Dune HD STB - MEDIA PLAYBACK HOWTO

This document describes most common ways how media playback can be launched
on Dune HD STB (e.g. to test if a particular media stream or media file
plays OK).

For information about supported playback protocols/formats and "media_url"
syntax, see here:
   http://files.dune-hd.com/sdk/doc/html/media_url.html

The easiest way to play a media_url is just to put the media_url string
into a simple playlist file (in .M3U format) on a USB flash drive, and then
"launch" this playlist file in the native menu of Dune HD STB.

For example:

1. Create file named "playlist.m3u" with one or more lines of text (each
   line containing one media_url), e.g.:
      http://host:port/path/to/hls-stream1.m3u8
      http://host:port/path/to/hls-stream2.m3u8
      http://ts://host:port/path/to/plain-mpeg-ts-stream1.ts
      http://ts://host:port/path/to/plain-mpeg-ts-stream2.ts
      udp://@multicast-ip-address1:port1
      udp://@multicast-ip-address2:port2

2. Put the "playlist.m3u" file onto USB flash drive.

3. Connect USB flash drive to Dune.

4. Boot the STB to Dune's standard native menu.

5. Go to "Sources", choose the USB flash drive, choose "playlist.m3u" file,
   press ENTER RC button.

6. Dune will start playback of the first media_url from "playlist.m3u"
   file.

7. If "playlist.m3u" file contains more than one media_url, use RC buttons
   PREV/NEXT to switch between playlist items. Use "ENTER" RC button to
   show the menu listing all playlist items.

Extra hint: after navigating to the "playlist.m3u" file in Dune's file
browser, you can press "0" RC button to see the content of this playlist
file directly in Dune's file browser and choose the playlist item before
starting the playback.

Dune HD STBs have built-in possibility for remote controlling via HTTP
commands. The detailed information is available here:
   http://dune-hd.com/firmware/ip_control

For example:

1. Determine the IP address of your Dune. You can do it, for example, in
   Dune's standard native menu, in "Setup / Information".

2. On any PC or other device connected to the same local network as Dune,
   type the following URL in the web browser:
      http://dune-ip-address/cgi-bin/do?cmd=start_file_playback&media_url=...

   NOTE: specify here the proper media_url you need.

3. Dune will start playback of the specified media_url.

In the JavaScript code of the HTML application, call the appropriate Dune
HD STB API function to start the playback of the given media_url.

See Dune HD STB API documentation for more information.

In the PHP plugin code, request Dune to start the playback of the given
media_url.

See Dune HD Plugins API documentation for more information.

STB can be configured to automatically launch a certain media file, certain
playlist file (enumeraing one or an arbitrary number of media files or
media URLs to play), or certain application (e.g. an HTML application, or
PHP plugin) on STB boot.

To configure the STB to do it, perform the following:
   - 1) In the native Dune GUI, select the media file, the playlist file,
     or the application you want to start automatically on STB boot, press
     "POP UP MENU" RC button and choose "Add to favorites".
      - The system will add the selected object to the Favorites menu.
      - For the playlist file, you have two options here:
         - Adding a link to the playlist file (i.e. if the playlist file is
           located on the USB flash drive, you will need to have this USB
           flash drive attached to launch the playlist).
         - Copying the playlist file into the flash memory of the STB.
           (NOTE: This feature requires firmare version *_b5 or later).
   - 2) Select the object in the "Favorites" menu, press "POP UP MENU" RC
     button and choose "Launch on Power-on".
      - After that, when STB boots, it will automatically launch this
        object (just as if it was launched manually from the "Favorites"
        menu).

Starting with firmware version 211204_0532_r17+, you can add the following
line to the M3U file to automatically enable the repeat mode for the
playlist:

#EXT-X-PLAY-WITH-REPEAT

You can also add the following line to the M3U file to automatically enable
the shuffle (random playback) mode for the playlist:

#EXT-X-PLAY-WITH-SHUFFLE

There are also the following possibilities (these possibilities can be used
also in the previous firmware versions):
   - 1) If you need to play e.g. a video clip (which runs e.g. for 10 minutes)
     in an endless loop, you can put the link to the same video clip
     duplicated 10000 times. This will enable 10000 * 10 = 100000 minutes =
     70 days of continues playback.
   - 2) Create an application (e.g. an HTML application, or PHP plugin)
     which will perform an endless playback of the video clip.
      - NOTE: software development skills are required to do it.
      - For more information about the development of HTML applications and
        PHP plugins, see here:
         - http://files.dune-hd.com/sdk/doc/html/sdk.html
      - An example of PHP plugin implementing endless playback:
         - http://files.dune-hd.com/sdk/plugins/dune_plugin_simple_presenter.2013_07_19.zip