Allwinner H3 based Android TV boxes have been selling for a few months for $80 or less, and Draco H3 HDMI TV stick even goes for just $35. Zidoo has been working on their own Allwinner H3 platform called Zidoo X1 for a little while, and they are about to launch it for $59 (MSRP).
Zidoo X1 specifications:
- SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.5GHz with quad core Mali-400MP2 @ 600 MHz
- System Memory – 1 GB DDR3
- Storage – 8 GB NAND flash (16GB in option) + micro SD slot up to 32GB
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
- Video Output – HDMI up to 4K2K @ 30Hz, AV
- Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF
- Video Codec – H.265/HEVC up to 4K30, 1080p60 decoding for H.264, VP8, MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4, H.263. WMV9, VC1, etc…
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports
- Misc – IR receiver
- Power Supply – 5V/2A (power barrel)
- Dimensions – 12.6 x 11.8 x 3.6 cm
- Weight – N/A
The box runs Android 4.4, and will ship with an HDMI cable, an IR remote control, a power adapter, and a user’s manual. Based on my experience with Zidoo X9, the company is very good as providing regular firmware update all provided over-the-air (OTA), except when it comes to Kodi/XBMC support. But it’s quite possible they did not have the source code for XBMC modifications made for the Mstar processor in X9, but with Zidoo X1, they claim to have worked extensively on a Kodi 14.2 port with features like hardware decoding and 1080p24 automatic frame rate switching, and they’ll also have their own Zidoo’s add-on repository, although they haven’t provided details about the add-ons yet. I’m not quite sure Zidoo is committed to comply with Kodi’s GPL license though…
The 4K media player is not quite up for sale, but in order to promote their brand, and new product, they’ll launched a promotion where they will give away up to 100 Zidoo boxes (Only 50 units if less than 300 entries) to people who participate. You’ll need to register to their forums, post a picture of your TV (40″ or greater), and also share the link of the promotion in at least one social network or forum in order to enter the draw (Rules on the latter point are not 100% clear). If you are a winner, you’d need to pay $9.9 by Paypal to cover the cost of shipping by DHL. The competition closes on June 25, and the boxes will start to ship on June 30. Good luck to those who choose to participate.
If you’d rather not share personal information in this competition, the box is now listed for pre-order on Geekbuying for $59.99, and should soon be found on Amazon and eBay too. A few more details can also be found on Zidoo X1 product page.
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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Well A7 and 1GB of RAM is a bit old these days and while it is enough I’d spend a bit more and get an Intel box. I’ve seen some around $90 and they have 2GB of RAM can run Widows, Linux …
DHL to Europe is an issue. You end up paying customs and taxes.
Also, a discussion about Kodi on the H3 at http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?threads/porting-kodi-base-on-allwinner-h3.307/
They are interested in getting Kodi to work, so if someone tells them the proper way to do this, it might work.
Marius; If the box is capable of playing 4k video, 1080p @ 60, etc, what need is there for a more powerful processor? I prefer they mate the best suited chip to the usage scenario and keep prices down.
@Eamonn
Well I didn’t say you need more, I just said I’d pay more an get something better but not necessarily for CPU power but for the flexibility and x86 CPU gives you and $30 extra is not that much ( well not to me but who knows ).
This is fine for the purpose though but then again you could argue even a dual core would be fine. Price seems reasonable but given the tech being used it’s not really cheap.
Another GPL violator http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=227837
ZIDOO X1 Support 1080P24 automatically switch frame rate in kodi and video player
ZIDOO X1 support HDMI CEC Control:)
Will Linux be supported on X1(orange pi2 which has the same Allwinner H3 chipset already has linux support so it should be easy to port, of course booting from microsd card).
i got this box yesturday and had very little time to play around with it. but so far its all good they do have their own kodi 14.2 version and it has some zd codec next to libstagefright and the default one within video acceleration. i had to disable zdcodec and libstagefright in order to play videos with no frame skipping other wise i had more then 300 frames skipped within less then a minute. also what i really like about this box is that its the only allwinner based device that works well with some of my video apk.… Read more »