When I first wrote about Zidoo H6 Pro TV box powered by Amlogic H6 “6K” media processor last week, I expected the launch to take place in several weeks or months, as no other company listed their Allwinner H6 TV box(es) on Alibaba. So today, I was surprised to find out GearBest and GeekBuying are both taking pre-orders for $99, with shipping expected around August 11 – 15 according to the page on GearBest, and in around 3 days according to GeekBuying.
The specifications have not changed since last week…:
- SoC – AllWinner H6 quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor up to 1.8GHz with Mali-T720MP2 GPU
- System Memory – 2GB DDR4
- Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, micro SD card reader up to 32 GB
- Video Output – 1x HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60hz with HDR support, AV port (composite)
- Video Playback Support
- H.265/HEVC Main/Main10 profile @ level 5.2 high-tier up to 4K @ 60fps / 6K @ 30 fps
- VP9 Profile 0/2, up to 4K @ 30fps
- H264/AVC BP/MP/HP@level5.1, MVC, up to 4Kx2K @ 30fps
- MKV, MP4, Blu-ray ISO, 3D MVC…
- SmartColor 3.0 image optimization engine
- Audio I/F – HDMI, AV port (stereo audio), optical S/PDIF; DTS and Dolby supported
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1 (AP6255)
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports including on OTG port, 1x USB3.0 port on other side. An external power needed if USB connects to over 1TB mobile HDD.
- Misc – IR receiver, reset/recovery button behind AV port, front panel display (TBC)
- Power Supply – 5V/2A
- Dimensions – 105.6mm x 105.6 mm x 17.5 mm
The box runs Android 7.0 with a revamped ZIUI user interfaces, and ships with a Bluetooth remote control, a HDMI cable, a power adapter, and a user manual.
I’m starting to wonder whether Allwinner signs exclusivity deals with some partners. For example, if you want an Allwinner R40 or V40 board, you can only do so through SinoVoIP (Banana Pi), and in the case of Allwinner H6, I can only see Zidoo using the processor in their product. Either that, or all other companies are running away from Allwinner 😉
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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Three small remarks:
‘An external power needed if USB connects to over 1TB mobile HDD’ — power requirements of 2.5″ HDDs are not really related to capacity. I’ve some nasty 150GB 2.5″ WD Velociraptor that even need power on the 12V rail while more recent large capacity 2.5″ HDDs are pretty power efficient (since in the meantime all being designed with ‘external USB disk’ in mind having to cope with 5V/~800mA max).
Using SDIO connected Ampak’s AP6255 for Wi-Fi/BT means that H6’s single PCIe 2.x lane is not used here (pity, I’m really interested how PCIe performance with H6 looks like)
And then there will be other H6 devices for sure. Development of something internally called H64 and ‘surprisingly’ using the same formfactor as Pine64 starts this week hopefully exposing H6’s PCIe lane as full-length mPCIe slot to be used with Wi-Fi, SATA, additional network or other cards. Since mPCIe would require also USB2 data lines on pins 36 & 38 of the connector, count of USB2 host ports with H6 is limited and only a few mPCIe cards make use of USB I personally would prefer to drop USB support on the connector to keep costs low (not multiplexing one USB host port).
Way too expensive for the spec, 60$ most.
for $99, buy a RK3399 tv box.
Apart from the Mali-T720MP2, there is nothing that makes this box stand out at all.
I would definitely wait a while before buying any Allwinner SOC based after the debacle that was their A80, which they made rather too many claims without ever delivering on them.
Two remarks from me:
1. Never trust Allwinner
2. Never trust Zidoo!
😀
@Steven Lin
10$ rebate coupon code
ZIDOOH6PRO
ordered! 🙂
@Steven Lin
RK3399 doesn’t support HDR