Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments on Tronsmart Pavo M9 is a $90 Android HDMI Recorder and 4K Media Player

Tronsmart Pavo M9 is a $90 Android HDMI Recorder and 4K Media Player

If you need your Android TV box to record external video via HDMI, few options are available on the market, and one of them is Zidoo X9. It works relatively well, and gets frequent firmware update. It now costs around $120, but Tronsmart has now launched a model based on the same Mstar MSO9810 processor with HDMI recording function that costs $89.90 shipped on GeekBuying or Ebay.

Tronsmart_Pavo_M9

Tronsmart Pavo M9 specifications:

  • SoC – Mstar MSO9180D1R quad core Cortex A9 processor up to 1.5GHz with a Mali-450MP2 GPU
  • System Memory – 1GB DDR3
  • Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot
  • Video Output / Input –  HDMI output up to 4K, HDMI input with PVR and Time Shifting support (up to 1080p), and AV port (Composite + stereo audio)
  • Audio I/O – HDMI Out and In, AV, and optical S/PDIF
  • (Main) Video Codecs – H265, VC-1, WMV-HD, MPEG1/2/4 up to 4Kx2K, etc..
  • Audio Codec – MP3, AAC, AC3, DTS-HD Master, TrueHD 7.1 pass-through, etc…
  • Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi (Realtek 8188)
  • USB – 1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 host ports.
  • Misc – ON/OFF switch, IR receiver
  • Power Supply – 12V/2A
  • Dimensions – 15.24 x 15.24 x 4.06 cm
  • Weight – ~260 grams

Compared to Zidoo X9, you’ll have to trade the aluminum enclosure for  plastic one. you’ll lose Bluetooth, Wi-Fi only support 2.4GHz (no 5.0 GHz), the two external antennas are gone, and so is the small LCD display on the front panel, and finally the system features 1GB RAM instead of the 2GB RAM found in Zidoo X9.

Tronsmart_Pavo_M9_ConnectorsPavo M9 comes with an IR remote with IR learning function (The same as Zidoo X9), a 12V/2A power adapter, an HDMI cable, an a user’s manual. The box runs Android 4.4 with Kodi pre-installed, and OTA firmware updates support. Since Kodi is likely to be the same version as in X9 TV box, bear in mind that some videos, especially 4K ones H.265 videos, may not play very well in Kodi, and HDMI audio pass-through may not work, but all these will often work just fine in the other media player that comes pre-installed in the box, and that gets updates more often.
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25 Replies to “Tronsmart Pavo M9 is a $90 Android HDMI Recorder and 4K Media Player”

  1. No idea about MSO9180D1R. Just curious. How is software support ? Free software ? many blobs ?
    Thanks

    Reply

  3. So had it been priced that you can record from a casted device, like chrome cast or ezcast? What ends would hdmi in serve to do? Any experience anyone?

    Reply

  4. @Paul

    I tested with Tronsmart pavo m9 to record the apple tv , it can work well, will give a try to chrome cast, and ezcast later, i am sure it can work .

    Reply

  13. eric :
    @kusta
    Yes, this soc don’t support 4k@60, now only the rock chip rk3368 is confirmed to support 4k@60hz, check here:
    http://www.tronsmart.com/news/tronsmart-will-launch-the-world-s-first-cota-core-64-bit-android-5.1-tv-box-orion-r68
    Eric

    “Tronsmart will launch the world’s first octa-core 64 bits…”, why this brand claim to be the first one when we have already seen these specifications on the market? As example the A90 from CSQ.

    Maybe next month tronsmart will also launch the world’s first “cola drink” called trons-cola 😀

    I never have used tronsmart products, but it seems like new products are not stable until at least 6 to 12 months. And of course, this can be applied to another “first ones” brands.

    Please, better performace, less “new XYZ”

    Reply

  14. We never seen the CS A90 sample since they claim they are ready to release the rk3368 device, but tronsmart already sent me the sample to test. for me, this is really the world first one rk3368 device, but well, like you said, the world first is just a marketing skill maybe. i also care about the product quality. the first test for their rk3368 device is positive. for us, Geekbuying.com, as the biggest android tv box sale platform, we have worked with so many factories, now the android tv box market in china is terrible, like the tablet business, people always searching for the cost-down version, they even used the faked memory, Refurbished flash to cheat customers, and pick up the cheapest power adapters, and hdmi cables, which cause a lot of problem in the after-sale support. In this market, we become very careful to choose the supplier, Now, for us, Minix, tronsmart is the reliable brand we are always working,they never use the Refurbished material to cheat us, and they choose the good quality accessories to make sure the quality, about the software problem, yes, the new product always comes with the small bugs, when we submit the problem to tronsmart, they are positive to help us out, but i know some problem, it is the sdk problem, they also need the soc, like rock chip, allwinner , amlogic to give support. but at least, they never stop working on the problem, and i can sell them product with confidence, no need to worry, i get a “faked” ones.

    that’s just my 2 cents, not just defend them, but also to share the information about china android tv boxes. for buy suggestion, We suggest stick with the one with brand name.( i just search csq website, i can’t find any english site information, if you have problems, i think most of the customers will have problems. )

    Reply

  15. Well, as user I can’t see any difference between “develop” the first XYZ and “test” the first XYZ. I guess the first for us must be the first available to buy.

    Anyway, as well as some ones are selling refurbised material, a lot of brands are selling new products with lots of bugs AND THEY KNOW THIS but still selling. A trusted brand never will sell defective (because these problems means the product is defective even it can be fixed by software) products. I can not compare the bugs found from a SONY product (just as example) to the bugs found from most of chinese brands, I can not because those brands know the bugs before launch the product, then, they are cheating the customers.

    You can not say “problem comes from SDK and XXX brand can do nothing”. Then just pass responsability to anothers but did not fix the problem to the customer. If SDK has problems, then, the brand chose the wrong SOC manufacturer, or did not wait enough time before ensure that product will be working well.

    This is not a good way to get trust from users, then, users always will try new brands unstead keep buying one of them.

    My idea, a brand must give the customer a product that can do what the brand promise. That is the first point to get happy and loyal customers.

    Reply

  17. @linuxium

    As I see, Beelink is following same strategy than Tronsmart. Launch the products thinking in the big USD, never thinking in USERS.

    It looks difficult for China to change the image “cheap and bad products” by this way…

    Reply

  18. Still no native support for hardware decode in upstream Kodi master for MStar MSO9810?

    These still have use a third-party closed source external player that have to be launched?

    Reply

  25. Hi there,

    is there any HDMI recorder with H.265 codec support to encode FHD 1080p?

    I want the H.265 codec to save even more space instead of an H.264 encoder.

    Thanks in advance!

    Kind regards

    Reply

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