You may remember we covered a “4K ATV Stick” last month, as a mostly unknown manufacturer (Shenzhen SEI Robotics) applied for FCC certification, with the device featuring a large G marking, leading some to speculate it may be an upcoming Google device. At the time, I dismissed it, and believed if was just another Chinese “Android TV” or “Android” TV device, but Google has now released a similar looking Android device which probably means I was wrong… It’s not a consumer device however, and after Google ADT-1 Android TV developer kit launched in 2014, Google has now unveiled ADT-2 developer device that runs Android P developer preview with Google Assistant. ADT-2 OTT HDMI stick specifications: SoC- Amlogic S905X quad core Cortex A53 processor with Arm Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a with HDCP 2.2 support Video Decoding […]
Hardkernel & Libre Computer Release Ubuntu 18.04 Images for ODROID-XU4/3 & AML-S905X-CC Boards
Ubuntu 18.04 “Bionic Beaver” LTS operating system was released just last week, and at least two Arm board companies have independently released Ubuntu 18.04 images for their boards. First, Hardkernel has released an Ubuntu 18.04 MATE image for their Exynos 5422 powered ODROID-XU4(Q), ODROID-XU3 (Lite), ODROID-HC1, and ODROID-MC1 boards/kits. The ODROID Ubuntu image comes with the following key features: Linux 4.14.37 LTS GPU hardware acceleration via OpenGL ES 3.1 and OpenCL 1.2 drivers for Mali T628MP6 GPU FFMPEG/ffplay with hardware accelerated H.264 decoder X11 armsoc display driver with 2D acceleration GPU accelerated Chromium browser (WebGL contents and YouTube 720p plays well) Kodi 17.6 can play H.264 1080p/60fps BigBuckBunny sample video. (Note: no h.265, no 4K in Exynos-5422 processor) WiringPi and other GPIO/SPI/I2C/ADC/I2S tinkering libraries are available. KVM & Docker More stable and performant USB 3.0 and Gbit Ethernet drivers The company sent me a kit based on ODROID-XU4Q board to […]
USB Burning Tool v2.1.6 for Amlogic Processors Released
Amlogic’s USB Burning Tool is a Windows based tool used to upgrade devices based on Amlogic processors over USB. Most devices now implement OTA firmware updates, so in most cases it is not necessary, but if your device has problem to boot, or want to update to a beta software it is often required, although now it is possible to use a micro SD card with Burn Card Maker. USB Burning Tool is often updated to fix bugs and support new processors, so you may want to check out you have the latest version to avoid any potential issues. Tanix provided a link to USB Burning Tool v2.1.6, which you’ll also find on mirror 1 and mirror 2. The executable will install the drivers and the utility itself. There’s also a changelog in Chinese. The Google Translation of the changelog may be useful to find out if you want to […]
$38 Nexbox A95X Pro Runs Android TV, Supports Netflix HD
TV box manufacturers should move and more more from Android to Android TV operating systems, so we can expect cheaper TV boxes offering an Android TV experience. One of those device is Nexbox A95X Pro that sells for $37.99 on GeekBuying (pre-orders shipping in about 4 days), and also happens to support Netflix HD (720p). [Update: The promo on GeekBuying appears to be over, but it’s now available on GearBest for $36.99 with coupon GBA95X1] Nexbox A95X Pro TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905W quad core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Arm Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI up to 4K @ 30 Hz, AV port (composite) Video – 4K 30 fps H.265, 4K 30 fps VP9 Profile-2, MPEG1/2/4, H.264, HD AVC/VC1, RM/RMVB, Xvid/DivX3/4/5/6, RealVideo8/9/10 Audio Output – Via HDMI and AV ports, coaxial S/PDIF port Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi […]
4K ATV Stick Looks like the Offspring of ChromeCast and FireTV Stick 2017 with a Big “G” Logo
A new Android TV device has shown up on the FCC website, and generated quite a lot of buzz last time online with the source of the story originating from Reddit or Ausdroid, and picked up by many blogs because the device comes with a “G” logo that looks like the one Google might use… But in all likelihood it should just be another TV stick running Android TV OS, and the FCC listing has been submitted by Shenzhen SEI Robotics, an Android TV box manufacturer. The device is based on Amlogic S905X processor with 2GB RAM, and looks like a mix between the ChromeCast and Amazon FireTV 2017 with its short built-in HDMI cable and rounded shape. Hardware specifications: SoC- Amlogic S905X quad core Cortex A53 processor with Arm Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a with […]
Linux 4.16 Release – Main Changes, Arm and MIPS Architectures
Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 4.16: So the take from final week of the 4.16 release looks a lot like rc7, in that about half of it is networking. If it wasn’t for that, it would all be very small and calm. We had a number of fixes and cleanups elsewhere, but none of it made me go “uhhuh, better let this soak for another week”. And davem didn’t think the networking was a reason to delay the release, so I’m not. End result: 4.16 is out, and the merge window for 4.17 is open and I’ll start doing pull requests tomorrow. Outside of networking, most of the last week was various arch fixlets (powerpc, arm, x86, arm64), some driver fixes (mainly scsi and rdma) and misc other noise (documentation, vm, perf). The appended shortlog gives an overview of the details (again, this is only the small stuff in […]
VideoStrong Introduces Low Cost Version of KI Plus T2 S2 Hybrid Android TV Box with Amlogic S805X Processor
VideoStrong K1 Plus T2/S2 is an Android 5.1 set-top-box with DVB-S/S2 and DVB-T/T2 tuner that was launched roughly two years ago with Amlogic S905 quad core processor. Since then, the company has now launched variant of the model with Amlogic S912 (e.g. KIII Pro hybrid TV box) or Amlogic S905D (e.g. KI Pro set-top box) processors. But now, provided the information on Alibaba is correct, the company has launched a new version of KI Plus T2/S2 with Amlogic S805X which should be cheaper, run a more recent Android 7.1 operating system, at the cost of losing support for 4K decoding, since the processor only support Full HD (1080p60) decoding at most. Since the company updated an existing product, some specific details are wrong on Alibaba, but KI Plus T2 S2 (2018) specifications should be as follows: SoC – Amlogic S805X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.2 GHz with […]
Xiaomi Mi Box 4 & 4C 4K HDR TV Boxes Launched with Amlogic S905L Processor
Remember Amlogic S905L Processor? Me neither, but I wrote about it in September 2016, with the processor being an updated version of Amlogic S905X without VP9 support, and adding HDMI 2.0b output with support for Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) HDR. One reason most people won’t remember it is because so far, no TV boxes featured the processor, but this has now changed with Xiaomi introduced Mi Box 4 & 4c TV boxes for the Chinese market. Xiaomi Mi Box 4c is the entry level model (Black color), and Mi Box 4 is slightly higher end with more memory and Bluetooth (White color), but both devices share most of the same specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905L quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ up to 750 MHz System Memory Mi Box 4c – 1GB RAM Mi Box 4 – 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC […]