We already have a choice of Android TV boxes with digital TV tuners (DVB-T2, DVB-S2, ATSC…) with devices like K1 Plus T2 S2, U4 Quad Hybrid, and Wetek Play 2, but Ferguson, a company based in Poland, has two other options based on Amlogic S905 processors with their Ariva 4K and Ariva 4K Combo with one or two tuners, a Pay TV card reader which is not available on competitors’ models, and 2.5″ HDD bay in the bottom of the case implemented via a USB 2.0 to SATA bridge.
Ariva 4K & 4K Combo specifications:
- SoC – Amlogic S905-B quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with Mali-450MP GPU
RCU660 Universal RCU – Click to Enlarge - System Memory – 1 GB DDR3
- Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash + slot for HDD mounting (on the bottom) + micro SD card slot
- Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz and AV port
- Audio – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF
- Audio Decode – Dolby Digital/Digital Plus, MPEG, OGG, OGA, FLAC, ALAC, Ape, M4A, RM, MPEG-1 Layer1/2, MPEG-2 Layer II (DTS pass-through)
- Tuners
- Ariva 4K – DVB-S/S2 tuner & demodulator via LNG IN F-Female connector
- Ariva 4K Combo – DVB-S/S2 tuner & demodulator via LNG IN F-Female connector + DVB-T/T2/C tuner & demodulator via ANT IN IEC-Female connector
- DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1 and DiSEqC 1.2, USALS (Universal Satellites Automatic Location System) support
- Card reader for pay-per-view television / conditional access (CAS)
- PVR functions – Record, time-shifting with support for FAT32 and NTFS file systems
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
- USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports
- Misc – IR receiver, recovery pin hole, power button, and front panel LCD display
- Power Supply – 12V/2.0A (24W); >0.5W in standby mode
- Dimensions – 258 x 158 x 43 mm
- Weight – 800 grams
The device runs Android 5.1, and ships with RCU660 universal IR remote control, and an instruction manual available in English, German, Polish, and Spain.
Usually, I don’t even look at the user manual since it’s normally useless, but Ferguson put a lot of efforts and details in their 42 pages manual, so it might be useful. If you can read Polish there’s also a Wiki. They also have a YouTube account explaining how to configure their devices, for example using USALS when you have a motorized satellite dish that can handle multiple satellite as shown below.
Ferguson Ariva 4K Android TV boxes can be bought on Satshop.tv for 179 Euros, and 189 Euros for the Combo version including VAT. You’ll also find some more details on Ferguson website.
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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