diamond design Dune IP (all models) is now available

Before I begin, a special thank you to HDI-Dune and Mike at HDI-USA who sent me free players to work with in building this driver and testing it out. I could not have done it without the great help and feedback of the company. The company did not disclose that two developers were working on a driver at the same time but I was dealing mostly with HDI-USA and I assume the other one was developed in conversations with Europe (Russia).

Also a very special thanks to Alan Chow of Recluse AV who got me started and then pointed in me in the right directions as needed. RyanE also helped me out when it came to the final stages.

For background, we are an authorized distributor of HDI products and sell to dealers at the same price as the factory does. To my knowledge, there are two distributors located in the US.

The diamond design Dune IP driver works with almost all Dune models. The Base, BD Prime 3.0, HD Max, HD Due, HD Lite, the Smart Series, and later models. It is a full IP driver. Integration is complete and the features available are extensive. During setup, you can program the 4 colored buttons as well as various other buttons for any of the following (and each button has a default which can be changed but which I felt was most practical based upon the C4 remotes lack of an equivalent hard button): Setup, Open/Close (i.e. eject), Main Screen, Standby, Select, Info, Pause, Skip Next, Skip Previous, Hide On Screen Display, Show On Screen Display, Top Menu, Pop Up Menu, Audio Menu Toggles, Subtitle Toggles Fast Forward, Rewind, Slow Motion, Power Off, Power On, Cancel and other (which I wont list like left, right, up, down, because there are obvious hard buttons that already work on the C4 remote through the built-in proxy).

Based upon factory rules (MAP pricing), our wholesale prices on the players will be factory wholesale and retail prices will be factory retail (what you see on Duneplayer.com for instance).

The driver will be $40 retail and $30 wholesale. If you price shop you will see this version is less than half the price of the alternative. Although we worked a few hard months on it, I want to sell tons of players so I don't need to make a lot on selling drivers. Accordingly, all players purchased through diamond design (either retail or wholesale) will receive a free driver. Accordingly, because everyone sells the players at the same price, if you don't already have a player, you can get the driver free if you go through us. Also, all driver users (whether it be a free one or a paid one) will get lifetime updates for free until the driver has to be completely reworked but the 2nd models (B2, H2) will be a long time coming in my opinion.

Although other companies do not sell the driver retail, I will do so but you have to have a local dealer install it or arrange for a remote dealer to install it. Although we do remote work from time to time, we prefer that you preserve your relationship with your local dealer if possible.

The driver is encrypted and requires MAC authentication for the primary director on the network but is unlimited for that network so 3 players = 1 price (or if you buy all three from us it is the same price, free). Based upon my discussions with the factory, it has been discovered that you really shouldn't exceed 5 players in a project.

If you prefer to use a different system (like MyMovies so that you can have movie intros, etc.) it should work fine.

If you are active on the boards that is good advertising for me so I'm going to issue a coupon code when the e-commerce site is done for this site and AVS forum for $10 off the driver or the player/driver combo (to come off of shipping price of the unit).

Finally, with regard to firmware, I've been authorized to distribute the beta firmware freely to customers. I'll be uploading the ip firmware for each model ASAP. Keep in mind that it is still officially beta firmware (on the player). However, if anything changes on the final release to cause the driver not to work I will update it as stated above.

There may be some changes to the driver after its first widespread use. For instance, right now, stop = black screen which is what HDI recommended and what the other driver does as well. However, as we get user feedback I may change that to return to the main screen, pause, or something else.

I will have 100 or so players (of various makes and models) in the next batch. Pre-orders will begin when the e-commerce site is done which should be very soon. The delay is we have 1 ASP.Net programmer and 1 Lua programmer (me) so I had to work on one or the other.

If you are a dealer, just e-mail me your info and Control4 regional sales rep and I'll get you set up to buy Dune players wholesale.

-James

james@diamondhomedesign.com

Super work James and a great value proposition !

Nice job James. Good work!

Sounds promising. I still haven't made a decision on a media player.

I was considering the netgear ntv550... But this has sparked my interest.

I already have 3 bluray players and I don't need more... So what does this offer over the ntv550 for someone who just needs a video server.

Also which dune is best for my needs...

hawk

Nice one James. Look forward to giving it a try.

I really love the Dune/DuneX interface. (It's like the Mymovies one) All this exists and actually runs on my Base's HDD. Does your driver leave this alone and does it still appear on the TV as you are using the driver, and can you search using the SR250?

I was considering the netgear ntv550... But this has sparked my interest.

I already have 3 bluray players and I don't need more... So what does this offer over the ntv550 for someone who just needs a video server.

Also which dune is best for my needs...

hawk

+1

A smart D1 or H1. The main difference? The D1 (think D = display) is about $20 more and has a cool blue display where the H1 does not and is bare bones.

Wappinghigh, yes I think the driver would do that just fine but shoot me an e-mail and your mac address and I'll send you a free driver and you tell me if it works without issue for your uses (local storage).

Does the driver require 2.0?

Wish I had known about this other driver being done about 72 hours earlier ... for reasons not the least of which is that I bought 2 dune players not a week ago and could have gotten this driver as part of the deal instead of paying for it the way I did. Not because I'm not satisfied with the EV driver, but it's nice to have a choice and compare. Honestly, I'm excited about this, competition is good. I'm guessing the EV driver is more expensive, soooooo, I'm expecting them to outdo the Diamond Designs driver, to justify the extra cost, and not just drop the price, which will annoy me.

BTW, I have the EV driver up and running. Very nice. But I'd like to know what the Diamond Designs driver does that the EV doesn't, or vice versa.

Good work to both of you guys.

Does the driver require 2.0?

EV's does.

therodog: The driver was supposed to be released mid-january with the final public IP firmware. I was supposed to have time to finish the e-commerce site while waiting on it and put it through more testing (like pre 2.0).

If one or two people out there have composer pro and a unit running 1.8 or earlier, e-mail me and I'll give you a driver. Every single director I have is running 2.x and all my installs are now 2.x.

To be quite honest, I doubt it will work with 2.0 if theirs will not. The way it worked is we were both given the same IP structure by dune and we implemented it (perhaps in different ways), to acheive the same result. Neither will wash your car for you. If there is a button that we need to change we can add it but the list in the first post is essentially every button on the dune remote. C4 sees it perfectly via static IP on port 80. You can rotate through subtitles, audio formats, chapters, etc. while the movie is playing. You can control the media bay (open/close the tray, etc.) for models with disc players. Its almost 900 lines which is quite large for a driver so it is not bare bones. There is one difference I'm certain of, we have unique icons for the dune that come with the driver. Your dealer would install them in the composer icons directory. Instead of the standard media player icons it will show a dune player.

One note that will be important to guys on this forum. I had a telephone call with the company today because we are working on a new price structure for the players and they said they want me to handle the control 4 stuff (questions, etc.) like how to make the connections, setup, etc. Because they are too busy to come on here, I will also be providing updates regarding future firmware, models, etc.

Finally, I'm not sure if everyone knows this (it is not well known) and I may cost myself some sales of my driver but if you have an iphone or ipad in your project, you can control the dune right now for free without buying a player from me. Go to the app store and type in dune remote. There is an Apple approved IP app which is an onscreen remote. I tested it on my wife's ipad and it works great. (you still need to own a player for it to work if you go that route so don't forget about me if you are buying a new player haha).

+1 for all your efforts, they should be recognized.

Looks like I have a replacement for my C4 media player. Can you email me the price of the BD Prime? I don't see it at duneplayer.com Thanks!

I doubt you lose much business to a standalone iOs remote. At least for this community of people, it's less about IP control for its own sake and more about solid integration with their already expensive automation system.

Can anyone tell me if there is Netflix support with either of the new drivers or if the Dune units even support Netflix yet. Thanks.

Can anyone tell me if there is Netflix support with either of the new drivers or if the Dune units even support Netflix yet. Thanks.

The Dune doesn't support netflix.

I picked up a Dune HD Max from Mike on Friday. Added the ip beta test firmware and downloaded the the ipad app. The ipad app is a replica of the remote. Nice thing is you can see it in a dark media room? What is impressive is how fast the ip commands work and considering the dunes ir receiver on the max is not that great as you have to really aim to make it work. This is a great media player that appears to have steady firmware updates! I set up a front end by loading it on my HP WHS and indexed my movies. Also, Tried Zappiti which does the same thing but maybe handles tv show with series better.

It played everything I had except dvd.img files. Used a converter AnyToISO to convert them to iso and was good to go with dvd navigation and all. Once it got it all set up and attached to my denon and projector I was good to go. Turned on my iPad and navigated to the mymovies shortcut on the Dune. Awsome! I spent quite a bit of time trying different firmwares I had to hunt down the correct fw. Spent a bit of time updating my WMS and seting up the mymovies and a bit more geting the setting right between the denon and the dune. Now only one last thing to do! Get the driver to allow C4 to control it. Very interested on how it will work on c4 controls and ts.

As it turned out I live only a few miles from Mike so I see more of these players in my future controlled by C4. I couldn't be more pleased with the perfromance of the HD Max. Now to figure which models I want and keep an eye out for firmware updates;)

Tom

Diamond do you make a 2 way directv or sonos driver??

Interesting. Thanks Chippy. Curious about how you choose the disc tray vs. NAS movies on the Max? How does the Diamond Design driver handle this? Looking for high WAF

I picked up a Dune HD Max from Mike on Friday. Added the ip beta test firmware and downloaded the the ipad app. The ipad app is a replica of the remote. Nice thing is you can see it in a dark media room? What is impressive is how fast the ip commands work and considering the dunes ir receiver on the max is not that great as you have to really aim to make it work. This is a great media player that appears to have steady firmware updates! I set up a front end by loading it on my HP WHS and indexed my movies. Also, Tried Zappiti which does the same thing but maybe handles tv show with series better.

It played everything I had except dvd.img files. Used a converter AnyToISO to convert them to iso and was good to go with dvd navigation and all. Once it got it all set up and attached to my denon and projector I was good to go. Turned on my iPad and navigated to the mymovies shortcut on the Dune. Awsome! I spent quite a bit of time trying different firmwares I had to hunt down the correct fw. Spent a bit of time updating my WMS and seting up the mymovies and a bit more geting the setting right between the denon and the dune. Now only one last thing to do! Get the driver to allow C4 to control it. Very interested on how it will work on c4 controls and ts.

As it turned out I live only a few miles from Mike so I see more of these players in my future controlled by C4. I couldn't be more pleased with the perfromance of the HD Max. Now to figure which models I want and keep an eye out for firmware updates;)

Tom

Diamond do you make a 2 way directv or sonos driver??

It would sure be nice if Control4 had cover art selection that looked that good =(

I've gotten someone who offered to test the driver with 1.7x so I'm going to send them one and see but Lua guru Alan Chow, who was critical in this development, said my driver should work fine with 1.7.0 onwards. We'll test it and see.

No other drivers yet as I built this on necessity rather than desire (I didn't know another one was being made until I was neck deep in it). Now that I've learned Lua and have read 3 books on it as well, I probably will make others when I get some free time. Probably a sprinkler control like Rain8 would be next (again out of necessity).

I need to get a Max in for testing. As of now, the play button when you are controlling dune sends the "play" command and the select button picks the movie and plays it from the hard drive so if you had a disc in, pressing play (instead of select) should start playing the disc.

I'll have to double check that as I didn't receive a Max from HDI during testing but I have a ton coming asap.

Selling the driver will be delayed a few days as I'm re-working my encryption/authentication platform based on the advice of Alan. I shared how I did it on the dealer forums but withheld the critical information but he thinks it may still be enough for someone to crack it. Heck if they can crack blu rays, iphones and Microsoft Word there is probably nothing I can do but I'm still going to re-work it as Alan knows best

I "used" to be a pretty competent geek but I'm finding all this a little unclear. I'm interested in a Blu-Ray-capable media storage/player. Tell me if I've got this straight.

1. Buy an appropriate Dune Player, connect it to my AV Receiver as one of the the sources.

2. Install a NAS for media storage and point the Dune Player to it.

3. Get this C4 driver and integrate the Dune Player into my Control4 system.

4. Use a separate computer to rip the discs onto the NAS.

Is that about it? How reliable are the Dune Players at playing 1080p and keeping audio in sync? What is the ballpark time to rip a BD? What are the top 2 or 3 recommended NAS systems?

EDIT: My system is currently a single HC-300 running 1.8.0. I'm not ready to jump to 2.0 so I'd be interested in a driver for either 1.8.0 or 1.8.2.

Yes on your numbered questions (although you can use a Dune model that has a hard drive on it if you wanted). I tested with a netgear brand (Readynas) Pro Pioneer. Bout 20-30 minutes on a blu ray depending upon your computer. Check out the Dune AVS forum on some movies that have audio issues (there are 2 or 3).

Also, to answer the question about the Lite. I called the factory today and asked your question. It is later this month for Lite availability. They will not work with c4.

How do I place an order for the player? Your site does not allow online ordering.

Been waiting to order. I may just order from Mike at duneplayer if its not open soon.