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TESTING METHODOLOGY - RESULTS

   After thinking it over i have decided on performing the same exact tests for all the Media Players i review. This occurred right after some of you emailed me while on my previous position asking for a more reliable methodology when testing such players/recorders. To be honest this may complicate things but it should also save me quite a bit of time in the process. So from now and on testing will be performed with the help of 4 specific MKV media files and several BDISO (when possible), MOV, RMVB and AVI ones, with bitrates of up to 35Mbps, something which as many of you know is not easy to come by. Of course the 4 specific MKV files are ones i ripped myself from 4 Blu-Ray titles i currently own in order to not only manage to hit the desired bitrate of up to 35Mbps but also use specific, high detailed scenes. My good old SONY 55A2000 (already 3+ years old but still my favorite) along with my latest Panasonic TX-P42S20 are the two screens i will be using for testing. In due time and when i finally see a 3D Screen that really makes me want to buy it i will also start using 3D material for testing but currently that is simply not possible and so i can't comment on 3D results. As for sound the audio/video amplifiers used with the two screens are the Yamaha RX-650 and the Yamaha RX-V463 coupled with 5.1 systems by TANNOY and Crystal Audio.

     Unlike some of the latest network media players that use the android OS Dune HD is staying loyal to the same one they've been using for years ensuring stability and ease of use for people who are not very knowledgeable when it comes to such things. So once again we found no problems with the GUI or with the various applications offered by default while the range of available settings which you can play around with is vast. Now the good thing is that you can use the TV-303D for media playback right from the box without adjusting anything but Dune HD offers a wide range of advanced settings that can improve the picture quality by quite a bit (however only advanced users should tamper with those). Now as you know i don't currently own an DTS-HD compatible amplifier (something which should change quite soon) so i didn't really test HD sound with the TV-303D but since in the audio page it does indicate that HD audio is possible through HDMI i have no reason to doubt that and that's yet another plus for this product. The best thing however is image quality which even at default settings (without tampering with the colorspace and depth) was both crisp and with very vibrant colors (pretty much excellent). Audio quality was very good and it seems improved compared to the TV-101/301 players but as many of you know audio file playback could be better but that applies with just about every single media player out there. The TV-303D also had no problem reproducing even the heaviest media files i threw at it (even the 30GB MKV rip of the latest Avengers BD) but unfortunately BDISO playback is still an issue with Sigma Designs compatible players and the TV-303D is no exception to that rule. The build-in Wi-Fi worked like a charm and without a single issue but i can't really comment on the DVB-T abilities of the TV-303D since Dune HD did not send a compatible USB dongle along with the unit.

   Bellow you will find 4 different screenshots from the 4 specific MKV media files i mentioned above featuring bit rates between 20 and 35Mbps. The resolution has remained unchanged (however the files are slightly compressed to JPEG to save space on the server) at 1920x1080.