X96S Amlogic S905Y2 TV Stick Spotted for $39 and Up

X96S amlogic S905Y2 TV Stick

Lacking Ethernet support, the latest Amlogic S905Y2 processor is designed for 4K HDMI TV dongles. However excluding Amlogic’s own TV stick reference design, we only had seen S905Y2 TV boxes so far, and no actual commercial product following the TV stick form factor. That has now changed since X96S TV stick powered by Amlogic S905Y2 processor has appeared on several Aliexpress stores with price starting at $38.76 including international shipping.X96S TV dongle specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905Y2 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0 GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 “Dvalin” GPU System Memory / Storage options 2GB LPDDR4, 16GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot 4GB LPDDR4, 32GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.1 output with HDR up to 4K UHD @ 75 Hz Video Codecs –  VP9 Profile-2 up to 4K 60fps, 10-bit H.265 up to 4K 60fps,   AVS2-P2 up to […]

Diskio Pi 13.3″ DIY Tablet Kit for Raspberry Pi – Take 2 on Kickstarter

Diskio Pi with ODROID-C2 Board

Diskio Pi was a DIY tablet kit for Raspberry Pi, ODROID-C2/XU4 and other compatible boards with a 13.3″ Full HD display that launched last year on Kickstarter. But the project failed likely due to the high costs (350 Euros and up for early bird pledges without battery nor SBC) and an elevated funding target of 400,000 Euros. But the team did not give up, worked on reducing costs, improved the design, and recently relaunched Diskio Pi on Kickstarter with a more achievable 52,096 Euros target, and reasonable pricing with rewards starting at 189 Euros including VAT. Diskio Pi “basic” DIY tablet kit content and main specifications: Display – Innolux 13.3″ TFT/IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution, WLED backlight + 10-point touch capacitive panel connected over USB 2.0 Video control board with HDMI 1.4 to eDP converter, stereo amplifier, and 2x 1W speakers Daughter board with Genesys USB hub, 9V to 5V/4A […]

Xiaomi Mi Box Android TV TV Box is Sold for $52.99 (Promo)

Xiaomi Mi Box International

Xiaomi recently launched the Mi Box S an update to their popular Xiaomi Mi Box with pretty much the same specifications, but an improved remote control and a lower price of $59 in the US. We also saw promotions as low as $55.99 for the new model. That means there’s very little reason to buy the original Xiaomi Mi box at the normal price now, and it would make sense for companies to offer discounts to get rid off their stock. That’s exactly what GearBest is doing by selling the Xiaomi Mi box TV Box running an official Android TV OS for $52.99 during a flash sale starting now until November 27 23:59 (Beijing Time) with allegedly no limits in quantity for this promotion. Here’s just a quick reminder of the specifications: SoC –  Amlogic S905X-H quad core ARM Cortex-A53 with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage […]

Hailstorm Device Scaling Program To Enable Netflix Support on Amlogic and HiSilicon TV Boxes

Netflix Hailstorm Partners

If you’ve ever bought a random TV box you may have found out Netflix does not always work optimally, for example, HD or 4K UHD may not be available due to the lack of DRM, and/or Netflix certification even if you’re paying extra for the service. So you need to make sure you get a certified device and there aren’t that many. But thanks to Netflix Hailstorm – a program aiming at scaling the number of device officially supporting Netflix – we should see more and more TV box running Android TV with full Netflix support. I found about the Hailstorm program via an Amlogic press release, but the photo above shows some TV boxes based on HiSilicon processors will also be supported, and TV boxes manufacturers such as SDMC, Skyworth, and Himedia have joined the program. Amlogic explains they have now achieved pre-certification for its Android TV set top […]

G12S Amlogic S905X2 Android TV Box Comes with 2T2R WiFi 5 Connectivity

Several Amlogic S905X2 TV boxes running Android have launched with products such as X96 Max,  Beelink GT1 Mini, H96 Max X2, or Mecool KM9. Some of those boxes come with WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, and others feature better  WiFI 802.11ac (WiFi 5), but according to ACEMAX no model comes with a 2T2R (2 transmit / 2 receiver) antenna setup (aka 2×2 MIMO) except for their G12S TV box sold on Aliexpress for $55.99. So if you aim for the best WiFi throughput possible in your TV box, it might be worth having a go. ACEMAX normally adds their brand on OEM product, and the actual manufacturer should be ShiningWorth with the G12x2 model. G12x2 / G12S TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X2 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0 GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 “Dvalin” GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB or 64GB eMMC flash, micro SD card […]

Xiaomi Mi Box S is Now Available Worldwide for $55.99 (Promo)

Xiaomi Mi Box S

Xiaomi Mi Box S TV box running Android TV 8.1 launched last month as an upgrade to the popular Xiaomi Mi Box with very similar specifications, but a new remote control, and a cheaper $60 price tag. That means if you already own a working Mi Box you probably don’t want to upgrade, but if you haven’t  already that’s a better deal. There’s one caveat however. It’s only available in the US at Walmart, so if you leave in another part of the world it’s not easily possible to order one, except going via a US forwarder. The good news is that you can now purchase it on GearBest for $55.99 with coupon GBMIBOXS (Note: they only have 1,000 pieces at this price). Xiaomi Mi Box S specifications as a reminder: SoC –  Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – […]

H96 Max X2 Amlogic S905X2 TV Box with 4GB RAM, 32GB Storage Sold for $49.99 (Promo)

H96 Max X2

We’ve recently started seeing TV boxes based on the latest Amlogic S905X2 processor that offers slightly better speeds, USB 3.0, and several other improvements over Amlogic S905X. Models we’ve covered before including Beelink GT1 Mini, and X96 Max which started selling for under $50 with 2GB RAM and 16 GB storage at the time of the announcement. With competition and the holiday season coming soon, prices have started to come down, and you can now get H96 Max X2 TV box with 4GB RAM, and 32GB storage for $49.99 shipped on Banggood. H96 Max X2 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X2 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0 GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 “Dvalin” GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video & Audio Outputs HDMI 2.1 output up to 4K @ 75 Hz with HDR/HDCP 2.2/CEC 3.5mm AV port (composite […]

Embedded Recipes 2018 Videos and Slides Released

Upstream Multimedia Amlogic-SoC-Embedded Recipes 2018 Videos

Embedded Recipes 2018 happened in Mozilla building in Paris, France on September 24 & 25, where developers talked about “open source solutions in the embedded world: developer, contributor, tools, platforms…” We previously mentioned the event in a post about an open source video decoder driver for Amlogic S905, S905X and S912 processors with BayLibre scheduled to talk about their work there. There’s now released slides and videos for the event for all sessions including: SoC+FPGA support in 2018 by Marek Vasut Shared memory and telemetry by Yves-Marie Morgan Updating an embedded system with swupdate by Charles-Antoine Couret Finding sources of latency in your system by Steven Rostedt Io(M)T Security: A year in review by Rayna Stamboliyska Using yocto to generate container images for yocto by Jérémy Rosen linuxboot by Jean-Marie Verdun and  Trammell Hudson End-to-end software production for embedded by Guy Lunardi WooKey: the USB Battlefront Warrior by Mathieu Renard, […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design