Articles

INTRODUCTION

   Ever since i got my first really large TV back in 2007 (55" SONY 3DLP model) and started watching Full HD 1080p content I’ve tried my best to keep up with everything related to hardware media players including all the chips used and of course their capabilities. Unfortunately things haven't been that good in that segment of the industry and so over the years we've seen many manufacturers come and go with OPPO Digital one of the world's premium hardware media player manufacturers being the latest addition to that list. OPPO Digital was one of the top two picks for enthusiasts so news of their leaving the hardware media player market were sudden to say the least but luckily enough Dune HD is not going anywhere and so if you're out in the market for one you should really check their latest PRO 4K model which sat in our lab for roughly 15 days.

   Dune HD is recognized as a global leader in high-performance digital media players. Over the last five years Dune HD has 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. The Dune HD line of media players offers superior quality HD video and audio with support for IPTV, VOD, OTT, networked digital files and interactive services. 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, optical drives and full internet and content connectivity. All products in the Dune HD line feature the powerful Sigma Designs chipset for extreme speed and performance. The Dune HD line allows for consumers or content operators to choose or customize a solution to best suit their unique requirements. Dune HD devices offer superior quality HD video and audio with support for IPTV, VOD, OTT, network files and interactive content services. This unique combination of home media player combined with an IPTV HD STB in a single unit allows operators to offer their customers the exact content, services and performance that will set them apart. Dune HD is headquartered in Taiwan, with engineering teams in Moscow, Russia, and Kiev, Ukraine. The company also has offices in the United States, and a distribution network that covers more 60 countries.

   The PRO 4K was recently released alongside the Neo 4K line (Amlogic S905X SoC with 1GB RAM and 8GB flash memory - version with 4K DVB-T/T2/C tuner is also available) and the Sky 4K Plus model (Amlogic S905D SoC with 2GB RAM, 16GB flash memory and 4K DVB-S/S2/T/T2/C tuners) and sits right beneath the soon to be released Pro 4K Ultra model (Realtek RTD1296 SoC with 4GB RAM and 32GB of flash memory - expect a review of that too). In a surprising move not only did Dune HD skip using a Sigma Designs media processor for any of these units (something which they've been doing for as far back as i can remember) but they've also equipped all of these players with the Android OS (v6.01/7.1 depending on the model - instead of Linux which they've been using to date). Moving back to the PRO 4K it's based on the Realtek RTD1295 SoC (quad core Cortex A53 CPU with Mali T820 MP3 GPU) which Dune HD has paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of flash memory. This combination gives enough juice to the PRO 4K to reproduce H.265 / 10-bit HEVC content up to 4Kp60 HDR and H.264 content up to 4Kp24 both with bitrates up to 100 Mbit/s and higher (fully supports the following video formats: MKV, MPEG-TS, MPEG-PS, M2TS, VOB, AVI, MOV, MP4, QT, ASF, WMV, BD ISO, BDMV, DVD-ISO, VIDEO_TS) and with Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos, DTS HD MA and DTS:X. Of course as expected from a high-end player the PRO 4K supports most if not all audio codecs (MPEG-1/2 layer I/II/III, AAC, LPCM, WMA, WMAPro, FLAC, multichannel FLAC, Vorbis, WavPack, APE, ALAC, SACD, AC3, DTS) and formats (MP3, MPA, M4A, AAC, WAV, WMA, FLAC). The PRO 4K however also does very well in terms of connectivity since it comes ready with Bluetooth v4.2, single USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, external SATA port, micro SD card slot, HDMI v2.0a output, composite video output, RCA analog stereo audio output, optical S/PDIF output, Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI v2.0 input and Dual Band 2.4/5GHz Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n/ac). So although very compact the brand new PRO 4K seems to be the jack of all trades so let's move forward with our review.