Last year I reviewed K1 Plus T2 S2, an Android TV box powered by Amlogic S905 quad core processor with DVB-T2 and DVB-S2 tuner support, which worked with some caveats. VideoStrong has now send me an updated model with Amlogic S912 octa-core processor, which I presented in the post entitled Mecool KIII Pro Hybrid Android STB Review – Part 1: Specs, Unboxing and Teardown, where I listed the specifications, and showed photos of the device and the boards (main board + tuner board). I’ve now had time to play with the device, and in many respects the user experience is very similar to the one I got with KI Plus T2 S2 models, but there are also some tweaks, and a few bugs which I’ll report in the second part of the review below. KIII Pro Hybrid TV Box Setup, Settings, & Power Consumption The four USB ports are really […]
Khadas Vim Amlogic S905X Development Board Gets Android 7.1 Firmware and SDK
Khadas Vim is a development board powered by Amlogic S905X quad core processor that officially supports Ubuntu 16.04, OpenELEC and Android 6.0. Shenzhen Wesion Technology , the maker of the board, has now released Android 7.1 firmware image and SDK for the board. As we’ve seen before Amlogic Android 7.1 SDK still relies on Linux 3.14.29, but Linux 4.4 is also in the works. If you want to give it a try on your board, download Vim_Nougat_170321.7z directly, or from the firmware download page. The current image installs to the eMMC flash via USB or a bootable micro SD card (Windows methods only), so it will wipe whatever OS you have already on the board. The firmware is based on the features of their Android 6.0.1 image, but upgraded to Android 7.1.1 with Chrome and Gapps (for Google Play Store support). Source code for the Android 7.1 SDK can be […]
Mecool KM8 P Amlogic S912 TV Box Runs Android 7.1 Nougat, Sells for $39 and Up
We’ve already written about Android 7.1 on Amlogic earlier with week with an overview of the system and SDK from a developer, and there were some issues and user interface inconsistencies. However, I’ve just seen GeekBuying is now taking order for Amlogic S912 powered Mecool KM8 P TV box running Android 7.1 for $38.99 and up. Mecool KM8 P specifications: SoC – Amlogic S912 octa-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-820MP3 System Memory – 1 or 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8 or 16GB eMMC flash and micro SD slot up to 32GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60Hz with CEC and HDR support, and 3.5mm AV port (composite + stereo audio) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports Misc – IR receiver, status and network LEDs Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions – […]
ACEMAX Sells Amlogic S905X TV Boxes with LibreELEC, or Dual Boot LibreELEC + Android 6.0
There are plenty of Android TV boxes powered by Amlogic S905X processor on the market, but ACEMAX has apparently decided to leverage the community’s work on LibreELEC, and launched two “ACEMAX LE” models with 1GB RAM/8GB flash or 2GB/16GB that runs LibreELEC sold on Aliexpress for respectively $39.99 and $57.99 shipped. You can also buy the second model with a dual boot Android 6.0 + LibreELEC firmware for $59.99 including shipping, instead of only running LibreELEC. The company uses both “OpenELEC”, “LibreELEC” and “Pure Linux”, but the video demo embedded at the end of this post shows clearly the box booting LibreELEC 7 with Kodi 16.1. ACEMAX LE TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – Model 1: 1GB RAM; model 2: 2GB RAM Storage Model 1: 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Model […]
Android 7.1 Nougat on Amlogic TV Boxes – A First Quick Look
Last year, we found out that Amlogic was working on Linux 4.4, possibly for their Android 7.0 Nougat SDK. As a developer who signed all relevant NDAs, Stane1983 has now been working on Amlogic Android 7.0 for a few day, and reported some of his findings. First Amlogic source code is based on Android 7.1.1 R6 (NMF26Q), but still with Linux 3.14.29, possibly because Mali-T830 GPU drivers are still r11p0, and Linux 4.4 may come later. One good thing is that the Nougat SDK supports 64-bit Android OS instead of the 32-bit Android we are all currently using in our TV boxes. A not-so-good news is that internal storage partitions have changed, which means most current TV boxes are unlikely to get an update, becau it may not be possible to perform OTA updated, and instead would require an updated via Amlogic USB burning tool. But let’s look at the […]
Mecool KIII Pro Hybrid Android STB Review – Part 1: Specs, Unboxing and Teardown
K1 Plus T2 S2 review has been a popular post on CNX Software, as many people tried to improve their experience with the device. VideoStrong has just send an updated version of their DVB-T2 + DVB-S2 TV box with Mecool KIII Pro octa-core Hybrid STB powered by an Amlogic S912 processor combined with 3 GB RAM and 16GB storage, and the same dual tuner configuration. I’ve started the review by posting some pictures of the hardware, inside out, before reporting my experience with Android, especially the DTV part, in a few weeks. KIII Pro Specifications SoC – Amlogic S912 octa core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with Mali-T820MP3 GPU System Memory – 3 GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60Hz with support for HDR10 and HLG, and 3.5mm AV (composite […]
Mainline Linux on 64-bit ARM Amlogic SoCs, and TV Boxes such as Wetek Hub / Player 2, NEXBOX A1 / A95X, etc…
We’ve already seen Neil Armstrong, part of BayLibre, worked on adding Amlogic SoC (S905/S905X/S912) to mainline Linux via our virtual schedule for the Embedded Linux Conference & OpenIoT Summit 2017. But at the time, although we could see some activity in Linux 4.10 including support for Nexbox A95X and Nexbox A1, they did provide that much details the work that had been done, but since then, ELC 2017 videos have been released, and BayLibre wrote a short post about 3D Graphics support in mainline Linux. We can see that I/Os, USB host, composite video output, Ethernet, eMMC/SDIO, and PSCI and SCPI features have already been added to Linux 4.10. but some important features have not yet including HDMI, Mali support, Audio, and high speed eMMC modes. HDMI is actually planned for Linux 4.12, which could be released in about 18 weeks if we keep the 10 weeks kernel release schedule […]
MINIX NEO U9-H Media Hub Review – Part 2: Android 6.0 Firmware & Kodi 17
MINIX NEO U9-H is the successor of MINIX NEO U1 media hub with an upgrade from four to eight cores with Amlogic S912 processor, as well as added support for VP9 and HDR. The company sent me a sample, and I’ve already checked out NEO U9-H hardware in the fist part of the review, so I’ll report by testing results in Android 6.0 and Kodi 17 in the second part. Since the user interface & many of the features have not changed, I’ll refer to MINIX NEO U1 review from time to time. First Boot, OTA Firmware, Settings and First Impressions I connected the MINIX A3 air mouse RF to one of the USB port, a USB 3.0 hard drive to another, and a USB hub to the last one with Tronsmart Mars G01 gamepad, a USB keyboard to take screenshots for the review, and a USB webcam. There’s also […]