INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Spending less than 3 hours with the retail version of Diablo III (finally) in 4 days is not really what i had in mind for the 14th of this month (certainly not after waiting for so long) but for good or bad business comes always before pleasure (i know, i know) especially when you have a schedule to keep. Now how many of you recall me saying that so far there have been more media players delivered to us inside 2012 than any other year in one of my last media player reviews? Well while i was writing those lines we also received the latest network/hdd media player by Dune HD, the TV-301A which naturally has been under our scope ever since.

 

   Dune HD GmbH is a global manufacturer of cutting-edge digital media players and hybrid media player products which combine broad IPTV/VOD support with excellent DMA (Digital Media Adapter) functionality. The company maintains corporate offices in the United States, Russia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Germany, and its distribution network covers over 60 countries. The company employs high-class engineers who design its products on the basis of cutting-edge A/V and digital media technologies. Our Software development team located in Moscow Russia and Kiev Ukraine develops dedicated software that supports all Dune HD media players. Because of this the Dune HD brand enjoys a tremendous worldwide reputation in the premium segment of Consumer Electronics.

 

   Dune HD recently released the TV-301 in two flavors, the TV-301A and the TV-301AW which is basically the same as the first but also features a built-in Wi-Fi adapter coupled with an external antenna. The TV-301 series are also amongst the first to feature the latest HD decoding chipset by Sigma Designs, the SD8671 which may not be their most powerful decoding solution to date but it comes really close. That aside i was somewhat surprised (in a good way) to see that the TV-301 series also feature a nice easy-swap 2.5" HDD bay which is certainly not something we see a lot with media players since most manufacturers prefer 3.5" drives. Of course the TV-301 is as big as an 3.5" hard disk drive so an 2.5" easy-swap bay was a one way for Dune HD and i am honestly glad they decided to take it. But let's take a closer look and she what else you can expect from the latest network/hdd media player to hit the market by Dune HD.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The TV-301 arrived inside a medium sized, long box with a product image at the front placed right above its main features.

 

 

Two product images are also present at the right side.

 

 

At the bottom you can see which model is included in the box.

 

 

Moving at the rear we see a long list containing all the key features and functions of the TV-301 network/hdd media player.

 

 

I would like to see more protection but even so the product arrived undamaged.

 

 

The bundle accompanying the TV-301A is as rich as it can get and includes the remote control, two AAA batteries, AC power adapter with 4 different tips (worldwide compatibility), quick start guide, HDMI cable, USB 3.0 host cable, Ethernet cable, mini-jack to A/V cable and an IR extension cable along with two round adhesive stickers.

 

 

 

 

THE TV-301A EXTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First of all the remote control of the TV-301A is one of the best I’ve ever seen, not only because it features large and easy to read buttons but also because it comes with a very nice illumination allowing a person to use it even in the dark.

 

 

Jumping to the TV-301A network/HDD media player as you can see it features a black chassis made of hard plastic and it's quite small in size and when i say small i mean 160mm in width, 115mm in depth and 36mm in height while weighing almost 400g.

 

 

There's nothing fancy to see at the front fascia, just the Dune HD logo, power LED (red/blue), IR receiver (center) and the product name.

 

 

The entire top of the unit is perforated to allow hot air from the interior to exit fast.

 

 

Over at the right side we see a USB 2.0 port and a SD card slot. Part of the right side is also perforated.

 

 

A perforated section is also present at the left side right beneath the 2.5" easy-swap drive bay.

 

 

Naturally the rear is where you will find most of the output connectors.

 

 

From left to right we have the USB 3.0 host port, USB 2.0 port, optical audio out, A/V out (mini-jack), HDMI 1.3 port, IR extender port, component out (mini-jack), Gigabit Ethernet port, on/off power button and the AC power plug.

 

 

The TV-301A sits ontop of four large rubber round feet.

 

 

 

 

THE TV-301A INTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gaining access to the interior of the unit is not very hard but i wouldn't recommend it since it means voiding your warranty.

 

 

Most of the components are placed on the other side of the PCB and not the top (mainly because the bottom is made by aluminum which can act as passive cooling).

 

 

The JMS539 USB 3.0 to SATA II bridge controller is present at the lower side of the PCB.

 

 

Here we also see the low-power VSC8601XKN Gigabit Ethernet chip by VITESSE.

 

 

The Sigma Designs SMP8671AD-CBE3 HD Decoding chipset is placed at the center of the PCB.

 

 

Finally this USB port placed at the upper end of the PCB can be used to expand the units flash memory.

 

 

 

 

USING THE TV-301A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You all know the drill so prior to using the unit i really suggest heading over to the official support page to download the latest available firmware update.

 

 

Dune HD always puts extra effort when designing the GUI (graphical user interface) of their players to provide the best possible experience while at the same time making them extremely user friendly and the same applies for the TV-301 line.

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY - TEST RESULTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   After thinking it over i have decided on performing the same exact tests for all the Media Players i review. This occurred right after some of you emailed me while on my previous position asking for a more reliable methodology when testing such players/recorders. To be honest this may complicate things but it should also save me quite a bit of time in the process. So from now and on testing will be performed with the help of 4 specific MKV media files and several BDISO (when possible), MOV, RMVB and AVI ones, with bitrates of up to 35Mbps, something which as many of you know is not easy to come by. Of course the 4 specific MKV files are ones i ripped myself from 4 Blu-Ray titles i currently own in order to not only manage to hit the desired bitrate of up to 35Mbps but also use specific, high detailed scenes. My good old SONY 55A2000 (already 3+ years old but still my favorite) along with my latest Panasonic TX-P42S20 are the two screens i will be using for testing. In due time and when i finally see a 3D Screen that really makes me want to buy it i will also start using 3D material for testing but currently that is simply not possible and so i can't comment on 3D results. As for sound the audio/video amplifiers used with the two screens are the Yamaha RX-650 and the Yamaha RX-V463 coupled with 5.1 systems by TANNOY and Crystal Audio.

 

   Sigma Designs has yet to reveal their latest flagship HD decoding chipsets but the SMP8671 proved to be more than capable to surpass the latest RTD1186DD in terms of image quality something which can be easily seen if you compare the posted screenshots with the ones from the R300 (RTD1186DD) by Egreat we reviewed a while back. However this is pretty much the only place where the new Sigma Designs chipset beats the RTD1186DD since i failed to see or hear any other significant differences. The Gigabit Ethernet LAN did perform slightly better than what I’ve seen with the latest offerings based on the RTD1185/6 chipsets (although that function is separate from those chipsets) but unfortunately the TV-301 series lack support for BDISO files (unlike RTD1186DD based media players) and although not many users use those i am sure it would be a nice feature to have. Because the TV-301A doesn't come with the built-in Wi-Fi a/b/g adapter like the TV-301AW i didn't test any of its wireless functions (the 2 USB dongles i had here from RaidSonic and ACRyan didn't seem to work flawlessly) but i came across zero issues while using the wired Gigabit LAN connection (actually it even worked better than I’d hoped).

 

     Bellow you will find 4 different screenshots from the 4 specific MKV media files i mentioned above featuring a bit rate between 20 and 35Mbps. The resolution has remained unchanged (however the files are compressed to JPEG to save space on the server) at 1920x1080.

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   The people over at Dune HD are considered as the best at what they do so it comes as little surprise that their products are considered the crème de la crème of network/hdd media players. Because of that i had high expectations from the TV-301A and luckily it didn't disappoint me. The picture quality is amazing, audio is equally great, the GUI is well designed and easy to navigate (although perhaps too in-depth for some people) and you also get a plethora of features and connectors all in a compact media player which you can move around easily. I was somewhat surprised to see that Dune HD used hard plastic for the exterior of the unit (bottom part excluded) especially since all their units I’ve tested and used up until this day had aluminum enclosures but the TV-301 series are not aimed at enthusiasts and are more like low/mid-level solutions so it's very understandable that Dune HD wanted to keep the cost into a minimum.

 

   The TV-301 series is a brand new product so you may not be able to find them everywhere at this exact moment however the recommended retail price is set at USD169 for the USA while in the EU it currently retails at around 160Euros. However since the TV-301AW (Wi-Fi a/b/g version) retails for just USD10/10Euros more i really think it's a slightly better choice (you never know if and when you'll ever need Wi-Fi capability). Overall the TV-301A may not be perfect (lacks BDISO support, hard plastic exterior, only 2.5" drive support) but it comes with most of the features found on the ultra-high-end Dune HD MAX squeezed into a much smaller package and that's really impressive. On top of that add the very tempting price tag and you've got yourself one of the most complete cost-effective media players in the market today and that's why it steals our Platinum Award.

 

 

PROS

- Build Quality (Overall)
- Amazing Performance (Sigma Designs SMP8671)
- Easy-Swap 2.5" HDD Bay
- USB 3.0 Host Port
- SD Card Reader
- Illuminated Remote Control
- Price (For Some)
- GUI
- Build-In Wi-Fi (TV-301AW)
- Product Support

 

 

 

CONS

- Hard Plastic Exterior
- Lack Of Support For BDISO/Flv File Types