VP9 Profile 2, H264/H265, 10-bit HEVC and True 24p output (23.976Hz) and can playback almost all video (MKV, MPEG-TS, MPEG-PS, M2TS, VOB, AVI, MOV, MP4, QT, ASF, WMV, BD ISO, BDMV, BD3D ISO, DVD-ISO, VIDEO_TS) and audio (MP3, MPA, M4A, AAC, WAV, WMA, FLAC, OGG/VORBIS, WAVPACK, APE, ALAC, SACD ISO, SACD DSF, SACD DFF, AC3, DTS, DTS-WAV) file formats. So let's see what the latest Pro Vision 4K Solo by Dune HD is all about.