The Dune HD Smart B1 is a Blu-ray player and multimedia center released on September 2010 by Taiwanese company, Dune HD.

Unlike most traditional Blu-ray players, this feature-packed player resembles a dull black external PC drive. It can play Blu-ray ISOs or BDMV folders with full menu support; perfect for a disc-less experience, also useful for developers testing Blu-ray applications without burning BD-Rs. The BD files can be stored on either an USB, SD Card, Hard Drive, or a Local Network. It does not display BD thumbnail metadata.

The player is targeted toward hardcore AV enthusiasts and media collectors. It has been praised for its multimedia capabilities, however, it's been criticized for slow disc loading times (1m 25 sec.) and laggy performance for complex Java content for BD-J titles.

 Specifications  & Features

• Processor: Sigma Designs 8642 @667 MHz
• RAM: 512 MB 
• Flash memory: 128 MB, expandable with a HDD partition, USB flash drive, or SD card (2GB recommended)
• Custom Linux OS* 
• Media sources: built-in Blu-ray drive, external HDD (USB, eSATA), external optical drive (USB, eSATA), USB devices (USB flash drive, USB card reader, etc), built-in SD card reader (SD/SDHC), PC and NAS in local network (SMB, NFS, UPnP, HTTP), other Internet and local network media sources (HTTP, multicast UDP/RTP)
• Video codecs: MPEG2, MPEG4, XVID, WMV9, VC1, H.264; support for very high bitrate video (up to 50 MBit/s and higher)
• Video file formats: MKV, MPEG-TS, MPEG-PS, M2TS, VOB, AVI, MOV, MP4, QT, ASF, WMV, Blu-ray-ISO, BDMV, DVD-ISO, VIDEO_TS
• Optical disc formats: data discs (CD/DVD/BD) (MP3, JPEG, etc), Audio CD (PCM/DTS), DVD-Video (retail and user-authored discs), Blu-ray (retail and user-authored discs)
• Blu-ray playback: Blu-ray menu, BD-J, BonusView, BD-Live – for both Blu-ray discs (retail and user-authored) and full Blu-ray structures (Blu-ray-ISO, BDMV) played from HDD and network
• Video output modes: wide range of supported output resolutions (up to 1080p) and framerates (including 23.976p, 24p, PAL, NTSC)\
• Video output framerate: automatic (according to the played content) and manual
• Audio codecs: AC3 (Dolby Digital), DTS, MPEG, AAC, LPCM, WMA, WMAPro, EAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), Dolby True HD, DTS HD High Resolution Audio, DTS HD Master Audio, FLAC, multichannel FLAC, Ogg/Vorbis; support for very high quality audio (up to 192 kHz / 24-bit)
• Audio file formats: MP3, MPA, M4A, WMA, FLAC, APE (Monkey’s Audio), Ogg/Vorbis, WAV, DTS-WAV, DTS, AC3, AAC
• HD audio support: pass-through (up to 7.1 channels) and decoding (stereo downmix) of Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD MA audiotracks (Blu-ray, TS, MKV), pass-through (up to 7.1 channels) of multichannel LPCM audiotracks (Blu-ray, TS, MKV), decoding (up to 7.1 channels) of FLAC audiotracks (MKV, external)
• Subtitle formats: SRT (external), SUB (MicroDVD) (external), text (MKV), SSA/ASS (MKV, external), VobSub (MP4, MKV, external SUB/IDX), PGS (Blu-ray, TS, MKV)
• Picture file formats: JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF
• Playlist file formats: M3U, PLS
• Photo viewer functions: slideshow, transition effects, picture rotation, zoom, browse playlist, repeat, shuffle
• Audio playback functions: browse playlist, repeat, shuffle, ID3 tags, plasma TV burn-in prevention

• Back of Dune HD Smart B1

   Filesystems: FAT16/FAT32 (read-write), EXT2/EXT3 (read-write), NTFS (read-write)
• Ethernet: 10/100 Mbit
• WiFi: optional 802.11n WiFi (via an external USB WiFi stick, not included, D-Link DWA-140 recommended)
• Dune Network Playback Accelerator: special optimizations ensuring best-in-class network playback performance for the Sigma Designs 864x platform and enabling smooth playback of any supported kind of media content via any network protocol (including NFS and SMB) even in 100 Mbit/s Ethernet networks.
• Built-in web browser (uses Mozilla/Gecko engine) 

 

It uses four Zentel A3R1QE4EGF DDR3 SDRAM chips (128 MB each).

The SoC and other chips. Image: hdtv.ru

It contains a Realtek RTL8201CP, which is a single-chip/single-port 10/100M Fast Ethernet physical layer transceiver (PHYceiver) used in a variety of networking applications. It is compliant with IEEE 802.3 and 802.3u standards. 

For the DAC, it contains the AK4420ET (often referred to as the AKM 4420ET) is a high-performance 24-bit stereo Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) manufactured by Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM). 

This Blu-ray disc drive is made from Sony. 

 

Storage

Additional storage can be added via USB or SD Card; a Hard Drive add-on (Smart HE/HDD Extension) adds the easy installation option of a 3.5” SATA Hard Drive.

 

Unofficial Region Playback Control

A community made firmware patch makes the player support manual region switching (A,B,or C) via menu settings. This process is not automatic, but you can change it as needed without limits in most cases. However, installing this unofficial patch might brick the player; use caution and know the risk.

 

Similar Models and Extension Modules

The disc-less models on the bottom, Smart D1 & H1

The Dune Smart H1 and D1 are like the B1 except both no Blu-ray drive. Both models have a USB Slave port except the Smart H1 has a hot-swap 3.5" SATA HDD rack with a HDD tray level on the front panel, and the Smart D1 has a Internal 3.5" SATA HDD (requires opening case) and it's front panel has a Large LCD/VFD info display.

The Dune Smart B1 is of extending its capabilities with extension modules:

• Smart HE (Hard Drive Extension): Adds a 3.5" SATA HDD rack with hot-swap support. It connects via eSATA or USB 2.0 and can also function as a standalone HDD box for a PC. 
  

• Smart ME (Module Extension): Provides two internal slots for adding optional extension boards. These boards are used for receiving digital TV, including DVB-T/T2, DVB-S/S2, and DVB-C (terrestrial, satellite, and cable) 

• Smart BE (Blu-ray Extension): Although the B1 already has a Blu-ray drive, this module adds an additional high-quality Sony-based optical drive for playing commercial and user-recorded CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays. It typically connects via eSATA for maximum performance. This is mainly for the Dune HD Smart D1.

 

Pros and Cons for BD-J Development

The Dune HD Smart B1 remains a capable vintage option for BD-J app and game development testing, with excellent network (NFS/SMB) BDMV folder playback enabling full interactive menus and quick iteration without disc burning. It also has very fast loading times since it's not using a disc drive. However, its aging Sigma chipset leads to sluggish Java performance on complex content, long load times for discs, no 3D support, and potential glitches. For smoother, more reliable testing, newer hardware or software emulators are recommended.

 

 

 

Sources

• *Dune Firmware Zone
• Original Research
• HDTV.RU - Dune HD players
• HDlandblog.com - Dune HD Smart 
• Unofficial Firmware for B1 

External Links

• Latest Firmware for Smart B1 - Dune Firmware Zone
• Dune HD Smart B1 PDF Manual 

Author(s) : Æ Firestone

 *Dune Firmware Zone