Dune HD SOLO Lite is a Cheaper Sigma Designs SMP8758 based 4K Media Box

Launched at the very end of  last year, Dune HD SOLO 4K media player and NAS with Sigma Designs SMP8758 processor, a 2.5″ SATA bay, and a DVB-T2 tuner has high end specifications, but the price is also steep at 349 Euros inc. VAT. So the company has come up with a newer and cheaper version, Dune HD Solo Lite without the SATA bay, Z-wave support, nor the tuner card, but that keeps many of the same features, and sells for 199 Euros inc. VAT (MSRP).

Dune HD Solo Lite specifications:

• SoC – Sigma Designs SMP8758 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400 GPU and VXP image processing engine
• System Memory – 1GB
• Storage – 4GB flash for firmware, SD card reader
• Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 1080p60 / 4K30 (including 23.976, 25, 29.97, 50, 59.94Hz refresh rates), and composite video
• Audio Output – HDMI, analog stereo audio, coaxial S/PDIF (shared via AV port). 24-bit /192 KHz audio support
• Video codecs – MPEG2, MPEG4, XVID, WMV9, VC1, H.264, H.265, H.265 Hi10p up to 4K 30 fps; support for very high bitrate video (up to 100 Mbit/s and higher)
• Video container formats – MKV, MPEG-TS, MPEG-PS, M2TS, VOB, AVI, MOV, MP4, QT, ASF, WMV, BDMV, DVD-ISO, VIDEO_TS
• 3D video formats – MVC, Side-by-side, Top/Bottom
• Audio codecs – MPEG-1/2 layer I/II/III, AAC, LPCM, WMA, WMAPro, FLAC, multichannel FLAC, Vorbis, WavPack, APE (Monkey’s Audio), ALAC (Apple lossless), AC3 (Dolby Digital), DTS; support for very high quality audio (up to 192 kHz / 24-bit). Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD MA, and Dolby Atmos pass-through to A/V receiver
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi
• USB –  2x USB 2.0 ports
• Misc – IR extender port, on/off switch
• Power Supply – 12V DC IN power connector
• Dimensions – N/A

Compared to most of the cheaper Android TV boxes, Dune HD Solo Lite has the advantage of supporting automatic frame rate switching including for 23.976, 29.97 and 59.94 Hz,  Audio HD pass-through, 3D videos, NAS function via the USB port, as well as better video and audio quality. I’ve previously reviewed Popcorn Hour A500 with the same processor, so you may want to read the mini review to get a better feel of the video and audio capabilities, and watch that video to have a look at the user interface.

The box supports both Android and Linux, but some optional? features are not currently implemented including Full BD Menu Navigation and “My Collection (Movie Catalog)”, and may require purchasing a license or subscription.

You may want to visit the product page to get more details.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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