Articles

CONCLUSION

   The people over at Dune HD are considered as the best at what they do so it comes as little surprise that their products are considered the crème de la crème of network/hdd media players. Because of that i had high expectations from the TV-301A and luckily it didn't disappoint me. The picture quality is amazing, audio is equally great, the GUI is well designed and easy to navigate (although perhaps too in-depth for some people) and you also get a plethora of features and connectors all in a compact media player which you can move around easily. I was somewhat surprised to see that Dune HD used hard plastic for the exterior of the unit (bottom part excluded) especially since all their units I’ve tested and used up until this day had aluminum enclosures but the TV-301 series are not aimed at enthusiasts and are more like low/mid-level solutions so it's very understandable that Dune HD wanted to keep the cost into a minimum.

   The TV-301 series is a brand new product so you may not be able to find them everywhere at this exact moment however the recommended retail price is set at USD169 for the USA while in the EU it currently retails at around 160Euros. However since the TV-301AW (Wi-Fi a/b/g version) retails for just USD10/10Euros more i really think it's a slightly better choice (you never know if and when you'll ever need Wi-Fi capability). Overall the TV-301A may not be perfect (lacks BDISO support, hard plastic exterior, only 2.5" drive support) but it comes with most of the features found on the ultra-high-end Dune HD MAX squeezed into a much smaller package and that's really impressive. On top of that add the very tempting price tag and you've got yourself one of the most complete cost-effective media players in the market today and that's why it steals our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Overall)
- Amazing Performance (Sigma Designs SMP8671)
- Easy-Swap 2.5" HDD Bay
- USB 3.0 Host Port
- SD Card Reader
- Illuminated Remote Control
- Price (For Some)
- GUI
- Build-In Wi-Fi (TV-301AW)
- Product Support

CONS

- Hard Plastic Exterior
- Lack Of Support For BDISO/Flv File Types