Ugoos AM8 is a true 8K TV box based on Amlogic S928X-J penta-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor with Dolby Vision and Dolby Audio support that is now available for sale on Aliexpress.
If you search for an 8K TV box on the web, you’ll find plenty of listings for 4K TV boxes incapable of 8K video output, but Ugoos AM8 is what I would call “a true 8K TV box” capable of both video playback and output up to 8Kp60 thanks to the Amlogic S928X processor which we previously found announced in IPTV/OTT devices for operators from SDMC and SEI Robotics, as well as more recently in an 8K TV box board.
Ugoos AM8 (preliminary) specifications:
- SoC – Amlogic S928X-J
- CPU – Penta-core processor with 1x Cortex-A76 core, 4x Cortex-A55 cores
- GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC2 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2, and OpenCL 2.0
- VPU
- 8Kp60 H.265, AV1, VP9, AVS3/AVS2 10-bit video decoder; 4Kp60 H.264 decoder, 1080p60 MPEG-4, WMV/VC-1, AVS, MPEG-2, MPEG-1 decoder
- Low-latency 4Kp60 H.265/H.264 encoder
- AI accelerator – Up to 3.2 TOPS Neural Network Accelerator (NNA) with Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) architecture, supports TensorFlow and Caffe
- The “-J” suffix stands for Dolby Vision and Audio licenses
- Manufacturing process – 12nm
- System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4
- Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot
- Video Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 8Kp60 with HDR support, HDMI CEC
- Audio – Optical S/PDIF, AUX-IN port, digital audio output via HDMI
- Connectivity
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2×2 MIMO WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 with LE support; two external high-gain antennas
- USB – 3x USB 3.0 ports, 1x USB 2.0 OTG Type-C port
- Misc – Power button and LED; maskrom and recovery pin holes; RTC with backup battery; IR receiver
- Power Supply – 12V DC/1.67A via USB Type-C port
- Dimensions – 116 x 116 x 28mm (Metal enclosure)
- Weight – 300 grams
- Temperature Range – Operating: 0 to 60°C; storage; -10 to 60°C
- Humidity – 5% to 90% non-condensing
- Certifications – CE, FCC
The TV box ships with a Bluetooth LE remote control (UR01-BLE model), an HDMI cable, a 12V power supply and USB-C cable, and a short user guide. What’s odd is that the Ugoos AM8 runs Android 11 (confirmed by the company), while previous announcements about Amlogic S928X devices all reported Android 13 support instead.
Regardless, the Android OS comes with Google Play support, OTA firmware updates, and Ugoos-specific features such as a SAMBA server, NFS and CIFS clients, superuser switch (Magisk) to enable/disable root access, a remote server to use your phone as a remote control, and various other customization.
The Ugoos AM8 is an update to the Amlogic S922X-J powered Ugoos AM6 Plus introduced in 2020. We’re told the AM8 model based on the penta-core (1x Cortex-A76 + 4x Cortex-A55) delivers a higher Antutu score compared to the AM6 Plus TV box with the hexa-core (4x Cortex-A73 + 2x Cortex-A53) SoC with about 210K points against around 130K points, which seems a bit odd, especially with that large a difference (were different versions of Antutu used?).
Nevertheless, the new model still brings new capabilities with 8Kp60 video playback and output, support for the new AV1 codec, WiFi 6 + Bluetooth 5.3 instead of WiFi 5 + Bluetooth 5.0, and more USB 3.0 ports. The legacy AV jack appears to be gone for good.
The Ugoos AM8 can be purchased for $189 on Aliexpress including shipping, or more exactly pre-ordered as delivery is only scheduled to start on September 20. For reference, the earlier Ugood AM6 Plus goes for $147 on Aliexpress. More details may be found on the official Ugoos website as well as on Ugoos.co.
Updated: The article was initially published on August 13, 2023, and updated following availability on Aliexpress.
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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So no use for Amlogic S928X internal encoder?
Amlogic have their own solution for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision and is listed on the S922X datasheet. Is this box come with Dolby Vision enabled? AFAIK vendors have to pay the license fee to enable such feature.
Usually the letter suffix encodes the licenses included in the cpu price…
A few days ago, Ugoos listed the pre-order link for AM8 and announced that it would be available for sale in the middle of next month at a price of $189. However, the product link is now taken down.
ugoos.store/products/ugoos-am8
Ugoos products are traditionally at the higher end of Android TV boxes. 32GB eMMC flash is pitiful’ for what this is likely to cost based upon their history. I also wonder whether this SOC has enough to make it desirable enough as an alternative the RK3588/S. With Intel finally delivering something good and viable with the N100, it makes this kind of offering even less desirable because Ugoos and others now have more viable X86 competition in both performance and cost, with X86 being vastly more supported across the board out of the box. Times have changed but it looks… Read more »
I have a fire stick for stream app and a nuc for libreelec For A well known bug of the firestick afr doesn’t work when connected to an avr Amazon replied to me after several months of logs and testing that firestick is not designed to work with an avr Lol So I would like to have an unique deviceb I was looking for homatics 4k plus or dune version but I will not buy it until afr is fixed Or maybe I will wait for s928 for better Kodi library scan performance How about ugoos firmware support and release… Read more »
If you wanted to keep using HDMI sticks, what do you make of the BuzzTV Vidstick Max?
4 gigs for that money hahahhahahhaa forget it. 1 big core….