M9 (aka E8 Plus) is yet another Android media player powered by Amlogic S812 with 2GB RAM and 8GB flash, but it’s currently selling for $62.71 including shipping on Aliexpress from a seller with positive feedback. The offer is valid for 17 hours more. M9 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S812 quad core cortex A9r4 @ 2 GHz with octa-core Mali-450MP6 GPU @ 600+ MHz System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash + SD card socket Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 4K2K @ 30 Hz, AV port Audio Output – HDMI, AV, optical S/PDIF Video Codecs – 4k2k H.264, H.265 UHD, HD MPEG1/2/4, AVC/VC-1, RM/RMVB, Xvid/DivX3/4/5/6, RealVideo8/9/10, Audio Formats/Codecs – MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, FLAC, APE, AC3, AAC etc… Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD pass-through USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports Misc – Power […]
HD18T Android DVB-T2 Receiver Mini Review
I’ve had HD18T Android TV box with a DVB-T2 tuner for several months, but I’ve only installed a roof antenna recently, so I’ve decided to give it another try since my indoor antenna did not pick-up any signal with that box. The set-top box is also known as EM6-T2 or HD18T2, and features Amlogic AML8726-MX dual Cortex A9 processor which has been used in numerous boxes in the past, so I will only focus on my experience with the DVB app in this mini review. If you want to use DVB-T2 go straight to the right and click on DVB app. Where you’ll then be greeted with a pop-up windowsasking if if you want to scan channels. You can do autoscan, manual scan (for one frequency), select the area (France/Taiwan/UK/Italy/Australia only), and enable/disable LCN (Logical Channel Numbering). At first I selected “Australia”, and the system did not find any channels, […]
Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, and ODROID-C1 Boards Power Consumption
Mikronauts has recently reviewed MIPS Creator CI20, ODROID-C1, and Raspberry Pi 2 Model B. R-PI 2 review is especially interesting since this is the last one, and the reviewer goes to compare all Raspberry Pi models (A, A+, B, B+ and 2 B) with Banana Pi, Banana Pro, MIPS Creator CI20, and ODROID-C1 development boards. The benchmark results are good to know, and expected with ODROID-C1 the fastest of the bunch both in terms of CPU and storage performance, but here I’ll just share the results of his power consumptions testing. Since all platforms are powered by a 5V power supply, I’ve converted the results into watts. Model Max (W) Avg (W) Off (W) A 1.07 0.80 0.15 A+ 0.76 0.48 0.125 B 2.45** 2.12 0.62 B+ 1.20 1.15 0.35 2 B 2.25 1.55 0.325 Banana Pi 2 1.25 0 Banana Pro 2.3 1.62 0 Odroid-C1 2.3 1.62 0.735* * […]
Linux 3.19 Release – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures
Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 3.19 yesterday: So nothing all that exciting happened, and while I was tempted a couple of times to do an rc8, there really wasn’t any reason for it. Just as an example, Sasha Levin used KASan and found an interesting bug in paravirtualized spinlocks, but realistically it’s been around forever, and it’s not even clear that it can really ever trigger in practice. We’ll get it fixed, and mark it for stable, and tempting as it was, it wasn’t really a reason to delay 3.19. And the actual fixes that went in (see appended shortlog) were all fairly small, with the exception of some medium-sized infiniband changes that were all reverting code that just wasn’t ready. So it’s out there – go and get it. And as a result, the merge window for 3.20 is obviously also now open. Linus Linux 3.18 improved performance of […]
Android 5.0 Lollipop SDK for Amlogic Processors and Image for MK808B Plus
Amlogic has just released Android 5.0 SDK for Amlogic S805, S802, and S812 processors on their OpenLinux website, but before you get too excited, this is only available people who have signed an SLA with the company, or somehow got a username/password to their git server. Although most people can’t access the SDK, it still means that popular Amlogic S8xx devices are likely to be upgraded to Android 5.0 in the weeks or months ahead. The company has not released any Android 5.0 SDK for older AML-8726M? processors however, so apart from WeTek Play, I would not expect any other Amlogic single or dual core devices to get a Lollipop treat. If you own a MK808B Plus TV dongle, you don’t even need to wait, as WeTek ported Android 5.0, more exactly CyanogenMod 12, to the cheap HDMI TV Stick for evaluation, and since finally they don’t intend to design […]
Raspberry Pi 2 / ODROID C1+ Development Boards Comparison
Raspberry Pi 2 Model B board has just been released, and although it’s not a direct answer to ODROID-C1, as Broadcom started the design for BCM2836 SoC for RPI2 a long time ago, both low cost development boards have similar specifications, with a quad core processor, 1GB RAM, Ethernet, and four USB ports, as well as the exact same price: $35. So I’ve decided to compare both in details to find out the actual differences, and which one may be more suitable to a particular application. Let’s get straight to the comparison table. [Updated on November 24 to use ODROID C1+ instead of ODROID C1] Hardkernel ODROID C1+ Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Comment Processor Amlogic S805 quad core Cortex A5 @ 1.5 GHz (Overclockable to 1.7 GHz or more) Broadcom BCM2836 quad core Cortex A7 @ 900 MHz (Overclockable to 1.1GHz or more) Despite the architecture advantage for Cortex […]
Videostrong K1 is a Quad Core Android TV Box with a DVB-T2 Tuner
There are several Android media player with a digital TV tuner on the market, such as WeTek Play, but most, if not all, are based on Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core Cortex A9 processor, and so far, I have not seen quad core Android TV boxes with a built-in tuner. This is about to change thanks to Videostrong K1 an Android 4.4 media player powered by Amlogic S805 quad core processor, and an optional DVB-T2 tuner. K1 OTT TV Box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S805 quad core Cortex A5 processor @ 1.5GHz with a quad core Mali-450MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 (512MB, 2GB as option) Storage – 4 or 8 GB NAND flash (Options: 16 or 32GB), micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 1.4, AV (Composite and YPbPr supported) Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF Tuners – DVB-T2 Tuner with RF In and Out Connectivity […]
Amlogic S805 Datasheet Released
A datasheet release should not really be news, but not all companies are as open as Freescale, and possibly for fear of IP theft or patent trolls, most companies decide to keep datasheet, technical reference manuals, and other documentation confidential, and only release them under NDA, so it may take months before they come out, if ever. Thanks to Hardkernel and their ODROID-C1 board, Amlogic has allowed the release of Amlogic S805 datasheet (PDF 123 pages). The document is divided into two sections: Section I : System General Description Features Summary CPU and GPU subsystem Memory Map Power Domain Clock and Reset Unit System Boot General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) Interrupt Controller Direct Memory Access (DMAC) Timer Real Time Clock Section II: Interfaces MMC/SD/SDIO Controller Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) Serial Peripheral Interface Communication Controller Serial Peripheral Interface Flash Controller (SPI) Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter (UART) Infrared Remote Universal Serial Bus (USB) […]