[Ferdi009]

Hi guys

I have been wanting to upgrade my home cinema system for a while and due to an unexpected bonus from work I can now do this!

I have just ordered a Dune HD smart D1, I was just wondering if you can give me any info on setting up, tips n tricks and maybe how to get the covers and description data for my movies etc......

I am a nemb to all this from the dune side of things........my previous set was simply a media server and my Xbox 360, all though I'll be keeping the media server to link up to my dune the Xbox is going to be simply gaming and online content ( Netflix, the wife's addicted ha ha)

Any help would be greatly appreciated weather it be a step by step or simply links to all above questions that i am sure have been asked before!

Thanks in advance gentlemen!

[GTunney]

Welcome to the world of Dune.

There are lots of different indexers to give you covers and descriptions. Each is really personally preference to what you prefer. My personal preference is an indexer called Zappiti.

http://zappiti.com/index.htm

First off i'd get your Dune set up and have a play around with that until your comfortable with how it works. In the mean time if your still waiting for your Dune to arrive you could always download zappiti and have a play around with that.

[Gennoise]

The thing that you'd probably find confusing at first is that Dune menus can be customized by placing specal text files in folders. You can set parameters for pretty much everything from background picture to icon sizes. But you'll probably don't want to do this by hand for every folder so search around for Dune indexers.
I use My Movies myself because it supports indexing movies and tv shows for a range of devices, including Dune and windows media center (and thus the xbox 360 as an extender).

As for music playback: you might want to stick to using your 360, unless you need SMB support or if you're going to rip your CD collection into some exotic format like FLAC or Ogg. Wide codec support is what makes Dune awesome. It will play pretty much any file that you throw at it, no matter which codecs it uses. But it just lacks some other important features like displaying ID3 tags in the file browser, or simultaneous file browsing and file playback.

[kayzee]

1. Plan your file structure ( Have a look at Zappity, Yadis, Movinizer etc,.) select a program that you'd like to use as an indexer and then start planing your file structure to support it. renaming files and folders is goint to take a lot of time.

2. If you dont have a network cable at the TV, get one. without a good netwrok connection you cannot 80% of the thirdparty software with Dune

3. I know this will come later, but will say it anyway, if you have multiple devices, TV, AVR, Sat, BD, gaming etc, you are going to have a loads of remote controls. so have a look at a good remote ( I purchased a harmony 900 and that probalby is the one that actulayy make all other devices work - especially for my wife)