The unit comes in a sleek, rugged metal housing in my opinion. Unfortunately you how mitlerweile in the HiFi industry standard on a metal front waived (negative point). In particular, the feet of the unit a valuable aspect and are so handy that inadvertent shifting of the unit, even on glass surfaces makes them very difficult.
The case itself offers good workmanship but also one of the few points of attack for discreet criticism. Firstly, the design is used to. I am aware that the device can be coupled to a Bluray LW and thus expanded. On the other hand I feel the depth but for less wide housing shape impractical. Since this unit will make its appearance a HIFI unit impression particularly, I would have found nice one would the device rather elongated, like a satellite receiver built. In addition to the inconvenience of housing design, there is now the main point of criticism, namely the somewhat unfortunate case ventilation. On the top you have completely dispensed with ventilation holes. While this is contrary to the appearance, but not the heat, the "plates arises particularly in built-up 3.5. (Negative point). Especially in summer room temperatures and longer jobs I see here an unnecessary burden on device and HDD (optional) through the simple a better housing design could have been avoided.
The display lights up blue and is also from a greater distance very easy to read. With very strong abgedunktelten rooms the backlight is almost too bright, here I would have liked an opportunity to dim the display, there is to my knowledge only OFF or ON.
Upon opening the machine to a provides a relatively unspectacular view of the housing interior. It is dominated by the long board and the optional usable HDD cage. To my mind it is incomprehensible why the manufacturer hides a USB port under the hard drive cage. What he wants to achieve with it? This USB port cries actually after him to use for the also optional configurable System Storage, which can be used for various Bluray Live content, and for firmware updates well. According to the manufacturer, however rich 2GB here. The question there is at me is why the manufacturer installed not directly 2GB internal storage for the System Storage and demands of the customer to use an own storage solution? This equipment price this would be only a marginal extra cost aspect. In addition, the USB stick must, unless you choose to use this USB port decides to be extremely flat. 2 my USB sticks were too thick to then the hard drive cage (which can be very simple in / install) to reinstate.
In several occasions called hard drive cage, there is only the option 3.5 "to block plates. At least with the means by which the device is delivered to the house. Also this (negative) point is not quite understandable for me. This device is urging stand up to almost 2.5 "disks that remain economical, quieter and cooler. Especially with very closed cabinets as the DUNE HD. So you, if you decide to use a 2.5 "drive, forced to buy corresponding adapter rails or housing that costs this move 6 to 30
I recommend with frequent movie enjoyment and some independence from the network a 2.5 "disk with 500GB install. This should have been formatted on a PC with NTFS, this file system can read namely the DUNE. Also I recommend at least 2 partitions, one or for movies . Media and one for the optional use YADIS Another criticism:. There is no option to disable the possibly built HDD after inactivity, these always running.
The establishment of the unit is very easy and one has even updated the factory-installed firmware, you realize how much work the manufacturer has now put into the improvement of the surface. The menu works in the one or other point somewhat messy but this often only in categories that you might visit during initial setup and then never again.
The unit will play without any problems from the local hard disk, external memories, of shares in the network as well as via UPNP or SMB shares. Although it is only a 100MBIT network interface installed but I had even at 1080P movies with high bit rate no problems.
The playback point I conclude direct: He played so far everything I have set before him. Even files with the previously used PS3 Media Server solution with MENCODER or tsMuxeR failed. The files are loaded relatively quickly depending on the source (network or local), and the image quality is, of course, from Matieral dependent outstanding.
Purchase reason for me was the appropriate fan base that has grown up around the players around. In particular, the privately developed extension YADIS makes powerful thing here. This provides a surface similar to the Apple TV comes along and allows detailed movie information prior to the start display. It can be made Genre sorts, looking actor or simply generate a much better overview in series. However, these data must be created on the PC and then copied to the device. Notable advantage is that the device is accessible on the network directly from Windows. Enter IP address under performing and you end up, if installed, on the local HDD of the device. Here files can easily be played without having to sit on DUNE directly.
I have in this review and in particular not so nice points the unit focuses namely because otherwise does exactly what it should. And that makes it excellent in my opinion. With the exception of housing construction, I do not see any so serious deficiency that can not be managed by firmware or a corresponding fan community in the world. Even as previous PS3 users I can look forward to a significantly lower current consumption of the device compared to the Playstation.
I would buy the device at any time.
