There are many media players (I would focus on HD movies here) on the market, more than you can imagine, the competition in this niche market is so high that any new model will only have a very short lifespan if its performance is not can meet the standard.
Among these, I found that HDI Dune media players have outperformed others in image quality, reliability, compatibility, functionality, adjustability… Their product line continues to grow, they have various models from Smart, Max, Prime, Base, Center, Mini and Ultra. I don’t want to say that it is perfect and in fact it still has a lot of small bugs, and its firmware update is very slow. However, users are encouraged to vote for new features so that their engineers can set priorities. I’ve been interested in voting for features I like to have (for example, turning up the subtitle so it can be displayed within a 2.35:1 anamorphic screen) and it happened.
For Dune to run smoothly, some basic prerequisites must be met. Below is the summary of what I think can enhance our enjoyment of a movie on our home theater using the Dune series of media players:
–file format
–subtitle font
–subtitle format
–cinema wall
–cover format
1. File format
(Any legality regarding bit torrenting is ignored here, the reader should always make their own copied copy of their purchased copy)
–We should always avoid using mkv, mp4 format as they are compressed and many details are lost, ts file is the most common and simple HD format, it always removes all special features, bonus, unnecessary audio/angle data. The downside is that it doesn’t have a chapter, so if you want to jump to a particular scene, you have to use fast forward and trial and error.
–BDMV format is Blu-ray format, it retains the original structure of Bluray disc, therefore we can have chapter function.
— The iso file is the disc image file, similar to BDMV, many media players on the market have a hard time handling the iso file, but Dune doesn’t.
2. Source of subtitles
Dune likes the UTF-8 font, so it’s best to use this font all the time. Dune can recognize other fonts as well, but in my experience, standardizing the font will eliminate the hassle of going back and forth in the settings menu trying to figure out what type of font to use and its automatic font detection doesn’t always work.
I use ConvertZ to convert all subtitle font to UTF-8, you can download it from here:-
http://www.bumpersoft.com/Education_and_Science/Languages/ConvertZ_12649.htm
3. Subtitle format
Dune can only support one subtitle format, although it supports multiple languages, so we need to put each language in a different subtitle format to have multilanguage subtitles.
For example, we will put all English subtitles in .srt format, all French subtitles in .ass or .ssa format
Also, your subtitle file must use the same file name as the movie itself.
For example:-
Talk To Her movie, movie file name is talk.to.her.2002.bluray.remux.h264.1080p.ts
then your English subtitle will be:-
talk.to.her.2002.bluray.remux.h264.1080p.srt
its French subtitle will be:-
talk.to.her.2002.bluray.remux.h264.1080p.ass
To convert the subtitle to a different format I use Subtitle Workshop, you can download it from here:-
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Subtitle-Workshop-Download-5315.html
I recommend using the same array consistently to avoid confusion. What I mean is that if .srt is for English subtitles, then in every movie I will use .srt for English.
4. Movie Wall
This is not a necessity, Dune can always list the movies on your hard drive in alphabetical order. But with this display, a series of movie Bluray covers will surely enhance the public’s impression.
There are many plugins on the net that can do the same, but I found that most involve a lot of configuration on the computer and players have to connect to the network all the time. My method is the simplest and doesn’t need any network (I know, I know, there is no automatic retrieval of movie artwork and no network information, it’s a trade-off)
To have the movie wall when you access your library on your hard drive, you must place two files on your hard drive. One in the root directory and one in the movies folder.
I set these two files up so that the movie wall will only fit on a 16:9 screen, if you want you can change how many covers you want to display in a row, but you have to recalculate the cover size so that fit the screen.
Both files are called dune_folder.txt, use any text editor to write the following simple lines and save it as dune_folder.txt.
use_icon_view=yes
num_columns=6
num_rows=2
and put it in the root directory
then make another dune_folder.txt using any text editor with the following simple lines:
icon_path=cover.jpg
icon_valign=down
icon_dx = 0
icon_dy = 0
icon_scale_factor=0.6
use_icon_view = yes
caption_font_size = small
and put it in each movie folder
5. Film cover format
You can get the cover art from Amazon, Blu-ray.com, or scan it yourself. You should save it as cover.jpg
To fit on the movie wall, the size of each jpg should be 346×446
If you can’t get exactly this size, at least stick with yyy x 446
Hope the above can enhance your movie enjoyment with Dune media player. If you encounter any problems, feel free to write to me and I will do my best to find a solution for you.
