Review of R-Box Pro OTT TV Box with 3GB RAM – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

R-Box Pro is just another Amlogic S912 TV box, except it comes with up to 3GB RAM, against 2GB for most other models on the market. Kingnovel sent me a sample with 3GB RAM to check it out, and today I’ll start by taking photos of the devices, and perform a teardown mostly to find out how the 3GB memory design is implemented. R-Box Pro Unboxing The retail package is minimal black box with “OTT TV Box Amlogic S912” and “R-Box Pro” markings and Kodi logo. A sticker on the side will also indicate whether you have received to 2GB or 3GB RAM version. The device ships with an IR remote control with learning function, a 5V/2.5A power supply, an HDMI cable, and a user’s manual in English. The day I received the sample the top cover looked to have many scratches, but after removing the plastic film on the […]

Tbee Android TV Box Supports Voice Command and Gesture Control

The first thing you notice with Tbee TV box is the beehives inspired hexagonal enclosure, as we’ve already seen with T95Z Plus TV box, but the features that really stand out are voice command, and especially gesture control thanks to the built-in microphone and camera. Tbee TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S812 quad core Cortex A9r4 processor @ up to 1.99 GHz with octa-core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB Storage –  8GB eMMC flash + SD card slot Video & Audio I/O – HDMI input, HDMI output Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4 GHz) and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Misc – IR receiver, built-in HD ready camera and IR receiver Dimensions – 28.5 x 8.5 cm (full package) Weight – 860 grams (full package) The box ships with an air mouse with QWERTY keyboard and its RF dongle, a HDMI cable, […]

YUNDOO Y7 Amlogic S905X TV Box comes with Faster DDR4 Memory

Most TV boxes on the market comes with DDR3 memory, but YUNDOO Y7 TV box based on Amlogic S905X processor instead comes with 2GB DDR4 memory, with the company claiming 50% higher bandwidth compared to DDR3 memory. YUNDOO Y7 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with Penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750MHz+ System Memory – 2GB DDR4 (bandwidth up to increased 50% compared to DDR3) Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD port Video Output – HDMI 2.0 with HDR and CEC support up to 4K2K @ 60 Hz, AV port Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and coaxial S/PDIF Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2 x USB 2.0 port Misc – Power button, IR receiver, LED screen Power Supply – 5V Dimensions – TBD (metal housing) The device runs Android 6.0, and is said […]

Amlogic S905L Processor Drops VP9 Codec, TS Inputs for Tuners, and the Camera Interface

[Update: I’ve received updated documentation for Amlogic S905X too, and the main differences are only the lack of VP9 codec, and HDMI 2.0b interface] Amlogic has apparently decided to launch yet another quad core Cortex A53 processor with Amlogic S905L, which appears to be based on  Amlogic S905X with built-in stereo audio codec and 10/100M Ethernet PHY & MAC, HDR support, but without VP9 codec, camera interface, nor TS inputs, so it looks like a cost-down version purely designed for OTT/IP TV boxes. The document I have is dated June 2016, before the 1.5 GHz “limit” was discovered on Amlogic processors, and the maximum frequency is rated @ 2.0 GHz in the document. Amlogic S905L specifications (based on S905L Quick Referent Manual): CPU – Quad core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU up to 2GHz (DVFS) with Neon and Crypto extensions, unified L2 cache 3D GPU – Penta-core ARM Mali-450 GPU up to […]

Amlogic S905 vs Amlogic S912 Benchmarks Comparison

Amlogic has unveiled three new processors this year with Amlogic S905X, S912 and S905D. The latter is not found in devices yet, we’ve seen Amlogic S905X is a bit slower than Amlogic S905, but surely Amlogic S912 with eight Cortex A53 cores and its “multi-core high performance 3D GPU”, namely ARM Mali-T820MP3 must deliver a significant boost in performance. I now have full benchmarks results for two devices: M12N MXQ Plus and Qintaix Q912. M12N is the fastest devices of the two according to benchmarks, and I’ve been told YokaTV KB2 has about the same Antutu score (41K points) as M12N, so I feel confident enough that we have relevant benchmark’s results to compare Amlogic S912 and Amlogic S905 performance using M12N (MXQ Plus) and MINIX NEO U1 TV boxes. The comparison table below contains scores for Antutu 6.x, Vellamo 3.x, and 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme. MINI NEO U1 runs […]

Qintaix Q912 Android Box Review – Part 2: Android 6.0, Kodi 17, Benchmarks, etc…

Qintaix Q912 is one of the many octa-core Android boxes based on Amlogic S912 processor. I’ve already shown photos of the device and its internal design in the first part of Qintaix Q912 review, so today I’ll report the results of my testing with Android firmware, video & audio capabilities in Kodi 17 Alpha 3 (pre-installed), features supports, benchmarks, and other comment. I will also be interesting to find out how it compares to M12N TV box, also based on Amlogic S912 processor. First Boot, Settings, and First Impressions I’ve connected all necessary cables including HDMI and Ethernet, added some USB devices including two 2.4 GHZ USB dongles for my air moues and wireless gamepad, a USB keyboard to take screenshots, and a USB 3.0 hard drive to the USB 2.0 ports of the device. Once you apply power, the LED is turn red, and you need to press the […]

Nextcloud Box is a $80 Private Cloud Server with 1TB HDD for Development Boards

While there are plenty of cloud services provided by companies such as Dropbox or Google, you may want to manage you own private cloud server instead for performance and/or privacy reasons. One typical way to do this is to install Owncloud or Nextcloud (a fork of Owncloud), on a Linux computer or board such as Raspberry Pi 3. The former is usually a little expensive for just this task, the latter often results in cable mess, and in both case, some people may not be comfortable with setting it all up. Nextcloud, Western Digital, and Canonical seems to have addressed most of those issues with Nextcloud Box including a 1TB USB 3.0 WDLabs harddrive, Nextcloud case with space for the drive and small ARM or x86 Linux development boards, and a micro USB power supply. The kit also include a micro SD card pre-loaded with Snappy Ubuntu Core, Apache, MySQL […]

Kodi 17 Setup and Audio/Video Support in Amlogic S912 TV Boxes (as of September 2016)

Most people installing Kodi are going to select Kodi 16.1 as of today, since it is the latest stable release. But I’m currently reviewing Qintaix Q912 TV box based on Amlogic S912 octa-core processor, whose Android 6.0 firmware includes Kodi 17 Alpha 3, so since that’s the first time I run Kodi 17 “Krypton”. I’ve decided to report my experience about the interface, and the current status about audio and video support by testing some 4K videos, and audio files. I used the latest available firmware for the test. Kodi 17 can be found on the main launcher, and for the first launch, we’ll see the default skin has been replaced from Confluence to the new Estuary skin. It’s a little confusing a first. We can access the setup menu by going to the icon on the bottom left, just on the right on the power button, and then select […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC